Almost There

So I started this blog entry last week and was lauding how amazing it is to have a baby sleep through the night.  Sadly, I had to erase the prior draft and start from scratch.  We had one week of Owen sleeping through the night and thought it was long enough to no longer be considered a fluke.  Then things changed.  We were awoken the other night by what sounded like a seal begging for some food.  Turns out it was Owen and he has croup.  I had never heard of this, but apparently it's fairly common and not too serious.  It is just a horrible sounding cough and disturbs sleep.  I am hoping that it passes soon and we go back to sleeping through the night.

Anyway, it has been an exciting month.  We went to the pumpkin patch and Owen got to go on a wagon ride with his buddy, Mason.

This also happened.

And this....

This past month, Owen was a guest at his first and second wedding.  He was quite the gentleman. His obsession with handbags began around this time.  He has basically been walking around with a little purse or makeup bag ever since.

Owen was my mom's date to one wedding, but didn't quite make it to the dancing portion of the night.

While in Minnesota, we went to Underwater World at the Mall.  Apparently it is named something else now, but I will stick with Underwater World.  It was pretty sweet, especially for an aquarium located at the mall. 

Given Owen's love for water, I decided to sign him up for swimming lessons last week.  I thought it would be a great Monday activity for us.  However, he hates it.  I mean - he really hates it.  He basically cries the entire time.  We are currently on week 2 and he cracked a little smile at the end of the lesson, so I hope it gets better.  He hates it so much because they make him get dunked under water.  Owen has caught on to this little game and starts crying as soon as the instructor starts counting.

We don't get to see my grandparents too often, but we went up for a visit last month.  This picture is kind of amazing to me because my grandma actually picked Owen up to put him in her lap.  My grandma is not in the greatest health and pretty frail, so I was surprised she even attempted, let alone succeeded in picking Owen up.  I was a little fearful for both her and Owen, but it is amazing what joy this little guy brings to our family.  What else is amazing is that Owen is turning 1 next week!

Too Active

So it has been a while since I have provided updates.  Main reason being, when Owen is awake I can accomplish very little, other than making sure he stays alive and vacuuming - that kid loves the vacuum.  Also, he has entered what Google tells me is sleep regression.  For the past couple weeks, he wakes up every two hours.  I thought we had moved past that several months ago, like when he stopped being a newborn, but it is back and somewhat worse than I remember.  According to the parenting expert, Google, this is typically just a phase and should pass in a couple weeks.  However, this brought me to the scary realization that I have not slept through the night in well over a year now.  Owen has slept through the night a handful of times, but I was so accustomed to waking up anyway, no sleep for me.

 Anyway, this month has been full of new adventures and accomplishments for Owen.  The most major being taking his first steps.  Barret and I had been coaxing him to walk into our loving arms, but alas, it was allure of the vacuum that got him.  Yes - his first independent steps were to the vacuum.  I was holding the vacuum, so I am going to consider also as walking towards me.

 Owen has also picked up some dance moves.  They are pretty funny and mostly just uncoordinated bounces up and down - similar to his dad's dance moves.  He has also learned how to give kisses - which is adorable.  Still no words (other than the probable "hi's" several months ago but those are likely coming soon.  Also, I feel like we can wait for some more things to happen.  In addition, he has learned to kick his little soccer ball.  He can only use his right foot though.

 The doggy door is a really fun toy for Owen.  He can throw things out it and watch them roll in the yard.  He also thinks it's really funny when Murphy goes through the door.  Thankfully, Owen has not crawled out of it yet, but am sure he would if left unattended.

Another first was going to Urgent Care.  I got a call from our daycare provider that he had a fever and became convinced that it was an ear infection.  By the time I got to Urgent Care, the fever had broken and one nap later Owen was basically back to normal.  I expected Urgent Care to be a madhouse, but it was actually kind of nice, but am hoping not to be back there any time soon.  Still no first haircut - might make it to age two before that happens - but there are patches of hair coming in.

The last in my series of firsts - leaving Owen for the weekend.  I spent the weekend in the Dells for a bachelorette party.  It was a great time and Barret claims Owen enjoyed the man time.  Up next will be Owen's first wedding, followed by his second wedding.  He is getting ready to show off those dance moves.

3/4 of a year

 Owen is creeping closer to the one year mark.  His 9 month appointment had him weighing in at 20 lbs 11 oz and 29.5 inches long.  He is in the 82nd percentile for height - still not sure where that comes from and waiting for him to normalize.  It would be weird if Owen ended up being like a foot taller than Barret and I.  His head is also still gigantic - in the 86th percentile for that.  They do not measure his feet, but am pretty sure he would be in the 86th percentile for that as well.  He is now of a size where they make footless pajamas - so we have not had to cut the toes out of his pjs to make room for big foot.

Speaking of pjs - these dino ones are pretty awesome.  He also loves getting a hold of my hair binders.  They are one of his treasures, the others are scraps of paper, leaves, and any crumb he can find on the ground.  He does not relinquish these treasures easily.  You can kind of see in this picture, but Owen is vampire baby no longer!  His two front teeth popped through recently.

Owen is very proud of his standing abilities.  Thankfully, he has learned to fall - so we no longer need to fear for his life every time he pulls himself up on something - which is constantly.  He is cruising along furniture and getting a bit too close to walking.  It is just around the corner.

Ah the wander of drawers!  It is so much fun to take the contents of any drawers or cupboards out.  I keep telling Owen that it is equally fun to put the contents back away, but it is falling on deaf ears.

You may not want to use the pillows on the couches at our house.  Murphy continues to be Murphy.

I took Owen to see the Blooming Butterflies at Olbrich last week.  It seemed like the thing to do with young kids; however, Owen was not into it.  He could not have cared less about the butterflies.  He did like looking at the koi pond and fed the koi his teething lamb - sorry workers at Olbrich.  Owen did also like outdoor gardens and pulling on the grass.  He also likes to make sure his teeth are always clean - extra use of the shark toothbrush now that he has 6 teeth to clean.

Grass is very fun!

Kelly Van Stewart, is that you?  I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas 2009 and have finally dusted it off and put it to use.  It took me about 2 hours to figure out how to thread my Singer Simple - not sure what people did before the internet and YouTube.  Eventually, I got it figured it out and have completed two patio cushions.  2 more to go!  I also did some canning this weekend and made blueberry jam.  Super domestic!

Between my sewing and jarring, I do still find time to keep up with my tv shows.  Teen Mom 3 is coming up and looks amazing as usual.  I have also gotten into Below Deck.  At first, I thought this show looked super lame, but Bravo has sucked me in again.  It makes me think that I should charter a yacht soon; however, I am pretty sure it would be like 2 years of my salary to take a 3 day yacht cruise.  Worth it?

8 month antics

It all started about a month ago.  I was at a friend's baby shower and Owen spotted a bow on a large present that he had to have.  He focused all his little baby powers on obtaining it - and was finally able to hoist himself up to a standing position in order to get his prize - the sparkly bow.  Since then, Owen has become obsessed with standing.  He will pull himself on the table, bath tub, oven, window, etc.  Pretty much everything has become a standing aid.  As I sit here typing, Owen pulled himself up on my chair and is banging on the computer.  Unfortunately, he his not so good at knowing his limitations so we are constantly watching him so he doesn't fall over on his head.

In addition to standing, everything water is a recent obsession.  When I have a glass of water - Owen is like a ninja and gets his little mits on it.  This was cute at first, but now when he is done drinking my glass of water, he thinks it is really funny to stick his hand in my water and splash it around.  I too find this funny, but sometimes I just want to drink my water.

Owen also employs his ninja skills when I brush my teeth while holding him.  I did not know that getting your teeth brushed could be so fun and funny, but Owen should have great dental hygiene. 

A bit late, but here is a picture of Barret and Owen on Father's Day.  This carrier is pretty awesome, except it is not made for sleeping babies - which is what Owen became about 15 minutes into the hike.

Murphy is really appreciating Owen's expanding pallet.  Thankfully, he (Murphy) is not a picky eater and has cleaned up every type of fruit and vegetable that Owen has thrown on the floor.  This week Owen tried cheese - it was a good week for Murphy.

Lastly, Owen (and the rest of us) were happy for the return of David from Thailand and are sad that he is heading back already.  David elicited many giggles and smiles from Owen.

Summer Time

This cool baby is super excited for summer to be here.  He still, however, has no hair.  Thankfully, he has a nice shape to his head and doesn't let being a baldy get him down.

Owen's buddy, Mason, lent him the sunglasses pictured above.  Maybe he felt bad for crawling all over Owen the weekend before?  And yes - that is a sweet Adidas track suit that Owen is wearing.  Baby Guido.

Owen's recent obsession is the vacuum.  Because of his crawling, I have become obsessed with vacuuming - nothing quite like picking your little baby up and seeing him covered in dog hair.  So I vacuum a lot now and every time I do, Owen chases down the vacuum.  He also just likes looking at the vacuum and crawling over it. 

Murphy is still an obsession of Owen's.  He got to ride Murphy the other day and that was exhilarating.  He also loves Murph's food dish with water bowl.  His new trick is pulling himself up and Murph's bowl is a perfect height for him.  It is really fun when Owen splashes Murphy's dog water all around the kitchen.  Thankfully, Murphy is a lab and there is never food in his bowl for longer than a minute.  So we don't have to worry about Owen eating dog food - just dog bones.

We took this little bundle of joy up north to Brule for a long weekend.  He was a little young to appreciate the great outdoors, but he did enjoy chewing on grass and playing with sticks.

Murphy, on the other hand, was not too young to enjoy the great outdoors.  He was a crazy man.  Murphy spotted a deer to chase down and we were shocked that he could not catch it.

Owen has been interested in food for quite some time, but not so interested in actually eating it.  We got a funnel cake at Hometown Days and Owen was really eyeing it up.  So I figured just give it to him - not like he is going to eat it.  Well - he shoved it right in his mouth and then crumbled it with his little fists.  I am pretty sure that breaks like 10 rules of how you are supposed to feed a baby, but the good news is, he survived.  However, I do not condone feeding babies funnel cakes and was sad that he did not take to his pureed kale like he did this funnel cake.  I am debating giving up on purees soon and just seeing if he takes to eating on his own.

A nice perk to having a friend who is a photographer is she sends you great pictures she took of your time at the fair together.

Lastly, I have to dish on some Housewives.  Orange County is still pretty terrible - although I am growing to like Lydia more.  Partly due to the disappointment of Orange County, I am so happy that New Jersey is back on the air.  I thought it might be a bit dull with the same old stories and family feuds, but so far it is pretty awesome.  Bravo should definitely give Milania her own spinoff.  Everything that comes out of her mouth is pure gold.  The second person they should give a spinoff to is Rosie - she is also amazing and we need to see more of her.  Who should not get a spinoff?  Tamra.  However, I read that they are giving her one to document her third wedding to Eddie - boring.  In other housewives news, I read that Kim is pregnant with another baby.  That would give her three kids under the age of 3.  How is she going to have time to record more hits?  Tardy for the Party is Owen's favorite lullaby.

Creepy Crawler

 Owen hit the big 7 months today!  He is more than half-way to being one year old and continues to make us laugh.  He has been a crawling machine.  The whole crawling phenomena started a little over a month ago when he would scootch just ever so slightly on his activity mat.  Then he started to pick up steam and could make it to the other side of the living room in about 10 minutes.  Now, he can cruise.  He is still in army crawl mode, but if a shiny object (iphone or remote control namely) or Murphy's paw catches his eye - he will fly across the room.  Not sure what his fascination is with Murphy's paws, but am happy that Murphy has been tolerant of him grabbing them thus far - although he doesn't look to pleased in the picture above.

There is still a lot of love between these two.  I am pretty sure that Owen's second word is going to be Murphy or some mutation of the name (Moo Moo, maybe?).  I say second word not because I think his first word will be Mama (that will likely be number 10 or so), but because I am pretty sure he has already had his first word.  Even though Barret has been repeating "Dada" to Owen as much as he can for the past several months, that is also not his first utterance.  We believe his first word is "hi."  Yep, hi.  My mom and I heard him say it 2 weeks ago and were startled.  I kind of wrote it off as us both being slightly crazy.  Then, however, he said hi to Barret's dad's cousin - who confirmed he said "hi" as she approached and I place her outside the circle of crazy Owen infatuation.  Hopefully he says it again soon.  I have not heard of a baby's first word being "hi" but it kind of makes sense - people say hi to him all the time.

Back to my creepy crawler - like most babies, he seems to be a magnet for cords.  Much to my disdain, he likes to try to get to the wires for our internet and tv by crawling in that space in our tv stand.  I am hoping that he learns the meaning of "no" soon.

Crawling also brings the advantage of being able to get where Owen wants to go - like to help Alexander bang on the guitar while he plays.  Owen also likes to crawl into my lap, which I always find cute at first.  It is cute until he starts screaming in my face.  I am pretty sure that he just wants to be able to crawl through me or pull himself up on me but cannot and gets angry.  He certainly does not crawl into my lap to cuddle or be held - just to scream in my face.

This awesome turtle face  is becoming a thing of the past.  He was super into making this face for a solid two weeks - made me laugh.

I am kind of hoping that Owen's favorite past time of sucking on my chin and cheek becomes a thing of the past soon.  Again, it makes me laugh but his new teeth are sharp, little daggers and it's getting less cute.

Trouble maker.

Lastly, I feel the need to comment on Real Housewives of Orange County.  Historically, this is my favorite series of all the housewives so I was really excited for this season to begin.  However, it has been a snooze fest.  I get it - Tamra's got an attitude, Alexis thinks she is being bullied, nobody likes Brooks, and Lydia's mom smokes pot.  That is seriously everything that has happened in the last 10 episodes, plus the ladies discussing said topics- what is this, The Hills?  I am hoping that Princesses of Long Island does some redeeming for my beloved Bravo.