Happy 1st Birthday Owen!

I'm a few days late posting his 1 year photoshoot pictures and stats but my procrastination got me Owen's official stats from his 1 year well visit today.


Say what? It's my birthday??


Yay!!

Insert the customary Mommy statement: I just can't believe my little guy is already 1 year old!

And his official stats:
Weight: 21 pounds, 4 ounces (26%)
Height: 30.75 inches (80% - I think this measurement is a bit generous since he was a bit wiggly and hard to measure, but either way he's a growing, healthy boy!)

His appointment went well today and everything looks right on track! Unfortunately for Owen, he got 4 pokes (3 shots and 1 blood draw for an anemia test), but he did really well and calmed down quickly.

Apparently he knows he's a grown up 1 year old, because he has started standing on his own! We've seen him stand a few times in the last week when he wasn't paying attention, but now he's figured out he can do it and is putting in lots of practice time. And a bonus of standing without holding on to something? An extra hand to play with toys! I guess this shows us how close he is to walking once he decides he's ready.



In preparation for his first steps, he has been on the hunt for the perfect thing to help him walk around the house. His favorite seems to be his little black chair. Of course the sound of the chair scooting across the hardwood floors is similar to that of nails on a chalkboard, but he's so proud of himself "walking" around the house that we don't stop it. We'll just keep working on finding him a suitable substitute, with wheels, perhaps.





A little less endearing, is his recent fascination with chewing his crib rails. After spending some time in Babies R Us looking over the choices of bite-proofing his crib, I came home with some hard rubber covers to slide over the top of his rails. Owen quickly figured out how to pull them off and uses them to drum on his crib before he throws them over the side and screams for us to get him up for the day. While this is not quite what I had in mind when I purchased them, I suppose they served as an effective deterrent.



And with that, here are the rest of the pictures . . .




Not a fan of the party hat, but it was fun to chew on!



Henry was super sweet with Owen and doted on him with birthday hugs, kisses and secret brother handshakes.





And photoshoot done. Hopefully party pictures to follow soon . . .

Owen at 10 & 11 Months

As my little man's birthday is just a few days away (Eek! When did that happen??), I realize just how behind I am on my blogging. His 10 month post became his 10/11 month post which has just about become his 12 month post! So, just shy of hitting 12 months, I'm finally getting around to posting his updates.

The problem with doing these late, is trying to figure out when exactly he was hitting different milestones. But let's give it a shot, shall we?

Overall, he is sleeping very well. With the help of his crib music machine, he can put himself to sleep at night and for naps and will often put himself back to sleep if he wakes up during the night. With teething and colds, of course, he has some rough nights, but we're very pleased with how his sleeping has improved.

He continues to be our big eater and loves trying new things. He is off and on with his bottles, but tends to drink 3-6 ounces at a time depending on his attention span for sitting still. Except for his snuggly and sleepy moments, he prefers eating solids over bottles. He wants anything on our plates, but will mix in a little baby food here and there.

He is just now getting his 7th tooth (he already has 4 on top and this is his 3rd bottom tooth), which I suppose should technically be a 12 month stat, but I'm sure I'll have plenty to post without the tooth play by play.

10 Months
Perhaps Owen's biggest milestone at 10 months was crawling. It seems like he's been doing it forever now (especially as he gets closer to walking), but he was officially crawling on April 7th. He had been taking scootches on his knees for a week or so, but finally took the plunge and hasn't stopped crawling since. Over the last few months he has perfected his power crawl and will even tuck his head down for some extra aerodynamic speed. (Super cute to watch, by the way).

And within a day of learning to crawl, he was pulling up to standing! While this is another incredibly exciting milestone, it also means that he can get into pretty much anything. And with that in mind, his crib was moved down all the way to keep him in.

He loves to climb up on Henry's chair and stand up on it which usually ends with him tumbling off the side on to the carpet. It's close to the ground and made out of foam, so it's a gentle fall and he just rolls over crawls back to it and climbs back up. Thankfully this love for climbing has not moved over to the stairs yet, but I have seen him trying from time to time.


Owen's underwater swimming picture & Owen exploring the house







11 Months
Thankfully Grandpa Gary measured the boys while we were in Fairfield, so I asked for those stats for my long behind post. Owen's unofficial 11 month measurements are:
Height: 28.75 inches
Weight: 20 pounds

By 11 months, he was power crawling, pulling up on everything and cruising around furniture. We've even caught him standing on his own for a few seconds before he notices and drops down to the ground. Everyone who sees him is saying they think he'll be walking in no time, but we'll just have to see. While I can definitely see that he has the balance and likely the ability, it all comes down to whether he thinks that is worth working on when his crawling gets him anywhere he wants to go for now!

He is just the happiest little guy and has lots of giggles to share with us. While we've found lots of great methods to get him to laugh, Henry is definitely the best at it. Owen thinks pretty much anything big brother does is absolutely hilarious. And Henry has figured this out. It's hard to be strict with him (and let's be honest, he usually gets away with it), when blowing bubbles in his milk or making funny sounds at the dinner table has Owen endlessly entertained.

Perhaps my favorite thing of all with him at this stage is how he power crawls across a room to see me when I pick him up from school or from Grandma's house. Nothing makes my heart melt as quickly than when I see him smile big at me, tuck his head down and power towards me. So sweet!

Owen at 8 & 9 Months

Despite my best efforts, I have fallen behind again on my blogging. So, here is my Owen catchup post.

First a few old pictures (you can kind of tell the age of the pictures by the length of his hair!):

Owen's little play corner (picture taken at the end of January) . . .



And some random February pictures:

Owen napping on Daddy . . .



Eating some tart raspberries (despite the faces, he kept wanting more!) . . .



And riding on big brother's train . . .



And now on to the monthly updates. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment in these last few months has been his sleeping. Of course, as I write this, he is having a rough time falling asleep after a busy day, but still overall, there has been a lot of improvement. By 8 months, he had finally slept through the night twice!! And since then has continued to improve. He has ups and downs, but overall is showing much more ability to self soothe and sleep longer stretches. We're working on improving naps as well, but we'll definitely take better nights for now! He still sleeps swaddled (although recently we've begun to swaddle him with his arms out with some success) and his light up fish aquarium/music crib soother is a lifesaver. We've made sure to keep lots of spare batteries around!


Some grainy pics from his video monitor. Never thought I'd want one of these, but boy do I love being able to watch him!

He is saying more and more combinations of sounds. So far I can't confirm that he's said his first word, but is definitely working up to that. He loves to say "mama", although it is not currently directed at me. He loves to blow raspberries, and make lots of fun noises. Perhaps my favorite noise is his growl that he does when he's really happy!

His eating habits have changed a lot. At 8 months, he was only nursing before bed and in the morning and taking mostly formula bottles. However, perhaps a bigger change was his preference for finger foods over jar food and bottles. He just wants to eat whatever we're eating and doesn't want to waste his time with that silly baby food! By 9 months, he was no longer nursing at all, and it's definitely a push to get him to take bottles. This kid only wants solid food!

His first tooth popped up on the bottom on February 17 (about 7 1/2 months - this is my baby book too, so I write as much as I remember about these milestones) and continued to be the only tooth until 9 months where his 2nd bottom tooth has just barely poked through the gums.

He started waving and clapping between 8 & 9 months as well as pulling up to his knees. He even managed to get himself back up to sitting a few times and can now feed himself a bottle. He's had quite the busy few months of learning!


Pulling up


Feeding himself a bottle

He was somewhat mobile at 8 months as well, but I'm still not quite sure what to call it. He would just bounce up and down with his legs crossed popping up on to his knees and then back to sitting. Confusing to write out, but it was really like a super excited bounce. And somehow that bouncing would move him slowly across the floor. Not sure if he had control over the direction he was going, but he seemed happy nonetheless. And just yesterday (OK, so technically this should be posted in his 10 month post in May) he figured out how to crawl! He's been so close and up on his hands and knees, even a few hand/knee scoots before sitting back down, but finally he realized the power of crawling and just went for it! So, Owen is officially crawling, and Henry is officially mad that Owen can now get to all his toys!


Evidence of how far he's managed to go with his excited bouncing technique.


All this learning is exhausting!

8 Month Photoshoot & Stats


18.8 Pounds






Despite how it looks, the car was not photoshopped into the picture on the right, just edited to highlight the car for fun since I was playing with editing in Photoshop.









9 Month Photoshoot & Stats

Owen had his 9 month well baby check up and all was well. He escaped with just 1 shot and some stats for Mommy:

Weight: 19 pounds, 1 ounce (26%)
Height: 28 1/4 inches (52%)

(As a comparison, Henry was 18 pounds, 1 ounce & 28.5 inches)

While we were taking pictures of Henry, look who took his opportunity to reorganize our diaper station - and this was before he was officially crawling!









And Owen's outside photoshoot while playing with big brother:










And sadly, yes, this is a piece of hay left over from our Halloween hay bale!






Henry was looking out for little brother by making sure his leg wasn't stuck







And as I complete this post, I can say that Owen has finally gone to sleep for the night which must be a sign to get some sleep myself!