Fall = Pumpkin Patches = Awesome

It's hot in the summer in Florida. Every day. After a while you get used to it, but you never stop thinking about that first cool day that will arrive in late September/early October. Two weeks ago that day arrived. Humidities dropped, daily rain went away, and everyone remembered why they put up with 5 months of heat and humidity.

Pumpkin patches rock!

I love fall in Florida. You can't beat it. Highs in the low to mid 80s, lows in the 60s, and nothing but sunshine. And fall just so happens to coincide with pumpkin patch season. Today we visited the same pumpkin patch we visited with Owen last year when he was only six months old. Everything was the same as we remembered it except for the little kid we had that was running from the horses to the pumpkins to the hay bales to the ponies, and more.

We had a wonderful time and took a bunch of pictures that turned out great. Click the picture above and you can view our photos from our pumpkin patch trip.

Next weekend...corn maze!

Owen Playing in the Rain

If there is one person that is A-OK with the daily afternoon storms in Florida it's our son. Here he is enjoying the great outdoors and reveling in the rain!

Reflections On One Year As A Dad

When I see people out and about I make the obligatory comment about how fast the first year has gone, but between you and me, it's been a long year. I'm not saying that that is a bad thing; I'm just saying that the first year as a parent did not just fly by. In fact, I think that's a great thing because there is a ton to absorb in the first 365 days.

Every so often Bridget and I will reminisce about the first 6 weeks and how hard it was. I don't know how many times we looked at each other in those initial weeks and said, "If someone comes to the door and asks for Owen, they can have him." (In jest of course). I used to think it was rough sleeping on the couch over a weekend until I had to do it for the first six months of Owen's life. Fortunately, both the Magic and the Penguins were in the playoffs during that time so it made the 7:00-12:00 shift a little more bearable.

And then there were the illnesses. Nothing major, thank goodness, but I remember the morning that Owen woke up and just started throwing up. There we were on a Saturday morning trying to decide whether to call the doctor or go straight to the hospital. We must have had "New Parents" plastered on our foreheads as we walked into the ER with our kid who had nothing more than a stomach bug. These days we take colds and coughs in stride and have become good friends with Tylenol for those "low grade" fevers.

Owen moved out of the "Baby House" on Friday. It's a detached home owned by the Methodist school that runs his daycare where babies from 6 weeks to 1 year can be found. Wow, what a transformation. He started there just 43 weeks ago as a baby who couldn't even sit up on his own or hold his own bottle and leaves there as a toddler who feeds himself, plays on his own, and even takes a step or three every once-in-a-while. I'm really happy with our choice for daycare. I know it's not for everyone, but I believe that his teachers have pushed him to do things that otherwise his pushover parents would not have been as forceful about.

It's funny that when you have a baby everyone you meet that has a slightly older baby tells you that it only gets better from there. Man, are they right! Like I said, at 6 weeks Owen had us at our wit's end. By three months, he was tolerable. By 6 months, he was enjoyable. And now, at a year, he's a blast! It's so much fun to have him understand a lot of what we say to him even if he can't talk back. And sometimes he'll just look at us and smile or laugh, which never gets old. Sure, there are downsides to getting older like his developing temper tantrums, but I will take a 10 second tantrum over sleeping on the couch with a baby that won't sleep in his crib any day!

Owen is a wonderful kid. I hope all parents feel that way about their kids (at least after the first 6 weeks are over). Sure, we'd like to have a kid that was a little more laid back and didn't need to be moving and going ALL of the time, but it keeps life fun and I can only imagine that it translates into his awesome sleeping habits at night. I wouldn't change anything about him.

And then there is Owen's mom. Bridget is a wonderful mother. She loves Owen so much and is so good with him. And she's done a ton for me letting me travel for work more than I would like to. Owen is one lucky kid to have a mom like Bridget.

Being a dad is unbelievably difficult but unbelievably rewarding. Bridget and I have no life. We consider it a big thing to sneak out to the Olive Garden to have lunch during the week while Owen is in daycare. You'd think that we would want to go out on dates and have babysitters all the time but the couple times we have done that we end up missing the little guy.

I'm still not convinced that I would want to go through it all again. The thoughts of those first couple weeks still haunt me. But it's the times when I see my 1 year old look at me and let out a big laugh that at least have me giving it some consideration.

Owen's First Year

Owen is 1 year old today and, wow, what a year! I thought it'd be fun to put together this quick picture slideshow to watch his progression from being 6 hours old to 1 year old. Each picture, except for the first of course, was taken on the 1st of each month. Enjoy!

Owen in his Birthday Suit!

He's not exactly naked, but then again, he's not exactly 1 year old...yet. The big 0-1 is Thursday!!

How Did We Get Here?!

Owen had a rough weekend. He was cranky, which isn't too unusual. The little guy is starting to understand his world and gets frustrated when things don't go his way. But he was extra cranky this weekend. I think it might have been constipation, since neither his father nor I had the pleasure of changing a poopy diaper for over a day.

Actual text message from my husband this morning: Owen pooped. A lot.

My actual response: Thank god! He might feel lots better now.

I'm not quite sure when we crossed that line - you know, the one that divides our lives into "the years we don't write about poo" and "the years that it's okay to write about poo." I'm a little distressed to discover that I not only find it appropriate to talk about poo so casually, but I do so with glee. Owen pooped!

I'm so sorry we've left you all hanging for so long! Life gets busy and we don't have time to blog. At least, that's the excuse I'm using today!

Lots has happened since our last post on January 3. We got new neighbors; the house next door was finally rented out, after nearly 10 months of blissful quiet. We're reserving judgment on the new folks, but keeps your eyes peeled for a new blog post announcing that we're moving. :)

Owen is "walking." Wait, let's back up. You may not know yet that Owen is crawling; he started doing that during Christmas vacation in PA and he's been a little mobile warrior ever since. He's already pulling himself up and cruising along every couch, table and toy in the house. Every once in a while, when he's not thinking about it, he'll let go and just stand there, unaided, testing out his little legs. It's awesome!

He still doesn't wear shoes, but I have a feeling that walking unaided will be much more likely once Owen can wear shoes. Right now, he's got chubby little feet and can't fit into any shoes! We bought size 4 wide, but that doesn't help when his foot has half an inch of fat on top. I'm certain, though, that the fat pad will shrink the more he moves; in fact, we already see little dimples in his cheeks now that he's starting to lose some baby fat on his face. Super cute!!

The big 0-1 is coming up on April 1. I can't believe how fast the year has gone by!

Giving the Hut a New Look

For those of you that have been to our house or have heard us talk about it you've either seen or heard about "the hut." For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the hut is what we call the small concrete structure that we have sitting in our back yard. All of the lots in our area are zoned "R-2," which means that they can have up to two residential units in a single lot. We're not sure if the hut was ever used as a dwelling but for us it works as some much needed storage.

The hut is 250 sq. ft. and the interior was in poor shape when we bought the house. It needed a new coat of paint, the linoleum tile was grey and ugly, and there was the frame of what was once a closet stretching from wall to wall on one end that was now just a bunch of 2x4s and '70s wood paneling.

One Saturday while Bridget was pregnant with Owen I decided that I was going to take down the closet frame to buy us more room for storage in the hut. Since Owen is now over 9 months old you can infer how long ago that was. Since then I've been working for an hour or two whenever I have had time to turn the hut into something a little bit cleaner and more organized. As of today I finally finished.

The finished look

In the end, as you'll see in the pictures, it turned out OK. I put a coat of primer and paint on the ceiling and all of the walls, ripped out the tile on the floor and put down a coat of primer and concrete stain, and installed the Rubbermaid FastTrack system along part of one of the walls to really help with organizing some of the bigger items.

The FastTrack system really helps to save space and better organize larger items

I am quite impressed with the FastTrack system. There are a number of systems like it on the market, but this one was at my local Home Depot and the whole thing including the two tracks and all of the accessories on which to hang everything cost me $150. Since I was hanging the rails on concrete instead of drywall I could not use the screws and anchors they provided. So I drilled holes using my Bosch hammer drill and used 3/16" x 2 1/4" Tapcon screws to secure the rails to the wall. Pretty sure those rails aren't going anywhere. The FastTrack accessories just snap onto the rail, no screws or tools necessary, so I can rearrange things within minutes if needed.

It was a long project and took about 12 times as long as it should have (sometimes having a baby to take care of will do that), but I am pleased with the result. Now, the only question is what project do I tackle next???