Holiday Lookback, Houston

The middle of our Texas trip included a week's stay with Uncle Dan and Jenn in Houston.  Their new house is lovely, and it was great to give Owen his own room again, for Mom and Dad's sake.  Here he is showing them his new trucks!

Who needs the contents when the box and packing material is so much fun?

We really tried to soak up the sun and warmer temperatures with walks outside and some park play time.  

Owen spent a lot of time with Uncle Dan and Jenn being tutored on how to count to 3.  Supposedly, he did it a couple of times, but I never got it on camera!  He does "1, 2, 1, go!" now that he's back home.  (He's supposed to get to 3 before "go" in the video below.)  We're trying to learn colors and counting, but it will be a while.

One of his favorite books from D and J's end table was their new car manual.  Go figure!

We met up with several college-era friends while in Houston.  One day we met up with my college roommate and her daughter, who's 8 months older than Owen.  It was so apparent that boys and girls are wired differently from the get-go.  Abby avoided dirt as much as possible, while Owen steered directly for it!  Although he did like the miniature kitchen she had.  :)

The next day we met up with John's old colleague and his kids at the Children's Museum of Houston.  Oh, how I wish we were closer to a children's museum in Idaho!!!  Owen had so much fun.  His favorite part (besides all the cars to pretend to drive) was an outdoor water works section that included a long, winding "river", boats, valves, tubes, dams, and lots of water.  He got totally soaked from splashing in the river.  Luckily, he was wearing 2 shirts, so I dried one under the bathroom hand-dryer for the ride home.

Another kitchen, this one at the museum.

Did I mention they had face painting there too?  :)  He was being kinda grumpy, so I gave him this villainous makeover!  Turns out he had gotten one of his 2-year molars in that week.  (Don't worry.  He loved the face paint!)

We also tried out some sidewalk chalk.  He mostly liked to sit in what everyone else was drawing, so it ended up being a pants-less activity toward the end for him with a trip directly to the bathtub!

We continued the family fun with Christmas, part 2.

Hmm... what else?  Oh yes.  We discovered that Owen really likes dancing to club music.  Here he is dancing unabashedly in his high chair at the sushi restaurant on our last day in Houston.  Hilarious!