video?

I just realized I can post a video to our blog. I'm going to give it a try.

This is Owen singing the ABC's. He does a better job with getting a majority of the letters when he sings acapella, but it's awfully cute here with the music.

a big experiment

Owen became disgruntled with his crib a couple of weeks ago, and learned that he was able to get out of it. Unfortunately he is not that careful in climbing and fell out of the crib hard enough to scare me. So this Monday we removed it, and put his mattress on the floor. We had a lot of discussions with him about moving to a "big boy bed" and how the crib was going away.

Monday night, it seemed like this was going to work- he was very excited about his new bed- we put all his stuffed animals around him, and put up some sea animal pictures on the walls. But we'd put him in his bed, and he'd come running back out again. Over and over. Eventually Richard slept next to him in his room, on the floor until Owen was completely asleep- around midnight.

Tuesday night, Owen was asleep by 9:30, but he did end up in our bedroom around 3 AM.

Tonight, he got to sleep by 8:30. Still no sign of the little guy. Hopefully he makes it through the night in his bed. Otherwise we'll need to get a king bed for our room- Owen is little, but likes to sleep perpendicular to us and takes up a lot of room.

the view on Monday

We had a beautiful evening this Labor Day- here is the view from our back porch. You can see the three Sisters in the distance.

trip to Portland

We took a trip to Portland over Labor Day weekend. We hadn't spent much time there yet, and wanted to explore the city. We got a hotel room in downtown, near the river, for Saturday and Sunday night. The hotel had an indoor pool, which was very warm and perfect for us.

On Saturday we went to the Saturday Market, Powell's Books, and an art festival in the Pearl District. On Sunday we took the MAX light rail to meet Susie and Laurel at the Children's Museum. The kids had a great time there with fun water, climbing, and digging exhibits. We enjoyed the waterfront and some great food, and had a wonderful weekend.

When we asked Owen about the weekend, he said he liked the big buildings and the train and the hotel.

more birthdays!

I mentioned before, a few weekends ago we celebrated both Richard's and Valerie's birthdays. Richard got a ping pong table for his birthday- Owen is catching on to the game fast. Valerie got a sand box for her birthday- this picture is Valerie and Laurel enjoying it.

timber frame cottage

I mentioned in an earlier post that my parents are renovating their cottage on the Chesapeake Bay. My father is keeping a blog with pictures of the work. If you are interested, here's his blog:

http://timbercottage.blogspot.com/

It's pretty amazing how much has already happened since we were there in July.

pictures of Owen

We had Livia Fremouw take pictures of Owen for his 2nd birthday. We met at University of Oregon campus this Saturday morning (which was also Richard's birthday). It was a much better experience than we have had at photo studios where Owen usually screams for the entire session. He liked Livia and enjoyed running around and playing with bubbles and toys she brought. We have only seen a sneak peak at the pictures, but these 2 are great. You can see them on Livia's blog at:


http://fremouwphotography.blogspot.com/

Look for the entry titled "Little O from Corvallis."

She has also sent us a link to view the proofs. This link may only be good until November, 2007:

http://www.fremouwphotography.com/proofs/owen/

After we took the pictures, we had a picnic lunch, then stopped by the Scandinavian festival on our way home in Junction City. Owen slept soundly in the car ride home, and for another 2 hours in his crib. Richard opened his presents, then we had cake with Owen and the Muhly's, then Richard and I went out for dinner for his birthday. It was a fun day.