Happy Birthday!

One year ago today our beautiful baby boy was born. Can you believe it? He has gone from our helpless, "noodle" of a baby to the oh, so mobile and curious toddler in 365 days. Amazing. We had his first party at his Aunt Bunny and Uncle Tom's house in Austin. I made him a birthday banner which we hung on their porch.


And Esten and I slaved over these monkey cupcakes which were homemade carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting. The face is a ginger snap, the eyes are M&M's, the ears are mini oreos and the nose is chocolate ganache. They were soooo good.

Rowan was impressed with our singing as you can tell.

And he even tried a little bit of the icing. He's still not big on the eating thing and so my mental picture of him covered in icing and having cake all over himself didn't happen. This is what I got.

There was not a shortage of gifts for this little man. He got musical instruments, puzzles, trucks, blocks, a barn with animals, blocks, books, crayons and did I mention blocks? He for some reason loves this little Papa Smurf that John and Jess gave him.

It was a fun day and we had a great time. This past Saturday we had another party for Rowan at the San Antonio Zoo. We invited kids to this one and they all had a blast.
We started off feeding fish and goats. Then the kids got to pet a hedgehog like creature. Here is cousin Mara petting Sophie.
This is Rowan being helped by Daddy, petting Sophie.
Rowan having a second round of happy birthday and a bit of cake afterward.



The rest of the day was spent exploring the zoo. This is a group shot at the end of the day.

Dr. Mason

After many long days and late nights of writing his 200 page dissertation, Esten is officially Dr. Mason. He defended his dissertation last Thursday. His parents came to town and we celebrated with a happy hour and dinner. Now it's crunch time with our packing and preparing for Mexico.

This is Dr. Hays and Esten.



Title Slide from Esten's seminar.

Walking

I think we now have to say that Rowan is walking. It's his primary mode of transportation. I can't believe it. Today was one of his first days to try walking in the grass with his shoes. Here is a video clip of his walking:

Bluesy Ro

I mentioned the Harmonica skills a few posts ago, well...

Happy Belated Halloween

We opted to dress Rowan and stay home this Halloween. Ro handed out candy to a few trick-or-treaters and showed off some unforeseen walking skills to his Grandma and Grandpa. It was like he had been walking for months. But no worries he's back to his falling self again.




We stayed home because we took Rowan to his first Aggie football game. He was tired after all of that excitement. Here is Esten and Ro at the game.



Our packing is getting underway over here. My parents took a trailer and truck full of stuff this weekend and I'm wheeling and dealing on craigslist. Our dresser and bar stools are gone today. Hmmm, what to do with all of the clothes in the dresser...

Nos estamos moviendo a México

We have some big news; we're moving to Mexico in January! Esten took a job at CIMMYT near Mexico City and that's where we will be for the next three years. We are very excited to step out of our comfort zone into a world that most people never get a chance to experience. I'll admit the not knowing what to expect and the "How DO you move to Mexico?" parts are challenging but they are not stopping us from embarking on this great adventure.
Dr. Borlaug, who was credited with saving over a billion lives from starvation, was a distinguished professor at A&M and he was on Esten's committee for a few years until he became ill and had to be removed. He recently passed away and Esten was an "usher" at his memorial on campus. Listening to his colleagues talk of him and what he did to save the world really made me hope that we were going to Mexico. Dr. Borlaug worked at CIMMYT for 40+ years and received the Nobel Peace Prize while he was working there. He once said, "I personally cannot live comfortably in the midst of abject hunger and poverty and human misery." He also believed that the world cannot be at peace until these people are helped to feed themselves and escape poverty. I love that Esten is choosing a job with dignity over a job for a huge corporation (where he would make a lot more money) like Monsanto. And if the corn fed boy from Iowa, Dr. Borlaug, survived Mexico so can we! VAMOS!
We'll be living on campus at first until we learn enough Spanish and feel comfortable living elsewhere. We're going to be about 3 hours from beautiful beaches both ways, east and west and a few minutes from Mexico City. We will be taking visitors as often as possible and CIMMYT kindly pays for us to come home once a year (hopefully we'll make it more often than that.) I'm currently selling things on craigslist and looking for responsible, loving homes for some of our belongings that I just can't part with. Enough about Mexico, how's that baby?
Rowan will be one next month. Can you believe it? He is getting more adorable everyday. He is on the cusp of walking and walks first, until he falls, then crawls to whatever the destination might be. He has a Radio Flyer walker that his aunt bought him last year and he pushes that thing around with speed. Any day now he's going to be full on walking.
He picked up the harmonica this past week. At first he couldn't play it but after we showed him several times he figured it out. He can also wave bye'bye, but only with his right hand. He gives open mouth kisses, tries to sort shapes and puts his socks inside his shoes when you take them off of him. This is video of some of Rowan's latest cuteness, including a Halloween sneak peek.

Kazoo Baby Kazoo

I was cleaning our house this week and found a kazoo that Esten got in his stocking at Christmas last year. I showed it to Rowan and played my best kazoo for him too. He took it from me, stuck it in his mouth and started playing it. Like this:

If you ever need a kazoo player we have one for hire. He is booked through the end of the month but has some open dates thereafter. And also if you find yourself in need of paper shredder, we have one of those too.

Social Butterfly

I've been looking for a playgroup to take Rowan to for a few months but was getting discouraged by all of the hoops people on the mommy boards want you jump through. So I had just laid the idea to rest until Esten and I went to Ben and Jerry's for dessert one night. There's a big fountain in the middle of the shopping plaza and we were walking around it to work off some of those calories, ha! This couple with a baby walked out of Atami, a sushi restaurant, and we started talking to them. Come to find out Jennifer knew of the Friends from La Leche League playgroup. So I took Rowan the next morning and one of the moms there invited us to another free activity called Music Makers. And then I found out about a free program at the library called Babies and Books. So we've been socializing. It's fun for both of us, Rowan gets to play with other babies and I get to talk to other moms. Rowan is an observer. The first day he stayed close to me and observed what was going on for 20 minutes or so. Then he was off, taking toys from other babies, begging other moms for their snacks and introducing himself to the group by sitting in the middle of our circle in this pose:



clapping and turning all the way around while screeching at the top of his lungs. He is the loudest baby in the group. Here is a picture of him playing with his new friends.



Unfortunately he has payed the price for his social behavior of sharing toys with his new friends, with a cold. His nose is runny and he has a little cough. So this week we're skipping our playgroups but we'll be at Babies and Books Monday morning.

Rowan learned how to clap. I've been trying for months to teach him to do it so this was a BIG deal for us. We listen to music in his room while he is playing and he has picked a favorite song. He claps at most songs, but Five Little Monkeys steals his heart. He usually stops and stares at the stereo while clapping and humming along to this one. Other songs get a periodic clap and smile. This is a video of him clapping from a week ago. Since then he has perfected the clap.

Rowan has his top, front two teeth now. It was rough but they're in. There appears to be a gap between them but we'll have to wait and see. He had his 9 month check up yesterday. He's ~ 21 pounds and ~28 inches long. I wouldn't say he likes the doctor's office so therefore the nurses do what they can to get an estimate. Can you believe he'll be 1 in a few months? I'm about 50% finished with his birthday banner and we're thinking about party plans.

The Gorge

Let me explain my long hiatus from blogging. There is a little curious, button-loving almost 9 month old baby who won't let me. When I open my computer his eyes light up and he immediately crawls over to abuse my keyboard. So it's only while he is sleeping that I'm able to use the computer and I usually have his naps booked. By booked I mean every second is being used to frantically wash the dishes, cook, clean, etc... I previously relied on his exersaucer and johnny jumper to occupy him but he isn't in to being confined anymore. He is crawling all over the place, pulling up on everything and standing all by himself. He even took a tiny step the other day. He may be over confident in his standing skills so I am watching him like a hawk these days. He also has started eating much better. He eats anything we are eating or something close to it. Pureed foods are NOT popular with this baby. He prefers chunky foods. My mom told me I also had nothing to do with baby food. Today he ate blueberries and oatmeal for breakfast and chicken, barley and steamed apples for lunch and dinner. He still eats relatively small amounts but he is finally interested. He also has a expanded his vocabulary, to include not only Maaama, but Daada, Naana, Yaaya, Baaba and lots of car noises. One really cute thing he is doing everyday is crawling to the bathtub to take his bath. Esten always strips him down while I get his bath ready. One day he just took off to the tub before he could get him undressed. Now he does it every night and when he turns that corner into the bathroom he has the same delighted look in his eyes that he has when I open my computer.

We just got home from a vacation to Washington where we reunited with some of our best friends. We all met at our friends Joel and Clint's grandmother's lake house. She was such a saint to let 14 of us stay with her. Then we traveled via 12 passenger van and minivan to The Gorge to camp and see Phish. It was an amazing trip and we had a blast. It was Rowan's first camping trip and he did really well. The time change made things a little difficult but he's a trooper. We saw Phish two nights and the first night Rowan stayed up and danced (jumped) for about 30 minutes, the second night he passed out before they even came on. This is from his dancing night. I made those Huck Finn's.

Mama and Ro.

Still dancing.
He loved the tent. And yes, we used disposable diapers for our vacation. His carbon footprint grew a wee bit but it's still smaller than most.
This is a group photo of the crew. We had a baby and pregnant mama with us.

Rowan eating his shoe. One of two pairs that actually fit him. Most shoes are too tight due to the chub on the top of his feet.
Family photo at The Gorge.
This was Ro's first beer. He loved it and slept through the night. Only kidding, it was not open but he liked it because it was cold on those gums. Oh yeah, since last time, Rowan has two teeth! The bottom front two. They are adorable.

Thunder Thigh Giggle

He calls me Muuum.

Some things you might hear if you were a fly on our wall today would be: "Baby Boy, you're going to fall", "Rowan Mason, be careful", "Rowan, how did you get there?", "You can't pull up on that, it's going to fall over." I think you may get my point. He is getting really brave with this pulling up thing and uses his crawling skills to get him to whatever it may be that he wants to pull up on. Oh yeah, he says "Muuuuum" now! My mom heard it, I've heard it and Esten has too, although he will probably never admit it. So far the only time I've heard him say, "Muuum" is when he is tired or hungry so therefore, I think he knows what he is saying. And tonight I'll leave you with some pictures from our family photos. We had them taken by Butterfly Chaser Photography. Sarah did an amazing job and even put together a video compilation of some of the photos. Those eyes and thighs...

All Images Copyright Butterfly Chaser Photography

Here We Go

Rowan is officially crawling. He has been inching around for a few weeks but last night and this morning he is mobile. We had a party this past weekend and our friends Bo and Elizabeth brought their son, Isom, who is well on his way to walking. Rowan LOVED him and told him that by screaming in his ear, pulling his hair, and poking his eyes. He really thought that Isom was a super fun toy. Needless to say I'm looking for a playdate for Rowan very soon. He should know that he is not the ONLY baby in the world, right? I think Rowan picked up a few new moves from him too, like crawling.



We took Ro to Fredericksburg a few weeks ago to swim. We were keeping our fingers crossed that he would enjoy the pool since he cried about his baby pool we bought him. Fortunately for all of us, he enjoyed every second of his swimming. He splashes until he is choking on the water, catches his breath and resumes splashing all while kicking his little legs under the water.



Esten and I have a wine barrel that we planted some strawberries in this year. They were doing really well until this sweltering heat came upon us. We would have a few strawberries at a time and they were really sweet. Rowan took interest in them when Esten was picking them while holding him. Esten let him try the berry and he took a few "pecks" at it and made the decision that he liked it. He then continued to suck on it until he was practically gone. Then when we went to Fredericksburg, Esten was picking some blackberries and Ro loved those too. He's a berry baby.






For Father's Day this year Rowan and I made Esten a tie. Rowan helped by letting me work on the tie while he napped or played. I found the pattern on one of the blogs I read. It turned out really nice and he says he likes it. I know, I know a tie is the one of the worst gifts ever, but it's a tradition to give dads ties. So we did. A lot of love went into that tie. This picture is not the best but you'll get the idea.



We had some family photos taken this past week so stay tuned, they should be finished in a few weeks.

Half a Year Old

Here are some recent pictures of Rowan. He is still not crawling but determined he will. No matter how many times he face plants it, he'll get up again and continue to try. These pictures are from our front yard yesterday at lunch. He was picking and eating grass, a big step considering a few months ago he would cry if you put his feet down in the grass. And I suppose eating grass is better than the post it note he ate last week. Oops!



We've been trying to get Rowan to start eating solids, with little success. Somedays he'll eat and somedays he won't have anything to do with it. I don't force him to eat if doesn't want to but try to offer something to him everyday. Last night he was attacking the spoon for carrots. They were so good that he thought it was essential to smear them all over his face. Ian was taking advantage of this and getting in a few licks of carrots off of his hands. Rowan loves dog attention so I see him feeding his food to the dogs in the months to come.

And these beauties are from our garden. I made stuffed bell peppers last night. This is the first year that Esten and I have actually had enough peppers to make a meal. There are more to come too along with the eggplant.

Rowan's sitting up skills are much better now. He will sit up for long periods and play with his toys. Here he is playing with his favorite flower chime. That toy is a hand me down from Mara and I have to say it has been put to great use. Maybe someday he will be into the trucks, trains and dinosaurs...

These two are best buds. Pablo surprisingly tolerates all of the pinches, pulls and pokes from Ro. And if you leave Rowan alone for a few minutes, you'll come back to Pablo sitting beside him keeping a close eye. Pablo is Rowan's keeper in his little chihuahua world. Their relationship may change when Rowan can chase him, we'll see. Oh and the poor cat, Rowan sees him and screams at the top of his lungs. I suspect Rowan will be chasing him too. The cat is beginning to realize that the screams are screams of interest and scurries away at the sound. Rowan is more and more fun everyday and it is so hard to believe that he has already been here for six months. Time is racing by.

Rowan Meets Jackson James

So this is a late post but at last the meeting between Rowan and Jackson is documented. Stuart, Jackson and Amanda came to College Station a few weeks ago to visit and meet Rowan. Jackson is about 6 weeks older than Ro so there's no doubt in my mind that they will eventually get together and cause lots of trouble. This was Rowan's first time to share his toys and I think he actually learned a thing or two from Jackson. See how Jackson is pulling the toys on the bar that goes across the exersaucer, well now Rowan does this too. Before this day he never even noticed the toys hanging there.



And here they are both on a giant soft book. This was too cute as they reached to touch one another.


Next time these two get together they will probably both be mobile. Here is a video of Rowan trying to get up on all fours. I put him down on the other side of his room, went to get some clothes out of the dryer, came back and he was by his changing table. Since this he has gotten really good at it and is so close to getting it moving. I guess plug covers and cabinet locks are in my future.

And finally John graduated this past weekend and of course we couldn't resist putting Rowan in his A&M overalls for the event.