Happy Mother's Day

We had a fun day today. We went to the county park after Owen's nap, and we hung out at the "splash town" area. It was really busy there today, and Owen mostly hung out along the periphery. It started thundering and raining pretty heavily, which all but cleared out the park. We hung around until it cleared up, then we had the playground almost all to ourselves. Owen had fun hiding in the tunnel and going down the slides. It was a nice and relaxing day.

Owen and Tucker

Here's a funny video of Owen playing with Tucker. Luckily, Grammy was visiting and had her camera ready for filming, so she captured this. This clip shows pretty much what a typical afternoon with Owen is like. He has a lot of fun with most things that he does.

Owen's Pick

I meant to post this earlier. Owen and I went to Walmart right before Easter Sunday to see if we could find some last-minute candy or toys. Of course, while I pushed him around the store in the cart, he wanted to hold pretty much everything that he saw. We went down the clearance toys aisle to see if we could find a good toy for Owen, and, as I paused to look at a few items, he started giggling and saying "ha, ha." (translation: help, help) I looked over and he was attempting to pull one of those water noodles (the long, foam floating things) off the shelf. I helped him, and he soon had the biggest smile, hugging the noodle tightly. At a price of $1.99, I had to let him keep it. We were only in the middle of shopping at that point, so the rest of the time was spent trying to navigate the aisles with Owen trying reach out and touch someone/something with the noodle. Here's a few pictures of the simple pleasures of a water noodle.

Easter Egg Hunting

Owen had his first Easter where he was able to walk around and hunt for eggs. We got a bunch of the plastic eggs and put little toys inside. He started out pretty interested in the eggs. He picked one up and put it in the basket. Then, he became more interested in the sticks in the yard. He disregarded the eggs and went on his way finding a suitable stick. With lots of cheering and guiding, he eventually began picking up more eggs. That too came to a halt once he squeezed on of the eggs and realized there was a treat inside. A while back, his Auntie had given him a few ping pong balls, and he loved them. So, we bought some more ping pong balls and put them in some of the eggs. When he squeezed open the egg and saw the ball, he got very excited. He no longer was interested in the stick. He just walked away with his ball and toured the yard. He eventually finished picking up the eggs. We went through a few of the eggs, but I'm just realizing that we didn't even get through all of them. He found three or four of the ping pong balls, and he was done.

Happy Helper

Owen enjoys mimicking Cara and me. Sometimes it's with sounds, sometimes with facial expressions, and sometimes with behaviors. He's very observant when it comes to various chores around the house, and he's decided he couldn't take it any longer without being able to do some of the things we do. He's earned his first official "chore": feeding the dogs. Since he started walking, he would follow me around while I would get the food and fill their bowls. He showed his interest early on by running to the door to the dog food when I would say, "Time to feed the dogs." So, I decided to let him have a little more control over it. He loves his job. He gets very excited when it's time to feed the dogs. I fill the cup for him, and he takes it to each bowl and pours it in. When he's done, he throws the cup back into the bag and closes the door. Because of his excitement, I do have to follow closely along to help keep him on track. Also, we've had a couple of mishaps where, in his excitement, he dumped the food before he got all the way to the bowl. Anyway, here's some pictures of Owen doing his chore. Here's also a few pictures of him helping with some other chores.

Bath Fun

Here are a few pictures of Owen playing in the bath tub. This is a water drum that I would put on top of his head when he was littler, and it would cover the entire top of his head. He still loves playing with it and sticks it on his head, though it barely fits anywhere now.

Mr. Outdoors

Here are some pictures of Owen doing what he loves, which is be outside. His demeanor changes in an interesting way once he's outdoors. While inside, he has lots of energy and is into everything, and he seems to be going at a fast pace. Once outside, he still keeps busy, but things are at a much calmer and more peaceful pace. He studies any and everything carefully when he's outside. Lately he's come to love finding a couple of sticks and carrying them all around the yard. Sometimes he'll swing them, or sometimes he'll dig at something in the ground with them, but mostly he just takes them along on his exploration of the yard. Here are some pictures from today in the backyard.