Chatty

In addition to being extremely active, Owen is usually a pretty chatty guy, too. His favorite word by a LONG shot is "Dat?" as he points at EVERYTHING and wants to know what "that" is. So, he uses that one all day long every day. Other than that, he's developing a good set of words. He loves saying "hi" and "bye." As you can see in this video, we have a little window next to our front door at his height, so he likes to look out and see neighbors coming and going.

Happy Halloween

Owen was a little more into Halloween this year than last. First, they dressed up the kids at daycare using objects they had on hand:
Not sure what he was supposed to be with the sunglasses and wrap thing, but he seems to be taking it pretty seriously.

Then, we dressed him up as a chicken for actual Halloween:
He was really fired up about it, as you can see. He actually did get into it, especially observing the trick or treat transaction that happened at our door. We took him to a few houses mostly so he could see the other kids and our neighbors.

Big into pulling stuff

Lately, Owen has become very interested in pulling things behind him. Whether it's a toy, a diaper bag, a large bag with items in it, he's pulling it. One of his favorite toys these days is this wooden crocodile on a string that he can pull behind him. He walks his crocodile all over the place.

I love fruit!

Owen LOVES fruit. He'll eat just about any kind of fruit, but especially likes blueberries and strawberries. He even eats nectarines.

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.