Wandering Browns

How can my little baby Owen possibly be one?! Here he is as a brand-new little baby. His hair was so thick and dark for a newborn. It started to lighten up in Chicago, but it really lightened up in Korea to be a very improbable shade of strawberry blonde/auburn by his birthday. Since he looks so different from Landon, I thought that he looked just like a Livengood baby. Now, looking back, at pictures from his first year of life, I see both Livengood and Brown features. It will be interesting to see how he looks as he loses his baby fat and grows up. Owen never lost his hair completely, just had some bald patches along the way. I did not cut his hair until two days before his first birthday. I was not planning on having it cut, but Landon asked for a haircut and I at least wanted Owen's evened out a little. He had hair, at that point, that was long enough to get in his eyes and get caught in his eyelashes. Koreans thought he was a girl. So it was time. Owen's eyes are still mo...

We lost the 11 month tie during our move from our house to the road, so the 10 month tie got turned into an 11 month  Owen is 11 months old! I feel like this month, I have learned so much about Owen. I am around him 24 hours a day,  7 days a week, but I still am learning new things about him. He keeps me on my toes, for sure. This month, Owen is motoring around our room even more. He climbs the stairs fast, and can open and close doors and drawers. The worst thing he learned how to do this month is open the refrigerator. AHHHHH!!!!!!! Two times this month, I ran downstairs to get an onion or potato from the pantry items house mother provides, and came back upstairs to see Owen sitting in a puddle of broken eggs. Yes, Owen pulled a flat of eggs on himself twice, while dinner was cooking. He was so happy to be sitting in a puddle of eggs, though. So now, our eggs go high enough in the refrigerator so he can't reach.  Taking off his tie Owen loves to take t...

 Landon has changed so much since we came out here to Korea. He has morphed into a full-blown toddler! The latest word from Austin's work is that our release date is moving closer to August due to some delays at the refinery. At any rate, here are some things Landon is doing lately: Talking in small sentences/long phrases. He says things like "I swing!" and "baseball bat". It seems he learns new words every day, and really practicing his new words. When he says "beach" it sounds a lot like the "B" word, and he yells it whenever he sees sand or pictures of water, so good thing we are in Korea and they can't understand what he's saying! Counting to 1, and sometimes 2. He is also learning the power of negotiation in that he will come up to me with a candy or treat that he found in the snacks and say, "Bun Candy! Bun Candy!" That means "one candy".  Learning colors! He thinks everything is pink right now,...

For the past few days, I have been a "single" mother in the fact that Austin is already in South Korea and we are joining him on Friday. I haven't ever had to do this for more than a few days, and usually I am either with my family or his family so at least I have help there. I have an amazing church family here to lighten my load and my spirits, but man do I respect mothers who are forced to raise their children alone. What an act of pure love, determination and strength. In India, Landon was in a naughty streak. I think Austin's schedule was hard for him, and he was biting, kicking, scratching, squealing, screeching, screaming too much. When I learned that Landon and I would be staying behind due to a new company travel policy, I was worried that I would not be able to take care of Landon in Chicago, much less on an airplane for 16 hours as we fly alone to South Korea without having a mental and perhaps physical breakdown. In our church, the Church of Jesus Chris...