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.

Half Birthday

 Owen's half birthday was actually a couple weeks ago - so I am a little behind.  I would like to say that I have been busy enjoying the weather or getting ready to go back to work, but that is not entirely true.  With the impending return to work, I have been using Owen's nap times to stay up to date on all of my shows.  I have amassed quite the collection of shows and am actually mildly embarrassed by my DVR.  I rediscovered Grey's Anatomy while pregnant and am not sure why I ever left it.  I am actually too embarrassed to DVR my 2 new favorite shows - Married to Medicine and Revenge but caught up on them via On Demand.  Revenge is filling the void that Desperate Housewives left behind and Married to Medicine makes me laugh - Quad should come out with her own book of sayings.  Anyway, that's a bit of what has been going on with me, but more important are the developments with Baby Owen.

We waited until Owen was six months old to start him on solid foods.  Avocado seems to be the in first food and we thought that sounded good, so avocado was his first time.  I think he ate some avocado - but mostly smeared it on his face.  I know that Murphy ate some avocado.

That bite of avocado really pushed Owen the edge - a few days later he was sitting up on his own and crawling around the house.  He is army crawling and it takes him a while to get anywhere, but it has opened up a new dimension of caring for baby.  It is especially fun when I am changing a poopy diaper and he wants to try out his new skill.  Owen can crawl pretty quickly if something intriguing catches his eye, namely my phone, remote control, or Murphy.  So far, Murphy has been very tolerant.  Owen loves to punch his paws and grab his tail. Murphy takes it or just walks away if he has had enough.  I like to call them the Gruesome Twosome and feel like they will be causing lots of trouble together in the near future.

One would think that sitting up and crawling would be enough to tide over a baby for a month.  But no, Owen decided it was time to cut a tooth.  Last week I discovered a bottom tooth had broken through and this week the second bottom tooth is through.  They are basically little daggers and are still a bit small to get a picture of.  His love of sucking on my chin just got a whole lot less cute.  I am also worried that I am going to have that kid that bites other kids.

I swear Owen might be part dog.  The kid loves socks, shoes, and Murphy's bones.  A sock will keep him occupied for a good 20 minutes - which is significantly longer than any other toy that he possesses.

Owen has been keeping us pretty busy this past month with all of his developments.  He better not be walking by the time I write my next blog post.

Fake Housewife

Following in the footsteps of many other notable housewives, I am reentering the workforce next month.  I know what you are thinking - Kelly is finally coming out with her Kelly Coutoure line or perhaps Kelly Koated Nights or pursuing that promising singing career.  Alas, no - although with enough auto-tune I could make a mean remix to "Don't be Tardy for the Party."  Rather, I am following in my girl Phaedra's footsteps and got a real job as an attorney at a small firm in Madison.  I am excited to be going back to work - was told recently that I probably should be going back to work when I mentioned how I get sad when Owen sleeps in because I have nothing to do (valid point). 

Also - how awesome is this apron?  My friend, Alyssa got it for me around Christmas time and I wore it for the first time this week.  Although it is amazing, I typically don't need an apron because my shirt is already covered in spit up and drool - so a little splash of sauce is no big deal.  However, I will certainly put it to good use in the coming years.

 We had a special visitor from Thailand last week - Uncle David.  David brought us a bunch of great gifts.  One of those gifts, he thought was a mediocre gift of a coozie (his thoughts, not mine - I like a good coozie).  Little did he know, Owen loves coozies.  After plastic cups, they may be his favorite toy.  He has two others in his toy box but his Thailand coozie seems to be the favorite now.  It was great seeing David and he got a ton of giggles out of Owen.

Two men and a baby.

Owen experienced his first boat ride this past weekend when we went to Lake Geneva.  As depicted above, he was captivated by the experience.

Things livened up a bit once he awoke and found Barret's pamphlet on Lake Geneva.

There were also some high schoolers on a date who took this cruise.  I find high schoolers in love to be extremely entertaining.  Barret was the creeper who took this picture.  They were cute, but in that awkward high school romance sort of way.

I had never been to Lake Geneva but I do love seeing ridiculous homes and Lake Geneva did not disappoint.  There were homes for sale for $15 million and those appeared to be on the smaller end of the estates we saw.  Lake Geneva was built as a summer getaway for extremely wealthy Chicagoans after the Chicago Fire.  It is crazy to me that someone can build such a lavish home and only use it one month out of the year.  It was a fun city to see though and I am glad to say that I have now seen the "Newport of the Midwest."

Cone Dog

First off, my husband wrote a great article regarding a nursing mom's rights in the workplace.  Here is the link, if anyone is interested:  http://www.dewittross.com/news-education/posts/2013/04/09/accommodating-nursing-mothers-in-the-workplace.

Our beloved Murphy had to have surgery a few weeks ago.  He had a lump on his leg, which turned out to be a benign tumor.  Unfortunately, they cannot tell if it is benign or malignant until they remove the tumor and have it tested.  Although it was benign, it was still good to have it removed as it could have continued to grow and become problematic.  Nevertheless, Murphy had to wear the cone of shame for 10 days.

Day One was a bit rough, as the vet had to sedate Murphy when he woke up because he was really angry about not being able to get at his incision.  When he came home, he was super sappy and I realized that I had never heard him whimper until that day.  Murph is tough though, and he has now combated worms, a tapeworm, Lyme's disease, a truck, and a tumor and has come out on the winning end.

After the first day, Murphy was getting back to his normal self - except his damn cone.  I don't think he really noticed that he had this cone on, other than when he was drinking water from the rain drops that landed in his cone, but it drove me crazy.  He bopped his cone around constantly and could not figure out that he needed to wait to squeeze his conehead out the door.  He would also run upstairs after we put Owen to bed and bang his cone on each stair.  Owen also did not mind the cone and was happy that he was still able to get some daily kisses from Murph.

Every child seems to love Sophie the Giraffe and Owen is no exception.  My mom got him one for Christmas, which mysteriously went missing a few days later.  I had brought it in the diaper bag to yoga and i was never seen again.  My first instinct was Murphy took it outside and buried it in the snow, along with some of his other treasures.  Once the snow melted, I scoured the yard but no Sophie.  So I figured I had wrongly accused Murphy.  Until we got replacement Sophie a few days ago.  The instant Murphy was left alone with Sophie, he took it through his doggy door and was playing with it in the yard.  Thankfully, I was walking downstairs and spotted my misbehaving dog and was able to save Sophie.  I am still not sure what Murph did to Sophie 1 (chewed up and swallowed?) but he was definitely the culprit and not my mommy brain.  Now, we have to keep Sophie tucked away or up high when not in use.

I love free stuff!  I will never turn down a free sample at the grocery store or a stupid t-shirt that is being given away.  So I of course love free kids stuff.  Storytime at libraries are great.  The past two weekends, however, we went to Kids in the Rotunda.  Owen is a bit young to really care about the shows, but the ones we went to involved singing kids songs and the singers were really good.  Best of all, it was free.  It is a nice thing to have in town and Owen was interested in looking around at other kids - plus it will be awesome next year for him.

Although Owen does love Sophie the Giraffe, his favorite toy is his bath cup.  It is the only toy that he has started crying over when taken away.  Not sure what it is about this cup, but he loves it.

Another Owen favorite are his socks and toes.  No need to buy this baby toys.  Also - holy thunder thighs!