Everyday...

I fall more and more in love with this boy!

I just can't help it!

With a face like that...who wouldn't?

And if you could hear his sweet little voice say,

"Mommy, I will love you so, so much",

you'd fall in love with him more and more everday, too!

 I will love YOU so, so much too, Owen!

Houston...I think we have a lefty!

I've always thought being left handed would be a pretty cool thing.  To me, left handed people always seemed smarter. They even looked cooler at doing a lot of the basic things I could do as a right handed person.  Seeing someone pitch a ball from the pitcher's mound using their left hand looks pretty cool.  And writing at an awkward angle using the left hand was something that I have always had an admiration for... the tilt, the style, it's all very interesting.  They say it's a quality that one is born with.  That being left handed or right handed isn't a nurture, but nature.

Neither Brad or myself are left handed.  Therefore the odds of Owen being left handed are very slim.  I think it's something like a 2% chance.  But as I watch Owen grow with his abilities, especially in his art, it seems to me that his left hand dominates.  Throwing a ball and kicking are also done with his left hand and foot.  It might be a little too early to decide whether he's a lefty or not, but lately I have seen him use his left hand far more often than his right.

I'm not going to push one way or the other.  I'll let nature takes it's course.  Brad says it would be pretty cool to have a left handed pitcher in the family, evidentally that's a rare thing in the sport of baseball. 

Lefty scissors may be in my son's near future.     

I'm curious...are you a lefty or a rightie?

I {Heart} Faces:: Texture

This week's theme at i heart faces is texture. 
This is something I thought I'd never be doing to a picture because I always thought it was just way too complicated for me.  I was up for the challenge this week and took a shot (get it?  shot...) at it.  Trying to find the best picture for adding texture to was probably the hardest part.  Or maybe it was finding the texture to put atop my picture that was the most challenging.  Either way, once I had those two things figured out and after I watched quite a few tutorials on how to add texture to a photo, I was good to go.  It was easy, peasy!  Not qutie as challenging as I had anticiapted it would be.  Thanks to the MANY tutorials i heart faces has on their website, I was able to try this out for myself. 

I ended up choosing the picture below because it is one of my favs.  When looking through my pictures from our trip this past summer to the beach in North Carolina, I always come back to this one.  My two boys just as they are.  Laughing, giggling, and carrying on just between the two of them as if no one else is watching.  A sweet father and son moment.

Without further ado, here is my attempt (and I strongly emphasize attempt!) at adding texture to a photo:

Head on over to i heart faces to see the other entries this week.  You will be blown away at what a little texture can do to a photo.  You can also see how the professionals do it!

Thanks to i heart faces for putting me up to this challenge!  

Where's the fire?

Today we had an exciting little field trip to the fire station.

Of course there were large red trucks with sirens blaring and blinking lights.  At one point our tour guide had to run off and leave on a call.  That was exciting!  They sure do drop everything and go!!!

They had their gear all organized, lined up and ready to go.

They had a pole.  Fireman Chris did a nice job explaining how it worked...then we got to see it in action!  Owen was impressed!

I kept begging and begging Owen to stand by a firetruck for just one second so I could take his picture.  He wasn't havin' it!  He was ready to leave.  I don't think he feels quite well.  He was very clingy to me.  The whole morning as we walked around, I had him on my hip and my camera in my other hand trying to steadily take some pictures.  My left arm is a little sore now from the balancing act I was trying to maneuver.  Regardless of the bad attitude Owen was having, I was able to get some pretty good pictures.  And in the end, without asking first, I gently hoisted Owen up on top of one of the firetruck's bumper to take his picture.  He wasn't happy, at all...

Sometimes these unhappy moments have to be documented too!

Regardless of his clingy behavior and tears in the end, I think he learned a lot and was quite amazed with all of the equipment and tools.  After we got home he couldn't stop talking about it.  Everything from seeing the rescue boats to waving as the firetruck left to go on a call was talked about.  I love his little mind and how spongy it is!  I'm sure we'll be talking about the fire station and all things firetruck related often over the course of the next few weeks!     

three

Lately, we have spent a majority of our day practicing.

Trying to show the number 3 with our fingers.

We just got done getting 2 down pat (putting two fingers up in a bunny ear fashion is not so easy to teach a toddler) and now we are already moving onto 3 fingers. 

I'm not sure where the time has gone, but I would love to hold onto those #2 moments for a little while longer.  I'm just not ready to see three fingers yet. 

We'll be practicing 3 fingers for a while becasue I've also learned that 3 is just as challening, if not more challenging, than putting up 2 fingers.  It's good that Owen has his own way of making his 3 fingers pop up.  Putting the thumb and pinky together is a hard task, so making the "O.K" sign for 3 is much easier and less daunting for him.  

I'm still not ready for 3.  As cute as he is with those three fingers up, I'm just not ready!