Owen's Monkey Business

Sun. April 11, Grandma Joy and I took Owen to the barnyard for a sing, sign and play field trip. For his last sign language class, we met at a local farm called The Gentle Barn. It's basically a farm animal rescue place where they care for abused or neglected farm animals. On Sundays, you can donate $5.00 (goes toward food for the animals) and spend some time in the barnyard with chickens, goats, pigs, and even a peacock and an emu! The weather that day was chilly, gray and cloudy, but we braved the elements so mom could get attacked by the stroller-loving emu. Owen touched a wooly sheep.

Saturday, April 10 was Owen's first trip to the zoo. We met our friends Beth, Darin, and Will there. Beth is a teacher friend I met while working at the charter school in South LA. Somehow we've managed to stay in touch even though she moved South to Orange County a few months after I met her and I moved north not much later. We try to meet up every few months and last fall found out we were due only a couple weeks apart! Now we look forward to meetups as the boys grow. My college friend Gretchen recently relocated to Burbank from San Antonio and met us at the zoo with her 1 1 /2 year old Jack! Owen noticed some of the animals. If I had to guess, I'd say his favorite was the brown bear.

where we were during the earthquake! We took a "mini-break" to the Palm Springs area on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. It was Derek's first time visiting the area, and we had a great time. Owen slept most of the trip out, which was a little over 2 hours. We checked in to the Hilton Garden Inn in Rancho Mirage around noon, got settled in, and headed out for lunch. After driving into downtown Palm Springs, which was hopping due to the Dinah Shore Golf Tournament, we turned back around and ended up at The Paseo in Palm Desert. We decided to eat at Tommy Bahama's, and had a lovely meal. Near the end it got really windy. Then Derek commented, "Isn't it weird the way the floor shakes with the wind?" Then we waited. And the shaking didn't stop. After 10 or 15 seconds everyone was looking at each other saying "Is it an earthquake?" Then people started getting up from their tables and heading inside. I was holding O. and we waited in the door...

On Thursday Owen and I spent the day in LA. After meeting birthday twin Simon at a local park for an hour in the morning, we headed down to see cousin Alice and Oqwe in Silverlake. Owen enjoyed trying out Oqwe's jumperoo, and then we went over to Silverlake Yoga for the baby and me class. We were the only students, so we really enjoyed teacher Betsy's spring-themed class. Some baby and me yoga is geared for the mom, with the babies doing what babies do (i.e. sleeping, nursing, crawling, and just hanging out). This class was really geared toward a shared experience with lots of developmentally appropriate and sensory activities for the boys. It started with using phonics phones to introduce ourselves, and becoming the phones with the boys in our laps "getting our wires crossed" (crossing and twisting legs) and "calling long distance" (stretching legs out in front and forward bending). Then she took out rainbow colored scarves and we blew them across the ...

It is the end of the first week of Spring break and we have had such a blast this week! Here is a rundown of the week: Monday: stay home, household chores, playing together, trip to Burbank early evening to see baby Jack who just arrived with mom and dad from Texas! Tuesday: morning bath, pictures at JC Penney's, some afternoon shopping Wednesday: morning marketing at Whole Foods, afternoon playdate with Liam and Camilla Rose Thursday: double playdate- morning at the park with Simon and visiting Oqwe all afternoon plus baby yoga class! Friday: morning at home, bathtime and last sign class, trip to Trader Joe's, Grandma and Grandpa call when they get back to land in Florida! It has also been a week of milestones! Last week Owen started really cruising (crawling up on hands and knees) Mon and Tues: slept all night Tuesday: climbed three stairs, started putting smaller toys inside bigger toys and getting them out Wednesday night: climbed ALL the stairs! woke every hour (teething w...