Lots of 'Firsts'

1) Last weekend, Owen stripped while we were at the zoo.

Yes, you read that right. I took Owen on a 'Mommy and Owen' outing to the zoo last weekend. We were having a great time and Owen was being very well behaved. After riding the train (always our first order of business at the zoo), seeing the giraffes, and playing on the playground, Owen decided he wanted to go to "the other playground". I had no idea what he was talking about so I told him to just take me to where he wanted to go. He led me to the splash area. There was no one else there and the sprinklers weren't even on, but Owen decided he wanted to take his shoes off and splash in the puddles. I said ok, and off he went:

and then,

he fell. Not hard, and he didn't hurt himself, but he was NOT happy that his clothes were wet.

so, he decided to fix the problem.

And in order to make things right, the only thing to do was to remove the wet clothes.....

This is when I stopped taking pictures. He got his shirt off and then pulled off his pants (including his big boy pants). Remember, thankfully, there was no one else around, so no one saw my very naked Owen standing in the splash park in the very public zoo. All I could do was laugh. And try to convince him to put his clothes back on, of course. But he would have nothing to do with putting his wet clothes back on. Thankfully, I had a dry pair of underwear and shorts for him, but no dry shirt. I basically had to pin him down to get the dry clothes back on him, but he was clothed again in less than 2 minutes (seemed like a long time but I'm sure it wasn't long at all) and so, he wasn't successfully at sharing his nakedness with any one else at the zoo (thank God!). I reminded him again that we keep our clothes on in public --- that it's only appropriate to be naked at home. Let's hope he remembers this next time!

2) We had another first at the zoo -- Owen rode the carosel (I'm not spelling that right, but am too tired to look up the correct spelling...). He might have ridden it once before, a long time ago but I can't remember. At any rate, on his recent trips to the zoo, he explicitly stated that he did NOT want to ride it. In his words, 'it's scary'. But this time, he up and decided that it would be 'A good idea' (again, his words). He chose the lion and had a blast. :o)

3) Mason hasn't had a first in a while, but is doing very well with his physical therapy and is still as sweet and cute as ever. He's very quick with his smiles these days, even though he (and the other 2 babies) were diagnosed with their second ear infections last weekend. Mason's left ear, Mayleah's right ear, and Grant had both ears infected. Call me psychic; I see tubes in our future. Times three. :o( When I weighed Mason last night, he was 13lbs, 11.5oz. He's definitely growing up!

4) Mayleah is now sitting up for short periods of time all on her own -- doesn't she look cute? She's great and even with another ear infection continues to sleep like a champ. Takes after her mommy in the sleeping department. :o) She loves to do her inward laugh continues to work on her babbling -- she's getting pretty good at 'da da da'. I've been working with her on 'ma ma ma', but she's not paying any attention to me. During her weight check last night, she was 13lbs, 4.5oz. Definitely the peanut of the group.

4) Grant's first -- he's not only been sitting for short periods of time by himself, he's also crawling (not perfect form yet, he gets on all fours, lunges onto his face, and then gets back up on all fours, but he's definitely mobile!) and this week he also started working on getting himself from a crawling and/or side-lying position to a sitting position. I haven't seen him do this yet, but both Nana and Papa have witnessed it. I'll try to get it on video this weekend. For now, here's a pic of him sitting from last weekend. Last night, Grant weighed a whopping 14lbs 11.5oz. A full pound more than Mason and nearly a pound and a half more than Mayleah. He's definitely the bruiser of the group!!!