A visit to the pumpkin patch

On a perfect fall day in Oregon, Owen had his first trip to a pumpkin patch, the Lakeview Farm in Hillsboro. We went with some friends who have a 2 year old. Owen showed moderate interest in the pumpkins, but of course was far more interested in the train we got to ride, the boat we got to ride, and the rocks which he wanted to eat.
He "helped" pick out a good pumpkin and, depending on how well his knife skills develop in the next week, will "help" carve it, too :-)

I'm Over Crawling

It didn't take long after he figured out he could walk on his own before Owen decided he was mostly done with crawling. So he now gets around mostly by walking. He falls here and there, but seems to be developing good balance overall. He's now into carrying stuff around with him - a favorite is to open up the kitchen cabinet and take out the strainer, put that on his shoulder, and walk around the room with it.
He also really likes to walk up to something and then dive on it - including me (Kevin), the dog, or a pile of pillows or a blanket.
Lately he's been very talkative, especially with "hi" and "bye bye." The other night he went into a room and closed the door to us and said "bye bye" then opened it and said "hi"...then repeated that about 10 times.
He's having so much fun these days, as there is now so much more to explore and he can get there more quickly.

Ready for a breakout season

Owen is all ready for ND football to turn things around this year. So excited was he that he slept through the 2nd through 4th quarters of the Nevada game (ND, 35-0) :-)
No, really though, he is just so excited to be walking and wants to spend a lot of his time practicing his new skill. In about a week's time, he has gone from taking 5 or 6 steps between mommy and daddy to walking himself across a room and down the hall. Ok! We can go back to crawling now.


p.s. Notre Dame should really become a Nike school so Katie can stop feeling bad that Owen is wearing adidas.

Birthday Videos

Here are a couple videos from Owen's first birthday party...he LOVED cake (ate an adult-sized piece)!

We're walkin!

Owen took his first steps a couple weeks before his 1st birthday. But, it didn't seem to register that he did it on his own, and he didn't repeat it until a few days after he turned 1. But, now he's doing more and more walking and it has definitely registered. He is so psyched when he does it!
It's been tough to capture it on video, but here's a little bit...

The big birthday boy!

We have been in Michigan this week celebrating Owen's big 01 birthday. He has had an absolute blast with the family and has especially taken a liking to his cousins, Bennett and Jillian.
At first Owen was skeptical of the cake topping that was set in front of him, he took one tiny bite of frosting. And then that was it. He gave us a look like, "You've been holding out on me!" And proceeded to shove frosting then big pieces of cake in his mouth. We were a little worried he wouldn't go back to normal food, but no problem this morning :-)

Getting big, almost one!

We can't believe Owen is almost 1 year old already! Here are some pics from the past week, including a pic with his Aunt Julia! More pics from Jules' visit to come soon. We had a great time with Julia here, and Owen really took to her.
Owen's favorite game these days is peek-a-boo, where he "hides" behind a chair you're sitting in, then pops out the side and laughs. Then he goes back, then pops out the other side laughing. I want to try and get it on video, but I'm sure he won't do it on video.