Owen's Pictures - owenspictures

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We went down to Miami for a really somber occasion - a memorial service for my mom.

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She had passed away less than a week prior (Mar 31). While it was a surprise to us all, at least thatha finds some comfo

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The next few pics are from the mem svc. It's probably not "appropriate" to put on Owen's share site, but we want to reme

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We actually forgot all of Owen's clothes back at home, so had to go shopping. My mom would have loved to see him in this

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Some of the flowers we received, and a view of the lagoon outside the reception room.

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Photos of mom and dad and family.

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My sis and her friend did a great job with flowers and decorating the few tables we had in the room.

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Seriously, my mom would have died (ooo, bad choice of words) at the cuteness that was Owen in this outfit.

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He so did not want to be wearing this. He much preferred his shorts and tshirt.

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But he definitely warmed up to it and loved charming many of the people who attended.

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We planned on 40 ppl, and about 90 showed up! Mom, you were definitely loved.

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Easter Sunday. I wasn't much for getting out of the house or doing much, but Owen did go to service with his daddy.

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This is him in his cute little outfit from Aunties P&G.

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This is actually what we had brought down to Miami with us for him to wear to the service, but the suit worked out bette

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I thought I'd include several pics that look similar since April is pretty slim on the pickings for pictures.

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I think he's taking a picture with a teether. Don't ask me how the minds of three-year-olds work!

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Back home, he relaxes with a little snack of a dole fruit parfait and some mickey mouse clubhouse.

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Thought I'd include a side shot of my big ole bell-ay. Exactly 11 days before the baby gets extracted from my belly.

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Awww, Owen and his fake smile.

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Here it is again. And you can see a little of my messy desk.

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So, since Easter came and went and I was feeling down, we didn't do anything for it, really. But I really wanted to dye

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So we just did it a week later. :) The reasoning was that the Easter Bunny was soooo busy the week before, that he saved

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Owen had a grand time dying eggs.

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This was his 4th easter, but the first time we dyed eggs.

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We made a basket for the easter bunny to bring him.

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While Owen napped and the eggs dried, Ryan and I filled plastic eggs with goodies for the Easter Bunny to hide.

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An egg.

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Some eggs.

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The same eggs, but with the flash on the camera.

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Here Owen looks for eggs.

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He's about to find the basket in his room.

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Yeaaaa, the basket. (We were washing his sheets, ok)

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He was so thrilled to find his eggs.

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Even tho some were very conspicuous.

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More egg finding. I mean, what other captions can I put on these? It's all the same.

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Eggs

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Eggs

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Pulling up his pants that are falling off. The kid is skinny, man. I'm a little jealous. ;)

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Opening eggs and finding fun treats.

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And don't worry, this is the last of the egg pictures. :)

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A couple of shots of mama and Owen before Ellis makes his debut.

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I think these are the last known photos of me in my pregnoidal state. 38 weeks or so.

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Love the kid. :)

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And this is the last shot of Owen taken before he officially became a big bro (he was sleeping when we left for the hosp

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I always love to take pics of O sleeping. So peaceful - and his mouth isn't going a mile a minute!

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Awww.

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MY Belly! This is what I see from my point of view. about 33-34 weeks.

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My little zoolander.

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For Ellis' arrival, we had a very small gathering of friends & fam for a dipes n wipes party.

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Here's our mean faces.

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And our nice ones. Manj's looks the same, huh? ;)

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O clownin around w/gramps.

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O made FAB tell him stories.

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Lots and lots and LOTS of stories.

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And then he expected the same of Aunty Lissette.

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I think she even had snacks for him!

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Here Owen has control of the camera.

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He was telling me to make faces for the camera and he'd take pictures.

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I think this was his surprised face.

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Daddy got in on the action of Owen picture taking. We're good subjects for his mad photo skilz.

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Um, yeah, I think he needs to work on it a little more.

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Come on, Owen, Look thru the viewfinder or the display on the back!

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Whew, ok, i think he's got it figured out now.

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Yep, definitely.

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Here, Aunty Cris gets down and dirty with the kid (on the floor, people).

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Owen and Ryan playing airplanes. Ever since O saw Madagascar 2, he's obsessed with crash landings. *sigh*

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Time for his visit to the dentist. This was his third time, I think, and as usual, he did awesomely.

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They have a new location, and Owen LOVED hanging out at the dentist office. Only my kid.

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Afterwards, he got to come home with me and work while I worked.

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He was zonked out and took a nap while I fixed dinner.

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Rare for my kid to want to take a nap voluntarily. So I had to capture the moment.

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Here we are, off to Disney! Our passes expire(d) at the beginning of April, so we wanted to get one last round in before

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With June? and Quincy? from Little Einsteins. I love how the kids have to school their folks on what's what and who is w

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With Mater and McQueen. I'm exactly a month away from giving birth to Ellis.

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Owen and I sat on the floor and waited for the parade to start.

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I have such a handsome little kid. Who loves lollipops. And gets real messy with them.

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Jesse from Toy Story 2.

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Woody from both Toy Stories. This was at Hollywood Studios. Formerly known as MGM.

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We sat in front of this green army guy. I dn't know how they have the energy to be all "waaaa!" in the 90 degree heat.

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We went to the Magic Kingdom after the parade.

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So owen and daddy could ride the cars. Owen LOVES driving them. he told me I'll go with him next time.

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This is his "I'm driving the car" dance.

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Oh yes, and what trip to Magic Kingdom would be complete w/out a visit to the princesses.

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My boy is such a player.

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While he likes Cinderella, he really wants to marry Princess Aurora.

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I think he was starstruck by the beautiful ladies.

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Hugs all around.

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And then he gets more love from Princess Belle.

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At least these ladies are in an air conditioned room and don't have to sweat all over the kids.

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Talk about lovesick.

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He couldn't even tell Princess "rara" his name.

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She kept asking him. and then finally decided on just calling him Prince Aladdin.

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He was like, "Who is Prince Aladdin." In his head, he thought that, and asked us that a million times after we left.

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She thought he was really cute.

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She kept giving him hugs and trying to get him to talk.

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She even went down to his level.

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AND KISSED HIM. OMG, he loved it. You would have thought that was the defining moment of his life the way he kept talkin

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He made me take a picture of her "kiss mark."

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You can see it better here. He didn't want to wash his face. Sorta like Marsha Brady and Davy Jones.

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Owen and Daddy went on the roller coaster at toontown. owen was finally big enough! (he wasn't big enough 10 months prio

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You can sorta see them in one of the cars.

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Owen LOVED the ride. He wanted to go again, but we weren't keen on waiting 30 minutes.

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We rode the train back and forth for a while.

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And ended up in Adventureland and rode the ALADDIN ride about 5 times. No kidding.

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Kid was zonked and fell asleep on the way home. That was the first time in a LONG time that we had spent the entire day

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Time for a haircut!

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Such faces on this kid.

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Wearing his Rutgers College T-Shirt. Hopefully he'll want to go to school in-state (uhhh, UF, anyone?) and save us in t

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Shirts still a little big for him. It may fit by the time he's 17 at the rate he goes.

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I had a conference in Cali for work, so my boys came along with me.

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Owen is testing out the dirtiness (yech) of the floor at the Marriott (at least it was a really nice hotel).

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Before I head out to my conference, I walk the boys out to say bye on their way sightseeing.

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Belly side shot. I'm probably about 30 weeks along here.

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Outside the Marriott Convention Center in San Jose.

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Ryan took Owen to the Children's Museum down the street for their first day of sightseeing.

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Owen had fun.

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See, this is his FUN face.

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Oh, I mean, this is his FUN face. His forced "fun" face.

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View from our hotel room. I think we were on the thirteenth floor. Lucky lucky.

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I liked that little colorful house in the center.

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Owen just chilling - maxing and relaxing on the window sill.

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Here, he starts to WRESTLE his daddy. It's his signature move, but I don't know the name of it..

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Whew, he's toppled his daddy over.

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The next day, the boys decided to take the light rail around town a little. Owen fell in love with the light rail system

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Here he is ON the light rail. He was all "The light rails are my FRIENDS! Some are mean, but they are still my friends.

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I was done with my conference that night, so we decided to walk around downtown a little bit. Seemed kind of dead around

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Some pics I took.

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Some pics I took.

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The great seal of Cali-furn-ee-ah (as Ahnold the Gubernator would say). That's the voice I used to pronounce California

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A church. I can't remember the name.

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Oh look, there's the name. I knew there was a reason I was in AP Classes - I took a pic of the name cause I knew I'd for

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The front door of the church.

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Owen's hiding out in front of my desk as I finish up some work on my laptop.

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We walked over to a neat diner to get breakfast and Owen wanted to take our pics.

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He's not too bad a shot.

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This is the true artiste photographer here.

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We should have ordered shakes for breakfast. But our meals were good!

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Back at the hotel, we pack up to move to a more cost effective hotel and then make the drive to San Franscisco for the d

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But not before I take a belly shot.

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We checked in at the other hotel (radisson) and went on the road to San Fran. The weather sucked.

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We made it to Fisherman's Wharf and bought tix to the ferry ride and double decker bus.

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The weather was horrible, so we returned the tix for the bus ride and just kept the ferry tix.

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Here we are, about to get started.

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Look at that smile. He really does love to travel, and is a pretty good travel companion to us.

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View of the city skyline from the boat.

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View of alcatraz. The Rock. (Imagine Sean Connery saying that.)

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views.

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We had headphones and a radio to hear a narrated tourguide. it was cool. Owen really listened and paid attention.

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Ryan took a pic of O & I w/the golden gate. A crew member saw that and asked if we wanted a picture of us. We said sure.

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This is the pic the crew dude took. He totally cropped out owen! I guess he figured Bridge or Kid. Bridge won.

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The little fort thingy at the bottom.

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The GG bridge. Or "big orange bridge" as Owen called it.

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if you ever want to paint something this color orange, the name of the paint is "International Orange."

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And I wanna say it's by Sherwin Williams.

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The Rock. And not Dwayne Johnson. Although he is pretty hilarious.

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The motor was kind of loud.

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But hey, we got our family portrait.

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Forgive the vitiligo on my face. I won't be able to use my steroid cream to get rid of it until I'm not handling the bab

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Getting closer to 'Traz.

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When I went to SF in '99, I got to take a tour of the prison.

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It was cool.

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I recommend it.

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I didn't even bring any ghosts home with me. (Unlike my ghost tour of St. Augustine. That place is teeming with the livi

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The American Flag and The American Prison.

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A smidge of flag, and a whole lotta prison.

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All prison, all the time.

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Coit Tower. Or is it Hoit Tower? I forget now. Anyway, it really is meant to be shaped like a hose fountain nozzle.

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We had lunch at a place where we could see the bridge (just barely) and some sunning seals.

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Here be the seals. Or sea lions. I forget how to tell the difference.

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We decided to walk to Lombard Street. Holy hell, talk about an inclined road. (pardon my french)

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I climbed about 70,000 feet in elevation on my out-of-shape, overweight, 8 months pregnant body.

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Whew. We made it up to the bottom of Lombard. Holy Crap. There are still stairs to take to the top of Lombard.

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Lombard is the most crooked street in the states.

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We preservered and started climbing the stairs. One of the views.

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Imagine about 738 (ok, maybe 250) of these stairs. Still a lot.

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a view. blurry.

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a view. not so blurry.

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I was peeling off layers of clothing, I got so hot. and it was COLD outside! But we made it to the top!!!

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As a reward, we walked back down and went to the Ghiradelli shoppe! :) Mmmmm banana split ice cream.

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back at the hotel, Owen was captivated by a movie on TV as he ate some fruit.

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He was like, "HUH? picture?"

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"Oh! I must smile."

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"Um, are you STILL taking pictures?"

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"I mean, really? Forget it."

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"I'm just going to get back to watching Die Harder, or whatever this movie is called with Bruce Willis and that Mac Guy.

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The next day was super rainy. But I really wanted to go to Muir Woods. So we drove into San Francisco.

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And got to drive across the golden gate bridge!

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I let Ryan do the driving this day.

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So I could take pics ... and not have to drive on a mountain side in this rain.

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The bridge was cool to drive on. I had had the opportunity to actually walk across it back in '99 when I had gone.

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Here we are, trying to get all our rain gear on.

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by a babbling brook in the park.

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some redwoods. these were some of the tallest.

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look at me, all wet and junk.

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found a tree with a big opening. Would have been a great picture opportunity if the weather wasn't so crappy.

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so i kept trying to take it to make it look decent.

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this was ok.

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and this is for perspective.

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back at the entrance.

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I was beyond soaked.

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back at the hotel, owen helps get ready to pack up.

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and shows off his trolley - or "charlie" as he pronounced it.

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he loved it.

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and he even got another one as a souvenir from aunty & uncle J when they came back from san fran. he loved that too!

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the next day, Owen zonks out at the dallas airport awaiting our connecting flight.

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It was quite comical seeing him try to find a comfortable position.

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Woo hoo the clock struck midnight! Actually, you know what, it didn't.

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My clock on camera must be an hour ahead. Dang, need to fix that.

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Oh well, we decided to open presents.

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Pottiama opening gifts

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Fab and owen opening gifts

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she said she liked it! :)

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wow, talk about surprised

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with his two favorite aunties (at the moment, ha)

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fab-ulous

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wiz and the kid

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Pottiamma and Owen!

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This is the last pic of them together. I absolutely love it. :)

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Wiz and O playing

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aww

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i just look fat here, not nearly 6 mos. preg. :( oh well. :)

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a sandhill crane hanging out by our front door

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there were two of 'em. they travel in pairs.

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pretty (scary) (big) (imposing) birds

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nice

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ryan braved getting close to them so he could get the newspaper.

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nice hair, owen. geez, time for a haircut.

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emo hair and emo expressions

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just hanging

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awww, one of the last times in his toddler bed / crib

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intently working on a sesame street EDUCATIONAL (haha) internet game

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we went to savannah to celebrate a belated christmas. he loves his mickey gift!

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and was ASTOUNDED by the multitude of tootsie rolls.

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WHOA dude

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he loves this mcqueen car shirt.

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i think amelia liked her gifts, too.

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so studious, these two.

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jumping on the bed like little monkeys.

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3-shot timer on our camera. first shot, normal.

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second shot, all "wooo hooo"

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third shot silly/mean

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lunch @ ruby tuesday on the way out of town/ they do make a tasty turkey burger!

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watching portable dvd gift from fab on the way back home

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he could be a model for the brand

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it was exceptionally cold, so we stuffed him into some old pjs that barely fit

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but he loved them

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and was soooo cute in them

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fab came up for the weekend and offered to help paint owen's new room since i can't

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hard at work

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they were doing a great job

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fab always gets him neat arts and crafts stuffs

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whew, we got his bunk bed assembled for the most part

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and this is the coolest feature of it - actual stairs and drawers!

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he had a giant mitt glove seat, but it took up too much room

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so we kept experimenting with layout

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I think this is about it

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got another mattress for the top and put spidey sheets on the bottom

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after all of that, he still wakes up at 8a on the weekends and climbs into bed with us.

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off to disney world again! this time epcot.

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sittin w/a pregnant mama

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good times - we were waiting for donald

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ah, here he is, senor donald duck

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outside the mexico pavillion

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decided to take the monorail over to magic kingdom

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ahhhh, awake just in time for the train ride

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he loves going on the train from toontown to frontierland, back to mainstreet

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i don't know what we were doing here. waiting in some line, perhaps.

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ahhh yes, time to meet and greet with characters. this is princess cinderella

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oh, they were having excellent conversation

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and took excellent pics together

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he even got to be nestled in her warm, soft bosom. Oh, i mean, got a hug from her.

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on the race car ride with daddy

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they sure do love that ride

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here comes my little race car driver

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can't stop him

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what a novel way to sit and watch TV, Owen

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til next months pics (in about 4 months, I figure)

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In the interest of saving time, i will TRY to be brief in my captions

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Grandma came over to b-sit so ryan and i could go to his co. christmas party.

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owen had a good time, per usual

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well, hello there

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eating jello

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enjoying the present his FAB got him

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so entertaining

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THE GREAT CORNHOLIO

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Aunty Wiz came by for the day and we went to disney world

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look at them in their ears. so adorable.

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owen is such a ladies man and goes in for the kiss

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who can resist his charms?

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shadows of ears

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ear shadows. dang, need to pressure wash driveway.

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hug love

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kiss love

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holy schnikes - friends since '88. over 20 years. (we were, like, 5, when we met)

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mmmm ice cream

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a little cold, but yum.

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aunty lissette left to go to v. merry christmas at magic kingdom and we stayed @ hollywood studios

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met mater and mcqueen (and some random kid that would NOT get out of the shot)

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and saw the spectacle of lights

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by the time we got home, owen was plum tuckered out

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our kid does NOT get sleepy like this and pass out, so it was amusing

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the jankes came over for some belated bday and early christmas gift exchanging

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hello all

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playing with fake playdoh

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shark attack

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just chillin

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playing don't break the ice

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swung by auntie paulette's (aunty pet's) for some hugs

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hi auntie G!

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went to animal kingdom. wow, we were really making use of our disney passes!

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petting zoo.

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he wouldn't focus on the animal he was petting;

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he always had his eye on the next one he'd get to pet

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went to the mall to see santa

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making faces whilst in line

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hello santa, i would like a coconut

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some veggie tale gummies

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and a hug. but i don't wanna sit on your lap.

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watching one of the remote control helicopters some dude was selling at the mall

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he seemed to get a kick out of it

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amazin

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why he lifted his shirt, i have no idea

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but it was cool, i guess

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santa came!

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yes, there is a coconut under there.

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christmas morning

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christmas morning

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christmas morning

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christmas morning

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christmas morning

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see the coconut

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and veggie tale gummies. santa really pulled thru this year. (it was a TOUGh list, not)

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christmas morning

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christmas morning

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3-shot timer on my camera. nice pic.

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surprise pic

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mean pic

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yes, that is what you think it is. what can i say? my boy likes the laaayyydies.

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a big present from santa. instead of easel, he was calling it his "science." oh well :)

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wooden trains rule!

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in the train station

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Well, it was time to upgrade my car.

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rav 4, 2008, new-ish (had a thousand miles), v6 limited w/third row seat

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i REALLY wanted a third row seat, even if it only fit teeny weenies

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FAB and pottiamma came to visit

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hanging

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silly faces

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making gingerbread cookies

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he had so much fun doing this

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there they are b4 they are iced

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taking a nap on the way down to miami

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icing the cookies

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mama gets in on the fun

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yums.

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owen's works of art

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daddy's turn

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daddy's masterpieces (yes, that is a fish shape)

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family!

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playing "cards" with coasters

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uh oh, owen is attacking

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i think owen is winning

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definitely owen as the victor!

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November was a busy month.

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First, I let him dump all the styrofoam from my bday packages onto the ground.

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And go swimming in them! How many kids get to swim in a sea of styrofoam.

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Probably not the safest, but fun for a little while. :)

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We broke from tradition and took him to get his 3 yr pics a few days before his bday.

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Such a stylish lil guy.

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The first was a looooonnnnggg day. He takes his nap in the car now.

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We went over to his grandma & grandpa's later on that day.

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We watched a Gator Football game and hung out with Cousin Daniel who was visiting.

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Cousins.

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Taking part in a tasty dessert. I think it was a Costco pumpkin pie.

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Owen knocks 'em down.

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Rare pic of the three of us.

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Owen got a hold of the camera and decided to take pics of everyone. Daniel - Take 1.

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Daddy, Take 1.

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Mama - Take 1.

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Grandpa - Take 1. Nice shot, Owen.

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Grandma - Take 1.

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So we taught him to look in the viewfinder or display, and he did much better. Take 2.

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mama-daddy, take 2.

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mama - take 2.

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Grandpa - take 2.

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Grandma, take 2.

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A few days later, I bribe my child with fruits.

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He sure does like them.

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The day b4 his bday, we celebrated by getting a hotel room @ Disney that night.

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All he talks about now is the Pop Century Hotel. He LOVED it.

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It was just your standard hotel, but now he wants to take everyone there.

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He's very sweet and says that he'll treat family members to a stay there.

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The next day, we spent at Disney! We went to the Magic Kingdom.

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Daddy and Owen hung out 2gether while mama & Aunty Lissette did the Keys to the Kingdom tour.

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I know all the secrets behind that pumpkin now. But I can't share, or else I'd have to kill you.

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Owen loves Disney World.

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One of his fave rides is the race car ride by tomorrowland.

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he hearts it.

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Esp cause daddy lets him drive.

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In the interest of saving time and trying to get these pics published before the new kid gets here, captions short now.

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bday party. costco messed up cake. oh well.

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Theme - World's Fair Chicago / Carnival. He picked it out. body art station (tattoo)

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needle in haystack

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bouncehouse

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favor table and ferris wheel cake i made

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favor table / cakes

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rice krispie treats and yellow cake w/choc frostin

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sis mans the body art station

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my mom looks much younger in this pic than she had recently.

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bounce house fun

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searching for needles - pencils, straws, stickers, candy necklaces, etc.

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there they go

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they did good

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walkin away w/some loot

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searchin ... seek and destroy

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my masterpiece! mwhaha. it could have been much better. but ok for first time.

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gwen gets in on some solitary fun.

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looks like she had a blast.

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see, much younger. :) love you, mom.

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with some of his fave ppl. :)

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aww.

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lissette got in on the tattoo action.

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sis did a great job with the kids. her station was a hit.

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showing off tiger eyes (are watching you)

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cake time

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hug time

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present time

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pras being silly. it's what happens when you leave him in charge of the camera.

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presents

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presents

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presents

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presents

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presents

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presents

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presents

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grandpa being silly

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ryan demonstrating his sporty spice abilities

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the bounce house was not expensive to rent at all. thank you, craigslist!

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the kids had fun in it, i think.

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cousins!

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cousins being cute.

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cousins

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cousins

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cousins

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of course, when one is looking @ the cam, the other doesn't.

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silly cousins

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family

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saying bye b4 leaving

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giving hugs b4 miami fam leaves

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pottiama gets in on the action

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as does uncle prasi

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stop hogging the kid, dude

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aunty sette and owen sit and wave.

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smile and wave

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testing out his presents

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after a hard day at the office, apparently

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more present testing. moon sand. curses to you aunty lissette!!! ;)

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yeah

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testing out a powdered donut. i heart them

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faces

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faces

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FACES

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more present fun. mcdonalds drive thru set, yet he pretends he's on telecons like his ma.

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and he does take orders, too

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wanted to sleep in the guest room.

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getting ready for a playdate @ the park.

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weather was nice and crisp!

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playin w/bryce

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they played well together. have to plan next outing.

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a bird of prey hung out atop my neighbor's car.

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check it out

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i should have thrown some steak at it

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i think it's a hawk of some sort

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owen in another bday present

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owen taking pics of us

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more picture taking fun from owen

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he convinced me to sleep in the tent

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at four mos. preg, maybe not the best idea. :)

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wow, is this what daddy looks like from owen's point of view?

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eatin yogurt

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awww what cute boys

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man, we should just hire owen to be our photographer

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he's getting ok with taking the shots

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:) he's growing up.

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soon after this, we started undiapering him at night. it's been ... ok.

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hanging out @ grandma & grandpa's house for thanksgiving

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playing

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cute shot

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cousins

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yeaaaah

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chillin w/gramps

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awww givin daddy hugs

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hiding

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hiding

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dancing

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dancing fools!

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still dancin

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amelia takes five

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next day at the mall

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at ICE! @ Gaylord Palms

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buttoning up

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hello

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nice, huh? (he wasn't really licking it)

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hello

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hello

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hello

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so cold

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yeah! me and o!

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aww.

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daddy & o at the end.

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amelia

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dancing, of course.

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getting the free hot cocoa at the end. :)

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a glimpse of their not so distant future.

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mommy, daddy, boy and girl!

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foooooootball!

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Go gators.

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look at 'em

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cuties

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playing

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o helping daddy w/the lights

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my little big boy

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such a great helper.

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IMG_2197.JPG 2008-11-30

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We went to Disney's Not So Scary party, and Owen wanted to be a PUMPKIN. But I couldn't find one. So he was a duck.

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In Grandma and Stinkum's car to go to Disney.

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He wanted Grandma to sit next to him. And get in the picture, too, hahaha.

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On the tram to get into the park itself.

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Awww.

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Yeah! We met up with Ryan at the park.

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In the line to the dumbo ride (which he loves). Grandma and Grandpa don't ride this ride - it's too spinny.

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With the Tigger that Grandpa got him. All Owen has to do is bat those long eyelashes ... :)

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He was pretty tired, but you wouldn't be able to tell by this.

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Sitting w/Grandpa, waiting for the parade to start.

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Yea! It started!

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Waving hi to the characters on the floats.

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Back in the tram on the way back to the car.

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Whew, looks like everyone's tired after a LONG night at Disney!

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Mwhahahaha - Owen's LOOT. It's mid-december and we're still sifting thru it.

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He's getting so big.

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I couldn't find a pumpkin anywhere, but did find one on EBAY! Here he is modeling it after we received it.

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Hmmm, guess he still fit in his 4th of July outfit from last year and I didn't need to buy a new shirt. Oh well.

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He had heard about bobbing for apples and so he wanted to do that!

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Here he tries. "Hmmm ... it's a little harder than it looks, I guess ..."

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"... So maybe I'll try using my hands ... ???"

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"Nah! But I'm not going to give up!"

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"Whew, maybe I should take a break?"

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"I'll get you, you little apple!"

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"Hmmm, dunk my face in farther?"

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Ha, he got water up his nose.

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"A couple more tries ..."

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"I think i can, I think I can ..."

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"Hmmm, maybe not! But you haven't gotten the best of me, apples!!"

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We went to Epcot's Food & Wine Festival. I think this is an Ibis. Others had other ideas. Anyone know?

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Owen found this sprinkler head and started dancing around it.

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Mr. Corey tries to fix the train that had derailed in Germany.

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Sharing some smiles with Ms. Paula.

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Owen took a nice nap.

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When he woke up, he turned on that charm again ...

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... And managed to hitch a ride on Aunty Mundae's shoulders!

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While I couldn't drink, I sure did eat a lot (even though I was repentant soon after). And we even had dinner at Giordan

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HI DADDY!

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Wow, who knew a simple car ride back home could be this much fun?

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We went to the pumpkin "patch" - which was really just a tent by the mall. Owen found this really ugly punkin.

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Then he found the pumpkin of his dreams. Just his size.

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So many orbs of orange!

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Showing off his one in a hundred pumpkin.

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He needs to grow out a little to fill the face, but I'm impressed that he could reach it standing on the stool.

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Embracing the largest pumpkin there.

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Ryan picked out a good pumpkin that i hoped to use for cooking.

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I never did, but Owen does a fine job handling it.

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Here he is w/his loot. Three pumpkins!

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On Halloween, we put him in his GLOW IN THE DARK skeleton shirt.

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He actually loved it and let me take a bunch of pics of him.

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He actually considered it part of his costume. Sticking out his hand to show off his ulna and radius!

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Scary Skeleton Pose.

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And now he's just dancing.

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Here you can see some of his sweet moves.

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He's almost as good as Napolean (Dynamite).

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Modeling his pumpkin outfit that he'll take to school

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They had a halloween party there.

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Yea. More candy. Woo. :) It was cool - he got pretzels, fruit roll ups, and stickers. It's like teachers KNOW or somet

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SKELETON PUMPKIN!

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After school, we went to our neighbor's across the street for a small gathering of kids.

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It was a potluck, so after we all ate, we got the kids in their 'stumes then headed out trick or treating!

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I don't remember where I put his pail from last year, so we reused the Disney bag.

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Owen went around with all the kids, then wanted to keep going, so we did an extra block. He's growing up!

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And here he is at home, with candy all over his face. :) His favorite are the tootsie rolls, btw.

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Last day in Chicago, we went to Wisconsin for a Brewers game and stopped in Kenosha(?) for some CHEESE!

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Owen's real good at giving real good hugs. :) I seriously live for them.

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This is the first in a series we shall call "The Owenator Airborn, 41st Squadron."

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Looks a little dangerous, but the bed is directly under him. And Ryan hasn't dropped him once. Yet.

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Owen added in this fancy legwork. Impressive.

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Ryan was throwing him up and catching him btw.

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And he even throws us a glance at the camera. Nice.

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Ryan was throwing him up and catching him btw.

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He was having SO MUCH fun.

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Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end as Ryan's arms were getting tired.

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Owen got all dressed up to go to the Gator game (UM vs. UF).

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We had no idea he was totally serious about going up to Gainesville until the day of.

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Yeah, he was a little sad we didn't go, but he survived.

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These are the new curtains in the dining room (if you remember last month's photos, I mentioned we changed them out).

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And these are in the office.

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My little boy ranges from being half dressed to not dressed to fully dressed at night. It's just whatever he feels like

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Hanging out in the middle of the "pool."

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Ever since we put down the brick in the back, the lizards convene for meetings or something. I think they like the heat.

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Just a happy pic.

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Anna inspired me to make these cupcakes. She sent me a pic, so I decided to make them.

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Hers came out much cuter when she did 'em for her boy's bday party.

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But I think these are passable. And they are fun to eat, too.

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Owen in his McQueen Car PJs. See, fully dressed for bed.

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I think he calls these his "disney clothes" cause we bought it at a disney store? But I think we got it at Kohl's. I'll

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Eating breakfast. Dunno what's so fascinating that I decided to include it, but oh well. :) Here ya go.

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The weather was really nice in September to go in the pool.

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Here Ryan throws him into the middle of the "pool."

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Owen had his second dental appointment (6 month checkup) this month.

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Again, he did absolutely FANTASTIC. Did everything the hygenist and dentist asked him to do. I'm such a proud mom! :)

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The dentist actually commented that Owen had to be the best 2 year old he has ever seen. No screaming, crying, etc.

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He did do well ... and I know the stickers at the end were definite incentive for him. That was the first thing he wante

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We went down to Miami to tell the folks the news and Owen had a playdate with Camila.

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Here he is a'comin' down the slide.

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And here she is climbing up the stairs. I tell you, these kids are fearless.

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Awwww, toddler hugs. I love them. :)

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Wow, Owen just looks thrilled, doesn't he?

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He sure has grown from the first pics we have of him with these elephants.

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There, now he looks like he's having fun.

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"Come here, Pottiama, let me show you something."

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And she moves in for the kiss!

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And she's successful! Til next month. Thanks for reading.

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I found a bunch of hats I had bought Owen when he was a wee little one. He refused to wear them back in the day.

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But I assigned each one a sport now, and so he'll wear them. This is his fishing hat, I think.

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We went bowling with Ryan's company, and this little kid had a ton of fun, running around the empty areas, and even bowl

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Joyce came over afterward to play with a sleepy Owen.

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We went to either Lowes or Home Depot (I can't remember which) to buy paint for some of our home improvement projects.

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Posin' at the warehouse store.

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He loves to wear stickers on his arms like tattoos. This one was really, really hard to come off.

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While he is potty trained, we still put him in a diaper at night ... just in case. He started to go completely dry at ni

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FAB came over to play with her Owen. She brought Pottiama, too, which was nice, cause Potti was looking much better.

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I think Owen was trying to eat Fab's nose!

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Or maybe he was a lion, attacking. Either way, totally boy stuff. I stay out of it.

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Just gave the kid a haircut. Trying to get him to hold off on his signature smile (see April - June pics). Compromise.

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He's so skinny and I can't tell if the short hair makes him look younger or older.

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Here he found a sponge and decides to wash his daddy's hair, I guess. I swear we don't wash his hair with a sponge like

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We got invited to hang out on the J's boat. Our first time and we didn't bring any necessities (drinks, sunblock, etc).

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Hailey and Justin with a bit of Owen in the foreground. :)

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I like this pic of H-mac!

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I freaked out that I'd drop my camera in the water.

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But still managed to take a couple of those "arm out" pictures!

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At the home depot, searching for chair rails and wood. Owen bogarts his daddy's cap.

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And here it goes ...

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And it's on. I think it looks good on him, don't you?

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Owen LOVES trying out new places to sleep, esp now that HE threw away his babu (Paci).

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One day, he said, I'm gonna throw it away and threw it into the trash. That was the end of that. (although that night he

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My, my. Look at what a grump my child is. Grump.

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Total grump. He looks like *my* side of the family when he's a grump, Ryan's side when he's not. Wonder if that means an

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He really dug sleeping on the floor. What a whacky kid.

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I found an awesome way to keep him occupied while I cleaned or did whatever - give him some decorative marbles ...

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... and let him paint them!

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We got him a swim vest with floaties and it really helped him gain confidence.

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He loves using it. We took out several foam things w/in a couple of days.

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Here's a shot of him before he gets in the pool.

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Here's daddy, supervising.

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He wanted to get in every night that week.

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We decided to start Labor Day weekend off by going to Disney. Sometimes we do like to antagonize Owen.

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It's sooo wrong, but it's so much fun! We're just making him stronger, people!

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With his Mickey hat that Aunty Lissette got him. He LOVES it now. I worry about when we go to Disney and forget it. ;)

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He was watching the duckies while we waited for the bus to take us to Magic Kingdom.

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Ahhh, he's in the bus. He sure does love that bus.

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AT the aladdin magic carpet ride. Ah, glad we took a pic - i never realized we rode this one. Odd.

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He likes playing with the toys.

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I like not having to buy them.

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Waiting in line at the Dumbo ride. Owen's very observant. Just thought I'd throw that out there. No real example of how.

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ON the dumbo ride. Owen got to pick the color of the car we'd sit in.

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I have no idea what this is a pic of. This is what I get for updating shutterfly 3+ months after the fact.

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On the Merry Go Round. He REALLY does enjoy himself at Magic Kingdom. It's the only park he wants to go to.

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On the people mover in tomorrowland. I'm gonna be sad when our season passes run out, but we'll renew in a few years.

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I took a quick trip to Chicago to visit my cousin and wiz and her cousins. Driving by w/Bala.

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Lovely "arm-out" shot. Betcha can't guess which one my cousin is. :)

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Here's a better shot. And yes, Owen was at home with Daddy, but they had fun. I was only gone for 2 full days.

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Oh! Here we are at Wrigley Field! It was very exciting to be there.

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Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes threw out the first pitch.

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And he did pretty good, too.

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See, I told you it was Chris Robinson. I think I'm going to listen to their greatest hits now.

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We had great seats for getting them off of ebay, anyway. We saw the rooftop bleachers and this random dude in a hot dog

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View from where we were sitting. I should have saved the ticket so I'd remember the seat location. I'm sure Wiz has it s

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Norms, Lissette (the Wizard), and I.

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This was an appetizer at a thai restaurant we went to. It served as my dinner and was fabulous.

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The rest are pics of the home improvements we were doing. Here is Owen, getting in on the painting action.

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foyer. 2 different shades of paint.

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foyer.

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the old playroom which is being converted into my office cause i found a desk that i loved.

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painting the dining room. both walls are the same color, but they look so different.

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new office with the furniture installed in it. We actually got the furniture in there, and i decided we needed to paint.

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the dining room. Two walls w/same pain that look different. Hi, Self (in the mirror)!

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these walls are two different colors. one wall is beige, three are tan.

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There's my Owen! And this is the office furniture.

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He was a grump that day, too.

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We got this candleholder at Pier 1 (on CLEARANCE, woo hoo). I thought it looked fine in this room.

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We decided to do a chair rail and let Owen paint the bottom, as you can see.

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painted the top beige, the bottom tan, then did a ragging-type technique w/gold on it.

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the foyer again.

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The chair rail is on! the two walls seem to match color better now.

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the other side of the dining room.

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I had only had these O W E N letters since Owen was about 2 months old, and it only took me 3 years to put 'em in his ro

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another pic of O W E N. Looks good.

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The dining room again. Putting furniture in one by one. With flash.

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Without flash.

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before the table gtes back in. We've since changed the curtains. And we got a mini wine fridge at Costco ... ON CLEARANC

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Our bar from the bombay company. Put up the little sign on top.

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We also found a deal on getting thin brick pavers done in the back. So we got our cracked, dirty, uneven cool deck taken

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you can see the dirty here from the unevenness.

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and the cracks here.

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the dining room w/all the furniture in it.

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The bar again. Cause I like it so much. Who knew that soon I wouldn't be able to partake of its contents?

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Ok, the thin pavers are almost done!

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They have to smooth the sand over them.

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The office w/accessories up and painting up, too.

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And our diplomers (Most of them). :)

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Done done done in the back!

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The back looks SO much bigger now.

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The "pool" is full of sand, but it was worth it! :)

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And so another month begins. Owen says HI!

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Owen likes to take pics of people. Sometimes you gotta squat down to get in the frame.

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His cool, new, 4th of July shirt. He picked it out. It was between this and a more traditional flag.

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Gma & Gpa came over and we went to our neighbor's house for a 4th celebration.

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Yea! He's finally in the bounce house.

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He sure did have a lot of fun.

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This is one of those shots where you can kinda tell what he'll look like in 30 yrs. Well, maybe 20 while he's still youn

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With Alana and Lance. In descending height order. So cute.

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The pool was out all day, and he didn't want to get in it until they were about to put it away.

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All the kids jumped in whilst in their skivvies. It was adorable, but I won't post pics online. :)

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After playing, the kids got their glowsticks and ready for the RAVE! Ok, just to watch the fireworks.

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They seemed to enjoy it.

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I tell you, I was dying at all the affection these kids were showing each other.

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Leave it to my kid to twist his body completely around the other way to look at things.

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There, that's more like it.

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So much togetherness!

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The next a.m., we drove down to Miami and stopped in Melbourne to hang w/Rylee & Grayson.

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And go to Hailey's SIXTH birthday party. Our Goddaughter is SIX. I cannot believe it.

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Owen had a blast being antisocial.

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It takes him a long time to warm up to people he hasn't seen in a while. He's very, very shy.

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But he got a good workout in before joining the party.

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Down in Miami, we headed straight to the hospital to visit with Pottiama. She had been in for THREE WEEKS.

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We brought lots of snacks and reading materials for her to occupy some time.

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She is looking MUCH better than she did a week and two weeks prior. Her lungs had collapsed, and she had a reaction to t

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Owen and his FAB watch a little bit of TV.

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On our way out of town, we stopped by to visit Pottiama again. Docs had good news - she'd be released soon.

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One of those stick your arm out shots.

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Ever since he got that tent, Owen likes to take pics of us with my camera. He gets us (mostly) in frame.

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And this is me.

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And this is his self-portrait.

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Today was dress like a cow to get free meals at Chick Fil A. You better believe we whipped out our old halloween costume

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Although it *was* a little bit embarrassing for us, Owen loved it. :)

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We went to see Wall-E and Owen got that neat watch and for some reason agreed to sit like a baby in his daddy's lap one

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Here he is channeling his inner Matthew McConaughey. I won't show you the pics from the other angle.

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He reminds me of a Jedi Fighter in this pose. A Jedi with fuzzy ears, that is.

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Just wanted to try on this robe one last time (it was his baby robe). :)

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We went to the Gator Gathering at Typhoon Lagoon. It was ... dang, I thought it was free, but it wasn't.

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Eh, it was only $20, which is as good as free at a Disney Park. Here's my little water monkey.

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We went to Old Time Pottery to look for ... I can't remember what we were looking for.

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But Owen decided to test out his acrobatics on his daddy's shoulders.

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We got new furniture!!! I should group all the furniture pics together. This is our new sectional.

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It's so small and compact and cute and firm. Just what we were looking for.

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We went to Seito Sushi and afterwards got suckered into getting Marble Slab. Mmmm Cotton Candy Blue Ice Cream.

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We went to Costco and Owen's working on his silly faces. I think he wants to be a ham.

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He doesn't have to try hard.

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Making good use of our furniture boxes.

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We had free passes to Universal Studios that expired that day, so we went.

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In the rain. You'd think we were torturing the boy. He actually got to hang out *IN* my poncho while we walked around.

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We must have rode this Seuss Carousel four times.

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It was the only dry place in the park. The rain was POURING down.

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Oh boy, did he liven up when we stopped to get a bite to eat.

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Apparently, a little pizza and choco milk makes him go dance crazy. He had THE BEST dance!

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Ry and I did Child Swap for the new Simpsons ride, so here's Owen after I rode it while we're waiting for Ryan.

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See that choco milk? Anyway, we probably only rode 4 different rides that night, but it was still fun.

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Decided to take a pic of him while a) he was still small enough to sit on the roof of my civic ...

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... and b) I still had my civic. It hit over 100K miles this month, I think!

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Welcome to June '08. It only took me 18 months to get these out.

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You may be asking yourself, why what is it that Owen is eating that he finds so tasty.

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Well, it's simple my friends. Miso soup. With extra tofu. Yes, my child digs the seaweed and tofu. LOVES IT.

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Here he is, taking a break, and having a good convo w/daddy while we all wait for our sushi.

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Smiling his ridiculously funny smile for the camera.

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Look at those little feets.

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On our way to Melbourne to see GodCousin Hailey dance in her dance recital.

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Ever since I scarred him with a 3-D Disney movie, he's been not too fond of dark theaters.

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But he did love watching the dancers when the stage lights were on. He even mimicked Hailey's dance when we got home.

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So proud of our little star!

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Here he is just chillin and relaxing.

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We visited w/Grandma and Stinkums and they had some new toys for Owen to get acquainted with.

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SQUIRT GUNS!

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Watch out for that one, he'sa dangerous sort.

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Here he is, stalking his prey.

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The gparents got a cake for Ryan's birthday and Owen licks the candle ... it's a new sport.

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Happy 26th Birthday, Daddy!

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Oh yes, my boy is STYLIN' in his shades and swim shoes. He is sooo ready to ...

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... get his car wash on!

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Well, hello there, laaaayyyyy-dees.

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Wax on. Wax off.

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On Daddy's actual birthday we made mini cakes ...

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Of course, Owen needed to have his own candle to blow out, demonstrating his candle extinguishing prowess.

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Here Ryan and Owen watch the $2 version of The Jungle Book. It was violent!

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Aunty Mundae, Uncle Sherman, and Joyce came over for a bit, and Owen totally schooled them in how to play mario kart.

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The next day we headed over to Princess Gwen's Bday party. Complete with a Castle!

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It was a prince/princess theme, so naturally, Owen dressed as a Young Indian Prince Warrior.

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What a smashing little Prince he made.

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And what a gorgeous Princess she made.

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Owen's hokey smile w/in the castle. I wish I had a pic of that thing. It was v. impressive.

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Aunty Ang's bro, Austin, hooked the Owenator up with some flashlights. Owen was in heaven.

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Can you find him?

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I am THIS many!

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Afterward, we drove down to Miami to visit pottiama who was in the hospital.

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He sure does love his Fab.

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It was also Uncle Pressy's birthday, so we got to sing happy birthday to him and had cupcakes in the hospital cafeteria.

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Drinking a glass of water before bed. This is while he still slept clothed.

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His legs were crossed so cutely, so he played demure for me.

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And here it is again, folks. The forced smile.

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Aunty Annie got Owen this cool pup tent from Ikea a couple months back and we finally got a chance to put it up.

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OMG, Owen LOVED it.

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I was pretty impressed - he took this pic of me through the mesh of the tent.

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Mama took this pic of Owen. Not as good as the one he took of me.

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Food on his face, but he's no big disgrace. And he does shake his bum all over the place.

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Owen told us both to get inside so he could take a picture.

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Ryan gave him his bathtub crayons and let him have at it. Owen decorated it to his heart's extent.

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All of a sudden, he said "OH! I have to decorate my arch!" and he started coloring around the doorhole opening.

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And he made sure daddy took a picture of mama and Owen.

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On our way to Toys R Us to see what they had on Thomas the Train Day.

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Such a cutie with his tennis hat and tennis ball.

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There were a LOT of kids there, and he felt a smidge overwhelmed.

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Daddy sure holds him higher than I do.

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By the end of the day, he felt more comfortable, participated in storytime, and even took a pic w/Geoffrey.

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Then we drove over to Grandma and Stinkums and Owen showed them his tent.

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We tested the maximum capacity of the tent that weekend!

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And then it was time for MORE SQUIRT GUNS!

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This is a hold up, pardner.

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Owen was real brave and had no problems going over to the deep end.

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He really got into kicking around the pool using the noodles as floats. We finally went and bought him a swim jacket.

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You'll see pics of that in July, er, I mean, August. Don't hold your breath. :)

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May was a VERY busy month - so lots of pics. You don't have to go thru them all!

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Again, cutie closes his eyes when he smiles.

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Obligatory shot of him sleeping in May ... I think the special part was the way his feet are folded.

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Today he's officially two and a half years old. We got dunkin donuts to celebrate! Well, just to get them, really - no n

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A boy after my own heart - he loves the powdered donuts! (This was a double bonus - a bavarian creme donut - YUM.)

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At this point, he still likes his bath (in June, he started to want to take showers. SHOWERS, people!).

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Tinkering w/my camera - you can swap colors out, so I did green w/red. The sun was shining, so all the green wasn't the

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Here I switched it to the blue of Owen's shirt.

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Giving me his "smile" in a sea of blue grass.

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We swung by Grandma's house on Mother's day. Both she and Stinkums were under the weather.

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Here, Ryan shows us how the Owen Smile is perfected

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Obligatory shot of us. Dinner at Carrabas. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE their minestrone soup?

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On Mother's Day, my boys took me to Restaurant Marrakesh in Morocco! At Epcot, that is. Owen smile #1.

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Owen smile #2. Sometimes I pretend that i've taken the picture so he opens his eyes and then I take it real quick.

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I thought it was cute, him pushing his stroller and all.

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He really wanted to stand at the fountain, but there were a lot of people there.

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He was so happy to get there. He yelled to passersby, "Look everybody! it's some water!"

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Just chillin' and dominating the water fountain. He didn't really want to leave.

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He was drinking some apple juice and managed to spill it all on his pants. He said "I made a mess again." SO CUTE.

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So I changed him into the extra shorts we had. Didn't know how the red really matched his outfit ... so ...

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... I color swapped the red to orange. Eh, the red works fine.

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Owen REALLY wanted to see Donald Duck while we were there. We looked for him, but couldn't find him. By the time we foun

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So we took a picture to show him later (It was the Flower & Garden Festival @ Epcot).

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On our way out, we stopped to watch DAVY JONES from the MONKEES (can you tell I'm excited). He rocked.

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Owen finally awoke as we were in France, dining on delectable pastries. :D

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Owen loves to play wii.

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Here he is hitting a ball during baseball practice.

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He's got pretty good stats. (And we even created his own mii for him! If you can believe it, it looks like a mix between

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I got him to smile! His eyes are still closed, but at least it's a real laugh.

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And a real smile with eyes open.

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He's still happy here, but his eyes go back to closed for the posed shots.

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Here he is, stylin and profilin with the shades on while playing some more wii.

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Here he is playing Tennis. He's not too bad.

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Even though the closed eye posed smiles have been documented fairly well thus far, i thought I'd include it most times h

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Here he is after some fat-free J-E-L-L-O.

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I think he's a little turned off by the mama paparazzi.

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We went and visited with the Vegas for a little bit and got to spend some quality time with them. Here he sits and watch

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With Auntie Mel ...

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And Michael and Matthew. Owen was REALLY shy at first, but he really ended up adoring the boys and playing w/them.

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We got to take a spin on the boat!

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Just chilling.

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I was a daredevil and went and sat on the front of the boat. Dammit ... stern ... bow ... aft ... alee? What is the ter

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And they took one of us. :)

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So apparently, this is Brangelina's boat. It looks like a military vessel! It is named "Plan B" which *is* the name of B

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The boys were all so awesome playing with each other. They played Hide and Seek (aka, let's see who can get locked in th

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Here are Owen and Matthew watching some DVDs. So captivating.

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After that, we met up with some other friends and went to see the Marlins play the KC Royals!

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Here's the mascot. I think his name is Marlin. Oh wait, no it's Billy the Marlin.

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FAB came and got to spend time with her favorite Owen.

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Here they are, checking each other out.

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We had a better picture off of Lissette's camera of this pose, but I'm too lazy to upload that here.

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Owen wanted in on some of the action.

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Paul Rodgers of Bad Company played at the end of the game! They have this thing, where, on Saturday nights, they get a b

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It was LATE and a long day for Owen, but he did fabulous and didn't complain.

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Next day, we stopped by to visit Annie and Patrick. I was holding Patrick and Owen got a little lonely, so he wanted to

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Here's another shot of the kids.

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Back home, Owen feasts on a low-sugar grape popsicle.

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Requisite Sleeping Shot.

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I took the Friday of Mem Day w/e off to spend w/Owen. We went to Disney on a quest to meet Donald. Here Owen is in the b

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YEAH! WE FOUND DONALD!!!

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Owen was really happy to get a hug from Donald.

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And Pluto.

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And Goofy.

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We rode the carousel (well, he rode it, I just stood next to him so I could catch him if he fell - I know, I'm paranoid)

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And then we rode the train to Main Street, Frontier Land, and Toonland. It was a fun day!

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Well, after all that fun, we drove up to Savannah to visit w/family later that night. Owen didn't sleep at all in the ca

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Owen and Cousin Amee-lee-lah eat yogurts before he head out to downtown Savannah.

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Family picture number 1.

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Family picture number 2 - thanks for looking at the camera, Owen.

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The mens doing child swap.

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Owen wearing some Iron Man glasses Aunty Hannah gave him. He was rockin the shades.

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See?

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After lunch @ Vinny Van Go Go's (I think I spelled that right), we walked around a bit, waiting for our tour to get star

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Owen and Amelia were having fun dancing around in a gazebo.

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I mean, can't you see the fun they are having?

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Dang, Owen really got into it.

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After our 30-minute or so Horse & Carriage ride. It was cool - we actually learned a lot! And got to see the square tha

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Had to take a pic of Owen actually eating on the trip. There was so much else for him to do, who has time to eat?

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Relaxing on our bed during the visit. He spent 1.5 out of 3 nights in his own bed, so that wasn't bad.

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I think this was the 1/2 night. He woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to sleep with us.

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So I took a pic of the twins sleeping.

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Here he is giving Uncle Eric a hug.

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And now a kiss.

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And giving Cousin Amelia a hug.

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Saturday, Owen said he saw a turtle outside. We were like, SURRRRE, kid. Then he said the same thing on Sunday. We turne

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So we all went outside to marvel at a turtle that ended up on a golf course. ;)

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Hi Kids.

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I was showing Eric the beauty that is my camera and decided to use the Color Accent feature. These are blurry. but whate

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Owen with a blue color accent.

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We drove to Hilton Head and went to the beach.

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Warning, warning, warning, here you will see a LOT of pictures of the kids at the beach. I mean, color accent, plus beau

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So I won't caption these much.

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Cause I think you get the gist.

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I think my kid is cute.

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And so tiny. :)

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Her'es color accent focusing on the grey.

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Back to blue.

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And back to normal.

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More Pics.

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More Pics.

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I tried to get a pic of her blue eyes, but I picked the wrong blue for color accent.

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Oh well, these are still cool.

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More Pics.

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More Pics.

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More Pics.

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bubbles!

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More Pics.

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Eric went into the water! Clothes, hat, glasses and all! He's hardcore, man.

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The kids "borrowed" another kids toys. :)

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Yes, my kid brought his horse stick to the beach.

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Running after Uncle Eric.

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Awww, Owen is actually smiling!

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Hannah had Amelia under this towel. Immediately before I was able to snap this pic, Amelia shifted. It looked like Hanna

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After the beach, we had lunch at Moe's and then went to the Outlet stores.

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We let the kids (and some other girl) go on the merry go round. Of course, Owen wanted MORE.

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Awwww.

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Owen was tired and wanted to sleep. He didn't even want to get in the car. So he just stopped walking. Amelia followed s

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NO I WILL JUST SLEEP ON THE GRASS, THANKYOUVERYMUCH

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Owen wearing the Superman Sleeper that he got for his bday from Aunty & Uncle & Amelia.

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Check out the removable cape!!!

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The best hug picture, cause we got both their faces!

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They are so cute together, it's ridiculous!

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Owen liked playing with this baseball game that Amelia had.

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Owen and Amelia played ball w/Ryan. Wearing Underwear. Nice.

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more ball

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Playing Piano before we have to leave. it was a great weekend.

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Back home, Owen plays ball. So let me tell you! We took him to school on Tuesday (5/26) and put him in Underwear ... he

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But is still in a diaper at night. :) Many nights he'll wake up dry, but he'll more often than not, wake up not dry.

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He had his school's graduation play and got all gussied up.

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They sang "it's a small world" and played with puppets.

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Then they did a counting song.

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Where they touched their knees.

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Then they did a roses are red poem and had flowers.

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Hanging out afterward. Away from the totally uncool mom and dad. (He's wearing underwear here, btw!)

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We FINALLY gave him a haircut. Here is his fake smile. I should call it a camera smile, not fake.

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being carted away.

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drinking water out of the faucet after he brushes his teeth. the things he picks up on.

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We went to Hailey's bday party and owen played on the gym.

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It was hot.

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and he wanted to swing.

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A Lot. This little girl wanted to push owen.

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Owen and mama going down the slide.

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Going down the steps.

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Down the steps. (Man, aren't my captions captivating? Can you tell I'm kind of tired of writing them?)

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Here he pets Maeby, Crystal's new puppy, back at Aunty & Uncle J's house.

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It was the day of the Space Shuttle launch, too!

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There it goes!

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He threw ball a lot.

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And whew, he's exhausted. It was a BUSY month for all of us. And now I'm exhausted writing all of this, too. :)

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Here he is eating some Jello. He does like to lounge around sans culottes.

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Uh oh, got some jello on my chest. Need to clean it up.

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Eating with his doggies.

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Thatha got him a horse on a stick. Sounds like a concession stand food item @ the fair.

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Owen sits on his shoulders.

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Fab, Owen, Ry and I went to Epcot that Saturday.

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Owen adjusts his sunglasses for the 45 mile drive.

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And serenades us with his rendition of Green Light and Red.

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"Gween light and red, gween light and red!" He sings about traffic lights w/the green arrow.

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Whew! We finally made it to Efcot, as Owen would say.

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He's almost as big as the ball. Did you know Epcot is 25 yrs old?

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Inside 'Honey I Shrunk the Audience.' The lion scared him. I don't think he'll be wearing those glasses anymore.

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See, isn't Owen totally a mix of the both of us? :)

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Owen zonked out on our way to the Character Meet & Greet area. Good thing he missed all that rain.

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There he is, still sleeping, just moments away from seeing MICKEY MOUSE!

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Fab grabbed him and they got a pic together.

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He woke up in time to get a pic w/Pluto. But he doesn't seem THAT thrilled.

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I guess he's warming up to the idea.

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With Minnie! Let's see if I can get a less blurry shot. I was in a hurry to take the pics.

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There's one! (A less blurry shot, that is)

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Here he is waving bye bye to Mins.

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With Ch-Ch-Ch-Chip and Dale (not rescue rangers). I never knew which was which.

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Then found out Chip was the smarter one ... still don't know which is which.

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Owen didn't much feel like taking pics with Goofy at this point. He really wanted to see DONALD DUCK.

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Donald is his fave, and he was just a bit sad that DD wasn't there, so his heart wasn't into meeting goofs.

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Back in his stroller, he's ready to brave the rainstorm to get back to the car. SOAKING.

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The aftermath of helping mama cook lasagne.

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He had his own servings of everything as we were cooking.

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Here he shows off his messy mug.

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All cleaned up and hamming it up in the corner.

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Hamming it up on the counter again! I think this is his Madonna/Vogue pose.

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Here is the start of his "smile" pose for the camera. Closing his eyes and squinching his face.

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I know where his little tickle spots are!

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Now we're making a cream cheese frosting. He's got his own little cup.

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The taste tester has approved!

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Check out little mister's feet hanging over the bed. This is what I see when I check in on him.

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From a different angle.

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OK, so I caved. I bought a frickin' Ab Rocket. But let's just say I got it brand new for 40 percent below retail!

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It was a great deal. Owen tests it out.

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I walked in after a powder fight.

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Looks like Daddy won!

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But I think Owen enjoyed it the most!

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Yep, he sure did. Powder face.

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My little boy is a happy guy.

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Here he picks out a book to read before bed.

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Here he is reading it on his own (from memory).

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We went to Matthew's bday party and got to hang with all the kids.

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Owen loved cooking in the toy kitchen and playing with the dinosaurs.

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Hailey took these pics of us w/her camera. This is ... Ryan, you guessed it.

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And this is ... YES! ME. Wow, you're good.

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And this is le senor Owen.

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And this is a pic I took of Hailey with her camera!

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Couldn't not include a pic of the birthday boy himself!

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That Sunday the boys decided to go for a dip in the spa.

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I thought it was cute how they were both sitting the same way.

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Owen gives his cheesy (but oh so cute) smile for the camera.

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He didn't much want to wear swim trunks, just his swim speedo diapers.

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Convincing daddy to go all the way in before he does.

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THERE'S the trademark Owen smile!

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He got on top of Ryan and said "I'm riding a boat to get you, mama!"

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So as they came closer to me, he kept cracking up.

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OK PEOPLE, THIS IS IT. MY CAMERA. The new love of my life. I want to marry it (sorry, Ryan).

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Isn't it beautiful? I was telling someone that if I could buy it expensive jewelry and fancy dinners, I so would.

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He still gets his paci at night. I know i gotta break him of that, but he's doing so good w/potty training. I don't know

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The next pics were taken w/my new camera. Have I mentioned how much I love it. Oh, and Owen, too.

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Jumping on the guest bed.

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Taken w/the macro function ... dusty keyboard. Testing out the camera.

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And here's my iPod nano w/the color accent feature. I love it! Rest of April pics are in St. Louis album. Enjoy!

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Thursday Evening, April 24. And we're at the airport! Owen's watching the planes take off.

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Here he is eating his sandwich before the flight.

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He asked me where all those other planes were going. I said, "Mexico."

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So when he saw a plane in St. Louis, he said, "That plane's going to Mestico, momma."

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Here, he demonstrates how to buckle his seat belt.

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Perfecting the Pull and Tug technique demonstrated by the flight attendants.

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We're in the MetroLink! It's the next day, and he's wearing a different shirt that looks EXACTLY like yesterday's. Booo.

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I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA. It has a color accent feature that emphasizes a pre-selected color.

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And it takes really good shots while you're 2 feet away from the subject and aren't using the Macro Function.

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Excuse the dried banana on his face. That was his breakfast, but we didn't have any!

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The area where we were staying. That's the convention center.

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The outer facade of the Renaissance was FAKE. FAKE FAKE FAKE.

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But the inside was more than lovely. Gotta love Marriott Points. I mean, really.

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A sculpture at the corner of 7th Ave & Washington, on our way to get us some BBQ!

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It was Ry & My first meal of the day, and it tasted REALLY good. This is w/the Macro function.

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Owen loved his meal, too. BBQ beans, chicken, cheese, tomatoes. Yum.

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Our first glimpse of the Arch. We crossed a street, and blammo, this was there.

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It was an overcast day, but not supposed to rain.

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A view of the city from the side of the arch.

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We decided to take a riverboat cruise and this is the arch as we floated on by it.

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Owen loves going on ships/boats!

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So do I.

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Le Arch. Again. Get used to it, people, you're gonna see a lot of pics.

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The Casino Queen. They built a land hotel, and that's where they gamble now. The water was really muddy.

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And there was a lot of lumber in it. Another casino that apparently, sq ftg-wise is the 3rd largest gambling space.

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Owen's belly started to hurt and he didn't want to use the bathroom on board, cause it was too hot (next to steam room)

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So he just covered his face and didn't want to be bothered.

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Our little sweat monkey fell asleep. It started drizzling a little bit.

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I lay on the floor and took this picture draggumit.

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Can you see what's in the background? It's the Budweiser Brewery! We took a tour.

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They have tulips everywhere! I loved them. They were so pretty. And look, PURPLE ones.

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Owen and I in front of the facility.

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We saw a few Clydesdales as we started the tour. Yet that didn't clue me in to it's first stop ...

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The STABLES. Ew, stinky. :) But we saw more horses. I thought they were a bit confined.

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Here's looks horse's butt!

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One of the two original chandeliers they bought from Germany (i think). The other is in a hotel in dallas.

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This is where they Mash. They do the Monster, um, Hops Mash.

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Another production area we were allowed to take pics of. They said no to some areas.

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Owen got to pick out one souvenir. He picked the small horse instead of the medium-sized one! GOOD BOY!

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Here he is, doing his fake smile whenever I say "Smile for the camera!" You'll see this often.

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Such a little boy. He's going to be so big in just a couple of years.

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Here's his fake smile again!

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This lady offered to take our pic. We chose to take it by more tulips.

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Owen loves to pretend his stroller is the garbage truck. I don't know what the pillows were.

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Fake smile again! I don't even need to ask for it anymore, when he sees me pointing the camera at him, out it comes.

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It didn't rain all day. And when does it decide to rain? at 7:05 for a 7:15 game we had tix to. GRRR.

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I figured out how to take pics of him w/smiling. Pretend I've already taken it when he's doing the face, and then do it.

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It was COLD and Rainy and WET. Soooo wet. We ate @ Masterpiece bbq again for dinner.

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awww, this is a mostly cute shot of us all wet. Owen's the cutest, I'll give him that.

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The tarp on the field. Owen kept asking when it was going to be taken off.

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The Natl Weather Srv lied! they said it'd clear up by 8:15. It did at 9:15.

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So we finally got to our seats. We had REALLY great seats. And they weren't wet, because they were under cover. SWEET.

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Ha, fooled you into smiling a real smile, Owen.

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We bought some hot cocoa cause it was so cold and let Owen have the last of it. His first sip.

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After his first sip. Oh, how he loved it.

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The Cards got the Astro dude out on first base.

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Me. We stayed for about 4 innings, then left cause it was kinda late and i was FREEZING. (my socks got wet in the rain)

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Back at the hotel, Owen jumps around before bed.

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The next morning, he's all dressed and ready to play garbage truck again.

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Ryan and I.

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Have I told you how much I love my camera? The color accent feature - these pink trees were everywhere.

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By the pavillion to the 1906 (I think) world's fair. We walked a heck of a long way to get to the zoo.

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At the St. Louis Zoo, Owen poses with the elephant fountain.

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There was supposed to be a Hippo in here! And the Rhino wasn't where they said he'd be either.

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This is a hyena (not a hernia).

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These are Cheetahs. But Ryan thinks they could be spotted Leopards. I was too lazy to go back and look.

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Owen wanted to take a pic by this snake.

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Then he wanted to take a pic of him touching it.

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There were a lot of asian elephants at the zoo. Owen loved watching them.

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Next to the crocodiles.

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He didn't much want to take a pic with me.

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As you can see by his hasty escape. He was just really tired by then.

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He passed out in his stroller after we saw the monkeys.

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I wish I had taken this one with the flash off. It woulda come out much softer.

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The boy slept for THREE HOURS. (1.5-2 is normal). He even missed lunch.

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But we saved him some pizza and gooey butter shortcake (no beer) for later. (this is @ central west area)

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Look, my fellow floridians! It's a Panera! Well, St. Louis bread Co. in St. Louis.

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Owen got a horse souvenir. Ryan got a shirt. I got a six pack of beer. I shared w/Ry, tho.

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Owen was pretending to be a ball player and doing a ton of stretches like they did the night before.

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Here's one of them.

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And here's another. It was so cute - him lifting his leg up and stretching.

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On our way to try to find a dinner place that was open. So many things closed so early downtown.

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We found an Irish pub, but i didn't want to go in w/a 2 y.o. cause it's just not really the place for him.

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but we walked in and some locals had an infant carrier perched atop a pub table! so it was OK.

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My 20 oz, five dollah, beer. She gave me the wrong one, but eh, it was ok.

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He looks like he's gonna GIT ME for taking pics. I love it. (he was fine)

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A building that could very well be the capitol building. What do I know?

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The arch at night.

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I told you to get used to it, you'd be seeing a lot of pics of the arch.

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But not many with an Owen and a daddy in it.

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Or an Owen and a momma! Or is it Mama? I never know. I spell it both ways.

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Owen ran around and explored a bit. As you can see from the jackets, it was a bit chilly. 50 degrees the night before.

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Our hotel for 2 out of 3 nights (we stayed at the airport marriott the first night)

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W/his drink from the pub. We had to check to make sure his pineapple juice didn't have vodka in it. ;)

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We walked to a gelateria 80 miles away, but it was worth it. Here are the stubs, etc that I am throwing out. Pics last.

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Using the macro function on my camera. I wanted to remember where we sat so I could get these seats again if needed.

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(they were section 442, row 8, seats 7 & 8) This is my MetroLink all day pass.

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And this is the pick your own 6 souvenir i got from the brewery. We did a good job and drank most of it.

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Our final morning, Owen clowns around on the bed.

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We put Owen on the sculpture to take a pic.

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I think it turned out a'ight.

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We decided to go up in the arch. This is Owen's DONT TAKE A PIC OF ME pose. it's great.

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We sat in a wee little pod that took us to the top. It only sat five.

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and the party of two took up seats so we couldn't really sit next to each other. Fools.

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Cramped in the pod. (it took 4 mins to go up, 3 mins to go down)

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Whew, we made it!

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View from 630 feet up in the air.

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Yea! A baseball game was on. (btw, the weather was PERFECT the day after we got rain delayed)

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Owen was real interested looking out.

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Downtown from one of the windows.

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I like this shot.

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He's not thrilled to be in my arms, facing away from the window. He wants to look out!

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It was neat, the windows were all slanted so everyone was climbing them to look out.

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Holding on for good measure.

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This is the Illinois side of the mississippi.

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The bridge to the left is the MLK Jr. bridge - about 50 y.o. The other one is the St. Louis bridge, designed by G. Eads

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The riverboats we took the cruise on.

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getting ready to go back into the pod, owen clowns around. We spent all of 7 minutes in there, I think. :)

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We swung by Jimmy Johns to pick up dinner for later. Ahh, I remember when Mel took me there back in the day!

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Owen fell asleep pretty much right before we got on the train - and he wanted to see it. look at those hands!

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We had passes to go into the admiral's lounge. It wasn't exciting. So we left and waited at the gate.

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Finally, we're in the plane and on the way home. Owen plays w/a sock puppet book/toy I got him b4 the trip.

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And here's my little cutie trying to switch seats. Overall, great trip! It was real nice.

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Another month starts off w/Owen cooking. He loves to take a spoonful of chopped garlic and eat it raw. Oy!

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My little hombre.

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Here he is cleaning off the table on his month-day. Geez, how many months old is he here? 28?

03-08-08
This is a picture of the picture on my camera phone. Owen acting all coolio.

03-08-08
He really does like wearing those sunglasses! A complete 180 from a year ago.

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I have a habit now, where last thing I do, before sleeping, is going to check on him.

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He looks so peaceful and serene and I just want to scoop him up and eat him.

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See the family resemblance? I'm always the last one to bed, so ha! NO CANDID PICS OF ME SLEEPING!

2008-03-09
Another shot from my phone. We went to see "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and he wanted to take a photo w/the mouse.

2008-03-09
This one is a little better. And you can see that my battery is dying. These RAZR batteries bite.

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We decided to make French Toast for dinner that night.

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Owen ate his bread before we could even dip it in and cook it.

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"What? Was I not supposed to eat this delicious multi-grain bread that sits in my hands?"

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Went down to Miami to visit w/the 'rents. Here he gets a bite of carrot muffin. Yum. Publix. Yum.

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Here he is riding the big ole elephant.

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He's grown quite a bit from the first time we had him on it.

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He knows how to tame these things.

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Did you notice what his shirt says? Let me tell you - when he wears it - he really IS a chick magnet!

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We went to the Everglades National Park. It was a really, really nice trip.

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Here everyone waits for the tram to arrive so we can go on our 15 mile, 2 hour tour.

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There's my little chick magnet.

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Owen kept tackling his fab!

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And there is the 2nd alligator we've seen in 5 minutes. I'm upset I didn't catch the first on camera - she had babies!

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Look at that wind whipping his face!

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I was afraid the camera was going to fall out of the tram, but I still took the pic. The things we do for art!

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At the end of the day, I was a pro at naming all the birds. Today, I can't remember a thing. Great Blue Heron, maybe?

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Climbing up the tower. You can see Ryan and Owen waving (under the big cloud).

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There was a gator in the bottom of this pic. But it looks so teeny here, so nevermind.

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At the top of the observation deck, we saw lotsa HUGE gators.

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This dude was hanging out in the water.

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There are two gators here.

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And this bird was wading toward them as if nothing. We didn't stick around to see if it was lunch for them or not.

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Owen was so animated, pointing out gators, counting them. One two fee four fibe seben eight nine ten fourteen fifty

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In this pic, there is a gator and an anhinga.

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This gator was hiding in the shade. Alligators are black, not super dark green like I originally thought.

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Ryan made me stand for a picture since I was taking all of them and not in any of the shots. FINE.

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This is our tour guide dude. I can't remember his name, but I bet my dad can. He probably became BFF with him.

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Owen fell asleep and Lissette reminded me that she didn't get a pic with him. So I made her pose with him.

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Look at that rumplestiltskin up in the air!

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Such a sweet cutie while he's sleeping.

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Pras didn't get a pic w/Owen while he was awake either, so we took this for posterity.

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See Owen, you and your uncle spent QUALITY time together!

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Here's Owen & Daddy making their "mean faces" like the tram bus driver did.

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Here they are normally happy again.

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We visited with baby Patrick and Owen didn't wait to get his picture taken.

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So Patrick and I hung out together.

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And Owen, well, he decided to come back and investigate.

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Here he gets tickled by daddy whilst auntie annie watches.

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Saying Hi to Cousin Patrick.

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Saying Hi in general!

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On the drive home, Owen got a hold of my body lotion. As you can see here, he's applying t liberally.

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There it is on his knees as he rubs it in.

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"Uh oh, I think I have too much on my legs, mama." Yes, Owen, I concur.

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St. Patrick's Day! The only place I can get him to sit still for a pic is after i put his shoes on.

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When I was a kid, I used to love to dress in ALL green on St. Paddy's Day. I refrained from doing so w/him.

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When he came home, he took his sheet of Elmo Stickers and made good use of them.

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He's so proud of placing them on his belly.

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Look at those washboard abs! :)

03-18-08
Camera Phone shot - I took Owen to his very 1st dental appt. He did ... AWESOME. {Start proud mom brag:}

03-18-08
We read the "Berenstain Bears Go to the Dentist" prior and he kept making me talk about my visits, so he knew the deal.

03-18-08
He listened well & did what they told him. Other hygenists kept coming in to marvel at this great 2 yr old. {End Brag}

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Here he is trying to sneak into his and Cousin Amelia's easter baskets.

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AHA! I snagged an EGG!

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He loved the jelly beans, let me tell you. We're still going thru them one at a time.

2008-03-22
Later that day, we went to Grandma & Grandpa's to visit w/them and Cousin A. Look at those baby blues!

2008-03-22
Ha! Look at their simultaneous "what" faces.

2008-03-22
Easter Egg Hunt in the house!

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Amelia finds an egg and hands it over.

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Here they are w/Grandpa, assessing some of the loot.

2008-03-22
Doesn't that pink look good on Grandpa?

2008-03-22
Amelia finds a hidden present.

2008-03-22
Owen starts tearing into one of his.

2008-03-22
They hid something in a special place that owen likes to go and hide under.

2008-03-22
He found it!

2008-03-22
Here he is, ripping open his new clothes.

2008-03-22
Here's Amelia doing the same! (but with her book)

2008-03-22
Owen's digging into the loot Aunty Hannah and Uncle Eric gave him. Look at him chomping on the candy b4 we could say no.

2008-03-22
Cousin Amelia in her sporty get up. Owen refused to put his on. Oh well.

2008-03-23
Cousin Amelia right before Church.

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After church (Owen did pretty good sitting thru it) and before our Easter Brunch @ Crane's Roost.

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Here's Cousin Ameeleelah (as Owen says sometimes)

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The Easter Bunny swung by and gave the kids candy! Just what they needed.

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After lunch, the kids ran around and gave hugs.

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Hmmm, I think Amelias trying to escape his clutches here!

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They're deep in conversation. I think discussing politics.

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"Ameleela! They've caught us, quick, time to go to our underground bunker!"

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"If you keep your head down, maybe they won't see us. Ameeleelah!"

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"I'm just going to pretend to not be here."

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Is Uncle Eric out of breath from running down the hall to catch Cousin Amelia?

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Let's see if we can get the kids to sit still for a minute with Grandma and Grandpa.

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Hmmm ... Yeah, not working.

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This is the stuff great pics are made of. I wish i was a whiz @ photoshop-For now, I must protect my niece anyway I can!

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Whew, Amelia's escaped!

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Owen stays because he knows Grandpa's got some jellybeans in his pocket!

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Another respite from all the playing.

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"Cousin Ameeleelah! They told us to do something! COME HERE!"

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"Come on down, comeee on, I will pull you by your feet!"

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"See, we need to hug each other bye bye!"

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Another one of my late night sneak peaks, and Owen's sprawled out all over the bed w/his "amimals."

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Packing for a visit w/Grandma & Grandpa.

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Making the long walk to brush his teeth in the morning.

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Climbing up his step stool. (I need to find a good, tall one. All the ones I've found are half the size)

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Such a little man, growing up so fast. He likes to floss w/his "flossers."

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Lounging w/the Gator. "Touchdown Gators!"

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It's kind of difficult to manuever a Zephyr Hills Water Bottle and his little elephant at the same time.

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So dady helps him partake of his beverage.

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We FINALLY opened the sandbox we got him for his bday 5 months ago. He really liked playing with it.

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And shortly after this pic was taken, we promptly moved it to where we didn't mind sand all over the place.

cover pic. :)
:)

2008-02-03a
Thatha came for a quick visit. As he packed to leave, Owen decided to help out.

2008-02-03b
Here he is demonstrating that little pillows are only meant for little people and are superflous as decoration.

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Hey Owen, Mama LIKES little pillows as decoration.

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Just relaxin' in the big bed.

2008-02-04a
He took my sneakers and put them on himself.

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He walked from the kitchen, into the family room, and toward the hallway ...

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... where he landed flat on his face. Not hurt, tho. I was surprised he made it that far in shoes that big!

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I picked him up and turned him around! He liked it.

2008-02-06a
WE BOUGHT HIM UNDERWEAR cause he said ok. The camera came out & he lifted his shirt & posed (those pics not to b posted)

2008-02-10a
Little Boy in Big Bed. Wow, i just realized i have A LOT of pics of him in the guest room. Dang.

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Here he is, pushing his dump truck around. You can see his other underwear. Such a cute little guy!

2008-02-10c
Grandma & Grandpa Stinkums came over to say hi.

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We made a Cake for Owen (to celebrate Cousin Amelia's bday virtually) - and he wanted Mickey on it, so i improvised.

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We made cupcakes for Grandpa's birthday! Owen helped cook them, of course.

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He also wanted to blow candles, so we put one on his cupcake, too.

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Here they both are, blowing them out.

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Owen wanted more candle blowing (as usual).

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He picked out which cupcakes we all got to eat. (He piced a nice big one for me, yeaaa)

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Grandma & Stinkums bought him a present for Valentine's day.

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It was a firetruck / police car / ambulance book!

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Owen (and Grandpa and Grandma) really liked playing with it.

2008-02-14a
Ignore the silly face on me, please. This camera's flash sucks. I always look like I'm half awake. Red for Vday!

2008-02-14b
He so didn't want a pic taken. But I like those overalls I got him from gymboree.

2008-02-16a
Fab and pottiama and thatha came for a visit. Fab is in uber exercise mode, so she took Owen for a walk to the park.

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Owen was all ready to go and just waiting.

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Finally it's time. It's a good thing Owen went, cause he showed her where the park is!

2008-02-17a
Owen plays with his markers.

2008-02-20a
The moon right before the lunar eclipse that day.

2008-02-20b
Owen said earlier he wanted to see the moon that night, and it totally reminded us there was an eclipse.

2008-02-23a
Playing with the turtle and duck racers we got for our Oh-So-Big spa out back.

2008-02-23b
Owen helps daddy put up the big clock. Well, Ryan put it up, Owen just climbed the ladder afterward.

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He so did not want to get down. He liked seeing things from his daddy's point of view, I guess.

2008-02-24a
Owen awoke from a nap and wanted us to read him books. Note his Beatles shirt.

2008-02-24b
Grump McGrumpskins

2008-02-28a
Hey, childhood is the last era in life where wearing overalls is acceptable. Except for pregnant woman. It's OK then.

2008-02-29a
Thatha and Pottiama bought him a TON of balloons when they came down here.

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Owen just LOVES balloons. One of the sets was a those balloon animal sets and it came with a pump.

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Or a "bump" as owen calls it. It's funny, his V's sound like B's - elebator, shobel, etc.

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Anyway, this is him bumping his balloons as he climbs on top of me.

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Some odd angles.

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Look at that widdle chin.

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And there's some of his pump work. :) Til next month! God Bless, all!

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We were down in Miami for NYE, but left early to do 2 things: 1) Visit quickly w/my dad's bff from school in India ...

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and 2) make it back in time for the UF/Michigan game! I think it was the Capital One Bowl.

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I was huffin and puffin and out of shape by the time we got up to the weee weee high area where we had seats.

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It was a 1p game, but the sun had gone behind the clouds, and a lovely breeze blew.

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This is the view from our seats. In the Michigan section. Ouch, that hurt, esp since they won.

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Family Shot.

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W/Auntie Juli, who totally rocked in securing tix for us to the game.

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I had to go to MD for work, so 1) I forgot to take pics on the 7th, one of his monthdays, and 2)Ryan took photos to send

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to me while I was working. He didn't send me these, but these are the precursor to the ones he did send me.

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Owen likes to build forts with the couch pillows between the coffee table and couch.

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And now this is the set he sent me ... you can tell Owen is smiling a LOT MORE ... because ...

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... he is not encumbered by the restrictions society has placed upon us to wear clothing!

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He is free, free!

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Coy little monkey.

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And I guess you can see he's wearing a diaper ... :) But that's going to change over the next few weeks.

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This is only about 3/4 of the stuffed animals he DEMANDS to sleep with every night. He feels sad when one is in the wash

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Just chillin, drinkin' some milk

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So one of our cameras broke - the one that I use the most. So I'll ask Owen to stand and pose for a shot (wanted to ...

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... take a pic in the shirt aunty hannah got him) and he will, but the 2nd camera will not take the shot fast enough.

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Anyway, after work, Owen helps me cook.

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He LOVES pulling the chair up to the counter and helping me prepare dinner and stir things and even cook.

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Here Owen and daddy are, sampling the fine fare Owen has provided us with.

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Mr. Grumpalots did NOT want me to take pics of him this morning. OH WELL.

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Tough Luck Buddy. I think I bribed him - "I'll give you a Nemo Gummy if you stand still for JUST ONE shot."

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Fab bought him a motorized toy car for xmas, but it broke, so we exchanged it for this trike.

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Our little runt's feet don't quite reach the pedals yet, but that didn't stop him from riding it.

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I think he wanted to go outside.

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This bike is more his size.

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He was telling me about the "Lightming" outside and that it was blue, and that "it went away."

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Had to take a pic of him in his Calvin Klein track suit - a gift from LAST xmas, and it finally fits him now.

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He's hood-like here.

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He loves going into the guest room and just lounging on either the bed or the chair.

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He's like, please turn on the TV, I want to relax. Ahh, he knows what he likes. I love it.

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Owen went with Grandma and Grandpa to the park and to feed the duckies!

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All of a sudden, one day, he decides he needs his own football helmet, so he put his bball cap on backwards.

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He caught the throw!

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He sure did like his football hat. Go Gators.

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TOUCHDOWN GATORS! He still falls to the floor whenever he makes a touchdown.

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He sure does have a pretty good arm for a 2 year old.

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Owen helps daddy put up the stakes for our icicle lights (Soooo much easier to put them on the ground than up, ha!)

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And here he is helping out with the lights.

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Checking to make sure they work is a big, tangled-up job.

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We did everything in stages. Here he is putting some snowmen in the ground.

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Funny when you have kids, you say "OK" to decorating with things you normally wouldn't do.

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For example, this huge penguin. A light up penguin? Anyway, he wanted to place it RIGHT there, so RIGHT there it went.

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Examining his work after a long day.

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Trying to fit him in this outfit one last time.

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We had a nice cold snap for about 3 hours, so had to take advantage of it.

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Our tree.

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I forgot to take a shot on 12/7 (his monthday), so snuck in while he was sleeping and took one. it's technically 12/7!

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Playing with his train tracks with daddy! I wonder who it is more fun for.

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He sure does love them.

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Look at him trying to pilfer the chocolate.

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Gwen looks like she's got herself some chocolate, too!

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Owen sits and eats his meatballs at the table.

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Hmmm, looks like Kitsune wants some of the food, too!

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Right before this, they were both crawling or something. Of course, as soon as the camera comes out, they know.

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It's shots like these that ALMOST make me want to go out & get a dog. ALMOST.

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Yes, my boy wanted to eat with chopsticks.

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Here he is, pretending to be shy.

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But he can't escape for long! They've got him!

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Now that he has a football hat, he had to have a baseball hat. (Different from his football hat, of course)

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Yep, he sure does look cute in that baseball hat.

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Awww, look at our sleeping little angel.

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Ryan and Owen wanted to make SUGAR COOKIES!

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He sure does love to cook. He says "I cook eggs, sgetti, mushrooms, meatballs, garlic"

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In the morning, after Ryan got him ready, he climbed into bed w/me and pretended to sleep to keep from going to school.

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It was a nice day, and I was cleaning out his highchair outside, getting rid of crumbs, so he wanted to have lunch there

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The b's came over for a holiday dinner at our house. Ryan made some good chicken! Look @ the kids.

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A nice little table for them, easy cleanup, and it's all good.

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A cute outfit from Aunty P. I fixed the straps later, but what's the deal with the eyes closed?

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Cute cousin Amelia in her holiday outfit suffers from the same affliction! EYES CLOSED!

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Awww, cousin hugs (on demand, of course)

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He did manage to stand by the tree after I asked him to. Pity I couldn't take a better picture.

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A rare shot of the three of us.

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At church, he did v. well. Until he said loudly (during prayer) "Ma, what's that hooker doing?" 2x! hooker=plant hooks?

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Christmas morning, Owen and daddy read about the Poky Little Puppy!

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Here he is, beginning to assess the damage he'll do.

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He's selected the first present!

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CURIOUS GEORGE! I LOVE CURIOUS GEORGE!

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Oooo, what can this be?

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"Awww, ma! A football! Just what I always wanted!"

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Now this one was funny ...

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He opened it and saw that it was Play-Doh AND Potato Head.

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He immediately wanted to open it. I said the classic "Go ask your daddy."

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So he ran over to dad with it.

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He made it to his destination, but hmm, that thing still isn't opened. How to distract him?

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Let him open something else!!!!

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Later on, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's and let him take a nap to rest up before MORE present opening!

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Here he is, opening probably his favorite present of 2007.

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From Cousin Amelia and Aunty and Uncle! It's a stuffed donald duck! His favorite.

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He carries that thing everywhere.

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The fun chaos of everyone opening presents.

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Ryan smiles for the camera.

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Owen crawls under the ottoman and peeps out

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Last year, can you guess what we got from The Savannah Bs? Yep, and they got their own set this year.

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The grandkids got matching Rocking Horses from the grandparents. Methinks they like it.

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Ryan showing his angry face for the camera.

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I'm so glad that Eric caught this pose that I missed. And now it's on the Internet. Ahhhhh.

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Awww, look at 'em.

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Owen thinks he's part of the rodeo. Here is he going forrrward.

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And here he is, bucking baaaaack.

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the kids play with Amelia's little people zoo.

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Ahhh, young ... scratch that. Ahhh, OLD love. (we're almost ancient)

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yeah! another pic of the 3 of us.

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Owen doth love his donald, but not necessarily me taking pics of him with it.

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Daddy made him a SNOWMAN in the tub! bubble snowman.

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So I asked him to please smile and pose with his donald so I could send a pic to his aunty and uncle.

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He didn't quite get the concept of smiling for the camera. He'd smile as soon as the camera flashed. Too late.

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But I think he finally got the hang of it!

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Yup, he sure did. What a ham.

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One night, after his bath, Ryan came in, about, oh 25 months along.

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If only giving birth were this easy.

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Heading down to Miami for New Year's.

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We did Christmas with Lissette and Cristina in the back of our cars in a parking lot after dinner!

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This is our gang sign. We're soooo down wid it.

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We tried sitting him atop the car to open presents. But honestly ...

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The best place was *IN* the car! We were very careful, ok, there was no closing of any car trunks involved.

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Down in Miami, we do presents with the fam. Uncle Pressy got marshmallow hats!

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Mmmmm Owen sure did like that.

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Uncle Pressy let Owen help him open gifts. Uncle would say "faster!" and Owen would get all into it and hurry up.

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Eating strawberries with Pottiama & Thatha. Yes, he is wearing a diaper and is not buck nekkid! :)

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Sitting on the cool 4 wheeler Fab got him. But we had to return it that same day cause it was broken. :(

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Hanging with thatha on top of the pool table. He had fun putting the balls in the pockets.

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Oh, these drums. He'd take this Mickey snowglobe and press it to make the song, then he'd bang on the drums.

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He had a system going on, and no one else could turn on the song. He beat the crap outta those drums.

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Hugging Aunty Lissette.

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And going in for the kiss! HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!

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Holy Moly. I have 126 pics to write caps on. Better get crackin. We made our way to Gville to attend the UF-Vandy game.

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By total coincidence, Eric & Co. were heading up for the game, too

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We were sitting up pretty high. And it was pretty dang hot. Dang FL SUN!

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And of course, we leave the sunscreen in the car. It's in the diaper bag now, whereever we go!

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We left the game a little early to go grab some lunch at Burr Bros. (mmm) and sat by Library West

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Owen LOVED the newspaper stands. Some guy riding by on his bike stopped and pulled out a paper for Owen to keep.

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He was thrilled. BTW, Burr Bros is still good, but the line was outrageous (game day) and they jacked up the prices!

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Owen looks to the heavens to see if we will be making another trip to Gainesville. Eventually.

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Passing by the clock tower Ryan helped design. We parked @ the publix on univ & 34th. That was a LONG walk w/no stroller

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We swung by Hannah's parents' place to visit with Cousin Amelia and the rest of the gang

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Owen sure does like hanging out with his cousin

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Here he is, giving hugs on demand (our demand: "Owen! Go give Cousin Amelia a hug!"). It was cuuuute.

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They both were playing with Ryan, running in and out of the kitchen.

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More hugs on demand. Ha! It looks like Owen caught her by surprise.

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Owen running out to get daddy!

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Amelia running out to get Uncle Ryan!

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Co-sitting in a toy box is a must for little kids.

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Back home that night, Owen dons another tattoo, thereby solidifying his status as the Next Generation's "It" Boy.

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On his actual birthday, I tried to get him to pose for the camera before school. He was not thrilled.

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See?

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I think I had to bribe him to get him to smile. Oh yes, I did.

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I had to bring out his birthday-day cake. A little puppy cupcake cake.

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Of course, he was sad again when I told him we had to put it back and would have it later that night.

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After school, we picked him up and took him to get his 2yr shots done. Notice the shiner by his left eye he got @ school

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While the pics came out great, we vowed not to go on his birthday night again - the line was ridiculous

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AND we even had an appointment. We had to wait i think nearly 3 hours for the whole process.

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Poor puppy was hungry. So daddy took him to Chick Fil A while I decided which pics to purchase.

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Yep, I think I made the right choices! I esp love the pic right before this one.

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Later on, back at home, he gets his doggy cake! It was so cute.

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He'll trot around the house in a circle, singing jingle bells, using crayola markers as drumsticks

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Eating one of his halloween-alloted candies. He love love loved the Candy Corns. What did he call them? Dang.

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I forgot. Maybe 'corn candy'? Oh, i think it was "cane corn." and candy canes were "Cane Canes!"

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I think he pronounced the D's in candy, it was just really, really fast.

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He's got such an expressive little face. I had to post all these pics.

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Here he is, getting ready to jingle bell all over the house. "Dashing thru the snow ..."

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Fab arrived in town for his bday partay! He was so happy to see the miami crew!

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Before we had his bday party, we went to Lance & Alana's bday party across the street. They had a bounce house ...

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With a slide ... that was SO HARD for me to climb up! Plus, I had to carry HIM up there. It was steep.

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But I think he enjoyed sliding down!

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Our other neighbor dressed up & owen was enthralled! even tho he doesn't watch the show, he knows who spongebob is!

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Ryan seeing how "easy" it is to climb a 75 degree incline with a 25 lb kid!

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Owen did a lot at that party! Ate, played baseball, went bouncehousin'

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and up the kangaroo climber too!

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Back home, Owen slips into something more comfortable, or rather out of something less comfortable. His pants.

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And then his shirt.

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But it's OK, cause we were working with paint later on in the day.

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He was leaving his mark on his goody bags.

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Just hanging out with thatha.

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This pic wasn't taken by me, but it's so cute I had to include it! Amelia @ her grandparents, before Owen's bday party

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Owen has these beautiful Indian outfits called "kurthas" and he looks especially handsome in them

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It's not that he wasn't happy to be posing with the mens ... he just wasn't happy!

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But Cousin Amelia cheered him right up at his bday party.

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They found each other right away, held hands, and made a beeline to the dog park.

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Oh, couldn't you just die of the cuteness!

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It sure was funny to see Owen rolling around in the dirt in such an outfit!

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So it was time for an outfit change (how very Cher of him) and time to play on the playgrounds!

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He had so many friends who wanted to give him a hand.

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But he definitely exerted his independance by wanting to climb up the steps by himself.

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See, a dual slide has more than just your regular purpose of two ppl sliding ...

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... it's for two cousins to slide down! I think they even held hands at some point, too.

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This is a pic from Char's camera. I'm so glad she got this shot, cause seriously, doesn't he look like a male model?!

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Oh yes, now it's his serious Giorgio Armani pose.

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Don't ask - but I ended up buying two cakes for his bday. Here they are, plus the goody bags.

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With his fab, preparing to blow out the cake.

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It's Jan. 28 as I write this, and Owen remembers his party. The other day he said "i have 2 cakes - sun and baseball"

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Lighting the BIG INDIAN LOTUS FLOWER CANDLE.

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It's pink, but it's actually pretty awesome. And dangerous, I'm sure. But SUPER COOL.

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Owen blowing out two regular candles. He just loves to blow out candles.

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Sidewalk chalkin' it. Tell me, how do kids sit like that? There's no way in HECK that i'm able to squat like that.

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Gwen is chillin, chillin.

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Owen found his favorite place to sit. That's it, it's done.

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See, look - mama will call him, but he's happy and content! No mama, I don't know you!

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In descending height order ...

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Owen and his arsenal of presents. He is a boy who is truly loved by many! We are all so blessed to have him.

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Awww the littlest Janke! Owen gets love from Uncle Rick and Aunty Char as the party winds to a close.

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The next day, I took off and Lissette, Owen and I went to Sea World. He loved the horses at SEA world.

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*sigh* "If there aren't horses everywhere, I don't know what to do."

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Owen liked the Penguin exhibit, even tho I thought they were a little stinky.

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Owen likes taking leaves and dropping them into water fountains. We have to stop him after one or two.

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At the Shamu Believe Show. Oh wait, no, it was the dancing bird show. Whatever that's called.

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Back home, he writhes in bricks and bowling pins! That can't be comfortable.

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Ryan plays wii and Owen wants to play (he's actually pretty good @ baseball). Look at Lissette in the background, hmph!

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Owen and daddy playing w/one of his bday presents!

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Had to take a pic of Owen's first apple. Well, the first one he's ever bitten into and eaten w/out me cutting it.

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And there's the bite ...

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And it's successful! He actually ate about 2/3 of this apple all by himself. That's what teeth are for!

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Happy birthday Fab and Aunty Bruns!

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We went down to Miami and had Thanksgiving dinner with the fam. It worked out nicely.

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Owen loves these little chairs thatha got him. One of the chairs is no longer, tho. RIP yellow chair.

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That next day, we all packed up and went on a 3 night cruise. After refusing to take a nap all day, Owen zonks out.

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The next day, the kids all headed to CocoCay, Royal Carib's private island.

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I felt left outta the shot, so self portrait.

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Ryan and Owen being equally as cute.

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Owen sure did like the "big sandbox."

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And he was fine with the water ... when I held him.

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When daddy took him farther, he didn't want to go. He just wanted to play in the sand.

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So off went his swim trunks, out came the speedo (swim dipe) and he was v. v. european!

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Owen wanted to leave the island cause his belly hurt. This may be TMI for non-parents, so skip the next 2 captions.

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He kept saying he had poop, and yet had a clean diaper. we told him to just go potty in there, cause the boat was far.

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He refused, so when we FINALLY got back, we put him on the pot. And voila, he went. He's been pretty good since.

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Night of the formal dinner. I forgot his Kurtha pants at home, so he was a modern Indo in Jeans.

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Oh, that must have been a funny joke, eh?

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My dear mother and father, owen's dear pottiama and thatha!

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With one of the towel creations at night.

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At port in Nassau the next day. I love how you can find a Starbucks ANYWHERE.

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We paid fiddy dollah for a horse carriage ride that was supposed to last 1/2 hour.

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Time must fly in the Bahamas, cause their 1/2 hour is more like 13 minutes. Someone should tell them.

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But the dude did show us the Doctor's Hospital where Anna Nicole Smith had her baby :)(and lost her son) :(

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And this is the Tom Collins house. Yes, *that* Tom Collins (oh, not the one from the Jeffersons, tho!)

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At the end, this other guy came by to take our pic and eked a $6 tip outta us.

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I mean, they do speak English there! My sis and I were both just so flustered! It's hilarious now.

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Walking back to the boat. I guess he didn't like my slow pace because ...

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... He prefers to RUN

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Wow, he's actually standing still. Had to take a shot of that.

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Owen and Ryan try to figure out which room is ours. Dont' know why they're looking so high.

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Back on the boat, we have a little r&r time w/the fam, while Uncle Pras watches O.

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Sadly, being half naked is no longer one of Owen's favorite pasttime activities. Awww, my baby's growing up!

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The last night, the boat had this "amazing" show that everyone had to see. Owen had the best seat on potti's lap.

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Yeah, this "amazing" show - it sucked. It was HORRIBLE! If anyone wants video of the torture we went thru, lemme know.

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Owen laments being back on land. He really loved the "big ship" and the "I-and" (Island)

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So we whipped our new tree out of the box and dang if it wasn't "umbrella" style! we had to put each branch on separate

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But it's ok, it turned out OK. We were looking for a slim-line tree for our lack of space in the house.

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Owen went over to Grandma and Grandpa's and showed them how to operate the lights.

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And, of course, sang some Christmas Carols to herald in the Holiday Season! Happy days, all!

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I snuck in to check on him after coming home really late from work, and he was hugging his elephant pillow

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So I ran to get the camera and take a picture.

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Mel gifted us with tix to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party, but we got there and it was lightning and pouring rain

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We managed to exchange our tix for another day, so we went to the Animal Kingdom lodge to hang out.

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Owen's costume was a Thai Prince. He loved running down the halls, throwing his balls.

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He's got a pretty good arm.

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Taking a picture by the Mickey Topiary.

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Hanging out on the rocking chairs meant for guests of the hotel, I'm sure. :)

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Owen seems to love all things Disney, esp DD. You say, "Owen, do you like Mickey Mouse?" and he screams "DONALD DUCK!"

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Owen's 23-month-day. Yeah! Sitting in the Toyota Avalon the dealership lent us as they worked on some warranty stuff.

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He can't feel the corinthian leather in his car seat, but let me tell you, Owen, it's a sweet ride.

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And I've titled this one 'Grump in a Car Seat Going on a Trip to Nowhere Fast'

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Hi Ho Silver!

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Oh my God, that football, oy vey, that football. He wanted to take it to bed.

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And sleep with it - which he did for nearly a week straight.

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Here I am, reading him his bedtime stories ...

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... And here he is cuddling that dang football. It's cute, but how in the world can that be comfortable?

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The next night, we decided to tattoo our hands before bed. He didn't much like it when I pressed down ...

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... but when he got to apply the tattoo on his-self, he loved it.

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See what a kick he's getting out of the process?

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And our final results. I like mine because it looks like I have street cred. Holla.

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So Owen decided he wanted to floss his teeth, too. He grabbed some floss and had at it.

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Look ma, I'm doing a great job!

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We got two adult tix in addition to the ones Mel gifted us, and invited Ryan's folks to our rescheduled Disney night.

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Here's grandpa holding Owen on the tram ride to the ferry/monorail exit.

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We took the ferry to the Magic Kingdom - Ryan stuck the camera out a window to take a pic of them looking out another.

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It was a humid night, but we still had loads of fun. Here Owen sits on Grandpa's shoulders during the parade.

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DONALD DUCK!!!!

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Here Owen waits in line for "it's a small world." Small world indeed - the lines were no more than 10 minutes long!!!

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Here he is sitting with Grandpa and Grandma on the ride.

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Here he is watching fireworks, in one of the rare times he got to be held by daddy!

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You can't see Owen's face, but imagine a mirror image of his daddy's facial expression.

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Three Generations of B's open their mouths in astonishment at the fireworks.

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Mouths are still agape ... somewhat. But dang, check out the fire.

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Owen is waving hi at who knows what!! Def not my camera.

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He wanted to ride this ride again, so we went again sans grandma and grandpa.

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Closing the night out, Grandma holds Owen on the ferry back to the tram area to the parking lot. It was a long, fun nite

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Just thought I'd show you a pic of how cute is Owen is when he naps in the car after running errands all day.

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Look at that little man, sleeping w/his hands behind his head.

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Later that night, we met the GerBel gang at Disney's Shades of Green for their Oktoberfest Celebration.

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Shades of Green is primarily the resort for military personnel, so Owen got to pose with this huge figure.

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I don't do the chicken dance, but apparently Owen does. He LOVED me holding him and dancing. He's trying to disrobe me.

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More dancing, dancing, dancing

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So we put Owen in his official Halloween costume to test it out. We kept praying it would get cool enough outside to use

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He LOVED it! He had no problem being scooby doo and putting on the dog head. Usually he hates hats, but ...

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I wasn't going to push my luck by telling him that *technically* it was a hat ...

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He ran all around the house playing in it.

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Look how cute the tail is!

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Here he is boom batting. I think he didn't mind the hat thing cause it was a dog head and he does lurve them doggies.

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Here he is, making part of Patrick's present! And congrats to A&M - Patrick William was born on 10/19, 6lbs, 120z

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We can't say what the present is, but it's dangerous enough to have to wear gloves!!!

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3/5ths of the Scooby Gang ... can you tell who we are???

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That's right, Velma (not Daphne), Shaggy, and Scoobs!

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Ryan stayed behind to give candy, so I went with some neighbors to trick or treat w/Owen. When we left our house ...

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... he didn't want to be put down. But as soon as we rounded the corner, he got away from me and ran to the houses.

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Scooby on a Mission

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He figured out how to open his bag and say "thank you" after every person gave him candy. ("More gummies, mama!")

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He was enthralled by the decorations in front of this house.

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Aerial shot of the kids trick or treatin' it.

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He ran up to the doors and gave 2 or 3 loud raps. He was a v. good knocker (now he wants to knock on doors all the time)

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Here Scooby is showing off his loot to his daddy, i mean, to Shaggy.

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Again, he wouldn't let me take off the outfit until we were inside the house and assessing his loot.

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He was very pleased with his take! Happy Halloween, y'all!