Devil's Haircut

While many of Owen's friends are beauty shop regulars, Owen had yet to have his head coiffed. Allen claimed that he didn't need a cut until his hair was in his eyes, which due to his generous forehead was still several months away. I just thought since we had waited this long we might as well try for the record books. And so we might have, all the while ignoring comments from various friends and relatives concerning the length of his locks, had not Owen himself informed us that he wanted a haircut. Multiple times. Even threatening to do the deed himself.

So after failing to get an appointment at a children's hair boutique, we took Owen to Great Clips this morning where, after chastising us for waiting so long, Erin transformed our little guy from a toddler to a real boy in about 10 minutes.

And that's a pretty nice haircut...

Our children are not the most hirsute of people. Owen didn't receive his first haircut until he was well over 2 years old and with Nora, well, we've managed to hold off even longer.

At first it was because Nora didn't have a lot of hair. And then, since Nora's hair is so curly, it didn't seem like a lot. Eventually, we just became too attached to Nora's curls and feared introducing a barber to them would lead to their demise.

So we banned all scissors from her presence.

Time passed. Years passed and as her hair grew longer and longer, it became less and less manageable. Nora begged for her locks to be shorn. I argued that the time had come. But Allen remained steadfast... until I got Mom Mom on our side. And agreed to no bangs.

Allen conceded and I made an appointment for Nora at the children's salon upstairs from mine with Mom Mom joining us for moral support (and advice). She dutifully climbed into a car and watched Curious George while the stylist trimmed a little over an inch from her hair, collecting the fallen curls for me in a ziplock bag (which I promptly lost at Eastern Market).

Afterwards, we had a lovely snack at Le Pain Quotidien and did a little shopping before heading home to show Daddy Nora's new look. He totally approved.

We have a Pixie!

At the start of the school year, we took the kids to get haircuts. Just as we arrived at the salon, Nora announced she wanted short hair. Now, I am not opposed to short hair in theory (honestly, given the number of times Nora had lice in third grade, it's probably something we should have explored years ago). However, I strongly feel that it is not something to be done on a whim, having shorn my own locks in fifth grade per my father's suggestion only to be told by him afterward, "Hmm, maybe not."

So I informed Nora, that no, she couldn't get her hair cut short that day. But if she took some time to review styles, chose one, and documented it so she could describe and discuss it in an informed way with a stylist, then the next time she got a haircut she could get it cut short. (And then I added that I wanted to wait until after we'd had our Christmas photos taken because I am nothing if not risk averse.)

Today was the day. Having looked at bobs, shags, mohawks and all other manner of short options, Nora settled on a pixie cut modeled by actress Ginnifer Goodwin (see version 5). We went to Bravado, where luckily, Kay (my stylist) was available for the honors. 20 minutes later, our little pixie emerged with a huge grin on her face.

And no one has second guessed it.

(To see the before, during and after pictures, click here.)

2011 - The Year in Facebook

10 hours into 2011 nora masters the word, "no." ~ had a system breakdown whereby the "sell by jan 11" milk was consumed before the "sell by jan 4" milk was opened. god help us all... ~ went a little spanish inquisition on her kids during prayers tonight. ~ For the record, the mike & ikes just made my mouth sore; it was the carrot that gauged my gums. There's a moral there, kids. ~ my boss has suggested that my experimental approach to nora's recent serial hive outbreak might be not be the best plan of action. apparently, i'm in fact not that kind of doctor. ~ just received her very first phone call from school regarding her child's behavior -- apparently owen has turned to the dark side. ~ owen had his first ever happy meal this evening at the behest of andrew "artisan, free-range" stivers. it's always the foodies, isn't it... ~ my son keeps letting tinkerbell die. ~ i dearly love my children, but i miss staying out 'till 2. ~ i'm more of a tony the tiger kind of mom. ~ early dismissals are much more complicated once you have kids. ~ Owen woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Afterwards, he couldn't reach the sink to dry his hands, so he decided to wait until someone came to help. Allen found him asleep on the bathroom floor at 3:15 am. We might have over-stressed the hygiene thing. ~ Day 3 of owen literally having cabin fever. ~ 4 adults holding him down at the snowmass clinic couldn't get Tylenol on owen. We're now going the suppository route. ~ seriously, it's february. how am i already closed out of camps? ~ If your children are watching johnny cash clips, does that make it ok that they're watching him on Lawrence welk? ~ i wasn't particularly impressed by owen's new haircut. his response? "it was the best they could do." ~ nora watched the glee cover of justin beiber's, "baby" and then promptly puked on me. ~ fyi, according to owen, the sauropod of the day is saltosaurus. ~ wow, 18 months of nora. that went fast. ~ such a conundrum: it was owen's allosaurus's idea to be bad, but as its brain is only the size of a walnut, can it be blamed for poor choices? ~ my son just prayed to the father, son and holy spit. ~ is babysitting an allosaurus, a brachiosaurus and a triceratops today. ~ owen overheard glee last night and announced that he's a fan of "afternoon delight." so many things wrong w/ that sentence... ~ march 12, 2011: the day we finally introduced owen to star wars. ~ apparently we have a self-cleaning oven. information i could have used two hours ago. ~ dear oil of olay: making me break out is not the same as giving me younger looking skin. ~ we received an ad for capitol hill cemetery plots today -- "term limit: eternity." ~ nora has started referring to owen as "oh-no" and to herself as "no-no." ~ apparently it's "squirrel week" here in dc... maybe they should just shut us down. ~ so it's official: despite all my parent's reassurances to the contrary, i am in fact not "essential". ~ so we forgot a key piece to one of our kites and a blanket to sit on, and there wasn't any actual wind, but otherwise the kite festival was perfect. ~ My daughter is wearing a beer cozy as a bracelet this morning. awesome. ~ we sold the double stroller. i guess we're officially done. :( ~ i get that, having attended charlie sheen's "violent torpedo of truth" show last night, you have some issues you need to talk through w/ someone. i just don't think i'm the ideal candidate. ~ tip of the hat to single parents -- if i had to do this everyday i would be cowering in a corner sniffing glue. ~ based on today's behavior, nora is on team edward. ~ The deputy assistant secretary of defense got me a refill after I spilled wine all over myself. Clearly the country is secure and in capable hands. ~ We explained the designated hitter rule to owen at dinner. He cried. Stupid American league. ~ owen woke up at 6:15 this morning. stupid sun. ~ Owen is sleeping under his bed tonight, and apparently we're ok with this. ~ should it be at all concerning when your son's pre-K teacher spells "thanks," "thanx?" ~ My children celebrated their grandmother's retirement by running around barefoot ( as sanctioned by their father) thru the hallowed marbled halls of the national archives. Meanwhile, I turned to champagne to ease my mortification. ~ was woken by her son at 6:15 am to play catch and was too tired to not oblige him. ~ off to owen's first t-ball game. i apparently volunteered allen to coach. should make for an interesting blog post... ~ Turns out there's a reason I'm not usually in charge of getting owen's hair cut... ~ nora has decided it's "fun w/ feminine hygiene products" day. ~ how binding is the expiration date on a jello pudding cup? ~ it's seersucker thursday here in washington, dc -- which means we're cool only in the literal sense. ~ labor unrest at the department of labor: how meta. ~ email subject line from the moms on the hill listserve: "FREE random nipples." ~ saw two squirrels copulating across from the capitol on my walk in this morning. i'm pretty sure there's a metaphor there. ~ Raiding the parking meter stash to buy 2 hotdogs and an order of fries: $7.15 in change. Avoiding 2 meltdowns on the 15 minute drive back to Iowa City: priceless. ~ allen is camping with a very insistent owen in the tipi at the pond tonight despite the 100 degree heat index while nora and i are back at grandma & grandpa z's. sometimes, gender roles are our friends. ~ Owen just asked for a shoeshine kit, for his flip-flops. ~ katherine fawcett is a big old cheater and I am a bitter, drunk Chinese checker player. ~ I have decided to start fining the kids if they get up too early on the weekends. Surely market forces will be welfare improving. ~ Nora has joined "naked force" making me the sole, "force of the cloth" member of the Fawcett household. ~ nora's two today although she's telling people she's three and indicating via fingers that she's five. apparently she's laying the groundwork early for underage drinking. ~ My daughter is wearing a neck gator as a skirt. ~ nora's daycare teachers were really impressed when she counted to five in spanish. apparently her excessive dora watching is paying off. ~ owen shouted "what the heck?" and "dang it" twice this evening. i'm trying to figure out an appropriate response since these clearly aren't expletives, but seem like gateway words which will lead him down the slippery slope to profanity, hooliganism and ultimately, ruin. ~ owen and nora collectively lost $2,000 in their college accounts last month. for those at the justice department, that's roughly 125 muffins. ~ note to self: when trying to determine whether the kids have religious ed homework or not, their father is not a trustworthy source. ~ Owen just informed me that I turned out to be a better mom than he thought I would. I'm not sure when he made his initial assessment, but it's nice to be revised upward. ~ i would like to take this opportunity to thank the fertility gods for not blessing me with triplet boys. ~ fortunately, Brandon Gentry and Jeff Young left before the justin beiber singing portion of the evening routine began. ~ An hour and fifteen minutes into the PTA meeting with no end in sight. ~ nora got bit again. why must my children be so delicious? ~ i rode the elevator with a thirty-something man in a denim jacket with a large "Hogwarts" insignia on its back. apparently he, like so many before him, has confused DOL with the magic kingdom. ~ according to owen's homework his favorite word is "trust" -- because it helps [his] family know that [he] made a lowercase "r." ~ nora woke up at 3 am crying and shouting, "hand, hand." contrary to our initial concern, she was not hurt; she just wanted her handbag. ~ so my father-in-law just dropped off 10 lbs of candy for the "treats for troops" donation at daycare that ended on thursday. oh, and one of the 5 lb bags is open. this isn't going to end well... ~ i was singing beyonce's, "(girls) who run the world" to nora who responded, "boys." i am now going to cry. ~ nora is on a nap strike. i'm unclear as to what her demands are, but they probably involve better sleeping conditions and dora. ~ ethical dilemma: a large box just arrived at the house. the kind of box kids dream of. the kind of box that last time took 2+ months to get rid of. we are about to have an extended visitor and so are severely space challenged. no one else is home. do i remove all evidence of said box's existence or present it to owen and nora when they get home tonight? ~ owen's first words upon getting home tonight, "a big box! just what i wanted!" ~ nora woke up at 2:40 am crying and asking for a bagel and cream cheese. she didn't get it. ~ currently leading in the fawcett/zimmmerman "who ruined christmas" race: snapfish. ~ thanks to shutterfly, i finally have my christmas cards. you're dead to me, snapfish. ~ Allen broke a lightbulb resulting in our kitchen becoming a biohazard zone. ~ you know what would be awesome? if my 2 year old could refrain from pointing and shouting, "he's little!" every time we run into the little person working on my floor. ~ Back in the homeland with 'ner a meth head or hunter in sight. ~ uncle dave's xmas present to nora? the catch-phrase, "boo-yah." ~ the school house rock financial vignettes were not their finest work. ~ home.

Pandemic, Week 60 ("I'm just a boy with a new haircut")

This week Facebook decided that Donald Trump would remain temporarily banned from the platform. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is backing a challenge to the Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney after she published an op-ed in the Washington Post criticizing Trump's election fraud claims and his culpability in the January 6th insurrection. The May jobs report found that employment increased substantially less than expected in April, prompting GOP governors to slash unemployment payments to force more Americans to return to work. A sixth grade girl shot two students and a staff member at an Idaho middle school. A 23-ton rocket crashed into ocean by the Maldives, fueling criticism of the Chinese government and its failure to plan for re-entry of space debris. Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live.

The world hit 158.4 million COVID cases and 3.3 million deaths this week, of which the US accounted for 33.5 million cases and 596,000 deaths. As cases rise in India and other countries, President Biden announced his support for suspending patents on the vaccines. Here in the US, 46 percent of the population has received at least one dose and 34 percent are fully vaccinated. The FDA is expected to authorize the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12-15 imminently (we've already signed Owen up for a wait list).

Since Allen and I are now 2 weeks out from our second shots, I convinced him that all I really wanted for my birthday was for us to both get a professional haircuts (Allen's first in 15 months). I also asked that he trim his beard – which while not quite at the millennial ironic stage, had long passed the "I am proud to be seen in public with you" phase. It looked so good, that I decide Owen was also overdue and got him cleaned up over the weekend. (I'm hoping to pencil Nora in soon.) Other than that, the kids went to school (sometimes), we worked from home (always), we dined at a real restaurant (outside), and on Saturday we headed up to Katherine's for some chill time (and a walk past "Fawcett's Mill") before the onslaught of Mother's Day and birthday celebrations.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 74 (August and Everything After)

This week, Taliban forces gained control of most of the major cities in Afghanistan in the south and two-thirds of the country overall as American forces prepare to remove all troops from the conflict. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a study that finds human activity affects climate change, the Earth's temperature has risen over 1 degree Celsius since 1900, the past 5 years have been the hottest on record since 1850, but that the rise in temperature and sea levels can be limited by reducing carbon emissions. Haiti experienced a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, killing at least 700 people. The Senate passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan and a $3.5 trillion resolution regarding education and health care, which will now face scrutiny by the House. 46 Republican senators signed a letter pledging to not increase the debt limit, which expired on July 31st.  Andrew Cuomo announced he would step down as Governor of New York after multiple claims of sexual harassment and will be replaced by Kathy Hochul, the first woman to hold the office. Jeopardy announced it's new host, Mike Richards, a producer of the show.

The world reached 207.8 million COVID cases and 4.4 million deaths this week. The US accounted for 37.4 million of the cases and 637,000 deaths. 198 million (60 percent) of the US population has received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine with 168 million (51 percent) fully vaccinated. The CDC gave final approval for booster vaccine shots for immunocompromised Americans. DC joined California and other localities to require teachers to be vaccinated or else be subject to regular COVID tests this school year.

We re-acclimated to life post a month of trips. Nora went to the pool with friends, got a haircut and had a less than great Panther Pride morning at Stuart-Hobson. Owen started back with in-person cello lesson and had his friend Adam over for some lego and video games time.  Allen and I worked. We had planned to head up to Katherine's on Friday in order to go tubing on Saturday in West Virginia for Lee's birthday, but the weather meant that the outing was delayed, though the meet-up continued. Allen's cousin Joe was in town for Naval Reserve training so he met for dinner on Friday. On Saturday, Katherine decided that we all needed activities before we converged for "pool party" and dinner. Allen and Owen opted for miniature golf and batting cages while Nora and I joined Katherine and Makayla (after borrowing hiking clothes from Katherine – who knew Nora and Katherine wore the same size?) for a "fun" little hike in the woods. While it started out lovely, we diverged from the trail into uncharted territory. There was uneven terrain, and long grasses with prickly things and a whole lot of mud. We ended up having to forge across a river twice (once without shoes), just to eventually be able to double back. The children were not pleased.

But after returning to Katherine's and cooling off in the pool (along with some cocktails for the adults and cheese and crackers for this kids), we mostly forgot about the afternoon, and instead enjoyed the evening and the local fauna.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 62 (Brood X)

This week a cease fire was reached in Gaza after 11 days of violence resulting in the deaths of 248 Palestinians and 12 Israelis. The House, including 35 Republicans, voted to create a commission on the January 6th insurrection, despite objections by its Republican leadership. The bill now moves to the Senate which would require 10 Republican to approve the measure, unless the filibuster is revoked. The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case from Mississippi banning abortions after 16 weeks in an attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade; meanwhile Texas passed a law banning abortions as early as six weeks. The New York state attorney general's office announced that it has widened its investigation into the Trump Organization to include criminal wrongdoing. The Great Eastern Brood of cicadas (aka Brood X) have emerged after 17 years en masse in the Washington area, only to fall prey to a "zombie fungus" which causes their butts to fall off. Actor Charles Grodin died.

This week the world reached 167.0 million COVID cases and 3.5 million deaths, of which the US accounted for 33.9 million cases and 604,000 deaths. For the first time in 11 months, the daily average of new COVID infections has fallen below 30,000. 49 percent of the US has now received at least one dose of the vaccine with at 39 percent of the population being fully vaccinated. DC lifted mask and social distancing restriction for vaccinated individuals and capacity restrictions on businesses this week, though masks are still required on public transit as well as hospitals, schools, and sporting events.

This week we added to our brood, with one lone cicada in the backyard and five new fish – Godzilla, King Kong, Test Subject 1, Test Subject 2 and Rutabaga (the kids named them). We had lost our last fish early on in the Pandemic and hadn't felt comfortable going to pet stores to replace them for until now.  So we ventured out a bit  more: Nora got a haircut (their first in seven months), we went to Meeting in person, and even made it to the Telfair-Chas to celebrate Megan's birthday with some dairy-free cupcakes that turned out a lot better than Nora and I thought they would, after several measuring mishaps. And so much like the cicadas, we are starting to emerge from our Pandemic cocoons.

I just hope our butts don't fall off.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.) 

Thanksgiving 2024

Per our pre-determined schedule, we celebrate Thanksgiving in Iowa on even numbered years. However, 2024 was also Owen's first year of college which meant we had less control of his schedule and couldn't really argue that he skip classes in order to drive 28 hours roundtrip. So instead, we booked a flight from DC to Cedar Rapids on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and hoped for the best.

It actually worked out well. I picked up Owen from school Tuesday night and despite Noa nursing a cold that caused them to skip their viola lesson, we still indulged in family game night with a rousing game of Munchkin (Noa won). The next morning we grabbed an Uber to the airport for our direct flight to Cedar Rapids. The flight was smooth enough, but Noa's cold worsened (and weirdly, their back started hurting too), so we got our rental car and quickly drove to Mom & Dad's (after briefly trying to get sandwiches at Nodos – it was closed for the holidays), only to discover that they and Dave (who's arrived the night before) weren't there. Fortunately we were able to break in and get Noa settled so that Allen and Owen could drive to West Branch for lunch, see the Fawcetts, explore the construction on Thomas and Jen's house, and visit John's grave in honor of what would have been his 81st birthday.

While they were out, Mom, Dad and Dave arrived home from the grocery store. We did a quick inventory to see if we needed anything else for the big day and made up a game plan for Thursday (once we found out when Steve and his crew were coming). Once the boys returned, we sent Owen on a walk with Grandpa Z (Grandpa was anxious for an outing and none of the rest of us felt like braving the cold). After they returned, we largely settled in – had dinner, cleaned up, and moved Noa from our room to the basement for the night.

The next morning we started cooking, although at a more leisurely pace than previous years and with a better distribution of labor: Allen did the turkey and gravy; Mom did the stuffing, green beans and cranberry sauce (she had already made the pies); and I did the rolls, mashed potatoes and roasted sweet potatoes. In addition, Dave made turkey cupcakes (though Kara, who couldn't come but sent tons of treats, had intended that to be a cooperative effort).

Steve and his crew arrived around 12:30, having only recently returned from Scotland and Olivia's Master's Graduation Ceremony and the University of Edinburgh. After some general frivolity (even Noa felt well enough to join in) we sat down for a lovely dinner (well, except Noa. They asked if they could lay down about 10 minutes before we sat down so we assumed they were down for the night, not realizing that they intended for us to call them when we were ready to eat...). Afterwards, we indulged in pie, turkey cupcakes, cookies, and some family pictures before Steve and his crew (sans Sam who decided to stay at Grandma & Grandpa's) headed to their hotel and crashed.

The next morning, Dave headed out early to drive back to Des Moines in order to catch his flight to Colorado Springs. Steve & Becky stopped by shortly after to collect Sam and depart to Schaumburg. We helped Grandma & Grandpa Z put up the Christmas tree and got in a family game night of hearts (I kind of destroyed the rest of the family).

The next morning we headed back (though maybe we headed to the airport a little earlier than necessary). When we got home, everyone else headed to their rooms (Allen was starting to come down with what Noa had) while I went to the store and then made dinner. Afterwards, we had another family game night (marbles, Owen won).

Sunday morning I baked some cinnamon rolls that Noa had made and frozen the week before (school bake sale extras) while Allen and Owen headed to Eastern Market to get Owen a much needed haircut and us a Christmas tree). The plan was once they returned and got the tree up, I would take Owen back to school since Allen wasn't feeling great, while Noa met up with their friends to see Wicked. Only while the boys were off doing their errands, Allen discovered we had a nail in our back tire (which made me really grateful that we didn't drive to Iowa for the holiday). 

After attempting and failing to get the car fixed at the local tire shop, we opted for Plan B and called Mom Mom and Grandpa Don who agreed to drive Owen (and Allen) back to school. In the end Noa headed to the movie and went out for dinner afterwards, Owen and Allen went with Mom Mom and Grandpa Don to St. Mary's (which meant they got to see Owen before Christmas and enjoy some crab cake sandwiches along the way), while I decorated the tree by myself.

It was a lovely, although hectic, start to the holiday season and we can't wait for Owen to finish finals so we can really celebrate when he can be home for more than 24 hours.

(To see all the holiday pictures, click here.)

Birthday Boy

Wow. Three years. 36 Months. 1095 days. All Owen, all the time. We're a little freaked out about all the change that is about to come and how we'll all adapt, but hopefully we've learned enought over the past three years to muddle through.

1. You can lead a boy to the potty, but you can't make him pee.
2. Don't touch Owen's haircut.
3. Not all sticks are created equal.
4. Watching too much Mary Poppins may induce your child to break into song and dance, as well as panhandle.
5. Mommy and Daddy are not perfect substitutes, and if they try to be there will be tears.
6. Never underestimate the value of a good-sized box.
7. Naptime does not come with a moneyback guarantee.
8. Farm relatives have the best toys ever.
9. Always be jumping.
10. The twos really aren’t so terrible.
    

Iowa 2025

Given how our trip to Iowa went last summer, I was a bit anxious about returning this year, particularly with Dad having had a stroke back in April in addition to all of his memory issues. But this year Allen didn't have to travel to Washington mid-visit, Mom willingly went to her doctor's appointment (and got a relatively clean bill of health), and Dad seems to have stabilized a bit, so even though I had to spend most of the visit working on a regulation (though because remote work no longer counts in the government, I still had to take leave) and Allen was on work calls throughout our stay, we were still able to enjoy much of our time in Iowa.

There was Cornfest (Allen narrowly beat Thomas for a third place showing in the corn-eating contest, though likely only because Ethan wasn't able to compete this year), and corn picking, corn shucking, and corn harvesting (which are seperate but related action items). There were family floats in the pond and covered wagon trips. There were visits with distant Gradys and nearby Fawcetts. There were projects that we weren't actually drafted into helping but we did, in the spirit of John, inspect.

Moreover, after two months of Mom and Dad not having a landline (which, since Mom refuses to get a cell phone, meant there was no way to contact her and only limited ways to contact Dad), we finally got them a workaround. Granted, the workaround (which involved using their internet rather than a traditional landline) only worked for a day before their internet provider (who had been providing their landline) decided that transferring the landline meant that we were cancelling internet service which upon following up with them, would take two weeks to reinstall. Fortunately, Allen got ahold of a real person who got actual people to come out that day and get everything back online.

Plus, dad got a haircut (which is hard to do in Iowa City than one might think), we did another Good Will run, and we even managed to get in an early anniversary dinner for Mom and Dad. That plus some amazing Iowa sunsets, made for a lovely visit and a needed reprieve from DC life.

(To see all the Iowa pictures, click here.)

2008 - The Year in Phrases

We were originally going to do, "The Year in Language," for our annual retrospective and list all the words that Owen now says. But that would require more typing that we're willing to do -- Owen's vocabulary was over 200 words before his birthday and has been increasing exponentially since -- and wouldn't make for the most fascinating of blog posts anyway. So instead, we've decided to share some of our favorite (and most used) phrases uttered in 2008:

1. Don't touch my haircut.
2. I too big for Daddy to carry.
3. Mommy, go cook something.
4. Thank you for cooking, Mommy.
5. It's very delicious.
6. It's fine.
7. I'm putting stars on the window.
8. Daddy doesn't go to church.
9. I hurt my butt.
10. Don't eat me.
11. I'm conducting.
12. That's forbidden, Mommy.
13. It's party time!
14. Move back.
15. I need my privacy.
16. I did a great job singing.
17. I like to move it, move it.
18. The camel waited for me.
19. Watch out for doggy poop.
20. Watch out for zebra poop.
21. I'm doing stuff.
22. I want to watch the muppet dvd.
23. I'm a sleepy lion.
24. I'm a waking up lion!
25. I have lots of gas.
26. Silly, Daddy.
27. Don't be silly, Mommy, the Hinkel-Horn-Honker is for waking up.
28. We're just hanging out here.
29. Wahhhhh....you better get a tissue.
30. I don't want to be crying.
31. Don't get the boogers out.
32. I cough a lot, Mommy.
33. I don't know.
34. Don't do me now.
35. I need to build a tall tall tower.
36. I need to knock down a tall tall tower.
37. It's dark in here everybody!
38. We're inside the Capitol everybody!
39. I better get my pasta out of my pocket.
40. You did a great job everybody.
41. I look pretty...I look beautiful.
42. See you later alligator.
43. After awhile crocodile.
44. You better wait right there daddy.
45. I'll be right back.
46. I want my blue bee bee bee and my orange bee bee bee.
47. Excuse me, you're on my parking lot.
    

4 Weeks

My mother sent my baby book last week. It contained, in addition to remnants of my first haircut and tooth, the age at which I accomplished certain milestones, among them, smiling, sleeping through the night, rolling over, etc. Apparently, either I was a prodigy or my parents didn’t keep the most accurate of records. How else can one explain the fact that at nine days old I not only smiled but also slept through the night (which makes one wonder what exactly happened on that ninth day…). Being the youngest of three children, I suspect my mother was a bit distracted when all these events actually occurred and just wrote in something in retrospect that sounded good. Or else I’m a serious underachiever.

Owen turns four weeks old today, and has apparently not inherited my accelerated learning curve. We think that he’s had some non-gas induced smiles, but have yet to document any on camera, so you’ll just have to trust us. He’s definitely held his head up, has briefly held a toy in his hand, watched us doing things at a distance, and noticed light which seems to indicate his development is right on track. We can say with certainty, though, that he has not slept through the night. In fact, he seems to have regressed a bit since for a week or so there, he was sleeping as much as four hours a stretch and now we’re lucky if we get three. We’ve been told, however, that once babies hit 10 pounds they’re able to physically sleep through the night (which is medically defined as five hours). According to our reckoning, Owen is almost 10 pounds which means that a long stretch of nighttime peace is just around the corner. Unless he takes after his father (whom Mom Mom informed us didn’t sleep through the night until he was 2 years old...).