Happy Mother's Day!

My first Mother's Day has been fabulous so far.  Dave got up with Owen this morning and they let me sleep in, and I awoke later to a bouquet of flowers in the bedroom and breakfast in bed!  Dave made me banana oatmeal waffles, bacon (aka nature's candy), with yogurt, and coffee ice cream!  Delicious!

occasion appropriate drool catcher

that's not coffee in the mug...it's coffee ice cream!
Dave knows me so well!

Yesterday afternoon we went to our friends' Julia and Ben's place for a little birthday party for Ben.  There were a couple other babies around including the baby of one of the Chinese grad students that works with Ben.  Ning-jun (that is completely just phonetic spelling) was born just 12 days before Owen...but as you can see, is on the complete opposite end of the size scale!

4 months old

Owen turned 4 months old on Wednesday.  I don't have an official update on height and weight yet as his 4 month doctor's appointment is not until this coming Wednesday.  I will update then!  I do, however, have some photos I took this morning.  A couple of weeks ago he started rolling from front to back...but only occasionally, and it seemed almost by accident, as though it really depended on how we set him down on his front.  This morning taking photos he full on rolled by himself 3 times in a row!!  I had to set my camera on the "sport" setting, where it takes a series of photos instead of just one at a time, because he kept moving and rolling too quickly for me to get a good tummy photo!

headed over

"better snap it quick Mom"

action shot

and over!

oh the faces you make!

Owen's happy heiny in his Happy Heiny diaper!

big smiles!

Our week in review

 At the beginning of every fall semester and the end of every spring semester, the UMN Geology dept has a picnic for all the students, faculty, staff, and researchers.  Dave is the faculty member who organizes the picnic and does a great job making grilled goodies for 50+ people.  It's always a good time...and, in the spring at least, almost always rainy.  That picnic was this past Saturday...guess what? It rained!  ;)

"looks like the rain's a comin' ma"

diaper change amongst the empties - note the rain drops
on Dave's sleeve

Owen wore his undergraduate geology society shirt to show his support

And a couple pics just hanging around the house

chillin' with Dad

flying baby!

the mouse briefly took refuge under
the flip flop door stop

And while these are not Owen, this was the most exciting event in the house all week for the cats.  They found a mouse hiding out in the radiator in the front room.  It had tucked itself back in there good where they couldn't reach in to get it.  But they waited it out for a full day and I came down the next morning to find them batting it around...it must have tried to make a run for it in the middle of the night.  I let them play for a couple hours - circle of life and all - then finally rescued the mouse and let it free outside...I think it learned its lesson.

Flax is waiting for it to move so she can pounce again

Baby's first record store

Yesterday was our friend Amy's birthday.  She and her husband moonlight on Tuesdays at a local record store, so she decided to combine work and play and had folks over as they were closing up the store for some beers, food, music, and general birthday hanging out.

keeping an eye on the beer and the register at the front desk

while posed, this does have some truth to it...if Amy were a vampire, babies would be her garlic

lounging with our lovely french friend Audrey

better watch out Tony...my baby is stealing your girlfriend!

while Owen has grown so much since he
was born, you can see he is still pint sized...look
at the hand differences!

Uncle Rob

The internet has been down for the past couple of days here, so I haven't updated as I've wanted.  But I do have some new pics from this weekend.  We had a really nice visit with Dave's brother Rob, who came from DC to meet Owen.

Uncle Rob and Owen - see the Fox family resemblance??!?

Owen has also become a huge drooler in the past 6 weeks or so...I think he doesn't know how to work his tongue yet to get all that saliva to where he can swallow it, so instead it gets pushed forward...which necessitates the use of a bib...much easier to change bibs than onesies!

enjoying the drool-catcher-3000

The jumperoo has been added to our repertoire of baby gear this week.  Owen seems to enjoy bouncing in it, even though he is not quite tall enough yet to reach the floor with it on the lowest setting.  We have a couple thick coffee table books we stick under his feet so he has a bouncing platform!

Finally, I will leave you with a couple classic Owen faces from his pre-bedtime naked baby kick time.

this is his serious face for when his little arms
and legs are really going...kicking is
serious business!

smiles...because nothing is better than naked time!

just hangin' out

A couple photos from the past couple of days including a zoo trip and just some hangin' out in the backyard. 

Bumbo baby

Owen loves sitting in the bumbo.  It gives him the chance to view the world from a vertical position now that he can hold his head steady.  He loves watching what the cats are doing...and as soon as Flax saw the camera, she came running!  What hams!