The biggest wall!

... need I say more?

Amy has a great story from yesterday. Amy reports she brought him into the bathroom at the Meijer yesterday. As they walked in he announced, "It smells like lollipops in here!" Regrettably, no one was there to enjoy his observation.

One final photo to share. Once again, a proud boy. This time: a new Thomas t-shirt.

Can you bake a blueberry pie, darling Owen?

It's been a fun week. An extra Monday off for the Martin Luther King holiday gave Owen and I some extra time to play together while, for a change, mom went to work for the full day.

We started the day out by baking a gluten free blueberry pie together. Owen helped me put the blueberries, GF flour and sugar into the bowl (then helped reduce the blueberry population of that bowl one bite at a time). Then he helped me roll out the crust and pat it into the pie dish. It all came out beautifully!

He's been enjoying his special desert, and we've been enjoying his blue-toothed smile!

Owen and I also took another trip together to the Pro Putt fun center. As you'll see, he enjoyed playing in the ball room and jumping on the trampoline.

We had a great time!

... and then he was also delighted to see his mom at the end of the day.

Tucking him in tonight ...

When Owen says a word beginning in V it sounds like a D. Very = Derry.

I'd tucked him in tonight after reading the terrific children's book Russell The Sheep, in which a sheep who can't sleep counts things until he feels tired. I got him snuggled under his covers, sang him a couple of songs, and left the room. As I was leaving he said something, I walked back and he pointed to his face and said "These are my eyes. Closing them will help me fall to sleep."

Cute. But that's not all.

Working on the dishes a few minutes later, I heard him talking and went back up. He was thrashing around in the blankets saying: "I'm having a derry derry hard time falling asleep."

"What do you need?" I asked.

"A kiss."

Charmed, I kissed him good-night again. "Yes, a kiss will help me fall to sleep ..." he said.

"Or perhaps counting numbers. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Four. Three. Two. One."

I left him to it. An hour later, he's still out.

Calling Mr. Youngman

Owen's first joke ... a one-liner classic:

Everything since then ...

Again, it's been forever. Hopefully today I can catch up with the many things that happened over Christmas and New Years.

We drove into Iowa City for Christmas with the Ives. The temps dropped from 54 degrees at our lunch stop in Peoria to 30 degrees with rain/snow/ice in Iowa City. In one hour we lost 20 degrees. Kind of like driving from Tucson to San Diego in the summertime.

Despite the heavy dump of snow that hit Iowa City, we had a great holiday. Owen was in rare form. He enjoyed all of the holiday decorations and the boxes of oranges with which he "built a sidewalk."

Possibly the best moment, though, was at Christmas dinner. He was sitting between Amy and I and began saying "Be DONG!" loudly every few seconds. When we stopped to figure out what he was doing, it became clear he was pushing his cheek like a button for an elevator, waiting for the door (his mouth) to open, and inserting the food.

The next weekend was spent with my folks celebrating both Christmas and the New Year. Mom arrived dressed as Santa, as her mom used to do for Daniel, my cousins, and I when we were kids. Owen's response was something along the lines of "If I don't look at it, maybe it will all go away." Kind of the way I felt about Iowa's passing offense this season ...

While Mom and Dad were here we painted the nursery, went and played at the indoor putt-putt golf course (with ball pit for Owen), and had lots of time to visit and look at the pictures Daniel sent from his wedding. It was a nice holiday.

Amy has now entered the third trimester of the pregnancy. Time has gone so quickly! I guess we'd better come up with a name other than Owen's favorite "Strawberry" for the baby before it gets too late.