He's turning into a man right before my eyes.

Owen has been getting up early and watching Sportscenter by himself. He woke me up this morning to tell me the score of the Red Sox game.

This does present a problem with his sister... who's more into the Disney channel.

Unfortunately, the mility runs some great ads during sportscenter. If he joins, kudos to the marketing wing of the armed forces.

Best night ever!

Owen loved the 4th, mostly because I let him light off fireworks. Just small, class C type fireworks, but he didn't care. Naturally, he wanted to shoot off big rockets, but it was fun seeing how excited he was. He was rumming through the bag, pulling them out "Let's light this one!". It was fun seeing how excited it made him. I'm glad we bought them.

The next morning he woke me up at 6:30 asking if he could light up the remaining sparklers.

Squirrels in my pants!

Keira came barrelling into our room this morning, full of giggles when this came on Phineas and Ferb. She was telling us about it the other day and couldn't wait to show us.

Good for my armpits

Keira stopped by while I was working and I said she looked cute in her tank top. She said quickly in her high pitched voice:

"It's good for my armpits"

Owen lost another tooth

This one from the bottom right side of his mouth. It's the 3rd I've pulled from his mouth. It's an emotional moment for him, he sheds a lot of tears for fear of it hurting. Ultimately, he doesn't like the way the tooth feels in his mouth, so he lets me pull them out. Just another event that brings us closer, right?

Owen gets 2nd Place at Rays Camp!

The last day of the Rays camp was a skills competition. Emily said he excelled at throwing and catching. The picture is of him after winning his prize, a bobblehead (the same one he got a week ago at the Nationals game). He collected his prize from Rays relief pitcher, Joe Nelson.

We couldn't be prouder of our little man! Go Owen!

Owen Uber!

From the big screen at Tropicana Field. Owen's at a Tampa Bay Rays baseball camp this week.

Owen's baseball man creation

This is a baseball man that Owen created. I'm pretty impressed. Good use of color and he clearly spent some time working on it. It's a new addition to my office cube.

Rays win, Rays win, Rays win!

Yesterday we (all four of us - free parking!) witnessed the Rays come from behind victory over the Nationals. Down 4-0, the Rays slowly got back in the game and capped it off in the 8th with a Willy Aybar double that bounced off 3rd base. BJ Upton (Owen's favorite player) had a Sportcenter highlight catch right in front of us and we got to pet the Rays at the touch tank (that's Keira sitting on the edge of the tank). Not a bad way to spend a Sunday!

Card from Owen

Owen made me this card Thursday. I've been feeling a little sick. The front says "Feel better dad" and the inside are various pictures of us playing the Wii together.

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Update to "Boys Rule, Girls Drool"

I heard my grinning son leading this chant against a group of girls:

"Boys go to college to get more knowledge, girls go to Jupiter to get more stupider!"

I couldn't be more proud.

Keira Drawing

Keira loves to draw and she's good. She made this picture last week of her Fur Berrie. I'm not sure I could do any better... for real.

Busch Gardens Pictures

We went to Busch Gardens on Friday with my sister. Here are some pictures.

Take a long time...

This morning, I saw a little shadow moving outside the shower door.  I finished up cleaning, opened the door and Keira offered a good solution about work:

"You know how you always say work is so boring?  Here's what you do, dad.  Take a long time brushing your teeth, a long time putting on your shirt, a long time putting on your socks and shoes and then when you're done, work will be over!"

I wasn't really coherent at the time she said this, but as I was sitting here at my desk, I actually chuckled out loud (or 'COL' as the tweens say, right?) when I thought about it.

Now, it's not that I really think my line of work is boring... but I feel there is something much more interesting for me out there.  And when I was a youth, I was really unaware of all my options.  So, I go out of my way to make our kids aware of the options they can have in life.  

For example, I just heard an interview on NPR's Fresh Air with Pete Docter, the director of the Pixar movie "Up".  He spoke about hiking in South America for 4 days drawing and taking pictures when writing the movie script.  And it floors me that the dude gets paid very well to do that!  So, I spoke that night to Owen and Keira about how drawing and art could lead to a career.  We'll see how our discussions about careers pays off in the end.

All I want for Christmas is my....

Yesterday, I pulled both of Owen's top front teeth at the pool.  He's very weirded out about losing his teeth, but he had enough, so he asked me to pull them out.  Both were very loose, right right one more than the left, but after a few wiggles and twists... he now is buck tooth free!

This is him taking it all in right after the experience.

Video of Keira Irish Dancing

Keira performed a little Irish Dance at her school play last week.  She's a little timid, but looking cute as always!

"I don't want Mom to go"

Last week, Keira was upset that mom may be going to run errands with us.  The reasons:

"We can't put our hands out the windows" (of the car)

"She'll talk to dad the whole time saying, 'Those carpets are beautiful', 'I like that cheese' blah blah blah"

Cute, eh?

Video of Keira Swimming!

Owen playing baseball

Here's a video of Owen reaching 1st base with ease.

Pictures from Little Red Hen Play

Here are some pictures of a play the kids did today at their school. 

Keira the cat

Owen the "lean, mean" steely eyed fox

Keira is swimming!

Keira's moving around the pool, singing to herself and having boatloads of fun all without any floatation device.  Owen isn't a fan, he always seems to place his cannonballs within a few feet of her.  But she's a tropper and handles the waves.   Just last night, she swam the length of the pool without any assistance - she was actually "running" from me because I had just told her she was in time-out.  But at least it motivated her to try to swim through the deep end!

Video forthcomming.

Owen's birthday at Busch Gardens

We took Owen to Busch Gardens for his 7th birthday.  Great weather, small lines and lots of fun.   The best part was that he got to participate in the tiger tug.  

Pictures

Bike riding

Mad easter egg dying

Sunrise during my morning drive south to Sarasota

Easter Sunday

Babies having babies :)

Keira's down with the bicycle

That's our baby riding without her training wheels! She was very motivated to learn. She's asked me daily to bike ride since I took the training wheels off.

Hip Hop

Owen asked Emily today:

"What's Hip Hop?"

Keira answered:

"You know, it's music that Bunnies listen to!"

He's going golf

Apparently, an older kid at school dyed his hair black.  While taking a bath tonight, Owen broke the news of this event to me while slowly turning his head back and forth in dissapointing fashion:

(in somber tone)

"He's going golf....he's going golf"

It took me a while to figure out he was trying to say "goth".

Popcorn

There was a rare fist fight at school and Owen couldn't stop talking about it today.  On one hand, it's best as a parent to stiffle all excitement he has about it.  You don't want to encourage fighting right?  On the other hand, how do you not laugh when he says this, in regards to watching the fight:

"I wanted to get out some popcorn"

I know he picked that up from someone or some TV show, but it still made me double over.

Keira headed to school today

One of the benefits of working from home is that I get to see the kids dressed up in their uniforms before they leave.  Typically, on days when I don't work from home, they're just still in PJs when I leave and by the time I get home, their uniforms and crumbled up on the floor.  I think they are both just so cute when they are dressed up for school, so I wanted a picture.  (Owen ran out of the shot...  only Keira particpated)

Keira and Izzy pictures

If you look at her foot, she draw a "K" on it and that's why she wanted me to get a picture of her.  For the "K" on her foot.

Keira snapped this picture of Izzy.  Kind of Artsy, eh?

Keira loves it when Izzy sits on chairs.

"You can't always get want you one"

(but you can cry sometimes)

Emily claims that Keira is always smelling like the dog.  Maybe this is why?

The dog makes Keira very happy

Yesterday, I picked up the kids at school and Izzy came with me.  As school was just getting out, I rounded the corner, Keira's eyes locked on my and drifted lower.  She saw the dog, her face lit up and she ran over.  She cuddled with Izzy for a second and then ran off around a corner yelling:

"Mary, Mary, my dog is here, my dog is here!"

Less than a minute later, 7-8 kids come running around the corner at me and a beaming Keira behind them all.  Cooing, petting, laughing insued.  The joy and excitement of showing off her dog is an imagine I'd like to keep in my head forever.