first trip to mc d's

Owen and Dad’s first trip to McDonald’s together.
Kind of scary... and kind of feel guilty.

Guilty for taking him.
Scary for how fast and young they can hook’em.

Negotiations.

“I want milk.”

“No, you can have aqua.”

“I waaannt milk.”
“No, you can have aqua.”

“I waaaaant MIIILK.”
“No! Aqua.”


“I want orange juice.”




.

Time Out

Time out is definitely working… the other day I found Owen’s blue train in the crib…

“Owen, what’s the blue train doing in the crib?”

“It wasn’t being nice…. It is in Time Out.”

Training Day

Riding with friends

Benjamin was Owen's guest this weekend, so we all went to the zoo. Carrie and Ava came up and met us at the Zoo. This is from the train ride.

Hide N Seek

Owen has been enjoying the game of hide and seek - he mostly just wants to go seek... as you can see from this video.

Vacation Video

Here is the vacation video – it is broken up in to two parts. Click on the links below... it will take you to videoegg... then, hit back button to come back and watch the other part.

Part 1

Part 2

O is for Over.. bummer... day 7

What a fun day to spend the last day… doing nothing. In fact it rained. And it was warm and fun. The first part of the day was spent right out front at the beach here at the villas… Owen met his friend Mateo… Mateo and Owen were “Bros” for the rest of the day. They played on the beach and then went over to the pools by the hotel while Dad tried to sneak one last session in. The rain started to come down but that didn’t stop O and Mateo from running around, chasing birds and throwing rocks at the ocean. Dad got out of the water and ordered a couple of Mai Thais for Mom and him (Mai Thai Cliffy… Mai Thai). After a few Mai Thais, some nice hot tub sessions and cool rain the family returned home to the villa – O made it for about 15 minutes before he passed out in front of the flat screen filled with more sea life. What a great way to wind down.

This will definitely be a place we come back.

Day 6 - hanging

Dad went back to Ehukai for some more fun surf in the morning. More pool time. Today Owen was a lot more excited to be in the pool – the last two days he was very reserved but not today. We then went down to the reefs along the beach where Owen spotted some crabs – of course Mr Fixation couldn’t just keep walking and we spent awhile searching for the crabs hiding in the tunnels. For dinner we made our way down to Bonzai Sushi in Haliewa. Some amazing sushi – but O was distracted by the chickens running around in the parking lot. (on the news that night we saw there was an event like Ride A Wave – at Haliewa that day… Our friend “Jack” was there… but we got to meet the guest of honor the day later… Isaiah )

Day 5 – Settling in

Dad started off the day checking out some of the North Shore surf spots – surf was on the smaller side for the North Shore (which was more than adequate). After checking out a few spots – Ehukai seemed to be the right call. Here is some video (not of me but happen to be shot the same day that I was surfing here). O and Mom hung out by the pool and then the three of us went for a nice long stroll along beach trails – ending up about a mile away at Turtle Bay Lagoon. A good place for a nap and just relaxing. Dad caught one last sunset session at Turtle Bay and then we warmed up in the hot tub that evening.

Poolside

Chilling out by the hotel. A nice kick back day at the hotel playing in the pool – dad managed to grab some fun waves in front of the hotel and then we checked into our Villa (still part of the Turtle Bay resort). It was a nice change from the hotel room - a small studio apartment with very modern accommodations (read – large flat HDTV – “Finding Nemo” works better on this vs the computer screen). Click flickr for some pics

Sea Turtles and Dolphins

We left the north shore for a day trip down to Sea Life Park – sort of mini Sea World. Mom got to swim with the dolphins and Owen remained fixated on the sea turtles. We continued on to Waikiki for a little stroll around the town and some dinner at “Dukes.” - don't worry we will post some video/pics of mom getting kisses from the dolphins

O is for Oahu - day 2

The first full day was definitely a full day. Dad started out the morning with a quick surf in front of the hotel before we went for breakfast. We headed down towards Sunset Beach to an area called Sharks Cove – there was a little roadside grill – literally roadside… there was an old mobile home converted into a kitchen and the grill was outback behind the “restaurant.” The food was perfect – scramble eggs with fresh ahi and fried rice. Owen had a great peanut butter and banana soy smoothie. We then went and checked out Chun’s reef (a nice beach and surf spot) but I am not sure if Owen was tired from the long day before or spooked by a couple of waves when we were playing but we didn’t stay there for too long. After that O and mom went for a nice walk along Sunset beach while dad manage to sneak some more surfing in. Then back to the hotel for some fun time at the pool. Ended the day by going down to Haleiwa (small town on the north shore) to grab some dinner… after some minor complaints at the first restaurant, Owen settled into a smoothie at the second restaurant (from seafood with views to burritos in parking lots).

Oahu - First Day

So we made it. We brought just one “gadget” shy of Circuit City on the plane with us. From a computer with a DVD to a video iPod loaded with Elmo to a digital camera and a camcorder (don’t forget the phone with the digital camera and video recorder). It’s good to know that the majority of the time spent flying was actually spent coloring. Sure – Dad did most of the coloring and drawing but O was having fun directing Dad what to draw…

Here is a pic of O watching the video iPod on the plane and here is a pic at the place we are staying – Turtle Bay – click on the link to see the place we are staying and go to flickr to see more pics. Hopefully, we will post some pics each day.

Owen Reading Brown Bear

One of the first books that we read to Owen was Brown Bear Brown Bear. It continues to be a favorite. Tonight while trying to capture some Valentines Greetings (sorry that didn’t work but Happy Valentines Day) … we did manage to capture Owen reading Brown Bear Brown Bear all by himself. He hasn’t done this before and it was a pretty cool moment.

Updated with YouTube clip

Busy Month

Its been awhile since the last post. Coming off the busy holidays and a visit from Grandpop Loughery - January kind of flew by – and here it is February. Owen started swim classes in January and we are making some good progress. He loves the water but definitely is still more comfortable if he is grasping on to Dad and a rubber duck. We also decided to take a vacation at the end February to the north shore of Oahu – we will bring the computer and upload some pictures while we are there. The winter has been cold (for northern California) but pretty dry up until this week. The rain is actually a welcome site – snow up in Tahoe!

Crashed Out

Crashed Out.jpg
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Owen sleeping... or when he finally fell asleep.

Big screen version of video

If you want to see a bit bigger version of the video below - click or cut/paste this link
http://www.videoegg.com/video/cMyQWV

Opening Christmas Giftshttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Thanks again to everyone for all the great gifts!! Owen enjoyed all of them. We got a lot of video but I can only post so much... come out and visit and we can bore you with the rest of video :-)

If you want to see a bit larger view of this video click this link - http://www.videoegg.com/video/cMyQWV


Thanks again - Happy New Year!

Christmas Video Coming Soon

Just wanted to say thank you for all the great gifts for O and us. I will be finishing up some Christmas video this week and posting soon.

First Trip to the Movies

Owen had his first trip to the movie theater this weekend. "DeeDee" was in town so we all went and saw "Happy Feet." The first time outing went well. Only had to take a couple of breaks from the movie - (Owen got a little hyped up on sugar from the chocolate covered raisins)But all in all he seemed to really enjoy the experience.

Christmas tree hunting

Christmas tree hunting
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Christmas Tree Shopping

Christmas Tree Shopping
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Dance the Night Away

Summer 2006

With winter coming - thought this would bring a nice warm summer memory

Marching along

another hair that was cut

everything Elmo

Owen and Elmo
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Hitting a new point – Owen is now at a stage where everything he does Elmo has to do. From bath, to brushing teeth. Tonight Owen insisted that Elmo needed to wear a diaper, and was distraught to know that we didn’t have pajamas that would fit Elmo. Kim negotiated a compromise and put red PJs on Owen so they would look like… oh and Elmo had to be wrapped in the blanket and apparently he requested his own sippy cup of milk.

The Great Pumpkin did not show…

halloween costume
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Rumor has it that Owen wore his costume at daycare with the other kids… but we didn’t get to see it – this is the closest we came. If we get a picture - we'll post it.

Click on the picture to go to flickr – there are some good shots from the weekend. The last day of daylight savings was a nice long hot day. We celebrated by going to the beach. The next cold and winter like… such is Nor Cal weather.

Indian Summer

downsize.jpg
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

imagine that someone wrote my name in the sand...

Owen and I went down the beach after work to enjoy the much overdue and often over hyped "Indian Summer"

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival

IMG_2158.JPG
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Fun day at the HMB Pumpkin Art & Wine Festival.

Owen's Second B-day

Owen's Second B-day
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

well... actually these are from the day before his second B-day because I will be traveling tomorrow during his b-day. This year we had a little quiet family celebration...kind of too quiet. But the home made mac-n-cheese was good and so was the cake. Thanks to everyone for his gifts! If you look closely you can see the balloon's tied to Rupert in the background. More B-day pics on Flickr.

The video function is broken... but try clicking on the this link - click here to see some video... it should take you to a new page with some video of the b-day cake. As soon as the video function is fixed, I will fix it. Or... maybe since Google (the owner's of this service) bought YouTube for $1.6 billion - I will have to start using YouTube and not VideoEgg.

Pumpkin Picking

Pumpkin Picking
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

The annual pumpkin picking trip down to Half Moon Bay... this time at a new spot.

hokey pokey

Catching up

It has been a while since the last post... and we are over due for posting up more pictures to flickr (sorry - we will get the pics from the trip back east up soon). Owen started his new daycare last week (another in-home daycare set up with a woman named “MiMi.”) He is doing great and has adjusted nicely. (better than mom and dad probably did).

Eric and Marci came out to visit this weekend with Max - it was great to get Owen and Max together. Owen was a bit territorial but ultimately he played and shared pretty well with Max.

Look for more pics this week.

Back East

Owen is on the road show for the next couple of weeks - visiting the GPs, Uncles/Aunts and cousins. Pics to come.

The flight out apparently wasn't the "smoothest" (and I am not talking about turbulence)

Haircut number 3

This haircut went very smoothly - kudo's to mom for being prepared with a lollipop to distract him.

graduation day at Noe's

graduation day at Noe's
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

After almost 18 months Owen is moving on to a new day care because Noe (his daycare provider) is retiring. It has been rough dealing with this thought as Noe felt like family. We are sure that the next place will work out just fine but Owen got to do a lot of fun things at Noe's (that I am sure are pretty unique to her and the person she is…) from bus trips to the beach, to riding the train (BART) into the city, to several trips to the Zoo and of course the first friends that he made at Noe's - Donvan, Seamus, Ella, Lola, Anna and Keyanna.

Bubbles and Rupert

A new toy (that actually works) - much to Rupert's protest.

self portrait

hear no evil, see no evil

The words might not be coming to easily but he definitely knows where things are at.

talk about a vacation...

I will post up some new pics/video soon - but I have been meaning to get around to post this link... this is "friend of a friend..." Check out their website when you have a chance... interesting way to do things...

This site records the travels of Jackie (35) and her three kids: Jack (3), Bayla (1), and Steve (38).

In the spring of 2006 we decided to sell virtually all of it, reluctantly store some of it, and give the rest away to wander about land and sea.

Some people think we are crazy, some are interested and others are not impressed. There are many ways to play the game. We aren't playing to win: We are playing to play.

the throne

yep - a big milestone was reached. Owen walked to the bathroom, pulled his shirt up and tried climbing on to "the throne. We picked him up - got him in position - and eureka. It wasn't quite Niagara Falls... but hey - it's a start.

Feeding Time

Here is a clip of Owen feeding the giraffes at the San Diego Zoo.

Owen and the piñata

Owen and the piñata
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Owen's cousin (Dan) had his 21st birthday this week - he got a piñata filled with essential items for the 21 year old… Here is Owen taking a swing (with a little help from mom). Some more pics are on Flickr. Oh – there was some candy too – that Owen got to have.

Castles in the Sand

Castles in the Sand
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Yesterday was a beautiful day at the beach. The water was about 72 degrees – this is about 15 degrees warmer than what we are use to – so we spent a lot of time playing in the water and the shore.

O is for Orangutan

O is for Orangutan
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Friday we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was pretty hot so a lot of the animals were pretty slow moving... so were mom and dad by the end of the day. (a dip in the ocean at the end of the day refreshed). This Orangutan was the exception. He came right up to the glass and leaned in to get a kiss from Owen. - click on Flickr to see some more pics. I will also post a video clip o O (Owen not the Orangutan, feeding the giraffes).

Holiday Road

The first leg of the journey went real well – no traffic, no problems. Found a nice spot to stop and take a break (for both Rupert and Owen). Owen fell asleep on the ride down – the plan was to bring him right into Aunt Kathy’s place and put him down… but Owen had other ideas. He woke up and was ready to start his vacation. We probably didn’t get to sleep until 4 a.m.

Road Trip

Our first big family vacation/road trip down south to San Diego.
As I was packing, the dog, the portable DVD, the cargo bin on top of the urban assault vehicle, the computer, etc... I can't help but feel a little bit like these guys... maybe in a bit of a more modern way.

Stay tuned for updates.

o and rupe

Owen and Rupert - or as Owen calls him "Boobert."

Bonus points if you can name where this song is from...

Owen What Do You See...

Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see...
This has been Owen's favorite book for some time and still remains a "must read" before going to sleep. Although, now at that end of the book... when we ask him, "Which is the Brown Bear... where is the Yellow Duck..." Owen points each one out!
Who knew this reading thing would work.

Puke & Diarrhea

fever
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Pretty much sums up the week.
(this was to go up last Thursday 6/8/06)
Starting last Thursday night with 104 fever but Kim (a.k.a Super Mom) was able to bring down the fever with a cool bath. The fever spiked again that night (not as high) and puking followed, which of course made for a very long night with little sleep. It’s been a long time since one of those sleepless nights. Zombie like status the next day all three of us managed to do okay and the weekend progressed with not a lot of illness but by Sunday the bug reared its ugly head this time getting Owen during the day and me all through the night. Come Monday the two of us were a mess. Luckily Kim didn’t get it… but she did have two sick whiney ones to deal with. Tuesday, Owen made it back to daycare but more puke & diarrhea came that night, so home sick on Wednesday. Now were back to the same cycle - went to daycare today, projectile puking on the car ride home. A trip to the doctor assured of us what we hoped – it is just a bug but a nasty one. I still have a tough time viewing Kim and I as parents but this week it was clear that Kim was a Super Mom.

(FLASH forward to this Monday 6/12 - the bug finally caught Kim :-(

Owen's attempt at feeding the cat

Owen's attempt at feeding the cat
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Owen likes to help feed Rupert and Bailey... problem is he likes to do it too much. This is what happens when we turn our back for a second.

The t-shirt says it all

The t-shirt says it all
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Owen's First Year - The Trailer

well its long over due - but we are almost finished Owen's video for his year of "firsts." Here is a trailer :-)

Night Night

Good night from Owen

signs and sounds

these are some of Owen's first signs and sounds

happy mothers day

fun at the park

here is some video we took at the park in the back of pacifica, when grandma was out visiting.

careful mowing

Owen's Guest

Owen
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Kiley stayed with us this weekend - Owen is having a tough time with concept of sharing his toys - especially with a little girl. And Rupert spent (look out the door) a bunch of time wanting to be where he couldn't.

Born to Rock

Born to Rock
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

I love this t-shirt, we have got so many comments on it. It has been tough trying to get a picture of him in it - what you can't see is that he also has black low-cut Chuck Taylors on.

Climbing

hiking w/ Flat Stanley
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Big steps for Owen this past weekend... he scaled the climbing wall on the swingset in the backyard. (his first solo climb – El Cap is next).

overdue

Spring 2006 - Owen at Zoo
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

We are long overdue on the posts. Owen had a busy past few weeks with visits from Grandmom and then Grandpop. Check out the pictures on Flickr - (badge on the right of the screen).

Today was day number two with out rain!!! (considering the last 45 it has rained about every day). The good news is Owen discovered mud.

1 1/2

Can't believe its been a year and half. Recently, Owen has been falling asleep without much help in the rocking chair.... I'll miss these chances to rock with him at night - it does a world of good for me too.

hide n seek

the new game in town

Hiking w/ Flat Stanley

Today, Owen took Flat Stanley for a hike. Stanley also managed to catch a ride with Rupert... See post below for who our visitor is... or click on the this link to learn more about Flat Stanley.

Flat Stanley Arrives

Flat Stanley and Owen
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Flat Stanley arrived thi s week in Pacifica, courtesy of Owen’s cousin Grace. Stanley will be staying with us for awhile before he makes his way back to the east coast… Thank you Grace for letting Stanley come visit. We will be sure to let you know what we do during his stay out here. Check out some other pictures of Flat Stanley and Owen at the beach at flickr - click the flickr banner to the top and right of the site.

more 4 wheel'n

If the video does not display properly
click here to upgrade to Flash 8
okay - so it looks like all you have to do is click on the link that says install Flash 8 - i think the video quality is better than what I was using before.

4 Wheel'n

working travel

traveling for work is just not that fun any more... a day here... a day there... but more than that and you just start missing it.

Owen at the Zoo

Owen herding the goats
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Owen and Kim made a trip to the Zoo over the weekend there are a couple more pics - over on flickr. Click the badge to the right.

owen's first haircut

owen's first haircut
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Whew!!! Can't believe that Owen's first haircut went off without any tears. We came fully prepared and to the right place, "Today's Cuts" down the coast in Half Moon Bay. They had mini-TVs set up right in front of the animal chairs. Barney kept Owen focused and some animal cracker bribery didn't hurt either. Click on Flickr badge to the right for a couple more pics.

Valentine's Greeting

Valentine's Greeting
Originally uploaded by rick loughery.

Happy Valentine's

Techno Parent

First of all, using the word "parent" to describe myself is weird. And the fact that I am now actually interested in sites like BusinessWeek's new blog for working parents, just down right scares me. One of the posts talks about dealing with Technology, is it a working parents friend or foe? In cases like last Friday (see post below) - I think mobile tech is definitely a good thing.

Owen's First Book

- new tool to publish - "A day in the Life"

http://www.blurb.com/

BlackBerry Babysitting

Teething is tough. It throws a wrench into the best plans. But w O in the wagon and I on my blackberry a few things are able to get done.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

Wagon and firetruck

Thanks to the cousins, grace evy and amelia for the fire truck