Owen & His ABC's

Our family had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with my father, and the boys were eager to share with Granddad everything they had learned the past few weeks. While wrapping up dinner at the table Cameron quoted many of the bible verses he has learned through AWANA and preschool, and Owen proudly raced through his ABC's. Owen hesitated for all of about five seconds when Granddad challenged him to say his ABC's backwards at the same speed, then proceeded to rotate 180 degrees and run through them once more with his back turned to us! Barb and I hadn't stopped choking back the tears of laughter before Owen then proudly announced he could say them sideways too, then turned and rattled them off for a third time.

I think the most unnerving part is knowing that what we consider as out-of-the-box thinking is in fact Owen's normal brainwaves activity!

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Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. - Luke 1:26-35
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Merry Christmas everyone!

Owen's mysterious dripping shorts

OK, it took all of 10 seconds to have an Owen story to share. Barb shared that yesterday Owen (who is now one month post-potty training) had his shorts and underware in a pile on the living room carpet, soaking wet. I mean SOAKING wet! When asked what happened, Owen replied 'I was cleenin' em Mom, cleenin!'. With the initial relief passed of not holding a dripping accident in her hand, she flashed back over the past few weeks and realized that Owen (who learns by observation most excellently) had observed her during the past few weeks of training washing his dirty shorts in the commode. Owen's look was priceless when Barb asked him where he cleened his shorts, when with a look of 'geez Mom, can't you trust me?' he said 'the sink, Mom, the sink'! Tracing the water trail Barb was, in fact, able to verify that we had a pool of well water on our floor, and not a toxic dump.

My wife must have cut her teeth in this line of work by reading Nancy Drew mysteries as a child!

Might as well just start right here

Have you ever not started something because you wanted to do it just right, and didn't have everything together yet? That's me with this blog. The idea first flashed by over a year ago, but it was going to take too much work and time and effort. Then my good friend Scott Stringer showed me his blog (stringerzoo.blogspot.com) several weeks back, and I was finally motivated enough to create my own that night. Then, it hit me - how do you start a life's story mid-stream? I sat frozen, unable to begin until I could catch up on nine years of stories? Then there was this morning......

Cameron (our five year old oldest son) wakes up early this morning crying from a nightmare. The story was hard to piece together, but it was something about being chased and having something heavy land on him. Barb (my wonderful bride of 9 years now) soothes him by saying that it was just a dream, to which Cameron replies 'but dreams really do come true!'

So there you have it, my son's nightmares are that much more horrific because of Disney World, and you have an abrupt start to our life's story because of one cute kid!

(We'll have a story or two of our youngest son Owen (age three) in short order, guaranteed!)