Trick or Treating!

Owen had so much fun Trick or Treating last night. This picture was taken while he was waiting for the door to open, he was just beside himself with excitement. He said, "trick or treating," to every person who opened the door and I am proud to say after a few houses, he remembered to say "thank you," without being reminded.

Much to our surprise, he did get tired toward the end, he needed to ride on Daddy's shoulders, and admitted that he wanted to go back tot he party. He woke up this morning ready for treats!

Big Bear Lake

While we were on vacation at Big Bear Lake, we took a walk on the boardwalk. It was a great little walk because there was no way Owen could wander off the boardwalk and into the water....he was completely contained. We were enjoying our walk and stopping to look at fish jumping in the lake. About half way into our walk Owen wanted to push Max.
While he was pushing him, he frequently stopped, manuevered the stroller so it was facing the water, and parked it so Max could see the jumping fish, too.


How precious it was to watch him try to share the moment with his baby brother!

Is Mommy a Crazy Driver?

The other day I was driving Owen and Max to Lety's. The first intersection that we come to outside of our little subdivision is hard to see. So, I have to stop and then creep out into the intersection to look for oncoming traffic. This particular day when I creeped out into the intersection, there was a car coming and so I had to hit the brakes. Owen, reports from the back seat, "hit car."

I chuckled and said, "no we did not hit the car."

The next day we got to the same intersection and Owen immediately announces, "hit car." I explain once again that we did not hit a car.

The third day we are driving along the road, already past the blind intersection, and I hear Owen's voice from the back seat say "here comes our car!"

I reply, "What do you mean here comes our car? Do you mean, watch out here we come."

Owen says, "yeah, watch out here we come!"

Then today, again sitting in the back seat on the way to Lety's he announces "here we come."

Not sure if he thinks I'm a crazy driver or what, but he is warning everyone on the road that we are headed their way!

Crazy Hair

On the first day of school, we decided to go to Chilli's for dinner to celebrate a good start to a new school year. On the way Gavin and I were talking about how some of Gavin's male students need to get hair cuts.

Owen was listening to our converstation, as he was sitting in the back seat, and he said, "yeah, haircut," and he touched his head.

I replied, "do you need a hair cut."

To that he said (while tapping the top of his head) "yeah, crazy hair!"

Workout Police

Last Tuesday I only had to go to work for a few hours to check out for the end of the year. I planned to be home by 10:00 so that Gavin and Owen could go to the gym and Max could stay home with me. Gavin and Owen left for the gym and I was ready to spend some quiet time with Max, when the phone rang, it was Gavin and Owen was throwing a fit in the back seat...Owen loves the gym so this was a head scratcher for both of us. Gavin still continued to drive the short distance to the gym and get Owen inside, but he still just kept throwing a fit. Finally, Gavin had to bring him home because he wouldn't set foot into the play room.

When he got home I tried talking to him....I got him to calm down and tell me what was wrong. He wanted Mommy to go to the gym, too. So, the workout police succeeded in getting the whole family to go the gym that day!

If Everything Happens for a Reason, What was the Reason Behind this......

My flight was delayed in Detroit on the way home from my Godmother's funeral because of weather in Dallas where I had a connecting flight. Because of the delay when I finally did arrive in Dallas I only had 12 minutes to get to my connecting flight, I asked the stewardess if I should wait for my stroller or if I should just run to the gate. Her response informed me that my connecting flight was full, they gave away our seats to standby passengers! So there I was with my three month old baby, stranded in the Dallas airport. I was told I could get on a flight to Vegas the following morning at 9am. In the meantime I had two choices: go to a hotel at the discounted rate of $69.99 (seriously, that was discounted price!?!) or sleep on a cot by security for $10. I chose the hotel room. I also had to provide my own transportation, so I got a cab and tightly held my baby in my arms while riding on the freeway to my hotel. When I arrived at the hotel the airline sent me to, I was informed they had no rooms. I threw my arms up in the air with frustration, took a deep breathe, then calmly said to the "boy" behind the counter that I knew it wasn't his fault, but I was extremely frusturated. He quickly got on the phone, called his sister hotel, found out they had a room, then got another "kid" to drive me to that hotel. I got the last room. Once back in my room I looked at my new boarding pass and discovered that my flight the next morning wasn't to Las Vegas it was to LA. I tried calling the airline, but it was a 27 minute wait, so I went to sleep prepared to deal with it in the morning. As I went to sleep I was thinking about what the preacher said at my Godmother's funeral, "sleep means you will awake in a refreshed day," I went to sleep hoping that tomorrow would bring sunny skys, clearer heads, and a short trip home. However, when I awoke four short hours later, I awoke to the same thunder, lightning and rain. I took the shuttle to the airport, almost didn't make it through security because they woman the night before did not add my baby to my boarding pass, but because he was on the original one they were nice and let me through, then I asked the first "official" person I saw about my flight. She confirmed that I was not on any flight to Vegas, so I would have been stranded in yet another city. But she got me on a nonstop flight out of Dallas at 9:35. However, due to weather that was delayed and delayed and delayed some more. I was patient, though, because I was watching the weather and knew we couldn't go anywhere, but my supply of diapers was dwindling and my patience wore out once the sun came out and we still didn't get on a plane for another hour.

During this whole crazy experience I kept thinking about my converstation with my Godmother's son-in-law on my way back to the airport. We talked about how we both believed everything happens for a reason, even if we can't figure out the reason until years later. So I wondered to myself, is this happening because I am having a hard time getting over this untimely death and so the universe had to throw me something else to deal with? Is it to tell me that I really do need to buy a new belt and then I could get through security faster, since the splitting leather on my belt gets caught on the belt loops and takes me extra time to take off? Is it to prove that you should always pack an extra pair of underwear "just in case," and remember to put it in your carry-on not your checked luggage? Did it happen to tell me to pay the extra money for a nonstop flight next time? Did it happen to remind me of yet another positive for nursing my baby (if I would have been feeding him formula it would have run out hours before the plane left)?

As a result of this whole experience, I met an awesome couple from Australia, got to spend some great quality time with my three month old son, met a unigue group of people going to Vegas on vacation, (one of which I don't think will ever fly again), and have made the decision to never lay over in Texas again! Oh, and I now know the reason people have credit cards for emergencies. And I learned you can pay for a cab with a credit card.

I am hoping that the reason for this whole fiasco is that I will be able to fly home in November for free to spend some more time with my family. I will be working on that in the upcoming days...weeks...months, whatever it takes!!

Don't Feed the Animals

A couple of weeks ago, Owen decided to get out of his room after we had tucked him in for the night. He would climb over his gate (he had known how to do this for quite some time, but didn't do it after he was tucked in at night). This became a little game for him as he would sneak downstairs, run to the couch and sit there and look at the TV like this was completely normal and maybe no one would notice him. Well, one night we locked the gate at the bottom of the stairs and I told Gavin to ignore him. We continued to watch the TV show we were watching. When Gavin laughed at the TV, Owen would laugh really loud trying to get noticed. We continued to ignore him. Gavin got up, got a snack from the kitchen and sat back down in his chair. Owen reached his arm through the bannister for a cracker....I said, "I should take a picture of this and title it 'don't feed the animals!'" Unfortunately, I was busy with Max and didn't get the camera so I don't have a picture to go along with this post!!