Bethlehem's First St. Patrick's Day Parade

The Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, Bethlehem had its first ever St. Patrick's Day parade. So surprising that this is the first one since there is such a large Irish community in the area and there is even a Celtic festival in town. The parade was nice with some piper bands and Irish dancers. Owen had a good time hanging out with Francesca. He seemed a little concerned by the crowds and the noises, but he loved it when dogs walked by!

In the evening after the parade, there was a concert in a tent in the historic district in Bethlehem. We shared a sitter with our friend Becky to watch the kids and we all got to go out for the evening. The music in the tent was great! They had a really nice setup with the stage at one end and connected tents serving food and beer. But we didn't eat there - we went up to Brewworks and managed to get a seat to get some dinner. So nice to have some adult time out!

Happy Birthday, Francesca!

In early March, we celebrated the first birthday of our friend's daughter Francesca. Owen had a great time running around the party with the Francesca's cousins. The kids all had a fun time playing with a bunch of pink balloons. One of the girls took a special interest in Owen, and took care of him by making sure that no one took Owen's balloon from him.

Francesca finished off the party by eating a big piece of chocolate cake. I think she ended up in a sugar coma after eating all of that chocolate!

Lutron Day at the Science Center

Last month, Lutron hosted an event at the Da Vinci Center, which is a small science center in Allentown. Even though we knew that Owen was a little young for most of the exhibits, we decided to take him to allow him to run around a little.

At first, he seemed to be a little overwhelmed by all of the people there. But we ran into some friends who have a daughter that is 1 month younger than Owen and he had fun playing with her a little. And we found the toddler room at the center, where they had lots of nice games for kids and some big blocks for Owen to climb on. But most of all, Owen just wanted to climb up and down the big staircase at the museum and get in everyone's way in the process!

Reading the Morning Paper

Wheeeee!!!

Owen's turned out to be a real climber. He loves to climb up on chairs and stand there without holding on - I think he's trying to say "Look Mom! No hands!"

So, Daddy bought him a slide for his bedroom. He loved it right away and climbed right up. He started laughing when he got to the top for the first time. He loves to climb up, slide down, and circle around to do it again. He even started yelling "Wheeeeee!" as he slid down. Definitely a good purchase for Owen. But he still wants to climb on the chairs too.

Who's That Handsome Devil in the Mirror?

Owen & Francesca

Recently, we've been getting together with our friends, putting the babies down to sleep, and then hanging out together for the rest of the evening. The kids have a good time playing together before bedtime, and then the adults can relax without any babies after bedtime. We're all enjoying it!

So... to celebrate our new found freedom - here are some great pictures of Owen and Francesca:

Visit From Aunty Lisa!

In January, Kathleen's friend from college, Lisa, came down to visit. And she brought presents for Owen with her! She brought Owen a dinosaur toy, which he loved right away! We took a trip out to Vynecrest and had a nice dinner at Brewworks!

Postponed Visit to Grandmom and Grandpop's

The weekend after New Year's, we traveled down to visit with Grandmom and Grandpop in Delaware. Our previous plans to visit right after Christmas were canceled because of snow. During our visit, we opened our Christmas presents. Owen got a helicopter that can be pulled around and plays music. He loved it right away!

After dinner, we drove down to Mommom's house farther down in Delaware to spend the night. Kathleen stayed up late talking with Mommom and two of her aunts - and then continued visiting and talking in the morning over breakfast. Owen had a good time pulling his new helicopter around and dancing to some funk music!

I Need a Haircut!

Owen's hair was getting long around the holidays. Daddy's barber said that he would trim him up for free, but we had trouble getting him there, so we just trimmed it ourselves. Didn't do too bad of a job, and he was much better behaved through the trim than we thought he would be!

A Week Off

In between Christmas and New Year's Eve, both Phil and Kathleen had off from work and Owen's daycare was open. So, Daddy and Mommy had a nice quiet week to relax. We had lots of nice lunches out, caught up on some reading, and saw a movie at one of the big new theaters.

On New Year's Eve, we went over to our friends Brian and Wendy's house for the evening. Brian's sister, her husband, and kids were also visiting, so there were a few kids running around for Owen to play with. We made a big batch of seafood gumbo for dinner. After the kids went to bed, we had a chance to relax, play some Wii, and watch a little TV, before ringing in the new year.

On New Year's Day, we got together with some friends from the neighborhood (Joe and Rebecca) and their daughter Francesca. We had a nice dinner out at Brewworks - Owen and Francy-pants had a nice time hanging out next to each other in their high chairs. After dinner, we went back to Joe and Rebecca's house, put the kids down to bed, and hung out for a while.

First Snow of the Winter

Right after Christmas, we got our first snowfall, and unfortunately, we had to cancel our travel plans to see Grandmom and Grandpop Smith, and Mommom (Owen's great-grandmother). While they were calling for a lot of snow, we really didn't get that much in the Lehigh Valley. But we still bundled up Owen in a few layers of clothes and a snowsuit, and took him out into the snow. He was adorable with his snowsuit on!

Merry Christmas!

This year, we had Christmas at home with just our little family! On Christmas Eve, we made a roast tenderloin with bourbon-plum sauce in the slow-cooker, so it was ready to eat as soon as we got home from Christmas Eve service at church. Owen had a good time at church playing in the nursery and flirting with some older girls.

On Christmas morning, we got up and opened our presents. Owen got his first Legos, Playmobile, and Thomas toys, but he seemed more interested in the goldfish and his juice. And climbing up the steps! We made some Thai fish for lunch, and had a nice Christmas dinner out that night at Brewworks!

Owen Loves Betsy!

Walkin' Around

Owen's been walking by just taking a few steps for a while now. He would just take a few steps and then fall down. I think the hardwood floors were slowing him down. However, over our Thanksgiving visit to Papaw and Mamaw's house, he built his confidence up walking around on the carpet there. He went from just taking a few steps to walking across the room, turning around, and walking back in one weekend. And when we got home, the hardwood floors were no match for Owen anymore!

A Thanksgiving For the Dogs

As mentioned in the previous post, Thanksgiving this year was almost derailed by a number of illnesses. But we still had a great time visiting with Mommy's family in WV. Owen loves his uncles, and they had a great time playing with him. Uncle Rick flew Owen around like a plane, and showed him videos on his phone to keep him entertained. Owen spent a lot of time crawling all over Papaw, Mamaw, and his uncles, and thrilled his Papaw when he said "pa-pa" to him.

Betsy had fun running around with the pack (i.e., Abby and Maggie) likes she does every year. She was showing off this year by repetitively jumping over the baby gates (which she never does at home). And every time there was any sort of noise or bump, all three dogs would run barking around the house. Luckily, they never woke Owen up, but they startled us all a few times.

While we were in WV, we got to visit with one of Kathleen's high school friends Jenny (who was in Kathleen's wedding party). Jenny has three boys, including her youngest, Jacob, who is only two months younger than Owen. Unfortunately, Jacob was taking a nap for most of the time that we were visiting, so Owen didn't get to play with him much, but at least that got to meet each other before we left.

The nicest surprise of the weekend came on our trip home. We were a little worried that Owen would be awake and fussy for most of the seven hour drive. But he was really good. We played some music that he likes and he just sat in his car seat and read books. Every once in a while, he would cry a little and we'd give him another book, and he'd be fine for another 10 minutes. He took a two hour nap, we had lunch, and then he looked through some more books before we got home. And since we got up so early in the morning (with Owen at the crack of dawn), we didn't run into any traffic and we got home a little after 2pm!

A Plague on Both Our Houses

Here's the update from the sick house. Over the past month, Owen has had two ear infections (at once - in both ears), strep throat, and a stomach virus. The week that he had the ear infections, we were all down for the count. He was out of daycare 3 1/2 days that week, so Mommy and Daddy took turns staying home with him, and then crawled into work the other days.

Somehow, Mommy and Daddy managed to get by without getting strep throat, and Owen responded quickly to the antibiotic. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Owen got sick to his stomach. We thought it might be from the antibiotic, but they told us at daycare that there was a stomach illness going around. Then, on Tuesday night, Mommy was up sick all night. Seems that she got Owen's stomach illness - maybe because Owen had puked all over her. She unfortunately had to take the day before Thanksgiving break off, so she could rest up. (She missed the pep rally for the big Turkey Day football game!) But, she felt up for the trip to West Virginia on Wednesday night to visit with her family for Thanksgiving and we made it there without any issues. However, on Saturday, Kathleen's dad, mother, and both brothers were each feeling rather ill with a stomach illness. We are all hopeful that Owen will be well in the coming weeks - his family can't take much more!

Sleepover

Last weekend, we went over to our friend's for dinner. Since they live 1/2 hour away (which is a long way for us), we always stay over whenever we go to visit them. By the time that we get over there, have dinner, and put Owen down to sleep, we wouldn't have any visit if we didn't stay the night.

Owen had a great time playing with Abby - they both had fun chasing each other around with some walkers. We thought it would be efficient (and cute) if they both got a bath together. However, Owen was not happy in the tub - probably because it was a strange place, and well past his bedtime.

Weekend in Philly

Last weekend, Mommy and Daddy got away for a weekend in Philadelphia. We stayed at a hotel off of Rittenhouse Square for Friday and Saturday night. On Friday night, we had dinner at Monk's and then went to a comedy show, which turned out to be a really funny show. The headliner was Nick Kroll (from The League and that caveman sitcom that was on a while ago). He actually came out in character and was one of the opening acts for himself.

On Saturday, we had an amazing lunch at Amada, a tapas restaurant in the Old City. Kathleen said that it was the best lunch that she ever had. We also did some shopping for clothes for Phil, browsed a used bookstore for books for Kathleen, and took the tour at the Yard's brewery.

On Saturday night, we went to a Dave Matthews Band concert at the Wells Fargo Center. We were about as far as you could get away from the stage, but at least we weren't far off center.

When we got home, Mamaw and Papaw had Owen at lunch at Brewworks, where he was visiting with all of his waitress friends.