Owen's Big Week

Last week, Owen had his first outing with me. (Besides Grandma's houses.)

We went to Alexis' OCMCO rehearsal at Segerstrom Hall. We sat clear in the back by ourselves. About half way through Chad's Aunt Tara came by looking for a blanket to borrow. She was practicing her part as "Mary" in the Nativity scene during some of the songs. They needed a blanket because they forgot the baby doll they would be using in the concert to play baby Jesus.

She was walking away with the blanket when she turned back to me and looked at Owen. I asked her if she wanted to hold Owen. She asked if I cared if she took him on stage and practiced with him. I said, "sure." It was Chad's Aunt after all and she is basically a baby whisperer. Plus she wasn't coming very close to all the people and kids.

Anyhow, while they were rehearsing my brother-in-law, the director, looked over and saw Owen moving his arms and looking around the concert hall as Tara held him by the manger scene. He announced to the hundreds of people rehearsing...he would pay for that real baby to be in it because it made it so much more touching. As he walked over to Tara he asked her who the baby was.

Her response, "Uh, it's your nephew!"

(FYI: Brett is on my side of the family and Tara is on Chad's)

I was going back to work the next day so we had to make necessary arrangements. Switch around some babysitting situations. Thanks to Chad's mom and our friends, Natalie and Tyler, things worked out great.

After work I booked it down the freeway and got there in time to see his first performance. I tried to schedule out his feeding so he'd be awake and fed for when he was on stage. But the first show started late so he slept through the whole thing. People knew he was real but couldn't believe he slept through 10 minutes of an orchestra and hundreds of people singing right next to him. He did awesome. Brett was kind enough to let us stay in the directors room away from all the participants.

Chad and I got to watch the second show. I knew he would be getting tired right about the time he'd come out. They came in the back doors on the main level and walked through all the people till they got to the stage. When they walked in the concert hall Owen let out a little cry. Enough to say..."HELLO...look at me." Then the spotlight went on him and as Tara said, "A true Pitt." He turned on his charmed and stopped his cry and looked around for the rest of the time.
It brought tears to my eyes to see my baby playing baby Jesus in front of thousands of people and participating in a concert my brother-in-law works so hard on.

Then, on Sunday, we blessed Owen at church. There were tons of family and friends...just like we like it. Then we had a brunch at Chad's parents house and a dinner at my parent's house. (Our families are way too big to try and combine. There's at least 30 people at each house.)

When I found out I was having a boy one of the projects I was determined to sew were baby blessing shoes. I have never found boy one's I've liked so I've never bought any. I used this pattern to get the size right. Inspired by these shoes...but there was no pattern available. So I drew the top myself and went for it knowing I would likely fail the first time. I shocked myself...I kept the first attempt. And they are even cuter on. They are made out of linen with a cotton lining. I used buttons from an old shirt of Chad's brother.

(More pictures of Owen to come...we didn't get many of him that day...I plan to take more but Owen came down with a horrible case of baby ACNE and illness struck me fast and hard yesterday. Grrr.)

Just a bonus picture that Chad took before Thanksgiving. I never like pictures of me these days...but look how cute my sweet baby is. I love his bright blue eyes that might just change to a dark brown like Carter's did.