Dinner and a game...

Owen got to have pizza for dinner tonight...it was actually more like pizza bake but he didn't know the difference. We found a low fat pizza crust recipe on the back of the heart health Bisquick box, so we decided to give it a try. The ingredients: Bisquick pizza crust, diced tomatoes, veggies, grilled chicken, and fat free mozzarella for a total of 7.5 grams of fat for the whole pizza. Owen loved it, but Josh and I thought the crust could use some help....so we'll continue the search for a more "normal"

crust that's low fat.

The pizza bake...

Owen cleaned his plate and wanted more
After dinner, we headed to Lake Fayetteville to watch the TEAM play softball. The girls ended up playing a team of former softball players so the score was not so pretty but everyone had a blast. Owen watched the game on and off, cheered for the girls, played with the other kids, climbed all over the bleachers, ran around the ballpark, and played in the dirt. He was on the go the whole time!

Owen watching the game...

Blakely and Owen playing in the dirt...

The TEAM...

Trip to the E.R.!

We had a little adventure tonight... We made our first "injury"trip to the E.R.! Owen was playing in the living room and tripped and hit his eye on one of his wooden block toys and it exploded! Our first thought was to rush to the E.R. and get stitches, but after we got the bleeding stopped we kept looking at it and debating on what to do... We really didn't want to subject him to stitches, but we knew we had to do something, so we loaded up and headed for the E.R.

Loaded up and ready to get his eye fixed... After the initial shock wore off Owen really took it like a big boy, he was laughing and playing and looking at us like we were crazy when we would get in his face to check out his eye!

We were headed to Washington Regional when a friend suggested the new P.S.H. One thing that was weighing in on the debate was the debacle that E.R.'s usually bring and the hours of waiting... We walked in to the P.S.H. and basically went straight to the room and were fixed up and out of there in less than 30 minutes! It was amazing!

The Dr. decided that it would be much better for everyone involved to just "glue" the cut rather than do stitches. This was a huge relief to us, we couldn't imagine having to watch him get sewn-up. The Dr. held the cut closed and applied the Dermabond in a few layers and once it was dry they put a bandage over it so he couldn't rub it. Owen was not a fan of the glue or the bandage...

A day with mommy...

Josh went out of town today to play in a golf tournament for work....so Owen and I were on our own. Our morning routine was normal, but instead of daddy picking him up from daycare it was mommy. This is the response I got when I arrived...it just made my day!

Owen really loves ketchup! For dinner, he had part of an apple, grilled chicken, green beans, and ketchup for his chicken. Apparently, I should have explained that the ketchup was just for the chicken because when I turned around he was dipping his apple in the ketchup...and he liked it!

After dinner, Owen grabbed my hand and took me to the front door and started pointing and grunting...this is his new was of telling us he wants to go outside. So we bundled up and headed for the pond.

The ducks really wanted us to feed them today. Every time I put Owen down, they would surround us...

They wanted us to feed them so bad that they followed us home....

the ducks in our front yard

When we got home, we decided to skype with Gigi, Memaw, and Aunt Anna. Owen really showed out for the camera...he loves to be the center of attention!

We ended the night with some fun in the bathtub, before settling down for story time and then bed...

Ketchup...

I'm back....back from Ukraine and back to blogging! Josh did such a good job blogging their "bachelor days", I'm not sure my post will compare. I think we may have a new blogger in the family..ha! I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful husband. His post helped me feel like I was apart of their days while I was in Ukraine...I'm not sure I would have made it without them! We had a wonderful, rewarding, busy, positive, eventful, and life changing trip to Ukraine, which hope to post more about in the next few weeks. But for now, I'm spending as much time as possible with my family!
Here's a video from a few nights ago when we grilled out. Owen got to try dipping his chicken and fries in ketchup all by himself! It was pretty funny so I thought we would share. (I know some of you are thinking "fries???", but 5 baked steak fries are only 3 grams of fat).

Owen eating ketchup....

Owen is getting better everyday... The eye-drops and antibiotic seem to be doing there job and Owen's eyes have been clear for the past couple days. He was in a pretty good mood today, but You can tell he is missing his mommy, he just knows something isn't right!

We actually got good news late last night. Christie and the rest of the girls were able to catch a flight out of Ukraine. They actually headed East instead of west and will have traveled all the way around the world by the time they get home! They left Ukraine at 4:00 am this morning and landed in Dubai at around noon. They are now on a 15 hour flight to Sydney, then on to L.A. before finally making it to Tulsa Tuesday at 4:45. It is a long trip home, but it beats being stuck in Ukraine for another week or two!

Owen was really into throwing balls around yesterday, here he just launched one at me and was watching it roll around.

He was also loving the laundry room, as usual. I was doing laundry yesterday and he would follow me into the laundry room every time. One time I was moving clothes to the dryer and he actually started helping... I would take clothes out of the washer and hand them to him, he would then attempt to throw them into the dryer. It was pretty funny, and he could actually get the small stuff in there! He did have a hard time with the big stuff though, he isn't quite tall enough.

Owen hasn't been eating great lately, but he did enjoy a snack of cheerios and milk!
I say he hasn't been eating great lately, then I show this picture of him licking his plate clean! Apparently he really did like this meal...

Bachelor Week, Day 7:

Today was not so good... Owen has been waking up with gunk in his eyes and been very congested. This morning was no different, He woke up with his eyes matted shut. I gave him a bath and cleaned his eyes and nose, but I could tell he didn't feel good... I was only scheduled to work a half day because today was parent teacher conferences at daycare, so I took him to daycare for the morning. On my way to drop him off at daycare I called and made a Dr. appointment so we could, hopefully get this cleared up over the weekend. He didn't even make it half a day at daycare... I got a call at about 10:00 and Owen had a fever of 101.4 so I made arrangements at work and went to pick him up. Just looking at him the Dr. thought he probably had an ear infection, but both ears were clear! She thought he might have a little infection in his eyes that was making his nose and eyes be so nasty so we got some antibiotics and eye drops.

Ready to spend a couple hours at daycare...

After the first round of eye drops and antibiotics he seems to be doing better. He went to bed early and has no gunk in his eyes so far! Hopefully he will continue to get better and will be back to acting like Owen by the end of the weekend!

On another note... We don't know when Christie will be getting home now! We have been without her for a full 7 days now and we are ready for her to be home, but the Iceland volcano has caused the airport she was supposed to fly out of today to be shut down for the past 2 days and it doesn't look like it will open anytime soon! We are hoping and praying that the wind will shift, or rain will move in and knock the ash down and the volcano will stop spewing ash into the sky long enough for the girls to make it home!

The Frankfurt airport, first stop on the girls way home, is shut down indefinitely...

Bachelor Week, Day 6:

Owen had another pretty good day! His allergies are still bothering him, but hopefully they will get better soon.

Ready for Daycare!

Owen helped me feed Honey again... His favorite part is making Honey try to get the treat and then pulling it back when she tries to take it! He isn't happy when I finally make him let go of it!

Aunt Amanda is traveling with the softball team to Baton Rouge to battle LSU this weekend, so we went to Beema and Papa Joe's to eat dinner with her and let Owen hang out with her before she leaves. After dinner we played outside for a bit and Owen discovered my old Radio Flyer wagon. He climbed all over it and went for a couple short rides around the yard. They don't make those things like they used to... and that is a good thing!

Owen is getting to be such a big boy, he just walks all over the place and is getting a lot better with his balance. This is a good thing... but it does make him a lot harder to keep up with! You can't take your eyes off of him, because if you do he is headed up the stairs, doing pull-ups on the refrigerator, or cleaning out the kitchen cabinets!

When it got dark out Owen decided it was time to go back inside...

Bachelor Week, Day 5:

Owen had a much better day today. He still woke up with some gunk in his eyes, but we waited until this morning to take a bath so it was much easier to clean and he didn't seem to mind. I think he enjoyed having a bath in the morning, he was wide awake and ready to play after his bath.

Yesterday I had a dentist appointment and I was visiting with Marcia, the lady who does the exam and we were talking about Owen and she suggested starting to use a toothbrush, instead of the finger thing. She gave me a toothbrush to try on him, so we gave it a shot this morning. I brushed his teeth first, then let him have the brush to try it on his own... I think this might work out, he was starting to hate the finger thing! Here he is demonstrating his tooth-brushing skills!

I also decided to pull this shirt out since we are half way through bachelor week and I thought it was appropriate!

After we got ready to go I decided to let Owen help me feed Honey since he was in such a good mood! I gave him the treat to give to her, and don't worry, I watched closely to make sure he didn't try to sneak a bite!

He really enjoyed being outside this morning and getting to see Honey. He also really liked playing with the treat and had a hard time letting it go when it was time to give it to Honey!

Owen was tired when we got home from daycare and fell asleep in my arms... but when I put him in his bed I could hear him moving around and I turned on his monitor to see this! And that was the end of his nap.

After we got home tonight we had some visitors... Audrey and Amelia stopped by to give Owen his birthday present. At first Owen was kind of shy...

Then he started warming up a little...

a little more...

And then the show was on! He was bouncing off the walls! He was dancing and climbing all over everything. He even grabbed the handle on our refrigerator and pulled himself completely off the ground, and not just a little off the ground!

He thought these sunglasses were hysterical!

He had a lot of fun with his visitors and really liked dancing while Amelia rocked out on his guitar to some "Love Shack"!

After Audrey and Amelia left he continued to play pretty hard climbing all over the dining room chairs and everything else.

I also caught him trying to open the fridge... good thing he is a shorty!

We played in his room for a while then I turned on some of his music while I changed him into his pajamas. He was really dancing to the music until I got the video camera... I think he is a little camera shy. But I did manage to catch a short clip of him showing one of his signature moves!

After the dancing was over Owen grabbed his milk and was off to bed...

Bachelor Week, Day 4:

So when I went into this single parent week thing I knew that I would have to tackle one duty at Owen's school... parent teacher conferences! Well, last night I got a surprise when My mother informed me that today was picture day! This isn't my thing... that's a mom deal. Christie and I have an unspoken agreement, I am in charge of picking Owen up, collecting all of his stuff, and transporting him safely home. When I get home I place all of the papers from his cubby on the counter and when Christie gets home she reads all of the stuff and let's me know if there is anything important that I should know. This may not seem like the optimal way to handle this, but it works for us... as long as Christie is here! I don't guess this is really that big of a deal, I mean I have picked out Owen's clothes before and gotten him dressed, but I usually worry less about whether it matches and more about whether it fits and if it is comfortable. I don't usually get him dressed thinking that the clothes he is wearing will be forever emblazoned on a piece of paper that will be pulled out 20 years later and laughed at by the future Mrs. Owen Summerford and reminded that I dressed him that day (everyone has those pictures)!

Last night after being informed that today was picture day I formulated a plan... I would pick out a few shirts and some shorts and try them on him this morning and go with what I liked best. Apparently I should have discussed this with Owen! He woke up this morning in a terrible mood and by the time I got the first shirt and pair of shorts on him it was settled... he was wearing that one! This is what we ended up with: (hope Mom approves)


Hopefully the Picture People got a better picture than I did this morning. There was nothing I could do to make him happy. I think it was a combination of realizing that mommy is still gone, and allergies. He woke up this morning with a lot of gunk in his eyes. The poor little guy could barely open them and did not want me to clean them! I have been giving him allergy medicine, and plan to keep it going in hopes that this stuff will clear up soon, and he won't feel so miserable.

Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow and I will once again have an abundance of pictures to share.

Bachelor Week, Day 3

Well we made it... We got up and got ready this morning and made it to daycare and work on time! I got Owen up a little earlier than usual, and he was not a fan! He was pretty grouchy this morning, but once he got to daycare and I snuck out he had a good day.

I got more updates from Christie today, they visited the first orphanage and apparently it was a great visit and all of the attendees were very attentive and excited to learn how to help the kids. There is a post with more detail on the TEAMworks Ukraine Blog here : www.teamworksukraine.com/blog
On a side note I got a text from Christie today and apparently she is not a fan of Ukranian food... she said she has been living off of powerbars and, from the looks of their blog, caffeine!

Here are today's pics:

For this pic I told Owen to do something casual, like he was modeling for the Dillard's catalog and this is what I got! Not really, I don't know why he posed like this, but I thought it was funny so I put it on here.

After work I took Honey to the vet for a check-up and then took her with me to pick up Owen ... I think this made his day! He was so excited to see her, and he would pat her on the head, then she would turn and lick his hand and he would laugh so hard! They did this all the way home.

On the way home I got a call from Amanda asking if they could take Owen to the park, of course I said sure, so Owen changed into some play clothes and played in the front yard while we waited on Aunt Amanda and Austin.

Owen really likes Amanda and Austin, when they pulled up he got this big grin on his face and got up and ran to them!

Owen's bud Amanda

Amanda, Owen, and Austin ready to head to the park. We gave Owen the option of riding in the wagon or taking his car... he decided he would rather drive!

Owen LOVES the slide at the park! It doesn't matter whether he is going down the slide or trying to climb back up the slide, he LOVES it! In this picture he was mad at me for slowing him down on his way to the slide.

Owen's Sliding Face...

Owen also loves to fly into the air! I think we have a little daredevil on our hands!

It was great to have Amanda and Austin show up to take Owen to the park! He had an awesome time and was completely worn out when we got home. He went to bed at 8:00! A full hour earlier than normal.

Owen discovered an interesting trick on the way home... he took my empty bottle and leaned over and drug it on the sidewalk, it made a weird noise that he apparently liked because he did it all the way home!

Overall we had a great day, Owen had a lot of fun, and I enjoyed playing outside with him. We look forward to more updates from the girls in Ukraine and how things are going over there! And can't wait to see Christie in 6 more days!