A Short Owen Update

As I left the hotel room to blog in the lobby, Owen was singing himself to sleep "bah, bah, bah, bah." Maybe we actually do see sheep and then knowledge of the world replaces them with our hopes and fears...

(shakes off that philosophical mindset and gets down to what you all our waiting for!)

Today I went to the US Embassy alone and - although gone an hour - only spent about 10 minutes accomplishing what was necessary. Tomorrow we go back as a family for our interview and to receive Owen's passport with visa documents. Since Alexa has been begging to eat "out", we went to the lobby restaurant and gave Owen his first dining experience. Owen sat in a high chair calmly while we waited for our food and then freaked out inexplicably just after starting to eat. My theory is that the mashed potatoes he was shoving into his mouth with his baby utensils (i.e. hands) went up his nose and caused a most uncomfortable sensation. Whatever happened, we all got to see his first inconsolable meltdown! Tracy eventually had to take him out of the restaurant and let him finish for about five minutes. Once he came back, a spoon seemed to work better (Owen actually is pretty good with one - although he periodically tried to use the wrong end) and he proceeded to eat an entire bowl of the stuff! Seriously, I may have had trouble finishing that much. Of course, his diapers for the rest of the day reflected the prodigious consumption...

The rest of the day went very well for "Owen moments" (although we do give him eye medicine a couple times a day and it is a pretty horrible experience for all involved - of course he is scared and uncomfortable as we simultaneaously hold down his arms and head, pry his eyes open, and put medicine the consistency of Neosporin in there). The first moment came when Alexa and I were having a pillow-fight on the bed (her idea). Owen was watching us with great interest, so I lightly brushed his face with a pillow and he started cracking-up! He wanted me to hit him so he would be knocked off-balance like his sister. I obliged and he loved it every time I "hit" him! The second moment once again involved inspiration from Alexa. She kept asking me to flip her over on the bed, and after a few times Owen had to join the fun. He was sitting on Tracy's lap in a chair watching and suddenly started leaning back. Tracy adroitly turned this into a back flip where he mostly landed on his feet with an occasional assist from his head. Owen could not get a enough of this! He must have done it 15-20 times and Tracy had to put a stop on it. The last moment I will share is his latest bath exploits. The newest addition to his antics is purposely slipping while standing and then rolling over in the water. The back of the bathtub is slanted, so I use it like a slide (don't worry, his feet are almost to the bottom of the tub when I release him!). This would cause him to rollover when his butt hit the bottom (is that redundant?). He decided he didn't need the slide part. He would just drop from a standing position and sell the landing with a roll that caused his head to go under water momentarily. It was hilarious - both the act and his laughter afterwards plus how quickly he would do it again! I took some video that I'll post eventually...

I'll leave with that. We have one more day in Moscow and then leave Saturday for home. I'm not looking forward to the flying, but getting home will be so nice...