Taking his own road

Owen is becoming increasingly independent. It is wonderful to watch. He can do more and more on his own. He is steady on his feet, he can run, he can dance, he can do some sign language and say some words like: eyes, ice (very similar to eyes), No, Eric (that one slays me, especially when he hollers for "Eric!" from the other room) Elmo (seriously, we do not let him watch TV so how does he know who Elmo is???? It is sort of creepy!) and bellybutton (he said it twice, it counts).
Saturday we took Owen and his new-found independence to the zoo. I tried to get him to pose next to the giant gorilla photo in the hopes I could make it look like he was actually amongst the giant beasts. Alas....


The only time he slowed down all day was when he was watching the sea lions while sitting on daddy's shoulders. I took this picture because it was a sweet moment, and because Eric looks like he has a bum for a head....


In the following video you can see just how fast he has gotten since learning to walk a mere 1.5 months ago:


We saw very few animals and spent much of our time at the zoo sorting leaves.

When we got home Eric and I launched into deep clean mode since our new babysitter Abigail was starting today. Owen is usually petrified of the vacuum cleaner, but apparently he became a fan. He was fascinated. After watching me suck up as many dust bunnies as I could he grabbed his push toys and gave the carpet a once over...