Chunky Monkey

Owen had his 6 month check up last Thursday and he is a big boy! Since he was born, he has gained exactly 10 pounds and has grown 5 inches, which makes him 18 lbs 7 oz and 26.5 inches!! The nurse and doctor both commented that he is strong...and cute, of course! When Owen is laying down on his back and holds on to someone's hands, he can pull himself up into a standing position without any help except balance. He'll be walking before we know it! In fact, I had to lower Owen's crib mattress tonight because he is almost able to stand up in there and I'm scared that he'll fall out of it! He crawls to the ledge, grabs ahold of it and gets up on his knees. I haven't seen him stand up in the crib yet, but he has tried while out in the living room, and I'm not going to wait til it's too late!

The doctor said he was looking good and told me to start him on solids, so we went to Walmart and bought some rice cereal. I didn't take any pictures of him eating it, but he loves it! I tried a little of it, and it's very bland, but he gets excited when he sees the spoon now and wiggles around in his high chair and opens his mouth. It's pretty cute. I think we are going to stick to rice cereal for a little while before we move on to other foods, because I got a pretty big box of that cereal. Also, we were told to introduce a food and then feed it to him for at least three days before trying something else, that way if Owen is allergic to anything it will be easier to identify what it is.Neither Ryan or I have any food allergies, so it's pretty unlikely that Owen will, but you never know. So maybe next week we'll be trying some veggies. He didn't really have a funny reaction to the rice cereal, probably because it's so bland, but I have a feeling he'll make a face when he tries other things. I'll have to get pictures or video of that!

That's all for now! (No pictures this time, I'm not on my regular computer.)

Crawler

Owen is all over these days and it's been fun. The picture above is of him under the end table. He's a total boy, getting into everything he's not supposed to, over and over and over! :) And today the best thing happened: Owen was in the living room playing while I was getting supper ready in the kitchen, and he started getting fussy and crying a little. I walked into the living room, and when I was about 5 feet away from him, he saw me and crawled over to me and grabbed my legs, like "Pick me up, Mommy! I'm so glad you are here!" It was the first time he has crawled to me to be picked up, and it gave me the best feeling. There have been a few times that he has grabbed my arms to be picked up, especially when he's ready to get out of the tub, but I have always been right next to him, and even though those times were pretty cool too, it was 10 times better that he crawled to me. He's finally starting to show me love, and it's AMAZING! I'm so excited for when he gives me hugs and kisses.

I have another video of Owen crawling. He can also get into a sitting position when he's one all fours which is pretty cool. He's learning stuff so fast! This was taken a week after the first one, and you'll probably notice he doesn't have any clothes on....again! I usually just leave him in just a diaper unless we are going somewhere or if we had gone somewhere earlier that day. I don't see the point when it's 100° outside, and it means less laundry for me! :) Anyway, here's O Baby showing off his crawling:



I also set up his high chair today, because we go to the doctor tomorrow and I'm sure she will tell us to start solids. Some doctors give the OK at four months, but babies don't really need any nutrition other than milk until 6 months, which is fine by me since he's been eating for free for his whole life! The high chair that we got is actually more of a booster seat, in that it sits on top of a regular kitchen chair instead of being free standing. I put him in it today and let him practice with a sippy (which he is getting better at) and he seemed to like it. I'm kind of excited to see his reaction to "real" food.

The dogs are doing so awesome with Owen. He loves to laugh at them, and they love to give him kisses!

I've also been trying to get rid of the pacifier. Last night was the first night, and he cried and SCREAMED for about 40 minutes. I felt so bad for him and went in his room a few times to try to calm him down, but it didn't work, so I just had to let him cry himself to sleep. Today for his naps he didn't cry at all, and when I put him down for the night he whimpered a little for about 10 minutes and that was it. So hopefully we will be done with the paci! I don't really mind having it, but from what I've read in books, it's better to get rid of it now when he doesn't really know any better, than when he's older, so I'm going for it. I'm a little scared for when we are out and about and he gets cranky, because the pacifier really did work awesome, but I can't look back now. Wish us luck!

Happy Father's Day!!

It is Ryan's first Father's Day! So far it has been pretty uneventful, and this morning, Ryan only saw Owen for about 30 seconds before he had to go to work, but it was enough time for a kiss and a "Happy Father's Day, Daddy" from Owen (who's voice sounds a lot like mine, only higher pitched!). Owen and I ended up going to visit Ryan at work for a while and this afternoon Ryan is going to go golfing with some friends. The weather forecast says rain and thunderstorms, but so far there hasn't been anything, so hopefully it stays that way until they are done golfing.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Ryan and Owen over the last 6 months:

Birth Day

3 days old

The puppies love him too!

Daddy's Little Wingman - 1 1/2 months

Relaxing!

Laying in bed together.

The next three are from Brian and Jodi's reception:

Air guitar!!

Owen is getting better and better at crawling. We DEFINITELY need to make sure our place is baby-proofed, he is everywhere! He has his 6 month checkup this week and after that I'm sure we will be starting baby food, so bring on the mess (and watch for pictures)!

Happy Father's Day to my dad, my husband, my brother and to all the dad's and soon to be dads out there!!

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

My (not-so) little baby is six months old today! That flew by so fast, as everyone told me it would and will continue to do. I try to just appreciate the way he is right now, because I won't get these easy times back, but I still keep getting excited for when he learns to talk and walk and starts eating real food and all that.

Speaking of learning to do things, ever since my last post when I talked about Owen doing pushups, he continued to do them and also started pulling his knees under his body in a crawl position. Then, over the last few weeks, he has been coming closer and closer to crawling. He can get where he wants to go, but his arms haven't mastered the art of crawling quite yet, and he normally just falls to his belly after his knees go forward. Or he just rolls everywhere. BUT, today, on his 6 month birthday, he has come SOOOOOOO close to crawling, that you can ALMOST consider it just that. I have a video and in it he falls a few times and goes backward a little bit, but there are a few moments where you think he's just going to take off!

My little punkin is also getting pretty good at sitting up. He can't get into that position yet by himself, but if we put him in that position, he can sit there pretty well. He is such a strong little guy!

The best part of my day is when Owen laughs. He thinks I'm hilarious, he thinks Ryan is hilarious, and he LOVES to laugh at the dogs, especially Ragnar. Raggie can just be eating his food and Owen will die laughing. It's the best sound, but I have yet to get it on camera. It's hard to get video of Owen doing things because when he sees the camera, he'll stop what he's doing and just stare at the camera and want to play with it. But as soon as I do get video of it, I will share it.

I've also been giving Owen a sippy cup with water in it to practice with. He actually does ok with it. He can grab it and most of the time can get the sippy in his mouth, but I think he usually just chews on it. But, if I hold the cup and put it in his mouth, he likes to drink from it and will open his mouth and flail his arms so that I will give him more. He does make a big mess with it though, so I only use water so far :)

The tray had quite a bit of water in it by the time he was done and Ragnar licked it up, which Owen found hilarious, of course! His shirt was also soaked :)

Last weekend we went to my brother and sister-in-law's wedding reception, so here are some pictures of Owen having a great time at his first wedding.

Having fun in the stroller!

Flirting with Amanda

Dancing with Grandma

Dancing with Grandpa

Family photo

He loves it up there!

Owen has been lucky in the last few weeks because he has gotten to see a lot of family, especially grandparents. We saw a lot of people at the wedding reception, my mom babysat overnight the weekend before, and Ryan's mom and stepdad came up for a visit during the week. They live a little farther away than my family, so we see them less often, but they always come bearing gifts! Ryan's mom ALWAYS finds good deals on stuff, too! I wish I could find the deals she does :)

We took a family picture then, too. I didn't realize until later that Ryan and I were both wearing Iowa shirts. Owen has an Iowa shirt that I wish I would have put on him, but the one he's wearing is Vikings, so I guess I'm ok with that! :) Ace was in the picture, too, but Ragnar got left out. :(

We were thinking about getting milestone pictures taken soon (we wanted 6 month ones), but we'll see. They would be nice to have, but I'm not really sure how worth it they are. You should see how many wedding pictures we ordered - 1! We have all the proofs, though!

Exercise!

I am not disciplined enough to do any sort of exercise except sports and the occasional walk. Owen, on the other hand, is starting early. His exercise regimen started about a month ago, when he started doing baby crunches (or sit ups), in an attempt to try to sit up or see something that he couldn't while laying down. And now, at 5 1/2 months, he has started doing push ups. And I don't just mean using his arms to push up on his belly, I mean a full on push up on his tippy toes. I couldn't believe it the first time I saw it and it took me four days to finally get a picture of it.

He's been able to rollover for about a month now from back to tummy, but he FINALLY learned how to roll back over this week. He makes it look really easy (and it's supposed to be easier to go from tummy to back), but I think he just never thought to try until recently. He's rolling all over the place now. No need for crawling - if he wants something, he will figure out a way to roll and shimmy his way over to it. And I love that play mat in the picture above, but he's not on it for long anymore!

Owen has also gotten used to being on his tummy. He really doesn't mind it at all anymore, and actually started rolling over in his crib and sleeping that way. For awhile, he would get mad that he rolled over in his crib, but not anymore.

The weather has been awesome lately, so last weekend when Owen and I went to Elkader, we went for a couple of walks. He loves it and looks pretty cute in the process!

My brother and sister-in-law got married a couple of weeks ago in Jamaica. Unfortunatley, Ryan and I couldn't go, but Owen still got a souvenir! Can you guess who it's from?

It says I Love Mommy & I Love Daddy...but Grandma and Grandpa are the BEST!

I have been waiting for his first teeth to start showing, but nothing so far. He is the drooliest baby and is ALWAYS chewing on his fingers, a teether, or a pacifier, but no sign of a tooth yet. And this has been going on for a while. Maybe he just likes the taste of his hand!

I love this picture!

Mother's Day!

At the graduation, Owen wanted to take pictures

Yesterday was my first Mother's Day! My parents, brother, his wife and kids, Owen and I had spent Saturday night at my other brother and soon to be sister-in-law's house because my brother graduated from Vet school on Saturday. So Sunday morning we all went out for a Mother's Day breakfast at IHOP. Then my parents and I packed up and headed back to Cedar Falls. So I was able to spend Mother's Day weekend with my mom! :) Then, back in CF, Ryan, Owen and I went out for ice cream and ate it in park, before going for a little drive. Ryan and I used to do this on the Harley, but since our family has grown, we had to substitute the car! It was nice and relaxing, except when we drove by the shooting range in Black Hawk park, and the gun some guy was shooting was really loud and it scared the crap out of me. I knew we were in the shooting range, and Ryan had stopped the car, but I just thought he wanted to see if he could tell how good of a shot the guy was. I was kind of looking off in the other direction, toward the river, and when the guy shot his gun, I about hit the ceiling. It was kind of funny, because it was pretty silly of me not to expect a gun shot. My heart was racing for a while after that!

Owen was pretty fascinated by his cousin

When we got home, Ryan had to get ready for work, so then Owen and I got to spend the rest of the day together by ourselves. I put him down on this activity mat, and FINALLY got a video of him rolling over! As you'll see, it's pretty hard work! And he still doesn't really like being on his tummy for very long. After I stopped the video, he did manage to roll back over on his back, but it was partly because he grabbed ahold of one of the activity mat's arm things and kind of swung himself around. He hasn't been able to roll back over yet, but every time I put him on that mat, it doesn't take long before he's on his tummy!

So all in all, yesterday was a really good first Mother's Day, and I've gotten lots of use out of my new diaper bag that Owen gave me. I love it. Today, Owen has been a little cranky pants, but he's also taken a couple of naps and one of them was pretty long, so I even got a little nap! So that's a plus. I'm not sure why he's being cranky. He's not feverish, so I don't think he feels sick or starting to cut a tooth, so maybe he's just having a bad day. He was such a good boy all weekend, especially through the graduation, that he's earned a little cranky, I think! And even his cranky isn't too bad. I think I have the best baby ever! :)

Rollover

Owen rolled over yesterday! He was playing on the floor on his back while I was watching TV and when I looked over at him, he was on his tummy! I was so surprised that I woke Ryan up from his nap in the chair. :) I was just mad that I missed it. I've watched him come SO close so many times and have had the video camera ready so many times and I missed it! Oh well, I was just so happy for him. And since that time, he has done it a couple of more times. He's not really a huge fan of being on his tummy, though. Sometimes his arms get stuck down by his side, and it looks silly because he just arches his back. But he's getting better and he'll tolerate more time on his tummy when his arms are in front of him and he can push up a little bit.

He also learned to put his pacifier back in his mouth. I was really impressed by this. It has to be in his hands the right way, but it seems like that would take a lot of hand-eye coordination. I like that he can do this because he pulls his pacifiers out of his mouth and then gets mad. If he drops it, I'm lucky if he 1) picks it back up and 2) picks it up in a way that he can get it back in his mouth the right way, but this is a start! I really wish that I could just get rid of the paci because he REALLY likes it, and that makes me kind of nervous. But it's so easy, especially at night, to just give it to him. I have very few problems getting him to sleep, and I think it's largely due to the pacifier. He also really enjoys his mobile.

Last time I wrote about how Owen is starting to really like our dogs, and I was nervous about our chihuahua, Ace. Well, it now looks like they are going to be good buds! Ace has been doing a lot better with letting Owen touch him and if he doesn't like it, he just runs away. This picture may look like they are best buddies already, but I had kind of lay Ace there and hold him in that position, but he did jump up and sit by Owen on his own. :) Owen also got a huge kick out of Ace last night because Ace was getting all riled up and running in tight circles and "digging" in our bed. It was so funny to watch Ace and really cute to watch Owen laugh at him. I really wish I would have had the video camera.

Ragnar, on the other hand, I wasn't too worried about, but his size can be a little scary, and he's not used to being wrestled with and tugged on. He also doesn't live up to his name. "Ragnar" is the Minnesota Vikings mascot's name, and he is a big, strong, brave viking. Our dog, Ragnar, on the other hand, should have been named Scooby. He is scared of everything, especially thunderstorms. This picture of Ragnar and Owen was taken during a storm. Rag gets scared and always climbs on Ryan's or my lap during storms, or, if it's at night while we are sleeping, he goes to the head of the bed. Well, I'd like to say that Ragnar was protecting Owen in this picture, but I think it's the other way around.

This was taken today while Owen was playing on the floor on his activity mat. He got a little kick-crazy and knocked the thing over. He didn't mind one bit, though. By the time he was ready to be picked up, he had schimmied all the way off the mat and was basically just looking at the wall. Silly Punkin!

This Sunday is my first Mother's Day, but I am going to be out of town for my brother's Vet school graduation for part of the day, and my husband works that night. I will get to spend the day with Owen, but I won't be able to hang out with Ryan. Soooo, today when I came home (I was subbing in Hudson), there was a present waiting for me from Owen! And they didn't even make me wait until Sunday to open it! Ryan, I mean, Owen, knows I LOVE purses and bags, so I got a new diaper bag!! And I love it! It has a ton of pockets and space and the strap is really comfortable. I already have two diaper bags, but my boys know that I can never have too many!