visiting friends

On Sunday, Owen and I left Travis and Max behind and went on a trip by ourselves! We spent Sunday through Wednesday in Columbia, MO visiting my friend, Abbey, and her son, Harrison. Abbey and her husband, Scott, just bought a house and moved in about a month ago. I went to help with painting, hanging pictures, and all the other things that need to be done when you’re settling in. Abbey and I had a great time catching up and watching the boys play. Harrison is 4 months old and such a sweet, happy baby!

Abbey and I can’t wait until Owen and Harrison are old enough to play together. Right now, this is as close as it gets…

Owen is very much on the move these days…which means, he’s into EVERYTHING! Often, he gets angry when he’s not allowed to go into a certain area of the house (the bathroom, the stairs) and then proceeds to whine/scream, making it clear he is not happy with my parental decision. Unfortunately, Abbey and Scott got to witness a great many moments of Owen’s displeasure! (Please let this be a short-lived phase!!)

Even though Owen had moments when he was a bit high-maintenance, he had so much fun playing with Finley (the dog). They LOVED playing ball together. Owen is very into throwing, and Finley was into catching (even though the ball never made it more than about a foot).

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our dark knight review

It’s as good as they say. Deep story. Ledger’s performance. Great action. Heavy themes. Emily and I still find ourselves talking about it.

Being in the ad biz, however, I find it pretty irresponsible that so many “kids brands” (I’m looking at you, General Mills) have tied themselves to the movie. Either the studio or the brands checked out when it came to responsibly negotiating sponsorships for this one. Call me a prude, but a movie in which a terrorist in clown makeup cuts people’s mouths open with a knife, unleashes dogs on victims, and takes part in burning a man’s face in half probably doesn’t belong on cereal boxes. Just sayin’.

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50th percentile!!

Today we went in for Owen’s 14 month check-up. I always get excited to see how much he’s grown since the last time he was weighed and measured. I’ve gotten very used to people commenting on what a big boy Owen is and how he’s very stocky. I enjoy the fact that Owen is not a “fragile” baby; rather, he is quite solid! Being the solid baby that he is, he’s always measured in the 90th percentile (and above) for height and weight. This time, I was surprised to hear that he is in the 50th percentile for weight (weighing 23 lbs. 12 oz.) and the 75th percentile for height (31.5 inches). The doctor mentioned that it is good that his weight is leveling off as he continues to grow older. I’m excited that he’s not growing as fast…he’ll be able to wear his clothes a little bit longer!

We learned that Owen is right on track with all his milestones (talking, walking, feeding himself, etc…). She asked me if Owen has developed a sense of humor. I had to chuckle when she asked me that, considering Owen performs on command just to make us laugh. (If you don’t remember the “superhero”, check out this post.) On that note, a few weeks ago I noticed that Owen was being silly and standing on his knees and then falling flat on his belly with his arms straight above his head. I taught him to do that on command when I say, “Take a bow!”. Now he can’t get enough! He loves to take bows. He even says “bow” after he does it. We are currently working on the rollercoaster…raising his arms above his head and saying “wooo” when we’re on walks and the stroller goes fast.

Okay, I just reread that last paragraph. We sound like the weirdest parents ever. I mean, who trains their kids to do tricks?

Anyway, I captured a video of Owen walking around the house. Check it out! I love how he does the Frankenstein walk with his legs stiff and his arms not quite sure of their role in this whole walking process!  (By the way, excuse the sound…it’s pretty creepy sounding for some reason.  Not quite sure why.  I promise that my house doesn’t really sound that way!)

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“it’s not a comic book…it’s a graphic novel!”

The above statement was a bit of a reoccuring joke on our recent vacation to Florida. Allow me to explain.

My selected reading for our trip was what is considered the Citizen Kane of graphic novels – Watchmen, written by Allan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons.

Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with graphic novels, you would’ve fit right in on our trip. Neither Emily, her parents, or her brother knew what they are, much less ever read one. In short, it’s a story told in comic book form (illustrations, word bubbles, etc.), only it has a story line that’s intricate enough to be considered a piece of fiction comparative to a novel. Many are actually quite cinematic in scope, which is why so many graphic novels have been made into films in the past few years (300, V For Vendetta, and Sin City to name a few).  I’m by no means an expert on the genre, but I’d heard so many good things about Watchmen from friends and mainstream critics (it made Time’s 100 Best Novels list), and I knew it was being made into a movie, so I figured I should do my geekly duty and check it out.

Anyway, throughout our vacation, people kept asking me, “So Travis, how’s your comic book?” To which I would defensively respond, “It’s a graphic novel!”, trying to convince them that my reading selection was clearly high brow. The family found this humorous and were determined to call it a comic book as much as humanly possible. Emily even went as far as to call it my “cartoons.” 

So, as a graphic novel, comic book, cartoon – whatever – I can say that it’s worth all the hype. As suggested by critics, the story is genre-breaking and incredibly told. It’s hard for me to imagine the movie doing it justice, but the trailer (which just came out last week) has me hopeful. It’s directed by the same fella who did 300, and the slow/fast motion technique seems to reign supreme once again. Cool by me. It’s a fun trick. Check it out and let me know what you think. Also see the article in the latest Entertainment Weekly.

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14 months!

Last Thursday, Owen turned 14 months old!  The big news this month is that Owen is walking!  He’s been taking steps for about a month, but now I feel comfortable saying that he is walking.  For a while he chose to crawl from place to place, even though he was capable of walking.  This past weekend, he started walking almost all the time and crawling only rarely.  Big stuff!  I’m pumped up about this because playing outside is going to be SO much more fun now!  We’ll try to capture his cute little baby steps on video so you can see him in action.  Stay tuned…

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four years ago right now…

…we were getting married!

Happy Anniversary, Travis!

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feel the funk

As I’ve mentioned before, Owen likes to dance. Now that he’s standing all the time (and walking more and more), he’s adopted a new move. The music begins. He grabs hold of the closest steady object. And he headbangs with great intensity while rocking his entire body back and forth. You’d think the kid was in a mosh pit for one-year-olds. Anyway, here’s a video of O-man jamming to some Beck.

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showbiz rocks on

The Rock-afire Explosion, a.k.a. the animatronic band that owned the stage at Showbiz Pizza in the 80s, apparently didn’t break up after Chuck-E-Cheese became the joint’s new owner. According to a new documentary coming out, The Rock-afire crew has been kicking it in some dude’s basement…and he and/or others have been introducing them to some hot new jamz. The whole series of songs and videos is a great blend of nostalgia, comedy and plain weirdness.

The below video of Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” is one of my favs. Mitzi Motzarella-ella-ella’s performance is just creepy enough to haunt your dreams.

Also catch Rock-afire Explosion’s cameo in MGMT’s Electric Feel video.

Thanks to Tony for sharing.

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destin, florida…the last few days

The few days of our trip have been just as relaxing as the first couple. We’ve continued to go out to the beach several hours a day, and still have time to play tons of games and do our fair share of shopping at the outlet mall. Today is our last day, and unfortunately it’s been raining almost all day long…which is why I’m sitting here blogging instead of getting those last few rays of sun to complete my tan. Bummer. Anyways, here are some pictures that highlight our trip…

We’ve really enjoyed taking walks on the beach at sunset. Owen enjoyed putting his feet in the sand without having to get his whole body caked in the stuff. Here are a couple pics from our sunset walks…

As you might notice, Owen has really been working on his walking this week. He’s taking up to 10 steps by himself before crouching down and crawling. We think that he figures he can get places faster by crawling, so why should he put forth the effort to try to walk? I guess he won’t always feel that way, and he will eventually walk!

It was so sunny at the beach, and Owen had such an active interest in other people’s sunglasses that we figured he needed a pair of his own. My mom (Grammy) bought him some at the Carter’s factory store. I love this picture of my men in their shades!

I debated putting this next picture on the blog because, well, who really wants their backside on the internet for the world to see? But, the cuteness factor won out…so here’s a pic of my mom and me taking Owen on a little walk down the beach:

On Wednesday night, Travis took me to a restaurant called The Back Porch to celebrate our 4th anniversary (which isn’t until next week, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat seafood at the beach!). My parents were more than willing to watch Owen for the night, so we enjoyed a night out on the town and ate some delicious fish…Travis ate shrimp, and I got mahi-mahi. Yum!

I love the beach, so I was hoping that Owen would as well. I wouldn’t say he LOVED the beach, but he enjoyed it in small doses. We found many ways to keep him occupied. One day he was really into climbing on our beach chairs.

Another day he was really into splashing around in buckets filled with water.

But nothing entertained him like Uncle Nate’s Elmo t-shirt! We thought it was hilarious that Nate found this and bought it so he could wear it for Owen. We thought it was only fitting that we have Owen wear his Elmo shirt as well.

We’ve had a blast this week in Florida. We’re sad for our vacation to end, but excited to get home to see Max. Owen’s excited to see his doggy again. We’ll be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning to drive to Memphis. We’re going to spend the night with Travis’ aunt, uncle, and cousin. We’re excited to have a place to stay to break up the trip a bit. Before I get back to enjoying the last bit of my vacation, here’s one more picture of cute little Owen…

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destin, florida…the first couple of days

The first 3 days of our Florida vacation have been fabulous!  The weather has been absolutely perfect.  When we thought about taking a trip to Florida in July, we figured the weather would be miserably hot…we were so wrong (at least during this week!).  It has been in the 80’s and sunny everyday with a slight breeze.  The waves have been great!  The first day they were very calm, but the last 2 days they have been pretty good sized, so big that I almost gave the beach a bit of a show while diving for the frisbee…

Anyway, you’re probably wanting to see some pictures of our time here in Florida.  I have tons more on my camera that I haven’t uploaded yet, but here are a couple for ya.  By the way, you can tell they come from the first day of our vacation considering the lack of a tan…

Like you’ve seen in other posts, Owen is very into sunglasses (so much so, that we had to buy him a pair of his own down here).  Here’s a pic of him playing with Grammy’s glasses:

My brother, Nate, and Travis took advantage of the small waves on Monday and took Nate’s kayak out on the water.

We have two more days here in Destin before we leave to go home.  We’re planning on spending that time living at the beach and soaking up the sun.  Hopefully I’ll have time to upload some more of our beach pictures before we leave, but if not, expect a long post when we get home!

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