Happy Easter

Today someone asked me, "does Owen make you happy?"


Yes, of course he does... but why? I've been thinking about that all day, trying to figure out exactly why he makes us so happy. There are a few different reasons. For one, we love him, and he loves us back, and it's a wonderful thing to be building a loving family. Also, he's a lot of fun. Watching him play, explore the world, and learn new things is hugely entertaining. But the biggest reason is simply that he is happy, and his happiness is contagious.

What a difference a year makes

I remember so clearly, a year ago today, celebrating Owen's first month-day. I dressed him up in his St. Patrick's Day onesie for a photo shoot, and it was so exciting that he was awake and alert for the whole thing. At that time, it was hard to get a good shot of him because he was asleep all the time. Now, it's hard to get a good one because he's always on the move - and if there's a camera, he's usually lunging at it and crying because he can't have it. But here is Owen today, and Owen a year ago, wishing you a very happy St. Patrick's Day!

Leaps and bounds and steps and words

Owen started saying "mama" and "dada" to us yesterday and kept it up today. He is so clever, he even knows which is which! He's really in the middle of a language explosion - he can point to the nose of his stuffed dinosaur if you ask him to, he has continued to acquire new animal sounds and uses for them (like roaring at a picture of a lion that is roaring), he can walk to different rooms on command - the list goes on and on.

Hang on, did I say "walk"? Well, as it turns out, yes... Owen can walk... sort of. As with many of his newly acquired skills, though, it's not quite happening the way I expected. He can walk, but... he can't stand. He will freely let go of a support and walk up to 10 steps to another support. But if there's nothing there to catch him (or for him to use to catch himself), then down he goes. His balance isn't quite up to keeping his center of gravity over stationary feet, but he's absolutely fearless and a silly little inability to stand just doesn't get in his way. I guess it's really true that all babies develop differently!