Birthdays and Babies

Owen and I spent last weekend in Atlanta visiting my sister and her family. There were more reasons than a body should need for this get-together: celebrating birthdays for my niece and my brother, introducing Owen to his aunt, uncle and cousins, and meeting my cutie-pie niece Elaine. This is a photo of my parents enjoying the wealth of grandbabies.

We had a great time being (almost) all together, particularly since that has become a novelty in the last ten years. Ben, Samuel and Jude were absent, but we watched a few videos of them online. Charles and Mary Cathryn requested that I add a video of their baby sister. I am happy to oblige.

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On the Nature of God

Recently I told Samuel that the movie Cars will be shown in the church parking lot as part of vacation bible school. Samuel thought for a moment and then announced, "Lightning McQueen is God. God is Lightning McQueen."

More Action Pictures

Here are a couple of videos from the last month. The one of Jude is from a trip to Appleton to visit with Jude's birthparents at a concert and Timber Rattlers baseball game. It was some kind of double-header arrangement, where the show was on the grounds just outside the stadium. It was Jude's first live music, I believe, and he seems to be a fan. You'll notice skepticism (annoyance by how loud the music is? Or maybe that's just me) is soon followed by lively enthusiasm.

This clip of Samuel is kind of long because the duration of the circular motion and gibberish commentary is what amused me. This game went on and on and on in exactly the same way. He noticed I was filming him, but that barely interrupted the action. That's the sign of a deeply engaging activity.

Long-Distance Daddy-ing

Before Ben left for Florida, he made a short video of himself for the boys to watch each day he was gone. It was a great idea -- he drew a simple picture of something he expected to be doing that day (riding a bus, hanging out with lots of happy people) and talked about it a little bit. The boys LOVED it.

It turned out to be a nice general activity, since he drew the pictures on posterboard and left them here with me. Samuel and Jude colored them all, and Samuel even added some narration about who was on the plane (everyone in our family, with Owen in the pilot's seat, and Tio and Uncle Wayne on the wing and tail respectively). We wound up with a nice little gallery.

Here's a highlight from the video that scored highest on the watcher participation scale. It inspired a lot of hooting, bouncing, and air drumming.

Ah, Owen

One more day until Ben comes home! Things have been going well, but I'm too tired to write much. Owen is becoming such a cutie with his wiggles and grins that I just wanted to post this video.