Happy Birthday Boy

On Saturday, March 19th Owen had his birthday party with the Burns family and a few of our friends from church.

We had a beach/surfer theme. I used a lot of Owen decorations from his room, and some wonderful friends made a really cute surfer cake and yummy cupcakes!

Nana and Pawpaw got Owen a slide for his birthday - this boy love to go fast and already prefers crawling up the slide to using the steps. :-)

 

Eric and I gave him a wading pool for his birthday. Thanks to the warm Texas weather, we were able to pull it out for the big day. Owen wasn't a fan of sitting down in the water, but he sure loved to splash!

Owens friend Linclon was also able to join us for the party - we were so glad he was there! He was a good sport to put up with Owen's splashing. :-)

Next on the agenda was bubbles! This is now Owen's favorite past time - he asks for "Bubulls" many times a day. It was love at first sight! :-)

After a delicious dinner (Eric grilled chicken stuffed with jalapenos and cheese) it was time for the pinata. This was mainly entertainment for the adults, but the birthday boy had to get in a few good whacks first. The pinata stick is actually a piece of pvc pipe, expertly decorated with duct tape and streamers by aunt Kat ... and Owen's favorite toy of the night! :-)

 After the pinata was demolished by uncle Scott and Eric it was time for cake. Owen wasn't that excited about it. I think he may have remembered his run-in with the cake at his California birthday party. That cake ended in tears, this one just ended quickly. Owen didn't know what he was missing, it was delicious!

Ready for the Cake!

His one and only bite!

The other highlight of the party for the birthday boy were the balloons. What more can a boy ask for?

One Year - We Made It!

Owen Lars is one! Here are a few of his stats:
31 inches and 28.4 pounds (he was actually heavier than this a few weeks earlier, but he's recovering from a pretty rough ear infection and lost over a pound in a week)

Still no walking, but he has started standing on his own - especially when he's "helping" mamma water the plants. :)

 

He's so much fun and loves playing, laughing and "talking" to his parents. A few of the words he says pretty consistently is dog "gog" - he really emphasizes the "g" and says it whenever he sees the dogs. "caw" for claw - daddy has The Claw when he tickles him and he loves it! Bubbles is his new word (he was introduced to his new favorite past time at his birthday party) his says this word almost perfectly - "bubul" and asks for it constantly. And of course he's a pro at saying mamma and dadda. Although he primarily says mamma when he wants to be picked up. :)

Owen's favorite place to be is outside in the front or back yard. He'll lay by the door and cry if anyone goes outside and doesn't take him. We have had a few temper tantrums in the last week - been kind of hard for Eric and I not to laugh. When he doesn't get his way (usually not being picked up or being allowed to go outside) he'll bury his head in his lap and then roll onto his tummy and kick the floor all while crying. It's such an obvious attempt at trying to get sympathy, we usually just try and ignore him or start having fun very loudly in another room and he quickly stops crying and crawls to see what we're up to.

Even with the little tantrum now and then, he's still the sweetest boy I know ... who refuses to look at the camera! :-)

Old Friends and New

I March our friends Libby and Greg came down from Pennsylvania for their first trip back to CS since their daughter Emily was born last summer. We had a fun, noisy, hectic dinner over at our house with our friends Megan, Jeremy and Addie and Sonia, Cameron and Lincoln. The kids were troupers and instead of getting a picture with all the mommies together, we decided to grab one of the kids.

Emily is 1st on the left and is almost 8 months in the picture, Addie is next and is about 21 months, then Owen at almost 12 months and finally Lincoln who is around 9 months.

Aren't they cute! But here is the funny part...listen to the parents trying to get the kids to smile for the picture :)

We had a lot of fun catching up this night, and hope we get to do it more often!

Walkin' and Rollin'

Once again I'm about 6 weeks behind on the blog - and a busy 6 weeks it's been. Get ready for a series of short posts that will hopefully bring us up-to-date.

When Owen started crawling and pulling up at 7 months, we thought he would be an early walker. Not so. Whether it's because it takes a lot of coordination to figure out your balance for a kid his size or it's just a confidence issue, Owen has become a world champion crawler - with absolutely no interest in walking by himself.

In early March he finally started making some progress!

After a few days, he was going even farther and would eventually push the stroller completely around the couch.

We thought he would start walking any day. Little did we know he would make us wait more than a month!

I also captured this video during the stroller phase. I love how it shows Owen using his inside voice. :)