The Proof is in the Potty and Other Current Events

Well since our return from spring break in Texas time has flown by! Every time Owen awakes from a nap he is literally bigger. We couldn't really understand this phenomenon except for the fact that he is nursing through most of his naps and the night, so it is indeed conceivable that he awakes bigger or at least with a fuller diaper.

Owen has had such an eventful month that I'm not even sure where to begin. Here is just a brief list of his activities over the past several weeks. I think we might have to save this list for future evidence incase he ever makes the claim that he didn't ever do anything fun as a kid.  Yes we are already anticipating the future parenting challenges where we will no longer be the most exciting, wonderful, and cool parents ever. As of now, our ability to blow raspberries and play peekaboo hold us in high regard with the little guy. That and I'm the lady with the milk.

Over the past month, Owen went to:

1.  Joni's 30th birthday in Los Angeles, an elite event for baby hipsters complete with Martha Stewart inspired tree decorations and designated stroller parking. Owen got to hang out with his best bud Noah, where they swapped strategies for sleep resistance I'm sure one of them learned through a back channel from a baby with connections in the Bush administration.  Yes sleep deprivation is a form of torture. Ask any mom with a teething baby. The day was capped with the boys nursing as the warm April day turned dusky and cool.  We then headed back to the Surette-Nelson pad where Noah and Owen shared a tubby, and yes, we have the pictures for future blackmail.
2. World Cultures Fair at San Diego City College. Owen has become a regular at mom's campus events, where he already has a following of groupies. Owen especially loved the latin drummers and dancers. He bounced his legs as he had an afternoon snack provided by mom. Once he was done nursing, he was thumping along to the music while I held him up standing.  We can pray at this point he developed from some recessive gene a sense of rhythm, but I'm a glass is half empty kind of realist, so the odds are not in his favor based on his pairs lack of dancing ability. 
3. The next day-Earth Fair.  Owen and I learned all about the different types of Terns from the volunteers at the Famosa Slough booth and promised we would come for a clean up day soon, since the Slough is literally in our backyard.  Owen made a dashing impression in his Kermit the Frog "It's Easy Being Green" organic onsie from his great grandma Joan and his bowler hat. We got organic heirloom tomato and squash seedlings from the college's garden and planted them in pots on the balcony. Considering Laila's track record for eating our vegetation during emotional distress (this is was the fate of last years tomatoes, squash, green beans, two avocado trees Drew grew from seeds, and a rosebush). I'm also not so optimistic, but Owen likes watering and observing their growth while they remain in the natural world.
4. San Diego Art Walk in Little Italy. I would officially say that Owen missed most of this event since he spent the majority of the time either snoozing or chowing down under my nursing cover, although he did take in some of the art and people watch.
5. First visit to a fine restaurant. After the art walk, we headed to Balboa Park where we ate dinner at the Prado. Owen didn't choose to cooperate with the fine dining experience, and I spent most of the time walking the perimeter of the outside patio nursing him watching Drew eat my dinner from a distance. It could have been nice.
6. Body Works show. After dinner we headed to the Body Works show at the Natural History Museum, one of those traveling exhibits with all of the preserved cadavers.  Owen was really fascinated by it. Although, he was confused as to why the people he was talking to didn't talk back. He also liked the echo of his own voice in the large halls. Owen has since returned during his daily visits to Balboa park with his grandma Eleanor, and he was interested in different aspects of the exhibit on his second trip.
7. Almost weekly weekend trips to Los Angeles.  Owen has become a true trooper when it comes to the almost weekly trips we have been making to Los Angeles.  A combination of factors have been pulling us up on the weekends.  Drew and my brother Neil are starting a t-shirt company and have had a lot of work to do. Check out www.adrenlnindustries.com or find them on facebook. I have been going to see the chiropractor I have been seeing since childhood to fix my bulging disk since I haven't been able to find a decent one in San Diego. And then there was the recent addition to the equine family. Yes that's right, my mom bought Owen a pony.  We haven't posted the pictures yet, but promise to do so soon. Miss Misty Star, that's what happens when three people name a pony, is a handful, but we've never had a horse that wasn't, so there's nothing new there. She and Owen have already begun their love affair. Her favorite game is run away and chase me, but when Owen is at the fence she comes right up to him. When Grandma Eleanor was riding her she bucked and hopped, but when Owen was on her back for a cruise around the neighborhood she was a careful as she could be.  Owen loved every minute of it, as he happily babbled and drooled. He alternated clutching her mane and attempting to lean forward and much her withers.
8. Cinco de Mayo. Owen loved watching the beautiful flowing skirts of the dancers at City College's festival. 

Owen's other developments include rolling around and inching round on his tummy. He is really serious about figuring out this crawling thing. He continues to babble non-stop, some of it more intelligible that others. I'm "Mim." Drew is "Da." Grandma and Grandpa are "Gra." And Laila is "Laila." We have been trying to teach Owen to say "Puh" for potty since he is learning how to use his little potty. 

Yes that's right. A week before he turned 5 months, Owen began regularly using his little potty. You can look at our Flickr account if you don't believe us, and yes you know who you are you doubters.   Some may argue we are setting up Owen for years of therapy or some deep-rooted Freudian issues, but there is actually a lot of research suggesting that infants can use the potty long before they are conventionally potty trained.  We didn't know any of this when we got him a potty. We just figured since whenever we took off his diaper he peed, we would get him a little potty and put him on it.  This was two weeks ago and he generally pees in his potty 7-10 times a day. Sometimes the stats are much lower.  We have had lucky stretches where he goes with a dry diaper all afternoon and will wake up from long naps or at night with a dry diaper and head straight to the potty, but he still has plenty of wet diapers, which is fine. We are still learning his cues, and we don't always make it there in time.  The biggest challenge is convincing him that it is okay to go pee before nursing when he wakes up. He is convinced it a ploy to starve him, but if he pees first he'll keep his diaper dry otherwise he ends up peeing while he nurses.  We have a very low stress attitude about the whole thing.  Drew after all learned positive reinforcement training with his work during the dolphins, which is what we use, but Owen's own greatest reward is in the pot. He loves to look at how much pee or poop is in it and watch it get poured in the big potty. Interestingly, he has pooped exclusively in the potty minus one time when we were out since we got the potty. This certainly makes cleaning cloth diapers a bit easier. Grandma Eleanor keeps an extra little potty in her car for Owen to use on their daily trips to Balboa park.  Owen is becoming quite a regular on the museum circuit. He has officially been to more museums there than Drew or me.

When Owen was in Texas, he was in the throes of teething hell.  At least it was probably hell for the people stuck on a plane listening to him scream. It made us sad that he wasn't as outgoing and happy as he usually is and he was much clingier than normal. Since our return, the teething had stopped and we had a merciful reprieve from the fussiness, although the chewing and drooling remained constant.

Only this past Thursday did the teething return, but for some reason right now Owen is sleeping his first quite night in days, which is why you are able to read this marathon blog posting dear reader.

Well there is more to report, but it the clock is about to strike midnight, and I might actually turn into a pumpkin if I don't go to sleep so I can get up and grade papers and teach in the morning in addition to all of my mothering duties. I am happy to report that I a spoiled by grandma Eleanor who makes the coffee and my almond butter toast in the morning while I am in the shower. Although, without her help I probably would just starve and would have lost 5 lbs by now so it is a toss up.  

I hope I will have time to write more soon and continue to update on our precious, precious angel.  His laugh might be single-handedly responsible for the melting of the polar ice caps. It is that great. I swear it turns even the most frigid into cooing puddles.