Owen built this tower! I asked him to smile for the camera, and i snapped this once his smile toned down a bit - his smile was soo huge, and his eyes were closed! really funny.


We went the cabin a couple weeks ago. It was a relaxing time, the kids did alright, the boys fished a lot, jen and i read, went on a walk . . . it was a good time.



I like this photo because it shows the seriousness that Ry and Ben have when they catch a fish. Ben said, "i got one!" ... "It's a big one!" then ry went to grab the net. If you zoom in on their faces you can see how determined they are.

HIMSELF & our garden

i've been meaning to post some photos of our garden. We're all really excited about it! Everything is doing well, so far the squirrels have left things alone (they're the major predator here), and it's been not too hot yet. This is the view from our back door.


We're growing our tomatoes in pots, with mint alongside.


Yay Kale!


Mmm, red greens...


and here's a full view.



This past Friday Ry took Owen and Lillian to the park, while I was at work. It looks like they had fun!






Owen is very into building towers. He built this one completely by himself!


Owen climbed out of his bed all by himself this morning! I think he used his little rocking chair as a 'step'. But this is very much how he is these days: independent. He loves doing things by himself, and he will tell you, usually frantically, "no!" he does not need help. It's pretty cute, verging on obnoxious. We're constantly having him repeat, "No, thankyou" after he so rudely swats and yells No! He'll get it down.

new bed.

cherry almond scones and cement stairs

We have been busy busy these days. Ry is wrapping up his semester, he should be done by the end of the week. Yay! We're all very excited about that. He's going to be work at the University through the summer, 2 days a week. I'll be working at my office 2-3 times a week (depending if I can fit a Friday workday in or not).

Owen and I have been spending loads of time outside. He is obsessed with climbing our front and back steps. Unfortunately these are cement. so it makes for a boring time outside for me; he goes up, then he goes down. Sometimes my heart quickens when I think he's about to fall. So far so safe, though. He is such a busy bee these days. He loves building tall towers with his wooden blocks. He really enjoys his little cars and trucks. The trucks Heidi gave him have little magnetic ends so they all stick together in a row. He now lines up his 3 cars as though they have those little magnetic joining points. It's pretty cute. Besides the stairs, he's really into climbing now, too. He loves our kitchen stool. He knows that he can put that where-ever he wants to make himself able to reach things he couldn't otherwise. He's very responsive when we tell No to certain areas that he tries to use the stool; first freaks out, but then he's okay with it and he moves the stool somewhere else.

We're getting our garden ready! We're hoping to have all our lovely seedlings out in it in a week or 2. The seedlings are growing strong. We have yet to prepare our garden beds. We're going to do several raised beds in hopes that we can tend to things better, that we'll be better organized, and if we need to put chicken wire over everything to keep the dang squirrels out - we can.

I made cherry almond scones last night, and they were really good! I made up the recipe and the only form of sweetener in the them is maple syrup. I'm so excited they turned out, and that they're basically pretty healthy (they're still butter-full and mostly white flour)! Next time I make them I might tweak a couple things, but I'm mostly excited that something I made up worked out. I'm such a recipe-follower, and that's fine, but I've always marveled at how some people can just bake by the ideas in their heads. Pretty cool.

Jen, Esme, Owen and I watch Ben, Ry and Daryl play on their softball team last night. It's become our Monday thing now. It's so much fun! We head out after supper to see the guys do their thing. Their team isn't very good compared to the teams they play but they all have a lot of fun. It was actually quite cold last night, so we a left early, really chilled, and it was nice to come home to warm scones, and we made some decaf coffee. Mmm, it was a good treat.



Owen really wanted to wear his rainjacket, so he wandered around the house wearing it.




Owen in his room, after a nice bath, playing with his farm blocks, farm, and closet (he was moving the blocks into his closet, then into the barn's haymow).



Ry sent this to me while I was at work. Very fun to receive.

getting along and having fun

lillian and owen: enjoying their friday together.

leaps and bounds!

So much has happened in our little world since I last posted. My parents visited over Easter weekend which this year, was also my birthday. It was a true blessing to have them here, it was fun to have them in our home, in our element, and with our people. We hadn't had much snow in a while, prior to their arrival, but we had a storm while they were here. So we were shut in for a bit of their visit, but we did make to Cannon Falls for a lovely Easter/Birthday meal, then to the flower conservatory for a spring blooms show,
then to the zoo to see the monkeys play.

Owen is beginning to use coherent words to communicate. He understands so so much of what we say, and is now able to respond. "Mmm" means that he is hungry, "ahda" means he's all done doing something, usually eating. He knows Ma and Dada. The earliest word of this new communication was Ball. He says this word ALL THE TIME. Seriously. One night, after a big day of saying "ball", or more like "bah", he had a restless night. He woke up a couple of times, asking for "bah". He also says "Nigh Nigh," for night night, which applies to naptime as well as bedtime. "Wahwah" is water. "Boo" is boots, and "sigh" is for outside; he says either of these things when he wants to play outside (playing outsides involves climbing up and down our front steps, walking on the sidewalk, and trying to climb up other people's front steps).
Anyway, my listing all these new words is to say that he's becoming a good communicator, even though he cannot relate everything to us in adult English as we, or he, would like. There's still plenty of times of frustration for Owen when we can't figure out what he wants. This type of situation usually ends of with him stomping his feet or throwing everything off of his highchair tray.

Owen was given a family rockingchair from Nonny and Taid (Ry's parents). It was Ry's when he was a kid. Owen really loves this chair. He knows how to get in it, thanks to his cousin Lillian for teaching him. Yesterday, we were having a cold-sick day, and we were watching a movie. Owen went to his room, pushed the rocking chair into our room, and sat in it to watch the movie with us. Pretty cute.






Here are some videos of Owen being Owen, and in a couple videos he's displaying his new tricks.

Owen LOVES his trike / 4-wheeler . . . whatever you call it.



Ah, affection.


His love for Oatmeal is SERIOUS.



Buddies in the making.

oh pockets

this is what resulted when Owen discovered his hoodie had pockets (notice the goose-egg on the right side of his forehead).



he started to sit down on the kitchen floor, and since his hand were stuck in his pockets, he fell forehead first. poor guy. then as soon as he was feeling better, he wandered off again and opened a desk drawer and closed his finger in it. again: poor guy. he's down for his nap now. i know i would want to take a break and sleep for a while if those things had just happened to me, not to mention those events were probably indicative of a deeper issue called tiredness.

at nap times and night time (that's 3 times a day total), we put him down after he snuggles with us and drinks a 4oz bottle of milk. he loves this. we're trying to ween him off this. so far: not successful. given the above sad events, i decided i would give him the bottle as it's a great comfort for him, and i'd take the opportunity of guaranteed stillness to put a little cold on his bump. so, we'll keep this great goal of kicking the bottle, but hopefully we'll succeed on another day.