Happy New Year!

News years resolution number one is to blog a bit more often. We have an added incentive as Grandpa Jim now has internet! We've been showing him all the funky stuff his new laptop can do:


We only just made it out of Seattle before the whole city got snowed under. A few hours after we took off, Seatac airport ran out of deicer. For a city with mountains all around it, it's not very well prepared at all.

We spend a couple of days in the Valley of the Sun with Grandpa Mac who looks a bit like Father Christmas and had lots of toys for Owain just to fool us even more. Then it was up to Prescott to see Grandpa Jim and Uncle Daniel. Guess what... lots more toys!

Heather was ill in bed on Christmas day (no, not a hangover actually) which meant that Jim had to do the dinner but it turned out great. So great in fact that we're leaving Heather behind next year.

Anyway, as those of you east of the meridian continue to ferment your hangovers, Heather and I prepare to go out and party. Lots of pictures to follow. Promise!

Captain Owain

It's been a week since Mum and Dad left for the tropics and I've recovered enough to talk about our ordeal. Boy is missing getting attention from so many relatives at once and has become a little clingy and needy. The other day, he even developed a slight temperature so his mummy would cuddle him more. She thinks I'm being ridiculous. But no, he's ridiculous!

Here's an epic home movie of Capt. Owie shot in dingyvision...

Grandma and Granddad

If it's been very quiet here in the last few weeks, that's because we've been mentally preparing ourselves for the arrival of my Mum and Dad who flew in on Monday for a week. Heather cooked a sumptuous thanksgiving diner for us this evening. Yesterday, we went to the locks and I let Owain out of his cage for a few minutes.

The boy and his grand-paternals have been getting on like a house on fire. Here, Ian passes down a ritual form of torture that I myself remember being subjected to as a child.

We're going to the parade in town tomorrow. It reminded me that it has been a year since we moved in to our flat in Ballard. A year ago tomorrow, we were late meeting with our landlord to sign the contract because we were stuck in traffic in down-town Seattle which in turn was because some bloody parade was going on. Tsk!

Stats

For those who are following Owie's growth statistics the latest set of numbers should have you pleased and satisfied for the next three months, I know I am :) Head circumference 48.4 cm (95th percentile), there is a fact-based reason why we call the boy "head", height 31 1/2 inches (90th-95th percentile), weight 24 pounds 8 ounces (75th percentile). He has grown in leaps and bounds during just the last month. He eats well and has made the change from nursing to formula almost entirely. Now I have to switch to cow's milk in a cup. Arg! It's no easy feat getting this kid to drink out of a cup but all the baby books and the pediatrician insist that it must be done in the next 6 months. We'll see.

Pundits

Left to Right: Simon Schama, John R. Bolton, Owain R. McFarlane, David Dimbleby

Cheeky Monkey!

What can I say? Awwwwww......

Owie was a monkey this Halloween and what an appropriate costume it was. I gave him the banana as a prop and he gnawed right through the peel and ended up making a slimy mess. I was laughing too hard to do anything about it.

Here is the rest of the Halloween photoshoot.

Pumpkins

Halloween is a big deal here. I'm getting right into the spirit of things. Ahem.

From jack o'lanterns

From left to right:

• Traditional Pumpkin by Heather
• Baby Pumpkin also by Heather (look familiar?)
• Boo Pumpkin by me (Heather's favorite game character)

By the way, don't try this at home. Pumpkins smell disgusting and you have to scoop out the squelchy scrapings with your hands. The candles are scented but it didn't help. Yuck! ><
On a different note, here are the photos from the last post including a mass baby humiliation ritual.

Fall In Seattle

Here's Owain modeling his new hat that our friend Kate made. It's not on straight here and I don't think the picture does it justice. It is super cute with socks to match! Owain had a blast at the park experimenting with walking on uneven surfaces and eating leaves and dirt. We missed the gorgeous fall last year as we didn't move here until Nov. 19th. We are really enjoying it, pumpkin carving tonight!

Old Man Owain

Owain turned one today! To celebrate, he took us to a fancy restaurant...

From owain's birthday

He got lots of pressies from friends and family (thank you!) and we took him to the local toy shop where he fell in love with something called a 'color roller':

From owain's birthday

We shall see how long before he a) gets bored of it or b) drives his mother potty with the clicky-clacky noise it makes.

AZ Trip/Rush Cab/Jeff and Bev Visit

First things first, here's a video of Owain walking. He's been taking steps for nearly a month but lately he tries more often and makes it farther.

We have fallen way behind in blogging and missed some big stuff. Sept 30th through Oct 7th I was back in Arizona visiting my Dad and Stepdad and brother. It was great to see the family but WOW Owain would not sleep for naps or at night so by the end of the week I was a very grumpy zombie. On Sat the 4th I got to meet Jamie's baby Maysen for the first time. She's adorable and very sweet natured. That evening all the girls, and Anthony, got to go out on the town. It was fabulous! I will forever be grateful to Grandpa Jim for babysitting. On the cab ride back to the house I got to experience a heavy dose of Rush mixed with really long mullet hair, this situation compounded with all the red wine/white wine/crown and sevens/beam and cokes I had became unbearably funny. Somehow the driver didn't catch all my nasty sarcasm and allowed me to take his picture. Just imagine Getty Lee screeching in the background.

Jeff and Bev arrived shortly after I got back from AZ. They came all the way from their new home in Edinburgh. We had a great time while they were here. I think John got his fill of playing Rock Star (maybe) and we did some the the requisite touristy stuff and showed them all around our little nook of Seattle. They went on by train and rental car to San Francisco to spend the last few days of their holiday.

All of the photos from the trip and from Jeff and Bev's visit can be viewed here.

Don't Blink, You'll Miss a Milestone

It has been a huge week for Owain. On Monday the 15th of Sept. he finally cut his first tooth. I had been closely monitoring the swollen gums on the bottom so imagine our shock when the tooth that actually cut through first was one on the top. Yesterday the bottom left popped though and today the bottom right showed itself. Poor kid, three teeth in one week! Also on Monday Owain took his first step. Since then he has been trying longer distances, he can do about three or four small steps unaided. He is also pointing to things and clapping and lots of waving now. The only downside of all this progress is the disruption of sleep. I didn't realize that learning to walk could make a baby not want to take a nap but there you go! He did the same when learning to crawl.

Bad, bad birthday cake

A week and a day ago John turned 35. Let's just say it wasn't the best day ever. First, I tried to make a chocolate cake from scratch, which I did just two weeks before and it turned out ok but this time I must've been distracted or something because I forgot BAKING SODA. Oops. I went ahead and put candles in it even though something didn't seem quite right and then we tasted it. YUCK! That was Monday night before the big birthday. Tuesday morning John was getting ready for work and couldn't find his wallet. We searched the house from top to bottom and finally came to the conclusion that it must have gotten lost sometime during the weekend. I spent the day calling all the restaurants, bars, and shops we went to over the three-day weekend, no luck. While John was at work I had planned to buy some presents and cook lasagne for dinner. He got a compost bin and we ordered pizza :( 36 will be fantastic I promise!!!

Thankfully the wallet was found before we ordered a replacement Green Card. Owain had gotten a hold of it and wedged it down between the stereo speaker base and the tv stand. John only found it because he discovered Owain trying to stuff something else down there.

We got some great photos of Owain at the park swinging. And at the bottom is a video of Owain stuffing a golf ball in his mouth, good stuff!

If there are large spaces in between paragraphs or this post just looks messy in general its because I GIVE UP trying to make it look pretty. I am missing some sort of technological know how.

PAX

Yesterday, we went to the Penny Arcade Expo downtown. It's a game festival organised by some local cartoonist. I got passes through work for Heather and I. Owain sneaked in without paying and headed straight for The Guild booth to have his piccy taken with Felicia Day.

This is Vegas wasn't actually on display at the show but there was a Midway booth showing games like Wheelman, a high-octane driving game that is most notable for enlisting the help of A-list mega-star Joe Borthwick Vin Diesel.

In general, I found the show every bit as impressive as the European Computer Trade Show that used to take place in London. But now, I'm just an ageing, jaded programmer whose life (and blog) has been stolen by a bald, tubby mute with no social skills or bowel control (yet somehow twice as much charm as me). He, on the other hand, had his eyes popping out of his head: everywhere bright lights and strange sounds and slightly funky-smelling people passing by in a continuous procession. Pity he won't remember any of it in a few days. I suppose we'll have to go back next year.

Not Much News

But I better blog anyway or I will hear the wrath! I'll just post a little about what Owain's been up to. He is able to walk all over as long as he's holding onto something with one hand. Lately he's been stealthily hugging the walls like he's in some action movie trying to sneak up on the baddies. He has been waving but he'll never do it on command. And he gives kisses but only when he feels really lovey. Just yesterday and more today he has started to give John and I things. He will place a toy in my hand, of course he immediately wants it back but I think the fact that he will actually put something in our hand and let go of it is a big deal! Also tonight he put a rusk (baby cookie) in John's mouth. I can't get over how cute I think these things are. If that's not enough cuteness here's Owain getting a bath in the kitchen sink from Daddy.

He was absolutely FILTHY DIRTY after the PEPS bbq we went to yesterday. It was at Carkeek Park which was a surprisingly lush forest only a 10 minute drive from our place. Owain crawled all over without even caring where we were. I'm pretty sure he ate his fair share of dandelions and grass/bark/sticks/dead leaves. It was a good time. Too bad I didn't bring my camera. I'm sure I will get some pics from the other moms.

Mmmmm Avocado

Its been a fun-filled week already and its only Thursday. Monday my Dad and Leroy arrived. They are on their annual motorcycle road trip. This year they'll be on the road for five weeks or more. While they were here they checked out our local bars the Viking and the Copper Gate and spent time watching Owain be his cute self. Speaking of the young sir he is doing something new. Dancing!! As soon as I can capture it on video I'll post it. My Dad left yesterday, they are off to Northern Washington, then Idaho, and Montana where they plan on attending the Testicle Festival. Those guys know how to have a fun. As Leroy says,"Its all good!"

Long Awaited Restaurant Review

I think this may be my new favorite picture of Owain. We were at the seafood festival last weekend and it was a hot day and poor O was late for his nap but he sure is cute even though he was being a bit of a sourpuss. I just realized that I never followed though on the promised review of How To Cook A Wolf. Let's see if I can actually remember anything from 2 weeks ago. We got there at 6:30pm and were told that there was a 2 1/2 hour wait so we gave the maitre de our cell phone number and went off in search of drinks and an appetizer. We ended up just down the street at Opal, another fancy restaurant. We ordered an appetizer each and a regular portion of pork belly to share. That was delicious and it also came with trotter fritters (fried pig's feet) YUM! We still had some time to kill so we found a cafe that served beer and wine and then of course 2 sips in the phone rang, our table was finally ready. We sat down at a comfortable table but the restaurant is pretty small. It was all copper and light wood the lighting gave it a warm, cozy feel. The menu consisted of appetizer-like selections the idea being a table of four might share 6 dishes which is exactly what we did. Anne and I hogged the scallops and heritage tomatoes, we also had some pasta, paninis and a lot of wine because I can't remember what else we ordered. It was a lovely evening and I'm glad we decided to spend our rare night out with new friends and try a restaurant that would have normally intimidated me.

I must include one more picture of the wading pool. It would be remiss of me not to.

Splish Splash

Owain went for a dip in the wading (paddling) pool at Green Lake Park today. Owain loves the water.

9 Months Old! Yesterday.

Owain is now nine months old and had his well visit at the doctor's yesterday. The new stats threw me for a loop. 28 1/2 inches-50%, 21lbs 2oz-60% and head circumference is at 85%. The doctor put my fears to rest saying that because he just learned to crawl he's burning a lot of extra calories and we can expect another small dip when he starts walking. Sounds reasonable to me but I am going to start feeding him a lot more solid foods. I started last night with carrots.

What a mess! In other news, my tryout for Wheel of Fortune did not go well. My name was never called so I didn't even get a chance to wow the judges with my sparkling personality:) We did get a lovely photo of the WheelMobile.

Tonight our babysitter is back from a 3 week hiatus so we will be hitting the town with friends Anne and Mike. We are going to a new restaurant called How to Cook a Wolf. Stay tuned for a review.

Baby Triathlon

I finally caught the camera-shy crawler burning up the carpet.

As I speak, he's wandering 'round the living room looking for things to climb on.

He can sort-of stand up for an instant.


He can also feed himself although this also is somewhat of a hit-and-miss affair.


Later today, we're going to Sequim near Olympic National Park so that Heather can audition for her favouritest TV show, Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of Fortune is hosted by mighty quiz-show overlord Pat Sajax. If you don't believe me, check out his no-nonsense website.

Victoria

For the 4th of July long weekend, we took a trip to Vancouver Island! It's easy to remember; it's the one where Vancouver isn't, also not to be confused with Vancouver, Oregon which isn't even in British Columbia.

We took the ferry from Seattle to Victoria early on Friday morning, passing right by the spot where the fireworks are set off each year in Elliot Bay. The baby was very good for most of the way but he often gets tired and emotional so...

Presenting for the first time anywhere in the world, evidence of Owain being a miserable git.

The area's premier tourist attraction is Butchart Gardens, described by one of Heather's friends as "Disney Land... but Flowers".

On Saturday evening, Heather an I ate seafood and I smoked a sneaky Cuban cigar. Owain managed to get some food in his gob, but not much. Tidy.

On Saturday, Owain had his first swim. Actually, he didn't really swim at all. I suggested we let him go and see if he would float. Heather vetoed that idea.

Later, we visited Miniature World. There's not a lot I can say about Miniature World that isn't covered in the name.

Then, we went Whale watching and saw a Minke.

And that's what I did on my 4th of July holiday weekend.

The End
*

Whirly-champ!

Do you remember me mentioning Whirlyball last December? Well, all of us Surreal programmers went back to the Edmonds Whirlyball Center yesterday ... and my team won! This was once I had figured out that my Whirlystrength lies in avoiding the Whirlyball itself at all times and instead obstructing the other team's Whirlybugs by loitering under our goal, driving slowly and occasionally cutting in front of other drivers ... so basically my normal driving style.

In other news, I invested in a new bike last weekend.

It's a Giant FCR 2 and it's sort of half-racer, half-mountain bike. I've ridden in to work on it three times so far. I'm going to try for the whole four days this week. I don't feel any fitter yet but my legs ache all the time. So that's good.

To our surprise, Heather managed to sell Jim's old street racer on Craig's List for quiet a few notes. I'm glad it's gone to a good home; the frame was too big for me and it was starting to seize up.

"Wait a minute, Whirlyjohn. Did you say four days?" That's right. Friday July 4th is a holiday and to feel better about not splurging out on a bicycle, Heather has splurged out on a holiday to Victoria on Vancouver Island. Activities involve whale watching and teaching Owain to swim in the hotel pool. Can't wait!

Finally, Owain started crawling on Thursday afternoon. I tried to film him at it yesterday but he wasn't in the mood. So far, the best way to get him to crawl in any particular direction is to place something dangerous or delicate/expensive there. Better still, encourage him to move in the opposite direction.

Heather is now all concerned that the flat isn't baby-proofed which it certainly isn't. We've started putting down obstacles between him and electrical outlets, easily tippable furniture and glowing hobs supporting rusty iron pots painted with lead and full of boiling bathroom bleach, under-ripe fruits and vegetables (which aren't properly liquidized) and sharpened bamboo shoots. This only seems to encourage him.

A Friendly Visit

Andee and Francisco brought thier sweet baby girl Isabel on an ambitious road trip from Orange County, CA all the way here and also made some other stops to visit family along the way. Here is Isa with Owain's foot creeping closer and closer.

She is a lovely baby and it was a lot of fun having them visit. We went to Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill near the bed and breakfast they stayed at.

On Tuesday night we ate at the Fisherman's restaurant down on the end of pier 57 and then Wednesday we checked out Pike Place Market. It's hard to believe that I've lived here for 7 months and haven't been to the top tourist attraction in Seattle, well maybe 2nd to the top, let's not forget the fabulous space needle. Here are the rest of the photies.

Walkies! Phase II

Lately Owain is getting restless indoors. It may be frustration at not being able to walk or even crawl yet but whatever it is the boy likes to get out of the apartment. We go for walks everyday and it reminds me of when I was pregnant and John and I would take my Dad's dogs for "walkies!" Owain's reaction to getting out in the fresh air is just like the little doggies. He gets really excited and can't sit still in the stroller.

The weather has finally warmed up here, to a measely 68 degrees, but I won't complain since the clouds have finally given way to the sun and 68 feels quite balmy to where we were a week ago. All of our walks in the sun during the past week have produced Owain's first freckle, a small dot on his right forearm. I slather him in sun cream but there's no denying the freckly genetics. His perfect complexion lasted 8 whole months!

We have visitors arriving tomorrow from Southern California, Andrea and Francisco and their new daughter Isabel. She is only 3 months old and I am thrilled to be around a teeny tiny baby again. We'll take loads of pictures and update after their visit. One more cute pic because I couldn't resist.

Father's Day

It was my first Father's Day on Sunday. I got a top and a framed picture of Owain and Me and a card of a donkey with bug eyes that Owain picked out himself. Heather bought a picnic hamper and we took it to the park. Here are our most recent photos.

I've started riding in to work. Last week it was sunny enough that I rode in twice. I'm still using Jim's old bike, yet I've managed to spend a small fortune in the bike shop down the road. Here are some pics from a week or so ago including my BMX Bandit Mad Skillz in a local supermarket car park.

Not enough snaps for you? Try this post on Bethany's blog which have a few pictures of the party. Turned out nice they did.

Finally, the latest, greatest version of my favorite web browser comes out today. Firefox 3.0 is released at 10am Pacific time and aims to set a world record for most downloads in one day. (This seems a little late as most of Tuesday has already happened in most of the world!)

Catch-up

Finally, here are some of the photos that Heather and I have taken with the new camera that Owain bought her for their first Mother's Day.

There's the trip to Wales:


Then we spent the Friday in Chepstow catching up with Jen and Emma and family.


Next there's the party itself. These didn't all come out so well. Do cameras have a special 'tent mode' these days? I should have checked.


And we've started modeling Owain in his new clothes so people can see whether they're any good at buying baby clothes...


Finally, here's a movie of your favorite diminutive slap-head...

Jack-in-the-box

It seems to get harder to find a spare moment to write a post. It's not like there's nothing going on. In the last fortnight, Heather had her first Mother's Day and we took a trip back to Wales where Mum and Dad threw a party in our honour.

I need to get the photos together from all of that very soon... but it's already ten o'clock on a school night. Before I head to bed to sleep off some more jet-lag, a big thank-you to everyone who turned up on Saturday. Owain says thank-you for all the clothes and toys. We're going to take pictures and movies of him modeling it all.

In the meantime, can anyone remember who game him this Jack-in-the-box?

Jake's Visit

My old schoolmate Jake was in town last weekend on the second leg of his US tour. We did lots of fun stuff like checking out Ballard's local beers, bars and bands.

On Saturday, we took a trip to Mount Rainier. It's the 21st most prominent mountain on Earth... but only on a clear day. On an average, cloudy Washington day, it's a lot of trees disappearing into the clouds.

On Sunday, we went to the Space Needle. The Space Needle is tall enough that the top and bottom have phone numbers with different area codes. Ironically, it gave us a good view of Mt Rainier.

Only two more days of work and then we fly to the UK. Woohoo!

Sometimes its sunny in Seattle

On Saturday the sun came out and the shades went on. Should I be embarrassed that this is my husband and son? Nah! They're pretty flippin cute. All Owain needs is a little Cuban cigar to complete his look.

Not sure if I have mentioned it in previous posts but I belong to a first time moms group called PEPS (Program for Early Parent Support). We have been meeting for 12 weeks. Yesterday was our last official meeting but we all love it so much that we've decided to continue meeting indefinitely. These ladies have come to mean a lot to me over the past three months. I honestly don't know how I would have muddled through moving to a new city with a new baby without our weekly talks. I tried to take a lot of pics during the meeting but I am a LAME photographer. Luckily our leader, Monique, took some group shots with my camera.
I know what your thinking, "What a bunch of hot moms!" And cute babies of course:) Two of the resident hotties aren't featured in this photo but I'm sure they'll get their moment of blog fame in the future.

6 Months Old Today

Its hard to believe that half a year has gone by already. To celebrate his half birthday Owain got to take a trip to the pediatrician's office and get immunizations Yay! Obviously, that sucked but the good news is that he won't have any more jabs until he's a year old. He was measured and weighed again. 27" long and 19.4 lbs. He is steadily growing and gaining weight but it has slowed a bit during the last two months. The doctor attributed this to him getting easily distracted while eating. This is so true! He turns his head at the slightest noise or movement. I may have to start feeding him in a darkened room. He has recently hit two major milestones. Sitting up unaided and rolling over. Below is a video documenting the incredible task of Owain rolling from his belly to his back. No more "tummy time" for this baby.

Eaty Photos Finally

He's had two meals now.





Yesterday, we left the house planning to check out our nearest Denny's over five miles away. (No, I don't know how we survive.) We got a little carried away and ended up taking a ferry ride to a place called Kingston. It's very picturesque with lots of coastline and moldy trees.

I don't normally bring my camera to Denny's so you'll just have to make do with this map of the ferry route:

View Larger Map

I only just convinced Heather that Kingston isn't on an island. The ferry crossing is 6½ miles but the drive would be 109 miles and over 170 without even crossing bridges. Google should never have given us Google Maps. Then I'd be sleeping right now.

Awww Mom, Not That Picture!!!!

I'd like to say we've been too busy to blog but that would be a big fat lie. Here is a synopsis of life in the McFarlane household for the past 2 weeks or so. On Easter Sunday Owain got his first taste of rice cereal (that's what the movie is of in the previous post). It was all very exciting and messy, maybe that's why we haven't done it since. I had a birthday, 33, woo..., John found a new recipe to make for dinner, chicken curry, we've had it 6 times, and Owain and I were in a little fender bender during a freak snowstorm. I slid into a big 4x4. Thankfully it didn't even wake Owain up and there was no damage to the other vehicle, my car on the other hand has quite a bit of expensive damage to the air conditioning and radiator. Its in the shop now and I hope by the time all the repairs are made we haven't had to sell our first born to cover the costs.

Dang, that's a lot of candles, almost set the smoke detector off!

And finally, the most recent picture of Owain. He's a "maniac", looking for "fame" in his awesome baby legwarmers

Sloppy Chops!

5 Months Old

That's right. Rocky is five today! For his birthday present, we thought we'd get him a handbag:


Actually, that's Heather's. It replaces the one she lost last week containing her driver's license and passport. Now with her identity lost, she lives on the outskirts of society, keeping to the shadows and paying mostly in cash. It's her birthday on Friday and as a special treat, I'm getting her a fake ID from some guy who hangs out at the local community college.

In case you've been living under rock, Wales won the Grand Slam! It appears that I can still listen to matches live on the radio without jinxing the team. However, I am never to watch another match on the telly in case that is what makes them lose.

Beddy-Byes

Last week, we trained Owain to go to sleep using the Cry It Out method. This requires a steely resolve and a bucket of fish. The most he cried was 25 minutes and on a couple of occasions, we've put him in his cot at 7.30 and he's barely whimpered. What a good baby!

Here are some more pictures. (I've added a bunch of links to my pictures page to make it easier to find all the baby pics. The rest of this posting is about sports and computers now so goodbye matriarchal hoards.)

On Saturday morning, I happened to be awake at 4.30; they haven't invented the And Stay Cried Out method yet. I put Radio Wales on to catch the last half hour of Rhod Gilbert and realised they were covering the Wales v Ireland Rugby match instead. So we got up, had breakfast and listened to the match. Wales are now proud winners of the Triple Crown and favourites to win the tournament and are tantalisingly close to winning the Grand Slam - about the best season I can remember. Just my luck it's all but impossible to watch the games here.

Later in the afternoon, I wandered to the supermarket with Owain and decided to venture in to the local computer shop. Everybody knows about their local warehouse-sized outlet like PC World or Fry's Electronics. People rarely spare a thought for the shabby premises just a few streets away from where they live. Drive past it and you'll probably miss it. There are no flashy signs, no shops fronts and certainly no customers going in or out.

ComProSof is a text-book example of the local computer shop. Check out the web site but remember where your back button is because this site was designed before hyper-links were invented. The owner sells consignments (which means you bring your old stuff in and they try and sell it for you). As a result, it's like an museum of obsolete computer parts. There's a shelf with about a dozen randomly assorted four and five-way parallel printer switchers. The hard-drives start at 4 gigabytes (which I think will set you back $5+tax) and I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of the software pre-dates Windows.

I feel that I'm going to have to build a new PC now just for the excuse to hang out there. I bought a hard-drive just for starters and spent a few hours yesterday and today converting the old Dell into a file and web server.

Bama!

Today was Owain's 4 month check-up at the pediatrician's. Here are the new stats: Height-26 1/2 inches (90th-95th percentile), Weight-18lbs (95th percentile), Head circumference-43.6cm (80th percentile). He is on target with all milestones including grabbing and holding objects, my hair always and whatever glass I'm drinking out of, squealing with delight, it sounds like he's trying to communicate with dolphins or Mariah Carey, he's discovered his tongue and is constantly sticking it out, he also recognizes John and I now and gets a little separation anxiety. The one thing he's not doing is rolling over but the doc explained that big babies take a little while longer to do this. I think it's kind of funny that he's too fat to roll his big butt over. The most enjoyable new thing he's doing is laughing. John can make him hysterical by propping him up on the couch and then putting a pillow on his belly he then beats on it like a drum and the kid goes wild. What a weird sense of humor, wonder where he got that? He also received more immunizations today ugh! At least the nurse warmed up her hands before touching him this time and he only cried for a minute.

I hope you don't mind me putting up this picture Kristi! I returned from my trip to see Kristi and her family on Tuesday. In the photo you can see the pot of gorgeous cheese fondue that we totally pigged out on while watching the Oscars. I found the program pretty good this year. John Stewart made a good host and the highlight for me was Marion Cotillard winning for Best Actress and giving a charming acceptance speech. The director, "rocked her life" and she was"full of joy, sparkles, and fireworks" To give her credit I think she only learned English in the past year. Kristi's children, Emerson 4 1/2, and Isaiah 16 months were just adorable and they both were pretty enamoured with Owain. Emerson was very conscientious about keeping him happy, always bringing toys to him and singing songs and making funny faces to make him smile and Isaiah actually kissed him on the head! And tried to climb into the carseat with him haha. To my shame I have no pictures of those cute kids, well, about 7 of Emerson turning her face away from the camera. All in all it was a good trip. Owain slept between 9 and 10 hours a night while we were there, which is the longest he has EVER slept and I got to spend some quality time with my best gal who I miss already!