Charleston

The day after Owen popped his first tooth, we had a planned road trip to Charleston. In retrospect, that was probably not the smartest thing to do, but we really needed the vacation. My old co-worker lives in Charleston and has a 20 month old and offered to let us stay with them. It was too good to pass up because it meant we wouldn't need to stay stuck in a hotel room with Owen while he slept.

The few days leading up to the trip, Tommy had his worst stretch of hours at work. He was BARELY home and I was actually contemplating not going on our road trip. We were both so exhausted and I just wasn't sure we were up for it. We had been really wanting to visit, so we drank lots of coffee and got on the road on Friday, October 5th. Owen did great on the car ride down. We timed it right during his nap and he slept for 2.5 hours of the ride down. It was great! By the time he woke up, we were close enough that he didn't mind being in his car seat! Success!!

The rest of the trip was a little bit of the blur after Friday. We realized quickly that Owen is at a point where he doesn't like to sleep in unfamiliar places. He was NOT liking sleeping in a pack and play. On top of that, he HATED not being on his normal nap schedule. He didn't know how to function not getting his morning nap and has never fallen asleep in his stroller, so he was one sleep deprived baby. So needless to say, the exploring on Saturday was rough on our little man. We loved seeing the city and having our friends as tour guides was incredible. Prior to this road trip, Owen had always been an easy traveler, but this kind of put things in perspective for us and taught us a really good lesson - don't mess with this kid's nap schedule!!

Thank you Jessie and Adam for being such great hosts and showing us around Charleston! We definitely want to come back in the spring so that we can enjoy the beach!! 

First Tooth

We have a tooth!!! On October 4th, we discovered Owen's first tooth!! The day before he got his tooth, Owen slept for over 13 hours and I had to wake him before I left for work so that I could nurse him. Let me tell you, Owen does NOT like being woken up. It's such a slow process and he stretches and grunts for what seems like 20 minutes before he is really awake to function. He is 100% his mother's child in this sense. That day, he also took an almost FOUR hour nap and his nanny texted me to ask me if she should wake him! I told her to let him sleep because he is NOT a happy camper when you wake him. So not only did he have a 13+ hour night, but he also took a four hour nap only 3 hours after he woke up! CRAZINESS. When I got home from work that day, I took him to the mall to walk around and everyone who saw him kept saying he looked tired. I'm sure they were all shaming me for taking out a tired baby so I could shop! Pshhh! They didn't realize he had just woken up from a 4 hour nap!! Anyways, after our little booger slept the day away, he woke up the next day reenergized and himself again and THAT'S when I saw the TOOTH. I was feeding him dinner and there it was! I went in to touch it and he clamped down so hard and refused to let me feel around. So I took out my camera and he gave me a huge grin and I saw it! See???

So at 11 months and 1 week, Owen decided to pop his first tooth!!! If sleeping all day is your way of teething, Owen….you can teethe all you want!! LOVE this kid. He is the definition of easy going!!

11 Months

11 months marked SO MANY milestones for Owen! First off, taking our monthly pictures is officially near impossible. Tommy had to work a few late nights back to back and trying to take the picture on my own was not easy. Owen constantly wanted to move around and he's DEFINITELY not handing out the smiles like he used to. He makes me WORK for it. Despite trying to take these pictures over two days, they still didn't turn out that great. Oh well - it's the fact that I do it every month, right?

We have OFFICIALLY learned to SIT UP this month! Owen went to play with his sweet friend, Luci Bray twice in one week and came home and decided he wanted to be a big boy. He started out pulling up on his little chair, then the couch and now the coffee table. Oddly, he didn't figure out how to sit up until he learned to pull up on things! That seems a little backwards, but it works for him! He mastered the task overnight after spending a few hours with another toddler! All that worrying I did was for nothing! He is still army crawling, which seems to be his most efficient way of getting to something. He can definitely get up on all fours and tries to crawl that way, but is WAY faster on his stomach, doing the army crawl. It makes for funny conversations, so I don't mind if he keeps it up. :)

Owen fell in LOVE with Hurley this month and thinks he is the funniest thing EVER. He will look for Hurley while he eats so that he can drop food down to him. I need to teach the child that Hurley can get some MEAN farts if he eats people food. NOT COOL, Owen! You like to torment the poor dog, while he is asleep on the couch. Poor Hurley has resorted to keeping one eye open at all times if the baby is on the move. Despite Hurley's love/hate relationship with Owen, Hurley always follows us wherever we go. If we go upstairs, Hurley follows us and Owen always looks behind us to look for him. As soon as he sees Hurley following us, he will start to giggle and flail his little arms and legs.

Owen is a CHATTER BOX. Oh my goodness, can he talk! He babbles on and on and on and on. He can say Daddy clear as day and when he sees Tommy, he will say a very proud "DADDY!" I'm not sure if he is really calling Tommy that, but it sure sounds like it. He knows how to say Momma, but basically only says it when he is crying. What is that all about? If he is tired or whining, you will inevitably hear him cry "Mama, mama!!!" Unbelievable.

Owen is STILL not scared of strangers. I'm so thankful for this and think he 100% gets this from Mom since I can basically talk to a wall. What can I say, I love people! :) And so does Owen! He will talk and smile for just about anyone. When we go to the mall, he smiles and screams at anyone that will make eye contact with him. Such a ham!! He will let anyone hold him and if a stranger holds their hands out to him, he will instantly go to them! Dream baby!!

Owen LOVES his nanny, Brooke. His face lights up when he sees her and gets so excited! Most days, Owen is asleep when she leaves for the day, but he was up the other day when she left. He had a very worried look on his face when she walked towards the door and started to crawl towards her. Once she closed the door, you threw yourself onto the carpet in the most dramatic fashion like you had lost your best friend in the whole wide world. It was the cutest thing on the planet! It just shows me how much he LOVES spending time with Brooke and it makes going to work not so stressful!

Owen is still a great nighttime sleeper. In all honesty, he LOVES his nighttime sleep. He does NOT like that disturbed. We put him down between 7-7:30 every night and he doesn't ever go down with any problems. It's like he knows it's his favorite time of the day. He sleeps through the night without hesitation and wakes up as happy as can be between 7-7:30 the next morning. Honestly, the only hiccup we've had with nighttime sleep was when he was about 4 and a half months old and it was only 10 days worth of restless sleep. I attributed it to him having a growth spurt, or he would have never had that hiccup. So basically our child has slept through the night since 7 weeks old. I always say I can't have another baby, because this doesn't happen twice. Seriously. It can't get better than this.

There are NO teeth in sight. NONE. I see the bumps on the top and bottom, but NOTHING. I keep thinking they are coming in, but who am I kidding…I've been saying that for months. He doesn't seem to be bothered by them, so we really don't go looking for them either. I just know they are going to pop up soon!

Owen still nurses in the morning and night, but I play to wean him off of them by his 1st birthday. I have a "No More Breastfeeding" celebratory trip planned to NYC to visit my sister when it's all said and done. I'll be sad to not have the bonding time with Owen at night and in the morning, but I'm also looking forward to not having that responsibility anymore. It's been an amazing experience, but this Mom is ready to have her life back! :)

This month made me realize how much I'm going to miss this sweet baby phase. It seemed to go by in a blink of an eye and here we are a month from his first birthday. I've so enjoyed being a parent to this sweet boy. He keeps me on my toes every day, but makes me a better wife and mom every day. Thank you sweet baby boy for being so good to me and making my first parenting experience such a joy. You truly are just the best dream baby a Momma could ask for! I pray you'll always give that sweet ear to ear grin to everyone in your life and we hope you know that we love you to pieces.

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! :)