Volunteering

Last Saturday we helped plant some trees in a San Bernardino park.  Owen spent half the time chasing after stray dogs and the other half getting totally covered in dirt.  I dressed him appropriately for the outing in a shirt that says "I make dirt look good."  Here are some pics.  I also posted a short video on youtube.  You can watch Owen "help" dig while Mommy and Daddy make jokes about gender roles.  

Lemme at that dirt! 

Helping Daddy

No eating grass Owen.

Getting friendly with the dirt

Isn't parenting fun?

Owen's obsession of the month is "trash".  He learned the word and where the trash can is, so now every crumpled up piece of paper is TRASH.  Our trash can in is a cabinet with a child proof lock on it, so each time Owen finds trash, that means either Mark or I has to get up and open the door for him.  He will stand in front of that cabinet repeating "trash" over and over again until someone opens it.  We've now moved on to "recycling" and have begun showing him where that goes.  

On the plus side he picks actual trash from the ground and wants to put it in the trash can.  On the minus, he crumples up perfectly good paper so it can become trash.  

His other more recent obsession is the classic book "Goodnight Moon".  We did not have a copy until a few weeks ago when Grandma O brought one.  He wants to read it over and over again.  I actually really like the book, but there are limits.  

Owen definitely has Daddy's sticky tape gene.

This isn't a hat?

Temecula Outing

Had a super visit with Grandma and Grandpa Oswood over Father's day weekend.  We spent Saturday in Temecula.  The city has a cute little old time downtown and we also visited a children's science museum there.  We had lots of fun despite the fact that it was about 110 degrees at 9am.  

Grandma and Grandpa check out Owen's "baby GUNS" before Father's day breakfast.

Owen has never met a fountain he didn't like.

King Owen on his throne.

Owen experiments with balls and water, what could be better?

Museum toddler room.

Owen decided watching the puppet show was boring.  He staged his own.  Something about the monkey and the lion going "ra ra ra ra".  The adults had a hard time following the action.

Grandpa and Owen beating the drum!

Here's me taking a picture of us, taking a picture of us, taking a picture of us, taking a picture of us, taking a picture of us, to infinity....whew!  

Sprinkle Ball

Here are some pictures of the awesome sprinkle ball that Grandma and Grandpa Oswood got for Owen.  He loves it!  I have also posted a video of him running around in the water on youtube.  

The hose screws right into the ball.  Coincidentally, Owen has recently learned how to twist the water faucet on and off.  So when you are not paying attention he turns up the water really high, the ball goes crazy and gets everybody wet.  Good times.

Owen had his 18 month well baby check-up last week.  The latest stats are 28lbs and 33 inches tall.  I think his head circumference was 19 inches.  The good news about that is he's back below 100% of normal.  His head size was off the charts there for a little while.  What else can you expect from an Oswood male?  He had one shot and did really well.  Didn't cry much at all. Trooper! 

Coming up for (hot) air

Blog posts and contact from me has been sparse the last few weeks.  I have posted three of the reasons why below.  I don't show you these pictures in hopes of gaining pity.  I am always curious about where my friends and family work and what they do day to day in their job.  I'm only posting these to satisfy any curiosity you may have.  

These are piles of dissertations and theses that students have submitted to complete their degree requirements for either the PhD or master's.  The last day of the quarter is the deadline. I accepted 88 documents for the Spring 2008 quarter.  Most of them were submitted between June 9-13.  Students submit two copies, I go through all the documents and check that they have the proper formatting (margins and stuff), process the student's graduation and send them to the library to be bound.  One copy is put on the stacks and the other is stored off-site.  I do lots of other things too, but this task occupies at least the last two weeks of ever quarter.  Now you know!

On June 16th our office had a major role in pulling off the Graduate Division commencement ceremony.  Our office works in tandem with Event Management to make sure everything goes smoothly.  Right up my alley!  We checked in the gradutes, lined them up for the procession and made sure there were where they needed to be throughout the ceremony.  Sounds easy, but all the PhD recipients have to be in a specific order so they can meet up with their professor at the center of the stage for hooding. Wrangling adults can be very trying at times.  It makes Owen seem like a piece of cake!  We had a blast though and managed to shorten the ceremony time by 20 minutes in spite of having more graduates walk than last year.  Yay us!  

Pile #1

Pile #2

Pile #3

It has been over 100 degrees here for the past week or so.  We busted out Owen's little pool and the "sprinkle ball" today.  I have a feeling he is going to be one of those kids that stays in the pool until his lips are blue.  We'll find out 4th of July weekend when we visit my parents for a swim weekend!

We're still in escrow.  It was extended while our potential buyers dealt with some credit issues. Their loan has now been approved so we're hoping for smooth sailing the rest of the way.  Our planned moving weekend is July 19/20.  We still haven't found a house to buy, so we still plan on parking it in an apartment for a few months.  

That's all for now.  I have lots of pictures to post.  Hope to have them up by tomorrow.

 

Surprise!!

Be careful, your face might get stuck that way.

Happy Father's Day!!