Grandma Time

Grandma Pam came for a brief visit this week and bestowed lots of love and cuddles on our little man. Owen and I especially enjoyed the company, as Nate had to work 12+ hour days both days she was here. To 'add insult to injury', he's also been battling a cold (or perhaps a mild case of H1N1?) all week, too. Luckily, Owen and I remain healthy, thanks to Nate's diligent hand-washing and self-imposed quarantine from the baby.


At 10 weeks old, Owen is continuing to gain head control, though maybe not as quickly as some other babies his age, due to the size of his gigantic noggin! The little guy doesn't seem to like 'belly time' too much as a result, but he's getting better and better by the day, and stronger, too.

He's smiling when he wants to, and making attempts at laughter (little shrieks of delight or baby bird noises at this point). Here's a smile caught on camera!

Temperatures are in the 50s here this weekend! I was gearing up for snow by Thanksgiving, but it looks like we'll escape into December before any of the white stuff shows up (famous last words?). Today is the first day of the regular gun deer season in WI and Nate is wistfully wishing he were out in the woods. Instead, he's busy grading lab reports all weekend....at least the end of the semester is in sight now - less than one month to go before the winter break. I think Nate will need it as much as the students...

Here's short video of little Owen on the beautiful penguin quilt made by his Grandma Pam. I believe Owen is trying to say is "you've had me here on my back for quite a while now and I'd like a change of scenery, please."

Visitors for the weekend

This past weekend, we hosted the Van Horn family at our house. Kevin and Kathy are both friends of Nate's from his undergraduate days at Grand Valley State University (MI). They have two fun - and energetic! - kids, Shea (7) and Nolan (nearly 4). The kids were eager to bestow lots of love and affection on little Owen. And we learned some important lessons about being parents:

1. Kids have endless energy. We spent a lot of time outside, playing on the swing set, and tossing/kicking the soccer ball, football, and frisbee they brought with them. Shea found a harmonica buried in the sandbox, which she would then play to 'soothe' Owen. Surprisingly, he actually really seemed to like it! Our basement became the play room, where Nolan was free to crash his toy cars and dinosaurs together as much as he pleased. And still, they were running circles around us by the end of the day.
   
2. Kids ask a lot of questions. Nolan was a steady stream of them: why doesn't Owen eat food? how did Owen get out of your belly? why won't Owen hold my hand? why is Owen only 2 months old? why do you have to hold Owen so much?
   
3. Kids don't mind getting dirty. Grass stains, crumbs, spilled milk, dirt. They just continue going about their business no matter how much stuff they have caked to their faces! We were constantly reminding them "lets wash our hands before we play with the baby!"

Our weekend highlights included lots of playtime in the backyard, lunch at Lambeau Field on Saturday, a trip to the zoo on Sunday, where the kids got to feed giraffes and hear lions roar, and evenings spent reading books.

Through all the new noises and commotion, Owen seemed to do pretty well. He's been sleeping like a dream lately - going more than 7 hours straight at night. We'll see how long this trend continues....

Lambeau Field

In the beautiful sunny, 60 degree weather we had today, Nate and I decided to take the tour of Lambeau Field. Quite impressive! Under the statues of Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi, we learned all about Packer history and lore. The Packers are publicly owned by upwards of 110,000 shareholders, their Pro Shop is by far the most financially successful of all the NFL teams, and games have been sold out since the 1960s. Season tickets can be passed down to family as far removed as 1st cousins. Thousands of people remain on the waiting list....But thanks to their support of a stadium expansion that was paid for by local tax dollars, residents of Brown County can annually enter a lottery system drawing for 6000 seats that were part of the expansion.


The tour ends by taking participants out the very tunnel that the Packers use to run out onto the field, and with piped-in audio of fans cheering, it's easy to feel the excitement of playing for such a beloved team!


Owen was so excited that he slept through most all of the tour.

November

Time is really flying by... Owen is 8 weeks old and it's already November. Flipping through the local radio stations recently, I couldn't help but notice that a couple of them have already switched to 'all holiday music' - already?!

We suited up in our local colors again last Sunday, hoping for a Packers victory over the Vikings on the home turf, but to no avail....at least we were entertained by all the local hoopla over the return of Brett Favre in his Viking purple. The Friday before the game, the mayor encouraged folks to wear "flip-flops" to work; they held a mock funeral for Favre on Sat, and many people dyed their #4 jerseys black. Seems that most people around here think of Favre as the ultimate traitor to have come back to play for the Packers arch-rival...as one sports commentator put it - "it's like divorcing your wife and then marrying her sister."

Anyway, life goes on... Nate stays very busy all week long preparing for and teaching his lectures and labs. Owen and I hold down the home front pretty well. We've been enjoying nice weather still, so I look forward to our daily walks.

Here's a shot of our little guy modeling his cloth diapers, which have come a long way since the days of vinyl covers and and diaper pins...


And one of many hats that Owen will don this coming season...I love the ear flaps!