In which it's all fun and games.
We're teaching Owen to play. One of his favorite games is blowing. He likes you to blow in his face and he loves holding his hand in front of your mouth to catch the air. This little bit of fun may also be how the Hesshenshaws invented the game they've been playing for the past month.
Plague Tag. It's terrific fun the whole family can enjoy.
It starts with Daddy catching a nasty sinus thing the day before getting on the plane home from Almaty. Other members of the family try to avoid him before he can pass it along. Unfortunately, Mommy wasn't quick enough on the dodge and he made her "It" about a week after returning to Kansas City. She tagged Owen on Easter. He very cleverly executed the fingers-in-my-mouth/fingers-in-your-mouth strategem and now Daddy is "It" again.
The first one to run out of cough drops loses.
Yes, Owen's first Easter ended with a bit of a bust. I had a plane to catch to New York that afternoon. Shortly after my departure, the rest of the family took a vote and decided that Owen's seal bark cough needed a doctor's sooner rather than later attention. So my mom sent her annual Easter party packing and went with Robin to get the boy checked out. Fortunately, it was just a cold. That, of course, did not stop our son from crying his eyes out all Monday night long. Great fun for Robin who was also up all night tending her own plague symptoms. I, on the other hand, was quite comfortably enjoying pasta and a glass of wine half a continent away.
Yes, I do fear the paybacks.
Easter wasn't all bad, however. Owen visited with his grandmothers and aunts (above) and rooted for his cousins in their annual kickball match. You can see sports stars Joe, Ben and Katie at left. I'm not sure which team won. The scoring gets a little creative which makes it all the more fun.
Afterwards the kids enjoyed the traditional Easter Egg Hunt. Since my mom's backyard is kind of field like, the hunt can be more of a "don't step on it" experience. Still, the kids enjoy it and I'm sure Owen will have fun next year as he'll be the youngest and, therefore, the first out the door. For a preview, you can see Jacob scoring eggs at left and Eric, post hunt, sorting his loot.
Owen woke up from his Easter nap long enough to enjoy playing with the empty plastic eggs. It remains our strategy to continue making a big deal of empty boxes and wrapping paper well into his eighteenth year. With any luck, we won't have to buy him any gifts until he's too old to expect them.
(Yes, grandmothers, I am kidding.)
Staying up with our son's ailments drove home for us that the clock continues to countdown to both parents returning full time to work. Robin hits the salt mines on April 11. I'll take two weeks off starting then (or so I believe-- I've already been asked twice how reachable I'll be) and continuing through the end of the month. After that we're both cogs in the man's machine full time and Owen will spend his time learning to love his daycare provider more than us.
Not that we're worried or anything.
But, thinking of work, I visited my dentist this week. (You'll get the connection shortly.) She tells me that I'm grinding my teeth so hard that freakish bone protrusions are growing in the back of my jaw. In addition, two "friends" from the office gleefully commented on the fact that my hair has grown much whiter in the short time since my return from Siberia.
In other words, stress has begun to deform me.
As a result, despite years of living the debauchery of dinners out in the middle of the week, Robin and I are wholesoming it up. Just this Saturday, for example, we stayed in and watched a family movie: "The Incredibles." Of course a cartoon has no appeal to us-- we were simply previewing it to make sure that it was suitable for Owen. (It so is!) Later this year, I'll probably have to preview the entire collection of Star Wars action figures.
You can't be too safe, you know.
In other wholesome news, we spent today visiting with Robin's cousin on the-- sort of-- farm. Mike and his wife Kelly didn't get to come to the Huey fest of weeks past, so we were enjoying a make-up visit at their house in Leavenworth. We got our first taste of Kelly's famous sloppy joes and macaroni-and-cheese. Owen had his first introduction to a cow.
The cow didn't go over so well.
Upon arrival at cousin Mike's, we heard the mooing. That was most intriguing. Later, however, when we ventured out to see what was making all the racket up close, we decided that cows are scary. Mike and Kelly got to see one of Owen's rare, but impressive, full on tears meltdowns. (You can see Owen during calmer moments with both Kelly and Mike below.)
The heart-wrenching sobs cleared up as soon as we got him into the barn to check out Mike's new boat. Owen has already been trained on the importance of appraising merchandise and went into full serious mode.
Still, the cow fear was surprising. Perhaps Owen had made the cow to sloppy joe connection and, like his mother, was expressing his concern about the humane treatment of our four-legged friends. (Even the delicious ones.) Owen does seem to have his mother's affinity for the furred. At home, he's settling in nicely with his hairy brothers and sister. Murray kisses him good-morning and good-night. And Toonces the cat sneaks into his room to check on his sleeping.
The way Toonces lifts the rail padding with his paw to watch Owen sleeping is sweet. The way he yowls loudly to wake Owen up is not.
Likewise, Owen took immediately to Kelly and Mike's dogs. They're two very kissy Pomeranians named Pepper and Tula and Owen very agreeably opened his mouth to them. That's the way Owen kisses-- a great big open mouth.
Hmmm. Wonder why we keep passing the plague back and forth to one another?
