Boy Oh Boyers

Every now and then I feel compelled to describe a bit of what Rowan's up to. He turned 2 years old recently, so it seems like a good time for that kind of update. It won't be too long because his naptime will be over soon, but here goes.

Sleeping. Rowan sleeps one nap per day, and we've begun limiting it to two hours so that he will sleep longer at night. When we do that, he's been sleeping from about 8:30pm until about 6:00am. It's less than many of our friends' kids sleep, but since he does take longer daytime naps it all balances out.

Potty. Rowan became interested in potty training many months ago and so we made a big fun deal out of it and bought him a potty. He peed on it very soon after we bought it, and pooped on it shortly after that. Since then whenever we take him to the potty he goes, and when it's me at home with him, he sometimes tells me when he needs to go. He seems especially aware of the mess that can be avoided if he tells me ahead of time that he needs to poop (his aversion to being confined to the changing table helps motivate this behavior!) We're in no rush to complete the potty training process, so we're pretty sure that over the next few months Rowan will become less and less fond of having a messy diaper, and at some point he'll stop having them altogether. That's the idea, anyway, and it's working great so far.

Development. (These are not in order of importance. Just in the order they came to my mind!) Obviously Rowan is very verbal at this point. At his 2-year checkup the pediatrician commented that he is "extremely verbal" and that we ought to be "really thankful." We are, of course! It's such a joy to hear the hilarious things that he says. Equally wonderful is to ask him a question about something that matters, like whether he's hot or thirsty or needs to go potty, and know that he will answer. What a breath of fresh air when compared to the complete guessing game that comprises infancy!

He's running, climbing stairs, jumping, coloring, holding the leash to walk Angel, and more. We'll be taking a flight later this week, and there won't be a stroller in sight; he'll just walk through the airport with me. I hope.

Activities.I've begun to give some thought to activities that Rowan will be taking up soon. It's been spurred by his progress at swimming recently; even with infrequent trips to pools, Rowan has gotten the hang of kicking with a kickboard and yesterday he even tried to tread water a bit. At the dive shop we bought him a snorkle and mask which we'll take with us when we go rafting down a river in north Florida in a couple of weeks. Maybe he'll get his first peek underwater, huh? There are other things I'm thinking of starting soon too. Like piano lessons. Folks start at age 2 around here, and from my preliminary investigations it seems like the challenge will be finding an instructor with an opening who isn't a long drive away from our house. And for a first sport, I'm thinking golf...

Yesterday Rowan and I traveled to Georgia. It was a long day of travel, with our flight from home to Atlanta, then a 3 hour layover in Atlanta, and then the connecting flight to meet Gram & Papa. Rowan went the entire day without napping on either plane, which was a challenge in itself, and the air conditioning on our second flight, which was a small commuter jet, wasn't working properly so we roasted most of the time. Nonetheless, we've made it and are already having a great time. I head to Florida tomorrow for a conference this coming week, while Rowan stays with Gram, Papa, Aunt Julie, and Uncle Bobby to have lots of fun! Here's a picture of Rowan in front of our first plane, the "big big airplane," as he excitedly called it. Note his perfectly-fitting backpack, would you? It's one of those leash kind, so I was able to give him some freedom to roam without having to hold my hand constantly in the airport. It was a welcome change. For more pictures of our travels, you can view the online album.

When it didn't rain enough to create mud puddles, Rowan and Gram took matters into their own hands. Yes, mud happened!

Daddy made it to Georgia yesterday. Today we all loaded up and headed down to Ichetucknee Springs State Park to float down the clear, cold water. It didn't seem as cold as Blue Springs last weekend, but it was definitely chilly. Check out the picasa album of all the photos!

Tom and I are taking a few days in the Keys to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. We're settled into our lovely hotel in Tavernier, FL (just past Key Largo). Rowan is still having his every whim attended to at Gram and Papa's house by Gram, Papa, Aunt Julie, and Uncle Bobby. Hi, Rowan! We miss you!

We're happy to see that tropical storm Ana has broken up and doesn't appear to pose a major threat; however, even slight weather disturbances can cause the dive boats not to go out, so we're hoping for beautiful dives today, and if we get to dive as planned tomorrow and Thursday, that'll just be icing on the cake. Anyway, I've posted some pictures from yesterday's dives for you all to see. It's our first try at taking underwater pictures, so I made a lot of classic mistakes; hopefully we'll do better this morning when we go dive the wreck of the Spiegel Grove, visibility permitting. Have a look at the facebook photo album!

It's been an eventful week! Tom and I spent most of it in Tavernier, Florida, one of the towns on the Florida Keys that's closest to the mainland. Despite the threat of Tropical Storm Ana, some health challenges early on, and seasickness throughout on my part mostly, we really did have an amazing time diving. If you didn't already know this, we actually got married five years ago on August 11th in Jamaica with a hurricane bearing down on us to the point that the resort staff literally drug us off our dive boat in the morning and told us we had less than half an hour to shower and get fully ready for the wedding because by the afternoon (which is when our wedding had been scheduled) we'd already be locked away in our rooms for safety! We found the threat of tropical severe weather quite appropriate, given the beginnings of our relationship, but we're thrilled it didn't materialize and that we were able to have an adventurous and truly relaxing time on this trip.

I have lots of pictures, some of which turned out astoundingly good given the budget-conscious point-and-shoot camera plus underwater housing we bought only a week earlier. I have to give iPhoto (the image processing software that came with my new Mac) lots of credit for postprocessing the photos and removing a layer of hazy blue (which is inevitable in many underwater photo scenarios). Once that layer had been removed, we were left with some really breathtaking scenes. I'm working on finding a good online spot to permanently house our photo albums; it looks like we might make the move from picasaweb to flickr at some point soon. For now, here are a few for you to enjoy. I'll link the full albums when I'm able.

This one is on our last day of diving, at a beautiful protected area called Molasses Reef. It was all a shallow dive (less than 20 feet!) but the fish and corals were abundant and breathtaking. Shortly after leaving the dive boat, we were surrounded by schools of fish. See the dive boat in the background? We really like this shot.

Our second day of diving was by far the most harrowing. There were heavy seas, strong currents, and the wreck was deeper than we would have been allowed to go without an instructor accompanying us. We didn't even plan to do this dive, but the second dive boat from our dive shop needed repairs so they merged the dives and the majority of divers wanted the deep wreck instead of a shallow reef. We could have opted to rebook with a different dive shop, but the allure of the wreck was strong so we went. I didn't know the currents would be equally strong, and the waves higher than either of us is tall. I did a lot of throwing up, a lot of holding on *really* tightly to the ascent/descent line, and a lot of finning as hard as possible to avoid being swept off the wreck and into the open ocean. Yowzers! Nonetheless, it was a huge and breathtaking wreck already full of life after only 20 years underwater. I hope to go back in more favorable conditions. Surprisingly, Tom loved it and would do it again even in those challenging seas! Maybe once the cut on my leg heals (which I got from the current shoving me into a metal outcropping on the ship at about 100 feet underwater), maybe I'll feel differently too...but somehow I doubt it.

Here's an example of the kind of picture I absolutely didn't think I'd be able to get with our new Canon 960IS and its underwater housing. But in such shallow water with bright sunlight to illuminate everything, the photo captures so much of what was going on: colorful coral, bubbles in the distance from other scuba divers in the group, and juvenile fish who use the reef as a nursery until they're big enough to venture out a little farther. This photo is just one of many that illustrate the kind of splendor that means I'll never let a little seasickness keep me away from this sport.

Well, it's getting late and given that I was at the ER at 4:30am today to get my perforated eardrum checked (yes, from diving, and yes, it'll be all better soon but it hurts like the dickens) we're going to get some rest. We're in a hotel room in South Carolina; we left Gram and Papa's house around lunchtime and took a break halfway. Tomorrow it's home again. Sorry for the lapse in pictures of the day. I"ll catch you up on all Rowan's activities soon via some new pictures of the day! Until then, rest well and dream of beautiful fishies. (At least, that's what I plan to do.) :-)

Rowan gets to do all kinds of awesome stuff when he's with Ms. Erin and Ander. A couple of weeks ago she sent me a link to this video of him singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." He is usually quite shy with singing in front of Tom and me, preferring to shout, "No, Mommy, sing it by yourself!" But he's apparently not so shy in front of Erin, so I wanted to share this adorable clip with you.