10 Months

DOUBLE DIGITS! How did we get here?? Time flies by when you are having fun! This month Owen  became very vocal! This kid can babble!! He just has his own little language and can talk up a storm. He ALWAYS wakes up babbling and sometimes we leave him in there a little longer than necessary just to hear him talk on the monitor! At 10 months Owen eats like there is no tomorrow. He can eat up to 10 ice cubes of baby food for a single meal!! I still make all of his baby food fresh and he still inhales all of it. We tried chicken and pork this month and he didn't seem to mind any of it as long as it was mixed with his usual food. He did have a hiccup with the virus he got in Houston and went on a food strike for about a week. During that week, he lived off of yogurt and Cheerios. It would have worried me a few months ago, but Owen is SOLID now. He used to be on the smaller side for babies his age, but he is now 100% chub/muscle. I feel like he is gaining a pound a day! 

Owen still has NO TEETH. I feel like they are coming, but there are no real signs of it. No drool. No crankiness. Nothing. Will he be 1 before he cuts a tooth?? He also still does not know how to sit up on his own. He will stay in a seated position if I put him there, but he won't get to that position by himself. I guess since he only army crawls, he hasn't quite figured out how to use his knees. I was worried about it even though the pediatrician told me NOT to worry about it. She said that some kids never learn to sit up on their own until they walk. But of course, I worried. I went and bought this activity table for him and he really wanted to play with it, but felt no need to pull up on it. Instead, he laid on his stomach and just reached up. Sneaky boy! I put him up on his knees to look at it and he just didn't seem to really enjoy it. Oh well! Owen has figured out exactly where he wants to be and what position he wants to be in. Some times I will hold him up to try to get him to stand up and he will hold his legs up so they don't touch the ground. It makes me laugh so hard! Such a personality!

This month, I cut Owen back to only 3 nursing sessions and bottles of formula for the rest. Once in the morning, once after I come home from work and then at night. His pediatrician said I could keep the morning and evening nursing sessions for bonding time for awhile. I do enjoy those and it is "our" time to spend with each other. I was never sure what to expect with breast feeding, but I have really enjoyed it. It was never very hard for me and I didn't have any complications. After I got over the disappointment that I couldn't keep up with Owen's intake, I was really happy with how far I had come.

Owen is super active now and loves to play on the floor. Our living room has become his play room and has toys strewn everywhere. He's very inquisitive and tries to get into everything he isn't supposed to get into. We definitely have to keep our eyes on him ALL the time. He also LOVES watching videos on the iPad. Most mornings after I nurse him, I will show him a video while I get ready for work. So he has learned to expect the iPad videos after he is finished nursing. He will literally look around for it. Shame on Mom! He LOVES books. His favorite is the Very Hungry Caterpillar. He loves the pages where you can see the things eaten through. He actually waits for those pages and when those end, he usually crawls away uninterested. Haha! He will sit very still for a long time reading all of his books though!

Owen is OBSESSED with balls. He is ALL boy. Footballs, basketballs, baseballs…anything you show him…he WANTS. In fact, our 10 month photo shoot was so successful because I bought a 99 cent plastic ball at Walmart before we took them. He was hyperventilating and laughing the whole time we held it up! It's TOO CUTE!!

He is still in 3 diapers and wearing 9-12 month clothes, but pushing the limits on that size. He's had a huge growth spurt and is super tall! I'm trying to hold out from buying any more summer clothes since it will be cold soon. So needless to say, our collection of outfits that fit these days are interesting. He is sleeping 7:30-7:30 every night and taking two naps ranging from an hour and a half to two and a half hours. He is a consistent sleeper and does wonderfully. He is also NOT a morning person. He typically wants to go down for his nap an hour or two after he wakes up from a 12-13 hour night! His second nap of the day is almost always 3 hours after he wakes up from his first nap. His schedule is so easy to figure out and we love it!!!

Owen, I love you so much. You are the sunshine in my life and you make me want to be the best Mom I can ever be. Thank you for being a dream baby and never giving me a hard time. I am so looking forward to the next few months and years with you and watching you grow and learn new things. You love to smile and I can't ask for more.  

Vacation Bust

From August 18 - 25, Owen and I went to Houston to visit my parents. What I had envisioned being a relaxing week of free babysitting plus visiting friends turned out to be a pretty big bust. I was traveling alone for the first time and SUPER nervous about it. Owen did relatively well, but juggling all the things you need to travel with an infant make traveling hard no matter how many extra hands you have.  I stupidly bought a cheap flight on American Airlines that stopped in Dallas. I will NEVER EVER fly American Airlines ever again. Frankly, I have rarely heard people ever getting to a place on time when flying that airline. Supposedly the plane flying us to Houston had a blown tire they had to replace. The idiots decided to half board our plane. Owen and I boarded and sat on that plane for AN HOUR AND A HALF. WHY board passengers on a stuffy plane without AC running when you knew a tire was being changed?? While this delay was happening, Houston was brewing a gigantic thunderstorm. So by the time we were in the air, the Houston weather got increasingly worse and we couldn't land. The pilot made the decision to reroute to Austin so they could refuel the plane. I was about to have a nervous breakdown at this point. We had plans to meet up for dinner with Tommy's family and I was so mad at not being able to get in on time. Once we landed in Austin, they opted to allow people to get off because they told us they had no idea when we'd get to go to Houston. I wish I could have gotten off that plane and driven to Houston because it felt like we were never going to get to there! LUCKILY, I had downloaded a TON of Baby Einstein videos on my iPad and Owen was as content as ever watching them while we were sitting on the ground waiting to take off to get to Houston. What was supposed to be 4 hours of travel time turned into 7.5 hours. Needless to say we were EXHAUSTED when we made it. Owen was such a sport and didn't complain at all. 

Grandma Becky, Carolyn, Victor and AJ came down from Dallas for the weekend to see Owen. We were so excited to see everyone! It was sad that we missed dinner with them the night before but we tried to make up for it the next day. Owen decided to not take an afternoon nap and show everyone his perfected army crawl. It was SO nice to see everyone and let the babies play together.

Unfortunately a day after the family left town, the recycled air that we inhaled on the plane for almost 8 hours did not sit well. Owen woke up on our second day in Houston with a pretty high fever. He continued to have the fever for almost 4 days. At one point we got really worried and had Danny (thank goodness for pediatricians in the family!) take a look at him to make sure it wasn't an ear infection. On top the fever, he had horrible congestion and was just plain miserable. He didn't want to eat and just wanted to nurse. It was so pitiful. I was actually trying to wean him off nursing all together except morning and afternoon, but when he developed this awful virus, I decided to put off that plan for another week. 

Because of his awful virus, we stayed in for most of the week and enjoyed Grandma and Grandpa's house and pets. We wanted to visit a lot more friends and get out more, but it still was nice to visit my parents for a few days. Thank you for spoiling Owen and taking such good care of him!!

PS: Our flight home was REALLY early in the morning and Owen slept the ENTIRE way home. Check out the very last picture. SUCH a GOOD traveler!! 

Owen's First Nanny

Owen's first nanny ever is Taylor. Taylor is actually one of my coworker's daughter. She goes to school at UNC and was at home for the summer. Right when I was going part time at work, I was trying to figure out where I would find someone to watch Owen. I really wanted someone who could come to our house and play with him. Right when I was about to give up, Taylor's Mom told me about her and I was SOOOOO excited. Needless to say, Owen was in heaven this summer. Taylor took Owen for walks, sang songs for him and even took him to the mall a few times. We could not have asked for more in a nanny and we were so blessed to have her as long as we did this summer. Owen absolutely ADORED Taylor. Every day when she would show up at our house, Owen would greet her with the biggest smile. It really never gets old watching your baby's eyes light up because you just know they absolutely love someone. Thank you Taylor for your time this summer and most of all for your unconditional love for our beloved baby. It will not be the same not having you with us, but we will definitely see you soon! 

Owen's 9 Month Well Check

On August 10, we went for Owen's 9 month well check. I don't seem to ever know what happens at each of his well check appointments, so I woke up that morning really anxious thinking he would have shots. LUCKILY, he didn't have to get them! He was given this ridiculous gown to wait for the doctor and it made me laugh. I guess it's to keep a baby warm, but it just made me want to take lots of pictures because it looked so silly. Owen didn't seem to mind. :)

Prior to this appointment, I was REALLY eager to find out how Owen was doing in weight. I can barely hold him for very long these days and he is seemingly growing out of ALL his summer clothes. Turns out, our little man had a HUGE growth spurt! He was 28.5 inches (42%) and 19.5 pounds (40%). It was a HUGE jump in height and weight!! I couldn't believe it. I can't remember exactly what his head measured at, but it was in the 90% percentile. So I'm thinking a large majority of all that baby food he is eating is going to that large noggin of his. :)

At the appointment, Dr. Slowik said he was one of the cutest babies on her list and that he is doing amazingly well. She saw nothing abnormal about our little man and gave us the clear to give him any kinds of food except cow's milk. She told us to let him try anything we love to eat so that he would have a similar palette to ours. I was excited to hear this because it seems like I'm making baby food for this food monster ALL the time. It would be nice to just give him parts of our dinner we were eating. I know that will take time, but it's good to know he can have anything we are eating! Get ready buddy, you are in for some fine cuisine! :)