6 1/2 months old

Owen turned 6 months a couple weeks ago but we just switched insurances and thus, we've found a new doctor and I LOVE her. Today was our appointment and Owen was all smiles.
If any of you have heard me complain about our old pediatrician you'll know how excited I am for a new one! We went to the other dr. because I was able to keep my Motion Picture health insurance for 2 years after leaving my job. Amazing. And the benefits were fabulous....totally 100% free everything...doctors and hospitals. The only downside was that the pediatrician in their network was in Sherman Oaks and she was a bit of an over-reactor and prescriber. She was personable, but drove me crazy. So, I got a recommendation from a couple friends for a dr. here in Pasadena. And she was totally great!. The office was fairly empty with a fabulous waiting room, we were in and out of there in about 45 minutes, we found parking on the street, AND my stroller fit through all the doors! I guess I'm excited to go back in a few months?
All in all, Owen is healthy and here are a few stats on our little guy:

* weight: 16 lbs, 11 oz (25th percentile)
* height: 27 inches (50th percentile)
* drinks 4-6 oz of Soy Formula every 3 hours
* started Rice Cereal again and he isn't too into it yet. But I predict he's going to be our eater (compared to Lucy)
* he SLEEPS!...for 12 hours each night and has been doing that for about a month. Some nights he'll wake up in the middle of the night but I give him his pacifier and he calms down. In fact the last two days have been the perfect schedule: everyone up at 7am, Owen naps from 8:30 to 10am while I get stuff done around the house and Lucy plays, out of the house for errands, Lucy and Owen down for naps from 12-3pm, an afternoon outing, baths around 6pm, Owen in bed by 7pm, Lucy up till 8:30/9pm. I would prefer that Lucy went to bed earlier but I also love having some hours during the day to myself. Thus, she continues to take a nap.
* Rolls to his stomach immediately when placed on his back. Can almost roll to his back again.
* Sits for a few seconds but we're working on it.
* LOVES his jumper. It took him a while to warm up to it. But he's figured it out. When he's on your lap he also wants to jump.
* He mostly loves to watch Lucy all day long. No matter what mood he's in, when Lucy enters the room he perks up and smiles at her. When she dances, he squeals. I'm sure he can't wait to get down and play instead of watching from a distance:
* He still has his good days and bad days. Some days he's a bit cranky and needy. Mostly he just wants to be where the action is. But since I can't hold him all day long, he doesn't always get his way. His good days are becoming more frequent though and I love that. He sure is a cutie. Still smiling, even after a round of 3 vaccination shots:

Sorry I've been so cankery

I've been kinda cranky for the past week...and all because of two little white dots.
I have two canker sores on the inside of my bottom lip and they've been stinging me all week! I've had cankers before but these are in such an awkward place, right in the front of my mouth. I can't avoid them. It hurts to talk, sing, brush my teeth, drink water, eat food (esp if it's salty). Ahhhh. Seriously, they're so small, yet so annoying. When I was younger, my mom had us take acidophilus pills (the bacteria found in yogurt) to get rid of our canker sores. I think it helped. Maybe it was all in my mind. My only saving grace is spraying Chloraseptic on the sores every few hours. It seems to numb the sting.
Apparently, women are most susceptible to getting them, they're hereditary (my family gets them too), and one bonus: they're not contagious.
I almost considered taking a picture for you all...but that's just too gross. And I know many of you have been there. Amazing that such little buggers can create such discomfort. I guess I have a low threshold for complaining about physical ailments. Jack Bauer (and the Pioneers) would be disappointed.

The rest of our hot week

It was hot no matter where you went last week. So we tried to spend as much time as possible playing in the water. First, however, a stop at the McDonald's playplace. It was Jeremy's last day of school so as a treat, Camille took him and his two friends out for Happy Meals. The week while we were gone to Peru, he and his two friends spent a lot of time playing together and Lucy got to join in their fun. Since none of them have younger siblings, they found her a bit novel and started calling her nicknames. The little boy on the right came up to me here at McDonalds and very straight-forward asked, "Um, can Luce Goose come play with us?" It made me laugh:Laura and Ava joined in the fun too. Sadly, no pictures of Camille! I guess that's what happens when she's the photographer.
Later that day we went to the pool. Ava and Lucy loved the kiddie pool and had fun playing with the watering cans:Jeremy looks so old! And he just shaved his hair off this weekend! So he's a different guy than what you see here:Since it was the last day of school, the pool was ultra crowded. We went back a couple days later and it was almost empty. I guess we all had that same idea this day:The rest of the week....we played in the sprinklers (looks like Lucy's doing some jazz hands/Flashdance routine):
We climbed in buckets of water:We rode Big Wheels without clothes on:And Owen smiled at all the fun going on around him:
Once the air cooled down a bit, we spent the late afternoon sitting on the porch watching the kids play and checking out Meredith's latest invention. Her own version of wheelies. They look like Vans heels. But she drilled wheels to the bottom of her shoes. Funny:
They work pretty good!
Here comes round 2 of another hot week. We already went to the mall this morning. This afternoon, we'll go play in the water fountains.

El Hombre Incredible!

Last night we saw The Incredible Hulk. And it was good!I know, I know, I keep saying "I'm not an action-movie kind of person"....and really, I'm not. But finally Hollywood has figured out how to do these Comic Book/Super Hero movies: get top-notch actors in there. How much did we love Batman Begins? Loved. And Iron Man? Great stuff. Incredible Hulk? Also great (though not as good as the other two). And all because of Christian Bale, Robert Downey Jr., and Edward Norton. Seriously, I enjoy all three of them.
When I first heard there was another Hulk movie coming out I rolled my eyes. Um, don't we all remember the let-down of Ang Lee's Hulk about 5 years ago? It was pretty bad. Oddly enough, going to see Hulk was mine and Casey's first official date (though we only chose that movie because Universal had a free screening on the lot). But I gotta tell you, this version is actually very entertaining.
Yes, the hulk looks CGI:
He's more incredible looking than actually human (Casey constantly argues why someone doesn't just make the hulk akin to Lou Ferrigno, but I suppose this version is truer to Marvel Comics). Basically, the Ed Norton/Liv Tyler acting is great. The writing is strong. And it's just, well, enjoyable. We originally wanted to see You Don't Mess With the Zohan. But then it got bad reviews, while this got great reviews. So we actually stepped into Zohan for 15 minutes before our movie started just to check it out. And yes, we made the better choice.

If anyone has seen this, I'd love to discuss the ending. We wondered if they added that last scene (in light of recent events). I asked my Universal story friends and they didn't see the scene in the final script, so it must have been an add-on (similar to Samuel Jackson at then end of Iron Man).
So um, yea for Action movies this summer?! Sure.

Frogger

Owen likes his jumper:

Swimming Suit

I finally got Lucy a decent swimming suit. I know, it shouldn't be too hard. But the few that I bought before just didn't seem to fit right. Now she's all red and ready for swimming.

New Stroller

When I told Casey I wanted to buy another double stroller he asked "um, how many strollers to do we already have?" Okay, we have 4. This makes 5....but let me explain:

Stroller 1 - the Snap N Go
This only works with the infant carseat. I have loved this stroller and wish I could have used it with Owen. There were times when I went shopping withOUT Lucy and used it as a shopping cart. It was so much easier to wheel my way around than with a clunky cart. Co-workers at Universal bought this for us as a baby gift.
My money spent: $0

Stroller 2 - the Jogger:
We got this as a Christmas gift from my parents the first year Lucy was born. I had always wanted one for our walks so it was perfect (picture shown is not the exact jogger we had. The one here is more deluxe). Many mornings, before I got pregnant with Owen...Lucy and I would walk with Casey to the train station. We'd go a mile down Allen street, turn right at Orange Grove, walk through some neighborhoods, then back home. It was a great routine! Once I got pregnant though, I had no energy to do it. And once Owen came, I savored any sleep I could get. So...we haven't used it all that much anymore.
My money spent: $0

Stroller 3 - the little red Chicco:
When Lucy grew out of her infant car seat I had to get a new stroller. I decided to get something small and light-weight, especially since I knew we'd be getting a double stroller somewhere down the road. This has been a great purchase. It's slightly more deluxe than your basic umbrella stroller: the back reclines a little and there's a small basket underneath which I've used many times. This has become the Disneyland stroller. It fits easily on the tram between most of the rows so I don't have to unload everything (or wait in the LONG stroller line).
My money spent: $70

Stroller 4 - the Double
A couple months before Owen was born I started looking at double strollers. I wasn't sure what to get since there are so many ways to do a double. I knew I didn't want anything heavy. I'm all about simple/quick in-and-out of the car (which is why I loved the snap-n-go). I thought about a sit-n-stand, but wondered if Lucy was too young for it. I still wanted a seat to put her in. And most of the long double-strollers seemed SO heavy to me. Then one day I was at Children's Orchard (a second-hand kids clothing store) and there was a simple, plain, black double-stroller (I hate all the crazy fabric options out there) and it was NOT heavy at all. It fit in my trunk perfectly. And best of all, it was only $40. I sold them some of my baby clothes and with my store credit I decided to buy the double for only $20! It's been good to us thus far. But when Lucy sits in the front seat, it's really difficult to steer because it's so front heavy. And it is way too big to take to Disneyland on my own. Thus is was time for something else. And since I was never super invested in this double, I felt justified to buy another. Thus far my total expenses for all 4 strollers: $90. Wow.

So, here's what we got! The Peg Perego, Aria Twin:
My sister-in-law Laura has the single version of this and loves it. When I started noticing the double version, I grilled her with all sorts of questions. She sold me! We went to Babies R Us twice to give it a test drive and it was great. A few cool features:
- It's called a 60/40 because one seat is slightly larger than the other to accommodate an infant carseat, without making it super wide.
- The whole thing only weighs 14 pounds! (some of the Graco doubles are seriously 45 lbs. Sheesh).
- It folds up in one, yes one simple step.
- I can steer it with one hand, while holding one of the kids in my arms. Amazing.
- we had some gift cards to Babies R Us from Casey's work, so we only had to pay for part of the stroller!

We've mostly only driven the thing around the house so far. And Lucy was asleep when I took it out of the box. So Owen got it all to himself. And he loved it. No matter what angle I took the picture from, he was looking over smiling at me. Hopefully this foretells how our future outings will be!
Happy little Owen.
Once Lucy woke up (with her crazy nap-py hair again) she got to ride too. She's wasn't into it:
But later on Jeremy pushed them around the house and she had fun:
That's a long post on the history of strollers. But if for no other reason, it's documentation for my husband to justify my needs.

Flashback Friday - Meredith Graduates!

I found this picture a month ago and knew it had to be part of the Flashback Fridays. This is Meredith when she was 4 years old, the day that I graduated from Fountain Valley High School:
And here she is now!...the day she graduated from Trabuco Hills High School:
Congratulations Mere! You've certain grown up to be a beautiful person! Her graduation was on Wednesday and I think it was the hottest ceremony we've ever been too. Because the entire school parking lot is under construction, we all parked at Saddleback Church and school buses shuttled us over:
We had front row seats. Even at 6pm, the sun was going strong. Camille and my parents:
The graduation wasn't ideal for little kids. And since Lucy was asleep in the stroller, we walked over to a shady spot and waited for it to start. It took a while for all the kids to get in line:
We watched Meredith walk up there to get her certificate. And then, the heat (and the kids) had gotten to me. So we took the bus back to our car. I've never had an entire school bus to myself and Lucy had never been on one, so it was a real treat. Bye bye runnin Mustangs:
Once everyone got home we had a yummy dinner and then Meredith opened a few presents:
Laura had the brilliant idea to get her a digital camera for college this coming year. So we all went in on it and Meredith loved it! She leaves for BYU Idaho in the fall and I'm pretty sure she'll have a great time. We love you Mere! We're real proud of you!

George Michael baby!

Last night was the George Michael concert! And it was so much fun. We all loved it. Here we are at the house getting ready to drive to San Diego. Camille, Jessica, and me:
It's official, we really have tickets!
Of course, a stop at Chipotle along the way. Ironically, we got a little lost finding this one in La Jolla by the temple. And then as we came near the concert venue, there was another Chipotle right there on the corner:
We had the cheapest of seats but once we got there, they really weren't that bad. The San Diego Sports Arena is pretty old (and kinda ghetto as you can see in the picture below) but the nice thing was that there weren't any super high seats like there would have been at Staples Center or the Anaheim Pond:
No cameras were allowed inside so I decided to steal photos online of how cool the stage set was. Seriously, it was so awesome! This huge screen wrapped all the way down the stage floor and flashed different images or videos. It looked like he was dancing on the light. Really cool effect:
San Diego was the opening night of his American tour for Twenty Five Live and I'd like to think we represented America well. EVERYone was up dancing and singing along to all the songs. He would often stop and let us sing the words and I was amazed at how loud we all were:
The first half of the concert was awesome. He did a bunch of the good oldies: Everything She Wants, Don't Bring Me Down, One More Try, Father Figure, and more that I can't remember now. It was so much fun. The second half opened with Faith and then went into a bunch of his new stuff, which we were as familiar with. But then he gave us Kissing a Fool and the crowd went crazy. The big highlight was the end. He went off stage to change outfits and we were all wondering when he'd come back. Then....cue jazzy sax and in came.....Careless Whisper. The crowd really went crazy this time. It was so perfect. And for his encore: Freedom! We loved it. Absolutely loved it.
We noticed that he didn't hit all of the high notes he normally sings. Instead he would go down to a lower note or let the crowd sing it. Perhaps he's too old for hitting those notes or maybe he's saving his voice for the next 2 months of touring.
All in all, George Michael is still hot and a fun dancer on stage. He may be gay but we'll just pretend that he was in love with each of us back in the day:
And seriously, who can resist the GM we grew up with? So hot:
A very fun night. It's great to act like teenagers again.