See some pics here. And here’s a decent one of us (sans Sasha, who was the doggie spa):

Here’s a photo of the birthday boy enjoying his first bites of pumpkin-apple cake.

And if you want to see the month-by-month changes in our little boy (with an occasional assist from big sister Ella), you can see some photos here.

We posted a few of them on the blog in real time, and here are the rest.

What a difference a year makes!

In that short amount of time, he’s doubled his birth weight, added a few inches in height…oh, and just about everything else. Until you go back to having an infant in the house, you forget just how absolutely everything is new and has to be learned from scratch. I think it’s only then that you really get a sense of just how amazing our bodies and minds are, and just how much we’re capable of.

Owen’s latest: turning over in his crib at night. He won’t do it if he’s really sound asleep, but it looks like we may have another stomach sleeper. He did it for the first time the night of the 26th (and kept turning over again after we turned him back onto his back), and once again last night. He’s getting more and more talkative, and grabbing for toys. His big sister still thinks he’s awesome (when he’s not crying, that is), and it’s adorable seeing Ella lean in and give Owen a hug and a kiss before saying bye at daycare in the morning.

Happy 4-Month Birthday, Owen!

The Easter Bunny was definitely prolific – Ella had another Easter egg hunt at school on Monday afternoon – but s/he also had a healthy twist – raisins at home and huge early season strawberries at Grandma and Papa’s.

Even more Easter pictures here.

After church, we had a little time before brunch (at Talulla, which was delicious!), and Ella took full advantage to search for her basket and eggs. The Easter Bunny apparently knew that Ella LOVES stickers, but there was one new delicacy that Ella was introduced to: Peeps!

(After one little bite, Ella decided she’d had enough. Probably more sugar in that one bite than she’s had in the previous month!)

Unbeknownst to the Easter Bunny, Ella had asked earlier if she could blow bubbles. And coincidentally, the Easter Bunny brought Ella new bubbles! And in true springtime fashion, we had beautiful warm weather to celebrate, so we could blow bubbles all morning long:

(And if anyone’s wondering – Owen decided to spend most of the morning sleeping. He was awake for part of church, but after that, slept until moments before we left for brunch. We figured this year he wouldn’t be ready for any jelly beans – maybe next year!)

More Easter pictures here.

Owen sat this one out, literally, by trying out his high chair for the first time. At times he was thrilled to be up and able to see everyone, but at other times he wasn’t so sure. Hopefully by the time we’re ready to try rice cereal he’ll be comfortable. Somewhat miraculously (it is Good Friday, after all…), we managed to get a picture of the one and only smile Owen flashed in his chair today:

We’ve discovered that using food coloring (especially the gels) makes for some really deep colors, which is great with a 3 year old who wants to take the eggs out almost as soon as they’re put into the cups. Still, we think we managed some nice colors (and some odd results from a couple of the colors).

Ella’s planning on decorating these eggs a little more tomorrow with stickers and markers – who knows just what they’ll look like by the time the Easter Bunny hides them Sunday!

Happy early Easter, everyone!

The year started off with a bang last month with kale, spring greens mix, carrots, shallots and honey. We knew it was destined to be a good year when we were able to turn that kale into a wonderful salad (kale salad with pinenuts, currants and parmesan) right off the bat. The shallots went into a dressing we’re still using, and the greens made their way into two big bowls of salad. The honey will have to wait – but with Ella’s more frequent requests for pancakes on the weekends lately, we’ll be into it before long.

Carrots and apples so far have been the two mainstays almost each week, with kale, potatoes, button mushrooms and parsnips making multiple appearances too. We’re getting better at integrating the offerings into our menu planning, instead of trying to retroactively shoehorn everything in after the planning is done. Combined with a food-adventurous (knock on wood) 3 year old (you should have seen her go through the carrot and parsnip puree!), we’ve been having a lot of fun with it. This week we’ll be seeing how she (and we) take to swiss chard – it looks almost too beautiful to eat.

Thus far, it’s been, to borrow from Alton Brown, good eats, but we still can’t wait untiil those first strawberries arrive in early June!