I can't believe he's 11 months

Who are you looking at?

I love this picture. :)  Owen typically takes a 2 hour nap after we get home from daycare (to make up for not sleeping the entire time he's there) and always wakes up cranky. He's smiling within a few minutes, but this captures his usual "woke up on the wrong side of the crib" expression.

Owen is at such a fun age right now. He hasn't really reached any new milestones in the last month, but has developed a few new habits. Most are cute, some more than others.

• If you look closely in the pictures above you can see he's holding a book. Owen finally likes us to read to him - I was beginning to worry about the kid - and now has favorite books that he pull out for us to read over, and over, and over. His top picks are a winnie the pooh book and a beach bugs pop up book.
• He likes to dance - well, it's more like bouncing up and down, but he loves to push the musical button on one of his toys and dance with his mamma. I always oblige, no matter how ridiculous I look. :)
• He's cruising more and more and walking really well when we hold his hands
• He likes pointing at objects and having you tell him what they are - his favorite is an animal book and he "barks" when we point at the dog.

Now for the less than fun achievements ...

• His new found height means that he can now open the front door - daddy is installing new locks on the front and back door at about 6 ft high as I type. :)
• He can also see on top of the bathroom counter - which means he starts pulling things off the counter. Mom has had to have a few moments of "discipline" with little O this month
• He has decide to talk VERY LOUDLY. He yells down the hallway, in the car and during dinner. We've tried to ignore this in the hopes that he'll stop if he doesn't get attention.

No matter what, we absolutely love being parents and can't believe Owen Lars is almost a year old!

Fun in California!

In early February Eric, Owen and I headed out to California for a week of fun! Well Owen and I had fun, Eric had a conference for half the week down in San Diego while we hung out in Fallbrook with Mimi and Papa.

Owen and I enjoying the sunny 70s while Texas was in the single digits!

I love this picture - it totally illustrates his personality.

Owen had two big experiences while we were in California...

Hanging out on the beach!

Waiting for the waves ...

The beach is fun!

Owen, Mimi and I went to the beach in Oceanside. We had such a good time and Owen let Mimi hold his hands and "walk" down to the water. He wasn't scared of the waves at all and really liked crawling on the sand.

The next day we went down to Coronado Island to meet Eric for lunch. There's a great beach there as well so of course we had to check it out. :-)

Owen LOVED the sand - until he tried to eat it...

Papa giving O a ride.

Hotel Del in the background ...

The other big event on our trip was an early birthday party with our California family!

Uncle Marc, Aunt Becky, Aunt Jen, Brynn and great grandma Oslund were all able to join us.

Ready to party

Now what is this ...

Total destruction accomplished!

Owen actually didn't eat much of the cake. After he destroyed it, he finally put his hands in his mouth and started screaming. We weren't sure if he accidentally bit his finger, if the sweet frosting made his teeth hurt or if he got it up his nose - he was sneezing blue frosting the rest of the evening.

We had such a good time and can't wait until we can go back and visit!