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!!

7 Months

Owen's 7 month birthday technically happened while we were in LA, so the pictures taken were a little late. I also thought his bangs were getting too long and took it upon myself to cut it WITHOUT Tommy around. WORST MISTAKE EVER. Poor guy has such a botched haircut and you can CLEARLY see it in his pictures. I'm sorry buddy! Mommy will NEVER EVER attempt another haircut on you again!! We will definitely get professional hair cuts from here on out! I did his first hair cut and it was a success and I was silly to think I could do it just as well the second time around!

At 7 months, Owen is FULL OF ENERGY and ALL BOY. He is SO much fun!! We have a schedule down for him and it works beautifully. He goes down some time between 7-7:30pm and wakes up between 6:30-7am. On good days, he even sleeps in until 7:30 and I thank the baby Gods for such a good sleeper on those days. :) We've been trying to get him to take only 2 naps each day, but he can't quite kick that third nap. He usually naps at 9am, 1pm and again around 4pm. He doesn't need rocking to go to sleep anymore and will play in his crib all by himself until he falls asleep. It makes our job of putting him down for naps and at night sooooo easy. He goes down with a smile and wakes up cooing and talking. Talk about the happiest baby EVER!!

Owen eats like a crazy baby. I tell Tommy this all the time, but boy am I glad that I decided to make Owen's baby food. It would have become REALLY expensive without this commitment of mine. This baby will eat anything. We have tried bananas, apples, pears, avocados, zucchini, peaches, mangos, carrots, green beans and sweet potatoes. I'm sure I'm missing more too. He always makes a face the first time he tries something and is kind of confused by the taste, but will eventually down the entire container. He will eat about 3-4 ounces of baby food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I always pour in a ton of rice cereal to the baby food to thicken everything up too. He also still nurses 5 times a day. I do NOT know where the food is going. He never seems to be full. I also don't feel like he's really getting any chubbier from all the solids. He just keeps getting longer. I keep waiting for more rolls to form, but we still have a long and lean baby. My dreams of a chubby monster are so not happening!

Owen is officially MOBILE!! For awhile he was just spinning on his tummy and rolling around to get places. He is now army crawling. Very slowly, but it is definitely happening. SCARY!! If you put something far away from him, he will find his way to it! He basically never sits still now. He is an EXPERT at his walker. He can steer that bad boy ALL over our kitchen. It's pretty funny watching him run around with it. You can tell he is so proud of his accomplishments. He knows the certain areas in the kitchen he will get stuck in and will avoid those places. Poor Hurley hates the walker and tries to steer clear of the kitchen when Owen is on his war path.

Owen still hasn't developed stranger anxiety. He will still willingly go to anyone and I am enjoying this time. I hope it stays this way. He is always all smiles no matter who offers to hold him! We love it! I don't know if I've ever blogged about this, but ever since I went part time at my job, Owen stays with his nanny Taylor. She mainly comes to our house, but sometimes I take him to her house to shake things up. Taylor's Mom and I work together, so it really worked out perfectly for us. Taylor is a student at UNC and has been such a HUGE help to us over the summer. I love that Owen has someone's undivided attention while I'm at work and I always know he's in good hands when I go to work those 3-days a week. Owen loves Taylor and always gives her the biggest smile when she comes over in the morning. On the days he goes over to Taylor's house, he gives Taylor and Meredyth (Taylor's Mom) the biggest flirty smiles as well. We'll be getting a new nanny for Owen when Taylor goes back to school in the Fall, so hopefully he doesn't get too attached. :(

I can't believe we are in the second half Owen's first year. I better start thinking of what I'm going to do for his first birthday because it is going to be here before we know it! :)

California Vacation

Ahhh…vacation bliss. This week long vacation in California was the most well deserved vacation for us. More deserved than ANY OTHER vacation in either of our lives. After our crazy and exhausting move to our new house, we got onto the plane exhausted and ready to not think about anything at all. I forgot to mention that Tommy passed his oral boards (of course!). He found out the day before we left for California and seemed so relieved to finally know that he had passed. Of course I knew from the beginning that he had passed! ;) So we were both mentally prepared to unwind and really and truly relax!! 

Owen did AMAZING on the plane. We had a 2 hour layover in Chicago and he pretty much slept the entire way there from RDU. It helped that our flight was bright and early, so he was ready for a long nap. We had United Club passes that we could finally use so we sat and waited out our layover there. We even skyped everyone in California while we were there! They watched Owen eat a healthy helping of his baby food I had brought with us! The Chicago to LA leg of our flight was just as amazing and Owen slept almost the entire flight as well. I guess we were up way too early that morning and he was catching up on sleep!

We arrived to LA and thought we were in HEAVEN when we stepped off the plane. We've had pretty mild weather in NC this year and it's honestly been really pleasant, but holy cow….the LA weather was INCREDIBLE. We stepped off the plane and felt like we had just won the lottery!! Most of my Mom's family live in LA, so we knew it would be a good vacation to plan after Tommy's boards. None of the family had met Owen yet and I really wanted my 94 year old Grandmother to meet him too. We arrived to my Aunt's house after a long day of travel and Owen didn't even have a single melt down…until we got to the house! Once we got there, I handed Owen to my Mom and wanted to collapse on the couch. Unfortunately, Owen felt too many people were staring at him and passing him around and he started to cry uncontrollably. I can count on one hand how many times I've truly seen him cry with such fear. I guess he was just as exhausted as us and having crazy great aunts cooing and ahhing and acting cuckoo around him was not the best idea right off the bat!! I felt so bad! He really just wanted his Mom and afterwards settled in after a proper introduction to everyone. My mistake for thinking he remembered Grandma!!

My Aunt (also my Godmom) made an AMAZING dinner for us that night. We got to her house at 5pm (8pm East Coast time) and were starving. We had been eating like crap for the last week with the move and to have a home cooked meal upon our arrival was simply something we couldn't put into words. We ate like royalty! Amazingly Owen was FULL of energy that first night. It must have been those long naps on the plane and just the fresh air that kept him awake!!

The rest of our trip in LA consisted of relaxing outdoors and eating REALLY well. We went to Laguna Beach for brunch one day and took in the views and got some pretty cool family pictures. While we were there, we got to visit my cousin who has 4 kids and they LOVED Owen! Owen LOVES older children who can talk to him. He will straight up laugh out loud when they get down on his level and speak to him. He had such a blast! Since we had so many babysitters, Tommy and I got to escape one night to go to Griffith Observatory and watch the sun set. We also got to hang out with Tommy's cousin Anne and did a day of hiking in Malibu at Point Dume and walked around Venice Beach. Owen spent countless hours outside playing and perfecting his sitting position. 

It was one of the best vacations we have ever taken considering all that we had been through just a few days before. Thank you to our entire LA family for showing us so much love and hospitality. We had such a great time and can not wait to come back for another visit!