Lucy's party.

Last weekend we took Owen to his friend Lucy's 1st b-day party. You couldn't tell it from some of these photos b/c it looks like Owen was the guest of honor. Good times. Especially seeing Owen mount the pink Dora bus.
And O didn't steal any toys this time around.

Boy and the bubble(wrap).

We thought it would be fun if Owen discovered the glorious magic that is bubble wrap. Here's what happened...

Fancy Pants Night.

A couple Fridays ago, the lady and I attended CuisineArt '09 at the Walker Art Center. Fancy, indeed. Delicious, you bet. Basically, it's a charity event where big name local chefs participate in a Top Chef-like timed challenge. The goal was for each chef to interpret a different Walker painting in its edible form. The results were beautiful. Then, the celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck walked around to judge the winner. Target sponsored the event so we got some sweet seats. Oh, and big thanks to K's Mom for watching Owen Boy that night! We had a blast on our date night.
If you're interested in seeing more pics from the event, check out the Walker's flickr stream here.

Motormouth.

Toys, shmoyz.

Why bother buying a kid toys when he's happy playing with the stuff in your recycling bin? Owen can't get enough of our old Entertainment Weeklys, empty OJ jugs (filled with rice) and ghetto Tupperware containers. It's the little things in life, I suppose. Little man's b-day is coming up next month so start saving your recycling now in advance! :)

Food fight!

As I'm posting this I have that cafeteria scene from Animal House swirling in my head. Love that movie. Owen is all about the finger foods these days. Here's proof.

Hello hi-fi.

Owen has quite the hankerin' for the hi-fi stereo that's in our dining room. He especially likes the tiny orange light glowing on the front. What the little guy doesn't know is that this old beaut has quite the history. My Grandma and Grandpa Gardiner bought this Zenith High Fidelity Stereo/Phonograph way back in the 60s (I think). My Mom would tell stories about how, back in the day, my Grandparents wouldn't let her and her bros/sis listen to "that awful rock n' roll" on it. So when no one was looking, they'd sneak into the room and listen Elvis or whatever anyway. Little hellions.
Fast forward to just after I graduated college... Instead of letting this gorgeous relic be sold when my G-parents were moving from TX, my Grandpa agreed to give it to me if I would have it shipped to MN. Deal.
Today, I'm so thankful it all worked out b/c it's my favorite thing in our whole house. A day doesn't go by where Owen doesn't hear the hi-fi jammin' as he's having dinner in his hi-chair. Katie and I both love love love it. Crazy enough, it's got an ipod hooked up to it now. 1960s, say hello to 2009.
Hey Grandpa- chime in with some comments if you get a sec.

Friday grab bag.

Who doesn't love a little grab bag on a Friday? It's sorta like a mix tape. Or giving someone 3 small gifts for their b-day instead of 1-- ya know, to diversify your risk a little bit...
Here's what's on tap today...
Owen holding puppet Ernie's hand? Check.
Owen rockin' his new beach bucket hat and smiling all cute-like? Yep, got that too.
Owen being all panther-y in the background before knocking down the castle that Daddy just built? Done.

Tunnelcrawl.

Whitney's par-tay.

We went to this wonderful b-day par-tay for Ms. Whitney a couple weekends ago and I've yet to post about it. (I know. I've been a bad blogger.) The day was absolutely gorgeous, and there was a whole gaggle of Whitney buddies there to ring in year one with her. But I have to say, Owen was a total rascal that day-- yanking Whitney's and other kiddo's toys from them. He doesn't get the whole sharing concept at this early age, but it's still a tad embarrassing as a parent. Just a little bit, anyway. He'll get the sharing thing down sooner or later. :) Check him out getting caught in the act in this first photo...
P.S. you can view/download all the photos from the party here.

Tennis, anyone?

As you know, O-Dawgy Dawg is crawling up on anything and everything these days-- coffee tables, barstools, standing humans. The kid is definitely a mover and a shaker. So near his play area in our living room, O discovered a window ledge that he can pull himself up on. Spearing out of that window ledge is one of those window crank thingamabobs, ideal for poking an eye out or chipping O's only 2 teeth. So I MacGruber'd my own baby-proof solution: a tennis ball with a slit in the back. It's perfect b/c the kid was already fascinated by the window crank. And a bright yellow ball is so much more playful-looking, wouldn't you agree? Love-love.

It's Pants-Free Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, people. You've heard of "business casual" and "Casual Fridays" but there's a hot new trend sweeping this great nation of ours: "Pants-Free Mondays!" Owen Boy is leading the charge. Mommy and Daddy are going pants-less to work today, too. It's supposed to be sunny and in the mid-80s. C'mon, join the movement! If you hear some yahoo chanting: "The time is now! Drop trou!", you know who it is. :)

On vacation.

Hello all, Katie and I took a much-needed week off from the Bullseye this week to stay home with Owen and get some house projects done. So unless I get spazzy and Katie tells me to go into the man-den and get lost, I'm taking a vacay from blogging this week as well. Have a great week, everyone.

Total Playa.

(Again, a very inappropriate title two days in a row. Especially for a baby blog. Oops, couldn't resist.) Anywho, here are some more photos for everyone to enjoy. This is Part 2 of an 11-Part series showing us at the park with Owen! Stay tuned for us on the teeter totter, the tall slide, the small slide, the monkey bars, family shot in the gazebo and more!
I kid, I kid. Enough park photos for now. Have a great weekend.

Total Swinger.

(To start with, probably an inappropriate title for this post but oh well. It's our blog, right?) So we've been getting good use out of the park by our house with the weather being so downright awesome lately. And as you can see we had to get Owen a new lid. Just as we suspected, his old cap just wasn't staying on his noggin. This new one is a beach bucket with strap, a reversible little number for Mr. O to rock out(doors). Here are some park pics (more to come tomorrow).

Drive-In season starts now.

"Let's go to the drive-in!", we said. This is a big Robertson family tradition we do several times each Summer. But in hindsight, this was definitely an ambitious move with a squirrel-y 10-month old in tow.
The movie (Star Trek, definitely worth seeing) started around 8:30 and we thought FOR SURE he'd be snoozing by then b/c his bedtime is 7:30. Nuh uh. Nope. No way. Owen was in sensory overload mode. He was pointing his lookin balls at everything he could: dogs, kids, cars, lights, birds, frisbees, sounds, people with fanny packs, gawky teens with light 'staches, mulleted creatures, dudes named Kelly, etc. etc.
We tried rocking Owen to sleep in the lawnchair, back seat, behind the back seat, front seat. You name it, we tried it. Finally, we figured out a system that worked and he was out. Now that we know our action plan, we'll be heading back for more drive-in goodness.

Baby gate.

You can't stop Mr. Owen. You can only hope to contain the lil' rascal. So to keep Owen from stair-surfing (and to bring things up to code) we bit the bullet and had a new railing and gate installed last week. It looks really nice and Owen has taken a real liking to it. Here was big man's first encounter caught on film...