Walker Part III

I finally got some video! Two, in fact. The first one I actually got about a week ago, and it's of him walking while holding my hand. I was home alone, so I had to put the camera on a stool, and at the very end he lets go of my hand and takes a couple steps alone, but it's hard to see because he's so close to the camera.



What a cutie :) He loves to walk with us like that because we can go and go and go, and we do it quite often. But more and more he is walking all by himself. In this next video, we stood him up and encouraged him to walk to me, but there are lots of times where he will be standing up and start walking on his own. Ryan told me last night that he thinks Owen is starting to realize that it's easier to carry things by walking rather than crawling, which I think might be the case, because he loves to carry things now while he's walking.


What a big boy!

When he falls down, though, he can't get back up into a standing position without pulling up on something - he can't just stand up from a sitting position on his own. If he could, I think he would be walking a lot more, but he has to crawl to the couch or something in order to get back up, and I think he just gets distracted by toys and stuff. I'm pretty impressed with his skills, though!

We also just started using sign language with Owen. I'm not sure how well it will work, because it seems like his always busy doing something and doesn't really take the time to look at me :) We're going to have a go at it though. We are just starting with basic signs that he would need like milk, water, cereal, mom, dad, eat, more, and dog. I majored in Spanish, and I really like the thought of learning new languages, and I'm starting to think learning sign language would be really fun! It would be really awesome to teach Owen Spanish, and I would be able to teach him some, but as a baby learning language, he needs a native speaker to speak to him for him to actually learn it. Or I would have to speak it ALL the time to him, and even though I can teach Spanish, that's to kids who are learning it at a later stage in life and I haven't used more than just basic Spanish in a LONG time - I'm rusty. Anyway, we will see how this goes. I think Ryan likes the idea of Owen learning signs, but doesn't really want to put in the work! :)

Walker Part II

...and this time I'm really upset that I don't have any video. At 9 months and 4 days old, Owen walked about four feet yesterday ON HIS OWN! He is CRAZY! He has been practicing with his walk toy a lot, and has taken a couple of steps on his own, but last night was awesome. Ryan and I were sitting on the floor about four feet from each other and we would stand him up and encourage him to walk to us. He was having so much fun, too, laughing and smiling the whole walk over to me. I can never catch him on video though : (

We are also practicing walking by holding onto one of his hands and walking with him. It's funny because he looks like a toddler who is holding his mom or dad's hand to cross the street, not a baby who is strong enough to walk! He loves that, too, he just has so much fun doing new things. Even pinkeye and an ear infection doesn't get in the way of fun!

That's right, my poor baby has pinkeye and an ear infection, just days after getting over diarrhea, which he got not long after getting a cold in which his runny nose never left (maybe he has allergies? Or maybe he's just a snotty nosed little kid!). The diarrhea never really got him down, but we took him to the doctor on Friday anyway, just to be safe. He wasn't dehydrated, so we just had to let it run it's course. On Thursday night, though, he had pooped right before bath time, so after he got out, I decided to let him play a little without a diaper so he wouldn't get a rash. Since he had just pooped not 15 minutes before, I thought he'd be ok for a while. I was so wrong. He was playing in the carpeted living room and pooped - diarrhea poop. So I picked him up and took him to the kitchen to clean up his leg, foot and butt and put the diaper on him. Luckily it took me a few seconds to get a wipe out of the pack, because he pooped again in the kitchen. Poor baby! He really didn't seem bothered by it at all, though, so that's good. The pinkeye and ear infection, on the other hand, are a different story. He's very cranky and his eyes looked so miserable. They were puffy, red, and gunky on Sunday and most of Monday, but we went back to the doctor and got some amoxicillin and eye drops. He absolutely loves the amoxicillin and cries when his dose is gone. The eye drops are a completely different story. It took Ryan and I, not only to hold him down, but to pry open his eyes. It was really difficult because he was crying so his face was wet and he can really hold them shut! He needs those 3 times a day, too, so Ryan's going to have to wait until I go home for lunch to give him any for today. The antibiotics will clear up his ear infection and the pinkeye, but the drops make him non-contagious (if that's a word). But, like I said, last night he was having a great time walking around. I think he gets a second wind after eating food, taking a bath and then having some milk. I think he could have played all night, it was crazy how good he looked and must have felt! Yay for amoxicillin!

I stole some pictures from Ryan's mom's Facebook, so here are some pictures from Jungle Bungle that I didn't have for last post.

Ball pit - NOT a fan!

Playing with Daddy. See his shirt? It's Iowa and says Owen Burke on the back and 44 was Ryan's high school football number. A friend had it made for us, as well as a Vikings one! This was the Iowa/Iowa State game day.

Owen and his cousin Bri.

Playing at Jungle Bungle

I am going to try my hardest to get a video of Owen walking. I should have known he'd be doing physical things at early ages. Ryan jumped on a bike at age two with no training wheels and took off!

Happy Grandparent's Day!

Today is Owen's first Grandparent's Day, and it just so happened that he got to see one of his grandmas and a set of great-grandparents. We went down to Muscatine for Ryan's cousin Hayden's birthday party this weekend, so we got to see a LOT of family! There are six kids on that side of the family that are 5 and under, so Owen had a lot of playmates. The birthday party was held at Jungle Bungle, which is a lot like Chucky Cheese, so the kids had a great time. I think even Owen had fun crawling around. There were a few things he could crawl into and a little piano that he liked to bang on. Ryan went into the ball pit with him, but he hated it. It almost seemed like he thought it was a pool and he clung to Ryan like a koala bear. I forgot my camera, gosh dang it, but (Owen's) Grandma Angie had hers, so I'll have to get some from her. So on Owen's first Grandparent's Day, he got to see Grandma Angie, Great-Grandma Nancy and Great-Grandpa Ron. He also got to see Grandpa Dan on Saturday.

It's kind of funny because Owen has two Grandpa Dans. But my dad's legal first name is actually Owen, so either way he went, we'd have double names : ) We did not get to see my parents this weekend, but we did go see them last weekend, and Owen was actually there from Friday night until Monday afternoon. Ryan and I took him on Friday and spent the night, and then Owen stayed a couple of extra days so that Ryan and I could go tubing and camping with friends for Ryan's belated birthday party over Labor Day. So Owen got to spend lots of time with those grandparents last weekend, plus my brother, his wife, and their kids were in town that weekend, so he got to spend time with them. Ian is three and Annaliese is 2 1/2 months younger than Owen, and I think they had a really good time. Ian is a really good big brother to Annaliese and really good about sharing his toys with Owen and making sure the toys he is playing with don't have small parts to them. It's the cutest thing. Ian loved getting down and crawling around with Owen (Annaliese isn't quite crawling yet), and even helped give him a bath (I wasn't there at the time, but I saw a picture of it.). I love watching little kids play together. It's so cute. Owen also got to see Great-Grandma Kuehl last weekend. He's one lucky little boy to get to spend time with all this family!

We don't get to see Ryan's dad and his wife and kids since they moved to Florida, but they did get to meet Owen once before they moved. Maybe we'll just have to plan a vacation...

And even though I knew it was Grandparent's Day, we forgot to say anything when we were in Muscatine, and when we got back it was nap time (for all of us!), and then Ryan and to work and life just got in the way and we didn't even call my parents. So this is our official "Happy Grandparent's Day!!" wish to all of the grandparents and great-grandparents. We love you!!

Now a post wouldn't be a post without a few pictures. So here are a few from the last couple of weeks:

BIG smile and you can see his two pearly whites : )

Getting tickled by Daddy

They love to wrestle on the floor!

Cheering for his favorite team!

 Owen has been getting in a lot of practice standing up on his own. He can't get into that position without pulling himself up on something or pushing off of you while you are laying on the floor yet, but he's getting really good at being able to stand alone for long periods of time. He's taken a couple of steps on his own, too, but mostly if you are a couple of baby steps from him, he just leans forward at you instead of moving his feet. He can practically run while he has ahold of furniture, though! He's getting really fast!!

We also started taking Owen to daycare on Wednesdays and Fridays. There is a woman who does in-home daycare in our neighborhood, and we really like her. Her name is Johnna and it's cool because she has a son who is two weeks older than Owen, so he has a built-in friend! I'm glad we decided to take him to daycare to get him socialized and it also gives Ryan a break. He works really late at night and then has to get up early with Owen, so it's a lot for him. It's only for 12 1/2 hours a week, so it's not too expensive, and Ryan and Owen still get to spend some quality time together : ) Owen really seems to like it there. She has a lot of toys and everytime I pick him up, he crawls over to me, but then is pretty much just ready to get back down and play. I don't drop him off, Ryan does, but he said he hasn't cried yet, so hopefully it stays that way. He was having some trouble napping there the first few times, but he's gotten better. I just wish I could see him playing with that other little boy! Johnna said there is quite a bit of difference between them, though. Her boy is barely crawling and Owen's about ready to jump on a bike! : )