8 Months

8 Months! Owen's personality is totally shinning through these days! At 8 months, we have his schedule down perfectly - FINALLY. Does it normally take this long?? I really shouldn't complain, but it felt like it took forever to figure out his nap schedule. Owen goes down at night between 7-7:30. I really try to stretch it out to 8, but he pretty much is begging to go to bed by 7 and if I keep him up any longer, it makes it harder for us to put him down for some reason. He wakes up between 6-6:30 on most days and on days he wants to give us a break, he wakes up at 7. He naps twice a day. Once at 9:30 and again at 3. One of his naps are always at least 2+ hours and the other one usually lasts about an hour to an hour and a half. Our growing baby boy loves to sleep!

Owen is mobile. Still army crawling, but can get anywhere he wants! We succumbed to baby proofing and put up a baby gate at the top of the stairs because he is army crawling so fast. It is really incredible. He hasn't quite mastered getting up on his knees yet, but his army crawling has been perfected. He will would much rather be moving than sitting still these days. It is a BIG challenge getting a diaper changed these days. He has abs of steel and is constantly trying to roll over on his stomach to get somewhere while a diaper is being changed. On average, I probably turn him 4-5 times during one diaper change. Let's just say we have to be quick with the diaper changes. Haha.

He is still a REALLY good eater. There is absolutely no problem in this arena. He screams with complete excitement when he sees a bowl of food or a bottle. He LOVES snacks. He can eat his weight in puffs. If you don't feed him his snacks fast enough, he will scream bloody murder and let you know you are going way too slow. This actually applies to any food. Such a boy. Geez.

Owen LOVES music. My Mom seems to think he has her love for music. He 100% recognizes music that he loves. There is this song that my Mom used to play for him when she stayed with us to help him fall asleep at night. When he hears the song, he will stop whatever her is doing and just stare into space listening to that song. It's almost like he knows it's a relaxing song and he wants to savor it. It's hilarious to watch!

We still have not entered the stranger danger stage. Owen is FULL of smiles all the time. Let's see if this is the same story next month! Haha! We try to let him spend time with various people and he just doesn't have a care in the world who holds him. He does give me the BIGGEST smile when he sees me, but doesn't favor any particular person in general. I really do hope it stays that way!!

Owen has learned to wave!! It is hard to get him to do it on command, but if he sees me doing it and I say bye, he will start to wave! It's so cute! I've been trying to teach him to clap, but he seems to only want to slam things one hand at a time. Haha. He is definitely favoring his left hand and foot though. We may have a lefty on our hands!!

Overall, this has been the most fun month for us in Owen's life. To have some kind of routine every day and just seeing him blossom into this happy almost toddler is incredible. We could not ask for more in a baby!!

Saying Goodbye to Danny & Jenn

Danny and Jenn moved to Houston at the end of June and it was hard to say goodbye to them. Danny was finished with his residency at Duke and moving on to his fellowship at Texas Children's in Houston. When we moved to North Carolina, we never really thought any of our family would wind up here. In some crazy universe….TWO of Tommy's siblings wound up in the same city. We could not have been happier. We hadn't been in the same city with anyone in several years, so it was such a treat. It means more to me than I could ever relay in a blog post to have my family so close to us when we had our first baby. It was such a blessing. I can remember the night I was in labor so clearly. Jenn had brought over several grocery bags of food over to spoil me in what she assumed was my last few weeks of pregnancy. When she came over, she found Tommy rushing to get his bags packed and putting everything into the car. I was STILL in denial, but leaning over the counter and not able to breathe really well while I talked to Jenn. She left quickly and told me she would see me in the hospital. :) Oh the memories.

Owen was so lucky to have Uncle Danny and Aunt Jenn in town for his birth and to be around for a good 6 months of his life. We will miss them dearly, but know our distance is short lived. Thank you for a wonderful 3 years in North Carolina together. It made being away from Texas so much easier. We love and miss you guys so much!

Owen's Baptism

On June 17th, we baptized Owen at Holy Infant Catholic Church in Durham. Owen did amazingly well during the entire ceremony. Our baby is so easy going that I honestly did not expect anything less. The only thing was he took a really early nap that day and was pretty restless and exhausted by the time mass started. It also didn't help that I gave him a bottle and it made him REALLY sleepy. We made it through the actual ceremony and he passed out the second Communion started. So all the pictures we have of him that day at church are of him PASSED out!!

We are so lucky in that almost all of our immediate family was in town for this special event in Owen's life. Everyone made a long weekend out of it and we got to spend a lot of time together. My sister (the Godmother) and her husband, my parents, Tommy's parents, Carolyn, Victor and their daughter Annaliese and even my cousin, Linda and her family, who coincidentally was in town for a wedding! Unfortunately, Owen's Godfather (Danny) and Jenn were not able to make it that weekend, but we knew they were there in spirit. The weather was unbelievable and we spent a lot of the day outside. We had Mez (a really popular local Mexican restaurant) cater lunch and everyone really enjoyed it. Our good friends the Engstroms and Breaults also came to celebrate this big day with us. 

It really was such a perfect weekend and we are so grateful to have such amazing family and friends!! Thank you to everyone for coming to such a special event in Owen's life! We love you all!!

Duke Graduation

Tommy graduated from his residency on June 8. The whole family (Jeff, Meg, Danny and Jenn) was able to attend the graduation and hear about all of Tommy's accomplishments during his 4 years of residency. Owen's summer nanny was able to come and babysit and put him down for the night while we got to celebrate this big achievement for Tommy. It was so nice to catch up with friends we've met through this residency and reminisce about our years in Durham. It is so crazy to think we have been here for FOUR WHOLE years and that we are going into the last year of training for Tommy! I thought this day would never come. This last year, Tommy will be a fellow at Duke for Interventional Radiology. On top of a much harder schedule, he will also look for a job anywhere he can find a good opportunity. Keep us in your prayers! Congratulations to Tommy for getting through residency!!