Easter Video

I obviously am trying out some new Video Editing Software. Guess I couldn't really hide that huh?

Anne's Wedding Video

This is the video I made for my sister & her husband. The song is their first dance song. I wanted everyone to enjoy their beautiful story. Hope you Enjoy!

Catching up with Oboe Part One: Outsourcing Parenting Duties

I know, I know. Once again, I've been conspiciously absent from the blogging world. No good excuse other than just being very, very busy. Hmmm...I suppose I should tell everyone how Owen is doing, but to tell you the truth, I don't really know!

With the official Pistons season kicking off at the beginning of the month (anyone hear about that AI trade?), Dan and I have been working A LOT!. As a result, we've had to outsource our parenting duties.

Thank God he loves daycare! I mean he LOVES daycare. He is getting to the point where he won't even say goodbye to us. He leaps out of my arms and runs downstairs to the other kids before I can even get a kiss. (Insert sad face here) Belive me though, I would rather have him run away from me with joy than cling to me crying. I would be a guilty wreck if I had to deal with that everyday.

We take him to an in-home daycare (Gennie's Little Tykes) and if I told you how wonderful this place is, you wouldn't believe me. He comes home at least once a week with art projects. I get a report card everyday of all the days activities including a down to the minute detail of all diaper changes (3 BM's yesterday at 12:59, 3:06 & 3:53 pm in case anyone is interested). The best part is that I can just tell that Gennie and the rest of the kids genuinely enjoy having him. When we drop him off, the kids run screaming to the door "Oboe!!! Oboe!!".
Oboe, somehow became his nickname at daycare. Even Dan and I call him Oboe sometimes. I suppose he could be called worse than a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. He could be nicknamed something terrible like "pea-brain" or "Shit-sandwich". That would not be good.

Owen's other parents are my mom and dad. They live 5 minutes down the road from me which would have been a horrifiying situation when I was 18. Now, however, it is an absolute life saver. It's nice having my mommy & daddy right down the road. Without my parents help, we wouldn't be able to work where we do and we couldn't even think about having a life!
Babysitters are expensive now!! I suppose it's justified. I am leaving my childs life in the hands of a teenager. I would be a little suspicious of a bargain basement babysitter. Our babysitter is WAY better than I ever was. She has taken classes at the Red Cross and made flyers to promote her services. She plays outside with Owen & takes him on walks. Holy Cow! When I was a babysitter, I used to turn on a video as soon as the parents left, plunk the kid down in front of it and will him to fall asleep early. I was not the best babysitter in the world. Anyway, Dan keeps saying we should just adopt an 18 year old girl to watch Owen. I think he's kidding. I hope. Pervert.

Back to my parents....

They of course love Owen and love having him. For Owen, the feeling is mutual. He loves being over there (even more than being home actually). I love the fact that my parents house will be come like a second home to him (hell, the way we've been working, maybe even a first home). It's a little bit sentimental for me to think that the house I grew up in will feel like a safe place for him too. Sniff, sniff ~tear~. Owen absolutely lights up when he sees my parents. It's like an "Oh boy! Here comes the fun!" type of look.

We are very, very, very lucky to have all the help we do. Dan's mom and day are always willing to watch Owen at a moment's notice. They live about 1 hour away so we don't get to see them as often as we would like. But Owen defintely loves it when we do.

So maybe someday we will be able to take care of our child on our own but not now. God, can you believe we are thinking about having another one?

PICTURES!
My baby sister's bachelorette party was a few weekends ago in Tampa. Here are the only pictures I can show you!

I bought Anne a tiara that said "Bachelorette". It was totally cheesy but Anne loved it! She but it the night before her party and didn't take it off until....well, I'm not sure she's taken it off yet. The last pictures I saw of her were on Halloween and she was still wearing it! Me, Anne and her best friend Bre Anne was the life of the party wherever we went. She tried her hand at lead vocalist for the band.

Goofball (Part 2) - Try this one

Thanks to Mike for the advice! Let me know if this doesn't work!

Goofball.

THIS VIDEO SEEMS TO BE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. PLEASE STAND BY WHILE CAT GETS SOMEONE SMARTER THAN HER TO FIGURE IT OUT.
I will repost!

Owen has taken a keen interest in our camcorder. Specifically, he loves to see himself on camera! Lately, when I've been taking video of him, I've been turning the screen around so he can see himself "performing" and OMG, what a goofball! He may be destined for the big screen someday. Maybe he'll be the next Peter Dinklage or Warwick Davis!

Mama

To My Dad, Love Owen

Last Florida Post - I promise!

Who knew a 5 day trip would give me so much blog worthy material? I know, it'a little annoying but humor me for just a little longer...
I have have complied a 6 minute highlight video of our Florida Trip. Don't feel bad if you choose not to spend 6 minutes that you will never get back watching someone else's home movies. Hell, I don't know if I would. That being said, it is pretty cute to see Owen and Drew interact - ahem, correction - to watch Drew climb all over Owen while he whines like a baby (no offense to babies).
I was playing around with the video editing software so you'll see some special effects!

What a difference 17 days makes!

No ER trips so far this week! It is only 1pm on Monday however, so I suppose my jubilence is a little premature. Owen does have a nice fresh bruise on his forehead from head-butting the floor (not really sure if it was on purpose or not) but he's OK. Our physical therepists asked us a while back if we would like a helmut for Owen now that he was beggining to walk. We laughed and told them it wouldn't be necessary...Suffice to say we are rethinking this offer! How many injuries before social services comes a knockin'?

Owen is just picking up steam like you wouldn't believe. We've affectionately begun to call him "The Druken Sailor", as you will see below. Hopefully he won't start cursing like one too, like his buddy Preston. LOL!!

**Note: 10 points to anyone who can figure out what I've been doing with my week of unemployment by listening to the background noise. Hint: Do the names Mr. Jay and Nigel Barker ring anybells? Hahaha!! More on this subject on a later post.

Uhhh....Hey Cat, don't you have a son?

Oh yeah! Hmmm...maybe I should write about what it going on with him sometime huh? OK, so I've been a little all over the place lately, but I have an excuse. I put in notice to my job on Wednesday! It's a good thing. It was an amicable parting of the ways. I have some options so I'll keep everyone updated. I've been seriously contemplating Hawaii. I think Hula girl would be just the fit for me. BUT WAIT!!! This is still not about Owen! Ok - I will try to set my extreme narssicism aside for a moment and focus on the real news...

I have very exciting new about Owen, but I'm going to make you watch this video to see it! (It's worth it!). I realized how much cute video I have taken of Owen in the past 2 weeks so I put together a litte montage of clips that will show Owen's new tricks. It will take about 3 1/2 minutes so make sure you clear your schedule so that you can devote all your attention to my son!



Can you believe it? Isn't he just the absolute cutest? What a personality on this kid! Notice that when he is chasing after the cat he is saying "At! At!" for cat. This is sort of his first official word (besides Dada). And seeing as Cat is my name, I have deduced that "At! At!" is pretty close to saying mama. See how that works? Shoot! I'm making it about me again!

We have video!

The video has already been posted on MLive. For those instant gratification lovers, I'll save you the trouble! Thanks to Jeff for giving me the link!

Small Wonder--Living Big With Dwarfism

Welcome....

...lucky recipients of my mother's Christmas card and annual "I-didn't-really-care-about-what-was-going-on-with-the-Merciez'-but-seeing-as-Jennifer-took-the-time-to-write-it-I-might-as-wel-read-it" family newsletter! (Just kidding ma!) I thank you all for caring enough (or being depressingly bored enough) to navigate yourselves to my own "I-didn't-really-care-what-was-going-on-with-the-Wright-family-but-seeing-as-I-got-Jennifer's-silly-Christmas-newsletter-and-I'm-on-the-computer-anyway-AND-Catherine-took-the-time-to-blog-it-,-I-might-as-well-read-it" extraviganza. Have I lost anyone yet? In all seriousness, Happy Holiday's to everyone! It's really good to hear from people I haven't seen in a while. If you get a minute, please leave a comment and say hi! The past couple of weeks have been chalked full of holiday festivites and developmental milestones (before you get to excited, no - Owen has still not said "mama" yet). On December 8th, Owen saw Santa! My restaurant O'Callaghan's Irish Pub in Brighton - where incidentally you can sample the best of traditional Irish food, visit www.seanocallaghans.com for locations and menu - was hosting a Breakfast with Santa event so we took Owen for his very first visit. I'll go ahead and just show you his reaction. Isn't that hilarious! Here's a picture we took. Just like his father, we couldn't tear Owen away from the bar. Next up for Owen - his first Pistons game! I am officially insane for taking a baby to a game. Once again it's impossible to go to events like this without reflecting on before baby & after baby differences. Sporting events before baby: Start at the bar, head to the Palace with only licence and credit card, watch the game, grab drinks at halftime, watch the 2nd half, grab drinks afterwards, get husband to drive you home. Sporting events after baby: Arrive at the Palace 2 hours before hand, get stroller, diaper bag, purse and baby out of car and checked through security. Stop in bathroom for diaper change, head up to Ameriprise Finacial Club to see Dad, order a drink and make the bartender put it in a soda glass so no one calls social services, feed baby so he will hopefully sit through game. Head down to seats midway through 1st half having only taken 2 sips of drink. Spend halftime in bathroom for another diaper change. Drag the baby, diaperbag, purse and stroller back down to seats for the 2 minutes left in the game, head back to Ameriprise with a now cranky and tired baby, diaperbag, purse and stroller to wait while traffic clears. Go home and vow not to take Owen to another game until he can carry his own diaperbag, stroller and maybe even mom's purse. My saving grace was my friend Betsy who helped me cart around my entourage of baby gear and provided moral support. Owen happens to love Betsy too so she was able to keep him happy and content. It also helped that I worked there for 8 years and my husband still works there. We got some nice hookups that made the evening very pleasant. Oh yeah! Owen was on TV! And not the big screen but actual TV. He's pretty psyched about it. Look at these seats! Betsy and Owen Betsy is fun! As for milestones, I will post seperately so they don't get lost in this monstrosity of a blog posting

Grandma knows best!

I know! I know! I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks! I want to formally apologize to all those who read my blog religiously, so here it goes.... Mom, I'm sorry I haven't posted! Just kidding! But really, Tonya, Renay & Candi, I know one of you would call me out pretty soon if I didn't update (perhaps even publicly...hmmm, say maybe on their own blog...sound familiar Renay?! :) ). Ok - on to the updating! Owen's teeth are in with a vengance! His bottom 2 are almost completely in and his upper left lateral inscisor has broken through. His two front teeth will be in any day now. I know this because he is drooling like a St. Bernard! And for the very big news...Owen has also officially crawled! On Friday (Nov 9th), Owen got up on his knees and flopped from side to side in order to reach and object. That's crawling right?! Well, whatever it was, it resembled crawling and I'm the one who writes in the baby book so I get to decide. The judges official ruling? Crawling! Beyond the new developmental milestones, Owen is getting spoiled like crazy. Public offender #1 - Grandma! Grandma spoiling is not a new thing when it comes to Owen. What is new however, is his awareness of the fun toys he is acquiring. His obvious enjoyment of the gifts has opened up a whole new can of worms for my mother. This is no longer arbitrary gift giving. This is spending with a purpose! The mission: To make Owen as deliriously happy as possible! Below is video of my sons enjoyment of the most recent purchase. As you will see - mission accomplished! I love you Grandma!!