Owen developments

Owen said "please"!! This has been really exciting for us. He still says it in a kind of needy urgent way for things which are frankly not that urgent (e.g., help linking legos for a tower), but still, he says it!

Also, Owen has a new shape sorter. It's four shapes (square, rectangle, circle and triangle), each shape has four colors (yellow, blue, red and green). Owen has been repeatedly putting them in the pattern in that parenthetical (and this one - yellow, blue, red and green). As he does it he kind of makes this barely audible moan. And the freaky thing is that he will always put the shapes back in the same order. I've dumped the shapes in a pile, and he always moves staight to them and puts them back in order. I've tried tricking him by switching the green and blue shapes when the lights are low, but he always notices and switches them back. I have no idea why this order is so fanatically important to him. My best theory is that he's somehow communicating with aliens, and that this is the transponder that allows them to lock on to their landing location. I've asked Owen to tell them that they should kill B, Zoe and I quickly, rather than having us suffer before death like the rest of you will. Owen doesn't respond, but I think he'll finish off Bridgette and Zoe quickly. I'll have to be tortured first, because our new alien overlords will want to know why I kept sabotaging their communications equipment.

Cookie!

Owen is starting to discover sweets, but he still hasn't really become crazy for them. Here, he enjoys a cookie. 

Cowboy pose?

I swear, I never taught him to grab himself like that. 

Sleeping with the big head

Zoe likes to sleep on my chest, and I love it when she does. I think there's something chemical that gets released that relaxes you when there's a baby sleeping on you.

And my head looks enormous next to hers. 

Zoe and Linda

Linda has been so good to us since Zoe was born. She's been over at the house helping out and has coordinated folks in the church bringing dinner over.

Here, Linda holds Zoe shortly before Zoe leaves for a Sonic Youth concert (hence the hair and wild look in her eyes). 

please, no more

Owen needed a respite from Zoe. 

Diaper change

Sure, this looks like Owen's trying to help. But check out what's in his hand. 

Nose!

Owen notes that Zoe has a nose. Very helpful! 

Zoe and Mary

Here, my dad's wife Mary holds Zoe. Also, unlike in most of our other pictures of her, Zoe wears clothes. 

Baby has a forehead

Owen is really into naming parts of Zoe. Here, he points out her forehead.

I'm not sure what the banana is for. 

Mission Accomplished

Owen is trying to perfect his swagger. Here, he's just managed to throw another ball over the fence into our neighbor's yard. He defies any parent to punish him. 

me?

Owen has no idea who changed the music to replay the song that just finished. 

Love the Drake

My very good friend from College, John Drake, came by on Saturday. He and Owen really hit it off. 

Stretch!

Zoe really knows how to relax. She is totally not worried about rising gas prices. 

Hipster

Doesn't Owen look good here? Don't I look bad? 

Guess who II

Same hints apply as last time, and, as Andy mentioned, those who guess correctly get to try to goade Robyn and Andy into marriage. Those who lose also get to attempt goade them.

And, for what it's worth, anyone who both Andy and Robyn agree was a cause of them getting married (should they get married), gets any rights to name any of their children which I may have (though, candidly, I have no such rights).

Ok, enough sibling harassment (Owen's rubbing off on me). Let the guessing begin! 

Guess who - the answer

It's Owen!

Congratulations to those who were right, and sorry to those who were wrong.

I thought this contest worked well. One commenter's comments bordered on inappropriate, but it was nice to see so much interest in the blog. Guess who two, will be posted shortly. 

Guess who contest continues

As you likely now, I posted a "guess who" contest. Here's the link. The comments, as of this writing, run 3-2 in favor of Owen. I'll post the answer the next time I blog, probably tomorrow night, so make sure you get your answer in. Remember, the reward is that you get complete unfettered control over the middle name of any subsequent biological children of Bridgette and I, if you have the most correct answers to this kind of quiz.

And, to make it easier, here's a hint - the photograph was taken in the month of April, in either 2004 or 2006.

Daddy daughter time

I don't know what the deal is with my face here. 

Happy sliding!

Is there anything better than sliding in your backyard on your birthday? 

Owen kisses his sister

Here, Owen kisses his sister. It's kind of a nice gesture, but I can't help but remember these fish we used to have that kissed each other (kissing gourami). The would kiss each other in the tank, which we thought was very cute. It turned out, however, that kissing was merely the way they fought, and, eventually, one of them got very small and weak because the other one would "kiss" it each time it tried to get food. Eventually the weaker one died. The stronger one got this look when I would accuse it of being a murderer that was something like "yeah, prove it lawyer-boy, all I did was kiss."

I've seen that fish's look again. 

Owen and Zoe

Owen watches his sister sleep. See how he isn't poking her!

Good job Owen! 

Soccer time!

Owen got a soccer net for his birthday. It congratulates him when he makes a goal, but Owen quickly figured out that if he just kicks the net, without bothering with a ball, it'll congratulate him for that as though he'd kicked the ball into the net.

I suppose, in some sense, he does deserve congratulations for figuring that out. 

Owen's big present

For Owen's birthday today, we got him this red wagon. It has two flip-up seats (with cupholders!) that we thought Owen would love to ride in. He doesn't. To normalize riding in these seats, B thought it would be a good idea to put some of his favorite stuffed animals in the wagon.

Owen shows us in this series that he won't be placated so easily (the photos start in the top left, then work around clockwise). In the first photo, I present him with the wagon. In the next photo, Owen rips his stuffed animal out, and throws it on the ground (not pictured is him ripping out the first stuffed animal). In the third photo, Owen stomps the stuffed monkey's foot because of it's insubordination. In the final photo, Owen prepared to shoot the stuffed mouse to "make an example out of him." During none of this seemed to provoke any emotion in Owen, but he did turn to me afterward and say, in a perfectly flat tone, as if he were discussing being at the end of a bowl of squash (his new favorite food), "all done." Then he made me dig a ditch for the mouse.

I guess we won't try again with the wagon. 

Guess who?

Here's a fun question - is this a picture of Owen or Zoe? Put your guess (and justification, if any) in the comments section of this post.

I'll post a few quizes like this. The person with the most number of correct answers gets to select the middle name of the next person Bridgette gives birth to who I am the father of.

Note: Bridgette and I will not have any more children. Don't get your hopes up. 

Zoe sleeps

She's sleeping.

And one can never be to far from lotion for diaper rash (visible to the right). 

Disapproval

Bridgette does not approve.