First soccer ball!

Owen loves balls—we all know that. And he always seems to want balls that aren’t his, even though he has a ton of his own. Just this afternoon, he saw a soccer ball in our neighbor’s yard and made a beeline for it. She let us borrow it for awhile. Last week, he was immediately attracted to some lady’s volleyball at the park (and when we went back the next day, went right to where she HAD been sitting to look for it again).

So when I was in Target, I got him his own soccer ball. And we decided to give it to him as he was waking up from his nap. Watch, and enjoy!

Kinda sorta first gibberish words!

So for probably a month or so, when Owen gets cranky or whiny or hurt, it sounds like he is saying “mama…mamamama…mama” but even though we love hearing it, we know he’s not really truly saying it.

Yesterday, when Tom was playing ball with him (with his new hoop) he swears Owen would call the ball his “ba ba.”

So today we were at the pool and were playing with the ball and hoop there. There were quite a few other kids so we took our turn then left the ball and went to the other pool. But Owen did NOT want to go and kept his eye on the balls. He would try climbing up on us to see them. It was sooo cute. After about 10 minutes of us trying to distract him, I swear I heard “mama…baba” and he pointed.

So, I consider those his kinda sorta first gibberish words…

Pool Basketball

The one bad thing about both Tom and me getting in the pool with Owen is that we can’t take pictures…and today we would have loved a video!

The community pool has a basketball hoop and two balls in one section. Well, Owen always likes to play with the balls, and today since Tom was there, he lifted Owen up to the net so he could put the ball through himself. Oh my, did he love that! Every time he got the ball in his hands, he’d look up at the net like “Why am I not up there yet?” and then Tom would lift him up and Owen would drop or push it through! It was sooooo cute! (I tried lifting him, but that was a joke!) I think we did that for probably 20-30 minutes total!

Balls vs. Walks

I really don’t like it when people leave balls in their yards—it makes it VERY difficult to take Owen on a walk since he makes a beeline for any ball he sees…and is now old enough to remember where it is (so distracting him and turning him around doesn’t last long). We can be all the way back to our house and he turns around and toddles toward the ball he saw in a yard across the street four houses down! Or one he spotted on someone’s porch, even! Stinker!

Two big things!

Tom came home early today and we took Owen to the park. And boy, did he surprise us at the park!

Normally he doesn’t walk much on the grass because it’s uneven walking and he’s still a little unsteady. And normally he stops at the edge of the “big kids” play area because the sandy area is surrounded by a cement border that he just can’t quite get up and over by himself.

Except that today he mastered both! Tom was just following along behind him, expecting him to stop at the cement…but up and over he went with no problems, and traipsed around the play area kicking up sand! Then he spent quite a bit of time wandering around the grassy park, stopping to pick up a stick every now and again!

Then the fun came… Some high school kids were playing volleyball and, well, you know how much Owen LOVES balls—so he took off across the park to get to the ball. Did he let the hill stop him? No way! So he went up a little hill, then down the little hill, then probably 30-40 yards to the volleyball pit. Over and over and over (we kept carrying him back, because he would not turn around to leave on his own). It was soooo cute! We eventually had to leave the park because he refused to do anything else but try and get to the volleyball. (It’s hard to tell in this photo, but he’s at the base of the hill and that tan line running across the middle of the picture is a foot trail at the top of the hill.)

The other big thing for the day was…his first [local] babysitter! Tom and I had dinner plans and since we didn’t have any grandparents here…we had to use our first babysitter! We had scoped her out beforehand (i.e. emailed and met in person—we found her on a babysitter forum) so we were completely comfortable. I wasn’t nervous or sad or anything, but it just felt strange leaving him. He did just fine, and she loved him, telling us he was the easiest and happiest baby she’s ever had! YAY OWEN!