sweet angry Owen

Owen was on this anger kick one evening, which we thought was hilarious.  Nathan and Jared were egging him on.  Of course, the first time I tried to get it on camera, saying "show me your angry face" this is what I got:

For my dad

Still daddy's girl... just a bit older now.

It was a little hard to find some old pictures.  In particular, I was thinking of this one of my dad and I running in a race (I think I was about 6 or 7?).  We ran together most mornings throughout my childhood.  I didn't always appreciate it at the time; I had several mornings I didn't feel like getting out there to run.  But I sure appreciate it now - that foundation of discipline, of hanging in there when I felt like giving up, of working hard  and just the time with my dad.  When I finally found the picture in one of my scrapbooks, close to it was a quote about discipline.  And while it may not be the very most important thing in success in life (aside from faith), I think discipline is one of my core qualities that I learned from my dad.  He taught me to always do my best, and if I was going to do something, don't do it halfway.  That's carried over in more areas of my life than athletics and education. That discipline now helps me endure the trials of motherhood.

And it's funny (and maybe Mike will agree), I still want to get up and run in the morning.  It just seems like the right way to start the day...  ("...train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" ?)

Thanks Dad for teaching me how to work hard and endure to the end!  (And I'm blaming you though for my bad knee that's holding me back.  Somehow, I think that's your fault...don't you have a bum knee too?)   :)   But I'm pretty persistent/stubborn, so I'll figure out how to keep running.

Happy Father's Day!

We want to be just like you Dad!

Happy Father's Day!

future 6'1" ?

I've heard to predict a child's adult height, you should double their height at 2.5 years.  If that's true, then Owen may be 6'1 or 6'2.  He's almost 37" now.  Looking at on-line height predictors though, most of them estimate 5'11 - likely based on my height (5'5.5) and Alex (5'11.5).  They say that 70% is based on heredity and the other 30% is environmental factors (like exercise and eating habits).

While most predicted 5'11 for all the boys, www.babycenter.com predicted Owen's height as 6'0.  Another website (can't remember which one now) had slightly different heights - 5'11.5 for Nathan, 5'9.3 for Jared, and 5'11.6 for Owen.  That seems the most fitting to me, as I think Jared is a little bit shorter for his age than Nathan and Jared.

Anyway, we'll let you know in about 15.5 years if the prediction for Owen was right...   :)

Mr. Weston

Sunday brought some laughs because of  Mr. Weston... on the way home from church, I gave him a Nutrigrain bar to snack on.   Bad idea.  When I went to bring him in, I saw this...

I debated what to do... clean him off and risk waking this snoozing gem (he hadn't napped all day) or just leave him sleeping in the carseat?  I knew he wouldn't stay asleep very long in there AND he's so heavy to carry in the seat.  So I had to ever so carefully clean him off.  I did it.  This is talent folks.  :)  His toes, by the way, were the only part of him that were still clean.  After his little snooze in the car seat, he still transferred to his bed.    

We also had fun at church.  During the 3rd hour, he was active as usual, not wanting to be held.  I let him get down and explore a little.  I had a hard time keeping him away from the purses on the floor - I particularly wanted to keep him away from the Vera Wang purse (aren't those expensive?).  He was entertained by another baby's car seat for a while, but then he spit up all over it.  Just as I got done wiping it up the best I could, the next thing I saw was a pantless baby standing there.  Weston had somehow crawled right out of his pants.  He looked so funny standing there with no pants.  As hard as I tried, I couldn't hold it together - it just sparked a laugh inside (and my friend next to me) and I had to scoop him up and leave before I made an outburst.  I rushed out of there, redfaced and dying of laughter inside.  I felt bad for the lady who was in the middle of sharing her tender feelings about her son on a mission.  I know we were quite the distraction; someone clear on the other side of the room later mentioned she wished she'd had a camera.  And it wasn't even that funny, but it was just one of those things that sparks a laugh that can't be extinguished.  (It made me think of a Seinfeld episode, the one with Elaine and the PEZ dispenser, about 4:20 into the video).

I love this little messy active boy though - now 11 months old.

vowel e

Nathan is out of school, but we're continuing on with Jared's joy school.  We finished the alphabet, but decided to do the vowels.  We read and made the little red hen (who has ten finger feathers), made soft pretzel "e" rolls, colored short "e" word pages, and played a lemon game.

cousins!

We enjoyed a quick visit from my brother and his family (Nicholas and Ryan, the baby).  It was tough trying to get a picture of all the boys together.  I also tried to get a picture of Weston and Cheerio (the dog) - both Westies.  :)   Westie loved Ryan, but treated him like a doll, crawling over him and trying to poke his eyes and grab at his face.  We had cupcakes for Mike's birthday.  We don't make our kids wait until their 1st birthday for cake, so Westie enjoyed those cupcakes (he'll be all ready for his b-day).

Memorial Day adventures

We decided to go hiking on Memorial Day.  We went to a spot where the boys could get in the water, which was cold, but they didn't seem to mind.  We had a couple of little mishaps along the way.  My hiking boots decided to fall apart; the soles detached from the boot.  I guess after 11 years, they'd had it, although I haven't used them that much.  Luckily there was still a little bit of the sole covering my feet.  The other little mishap was Owen cutting his finger on a little piece of glass.  He was having fun throwing rocks in the water and got cut by a little piece as he was picking up rocks.  (I happened to be videoing at the time.  You'll see him trying to brush it off.)  It was bleeding pretty good, and of course we didn't have our little first aid kit like we usually do, so we didn't have any band-aids.   And we had already hiked about 2 miles in.  What to do?  We used the next best thing - part of a diaper.  I tore off part where the velcro was and wrapped it around his finger.  Worked pretty well.  (Note to self:  you can use a diaper in a pinch!  :))  The boys had a great time and they were all exhausted by the time we got done (we ended up hiking about 5 miles). 

But... that didn't keep us from going to the park later and then out for ice cream.  Fun day! 

  

fantastic first grader

Nathan had such a great year.  He made friends easily, had great teachers, and was eager to learn. He said his favorite thing to learn about was money.  He is really good at math.  He said what he'd miss the most about 1st grade is the books.  He does love to read.  He also loved recess, playing sports with his friends.  He came home each day reporting what had happened in his games.  He was very proud of winning a medal for 3rd place in the jog-a-thon.  He said next year he plans to "learn how to run faster," although he's already pretty fast.  I can't catch him.  One notable thing was his spelling - he got 100% on all his tests!  Looks like he may have my spelling genes, luckily!  :)  He brought home several pieces of artwork, which were fun to see his creativity.  I think Nathan is pretty well-rounded (creativity, language arts, and athletic skills from me  :) and math and science and social skills from Alex).  Nathan will talk your ear off as soon as he gets warmed up to you!  We also were impressed by his independence, making his own lunch every day and often walking most of the way home from school by himself.  We're so glad he loves school and had a successful year.

chopped!

I didn't give you much time to weigh in to my last post - once I decide to get it cut, I just have to do it so I don't talk myself out of it.  I think Owen was probably right.  When he saw me he said, "Mama, you look funny."  Yep, it's much different than before.  I'll get used to it.  It never looks like the picture I take in - my hair is just so thin and my forehead long.  I chickened out on the shortest cut, but thought I'd go for this:

I need a haircut!

It's time to chop it off again... but I'm undecided on what to do with it.  I copied and pasted a little bit... here's some possible choices.  Which do you like best, if any?  
 Here's the original lovely ladies...