I am the Big Brother

Lots of pics of the new Baby Sku to come, but here's one of the excited brother getting to hold his new sister.

The New Baby Sku

Julia Shay Skurski

After a good long wait that only made us appreciate her more, Julia joined us on March 20th.


She came out with an opinion that she shared very loudly. Before she came out, the doctor told us they might need to have a look at her lungs. But as soon as she came out crying, he changed his mind.

She was a perfect little bundle at 7 lbs 10 oz.

















Mimi came with Owen to visit that first day, Julia not even 12 hours old. It was great. Owen
was so excited to meet this baby sister we'd been talking about for months.














We spent one night at the hospital and headed home in late afternoon on the 21st. That day/night in the hospital, Julia continued to be vociferous. But I think it was just a reaction to all the poking and prodding.















Once we came home, she quieted down a lot and we had a couple of very peaceful first days at home.

I Love Singing

Owen has been doing a lot of singing lately. He is also doing quite a bit of experimenting with volume, both in singing (like in this video) and in talking.

Here is some very enthusiastic singing. I'm a little partial to the 2nd song.

First Christmas in Portland

We decided to stay put this year and celebrate the holidays in Portland instead of traveling to Knoxville or South Bend. Luckily, Nana & Papa and Aunt Tanya came to visit! We had an awesome visit with them. Owen loved having everyone around and he had gotten pretty into the idea of Christmas this year.

Pics from the month of December, including Christmas:

Bowling Party

Owen got to try out bowling a few weeks ago at a friends' birthday party. 

I didn't realize they made bowling shoes that small, but they do. He thought the whole thing was pretty fun and he enjoyed seeing any pins fall down.

A little added excitement was added to the party in the form of a power outage. Without backup lighting, the place was totally dark. People took out their cell phones and used various flashlight apps to shed some light on our group.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

My First Race

Owen ran his first race last week in Knoxville: The Little Gobbler, the kids run held in conjunction with the Autumnfest 8k. He ran the whole way (maybe 150 yards) by himself and seemed to have fun. Best part was he got a donut after the finish.

Thanksgiving trip to Knoxville

We had a wonderful week in Knoxville last week for Thanksgiving. Owen had a great time with James, Aunt Laura & Uncle Rick, Aunt Ju-Ju, and Mimi & Poppy. He took to calling the original Poppy "Poppy 2" and enjoyed several meals with him. And there were a lot of train-related activities, including the big thrill Owen had talked about for weeks - riding on an actual coal-powered steam train.

Owen also ran in his first race, the Little Gobbler 200 yard dash, part of the Knoxville Track Club's Autumnfest event. He got a blue ribbon and a donut after the finish and seemed to enjoy it and talked about it for a couple days.

(the vast majority of pics shown here are courtesy of Duffy a.k.a. Poppy)