happy anniversary

Tom and I can not believe it's been 4 years! Our anniversay has snuck up on us and so we haven't yet figured out how we will celebrate. So our anniversary was celebrated by a game of soccer (we lost) and dinner at culvers - butterburgers and frozen custard...mmmm!

happy birthday Owen!

Yesterday, we celebrated Owen's birthday with a little grill out and Olympic TV watching. I know it sounds like we used his birthday as an excuse to have people over and that might very well be true; but, I figured he's been celebrating the Big 2 since the first of the month...

Aug 1-3: Lisa & Bob dropped by along with a gift for Owen
Aug 3: Julia had a gift for Owen since she wouldn't be able to celebrate his birthday with him
Aug 13: Owen gets a gift in the mail from Nana & Papa

Aug 14: Owen gets more mail - from Ryan & Dave Schnitter and from Gung Gung & Pau Pau. I think no more singing cards although it entertained him for a while.

...and of course yesterday there was singing of happy birthday (which he didn't appreciate) and cake eating! Then it took 3+ adults to get Owen's toy out of its box!!

riker-singerman drive by

The weekend passed too quickly! But in the short period of time, we did manage to create some driveway art...

...and enjoyed Dim Sum with a small group of 30 people! My initial thought was that Dim Sum (chinese version of tapas) was best enjoyed when there were a few more people, say 8-10. So I invited a few people to see if they'd be interested in joining us...I guess there was a Dim Sum craving amongst the group. On Thurs before Lisa and Bob arrived, I had 18 RSVPs and by Friday we were up to 30. I didn't know about a third of the people that attended.
We ended the weekend with more eating and invited our friends Kristi and Julia over for dinner. Julia and Owen are best buds, she can do anything to him and he'll let her get away with it that otherwise he normally wouldn't allow. Here they are hanging out in the tent together...

a taste of fame

A friend forwarded me an email where her group was looking for people with kids between 0-24 months to apply and have the opportunity for their child's picture to be used for something in the future (ads or package, etc). You had to submit a picture of yourself, your child, and the two of you together. If chosen, you compensation is a pack of diapers and a small gift card to Target. Of course, we know how cute Owen is so I submitted his pic (and mine too)...what I did forget to do is submit the application but nonetheless we were chosen to partake in a photoshoot.

The photoshoot was quite painful because Owen still becomes stoic in front of the camera as well as the last thing he wanted to do was sit still or listen to directions when we had this new place to explore. At the end of the hour (which felt like 8), I was ready to get out of there and I wondered how they did this all day long! I left there knowing, our pictures weren't going to used and knew when they said 'Owen did great today!' - it was probably something they said to all the parents that day. Last week, the photographer sent out a CD with some pics and they were actually kind of cute but I know we don't have a future in this industry!

dancing to your own beat

Owen's dance move resembles cow milking motion ... he balls his little fists together and pumps them vertically up and down to the music. He's trying to mimic us snapping our fingers to the beat.

Today we were filling up the big red beast at the gas station as part of our weekly shopping routine; Owen's dancing in his car seat and humming along to some techno music. Tom is standing outside Owen's window mimicking him and making silly faces. Well, the nice old grandma pumping gas behind our car is not aware that Tom is mimicking Owen and believes the guy has gone crazy making funny faces at his tinted window and dancing oddly (doing the Owen and transferring weight from side to side like he has to pee badly) to no music while pumping his gas. Eventually, she realizes that there is a child in the car and is relieved knowing she is not pumping gas next to some insane person...yes, kids have a way to make adults do silly things.

Rough Morning

Yesterday morning, I'm getting ready upstairs in our bedroom when over the noise of my hair dryer, I hear Rocky excitedly take off out our backdoor onto our deck and shortly after some more dog paw noises followed by lots of yelping...as if someone was trying to kill him. I quickly run over to the window to see what was the matter and all I see is Rocky's neck stuck between the spindles of the deck. He's freaking out (he literally pooped his pants, but luckily he wasn't wearing any) and Tom is trying to wrench his head back through the bars. I quickly run down there to help - eventually, we had to take a hammer to knock one of the spindles out of place to widen the space enough for him to dislodge his head from the deck. We have no clue what got into him, he's chased many animals in the past and each of those times, he had remembered to exit the deck via the stairs. Below are his battle wounds...

old friends

I can't believe that Tom has not seen one of his best friends ever in 10 years...especially since they only live about 90 minutes from us for the last few years. Yesterday, Wes Dubois and family made the big trek from Columbus, IN to visit us. The boys had a great time playing together. They have 2 boys - 4 yrs and 18 mo. Owen, normally a passive guy who willing always shares his toys, actually was possessive about them and actually got into a tug of war over the pooh car. As I thought about it, he usually plays with girls so i'm sure that's why he has no problem sharing, that's his lure tactic. But by the end of the night, they were very good buddies. Here they are watching their dads play Wii Sports.Hopefully, it will not be another 10 years before we see them again...