Easily Startled

Funny funny stuff...

Side Effects of Baby Vitamins

Scrunched up face and funny noises...
Oden's Pediatrician wants him to take Vitamin D during the winter because he won't get as much sun... but our poor baby doesn't quite like the taste...

Squeal!!!

Oden has found his inner squeal monster.....

All that Hair?!?!

Our baby Oden was born with a full head of black hair. It was so dark and thick that Daddy wasn't sure Oden was really his son. He's gotten over it, although he's still not sure, and now we're trying to figure out how to deal with Oden's dark locks. At the age of 2 months, we completely buzzed his hair. And since then... it's grown back, and with a vengeance!! We love it, but we're not sure what to do with it next... Do we buzz it again? Or do we just let it grow out and HOPE that it will eventually lay flat? Decisions, decisions....

Play by Play of the Roll Over

Almost 5 months old, and our baby Oden is not even close to rolling over on his own yet. You'd think that his rolly polly belly would make it easier to roll, but in fact, it actually gets in the way!! So with Daddy's determination and assistance, Oden can roll over! And when he does, Daddy rewards him with a kiss!!

Two Dollar Coins

The other day Oden got his first letter in the mail! It was from his Great Grandpa Feder who lives in Southern California. Great Gpa Feder wrote...


The other day I got two brand new dollar coins and said to myself now what can I do with them. I thought that if I send them to you, you could put them away for your college fund.

So that's what we did! We added Oden's two dollar coins to his piggy bank, which will then be deposited into his college fund.

Thank you Great Gpa Feder for thinking of Oden. His college savings are very important to us and we really appreciate your contribution.

Big Hugs to Great Gpa Feder and Great Gma Ruth!!!

Thumb Time

Our baby Oden is learning how to self soothe. This is great for Mommy, cause it gives her a break every now and then!!

Videos Added

We just figured out how to add videos to our Blog! We haven't yet figured out how to post text as well as the video, and it hasn't been working.... minor problem.

Remember, you can add comments to the different posts by running your mouse over the 'comment' word at the bottom of each post. Click on that and you can read others comments, and post a comment yourself.

Enjoy!!!

Sing and Dance Oden

Tastes Like Chicken

Oden's Seal Move

Anniversary Dinner

We left Oden with a babysitter for the FIRST TIME EVER!!!! Our friend Annette Reyes gave us a wonderful anniversary gift by babysitting while we went to dinner at Eve, one of our favorite Ann Arbor restaurants. We were gone almost 1 hour and 45 minutes.... had a nice relaxing time, and talked about Oden nonstop.



We survived, Oden survived, and most importantly the babysitter survived!! So that gives us the courage to do this again sometime...

Picture: All dressed up and baby wondering what is going on......

P.S. Isn't Patricia beautiful???

Big Day

Lots of great things happening today. Oden has officially gotten the hang of sucking his thumb. It is very cute. He still switches between his fingers and thumb, but it is starting to become a favorite past time of his......



Today, I took the plunge and cut a whole hole into the roof of my house to vent a new bathroom fan. I was hesitant to start, but once I got going, I was fine. I got lots of roof cement onto the interface of the shingles and the vent housing, so hopefully no leaks.

And Patricia took the plunge and chopped off all her hair. She donated 10 inches of it to Locks Of Love. It was good for her, since she doesn't have time to volunteer anymore.

Grandma Rowley's Thanksgiving Visit

We had a great time over Thanksgiving weekend with Grandma Rowley. Grandma Rowley got a lot of quality time holding Oden.

Picture: Look how big Oden looks sitting on Grandma's lap!!!



We had a lot of fun cooking all day on Thanksgiving Day. We had Turkey, stuffing, broccoli, crescent rolls, mashed potatoes, devilled eggs, gravy, and homemade cranberry sauce! Good stuff. We even got a picture of the Turkey (he's the one with the knife).







Oden has had a challenging time with the bottle. We were afraid he had a drinking problem, even at such a young age (kids grow up sooooo quickly today!). But, alas, as Oden got to around 4 months he was able to figure the bottle out, and he has drained the last 4 or 5 that we have given him. In an experiment, we had Grandma feed him... and a well executed experiment it was (Oden's parents are both scientists). However, during the feeding a ferocious chihuahua came out of nowhere and attacked Grandma Rowley's ankles! This is all captured on film in the pic.

One exciting thing going on in our lives is that we are planning a trip to Barcelona! Jon is going there for work, and needs to be at some clinical trial surgeries on December 18 and 19. Being so close to Christmas, we decided to make a family trip out of it - yes, Oden's first trip greater than 15 miles from home will be Barcelona, Spain (via Amsterdam). He will travel internationally before he ever gets out of state! Funny stuff. Hopefully, this is a foreshadowing of Oden's future adventures. Our international trip means that Oden needs a passport! Patricia got Oden's passport photo last week (Patricia hates the photo, it looks like a baby mugshot), and we went and filled out the application Friday afternoon. With the expedited service, we will have Oden's passport in 2 weeks... now THAT is some government efficiency.

Friday, before Grandma Lynda's departure, we decided to put up the Christmas tree. Since we will be gone an entire week before Christmas (our trip is from Dec 16-23), we wanted to have as much Christmas time in our house as possible... We got a nice family photo in front of the tree.

Family Photos

This is a photo from a free sitting that we had with Amy, a photographer who runs Lil Sweet Pea Photography.
http://www.lilsweetpeaphotography.com/
Patricia found her on Craig's list, we just had to give her permission to use Oden's pics in her portfolio. She has posted photos of little Oden in several of her galleries on her website.
Wee Peas
http://home.comcast.net/~lilsweetpeaphotography/weepeas.html
Pea Pods
http://home.comcast.net/~lilsweetpeaphotography/peapods.html
and Pea Soup
http://home.comcast.net/~lilsweetpeaphotography/peasoup.html
Anyway, we had a great experience with her, and would definitely recommend her to anyone. The shoot went well (at our house), the photos turned out great, and the prints were reasonably priced.

Rowley World

Welcome to Rowley World - everything happening in the Rowley household of Jon, Patricia, and our bouncing baby boy, Oden.

Oden is now 4 1/2 months old and is the center of our life. He is a smiling, squealing, and grabbing bundle of joy. Patricia is a stay at home mom that is dreading going back to work at the EPA, even part time, in January. She is secretly hoping that the EPA finds some way not to renew her position as a Toxicologist, where she works on incorporating air pollution research into public policy. Jon is having the time of his life being a dad, and working at Aastrom Biosciences, an adult stem cell company in Ann Arbor, MI.