Baby Owen- Six Months!

We made it through the first six months.. which I personally think are the toughest. I'm not a fan of the little infant stage... so I'm excited to be at the six month mark! I'm ready for this kiddo to start moving, and playing!!

Here is what is going on..

Growing

-Weighs 16.13lbs (34%)

-Height 27" (60%)

-Wears 6mo and 9mo clothes.. he needs 12mo sized footed jammies

-no teeth yet.. he'll go through spurts of major drooling and chewing, then it will lessen for awhile..

-He officially sits up now! A few weeks ago he was pretty shaky and wobbly and fell over a lot, but now he's able to keep his balance!

-But he still falls over... he gets excited to sit and up and moves to get a toy, or gets too into shaking a toy around and then whump! Down he goes. 

TIMMMMBBBEEERRRRR...

-He wants SO BAD to army crawl and scoot forward but he can't quite figure out his arms. He gets his knees under him really well and has even started rocking forward and backward... but his arms stay spread really wide under him. So he'll be on his chest, with his butt in the air, rocking.. and can't figure out why he isn't moving. It's cute. 

-He pushes himself around well though, despite not figuring out the forward motion. He pushes backwards, spins in circles and log rolls all over the place. 

He didn't start there...

-We have to really watch him now, since he can get into stuff. Austin's small piece toys.. things like that. He's super curious about big brother's toys we've had a few "hey, dat's MINE!!" moments between the boys.. with toys being ripped out of little hands. 

-He puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. Especially my face, hair, hands, chin, shoulder.. this kid just makes out with all the time. I'm covered in slobber 24/7. 

-He really likes books and to be read to and grabs at the pages. 

-He's starting to know his name and will at least turn his head if you say "Owen, look at Mommy!!" He's so interested in the world though, he's so distracted by everything, all the time. It's hard to get his attention sometimes. 

-He pushes up into a really good scorpion pose. He'll swim, swim, swim PUSH UP!! Then flop back down and swim, swim, swim... PUSH UP! 

-Likes to be pulled to a standing position and marches and bends his legs and bops his little tushy all around. It's the cutest thing!

-Talks all the time.. he has this weird grunting-type babble... "uhhhhh guuuuhhhhhh wuhhhhhh!!!!!" I can't even adequately describe it. It sounds like he's tying to poop.. but he's actually "talking." It's kinda hilarious. He also has started with the "mamamamam" sound!

Eating

-He is 50/50 breastmilk/formula. He gets nursed in the morning, a breastmilk bottle at school, then nursed when we get home and sometimes before bed. So he gets 2 formula bottles at school and a formula bottle before bed. Sometimes on the weekends I nurse him more (like before naps). Pumping suddenly became very painful for me (like, excruciating) and I just couldn't keep up. He is less and less interested in nursing and I have to work really hard to get him latched and to actually eat. My body has adjusted to our morning/night nursing though, and with my freezer stash he should get breastmilk of some capacity well into his 7th, maybe even 8th month. So I still feel very proud and accomplished. 

We were SUPPOSED to be nursing....

-LOVES his solids!! We've tried oatmeal, pears, applesauce, peas, sweet potatoes, prunes (shockingly, a favorite!), avocado (a HUGE hit!) and banana. He gets so excited to eat!

GIMME!!!

-We have to go into feeding him armed with at least 6 spoons though. He insists on guiding the spoon into his mouth, so then takes over the spoon, then immediately flings it to the floor and Henry is all over it like white on rice. Onto the next clean spoon..

-He is also a super messy eater.. the spoon gets rubbed on his face, in his eye, his nose, his hair.. then he grabs my hand or arm and smears peas all over me.. there aren't enough napkins in the world sometimes.. we just need to hose the kid off. 

-Austin really likes to supervise Owen eating. And report back to me that he's "playing wif his spoon!" and that I need to "take date spoon away from him!" or that he's "messy!!!!"

-We bought Owen his own sippy cup and started giving it to him with a teeny bit of water.. he loves it!! So fun to chew on and throw around! I tipped it enough one night to actually let him get some water and he SCREECHED in delight!!! Water is so amazing, guys!!!

Sleeping

-Oh sleep.... not this kid's strength, that's for sure. 

-Bedtime is still around 7:30... I guess I can't complain much because he's pretty good at night. He's up usually once to eat and then back down.. but there are plenty of nights where he is up 2 or 3 times still. So different from Austin who was sleeping a deep solid 10-12 hours by this age. Owen is more restless and a much, MUCH lighter sleeper. 

-He sleeps like absolute crap at school. Some days he gets AN HOUR COLLECTIVELY of napping in. Short bursts of 10 mins, 15 mins... it's a combo of he has a hard time putting himself down, and staying asleep, and self-soothing. All the noise in the baby room and he just wakes up all the time. 

-He's not much better at home, although we have discovered the morning nap is KEY. If we are running errands and he misses his first morning nap, he's toast the rest of the day and won't sleep well. If we get that morning nap in, he'll sleep for about 2 hours! Then has an easier time napping the rest of the day. There are still plenty of times that we work and work and work to try and get him down and he just won't sleep. One Saturday I spent 20 mins nursing, rocking, soothing, back rubbing.. and he slept for 7 mins. SEVEN MINUTES. Argh. 

-He prefers to sleep on his tummy and we put him down on his tummy at home. They can't do that at school and have to put him down on his back, which is part of the problem. He hasn't quite figured out how to roll on his tummy then soothe himself to sleep yet. 

-I am trying to just come to terms with him not being a great sleeper. I just get worried he's sleep deprived and get frustrated with it.. because I don't know what else to do to help him. I hope his napping, especially at school, gets a little better. 

Napping is for suckers!!!

Playing

-He tried the Johnny-Jump-Up and liked it.. we just don't have a great doorway to put it in.. so he had to hang out in the pantry. He was a bit confused at first but then had fun swinging around. 

-He really enjoys toys. Austin never really did.. he was focused all the time on moving... standing, army crawling, pulling up.. Owen is more content to stay still for a bit and play. He loves Sophie, and the taggie blankets, anything that crinkles or squeaks.. or anything he can put in his mouth. 

-He also really likes the game Daddy invented called "Blanket Wrestling." He gets to roll around and get all tangled then "peek a boo!" be found in the blanket. 

-We brought out the little sitting toy piano and it's his new favorite thing. The page flips, it makes noise! and there are lots of things to push... and of course he leans forward and makes out with it every few seconds. EVERYTHING IN THE MOUTH. 

I can taste the music....

-Loves to "fly" and always bends his right leg into him while keeping the left leg straight. It's very dancer-esque of him (point your toes!!!) and I love it. 

-If I'm holding him.. he wants to be mauling me. He is constantly touching my face, or pulling himself into me and squealing and burying his face in me. 

Not the best pic of me, but you can see how he's burying himself into me.

My Mommy. Mine.

Overall, he is a very smiley, happy, good-natured little baby. He's not often upset or crying. He smiles easily for the people he wants to smile for.. but unfamiliar people get the "concerned serious look" for awhile until he decides to warm up. 

He loves to look at and watch his big brother and smiles at whatever Austin is doing... watching Daddy and Austin wrestle makes him giggle. 

He loves affection and can't get enough kisses and nuzzles and can sit on your lap for a long time and be happy to snuggle. 

He's a sweet little bug and I'm so glad he is mine. 

Project 857- February 6

This was a fun Saturday... my Dad wanted to come up and go to Portland's Sportsman Show, so he, his friend Ron, and my Mom drove up for the day!

They dropped my Mom off at our house and Neal went along to the show.. so while the boys were off looking at outdoorsy things, we got a day with Gramma!!

And since we had a day with Gramma, we did what we do best with her... shopping!

I had some things I needed at Target so we loaded up the car and headed off.

When we got there I needed something to drink so I let Austin pick something out of the cooler as well. He chose this:

Barbie for the win.

Probably against our better judgement we let him ride around Target on the outside of the cart.. and lo and behold... he fell off and the toddler proved once again that toddlers will always do something in public that makes you look like a failure of a parent.

Oh I see you let your child injure himself by riding on a cart in a very un-safe way. You must be such a good Mom. Thanks, Austin.

Anyways... Owen got a bottle during our trip. He's so good at holding his bottles now! It's cute and very convenient.

We got what we needed, I dabbled with the idea of if I wanted to spend $40 on a one piece swimsuit... I mean, the "mummy tummy" ain't pretty... but I don't swim a lot so I couldn't really justify it.. I will never understand why swimsuits cost so much money.

After Target we went to the mall so I could spend my gift card at Sephora. Austin had fun walking around the makeup store with me, pulling out all the makeup samples and looking at them and making me go "put that back, don't touch that, that's makeup and it's messy. Austin, come over here. Stay by me. You need to stay by me."

Somehow I was un-distracted enough to find a lip gloss.

Then we wandered around JC Penney's and I looked for jewelry to wear in Sarah's wedding. Austin was cracking me up because he was LOVING the jewelry section.

"Mom, did is pretty!!!!"

"Mommy, do you need a boo brwacelet?"

"Mommy, can I put dis neckwace on?"

After we had lunch, and let Austin ride the rides... he went on the Merry-Go-Round and the Ferris Wheel!

We had fun at the mall!

Back home Owen napped and Austin helped me make cookies.. so there were warm cookies coming out of the oven when the boys got home from the Sportsman Show! They kinda loved us at that point... :-)

Come up and spend the day with us again, Gramma!

The Things I've Learned Having Two Kids

1.     It's a teeter-totter. If one kid is doing something, the other is not…

-napping. Both asleep at once? I laugh

-being quiet. If Owen is sleeping in the car, Austin won't be quiet. If Austin is quietly looking out the window, Owen is screaming

-waking up in the middle of the night. If Owen gets a rare night of long chunks or the whole night.. guess who has a nightmare? Or starts to cough? Or gets up at 4 am and comes into our room?

2.     Yet everything happens at the same time with two kids..

-one is crying and the other suddenly needs to poop or pee or wants to try the potty.

-one is sleeping and the other decides it’s time to scream loud in excitement.

-both break down and need to go to bed IMMEDIATELY at the same time

-one needs to be fed right this second and the other decides this is the moment to spill milk all over the couch

3.     Wrongs right themselves eventually. Everything I stressed about with Austin as “this is going to be a habit!! How will we ever break this???” eventually just went away. He stopped needing a bottle before bed. He stopped needing anything to drink before bed. He stopped needing a sound machine at night. He stopped needing his pacifiers. He now eats what we eat and actually asks for bananas, blueberries, strawberries, green beans, broccoli, and beans all the time... when I was convinced he’d eat nothing but crackers his whole life. So with Owen I care less about things that I think are “habits” because I know they will work themselves out

4.     You figure out how to schlep two kids around. You get resourceful (Mom, why you holding your keys in your mouf?? Because I don’t have a third arm, honey). You get a routine down to get two kids in and out of the car. My fears of how I was going to drop off and pick up two kids somewhat gracefully went away when I realized that I had just.. figured it out.

5.     Toddler distractions are a MUST. “Mom, can I dump out all my crayons?” Sure honey. And put them all back all through that little hole in the top of the box. See if you can do it. Can you do it?? Awesome. You do that and I’m going to go put Owen down for a nap. Austin wants to play with my boots and work on zipping them up? Go for it. You want these tongs? Here you go. Go see how much stuff you can grab and pick up while I get dinner made. Anything that isn’t dangerous is fair game!! Want to take the couch cushions off and put them back on? Perfect!

6.     My house will always be a mess of some kind. And I just have to deal with it. It pains me, and it makes me twitch to see clutter laying around, but I’m working on letting it go.

7.     You will screw up their names. Granted Austin and Owen are kinda similar but there have been plenty of times where I’m all “Owen, I mean Neal, ack! Austin.. stop! Whoever you are, just stop.” Or “I need to feed Austin, I mean Owen. This one. This little one here. What’s his name.”

8.     Daycare for 2 kids is enough to make you gag. Then vomit. Then gag more. We could have A) a second house and probably an apartment or vacation house with what we are paying per month or B) a very very nice collection of ridiculously expensive handbags. And when I say “we” I mean “me”

9.     The grass is greener.. when it comes to toys. Austin is obsessed with every rattle, chewy toy and lovey of Owen's, taking them from him to inspect and "hold for him" all the time. Flip side, now that Owen is mobile, the big Batcave set, monster trucks and shopping cart of big brother's are way more fun to inspect and try and chew on.

10.    You don't love one more than the other.. despite my biggest fears. Your heart does have room for two, happily makes room for two, and beats everyday for two. You may not like one or the other at a particular time (ahem, Owen at 1 am.. and 2 am.. and 3 am...) but they are both your little loves, always.

Project 857- January 31

This is was a momentous Saturday for two reasons...

We had a girl's weekend at the coast to celebrate our Bride-to-Be Sarah!!

And it was the first time I was away from Owen overnight.

I was really nervous. Austin.. since he was a formula baby from pretty much the start.. was fine with anybody. He never had that "Mommy" connection with me. He liked me, but he was fine if I wasn't around too.

Since I'm nursing Owen, there is definitely more of a bond. He is the type of baby that is always touching my face, smushing himself into me, gets sad when I'm changing him while he's holding his arms out to be held... he is my little Mommy's boy for sure.

Gulp.

I left Neal armed with frozen milk, directions, Owen's feeding schedule and amounts (as he's rolling his eyes at me) and after a million "are you sure you are going to be ok? You're sure? Don't thaw too much milk or it will be ruined. Don't ruin the breastmilk! It's like platinum dipped gold encrusted with diamonds! Are you sure you can do this?" conversations.. my weekend away began.

Monique and I carpooled out to the coast and had a nice day on Friday shopping, having lunch, and driving to the rental house. When we got there, it was just the right time for us girls to sit out on the back porch (which was ON the sand!) and enjoy the beauty that is Oregon.

We may not have bikini beaches.. but nothing compares to an Oregon coast sunset.. really.

We all had a nice pretty relaxing night Friday night.. we dressed our Bride up, played some games.. and I was in bed at 10:30pm!

This picture is blurry.. but Sarah is so beautiful when she laughs her big laughs!!

My first night of uninterrupted sleep...surprisingly I did not wake up a million times as I thought I was going to.. I knew those boys were in their Daddy's good hands!

Saturday morning I was awake before all the girls (I still can't turn off my Mommy alarm clock) and got about 40 mins where I was all alone, sitting in the living room having coffee and watching the ocean. It was kinda bliss.

Once everyone was up a group of us went walking on the beach. It was a warm-ish beautiful day!

We found so many sand dollars it was ridiculous. I spend my whole childhood trying to find one real sand dollar on the beach (and never succeeding) and on this walk we found over a dozen.

It was high tide while we were walking so the only way around a standing pool of water was to climb over this big pile of driftwood. So we all had to channel our inner mountain goats.

Hey there Bride!!

The rest of the day was relaxing. Played games, read.. I took over the huge jetted tub and took a long bath. With no toddler going "can I get in too? Mommy, I want to take a bath wif you!!" and no infant grunting or crying in the background making me all anxious and wondering if I need to jump out of the tub every 2 minutes... it was heaven.

A bathtub I actually fit in!!

That evening we all went to dinner at this great place called "The Irish Table." Comfort food for sure. Irish soda bread, Shepherd's Pie... I got a steak with this marsala sauce and it was amazing.

And then what would a night out be without a little Screw & Brew? That's right folks! Get your hammers and PVC pipes while you have a beer! This place was hilarious. It was a bar and a hardware store.

We had a "selfie challenge" to see what goofy things we could come up with..

Yeah, we had fun with it :-)

Back home the boys enjoyed the nice Saturday with lots of outside play! They had a party in the driveway with some neighbor boys and Austin got to ride his bike around with the "big boys"

I had a great little break.. but I missed them terribly. Needless to say, I raced home Sunday to see them!

"When I'm Three... No More Nonnies!"

Neal and I had thought pretty hard about how we were going to break Austin of his nonnie dependence.

Again, I have no idea how or when he started calling his pacifiers "nonnies" but somewhere along the way..

We played with the idea of taking them from him several times from the time he was a year old. He slept so well and used them to sleep that I really didn't feel like rocking the boat.

So when he was 18 months old we started being conscious of when he had it during the day and weaned him off that. He got it in the car and to sleep only.

We decided to fully take it away from him when he was 3. I had mine until I was 3 and I don't feel like it damaged me in anyway.. at least I think. So we started talking to him about how he had to give up his nonnies when he turned 3.

A few months before he was 3 we started to wean him off needing it in the car. We just "forgot" to have one in the car one day.

He asked about it A LOT and cried about it a few times, but then would flip his switch and suddenly declare, "When I'm 3... no more nonnies! But I'm two. So I can have nonnies. But when I'm three, no more nonnies!"

So he seemed to get the concept.. but if he'd actually be ok with it, we could only hope.

I had heard about kids putting special treasures into Build-a-Bears and thought that might be a good solution for us, since Austin liked to sleep with his nonnies.... in particular, sleep while holding them in his hands.

So last week we went to the mall and he got to pick out any animal he wanted to build and store his special treasure.

The whole process was cuter than I expected. He got to name his animal (he picked a giraffe and named it Clifford) and push the pedal to help fill him with fluff.

Putting his very special cargo into Clifford for safe keeping.

Then he got to pick out a little fabric heart to put inside too, to signify love.. awwwww...

Then Clifford needed a bath! Because being born is messy! Really it was just air that came out, but it had another pedal he got to operate so Clifford got a long bath.

I helped to see if we could speed up the process...The pedal was just too much fun.

Then we got to make a birth certificate for Clifford and officially bring him home as one of our own.. He seemed pretty happy with his new friend.

Then of course we had to go on the Merry-Go-Round! It wouldn't be a mall visit without a good ol' spin!

So far he is doing good without his nonnies.. he still asks about them in the car but I remind him that he's 3 and he doesn't need his nonnies and that they are safe inside Clifford. So far so good...

Now we just need to get him potty trained and he'll be all set as an official Big Boy!