Sea T is so strong!

Fire Truck

Lowes has this great program where you can go and build a wooden toy on Saturday mornings once or twice a month. We built a pickup truck last month, and Owen has been looking forward to the fire truck for a long time! He helped hammer it together and put the stickers on. I actually put it together wrong, so the wheels don't quite reach the ground. Owen couldn't care less :-)

BIG Questions

I've been noticing lately that during prayers Owen says ..."if I should dive before I wake..." So last night I corrected him, which prompted a serious of huge questions I had not planned to discuss at bedtime!

Owen: Why do I have to die?
Me: Well, everyone dies eventually, but you are going to live for a long, long time.
Owen: What happens when we die?
Me: Oh my, that's a big question... We don't know for sure, but I believe that our soul lives on.
Owen: What's a soul?
Me: Oh my...

You get the picture. He's an inquisitive kid, which is great. He will not take an answer at face value, he probes it until he truly understands it. Occasionally he gives up, then comes back in a week or two for more answers. I'm anticipating another round of discussions on our souls next Tuesday!

Treasure Hunt

We had some beautiful trees planted in the backyard this week, and this is some of the leftover dirt. Yesterday our neighbor put some small items in the dirt pile and the kids got to dig for buried treasure. Apparently there were two pieces they couldn't find.

Owen wakes up this morning, runs into our room, runs back to his room. He puts on his clothes and announces that he's heading out to find the treasure. I think it was less than five minutes from the time he woke up until he was up to his elbows in dirt!

Two-By-Two

Owen learned about the story of Noah's Ark in school on Monday.  As you can imagine, he was very excited about it because of all the animals.  He was very concerned about the rhinos, since the pictures they looked at didn't show rhinos and he wanted to make sure they were safe too.

Last night we were walking up the stairs to go to bed and he wanted to march up two-by-two!

Race Day!

Whit and Owen came to my race on Sunday morning. It's the only one I've done this summer, so it was interesting to see how it would be different from past years. Owen was more interested in the race itself and I could hear him yelling the loudest each time I went past. Whit says that he was good about amusing himself in -between "Daddy sightings". At the end of the run, he took my hand and we crossed the finish line together!

Uncle Rodney and Cousin Brian

Rod and Brian flew in for a visit on Saturday.  Owen loves to play with Brian, and he thinks Rod is pretty funny.  We spent the afternoon at Canandaigua Lake and did some kayaking.  They stayed the night and planned to attend my race on Sunday but had to take off early to beat the weather...

Boo Boo

Is it me, or does Rucker look like he has something to say?  I imagine it's something like, "Cough, cough.  Don't just sit there, cough-cough.  Get his hands off my throat!"

More Mummies

Grandma came for a visit and did some gardening today!

"You have a beautiful voice..."

Here's my favorite story of the year so far:

While we were at Frost Valley this weekend Owen was acting up during dinner on Saturday. I took him outside to talk to him about it and there were three teenage girls rehearsing a song by the corner of the building. One of them had a particularly striking voice and Owen and I were both distracted during our discussion. When we were ready to go back inside, I asked Owen if he'd like to go over and tell the girl that she has a beautiful voice. He was a little apprehensive about it but I reminded him that it would probably make her feel great to know that he appreciated her singing. That seemed to resonate with him.

So off he marched, little Owen, to tell the girl twice his size that she has a pretty voice. I couldn't hear the conversation but could see that she was beaming as he turned and walked back to me. She was obviously touched by the gesture, and I was proud of him for stepping beyond his own comfort zone so he could bring a little joy to someone else. I felt blessed to be there to see it!