Look what I can do

This is not the best display of his new talent. I have caught him several times today, but as soon as he sees me he drops to his belly and pretends nothing ever happened. He does much better than this, but you get the idea.



Owen had an eye appointment today and the vision in his eyes are equal so he only has to wear the patch four hours a day until Friday. His eye still crosses. I'm not sure if that will continue to correct itself or if that's something we'll address later. The fact that his eye was corrected so quickly confirms that it's hereditary, not bleed related. We go back in three weeks and meet with the eye doctor (today was a VEP test and met with an assistant).

Baby Yoga

This is what Owen spends hours doing. The physical therapist said it's not something we should encourage but I'm not sure how we're supposed to stop him. Knock him over when he tries?




Usually when he does it his hands and feet are much closer together. When you get good balance, you prop yourself on your head and play pat-a-cake or grab the nearest toy. I couldn't get him doing either. But, if you look at the picture above you see that he is starting to reach for something.

Sommer Lovin'

Our friend, Margie, had a baby girl yesterday morning. They named her Sommer. Sommer has been having some breathing issues so she was transferred to Madison. We have little details but it sounds like she's being transferred to another hospital this afternoon and will be having heart surgery later today. Everything is pretty touch and go at this point. I just want everyone to keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

**Update 06-28-2010** As of this morning, we have not gotten many updates. Last we heard anything was Saturday night. Sommer has Pulmonary Hypertension. She was slightly better after being transported so they were holding off on surgery. She was on 8 different meds and holding her own. The last I heard anything was late Saturday night when her mom said that she is down to 7 meds. I am hoping that no news is good news, but keep her in your thoughts anyway.

Do you know what today is?

Gramma's birthday.

Happy Birthday Gramma!

An old fashioned hoedown Part 2

Owen dressed in his Western best too. Minus the cowboy hat. He spent a lot of the day propped up on a cooler happy as can be.

There were even kids there close to his age to play with. Him and Jaelyn bonded. Or stared at each other. Same thing.

There's talk that next year's Father's Day theme will be pirates. Owen took it upon himself to test it out.

I think he likes it.

For the record, I was not being mean and dressing him like a pirate. His floppy hat kept flopping over his one eye and he couldn't see. With a bald bean like his, you can't go uncovered. The bandana worked perfectly.

An old fashioned hoedown, part 1

Last Saturday, me and the kids dressed up in our best Western wear (well, the kids anyway), jumped in the car on our horses, and rode off to the hills of Richland Center for a good old fashioned, Ahlers Family Ho-Down. The theme for the annual Father’s Day weekend shindig was Western wear. When we got there, I was unloading everyone and I heard Brendan say “Look, look, look….it’s a REAL cowboy!” as my uncle strolled across the yard. Yep, he’s a cowboy, for sure.

Gramma brought hats for Cole and Brendan to top off their ensemble and we headed down to see the horses. Brendan and Cole could care less that there was people to visit. There were horses and tractors. What more do you need?

This picture is a bit overexposed but we're not here to critique. They took turns feeding the horse carrots. They didn't quite get how it worked. They'd hold out the carrot and just as the horse would get excited and come for it, they would whip it out like she's going to play fetch.



I'm not sure why they both look so freaked out here. John Deere and plaid, that's what cowboys wear. I'm pretty sure.





Owen could care less about the horse, but she sure liked him.


YEEEEEEHHHHAAAAWWWW!!!! Really. That's what they were telling as they tossed their hats around.



I'm pretty sure that they will be getting the best dressed trophy. I'm assuming they're having it engraved and sent to us.

One eyed Owen

At Owen's eye appointment on Thursday, they told us that he needs to be patched full-time. Hopefully this is just for 4-6 weeks but it could be 3-4 mos depending on his progress. We go back for an appointment in two weeks to see how it's working. By covering his strong eye, it makes his weak eye work harder and improves the sight. When both eyes are uncovered, his brain just adjusts to the left eye being weaker. This most likely has nothing to do with his bleed. I have the same problem. Same eye even. But, the bleed could make it more difficult to train the bad eye. I, personally, don't think that will have any effect but we shall see.

Notice the tongue?? He's still clicking. (for those who've already read the previous post)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there. Especially Jeremy and my dad.

Yesterday Grandpa taught Owen how to click his tongue. He hasn't stopped yet. Thanks Dad.

11 months?!?

Can you believe that Owen is eleven months old already? I can't. All is well. He's a busy little guy. He's a tad bit spoiled. He prefers to have 100% of your attention. If he can't get it then he will shriek at the top of his lungs while staring directly at you until you finally leave the room or break down and pick him up. If you leave he goes on happily playing by himself but if he catches a glimpse of you it starts all over.

He doesn't have much interest in crawling. He's eager to stand. He's working very hard on pulling himself up. He's getting pretty good at standing by furniture but tends to forget sometimes that he needs to hold on.

He's bored with being on his hands and knees in a crawling position. He prefers to stand on his hands and feet. It looks like he's doing yoga. This week he's discovered that you don't need your hands. He stand on his feet and props himself on his head and plays like that. It's the strangest thing you've ever seen. I have to catch him in the act and get a picture or video.

He goes to the eye doctor today to check on his "googly eye" as Bianca would put it. Did I tell you about Bianca? We were at the park a few weeks ago playing and there was a group of young girls. They were all around 4 yrs old. They congregated around him to ooo and ahhh his cuteness. Well, everyone but Bianca. Earlier in the trip I decided I wasn't a fan of Bianca's because she was being mean to Brendan. She'd cut in like on the slide and tell him she gets to go first because SHE'S bigger. Anyway, while the girls were all standing around talking, Bianca looked at me and said "I don't like him. He's has googly eyes." I was instantly offended but bit my tongue at first. She proceeded to say it and I finally snapped. I told her that wasn't nice and it hurts his feeling (in reality he was clueless and smiling like a fool). She continued to say she didn't like him and I bit back like a mature 35 year old would. I told her that maybe I didn't like her. She was shocked. I told her that maybe I didn't like her because she had curly hair. That got rid of Bianca. It was either that or push her down the slide.

Anyway, Owen's having his eye exam as a 11 month birthday. He's very excited.

Me and my friends

We went to see Dolores last Sunday and she has two little visitors. Brendan got to play with them at a graduation party recently but it was cold and crappy so they were pretty confined. They weren't confined Sunday. They ran and ran and ran.

It's clear by the first picture that Nicholas and Marlee are neglected kids and no one EVER takes their pictures.



Both Nicholas and Marlee were pretty fascinated with Owen, but Nicholas especially. He was sneaking kiss after kiss from him. Owen was happy to oblige.

Blueberry Hill

Every single morning Owen has pancakes for breakfast. If it's during the week then he usually gets a pancake with fresh fruit cut up (bananas, strawberries, and blueberries) all mixed together because it's less messy. But, on the weekend we make actual blueberry pancakes. Though the expression on his face may not say it, he LOVES blueberry pancakes.

Ferry Boy

We went for a drive a couple weeks ago and decided to go ride on the Merrimac Ferry. We had never been.

While we waited for the ferry Brendan collected rocks and threw them in the water. Since there was no one on the other side, we rode it back too.

Play Date

Brendan and Owen had a playdate with Karter and Gracey Saturday at the pool.

I was happy to see that Karter and Gracey were interested in Owen. They have to get used to having a baby around since they are expecting two little brothers in a few short weeks.

Clearly, Owen needs a lesson in playing nice. Gracey probably changed her mind about babies.

Swimming makes a little guy very hungry.

And it's exhausting.

Thanks for coming to play with us.

Move Over Michael Phelps

We have been going swimming on the weekend's at Jeremy's hotel. They have a huge kiddie pool that Brendan loves. Last weekend Owen got to swim for the first time. He loved it. I think he was in the water for 1 1/2 hrs.

Brendan loves the slide.

Fire in the Sky

May 22nd would have been Jeremy's grandma's 78th birthday. We had our own little celebration in our backyard. We had a campfire....Brendan's first. He toasted marshmallows and played in the dark.

A friend of mine told me about these wish lanterns that they set off for her brother-in-law's birthday a few months ago. I ordered some and we did the same. The lanterns are basically made of tissue paper that we wrote little messages on. The entire thing is bio-degradable. Underneath there is a flint that you light. After it is lit it fills with air like a hot air balloon. You hold on to it and as it fills it gets lighter and lighter and eventually floats away. The entire thing burns up before it comes back down.

We did the first one from out back yard. It was supposed to go straight up in the air but didn't. It went higher and higher but was heading right for the trees. I thought for sure we were going to start a forest fire. Just before it got to the trees it lifted up and went over them.

We were so amused by it that we did a second one. I videotaped most of it as Jeremy and his sister manned the lantern. This is what it looks like as it takes off.

A good time was had by all and no forests were burned down. Brendan still occasionally asks for us to light another balloon to send into the sky.

Happy belated Birthday Doris!

Happy Belated Memorial Day

Happy Belated Memorial Day everyone. I do have a few pictures from the weekend that I'll post another day.

Somehow I didn't notice before I uploaded these that he has a snotty nose. Gross, I know, but they're uploaded now so deal with it. These were taken a couple weeks ago in the height of teething. Snotty noses are just par for the course.

Deep thoughts by Owen Lee...