Play it again, Owen

Owen is very musical... he will often dance to the rhythm if we play music for him, and he likes to play his little piano at school. This Christmas vacation his musical talents have reached new heights. He sang along in church, singing "Glo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ria" along with us by saying "o-o-o" and shaking his head back and forth in time. He also enjoys playing Granny and Grandpa's piano. It ends up sounding rather "modern".

Happy Christmas Eve!

The song, All I want for Christmas are my two front teeth, has a special relevance this year... it couldn't be more true for Owen! 10 months old and waiting for his first tooth to emerge. It's on its way... any minute now... (maybe if he chomps on his leg long enough it will appear!)

In the past hour...

One of the most fascinating aspects of parenthood is that you know when it's the first time they roll over, or grab a toy, or sit up, or wave, or successfully swallow a Cheerio. You know how hard they've been working on those things, and you can share in the excitement when they finally get it. Owen is extremely focused and approaches new tasks with a clear determination to conquer them. Sometimes it can take months, and sometimes he gets frustrated, but when he gets it, something just clicks, and his delight is infectious. And then he'll spend days doing his new trick again and again and again.

The past hour has brought two major milestones. We tried to put Owen down for a nap, but after talking to his giraffe for a while, the sounds became less pleasant and it was clear he had no intention of sleeping, so we went in to get him, only to find him standing at the side of his crib! He had pulled himself up to that position - the first time he's ever done that unassisted. We brought him out to the living room to play, and within minutes he was crawling - not the wounded soldier crawl he's been doing for months, but a real, honest-to-goodness, one knee and then the other, forward crawl. Today is a big day!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

All the leaves were brown...

... and red, yellow, and orange, but now they're gone. It's winter here in Boston now, with snow on the ground and ice on our car. We had a beautiful fall that stayed beautiful for longer than usual, it seemed. Owen learned to sit unassisted, feed himself (if messily), wave, and sign for food. He also discovered the joys of standing, which he wants to do ALL the time, and for which he still needs our help.

Outtakes

I love doing it, but I agonize over every blog post, trying to pick the very best pictures that tell a story and bring out the best of Owen's natural good looks. For every photo I post, there are probably a dozen that I wish I had room for. For the "all Owen all the time" photo bonanza, check out http://orglet.shutterfly.com. You DO NOT need a shutterfly account to view the photos. You DO NEED a password, which is "owen" (all lowercase, without the quotes). The photos are organized into albums by month, and I will post here when I add new albums. You can view slideshows or order prints if you'd like. Problems or questions? Email me or post a comment below. Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for.

Owen's favorite Youtube video

Owen wanted to share his favorite video with you. We had planned to only ever play him grownup music so he would share our musical tastes (and we wouldn't go crazy from having children's songs on continuous repeat). We've already lost that battle - there's something really appealing about marching dinosaurs, for a baby!

Fish

We had to leave Owen for the first time this weekend, to attend a scientific meeting. Nana came to look after him, and they had a great time together. We were so happy to see him when we came back yesterday, and he was happy to see us, too - waving and laughing and bouncing like crazy. He let us snuggle with him for much longer than he usually does. Since today was Veteran's Day and there was no daycare, we decided to have a family outing to celebrate our reunion. We chose the aquarium - especially fitting since Mike gave a talk at the meeting about the neural basis of turning behavior in fish. Owen loved it. He waved at all the fish.

Houston, we have contact

We've been doing some sign language with Owen. It's all the rage - babies have the capacity for language and can control their hands before they can control their voices. We sign "milk", "more", "food", "mommy" and "daddy", and a few others. We've been watching closely to see if he'll sign back since he started waving, which is really the very first "sign". Tonight at dinner it became crystal clear that he has a sign for food. It's a little different from the one we taught him, which simply involves bunching up the fingertips on one hand and touching them to your mouth. He holds his two hands together and wildly rams them into and out of his mouth while yelling aaahhhhh - as if he were playing cowboys and Indians. We first noticed it at breakfast, but weren't sure if he was doing it intentionally. Then tonight at dinner, he did it when we put him in his high chair, and then whenever I paused while feeding him. And every time I signed food to him, he replied with his own special version - until he was full (it's obvious when he's full), at which point he stopped returning my sign.

(The picture is of Owen having some special quality time with his best friend - the baby that lives in the trashcan in his room. Yes, I know it's gross, but he REALLY loves it.)