Owen--just a little update

This posting is just some journaling about Owen.

Owen is so much fun. Granted, he wants to have a lot of decision making power and is constantly testing out what he has control over and what he doesn't, but he is such a joy, and it is such a pleasure to be his mom. He seems so grown up these days. I can't pinpoint it, but I feel like he's just made one of those developmental leaps. He cracks me up all the time with very hilarious things that in the moment I'm sure I could never forget. But then when I actually sit down to write them down (like right now), I can't remember them. This is a huge frustration for me because I know I'll never be able to recapture them.
He has an amazing imagination, and it is so fun to just stand back a little and watch and listen to where his imagination is taking him at any given moment. He loves to take all of the cushions off the couch. When this happens, Owen is instantly transformed into a baby otter and the pile of cushions to his rocks. He entertains himself for an hour at times.
Another favorite game these days is "Aomatsu." For those of you who don't live in or visit Corvallis often, Aomatsu is a great Japanese restaurant here, and it is Owen's favorite! He loves to sit at the tepanyaki grill where the chef performs all sorts of entertaining tricks while grilling your food right where you sit. Owen is also a big fan of sushi. He downs entire orders of sushi and asks for more. He and Abuela created a great pretend Aomatsu chef game when we visited California last month. Needless to say, Owen was thrilled a few days after we came back to receive an Aomatsu package from Abuela--everything you need to play sushi and tepanyaki grill chef.
Owen also really loves swimming. We have been taking water babies and then water kids classes with him since he was 6 months old. This week we switched to swimming lessons where he is in the class with other kids and a teacher but without a parent. He has only had one lesson so far, but he did great! In fact, he passed level 1 on the first day. It was so great to watch him from the stands. He listened to and cooperated with everything his teacher told him, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself the entire time.
We are lucky in that for our birthdays my mom and Lourdes got Brady and me a family membership to the pool, so we can go whenever we want. Mom and I took the boys swimming for an hour last evening. Afterward, my mom took Owen out to play in the lobby while Quincy finished nursing. When I got out to the lobby my mom said, "Owen was just telling me about when you went camping and a moose pooped on your car!" To my recollection this has never actually happened, but this is just one tiny example of Owen's imagination and sense of humor. By the way, he then said, "Yeah, he pooped on the Subawu."
I wish I had a video camera on him 24/7 so that I could capture all of the great things that he does and says. Yes, 24/7 because he often says some pretty funny things in his sleep too.