It's been a while...

It's funny how easily I have slipped back into the hum-drum of daily life. It seems like a million years since we got back from Europe and I am delinquent in posting to the blog, just as I was before our trip. There have been a bunch of things I've wanted to write about too, but I haven't comitted myself to sitting down regularly. I'll fix that now.

The other day I had my friends Lindsey and Kathryn over for a playdate with their kids. We went to a park near our place. It was Owen's first time at a park, although we spent a short time on a swingset in Munich in the beergarten at our apartment. He spent most of the time eating... big surprise. His appetite continues to be insatiable. There were two baby swings there, but the other babies, Ivy and Jasper were using them so Owen didn't get a chance before they had to go home for afternoon naps. Later that day Kris and I went back to the park with Owen to try out the swing. He loved it! Laughed and laughed as he swung back and forth. So cute.

Owen made his first contribution to science this Wednesday. A while back I signed us up at the Speech Development Research Lab at the U of C. I heard about it in the Baby Guide to Calgary. Lindsey is also signed up for it and has done a few things with her kids there. The study is about how babies learn speech, specifically how they begin to figure out the difference between sounds in the middle of words vs. sounds that mark the end of and begining of new words. I found it pretty interesting and the researcher was pretty excited to talk about her work. We sat in a soundproof room with Owen on my lap. I listened to music on headphones while Owen looked at a video screen and listened to pretend words. They videotaped him to see when he was looking at the screen, paying attention to the sounds, and when he was looking away, not interested. Of course, he performed well.

Today, I saw Owen clap his hands for the first time. Kris and I had just finished dinner and we were all sitting on the floor. His hands didn't make any noise, but he put his hands together again and again. He seems to move his left hand more into his right than move both hands together. It was so cute. It never ceases to amaze me how the littlest accomplishments make me such a proud parent.