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.