Owen Crawls!

Owen has been working hard learning to crawl over the past few weeks. We frequently find him grunting and sweating as he tries to move from one place to another. Sometimes he ends up flat on his face and gives up, but this time he successfully (and quickly) found his target: the phone cord! Luckily, we got his first crawl steps on video! I have a sneaking suspicion that parenting is about to change forever...mobility!

giggles

lately Owen has been really enjoying sitting infront of his 2 level toy cart. He pulls out whatever he want to play with. He eventually ends up on his belly, crawling around. Often, I pump while he sits and plays. This usually means I sit at the computer, which is beside him, only there is a faceplace matel distance between us. If, for whatever reason, I slightly laugh or giggle, I'll notice Owen has turned to me, a huge smile, and he'll 'guffaw' or giggle or breathe out in the way one does when something is funny. I usually laugh at him about this, and he again giggles too. It is so incredibly cute.

He's mobile- he's a crawler. He isn't very fast yet, but he gets places, often which much grunting and yelps and noises that make me know he's working very hard.

Newfoundland!

We arrived back to our little apartment this past Thursday after travelling around the western coast of Newfoundland with my parents for the past week. It was a fantastic time filled with beautiful mountians, rocky coastline, buggy woods, hikes, car rides, ferry boat rides and little sleep. My parents are exhuberant travellers, wanting to see all there is to see, so we did. As you can tell by the photos, this province they call "the rock" gets it name quite appropriately. And it is true what people say - they really do have their own dialect there!



Owen did quite well on this vacation. He was a fantastic car traveller, and great hiker, but he really struggled when it came to night time sleeping. He was hard to get down at night, and he had some wakeful sleeps. His naps weren't ever long enough, either, as he'd usually be woken from a nap rather than waking on his own.





We have so many photos, it is hard to know which ones to post! And the scenery was so beautiful and drastically different in areas that I want to show it all, but I will refrain.

It was really great to spend time with my parents. They stayed an extra after we arrived back in St Stephen, and we had a delicious lobster supper (ate 2 4lb lobsters!!), topped it with ice cream and played Sequence to finish it all off. A lovely visit, filled with more goodness than I thought possible.

This entry certainly doesn't do the trip justice, as there are so many parts unmentioned. But it will have to suffice. Ask about it sometime.

Now that we're back home, we've settled in again and things are nearly cleaned up and in order. Vacationing is fun, but part of its goodness is returning home again.




Here's Owen - happy to be back in his Jolly Jumper.

NFLD!

and we're off to newfoundland tomorrow, with my parents. we're excited! i'll write about when we return!

oh, and in other excitedness, we planted herbs, beets and carrots today! and the corn and black beans have sprouted. so so great.

my cutie has an appetite!

Last week we spent a lovely day at the beach. It was fabulously sunny and warm, with a touch of a cool breeze every so often. It was heavenly. Owen napped in his stroller while we soaked in the sun's rays and ran along the sand and chatted the afternoon away.




Joel, Kate, Owen, Ry and I drove up together, we stopped in St George for some beach snacks, and we arrived and lazed around. Holli and Zoe showed up a bit later. It was a really nice time. Owen, once he woke up, enjoyed sitting in the sand, feeling it between his fingers, and, as he does with everything he can, put it in his mouth. He was a dirty little guy by the end of it! Since he loves "walking" while holding our hands for balance and securty, we walked him into the water. He didn't like this very much, but we just HAD to touch his skin to the ocean's salty goodness.

Since that warm day it has since cooled down, which is completely fine by me! I'm not one for heat anyway. We've just been doing day to day things, getting out for walks and garden time when we can. Ry is working and enjoying it, though he took an unplanned break for a couple days when he came home from his overnight shift with foodpoisoning. He's feeling nearly all better now, but it certainly was hard on his body.

Owen - dear little Owen. He seems to notice when Ry isn't home for the night. The 2 times Ry has been gone all night at work Owen has slept terribly; he woke up 3-4 times throughout the night and I end up just bringing him to bed with me because he won't settle down in his bed. He now moves around a lot and he'll twist and turn and roll around and he'll end up in a position that makes sleep impossible. Such a funny little guy. This past time he was sleeping with me, I woke up to a little boy looking at me, poking my eyes so I'd open them, and his little fingers trying to open my mouth. He loves tugging my bangs, too. He is very inquisitive, and growing more able all the time. And I'm rejoicing that he finally has taken to solid food! He now opens his mouth, moves it around in there, feet kicking, singing "mmm, mmm". Such a cutie. I think what got him into the solid food was the baby buscuits I gave him (ali calls them doggie biscuits). He loves using his hands, everything to Owen is a chew toy, so these buscuuts were perfect. After a couple of days of chewing and sucking these things, and inevitably ingesting some of it, he starting wanting solid food. Now I'm a happier mama :)

an entry about compost.

Owen and I brought the compost out today. This task often gets pushed off again and again, which only worsens how I feel about doing it. But, Owen and went on a rainy adventure in the wagon to take out the compost. He wore his great rain jacket from Joel and we both stayed quite dry on this warm-rain spring day. The air was wet with the smell of dirt and earthworms, it was invigorating. I think Owen enjoyed the rain. It was the perfect rainfall to be out in; soft, warm droplets, slowly dropping and perfectly interspersed. We had a good time and making the stinky job of taking out the compost into a rainy day adventure improved this chore, not to mention vetoing the part of rinsing the pail! I put it under our roof drip and tomorrow we'll be all set with a freshened compost pail.

Here is Owen loving the rain!



This is the garden to date - that's horse manure, soon to be spread out. I was going to work on that this afternoon but the rain came instead. Soon . . . then we'll seed. All before this weekend, I hope. It really needs to be done!



This is a video from the roadtrip in Maine.

eastern shore of maine

Well we're back from our trip to Portland, Maine. It was, given the circumstances, a lovely time. We had to leave early Saturday to get our car into the shop . . in Bangor, because that was the only place we could find, closest to us, that was open and able to service our car. So instead of driving back home we headed down the coast for a relaxing couple of days on the ocean.



It truly was relaxing and beautiful. Neither of us had been along the Maine coast, so it was a treat. The reason for our trip, to get my fingerprints re-scanned for immigration, went well as far as we know. We'll get a notice in the mail if, yet again, my prints aren't 'good enough'. Whatever that means. Hopefully everything is fine because it's too big of a trip to do again!




Ry has started his training for his job in Calais at the Children's Project. Unfortunately, his first day was the day Owen had his consultation with his Urologist regarding his upcoming surgery. So Ry went off to his first day of training, and Owen and I went to Saint John. The appointment went well, nearly all our questions were answered. We can have Owen in for surgery as early as the end of June, which will allow us to have this taken care of before we head out on our vacation. The surgery itself is a one step deal, then there is a follow up check up at one week, and again at six weeks. We'd want Owen to be healed up before going away. So this was great news.

Ry's training has been going well. He's on his third day of it now, and he comes home tired, as it's a lot of information to take in. Next he'll be shadowing someone, which means he'll get to see what shift will be best suited for him and our family (he has to try each shift).

Owen has three teeth on top now! He did so well on our roadtrip. He would play quietly in his carseat for definitely an hour, possibly two but then he'd either want out or he'd go to sleep. He did great sleeping in motels, too. We just put a blanket over the crib and then we could have the lights on and talk, or watch tv. We were impressed and grateful!

I think that's about it for now.