Dad Days

Time to post some random pictures of my boys over the past few weeks.

Night Night time. Reading a story before bed

Adam took these two shots at the park last week. We went to Kalyra, a local winery a few weeks ago for their annual Spring Party. It was so nice and there were lots of really sweet dogs just hanging out with every one. I have no idea who's dog this is but he was so cute, I had to post his picture. I love Bassett Hounds : )This was at the Storybook Fair (Lauren, you would have LOVED this) downtown. Owen (meaning Mommy and Daddy) got to make his own book and book mark to take home. He also got to choose and take home a free book, a balloon, got to talk to a real fairy princess, and met Mother Goose. This event supported two local non profits in town, and celebrated our local children's book authors and illustraters. It was small but a nice way to spend part of our day.Making a book with Daddy, called "I Love Juice" by Owen Anton. : ) He discovered a juice drink at the fair that he savored the whole time we were there. It was carbonated water with 100% juice and nothing else added. It was pretty yummy, I have to admit. Sorry I cut off your head Adam : (We then got to finish our afternoon with a frozen yogurt at PINKBERRY! Yippee, a treat for Mommy : )

New Video

Adam finally downloaded a bunch of videos on www.youtube.com/adamanton since Christmas. Here are some favorites.........

Lil' Babe's Homerun

Owen and Jacquemoux...

Christmas 2009

Pillow Time

Lately Owen has been really into taking every pillow, blanket and stuffed animal in the house and putting them into either his bed or ours. He piles it as high as he can and then tries to get in. It's amusing, but a little annoying when we have to put everything back where it belongs when he's done. What can I say, he loves to "be cozy" : )

Earth Day Fair

Santa Barbara always puts on a good show for Earth Day every year. This year we went as a spur of the moment little trip. I just went with a very tired Owen and my Mom. I would have loved to see this event sans Owen. Every minute I turned around he was grabbing organic strawberries off displays, throwing hula hoops in the air without being mindful of who might be around him, and just being a tired 2 year old...not very cooperative. Thank God Nana was with us! I did manage to get a few random shots of our brief afternoon.

Owen LOVING the hybrid school bus. He sat in the front row, put on his seat belt and was ready for school!

He also enjoyed driving the bus : ) Nana had to ride the bus too : )We left straight for our friend's, Suzanne and Andrew's house so Suzanne and I could take a prenatal yoga class together while the Dad's watched the kids. I felt SO much better after class. We picked up dinner and let the kids play a little longer before calling it a night.

Suzanne is due exactly one week before me. This was taken when I was at 30 weeks.

Pool Time

I came home from work today to see Adam and Owen with towels and pool toys in hand. I always miss the fun stuff : ( Owen wore a snorkel and face mask and said that he saw "crabs, lobsters and sharks" in the bottom of our pool! If that's true, I don't think I will be swimming much in our pool this summer! He is getting quite brave these days in the pool with his jumps into Daddy's arms. I think we will put him in swim lessons this summer. Last year we skipped it and just practiced what we learned from the lessons he took when he was just a few months old. I think it's more important than ever to teach him now since he has become so fearless in the water.

My little devil with bed head

So, Owen walked into our room this morning in red pajamas with his hair in the shape of two horns on either side of his head. I opened my eyes and started cracking up. I told Adam, "I hope this isn't a sign of how he is going to act today!" It was quite the opposite thankfully! He was super happy all day and only had a few minor melt downs just before bed, which is expected, with no nap and hard play. I just had to share the picture, it was too funny not to!

photo time

It was time to go out and practice with my camera again. I am starting a photoshop class through adult ed next Tuesday, and taking a short photography class with one of the professional photographers (Meg Fish) in town in a few weeks. So be prepared for more pictures in the coming months!

Our backyard beyond our fence is overgrown with tall grass and wild flowers, so I took Owen out for a bit to run around and explore while I snapped away! Here are a few favorites.

Hoppy Easter!!

What a wonderful sugar filled day we had! Owen had so much fun and was an angel all day (especially when we had so many chocolate bribes at hand ; ). He got a special Easter basket filled with toys and goodies. I later realized I should have put his breakfast in little plastic eggs, because he ate anything that was inside them...but not his breakfast.


We had a nice brunch with my Mom, David, my Uncle Bill and his girlfriend Katie at our house. Owen got to find all the eggs the Easter Bunny hid this morning outside. They were filled with stickers, money, Annie's bunny graham cookies, jelly beans, cashews, and sun drops. I knew he was going to get more than his share of candy and chocolate at Nana's house later, so I tried to keep the sugar down (somewhat) at my house. He did get a chocolate bunny of course, because every child should get a chocolate bunny in their Easter basket in my opinion!
Owen left with Nana for a nap in the car (that sadly, didn't happen) while Adam and I got to relax and take a nap for a bit before we headed over for feast number two for dinner. Thanks Nana, we needed it!! Chocolate Face!

My awesome niece and nephew Katie and Matthew.

Terrible Twos

Today, I came home from work and took Owen to the store with me. Though I try to do this errand solo, he is usually pretty well behaved with me when I do take him. Things changed today. He had not taken a nap earlier in the day and I had to wake him from his 5 minute nap in the car so I could get my shopping done. Bad move. He slept on my shoulder in the store for a few minutes before opening his eyes and perked up enough to point and say "Owen want that!" That is how the rest of the shopping trip went. WHINE was not on my list, but I sure got it anyway! A fellow shopper in Trader Joe's looked at me with a tired face, no smile and a monotone voice and said; "I have three of them.....fun." His comment made me laugh at least. I got through the rest of the store with one promise of a fruit leather strip when we were done. I hate to bribe, but I was desperate.

One store down, one to go. I wanted to go to Whole Foods, but didn't want to be there close to 5:00 with Owen acting the way he was, so I drove to our local Von's instead. When we walked through the double doors he whined about wanting every thing he put his big blue eyes on. This is how it all went down:

"Owen want this Mommy" to "want this, want this, want this, want this, waaaaaant thiiiis!" to "GRRRRRR, OWEN WAAAAANNNNNNT THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSS!!!!"

Meanwhile, I am pushing him around in a faulty cart with a bad wheel, whispering and talking calmly to get him to stop. Not happening. I cut my list in half and grabbed only the things I needed for Easter morning and got in line. He grabbed a Snickers Bar and I put it back, then he laid eyes on a big yellow package of peanut M&M's that he couldn't quite reach. It then went to yelling for "CANDY!!!!" over and over and over and over (you get the point) again. Once he realized he wasn't going to get what he wanted he let out a shrill, high pitched, top of his lungs, scream. It was the sort of scream that force people to mutter nasty things under their breath. The sort of scream that raises shoulders to the ears and makes the eyes squint. That is when I unbuckled him, ditched the cart in line and left my groceries that were already on the conveyor belt and put him in the car to head home.

He didn't say a word the whole way home, and neither did I. I tried to take the long way home to get him to nap, but of course, he was over it by then. He had one more major melt down when we got home over unloading the groceries, and a few mini ones that he got over fairly fast before bed time. Fingers crossed he naps tomorrow.

Rattlesnake Canyon Trail

Today was my day off. I spent the first part of the day having blood taken for the last time (hopefully) during this pregnancy. I came home to a husband suffering from a cold and a toddler who is a little stuffy and hard to motivate, but has the same amount of energy as always. I, however, was healthy and dying to get outside. Neither of my guys wanted to come with me.

After a few hours, we coaxed Owen into taking his pj's off and putting on play clothes. Finally, we got him to agree to get in the car to go somewhere (anywhere) fun with Mommy. Before we got two miles down the road, he was out cold in his car seat. I brought a book just in case this happened. I took a nice drive downtown and ended up in the mountains. Owen woke up just as I parked the car and was ready to go! We parked at Skofield Park and walked to Rattlesnake trail for a little hike.

I am glad we did it, though it will probably be the last time I do it without Adam while I am pregnant. It was a little tricky getting over the creek bed and not getting wet. I picked up Owen and hopped a couple of rocks and the rest was a cake walk. Phew! He had a great time throwing rocks and sticks into the running water. I finally convinced him to start walking so we could find more rocks up above. We walked until he mentioned he wanted his snack (a sentence I hear several times an hour typically). We found a perfect little spot on a rock for him to sit and eat. He owned it and did not want to leave.
I finally got to see my wildflowers everywhere! So pretty. This was one of the areas that was burned in one of the recent fires, so it was pretty cool to see so much overgrown greenery amongst charred black tree branches.

When we got home, we got a package from Aunt Joanie and Grandmom for Easter. It was the cutest little bunny. You pull the tail back and he hops around in a circle. Owen LOVED it and cracked up every time! We also got the most darling pair of pink and black Mary Jane newborn socks for the baby. Thank you!! xo