Sean, Marisa, and Baby Owen

OUR BLOG IS MOVING

2010-02-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

After much debate, Sean and I have decided that keeping 2 blogs is just too confusing for us. So, we have moved our blog to: HTTP://BORDEAUXRAYMONDS.BLOGSPOT.COM

Hope you enjoy!
(Owen helping build furniture in our new house)

Holidays 2009

2010-02-21T15:03:00.001-08:00

Our first holiday season in France was busy busy BUSY. Here are some highlights:

1) Bordeaux, like most European towns, has a month-long Christmas Market (Marche de Noel) in the center of town. We took Owen several times in the hopes of getting a picture with Santa. But, apparently, Papa Noel is not a morning person (or a Tuesday afternoon person or a Christmas Eve person) so no photo this year. However, Owen didn't seem to mind as there was a carousel that was even more exciting...
And Owen did get to rid in Santa's sleigh:
2) Hanukah
Despite the beautiful synagogue in town, we clearly do not live in the Jewish capital of France. It was extremely hard to find a menorah in Bordeaux. So, I made one:

3) Christmas
Owen woke up early on Christmas morning. I think he would have gone back to sleep but Sean was too excited so he brought Owen to our bed and gave him his stocking

Then we had french toast (the French call it pain perdu - literally lost bread) and opened presents

We went on a nature walk around the observatory campus while we waited for Nan and Pip to arrive.
We have lots of cute photos of Nan and Pip's visit and this post is already very long so I will end here. Stay tuned for Holiday Season Part 2: Invasion of the Grandparents. :)

Love,
Marisa

Internet at HOME!!!

2010-02-18T03:52:00.000-08:00

We moved into our permanent "new house" (as Owen calls it) last Saturday and finally, after 4 months, have internet and cable hooked up and functional!! A huge relief for Marisa who has definitely been feeling a bit isolated from the world.

So, now we will definitely be blogging more. We have lots to catch up on with 4 months of intermittent blogging so be sure to stay tuned!

Dreams

2010-02-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

Owen has been dreaming a lot lately, sometimes being quite upset during the night and talking about things that make no obvious sense. This morning was a funny one. Boyo didn't sleep well and came into bed with us at around 5 this morning. Sometime after that he woke up, cryied for ahout 5 seonds, said "Owen want big ice cream cone!" and then went back to sleep. It was awesome! (although I wouldn't have been upset if this had happened during the day so I could have not been woken up)

whoa!

2010-02-02T06:08:00.000-08:00

Lately, as well as when he was little, I've been singing one of my favorite songs to boyo before he sleeps -- hard rain's gonna fall by Bob Dylan. This morning, out of nowhere, Owen quoted that song for the first time by randomly saying "died in the gutter!" a bunch of times. I like the song because it has lots of interesting imagery in it, and when I sing it I censor out some of the gorier pieces -- for example, I change the young woman whose body was burning to the young woman whose body was purple. But, I left in the part about the poet who died in the gutter and that seems to be the part that stuck! Oopsah!

Pretty funny, and only a little disturbing..... The frenchies won't understand what he's talking about so we're good.

over & out
Sean

Deep thought by Owen

2010-01-11T01:23:00.000-08:00

Last night in the bath Owen said something really deep:
"Welcome to right now!"

I think he meant to say something else, or really did say something else and I misheard, but I thought it was pretty awesome. BOOM!

ps - We will have internet at home within a month so we will do more blogging then.

Cutest Owen photo!!

2009-12-22T09:23:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays!!

ps- More posts to come in 2010, I promise!! We just don't have internet at home until we move to our permanent house in February so it's hard to keep up.

Owen Egg

2009-12-04T12:20:00.000-08:00

OK, Sean and I had a long laugh over this so we felt we should share:

For months, as Owen's mastery of receptive language has grown, we've started spelling words when we don't want him to understand something. We've learned that he has supersonic ears so whispering the secret word didn't seem to work.

So, this morning, when Owen was done with his cereal and asked for more, I said, "would you like something else?" Sean looked over at me and said, "I could make an E-G-G". Owen looked up from his bowl and said, "Owen egg."

Next, we're going to have to start writing each other notes when we don't want Owen to hear something. That should work until he learns to read!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T06:30:00.000-08:00

It's our first thanksgiving in our new home in France -- here is a card that Owen made to celebrate the occasion:

And here he is slaving away over the finger paints....

Finally, here we all are at the beach last weekend

words: then and now

2009-11-23T05:28:00.000-08:00

Hello, Sean here! Long time since I wrote a blog post and this one is going to be short and sweet. Owen has been getting more and more words ("sea dragon", "hipopotame" -- that's hippo in french, "moving") but I want to remember some of his cute mispronunciations before I forget them:

current
Orange: "oh-goosh"
Cheerios: "doo-doos"

older ones that are now corrected
Owen: "Na-na"
Firetruck: "Wawuck"

There have been some other cute ones that I can't remember right now. My favorite thing that he is doing at the moment (started on Saturday) is singing along to his bedtime song, the gypsy rover. Once in a while during the day he will just break out a little "ah dee doo dah day" which is the greatest thing for me, especially since my dad used to sing the gypsy rover to me when I was a kid too! (and he still does once in a while)

Note: as of Nov 29, Owen now says all the syllables of "cock-a-doodle-doo!" However, in France roosters say "co-co-ri-co!" so that is one fewer syllable for him to translate.

I don't have any recent photos on this computer (it's my work computer) so I will leave you with a photo taken at Nan and Pip's house during a dinner there this summer: This was taken just after he had his first ever taste of whipped cream.

over & out!
Sean

When it rains...

2009-11-15T05:56:00.001-08:00

How Owen enjoys the rainy season in Bordeaux...

1) Splashing in puddles. Lots of puddles. Lots of splashing.

Clearly puddle splashing is universal - though this boy later pushed him and Owen is still talking about the "push boy" days later.

even the stroller got to enjoy the puddle.

2) Go home and have some pain au chocolat (this is bread with nutella. The actual pastry is called a "chocolatine" in the south of France)

3) Finish the day with a nice warm bath... extra bubbles!

Back in Bordeaux

2009-11-11T04:17:00.000-08:00

Well, after a pretty eventful last week in Colorado that included the first blizzard of the year...

...we made a rather uneventful arrival in rainy Bordeaux. We are settling back into the Maison Mercure and trying to decide where to look for more permanent residence. But, Owen is extremely happy at the Observatory since our house overlooks two giant tower cranes that are building new apartments nearby. Here are some photos from our first few days in Bordeaux:

We arrived on Halloween so here is Owen in his conductor outfit. Jet lag prevented any real celebration but we still had a good time!

Walking around the neighborhood. Yes, baby stroller came to France too. :)

On the carousel in the Jardin Publique.

And, last, I couldn't resist. Here is a picture of Owen at the playground at the Jardin Publique last week (right) and a picture of him from Bordeaux a year ago (left). If he wasn't walking and talking now, you'd almost think no time has gone by...

Also, I have started a new blog, http://bordeauxraymonds.blogspot.com. My plan is for it to be more of an "adventures in the life of an American family in Bordeaux" with information about toddler-friendly activities and other assorted day-in-the-life things for foreigners living abroad. Whereas, this blog will remain the primary place to post pictures and family news. It may be quite burdensome to keep 2 simultaneous blogs going - especially since I still don't have daily access to internet - but we'll see.

A+,

Marisa

Catching up with the Raymonds

2009-10-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, so after promising to be better at blogging, we have failed to post anything since July. Shame on us.

In brief, here is the big news from the past three months: WE ARE MOVING!! Sean has been offered a position at the Universite de Bordeaux in France so we are packing up our stuff, selling our condo, and moving in 18 days! Oh my goodness!!

We've been trying to get Owen ready for the big move. Sean's been teaching him some key french words: vache (cow), foin (hay), and, of course, trop chaud which means too hot and is the name of a book we picked up in Bordeaux last year that Owen really likes. We've been reading it in English for the past year but Owen is now adjusting to our reading it in French too. Such a flexible child!

Other than that, we've been trying to enjoy our remaining time in Boulder. Last weekend, we went to the zoo and Owen had a great time. Here are some cute pictures:

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I also took Owen to Cottonwood Farms to play in the Hay Maze. The camera battery died but here is one cute picture I managed to capture:

Owen is also learning lots of new skills. For example:

1) YOGA

2) Pillow diving

3) Imaginative play (usually with trucks)

4) Smiling on command

He's really fun! You are all welcome to come visit us in France to see for yourself!

Hungover baby?

2009-07-16T07:27:00.000-07:00

"I had too much to drink last night and I think I'm going to puke all over my cheerios"
-- what Owen might very well be thinking

Vandalism!

2009-07-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

I had never stumbled across wet cement, ripe for the picking, in my life .... until last week when I was walking with Owen to the playground. How could anyone resist? Well, I couldn't. Despite the orange cones hanging yellow "stay out" tape around the cement, I got in there and wrote boyo's name in big letters with a stick:

Then we went to the playground, swang on the swings and slid down the slides, and saw a couple of construction guys pouring more cement. Luckily, there were not onto us. But, it seems that they noticed our little act of vandalism and tried to sandblast it away. Unfortunately for them all that did was to make the OWEN in the ground stand out more! (as Owen's shadow noticed a few days later:)

As anyone who knows me knows, I am not one to go against the grain and commit random acts of vandalism! (And as anyone who really knows me knows, that last sentence is a load of crap). But I am super pleased with myself for carving boyo's name in the ground in a place that we hang out a lot and in a way that should stick around for a few years at least. Take that, mr man!

over & out
Sean

More pics from Owen's photo shoot

2009-07-09T10:09:00.001-07:00

Here are more pictures of Owen from the Bruz Wear photo shoot:

These are the original shoots (ie no cropping or photoshopping!). I have to say, Owen is quite a cutie! And he LOVES trucks!

Owen: a model child?

2009-07-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

Even as a fetus, Owen has always been quite photogenic (see his "Blue Steel" impression from August 7, 2007). So, when a local clothing company (www.bruzwear.com) needed models for their catalog, I signed Owen up.

The shoot was on July 2nd. We met at a nearby playground. Sean was already in Seattle and Owen and I were headed to the airport after the shoot. Unfortunately, Owen decided to get up quite early (5am!) that morning so by 9, he was quite cranky. But the photographer was wonderful and she was able to capture a few good shots of the little guy...

For those of your with small children, I HIGHLY recommend Bruz Wear pants! Not only do they have cool patterns, but they are super durable and practical. The patches on the knees are actually knee pads! Owen's first pair of Bruz Wear pants (as seen in many of the pics below), are hand-me-downs of hand-me-downs. That's how long they last!

Ok, enough of this commercial break. We now return you to our regular scheduled blogging.... :)

Marisa

Lots of new stuff!

2009-06-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone

We have become quite bad at updating the blog! Right now Marisa and Owen are both taking a nap, so here are a few cute things from recent times...

Owen was sick when my dad and I tore down and then rebuilt the fence (May 16). Marisa took care of him -- she let him chill on the couch and then watch us at the window, with food by his side at all times:

We have also started taking boyo to the pool quite often and he loves going on the big big waterslide!

We haven't been hiking with boyo that much because it's a little tricky to pull off, but we did a month or so ago, and he was even pretty happy in the backpack! It was really muddy and we didn't go that far but it was a fun time (may 24).

Owen was pretty cheery and he looked pretty cool with the Eldo/Bear Mountain backdrop.

One last story for this post: I decided the day beforehand (the day before Memorial day, that is) to run in the Bolder Boulder, a 10 K road race that is run by about 50,000 people every year. I caught a bus to the starting line thinking I would be get there about 20-30 minutes before my wave, but there was humongous slowdown and I got there right as my wave was pulling away. So, no stretching for me! Still, it was a fun time and I think it may have been the longest I've ever run (on purpose, anyway). Marisa and Owen took the bus down to meet me after the finish line, along with Ken and Megan, who are really fast and finished before I even started.

They gave us all a free can of low-calorie beer -- a nice thought. Later that day we hit the Rockies game with Craig -- they got blown out by the Dodgers but it was still a fun time. At one point Owen wanted me to read him some books as he couldn't really follow the game. But when the Rockies started coming back he broke out the rally cap and got really excited!

All right, Owen and Marisa are both awake so I'd better go!

meow!
Sean

ps - There were humongous ground sloths and beavers as big as black bears in North America up until about 10,000 years ago! I would love to see some of those.

16 months going on 16 years...

2009-05-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

Owen is growing so quickly these days, it is hard to keep up! He is quite the sophisticated little guy...

He eats with a fork:

Yummm... banana kabob!

He cleans up after himself:

Ok, really he just likes brooms but despite the lack of a role model, he picked up this one pretty quickly and we are very encouraging of this behavior! :)

And he's already asking to borrow the keys...

More later...

Boulder, CO April 17, 2009

2009-04-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

No joke... today we got MORE snow!! So much for Spring! The snow has been falling since last night. It was wet enough to make a snowman which, of course, Sean did...

(Marisa added the mustache)

Not fazed by the wetness and cold, Owen still wanted to go for a ride on his favorite toy ever:

Afterwards, Marisa was able to bribe both boys into staying inside with the promise of fresh juice. Ok, it was Sean's idea but it was still fun (and tasty)...

Owen being Owen

2009-04-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

Owen has entered the fun, playful stage. He loves kicking and throwing balls, going for rides on his fire engine, and flinging himself backwards onto the couch or some other surface (he's still learning that it hurts if that surface is hard), running around naked, trying to squeeze through tight areas, and pizza. Oh, and we taught him to throw his head back when he laughs. We'll have to capture a video of that because it's too cute. But here are some other cute pics and videos of Owen being Owen...

Spring Snow and Vovo's Visit

2009-04-04T17:56:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks (ever since the Emmers left), despite the fact that the calendar says it's Spring, it has been a veritable winter wonderland in Boulder. On March 26 we got 18 inches of snow in the "blizzard of '09". Sean was away and Owen's Vovo Yol was visiting. Owen and I both got a snow day and we had lots of fun (and some not so fun) moments...

The next day, the sun came out. It was a beautiful bluebird day...

Sean came home Friday night. By Saturday, much of the snow had melted so we took Vovo to Pearl Street:

And the snow keeps falling! We've had two more days of snow since (not enough for a snow day but enough for sledding and snow-swinging! Though, I think, deep down, we're all ready for the warm weather!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T18:48:00.001-07:00

Ogden, UT with John Armstrong

2009-03-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, the family headed off to Ogden, UT to visit John and Weber State University.

Utah is beautiful! Just look at this photo from the plane:

Owen loved running around the rental car area at SLC International Airport.

On Friday, Marisa and Owen went to check out the railway and car museum at Ogden's Union Station:

They had real trains too...

but Owen was not a big fan. I think they were too big. He's used to toy-size trains.

While we were playing, Sean was giving a public talk at WSU

On Saturday, John showed us some of what Ogden has to offer. There's Lindquist Field, home of the Ogden Raptors (the Rookie League affiliate of the LA Dodgers):

And a super fun Children's Museum. Owen had a great time at the museum. He played with the life-size chess set (he was a pawn but he took the black knights and king down!)

He worked hard in the Oval Office with President Obama ("now, where do they keep the crackers in this place?!")

And he played with John:

We took part in celebrating the Children's Museum birthday with some cake.

Ogden also has an indoor skydiving center but we thoought Owen might be a little young for that! :) Though, I think Owen's favorite place in Ogden was our hotel. We highly recommend the Hampton in Downtown Ogden!

Owen is a walking machine: Eldo

2009-03-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

About 3 weekends ago, Owen decided that crawling was for babies! Literally, overnight, he went from a "I'll walk when mommy and daddy are there to cheer me on" to "I'll walk when I feel like it and I feel like it all the time!"

Exhibit A: We planned a hike in Eldorado Springs. Owen was all snug in his backpack. Within 10 minutes he wanted out...

Quick lunch break.... mmm.... peanut butter sandwich and bananas!

Then it was back to walking!

Kitchen Adventures

2009-02-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

Owen has recenlty become highly interested in the kitchen and we have spent lots of time with him there, mainly playing, watching us cook, or keeping him away from the wine rack.

He loves checking out the fridge -- it's like a magical kingdom of food to him (and to me also, but I am the king!). He is surprisingly good at taking smaller jars or yoghurts off the shelves, and he usually puts them back close to where he found them. He also tries to climb up as far as he can but so far he still can't reach the top shelf or two. I let him play in there for about 10 minutes one morning while I was getting things ready to take him to day care and he didn't make any mess! In 10 whole minutes! He must get that from Marisa's side of the family....

The boyo is also very keen on the dishwasher. He likes to take stuff out, mainly from the silverware thingy, and he also likes to climb up on there and check things out. We have to remember to get any sharp stuff out of there quickly so he can rummage through the rest like a bum sifting through a stolen purse -- he kind of looks like a bum in the photo on the right, doesn't he?

But he is often helps me unload the dishwasher too:

Marisa set up a sensory game with black beans and play-doh and a broken toaster.

Here is a movie of the action:

Finally, he likes playing with the pots and pans.

Over & Out

13 Months Old!

2009-02-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

Today our little Tomato is 13 months old! WOW! It's hard to believe. He is so much fun. Yesterday, we took him to the Denver Zoo (because it was a warm day, 60 degrees! And we've been listening to Raffi singing about going to the zoo for the last several weeks). Owen was tired but still managed to amaze us with his enthusiasm and curiousity.

Here are some pictures from our excursion:

The animals were enjoying the beautiful winter day too:

Walking and Talking

2009-01-31T18:45:00.000-08:00

Owen has started doing some walking on his own up to 10 feet or so at a time. Here are a couple videos of the boyo in action:

Owen's blabbing has also increased drastically both in volume and craziness:

Stock Show

2009-01-17T19:06:00.000-08:00

Sean and I have lived in Colorado for 4 years now and we've never been to the National Western Stock Show. But now that we have a native Coloradoan for a son, we figured this was a perfect time to check it out. Owen is at the age where he is learning animals sounds and likes to play with his Old McDonald tractor so it seemed like a great place to have a fun family outing on a beautiful January day.

When we first got there we saw a big train. Owen was mesmorized...

And it just kept getting better...
We saw baby animals:

and fancy cows...

Owen got to ride a pretend horse:

and a real tractor...

It was a really fun day! Can't wait until next year's stock show! Owen will be old enough for pony rides!

Owen's birthday!

2009-01-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

Here are a few cute photos of Owen and his birthday cake, which was chocolate and shaped like a tomato. (We also had a big people cake made out of the same stuff.)

Nice: Nov 17-20

2009-01-03T16:58:00.000-08:00

The week before we left Bordeaux, we went to Nice for a few days. The purpose of the visit was for Sean to collaborate with Morby at the Observatoire de Nice (which is awesome and was designed in part by Eiffel). There was an Air France strike that ended Monday night but our flight was Monday afternoon, so we were quite nervous about the trip! Luckily, our flight was operated by a subsidiary so we were all set (but see all the cancelled flights on the board!). When we got to the airport, Owen did something for the first time -- he walked on his own while pushing the stroller around! He did this nonstop for about a half hour before we had to head in to the gates:

We stayed at a "nice" place in downtown Nice, near the Place Massena. Here are some photos of our trip...

Marisa's maternal grandmother was a Halevy and Sean's paternal grandmother is called Memere ("Mim"). We found them both in Nice.

Owen's is 1 year old!

2009-01-01T19:06:00.000-08:00

A year ago today: "Holy crap, we have a baby!"

Today: "Holy crap, we have a one-year old!"

Christmanukkah

2008-12-28T14:09:00.000-08:00

With Hanukkah starting on the night of the 21st and Christmas on the 25th, it was quite a hectic holiday season!

Despite the small size of our apartment and our limited time for decorating, I think we did a nice job of making our stove festive. The Santa on the top of the tree was made by Marisa in 1981 and Owen made his own stocking at daycare (you can see it handing on the wall - it's the small red one).

We spent the weekend of the 20-21 up in Breck. Owen had some congestion from the dryness and didn't sleep well, but that didn't seem to slow him down too much in the morning hours (though his parents are a different story!). He enjoyed playing in the snow and even took his first steps (he stands on his own and will take a few unassisted steps when he is distracted enough but otherwise still prefers to cruise or crawl to get from place to place) or ride/push his new bike (a hand-me-down from Pancho and Coco):

For the first night of Hanukkah, we lit the candles, played dreidl, and Owen got a new set of toy car keys. Sean and I will hopefully never have to look for our keys under piles of Owen's toys again! Woo Hoo!

On Christmas morning, Owen (as usual) was up early and seemed eager to find out if Santa came. He wasn't too pleased to find that Daddy was still tired...

He seemed to enjoy opening his gifts and have sausage balls (a Raymond famiy Christmas tradition)

(this last picture shows Owen playing with a birthday gift from Roshini and Judd. Due to a FedEx error, Owen's gifts from Vovo and Grandpa didn't arrive so we let Owen open one of his birthday gifts. Roshini and Judd - THANK YOU!! Owen LOVES the magnetic farm and played with it for a long, long time!)

Then, it was up to Breck again to spend Christmas day (and the next week) with Nan and Pip. About an hour before we had planned to leave, Owen got fussy and had a low-grade fever. Assuming it was due to teething, we gave him some tylenol and bundled him up for Breck.

Nan and Pip gave Owen "Yertle the Turtle" and enjoyed watching his reaction as he opened the gift...

Unfortunately, Owen's low-grade fever became a full-blown fever (104 at it's highest) by Friday and we ended up at the Breck Medical Center for a diagnosis of a throat infection and confirmation that the amoxicillan he was on last week for the ear infection didn't finish the job. So, it's more antibiotics for this kiddo. But, we hope that he will be sickness-free in time for his birthday on Thursday!

Holiday Greetings!

2008-12-27T16:28:00.000-08:00

Owen Bear - UPDATED

2008-12-21T11:13:00.000-08:00

We bought this hat in France because... well, how could we resist? He looks so cute!

And this outfit was given to us by Damhnait. It's a little small but still ridiculously cute too:

A day in Sauternes: Nov 8

2008-12-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

1In my (Sean's) opinion, one of the highlights of our time in France was our trip to visit some chateaux in the Sauternes region. We went on Saturday, Nov 8, with three visitors: Yol, Jonathan and Petra. We rented a giant car, the Ulysse, so we could all fit inside. It was open house weekend in Sauternes so there were a bunch of chateaux open to the public. For those of you who are not in the loop, Sauternes is a town about 30 km south of Bordeaux where they make some famous sweet wine that is very tasty to drink with Roquefort cheese or foie gras. We drank a lot of Sauternes while we were there. Here is a picture of Jonathan and Petra in front of the Maison Mercure before we headed out.

Our first chateau was not that exciting -- a chateau with pretty good wine where Petra bought some foie gras. We hung around a bit and then headed out. But when I took a look at their vineyard, it seemed like there was something weird hanging out on the vines... Then, all of a sudden, about 10,000 birds flew off the vines at the same time.

For the next half hour the birds swirled across the sky in crazy patterns. Sometimes they would settle on a big tree for a minute, then something would spook them and they would take off again. It was spectacular! We have some videos but they probably won't come out well in low-res so if you want to see it let me know.

We kept watching the birds on the way to our next stop, the chateau just across the street, called Chateau d'Armajan des Cormes (in the background of the photo of Owen and Marisa below). We got a full tour from the nephew of the current owner, most of whose family lived nearby and helped with the winemaking.

We had a really time at the chateau-- we got to look into the bubbling vat where the wine was fermenting, we saw the barn and the tractors, the vines and the barrels. Then we got to taste a few different bottles of their Sauternes -- the best was one that fruity and light and not too sweet. Very nice stuff and a fantastic visit -- Owen enjoyed walking around the vines! Here are some photos from chateau d'Armajan des Cormes:

We were getting pretty hungry so we drove around a bit and finally found a chateau that was making food as part of its open house. I can't remember the name of that chateau but they made some great magret de canard (grilled duck)!

We hung out for a little while then we decided to hit one more place on the way back to Floirac. We chose the last place based solely on its name: Clos Dady! This place had pretty good wine but we had tried so many by that point that we were kind of Sauternes-ed out. They did have some nice art on the wall in their barrel-room:

By this time, Petra and I had gotten into the mood for red wine, as Clos Dady also made some reds. The guy who was showing us around told us that the 2005 "clos des remparts" was fantastic -- one bottle was on display as if to be tasted, but he told us that they were all out. Petra decided to just buy a bottle of the 2006, but I became intrigued by this apparent paradox: how could they be all out of a wine when they had a bottle on display? So I told the guy I wanted to buy the display bottle of the 2005. He ran this idea by his boss, but she wasn't confident of the quality of the display bottle since it had been standing up for a while rather than being left on its side like any well-behaved bottle. Trying to make her point, the boss-lady told me that she didn't even have any of the 2005 in her own cellar. I was not deterred and kept asking for a bottle of the 2005. The guy finally had a little chat with the boss-lady and they decided that it wouldn't do any harm to let one buffoon (me) have one of their secret and apparently prized bottles of 2005. So, after about a 20 minute debate, the guy went into the cave and brought me a bottle of the 2005 -- great success! I was overcome with a feeling of great self-satisfaction -- I had somehow persuaded these folks to give me a bottle of their most prized and secret wine, and I was surely a master of humankind! Petra thought me a complete wacko but I didn't care. It wasn't until we got home that I discovered that they had actually given me a bottle of the 2006! Those bastards! The bottle from Clos Dady ("clos des ramparts") is the fourth from the left in the photo below, and the chateau d'armajan des cormes is the fifth from the left.

We ended up going out for a fun dinner in Bordeaux with J&P -- all around a super fun day!

ps - I actually found Clos Dady Sauternes in a liquor store in Boulder after we got back... No way I'm buying anything from those scoundrels!

Visitors from Utrecht: Nov 6-9

2008-12-14T16:10:00.000-08:00

Marisa's cousins Jonathan and Petra came to visit us in Bordeaux from Utrecht. We had a great time!

They had quite an adventure getting to our place. Trying to avoid the traffic delay
that resulted in the Guajardo's spending too much time in the tiny Saxo, we told Jonathan and Petra to take the bus from the airport to the center of town and we would pick them up there. Well, apparently, buses don't go any faster in traffic so, they had to wait a long time to meet Owen too.

Owen was excited to meet his cousins and he showed off his Halloween costume. Petra and Jonathan brought Owen a Miffy and Friends toy (think the Dutch Hello Kitty - except a rabbit). Petra played with Owen on the floor:

Then we went into Bordeaux and Owen gave Jonathan and Petra a brief history of the Miroir d'Eau and showed them his new shoes:

The weekend turned out to be an "Open gates" weekend in Sauternes, a town that makes sweet wine, about 45 minutes south of Bordeaux. So, naturally, we had to go. Sean will fill in the details of this day in a separate post.

After our day in Sauternes, Vovo babysat for Owen so the cousins could go out to dinner in town. We found a tasty little restaurant and had a great dinner and some very yummy wine. A bit tipsy, we boarded the tram home:

Owen meets Santa

2008-12-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

We are still quite behind on our postings so for those of you who don't know, we are back in Colorado now. We left France and went to Florida for Thanksgiving (there will be a blog about this because we had SO MUCH fun! Thanks Max & Sue!) and then we flew back to Colorado on December 2.

So, there will be more posts soon but I had to post this picture of Owen meeting Santa at the mall last Friday. From the look on his face, you may think that our son has already learned about and is disappointed in the commercialism of the holiday season. But, in reality, it turns out that he had a pretty bad ear infection that we did not know about until several hours later (he woke up from a nap with a high fever and we ended up in urgent care).

But, enough blabbing. Here is Owen and Santa:

SNOW!

2008-12-14T09:40:00.000-08:00

Being a January baby, there was snow on the ground when Owen was born. But he was so little and as first time parents, we really didn't give him a chance to explore. So, when we woke up last Tuesday (12/9) to 6 inches of snow, Owen looked out the window and thought it was the greatest thing in the world:

So, we put on his snow suit and took him outside... clearly, he wasn't as impressed from close-up.

Visit from Vovo: Nov 3-10

2008-12-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

Vovo Yol came to visit for a week. We really enjoyed having her here and Owen loved the new books she brought. Here is a really cute picture of her and Owen enjoying a picnic at the Observatory:

Oct 31-Nov 3: OZ meets MJ

2008-12-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

The Guajardos came to visit from Copenhagen! It was so much fun to see Nanda and JJ and it was adorable to watch Owen and Mathilde play together. At only 10 months old, the two babies seem to have already developed so much of their personalities and it was so much more evident when seeing the two of them together than what I have noticed watching Owen over the last few months. Mathilde is 2 weeks older than Owen but her vocal skills are light-years ahead! She knows how to point, shake her head “no”, and trumpets like an elephant on cue. Owen, on the other hand, is obsessed with walking around, anything with wheels, and stomping on everything in sight. But, despite their differences, you could tell that the two of them enjoyed hanging out.

They had fun reading books together and playing on the floor:

We ate pizza at Ragazzi de Peppone and hung around Bordeaux:

And, on Monday, before their flight home, we went wine tasting at some nearby chateaux with my mom who flew in that morning:

As for the adults, we had a rally good time too. It was great to see our friends! And I enjoyed talking discussing parenting and parenthood. We are struggling with many of the same issues, most notably getting our kiddos to eat…

… and sleep!

It was very helpful to share ideas and to hear the advice that Nanda was getting from the midwives/doctors and her international friends in Denmark. It’s interesting to learn about the cultural differences in parenthood. For example, in France, we have seen 5 and 6 year old children with pacifiers whereas in the US, even giving a pacifier to a baby is controversial. In Denmark, Nanda was telling us, the midwives were telling her to feed MJ butter and olive oil to help with constipation and increase caloric intake. I read a quote on the internet after the Guajardos left that I think is important for us high-maintenance, well-educated, first-time parents to remember: We are not raising a child. We are raising our child. As Nanda and I discussed, it is important to remember that advice is just that – a suggestion of one way to proceed. But, advice isn’t the law. And Owen and MJ are clearly happy, healthy, and loved kiddos who are doing great – despite our anxiety. (Now, if only I could recall this in my anxious states!)

But enough about the kids, as fun as it was to watch and play with them, it was great to put the kids to bed and have some “adult” time to catch up, eat some tasty duck a la JJ, and drink some tasty wine. We were sad to say good-bye and are looking forward to seeing our friends again soon!

Picnics

2008-11-21T02:26:00.000-08:00

One of the great things that we have been able to do in France is to have family picnics. Because Sean works so close to home, we often go for picnics to La Burthe (a city sports park just a mile or so away) or on the Observatory’s campus during lunch. But, we have also had many picnics at Bordeaux’s Jardin Publique and Jardin Botanique. Sometimes we would bring ham sandwiches and cheese and saucisse seche, and a few times we stopped at Peppone for pizzas and wine and took them to the Jardin Publique. Here are some of our favorite photos from our tasty and fun outings. They are not commented, but you can see what a picnic is made of: eating, playing, laughing, stopping O from getting into our food, then getting tired and whiny and going home.

Owen is usually pretty clear when it's time to go home:

In addition, we have some cute videos that we have taken on these adventures. We want to share a few. This one is from the jardin botanique in late September:

Here is one of Owen showing off his soccer skills at la Burthe:

These last two are from a picnic on the observatory campus, near the director's house. Owen goes nuts from time to time as you can see. And, as much as Marisa wants him to say "mama", he can't stop saying "dada". Hooray!

It won't be picnic season when we get back to Boulder so we will have to improvise....

over & out

First Halloween!

2008-11-21T01:53:00.000-08:00

Halloween was our first (and only) American holiday that we had to celebrate in France. There is really no French equivalent, though the French are learning about the American customs and we saw several stores with spider webs, skeletons, witches, and plastic jack o’lanterns in their windows for several weeks before. Sean went to buy some food on Halloween itself and all the ladies at the cheese counter were dressed as witches – a good show!

Franck and Valentine had never carved a pumpkin so we bought 2 small, “jack o’lantern” brand, pumpkins from the Auchan (the French version of a Super Target or Walmart) and they came over on October 24th. Owen was already in bed so the adults carved the pumpkins.

Ours is the one on the right, we called it “Pumpkin Owen”. If you look closely, you will notice the 2 bottom and 3 upper teeth. Very realistic. ☺ Even Owen seemed to do a double-take when he saw it the next morning:

Sean and Franck made a “spooky” movie (a short feature) starring Franck and Valentine’s pumpkin. In case it doesn’t make it to the big screen, here it is:

Then, we ate pumpkin seeds and popcorn while watching the Big Lebowski.

Owen, as usual, was ridiculously cute. While I don’t think he fully grasped the concept of Halloween, he was more than willing to put on his costume and play around:

And here’s a cute video of Tigger taken a week after Halloween when Owen modeled his costume for Jonathan, Petra, and Vovo:

Back to the real Halloween, the Guarjardos arrived later that night (more pictures of their visit are coming!) but, unfortunately, MJ and Owen were both too tired to put their costumes on again so we don’t have a picture of them together. Maybe next year somewhere else in the world!

Alex and Laura visit: Oct 17-20

2008-11-12T06:54:00.001-08:00

Alex and Laura came to visit us all the way from Beijing a few weeks ago. Owen was super confused at seeing Alex because he looks so much like me. For the first few hours they were here, Owen would look at Alex and then at me and have no clue what was going on. It was cute and weird at the same time.

We only had a couple of days together so we did our best to show them aroumd. On Saturday we went to Bordeaux and walked around town. We went to the place de la Bourse, walked by the miroir d'eau and also to the old part of town.

IT was a nice day but quite chilly, so we stopped at H&M to get Laura and Owen some warmer clothes. We got Owen a super cute bear hat!

We had lunch at one of the most delicious places in town, an italian resto called Peppone -- or in this case its offshoot, called Ragazzi da Peppone. Alex and Owen had a little heart-to-heart talk about bread and such:

The fair was in town and so were some police demonstrations so we checked that out and then we walked across the bridge and almost the whole way home. One thing of note is that on friday I found fresh porcinis ("cepes" in french) at the store on Friday so we talked about cepes a lot with A&L and ate them at several meals as well. So tasty! (Note that it is not unlike me to get highly obsessed with various food items).

On Sunday we ventured back to the big sand dune at the Dune de Pyla. near the bassin d'Arcachon. As usual, Owen loved walking and crawling around in the sand:

At the beach, there is always time for girls and babies to quietly reflect while big boys get attacked by their vicious older brothers who probably want to remember the days when they could beat us up, although those days are long gone!

This time, we walked back down the dunes to the ocean, where Owen got to splash in the water for a few minutes. Uncle Alex volunteered to porter the Tomato all the way back up the hill while we lagged behind with all our stuff:

Another fun time at the beach! (And more cepes for dinner if I remember correctly, on top of Giovanni Rana's excellent chevre + caramelized onion raviolis).

It was great to see Alex and Laura and we will be sad to miss them at christmas.

over & out
Sean

Chatel-Guyon: Oct 14-17

2008-10-28T02:00:00.000-07:00

Sean had a conference in the middle of France, a 4-hour drive from Bordeaux, in a town called Chatel-Guyon, close to Clermont-Ferrand. Not to miss out on the fun, Owen and I tagged along (besides, not knowing how to drive a stick shift, Owen and I would have been stuck at the observatory for 4 days if we hadn’t gone). Sadly, going to Chatel-Guyon meant that we could not go to Zurich to see the Block family but we promise to visit them stateside in 2009!!

Chatel-Guyon is one of the many towns (or so we’ve been told) in central France that center their tourism around the local thermal baths. Unfortunately, we did not partake in the baths. Sean was in meetings from 9am-1pm and then 3pm-7pm, so Owen and I had a lot of fun walking around town.

We walked to the top of the town (not sure of elevation) and had a great view of the whole village:

Owen stopped to walk the last stretch:

In Colorado, we don’t get to see leaves in their fall splendor. I enjoyed looking at that while Owen slept:

It wasn’t all work for Sean and his colleagues. Owen gave Morby a lesson in crawling:

And Sean took Owen for a walk in one of the town’s many parks:

On the last night, we went to St. Nectaire, a town famous for its cheese about 1 hour away from Chatel-Guyon on twisting roads. At the ferme (farm) Owen was introduced to a 2-day old calf:

And we watched them make the cheese:

Then, we had a fabulous dinner at the farm’s restaurant, that included some delicious steak with cepes (porcinis), which have become Sean's favorite food. Owen was more interested in playing than eating…

Owen was a champ, playfully staying up late. Though, we had a hard time getting up in the morning for our long drive back to Floirac:

over & out

Silly French Rules

2008-10-28T01:51:00.000-07:00

It turns out that the French have lots of rules. Not that there aren't a lot of dumb rules in the US -- I (Sean) make a point to break as many as I can without incurring a significant risk of ending up in prison. After 7 weeks of being here, we have experienced a few really silly ones. For example:

1) In the Bordeaux region, the only grapes that are allowed to be grown are merlot, cabernet and cabernet franc. Growing other types of grapes, at least for use in wine, is illegal!

2) You cannot take photos at a public pool. I guess they are trying to protect all the pretty women who come to the pool to do water aerobic from all the sketchy men who want to take their picture. Of course, in order to get into the public pool, men have to wear a Speedo suit so, I guess the lifeguards wouldn’t be able to tell the sketchy men from the ones who are their to swim. So maybe it isn’t a silly rule afterall. In any case, we managed to capture a few pictures of Owen enjoying the pool before we were scolded:

ps - Email me if you want a photo of me in the speedo. Meow!

3) The shopping carts are locked and you have to pay (though it’s refundable) to get one. But, if you ask nicely, or if you are standing near the piled-up carts digging through your change purse, the nice man who watches to make sure no one steals the carts will give you a plastic euro piece to use and keep. We don’t have a picture of the token but here is a cute one of Owen hanging out in the cart:

Paris, October 4-6, 2008

2008-10-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

Because we still don’t have internet and phone in our house, we have not been updating our blog often and we apologize to Owen’s loyal fans for this. Wow! It’s almost Halloween, which means October has flown by! We have just under a month left in France. We can’t believe it! We have very mixed feelings about going home but that’s another post (one that may or may not ever be written).

The purpose of this post is to catch you up to date on the travels of the Raymond family over the past month.

First, there was Paris. Really, this trip HAD to happen because 1) the scrapbook that Marisa’s friends made at her baby shower last December has a page for a Paris visit and 2) how could we be in France and not have a picture of Owen at La Tour Eiffel?! So, we headed up for a long weekend on the TGV.

In Paris, we stayed with the Basile family: Paul, Finnoula, and “the cubs” at their beautiful apartment in the 3rd Arrondisement. Sadly, we took very few pictures of the Basile clan. Here’s a cute one of Owen and Zach:

And, Owen really liked the large mirror that the Basile’s have in their hallway.

Thank you Basiles for your hospitality!!! And, Zach and Omadine, keep us posted on any more visits from the Giant Tooth Mouse!

Coincidentally, Joe and Sarah Slater were in Paris the same weekend and we happily met up with them for a tour of Le Louvre.

We had lots of fun imitating the statues in the Antiquities section and the painted ceilings:

…and, of course, we took Owen to check out the Mona Lisa:

For the most part, Owen was in awe of the beautiful art

After the Louvre, we had lunch with Joe and Sarah at a Parisian café (it was raining so we ate inside). Then, Joe and Sarah left to explore more museums and the Raymonds headed off for La Tour Eiffel! We walked all the way there – about 3 miles or so – in the drizzle. But it was worth it.

As you can see from the pictures, Owen was ridiculously cute:

The wind was too strong to go up to the top

…but we still had a great time hanging out at the bottom.

It was an awesome weekend in Paris! The only thing we were unlucky with was the trains -- our train to Paris was delayed by more than an hour and we missed the return train when the Metro was delayed.

over & out!

Recent adventures

2008-10-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

We have been having a lot of fun doing a lot of things but haven't had much time to write about them since we have no internet in the house. So, here is a little recap of some of our adventures....

We went to a harvest festival in nearby Latresne and ended up having some wine, playing with new toys, and eating tuna and salmon sashimi with bread. On the way home we passed a farmstand with a pretty hilarious name, which has become my new motto:

Owen gave himself a prune goatee:

We also went to the Dune de Pyla, the biggest pile of sand in Europe. From the top you separate the Atlantic ocean from a big pine forest that was planted by Napoleon. Owen cralwed around on the sand like a locoman. We went with Franck and Valentine and also had a tasty picnic on a nearby beach.

Another time we went to Saint Emilion, one of the famous wine towns in the area. A very pretty place full of grapes, people selling fancy wine for a lot of cash (the most expensive bottle we saw advertised was a 1945 Petrus for 8300 Euros), and castles. Owen got to see his first dungeon (untiil he turns 18 and isn't a minor anymore, at least)!

We checked out a wine cave that had some impressive slime growth since the 1995 harvest was bottled. This was the Clos des Menuts

Afterwards, we bought some really good cheese, a baguette, and some foie gras and has a little picnic in a vineyard right next to town. Diagnosis: delicious!

Then we went for a little walk and then drove home to Floirac via the scenic route. That's all for now -- more stories to come. I'll leave you with this super cute photo of Owen and Mommy among the grapes:

Longer out than in!

2008-10-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

Today Owen is 9 months old! That means he has officially spent longer in the outside world than in Marisa's belly, which is a pretty big deal if you think about it. To celebrate, here are a couple movies of Owen laughing like a crazy boy, as he is apt to do these days (although he is also spending a lot of time being a whiny-puss, but we don't tend to videotape that).

We are way behind on posting stuff we've been doing in Bordeaux, so we will try to put more posts up in the next week or so. It is crazy how Owen has been developing lately. In the last month he learned to crawl and now is bored with crawling, pulls up to standing all over the place and wants to walk everywhere (holding our hands for balance -- not so good for the back). He has also become obsessed with bread and eats as much of it as he can get his hands on. He has become interested in books as well and has made us quite tired of the 5 or so books with took with us to France.

More later....

"Better out than in, I always say"
-- Austin Powers

Fun in town

2008-09-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

Hi! It's Marisa. I came up to Sean's office to call home and decided to put up some cute pictures and a video we took of Owen on Friday in Bordeaux. We went
into town to open a bank account so Sean can get paid (very important, I think) and we spent the afternoon walking around. We walked through many squares (and it wasn't hard to imagine Uncle Max and Aunt Susan sipping some wine and eating moules frites at one of the many cafes in the area). Then we wound up at the Place de la Bourse and found some fountains for Owen to play in. He was SO EXCITED to play in the water that we almost weren't allowed to leave. For those of you that have met Owen in person, this may sound strange to you, but he got fussy when we tried to put him in the stroller to go home.

Anyway, enough text, here are the photos:

Owen at the Place de la Bourse fountainA really cute picture of Owen and Sean that is in the running for my favorite photo of my boys ever and will likely be added to my screen saver in Colorado.

Owen playing at the Miroir D'eau (Mirror of Water) across from the Place de la Bourse:

There's a video to come... I will post it as soon as I can but right now I have to run back to my boys.

Big hugs to everyone at home!
M.

Hello from Bordeaux

2008-09-17T02:34:00.000-07:00

We had a long long trip last Tues/Weds! First we flew from Denver to Frankfurt -- Owen had a special bassinet attached to the wall in front of us and he managed to sleep for most of the way! Then, we had a 5 hour layover in Frankfurt. Unfortunately, it turns out that the Frankfurt airport is one of the worst in the world for chilling out -- there is almost nowhere to sit down except at cafes and such where having a baby with you is a bit less pratical. Eventually we found a place where I took Owen outside on an observation deck to watch planes land -- quite fun!

We arrived in Bordeaux at about 6pm last Wednesday evening (Sept 10). Franck picked us up at the airport and took us to our home for the next couple months on the grounds of the Observatoire de Bordeaux, in Floirac, just out side of town. We are staying in a house called la "Maison Mercure", which is wonderful. Owen has been crawling like mad on the wood floors, and his new favorite thing is a tunnel made from a big cardboard box that he crawls through at will:

He has also been pulling himself up to standing about every 5 minutes, on anything that is about the right height (a foot or so off the ground), although in some cases we need to hold down anchor so he doesn't end up on his head ... again.

We spent the next few days getting used to our surroundings. We spent one day walking around in town -- Owen got up on his feet by a nice fountain. We also had some great pizza and our timing was very lucky because there was a big downpour but we were protected under a canopy.

The next day (Sunday) we headed to the beach at a town called Lacanau-Ocean. It was Owen's first time touching the ocean! He loved the sand and the waves but was not a big fan of the wind (it was pretty chilly) so we had to wrap him up in warm clothes shortly after getting him all wet.

We had a picnic on the observatory grounds the other day -- awfully scenic! There are some deer who are always around, but they are super skittish.

We have been eating very well -- lots of wine and cheese so far.

So far things are going great and we have only a coupe of gripes -- one ouchy one is that there are quite a few wasps nearby. Marisa got stung the other day and Owen has come scarily close. We are trying to figure out how to get them to stay out!

more to come
Sean

ps - We have no internet access in the house and no telephone either so blog posts will probably be written mostly by me (Sean) from my office. Meow!

Photos from East Coast trip 1

2008-09-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Ooof! We are way behind on posting so here are photos of some of the people Owen met on our fantastic East coast trip.

The first chunk of the trip was a little road trip from Boston up to Maine, then down through Mass and then to "the Barn" near Hancock, NY. Our rental car ended up being a big red SUV with a weird new carseat that had some sand in it (and a lot of drool on it once we were done with it):

First, up in Raymond, Maine, we saw Mim, Suzie, John, Lillie and Danielle.

Then we went down to Andover, Mass, and hung out with Scott, Jenn and Garin (Garin is exactly 1 year older than Owen and he can wink!).

On Sunday afternoon some people came to say hello: Dave and Colleen, Paul and Renee, Yeti (forgot to take a photo of Yeti -- sorry!)

Then on to East Longmeadow where we saw Helen and Don, Patti, Ronnie, Allison and Chris, Mike and Amy, Danny and Elise, Dennis and Ida,

Happy birthday Patti!

Continued in Part 2....

Photos from East Coast trip 2

2008-09-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

......Then, after Owen's longest drive (almost four hours) and a roadside stop or two...

we made it to the Barn, which Grandpa Steve has spent the last many years turning into a palace.

This is the view from upstairs, coming down to breakfast:

Owen got to play in a swing with Vovo, and Grandpa Steve showed him the tree that was planted in Owen's honor!

He got to see his first chicken roasting and play with a sweaty Daddy

Due to unfortunate sickness (lots of snot and coughing from Tomato and a nasty sore throat for Mommy -- and later for Daddy) we headed to the city a day early. While we were there we saw Barbara and introduced Owen to Zabar's!

The highlight of the trip came on Saturday at a family reunion in Long Island, where Owen went into a swimming pool for the first time. Great googly moogly, Owen was excited!

Good thing we have a waterproof camera to catch Owen from all angles... (the photo on the right was taken looking up at Owen from underwater about 10 seconds after the photo on the left)

You can see just how bonkers he was in the pool in this movie.

The next day, Mommy and Owen headed back home, and Daddy met up with his buddies Chris and Andrew for their yearly baseball trip. This was just a short one to see the Mets and Yanks before they move to new stadiums next year. Here is a photo of us at Shea stadium:

Great trip, very special to introduce the little guy to so many of his friends and family!

over & out
Keepers of the Tomatito

East Coast Expedition

2008-08-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

Sean, Owen, and I headed East last week for 10 days. Since Sean is still in NY as I write this post (on his annual baseball roadtrip with the Seattle boys) and he has the camera with him, I will just quickly recap our trip and then we will post more details once we download the photos.

After a late start (our flight was 1.5 hours delayed and we had to wait at Logan for our bags which didn't make it on our plane), we jumped in the rental car and headed up to Raymond, Maine (yes, that's the name of the town) to visit Sean's grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousin. Owen had a great time with the Reders and Mim. And he was introduced to Jet, their friendly black dog who loves to lick. Despite never being that close to a dog before, Owen didn't seem to mind.

Then it was off to Andover to visit the Hoenigs! It was so much fun to meet Garin and to see Jenn and Scott. Owen loved watching Garin play. And it was amazing for Sean and I to watch what a 19 month old can do! Garin is a sponge, repeating everything you say. Sean and I better start cleaning up our language! In Andover, we also got to see some of Sean's high school friends (Dave and Paul) and their lovely ladies and we got to visit with skinny Yeti too!

Then it was off to Springfield and some Neylon family fun! What a party! 12 Neylons came to meet Owen!

Phew! But, wait, there's more!!

A three hour drive to the Zahler family barn. The barn is AMAZING! We took lots of pictures so we'll post those when Sean gets home. Unfortunately, I got sick. At first we thought it was allergies. I was blowing my nose alot and Owen thought it was hilarious. Here's a picture from Vovo's cell phone camera:

But it turned out to be a throat infection so we drove down to NYC so I could go to the doctor. I went to see Dr. Shapiro, the family practice doctor that we all went to see when I was a kid. She came to visit me at the hospital when I was born so it was a real treat for both of us that she could meet Owen. Her office was exactly the same. Even her nurses are the same! It was quite a trip down memory lane - and I even got antibiotics just like old times.

Then, on Sunday it was back to Colorado for Owen and I. Flying alone with a 7 month old is EXHAUSTING! Owen did great despite the fact that he only slept for 45 minutes of the 4 hour flight and screamed when we were landing. Note to self: pacifiers are not a substitute for a bottle when it comes to ear pain! At least we learned this lesson before our 16 hour trip to Bordeaux.

And now we're home. I'm going to have to write another post about how much I respect single, working parents. After 48 hours, I can't WAIT for Sean to get home! He'll be back tomorrow. Woo hoo!!!!

A bunch of movies -- part 1

2008-08-03T12:09:00.001-07:00

We have been especially slow putting movies on the blog. So, here is a backlog of movies that are highly entertaining and pretty cute, going back several months.

May 9th at the Hayden Planetarium in NYC

Squirming naked on the floor at home -- May 11th

Playing with a purple cow and smiling -- May 20th

Sunday May 25th in Central Park -- Owen and a blanket

June 11th -- Laughing with Mommy

June 11th: making squeaking sounds with Daddy:

June 12th -- getting the hang of the bouncy

June 20th -- playing table piano with mommy:

There are a bunch more movies we haven't included yet, so stay tuned!

Uncle Michael's Visit

2008-07-31T18:12:00.000-07:00

Uncle Michael came for a visit last week. We went to the zoo and to Boulder Canyon. We also went for walks around our neighborhood.

He are 2 cute pictures of Michael and Owen. Michael has some cute photos on his camera but we haven't gotten them yet. We'll post them when we do (hint, hint, Michael - send those pics!)

Going to the Zoo

2008-07-30T18:16:00.001-07:00

We took Owen to the zoo last Saturday while uncle Michael was visiting. We had a really good time -- the weather wasn't as hot as it had been and we got to see some crazy animals. Owen had a hard time seeing many of the animals due to a combination of tiredness, lack of attention span, and being more interested in nearby things like fences, trees, and other people. But, he did have a very special encounter with a spotted jaguar who was pacing back and forth. Owen followed the jaguar as it walked all over the place.

We got to see some baby animals including this baby giraffe:

And Owen had a close encounter with a wild peacock.

Whew! Good thing that peacock was more interested in looking for food than attacking a harmless baby! :)

Bathtime in the sink

2008-07-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

Owen loves hanging out in the sink. He can play while we clean him up...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2008-07-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

Sean's birthday was yesterday. We went up to Breck for the weekend for some fun in the not-so-hot sun! We had a really good time. It was only 85 degrees during the days (highs were in the upper 90s in Boulder all weekend). The nights were cold enough that we had to put Owen in pajamas to sleep and we even put a hat on him one night!! Ahhhh! It was blissful!

We went up on Friday. Owen was in a particularly cheerful mood which we attribute in part to the presence of so many mirrors in the room. We took a cute video from that evening (see "Owen in Breck" below).

On Saturday, Sean and I took Owen to the ranch up on Peak 9. Owen was was pretty curious. He saw a rabbit:

and, a daddy and baby horse (yes, we are sure about the genders of the horses - it was pretty obvious!):
It was really fun to watch Owen. The horses were drawn to him - they kept coming over to the fence to say hi. Owen, despite his sleepiness, had a story to tell them. We took a video (see "Owen and the Horses" below)

On our way home we, of course, had to stop by a stream so Owen could look...

and play...

and take a nap...

I think Sean had a great birthday weekend!

Videos:
Owen in Breck

Owen and the Horses

Ridin' in style

2008-07-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

In true Boulder fashion, we bought a bicycle trailer so that we can chauffeur Owen around town. We were so excited about the idea of Sean taking Owen to daycare in the trailer (so he wouldn't have to drive Owen to daycare then drive home to get his bike so he could ride to work). While we were waiting for the trailer to arrive, we decided to look up a good way to harness Owen into the trailer. Bike trailers are made for older children so would it be OK for Owen? We did a lot of research online. I always tell my patients to avoid the internet - it's full of extremes. And that's just what happened when we looked up babies and bike trailers. There were those who swore that it was the best thing ever to be able to take their babies along for long bike rides. And then there were others who were horrified by the potential risks.

So, the bike trailer arrived and we set it up. We still weren't sure we were comfortable putting Owen in it. We figured out a way to strap Owen's carseat in with bungee cords and it seems really secure. And Sean took Owen for a short (about 200 yards) test-drive on the bike path across the street from our house. Owen seemed content in the trailer as this picture shows (Sean looks a bit nervous):

The purpose of this post isn't to debate the risks and benefits of a putting a 6-month old in a bike trailer. I truly believe that you have to do what feels right for you and your child. We decided that we would try taking Owen to daycare one day and see how it felt to Sean. If he was uncomfortable, Sean could always walk his bike and the trailer to daycare. And, since the trailer coverts easily into a stroller, we could always walk Owen home. It's only 1 mile to daycare.

We've had the trailer for 2 weeks now and Owen has ridden in it 3 times to daycare. He doesn't seem to mind and Sean feels that it is safe. The street is very residential with few cars and no potholes. We splurged and bought the trailer with bigger tires to reduce bumpiness.

I'm not really sure why I am babbling on about this. But, I think my reason for wanting to post this is to put down on paper how difficult these little decisions are. When I was pregnant with Owen and when we were shopping for trailers, it never occurred to us that we wouldn't be 100% excited about commuting with Owen by bike. It never occurred to us, living in Boulder and surrounded by parents towing their bike trailers (with and without the kids) that we would question the safety. But when it came down to doing it, we were nervous. We are responsible for another life! That's a lot of pressure! And, I know we'll make mistakes along the way and we're certainly much more cautious than I ever thought we'd be. But, Owen seems to be doing well and that's really all we can wish for.

Ok, enough seriousness. Here's what you are really here to see... some cute pictures of Owen test-driving the bike trailer.

And, we did buy him a helmet. It doesn't fit when he is in his carseat (it pushes his head too far forward) so he doesn't wear it in the trailer but he seems to like wearing it when he is in his jumper:

Falling behind

2008-07-14T18:01:00.000-07:00

As Owen gets older and more interactive, we have tons of new photos and videos that we want to share on the blog. Unfortunately, we are also more tired out from keeping the little guy entertained that we have fallen behind in our blogging duties!

So, we apologize for this state of affairs and beg you to stay tuned. We PROMISE to post more as soon as possible. For now, please enjoy this recent picture of Owen playing in his new swimming pool....

We have a really cute video of this day too that we will post soon!

New skill

2008-07-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

Owen has learned a new trick... he can now undo the velcro tabs of his diapers by himself!! We find it a very useful skill when we're trying to change his diaper.

It's not so useful when he undoes his diaper in his crib and lets his poop escape! Although, he seemed quite amused with himself...

July 4th in Seattle

2008-07-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

Sean, Owen, and I went to Seattle for July 4th. We stayed with our friends Chris, Tammy, and Marley. Uncle Andrew was there too. Here is a cute picture of Owen and "The Godfather":

Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures with Chris and Tammy and Marley so you'll just have to take our word for it that we had a GREAT time. Thank you Laws family for letting us stay with you!!!

Other than seeing the Lawses, the reason for our short visit (we left Thursday, came back on Saturday) was POTLATCH, a 3-day annual ultimate frisbee tournament. Sean was excited to be on the fields with his old team (even if he only got to play for 1 day).

As per tradition, "Time Warped" (aka Warped Disk) was decked out in hawaiian attire:

Even Owen dressed up in case he was needed as a sub or just to show his team spirit on the side-lines with me...

And to make sure he was ready to jump if needed, we bought Owen his first disc and showed his some moves:

Of course, he preferred to chew on the disc rather than throw it, but it's a start! All that chomping on the disc and watching daddy run made Owen quite sleepy and he enjoyed a nice nap in the snuggly at the fields. It was a beautiful Seattle day!

It was a short trip but quite fun. Owen is so much more aware of his surroundings and seems to love exploring new places. He had a great time waiting for our flight home. He got to watch our plane taxi to the gate from his perch on Sean's shoulders:

And, since our flight was empty (for a nice change) Owen got his own seat, which he LOVED (and it gave mommy and daddy a nice break since we didn't have to hold him when he fell asleep soon after take-off)...

It was a fun trip and we hope that we get to see our Seattle friends again soon! Next time, we promise to stay longer so that we can see everybody (sorry we missed you this time, Fireball!) and so that we can take Owen canoeing on Lake Washington, hiking up Mt. Rainier, and to Aqua Verde for fish tacos!

ps - This post is in green because it's our 100th!

Another water picture

2008-07-02T17:43:00.001-07:00

Here is a really cute picture of Owen enjoying watering the garden with his daddy. I love this action shot!

6 months old!

2008-07-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Owen is 6 months old today!

He is a lot different from the tiny lump he started off as:

He has more than doubled in weight, he is much taller, he smiles, looks around, rolls over, makes weird sounds. In fact, he is like a dog in some ways! It's hard for us to believe that he is already half a year old after only 6 months....

The Death Star

2008-06-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

Owen is obsessed with an inflated black beach ball that we have hanging in the living room. The ball actually has all the constellations on it (how stereotypical of me) but we call it the Death Star. Whenever Owen is in the living room, he constantly looks up and stares at the Death Star. He often arches his back like crazy to see it, and almost throws himself out of your arms if you are carrying him.

Of course, this is what the real Death Star looks like. Remember that this is the second one. The first one got blown up by Luke Skywalker. This second one looks like it's not complete but it really is. It is fully operational! Good thing Lando blew it up before they could hurt too many ewoks. Oh, I am babbling....

Sean

Water!

2008-06-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

One of Owen's favorite activities these days is playing in water. He loves bathtime, watering the garden, and relaxing in the sink. We took this photo of him after returning home from the baseball game last weekend...

He actually put himself into this relaxed position. He sat like this for ten minutes before deciding that splashing his feet in the water is also very fun. I think we're going to have to buy him a bigger kiddie pool to play in - he is getting a bit big for the sink!

After hanging out in the "hot tub" for a bit, Mommy picked him up and bounced him around in the water. He loved it!

The day before we had made another water-based excursion to a stream pretty close by. The water was coming from up in the moutains so it was cold! But Owen had fun and kept sticking his toes in for a few seconds before taking them out and shaking his legs to warm up.

Always fun for us to go for a walk with the boyo!

About 10 minutes after these photos were taken, Owen was asleep and slept the whole time we were at Costco. We had thought he would like seeing all the stuff, but he saw nothing...

I hope it rains soon! (I always do -- it's way too dry here in CO)
Sean & Marisa

My first Father's Day

2008-06-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

It was more than a week ago now -- Father's day!

It was a really fun time. First, the three of us drove up toward Boulder Falls but Owen was asleep so we continued up and walked around in the woods by a ski resort called Eldora.

Next we hit Boulder Falls on the way down to Boulder. Owen got to play in the water until he was superpooped! I also practiced imitating him. It's pretty easy for me to look confused -- I spend about half of every day doing that anyway. Notice the wetness on his outfit -- unfortunately that is not from the stream.

Then, Nan and Pip came over for some dinner and playing around. My dad and I had some big german beers -- we let Owen smell but no beer until he is at least 5 years old!

It was a really fun day. At the end, we were all tired. You can tell because we were all sucking our thumbs.

Being a dad is great fun so far, and it makes me feel so warm every time Owen has a big smile for me. That's all the deep insights I have for today.

over & out
Sean

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

2008-06-24T05:14:00.000-07:00

We took Owen to his first baseball game on Sunday - Rockies vs. Mets. Technically, it was Owen's third baseball game. He went twice while in utero - the first time was about a year ago when the Mets were also in town. Tom Glavine pitched for the Mets who were blown out of town by the Rockies (I forgot who was pitching for the Rockies at that game). The second time was during the playoffs (see the archives from October). Since Owen's great-Vovo lived near Shea Stadium for over 30 years, we thought it was as good a game as any to take him to.

Anyway, Sunday was a hot day but the little guy did GREAT! We got seats in the very last row to protect him from the sun....

...but it was still hot (the car thermometer read 100 degrees!) so we took off his cute uniform.

We bought some peanuts (but no cracker jacks) during the 7th inning stretch. Owen was much more interested in looking at the peanuts than singing the song.

It was one of the quicker games Sean and I have been to recently (Mets won 3-1), but Owen was still exhausted by the end!

Curious Owen

2008-06-19T20:54:00.000-07:00

Owen has become quite a curious little monkey. He is always inspecting the world around him. It is truly remarkable to watch. As adults, we take a lot of things for granted - such as leaves or a stream - but for Owen, this is the first time he has seen these things and they fascinate him with their colors and sounds, etc. Watching him has made me see the world in a different way. It has made me appreciate the details - whether we are out in nature, at the supermarket, or in the bathtub.

Here are some cute pictures from Owen's recent explorations...

TEETH!!

2008-06-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Owen has teeth! His two lower teeth cut through last weekend (just in time for a Father's Day gift). After months of saying that his excessive drool was because he was teething, we were finally right!

Speaking of biting, we probably should stop letting him chew on our fingers now. We don't want him to be kicked out of day care for biting the other kids! :-)

Actually, it seems that Owen may be considering a career as a bouncer-- check this out:

Would you mess with this guy? Well, what if he squeaked at you? Or drooled on you? Or tried to bite your finger? Or fell asleep on the job?

Owen's first trip to the playground

2008-06-17T20:29:00.000-07:00

Our friend, Ash, turned 2 years old a few weeks ago. His parents and friends celebrated with a fun birthday party at a playground in North Boulder. It was a beautiful day! Ash had a cool train cake and Owen got to experience a swing ride for the first time. He enjoyed it a lot for a while until he got tired...

Father's Day

2008-06-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO SEAN!!!!!

I'm sure Sean will write some of his thoughts about the day in another post but I thought it was a great day. We took Owen up to Eldora (a ski resort in the winter) and to Boulder Falls (where Sean was interviewed for a BBC Horizons special last July). Here is a video of the day....

It was a great day with my boys. Sean is an amazing father!! When he walks into the room, Owen's face lights up. It's so much fun to watch!

New Experiences

2008-06-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

Owen has done and seen a lot of new stuff lately. Here is our account of a few things.

Owen witnessed a big thunderstorm! It was pouring outside, so Mommy held him and let him watch. He was quite excited by it and didn't get nearly as spooked by the thunder as I expected. (The photo on the right is a few years old but I was so excited to get lightning at sunset that I couldn't resist including it...)

He is also becoming a champion thumb sucker. We like this because it helps him fall asleep and calm down too. If he is bucktoothed in a few years then that's a price we are willing to pay for some calm now. Besides, if he looks like a goofball with crazy crooked teeth then maybe he could be a circus clown! That would make me so proud.

He has not forgotten how to be ridonkulously cute. Here are a couple of recent photos. Notice that in the one on the left his shirt says "property of Marisa and Sean". We were thinking of tattooing that on his arm somewhere with our phone number. Unfortunately, he is growing really fast so the phone number would probably get distorted pretty quick.

Tomato has continued to develop as a bloodthirsty tiger. Here are two photos taken just before a vicious attack on his Mommy's arm. She survived, luckily, with arm mostly intact, but I had to lure Owen away with a raw steak covered with peanut butter.

And when he does eat, he is a complete slob. Just look at this mess!

More soon -- I don't want to make these posts too too long.... Plus, my pizza is ready!

Sean

Hungry baby

2008-06-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

Since Owen has been sleeping through the night, he has been waking up FAMISHED!

At first, we thought milk would be enough but he quickly showed us that we were wrong...

So, on his 5 month birthday, we decided to try something more substantial... and solid.

Here is a video of Owen's first taste of solid food... It's a bit long (3.5 minutes) and big (5MB) so it may take a while to load. But, it's definitely worth it!

Owen at 5 months

2008-06-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

Owen turned 5 months old this weekend. Wow! Time has gone by so quickly. Our little man is getting big! On Friday we went to the doctor and he is now more than 14 lbs (almost 2x his birth weight)!

He is also developing quite a personality. Here is a list of the cute/funny/silly things he does:

1) In one of our posts when he was about a month old, we said that Owen looked like a little monkey. Well, now he is playing like one too.... His new favorite position is hanging upside down:

2) Though, sometimes Owen seems more like a puppy - chewing on EVERYTHING he can get his hands on...

Toys, fingers, baseball cards from Uncle West...

I don't know where he got that idea...

3) His is also very playful. He especially loves to get a blanket waved in his face...
and bouncing up and down...

4) And he is really curious... it seems like he is always trying to figure out how things work. You can almost see the wheels turning in his head:

He is so much fun! And it is amazing to see how he changes every day!!

5 months old!

2008-06-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Owen Tomato is now 5 months old today. To celebrate, we took him on his first adventure to the farmers market in search of other big tomatoes!

Family Portrait #2

2008-05-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

Central Park, New York 5/25/2008

New feature

2008-05-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

We have added a new feature to our blog - a list of current family news. It's on the right-hand column.

It is with great sadness that the most recent family news is the death of Marisa's uncle (Owen's great uncle) Bruce. Bruce died this morning. Bruce was a renaissance man. I loved hearing his tales of his jazz-playing days and discussing religion with him. And Bruce loved Sean because they shared another passion - the Red Sox. And, we are grateful that Bruce got to meet Owen while we were in NYC a few weeks ago.

Bruce will be greatly missed.

We are going to NY for the weekend to be with family during this time so we will most likely not be updating the blog for a few days.

Love,
Marisa

Big News

2008-05-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Our family is going to France for 3 months!! We are very excited!! Sean has accepted a position as a Visiting Scientist at the University of Bordeaux. We leave in September and will be there until Thanksgiving. My bosses have graciously allowed me to take a second leave of absence this year (the first was my maternity leave) and still have my job when we return.

Owen is very excited too... he has been practicing eating escargot in the bath these days.

I think his toy may be tastier than the real thing. But I'm not sure it goes well with wine. :-)

-Marisa

Sleep Training Diaries Night 3

2008-05-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

After a day of being ridiculously cute....

And having short, naps mostly in his carseat....

Owen SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!
7:30pm to 7:30am without waking up ONCE! (Except for a little squeak at 4:30am when I went in to his room to check on him and make sure he was still breathing).

WOW! YAY OWEN!!

The Sleep Training Diaries: Night 2

2008-05-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

OWEN SLEPT FOR 8 (YES, 8!!!) uninterrupted hours! He went to bed at 6:45pm and woke up at 3:15am! He then had intermittent crying until about 4am (it was really hard not to go check in on him). But, he put himself back to sleep and then didn't wake up again until 7:30am! No food for 13 hours! He, obviously, woke up famished but, nonetheless, he had a HUGE smile on his face and so did we!

Unfortunately, naps today were not that great. We had a full day of activities and, maybe because it was 80 and sunny, Owen never slept for longer than 45 minutes in his stroller/carseat. Then, he finally fell asleep at 4:15pm in his crib and has been sleeping since (it's 6:15pm). We're trying to figure out whether or not to wake him ("Don't wake a sleeping baby!") so we can still get him to bed between 7-8pm but I don't think that's going to happen.

Goodness, setting a sleep schedule is TOUGH!

Crazy baby with different-length arms

2008-05-16T08:53:00.001-07:00

It turns out Owen could also be called "Crazy baby with one normal arm and one huge arm" -- look at this photo:

Before all you genetics-types go crazy and diagnose Owen with "crazy non equal-arm disease", I should inform you that the huge arm in the above photo does not actually belong to him. It's a trick!

And here is a photo of Owen being outrageously cute and from this angle you can tell that his arms are actually the same legnth:

over & out
Sean

ps- As far as we can tell at this point, Owen is an ambi-turner.

The Sleep Training Diaries

2008-05-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

After 4.5 months of inconsistent sleep, we met with a sleep consultant, Jean, while we were in NY last week (Thanks Peggy!). Interestingly, I babysat for Jean's daughters when I was in high school. Anyway, Jean was great (AWESOME!) and really helped us to understand that Owen needs his sleep and sleeping in 2-3 hour intervals all night long doesn't help his brain process and restore itself (nor does it help him to have sleep deprived parents). And, since Sean and I are literally falling asleep at our desks and Owen slept like a champ in NYC (6-7 hour stretches for 3 of the 4 nights we were there), we know he can do it. So, let the "sleep training" begin....

Our Plan
We decided, with Jean's help, to start on Thursday night since I don't work on Friday and can, therefore, see Owen in the morning and hold him and hug him! Our sleep plan is simple - Owen has to go to bed on his own and, when he wakes up in the middle of the night, we have to let him cry it out in 10 minute intervals. No picking him up or rocking him. Since we are worried about him getting hungry (he's never gone all night without eating!), Jean concedes that we can feed him the first time he wakes up after 3am. But then it's straight back to bed (putting him down while he's awake) until morning - which we've designated as 7am. Of course, nothing goes 100% to plan, does it?!

Night 1: 5/15
Our plan already has a hole in it - Owen was at day care today and his last nap ended at 2pm. By the time we get him home at 5:45, he's obviously exhausted. We had set his bedtime as 7pm but he won't make it. So, we do some adjusting to our plan... start bedtime at 6:30pm and designate "morning" as 6:30am. I hope Jean won't mind.

6:20pm - Owen is OUT! He was so tired that he barely had anything to eat before falling asleep. Since we had to put him in his crib awake, I didn't let him fall asleep with the bottle. Now I'm worried - can he make it until 3am? At least he falls asleep with no crying!

10:55pm - Owen's up for the first time. Crying. It's not too loud but definitely more than a whimper. The minutes pass by SO SLOWLY! He takes short (30 second) breaks between fits of medium cries but is back asleep at 11:04pm. Only 9 minutes. That wasn't TOO torturous!

1:13am - Owen's up again. Crying level: low to medium. Ten minutes pass and I'm ready to rush in to check on him but his crying has tapered off over the last few minutes so Sean and I decide to wait. No point in frustrating him even more with our presence. 1:26am - he's asleep. But here's the problem. I'm not. I'm very much awake and worried. Is he asleep for a long time, a short time? I have to pump anyway so I do that to pass time. All of a sudden it's 2:15. He'll probably be up around 3 so I don't see a point in going back to bed.

3am - Owen is still asleep so I decide to try to get some rest. It's hard to fall asleep. Now I'm convinced that O will wake up any minute. And, by getting into bed, I've disturbed Sean. We both toss and turn for about an hour.

5:08am - Owen cries. I know he's hungry (it's been almost 11 hours since he las ate) but we don't want to feed him and get him excited about starting the day yet. We set wake up time as 6:30am and we're going to stick with it. Consistency is key here. That's what Jean would tell us. Owen goes through several fits of crying ranging from whimpers to yells. At 5:23 they die down only to start again at 5:28, then 5:52. They never last more than a couple of minutes. I look at Sean. Should we just feed him now? No. 30 more minutes won't do him any harm. We decide that I'll get up and pump again so Owen can have fresh milk when we can go to him in 38 minutes. We sing a verse of "I'm so tired" by the Beatles and laugh. We're almost there!

And that's where we are now. It's 6:35am and Owen is still sleeping. He's last cry - a loud peep - was issued at 6:07am. He made it and so did we!! And, it wasn't THAT bad! I'm so proud of the little guy and I can't wait to scoop him out of bed and hug him when he wakes up! And, as I think about this night, one thought emerges in my head - I miss Owen! As hard as it is to get up every 2-3 hours to his crying, I miss being able to pick him up, even for a few short minutes at 2am, to calm him down. I miss holding him and smelling him and kissing him. The grass is always greener, isn't it? Just yesterday I was frustrated and tired when I got up for the third time of the night to "rescue" him. I didn't take it out on Owen because he's a baby but I was annoyed at Sean for not waking up to help. But, now that I can't go get him, I'm sad. I tell this to Sean who smiles. This is why we chose to start on Thursday night - because I'm home with Owen today (Friday) and can hold him and hug him all I want. YAY! Now I WANT him to wake up! :-)

Owen woke up at 7:08am. He smiled at me when I picked him up - Yay! He isn't mad!

So, Night 1 wasn't so bad. But are we out of the woods yet.... Stay tuned for Night #2.

-Marisa

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-14T06:34:00.001-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to Marisa (a couple days late in blog-land but on time in real life)! It was very hard to choose which of the zillion cute mommy+baby photos to show. I picked this one because it's M and O having fun a being smily -- taken on Mother's day right after we got home from NYC.
- Sean

MARISA'S THOUGHTS: It was so great to spend a small part of mother's day with my mom in NY before we flew home. Sean made the day special by giving me a beautiful necklace of 2 interlocking tomatoes that he had shipped all the way from Finland!! I am wearing it in the photo below, behind little Mr Droolypants. And, as you can see from the photo above, Owen made the day extraordinary with his smiles and kisses (more like "I want to chew on something and your face is in the vacinity of my mouth" slobber but priceless nonetheless!!)

Owen in NY Part 2: Owen Visits the Planetarium

2008-05-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

My Uncle Max was very interested to visit the Rose Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History with an astronomer. So, Sean, Owen and I met Max, Geoff, and Steph at the planetarium on Friday. Since it was raining a lot, it was the perfect day for a trip to the museum.

So, while Sean accompanied Max, Geoff, and Steph on a voyage to the cosmos (with helpful narration by Maya Angelou and Robert Redford), Owen and I hung out in the exhibit hall. Owen was really interested in the Mars Rover...

... but he was exhausted by the time we got to the Universe wall.

Of course, being his father's son, he awoke in time to enjoy the Planet exhibit....

It was a great day!

Owen in NY Part 1: Owen Meets the City Folk

2008-05-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in New York visiting with family and friends. Owen did GREAT on the trip...

He wasn't so sure about the train to the terminal...

...but by the time he got to the gate, he didn't seem to mind that our flight was delayed.

He slept almost all the way to NY, awaking just in time to see the Big Apple come into view.

Owen got to meet lots of family and friends and shared lots of smiles.

It was EXHAUSTING!

But we had a great time and can't wait for our next trip!

I'm 4 months old!!

2008-05-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

Look how much I've grown!

And I have new skills....

I have head control now! (and I can sit by myself - though I'm not sure I like this chair)

And I can pull mommy's hair (she may be smiling in the picture but mommy's not a big fan of this skill)

I got my 4 month old shots this week (OUCH!!! I did NOT like that at ALL!)

...and next week I'm going on my first airplane trip. More about that adventure later!

Love,
Owen
(translated and transcribed by Mommy)

Uncle Alex visits...

2008-04-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

Uncle Alex came to visit this past weekend to celebrate Pip's birthday.

At first Owen was a little confused.... who was this character that LOOKS like dad only taller and with a more refined fashion sense?

But, Owen quickly figured things out and was just happy to be with his fellow Raymond Men (he's usually surrounded by women so this was a pleasant change).

Hollywood, here I come!

2008-04-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

Since we live in the land of sunshine (300+ days a year!) and Owen is now awake for many of our outings, a friend mentioned the importance of getting Owen sunglasses. The past few days have been really nice and sunny (it hit 80 degrees this week!) so on Tuesday I bought Owen some baby shades. And, though I am totally biased, I think he looks like one super cool dude....

Uncle Michael's visit and other tales of hair-woes

2008-04-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

My brother, Michael, came to visit last week while Sean was in California. It was a HUGE help to have Michael here! And, as it was his first time seeing Owen since January 4th, I think the two bonded quite well.....

Here is a picture of uncle and nephew from January and last week. As you can see, Owen is still enthralled with Uncle Michael's hair.....

Michael helped me take Owen to daycare and even spent Wednesday morning babysitting for the little guy while I was at work. And, I think the Boulder way of life was a nice vacation from the hustle and bustle of NYC. We were all sad to say good-bye!

In honor of his uncle, Owen came home from daycare on Tuesday with a new hairstyle... his first mohawk. No gel was needed! Sean would have been so proud!

Daddy Reflections at 100 days

2008-04-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Owen is more than 100 days old! It is my turn to reflect on what things have been like for me as a dad. Here we go...

What I have learned about Owen:

He is super cute! He has lots of faces -- smily, confused, forlorn, furrowed brow, half smily and, of course, the blank stare. He has one new face where he bites things that I call "Tiger Milk", and more new faces popping up all the time. Here are some of those faces from back when he was only 99 days old:

In fact, Owen is so cute that the women at day care fight over who gets to hold and feed him! This is not a bad thing for us who worry about him getting enough attention.

More about Owen coming soon in another post about his likes and dislikes.

What I have learned about myself:

1. It turns out that I love babies (or, at least, I love my baby)! They are much more interesting than I had imagined. Owen is always changing, and his personality is growing all the time, especially when he grabs my chest hair I suppose. It's so cool that he is doing everything for the first time -- the world must look so huge and weird to him! It's fun to try to imagine how things are for him.

And when he smiles at me it is the best feeling in the world. I guess without those heart-melting smiles, cave-men and women might not have felt compelled to continue taking care of their kids after many nights with little sleep.

2. As expected, I get dumber when I don't sleep enough. This has become painfully obvious this year. I don't really want to give any specific examples... We are struggling with getting Owen on a better sleep schedule, especially at night. The last three nights he has woken up on average every hour or so, which is devastating to any attempt at longish sleep. Usually he wakes up sometime like 3 times per night and has something like a 4 hour sleep interval at some point. But he has had a cold the last several days (his very first cold, of course) and he keeps waking himself up because his nose is congested and he can't breathe properly. Poor little guy! And, after a few nights, poor us who are basically zombies.

3. It is kind of fun to use things in new baby-ish ways...

4. It's hard not having as much free time as I used to. I used to often take a few hours here or there to go on a little hike or something like that. Now, I have to squeeze things into smaller amounts of time, or make them baby-friendly activities. Not an easy task. I did do the Imperial Challenge up in Breck last weekend -- Marisa and Owen were there to meet me at the finish line which was really nice. Here we are right after the finish... (Note: my dad won his age group in the race!)

5. The worst feeling in the world is when something is wrong with your baby. We have gotten so worried in the past 3 months about lots of stuff -- a bonk on the head, jaundice, a clogged tear duct, two fevers, a cold, and other stuff I am not remembering right now. The worst thing for me was the bonk on the head, which happened when Owen slipped off my chest and out of the bed at the hospital. The docs came to check him out and he was very quickly given a clean bill of health, although the bump on his head didn't show up for a few days and lasted for about a month. Even though he was fine, I was haunted for days (and still am, from time to time) by the idea that I hurt my own kid. I talked with my dad and he reminded me of the time, when I was 13, that I broke my leg skiing. That wipeout was caused in part by my bindings that my dad had set. He told me that he felt horrendously terrible about that for a long time. I guess I know how he felt now...

6. Owen is not very big, but he really dominates our lives. We are always thinking or talking about what he's doing, how he's doing, how much he is sleeping, etc. Sometimes I miss the times when we were free to do almost anything. Not that we necessarily did that much, but we were really free to do nothing at all if we felt like it.

7. Cleaning up poop and spit-up and all that goop isn't nearly as bad as I expected. I had built it up in my mind as this terribly scary thing but it's not a big deal, really. Of course, I haven't been directly pooped on (yet?).

8. Skype is awesome! I was away at a conference in California for 3 days last week. But, every morning I video-skyped with Marisa and Owen and it really made it much easier to be away. No more distant conferences in the works for this year, so I'll be sticking around...

What I have learned about Marisa:

1. She is incredibly sweet with Owen. She sometimes uses up all her energy on the baby and has none left for anything else. It's tough for me to see that because I always tell her to take care of herself (and I do my best to take care of her) but she is so focused on the baby that she doesn't as much as she could.

2. She gets really spooked when Owen poops in the bath. This happened the other day and she was very startled! I was also startled but a lot quieter about it.

3. If left to her own devices, Marisa can end up worrying nonstop like crazy. I do my best to reassure her. Sometimes I am successful and sometimes not -- I wish I could keep her calm but some combination of my dumbness and her stubbornness makes that difficult.

4. Marisa is a master at getting Owen to fall asleep. She doesn't shush him or even use a pacifier, just her crazy mommy-jedi mind tricks.

Owen gets his REVENGE

2008-04-13T16:18:00.001-07:00

"Ha ha! That'll teach you!"

Returning to work...

2008-04-11T20:25:00.001-07:00

I returned to work part-time on March 31st. It was definitely a very hard day. I left Owen snuggling in bed with Sean at 6:30am (nice and sleepy after a 5:30am feeding) to catch the bus to Aurora. Walking to the bus stop, I called my mom for moral support.

Another co-worker was also returning from maternity leave that day (her son was born on 12/31 - just 7 hours before Owen). To celebrate, our colleagues brought breakfast. Lots had changed in 3 months - a new mailbox set-up, new office staff, and the best surprise of all... TONS of pictures of Owen hanging up on the door of my office (thanks to my officemate Melissa for that!!)

Sean took Owen to his first day of daycare at Tinyminders so I'll let him post about that experience. Needless to say, it took a lot of strength for me to only call them once that day to see how he was doing (he was sleeping). He's typical week is:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: Tinyminders
Wednesday: Home with Nan
Friday - Sunday: Home with mom and dad
(I'm also home on Tuesdays this month for some "self-care" time)

Work itself was actually good (and BUSY!). It was nice to have some conversations about things other than poop color and, although my brain isn't working at 100%, it was nice to have something to focus on other than all the things that could possibly go wrong with Owen (such as why he isn't sleeping so well - but that's a different post).

AND... the best part of the day was returning home. Owen and Sean picked me up at the bus stop and Owen had a BIG smile for me. It was the greatest feeling in the world!

-Marisa

100 days old!

2008-04-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

Owen is 100 days old today (4/10)!

To celebrate, we will have some good new stuff coming soon: Owen's new likes and dislikes, Daddy reflections and some new photos. Stay tuned....

Social Security

2008-04-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

Owen received his Social Security card in the mail last week. So, he can now officially work in the US. Being a baby is no excuse! :)