Moving Forward!

Over the weekend, Owen made his first forward progress while crawling. And we caught it all with our video camera! The best part about it is that he was so happy and excited about moving forward - he was laughing and squealing so much!

Here's the video. Make sure that you turn the sound up!

Rose Garden Carnival and Scooby Doo!

Last weekend, there was a community carnival in the Rose Garden near our house. There was some live music and carnival games, with the proceeds all benefiting Alex's Lemonade Stand (for childhood cancer research). However, the weather wasn't too cooperative on Saturday. We went down to see a band on Saturday, but got caught in a downpour. Sunday, they were calling for rain all day, but it cleared up a little and we were able to get back to the carnival to check it out some more. The highlight of the day was seeing Scooby Doo and the Mystery Machine!

Owen says "Opa!"

Friday night, we walked to the local Greek church down the street for the spring Greek Food Fest. Owen had a nice time in the sun and wanted to dance around to the bouzouki music. Mommy and Daddy got some yummy gyros with some pita and dips, which we took home for dinner.

First Babysitter Night

Last weekend, we had our first (non-parent) babysitter for Owen on Saturday night. Hannah is the daughter of one of Phil's co-workers. We've known her for a few years (from our relationship with her mom) and have seen her perform Irish dancing a few times at the local festivals. She's in 8th grade, but she is responsible and mature for her age. While babysitting Owen this time, she didn't have too much to be responsible for. She helped us feed Owen his dinner and put him down to bed. And all she had to do was listen to the baby monitor and watch a little TV - but I think that she actually did homework all night.

Mommy and Daddy had a nice evening out - dinner and a movie. We walked downtown, had dinner at Apollo Grill (where we haven't gotten to go in a while), and went to see Iron Man 2 at the Boyd.

Since we didn't take any pictures that night, here's a picture of Hannah dancing at Musikfest last year - she's the one on the right.

Tunes at Twilight - Reggae Night

We had a good time at Tunes at Twilight again tonight. A reggae band was playing - Trouble City All-Stars from Bethlehem. Kathleen made chicken salad wraps and pasta salad for dinner. The weather was wonderful, we ran into some friends, and Owen loved dancing around to the music - a typical Tunes at Twilight night!

Mommy and Daddy's Catering Service for Owen

We've been trying to move Owen on to some more solid food, and to eat a little more independently. So, we've been having him drink his formula from a sippy cup and trying to get him to hold his spoon with us while we're feeding him. He's been doing pretty well with that, but feeding time's been much messier and slower. And towards the end of the formula, he still wants Mommy to hold it up for him!

Owen has 1/4 of one tooth through, and 3 others about to come through. The doctor said that we should be trying more solids foods with him, so we tried a few things out today. Kathleen gave him a piece of cheese earlier, which he gagged on as soon as it was in his mouth. But he did eat little of the the leftover manicotti from last night (which Kathleen now considers his first solid food meal). Later on, we tried some Cheerios, which he also gagged on, but those grew on him a little more quickly. He liked it when Mommy and Daddy were also eating the Cheerios and making munchy noises.

Finally, we tried out some stage-3 foods (that are more chunky) for dinner. He was trying really hard to eat them - but gagged quite a bit and even brought a lot of it back up for us. So, we just gave him his fully-pureed fruits that he really loves - and a little cuddle bottle before he went to bed!

Kid Tunes!

Last Saturday morning, we took Owen to a kid's concert at the Banana Factory. Mr. Ray was performing - Kathleen often plays his music for Owen, so we all recognized some of the songs. Owen had a good time watching all of the other kids dancing around!

But before too long, the music soothed Owen right to sleep!

F.A.R.T.

Friday night, we stopped by a F.A.R.T. (Friday Afternoon Recreational Time) with the Phillipsburg High School English Department. It was at Evan's house this month - and he displayed his culinary skills: hot dogs and frozen burgers grilled up on his grill! But we're teasing Evan... despite his bachelor's lifestyle, his house and the landscaping are looking very nice!

Everyone enjoyed seeing Owen. The English department decided that Owen is a future man of letters. He is obviously a scholar!

Tunes at Twilight

This past Thursday night was the first night for Tunes at Twilight downtown in Bethlehem. Tunes at Twilight features live music every Thursday night in May and June in the Sun Inn courtyard in Bethlehem. The music is almost always fun (except for that night that they had "renaissance music" a few years ago). A lot of people (including us) bring picnic dinners. But you can also buy dinner from the local restaurants, and they'll deliver it to you in the courtyard.

Events like this are nice because we always run into a lot of friends and neighbors. Owen had a great time! He loved jumping on Daddy, even though he was tiring Daddy out. Owen actually stayed out until the end of the show at 8pm, which is well past his bedtime. This was probably because Daddy was dancing around with him all night!

Southside Chili Cookoff

This past Saturday, there was a chili cookoff on the south side. The weather turned out to be pretty nice despite a rather gloomy forecast. So, we packed up the stroller and walked over to the south side to have some chili. The chili tasting was from 12-2, so Owen didn't get his normal nap at noon. But he was a good trooper despite missing his nap (even though he was VERY tired at night). In this picture we were trying to get him to look at the camera, but something caught his attention off to the side. Owen makes a lot of funny faces. He looks like a serious little man!

Sittin' Up

Owen recently started sitting up on his own - at least well enough that we don't have to worry about him falling over and knocking his head. So, last weekend, we got his a high-chair to sit at while we were out at lunch at Brewworks downtown. He really loved it! He liked being a part of the fun at the table and he had a good view of all of the other diners and waitresses! The waitresses at Brewworks all know him and fuss over him. He seems to like the attention.

Kathleen also started sitting Owen in the seat when they were out getting groceries this past week. Owen knows how to smile at people and get them to come over to him. He is a big flirt!

Sunday in NOLA

On our last day in New Orleans, we tried to make sure that we fit in all of the things that we wanted to do (and eat) before we left. It was starting to get a little bit crowded at the festival by that time, but we still had a nice day - the weather was so beautiful!

We started out at the Jackson Square stage to see the Panorama Jazz Band. Next, we some get some more boiled crawfish for lunch at Yo Mama's, and then we wandered around the festival to see more live music: we stopped to see the Washboard Chaz Blues Trio at the Royal Street stage, and Chubby Carrier at the Zydeco/Cajun Stage. We saw him play at Musikfest a few years ago and he was a lot of fun. During one song (Who Stole the Hot Sauce), they pass around hot sauce to drink!

The last show of the festival that we wanted to see was Trombone Shorty. But the Abita stage was absolutely packed by that point, so we only caught a few minutes of the show before we decided to go find Wendy and Brian. Trombone Shorty is playing two shows at Musikfest this year, so we'll be able to see him play then. We had a nice dinner with Wendy and Brian, caught a little jazz at Fritzel's, and had some raw oysters at Felix's, before Wendy and Brian had to get back to the hotel (they had a really early flight out of New Orleans the next morning).

After parting with Wendy and Brian, we went over to Frenchman Street to see Linnzi Zaorski and Delta Royale (30's-40's jazz) play at dba. The club felt like we'd been transported back to 1940! We found a cool little window seat to sit at and talk. It was a really nice last night in New Orleans!

Saturday in NOLA

On Saturday, we saw a lot more live music around the French Quarter. We started out watching a dixieland band at a stage on Bourbon Street. Then, we stopped in Preservation Hall to see the Tornado Brass Band - they were a lot of fun and played a bunch of New Orleans standards.

On Saturday, we had lunch at Alpine Bistro near Jackson Square. One of the waitresses (Dee) from Brewworks in Bethlehem (where we have lunch a lot) used to work at Alpine (with her husband who also works at Brewworks). So, we passed along a message (hello) from Dee to the owner of Alpine. He was very friendly and happy to hear about Dee and her husband.

After lunch, we wandered around the festival and saw someone pulling quadruplets around in a little train. And at that moment, we were thankful for our one baby, who was safe up north with Grandmom and Grandpop.

Then, we went to see Kermit Ruffins (a trumpet player) perform at the Abita Stage near the river. Kathleen liked it when he played "I Can See Clearly Now" because it was a bright sunshiny day.

Finally, later that evening, we went to see Bonerama play at the Abita stage. Another wonderful show!

Friday in NOLA

Friday was the beginning of the French Quarter Festival. The festival started off with a parade down Bourbon Street to Jackson Square. The parade featured a few local brass bands as well as one high school marching band - from Latrobe, PA oddly enough.

After the parade, we hit our first festival music event at the zydeco/cajun stage: the Jimmy Thibodeaux Band (who we saw play and really enjoyed when we came down to NOLA with Wendy and Brian in April 3 years ago).

We then got muffulettas at Central Grocery and ate them on the banks of the Mississippi. Muffulettas are delicious Italian sandwiches with meat, cheese, and olive salad - truely amazing!
Next, we moved on to see a few shows including the Lost Bayou Ramblers (Cajun band) at the Zydeco/Cajun stage and Shamarr Allen (trumpet player) at the Abita Stage near the river.

Finally, we went to see the last show of the night: Big Sam's Funky Nation at the Abita Stage - they were terrific!

After the festival ended for the day, we caught a jazz band Cotton Mouth Kings at The Spotted Cat on Frenchman Street and then watched a few street performers doing some fire dancing.