Project 857- March 21

Today I got to help celebrate a new little life coming into the world...

My lovely Kenzie is about to welcome her third baby boy (yes, I think she is a total saint too!!!) and I hosted a small baby "sprinkle" in her honor with a few of her close friends.

I got busy that morning making food and Owen was a good little sous chef...

He enjoyed some coconut milk and yogurt drops while I tackled the biggest collection of fruit ever..

Epic fruit salad is my specialty...

While I finished up the food, Owen showed off his specialty... pulling up and standing against everything! Now that he's mastered that skill, it's all he wants to do. Fantastic. Another super active, ready-to-walk adventurous boy. :-)

He's so proud of himself!

Neal helped out and vacuumed for me.. and had a very curious little creature follow him around.

It's funny but Owen is strangely attracted to loud noises. He loves the vacuum, and my blender (which can be pretty loud) is the most interesting thing and he lunges and grins and giggles at it.

Oh, and if you were wondering where Toddler Man is... he went down to my Mom's for a long weekend because it was her Spring Break! So he was being spoiled and having fun at Camp Gramma.

Neal took Owen and went to his friend Scott's house as the ladies were arriving... we had a very laid back, champagne-flowing girl's morning!

Kenzie was gifted some goodies for Baby, and several bottles of "Mommy juice" to help her through raising three boys!

Can't wait to meet you, Baby!!!!

After the ladies left, I went with Allyn back to her house since Neal was there with Owen and Scott and their kiddos.

Owen had fun zooming around in the walker, and naturally, pulling up on anything and everything.

Naturally all that exertion made Owen really tired...

But would he settle down and take a nap? Of course not! Sleep is for suckers, guys... the strong don't sleep! Down with sleep!

The kid hates to sleep, if you can't tell.

So I ended up laying down with him on Scott and Allyn's bed and got him to snooze for a little while.

A quick 20 min power nap and he was up and at 'em again... (eye roll).

We headed home after that and since pulling up wasn't enough for him for the day, he decided to try out walking with Daddy.

It's beginning guys... he's going to be off and running before we know it.

And just a quick pic of Austy down at Camp Gramma... my Dad surprised him with a real soccer net and ball! He spent all day kicking GOOOAAAAALLLLLSSSSS!!!!!!! and giving high fives!

Life Lately

Here is what has been happening around our house lately.. March was an interesting month..

If you remember from my last "Life Lately" post, me, Neal and Austin all got the Fever Plague at the beginning of the month.

Just to come full circle, we ended the month with the Porcelain God Plague. The Fever Plague's nasty little cousin.

Owen started us off and had to come home from school last Wednesday because he was throwing up. Poor BoBo. He snuggled in and took a long nap against me on the couch and was pretty fussy that whole day.

Lots of little bottles and sippys of water to keep him hydrated and lots of little naps...

Neal was sick just one night, Wednesday night.. and honestly. I knew my turn was coming. Sure enough, Thursday night it hit me hard and the next day I tried to rest and downed a whole bottle of Pedialyte.

I figure we've paid our dues. Two different viruses have swept our house, so I think we are done now. We NEED to be done now.

In between the plagues, Austin went to the dentist for the first time! He got to watch Mickey Mouse on the ceiling and his teeth checked out awesome! X-rays show his adult teeth are locked and loaded.. I bet he starts losing teeth when he's five!

I also went to the dentist and was tortured for hours. Here is my Public Service Announcement:

Being pregnant and having babies does not mean it's ok to skip going to the dentist for 3 years. Bad Jessica. I know life got busy... but still. I paid the price.

Eight shots of Novacaine to fill 5 small cavities, fix an old filling and repair a cracked tooth because apparently I grind my teeth at night. So getting fitted for a night guard was on the menu too. I was so numb I couldn't stop laughing.

Here is me trying to smile.

And me trying to close my mouth.

Learn from my pain and numbness. Don't skip the dentist.

We had a lot of beautiful weather in March.. also in between the sickness we got to play outside a lot. I put Owen in the grass so he could feel grass for the first time. He fussed and tried to move and couldn't really figure out what the heck he was on for awhile.

What is this crazy stuff??

Owen and I also played "spectators" a lot to outside games of golf, tennis, baseball, football, and various forms of all those sports combined that Austy and Daddy played.

We make good benchwarmers.

We are also starting the whole "he's touching my stuff!!!" phase of having two kids. The below pictures sum up my life perfectly.

Notice Austin's scowling face. Baby Owen is touching his stuff!!!!

I am trying to explain to Austin that it is ok and Owen is not hurting his stuff. He never believes me so I end up like the next picture. Separating the two kids, taking out of Owen's hand whatever it is he "shouldn't be touching" and trying to distract him elsewhere.

Ok, you go over there, and you stay here and no one touches anyone's stuff!

It's going to be a long childhood.

So that's been our life lately! Luckily I get to spend it with three handsome men.

Project 857- March 14

Another fairly quiet Saturday for us.. it was pouring down rain, so it was nice to be mostly cozy inside today!

I started the day by going to Zumba... and got my butt kicked. I learned several things:

1. Dancing is NOT like riding a bike. You lose your groove and rhythm.. and for someone who's danced for a cumulative 25 years of my life.. I was flailing like a fish out of water.

2. Jumping up and down a bunch after birthing 2 children makes things leak out of your body

3. I am horribly out of shape and the middle aged ladies in the class could shimmy circles around me.

All that aside, class was awesome, and I came home sweaty and feeling really great! I quickly changed and we headed over to our friends' house for their little guy's 3rd birthday party.

Owen had fun playing with his lady friend Savanna.

Austin had fun playing outside in the rain and eating lots of snacks and treats. Toddler heaven...

Owen helped Auntie Sarah fix her bangs...

Then just loved on her for awhile...

After the party we headed home and I planted myself in front of the fire (my favorite spot.. I usually have to fight Henry for the rights) and made my grocery list. Austin declared that he had to "go warm up by da fire wif Mommy!"

I had no objections.

He then somehow convinced me to take him to the store with me... I for some reason thought it would be fun.

Hardy har har.

He wanted in the cart.

Out of the cart.

He wanted to lift the heavy milk.

Open the milk.

Lift the heavy orange juice

Open the orange juice.

In the cart.

Out of the cart.

He wanted a pouch.

He wanted a pouch now.

He wanted a donut.

Did you forget about my pouch Mom?

He wanted to write on my list.

He threw a fit because he couldn't write on my list.

Sigh.

We survived the store.. mostly because I let him ride on the outside of the cart, much to his delight. He kept telling me "Daddy doesn't let me do this!!!"

The rest of the evening we just played and hung out at home... homemade soup for dinner, and a movie to cap off the night!

Baby Owen- 7 months

We are the on the downhill slope of the infant days... and I'm thrilled.

I don't think it's a secret that I'm not a huge fan of the first 6 months.. they are tough. Babies (at least my babies) are not easy. Once they hit 6 months and then get older.. well, they are just more fun. More active, more interactive, more animated. I enjoy months 7-12 a lot.

So here is where we are!

Growing

Ok, technically this was his 6-month appt, but the pic never made it onto that post and I love it!

-Wears size 9month clothes, and 12 month footed jammies and is almost too long for those. 

-I'm not sure what he weighs, I keep forgetting to weigh him.. probably 17lbs and some change. 

-He fully sits up now, and rarely falls over anymore. He reaches up with his arms (when I'm near.. he knows this means I'll pick him up!) and sometimes just in playing. We like to play the "so big!!" game with him to get him to raise his arms up. 

-Crawls!!! Totally, absolutely crawls. He can army crawl, get in a bear-walk position (and moves his feet around but hasn't actually moved forward that way yet) and crawls... fast!

-He is so happy now that he can move! He wanted to move SO BAD and was cranky for weeks while he figured it out. 

-Spends a lot of time going from crawling to sitting, to his tummy, to sitting, to crawling, to downward dog.. he's always moving! 

-His first tooth finally broke through! Just the bottom left.. I can feel the sharp ridge of it. Yeah for teeth! Those months of drool and snot finally produced a tooth! 

-Can pick up toys and objects and can get his binky in and out of his mouth on his own. 

-He has started to pull up on things... the ottoman, our legs if we are sitting... he's only gotten up on his knees so far, but I'm sure it won't be long before he is standing. 

Eating

-We are done nursing. I last nursed him two weeks ago and he wasn't that interested. We slowly weaned, I had no pain and he didn't have any boob separation issues. He took to bottles only just fine. I do still have milk in the freezer though, so he is still getting some breast milk. 

-He has a 6oz bottle every 3 hours or so, and solids 3 times a day. 

-HE LOVES SOLIDS. Oh man, this might be my eater. Seriously. If he is near us and we are eating.. watch your plate! Hands grabbing at chili, soup, stir fry... anything. It's fun now that we are at an age where really anything goes for food. I let him chew a bit on some garlic bread one night, then pizza another night... he LOVES it all and tries to grab at it. 

-He's started some more "solid" solid food... chicken chopped up really small, chunky avocado, puffs, yogurt drops. He loves the yogurt drops and I can now occupy him with some of those in his high chair while I make dinner. 

He has lunch at school now!!

Yogurt is a big hit. 

Yes, he like yogurt. A lot!

"Dis is egg?? Hmmm"

Having breakfast of egg and banana!

Did I mention he liked yogurt?

Chicken dance while eating chicken??

-Loves to drink water. LOVES. He gets so excited to have a sippy of water!! He's tried coconut milk too and seemed confused by it. Water has been the winner for sure. 

Sleeping

-Not this kid's strong suit still. At home he naps pretty good. Morning nap is about 1 1/2 hours, then at least one afternoon nap of the same length with a cat nap in there too. At school... he still takes 10, 20, 30, min naps throughout the day. I think he just gets busy and doesn't want to wind down to sleep. 

-Kinda sorta sometimes sleeping through the night... he goes to bed at 7:30pm and it's not uncommon for him to wake up crying at least once. I put my foot down one night and told Neal "I've reached my limit. He's full, he's warm, he has 6 binkies in his crib to grab... he needs to just figure it out." So we let him cry it out a bit. Most nights if he wakes up he'll cry for a few minutes then settle down. Some nights he's more hysterical and he needs a bottle and soothing. 

-And some nights he sleeps straight through and we wake up and go "did that really happen?" 

Playing

-He babbles a lot now... and has more consonant sounds... "wa, ba, da" sounds. And he totally knows "mama" and that it means me. If he's sad (usually in the car) he'll cry and fuss and then "mama! mama! Mamamamama!" comes out. It's kinda adorable. :-)

-He can be very serious when he plays sometimes. Really looking at his toys, inspecting them.. eating them.. 

-He also loves soft toys, balls, rattles, crinkly toys.. he's just a toy baby! Austin never was. He just wanted to move and walk. Owen definitely loves and is entertained by toys. 

-He likes to be in his bouncer thing and watch Austin and Daddy play. We bring it outside on nice days and he watches baseball games, tennis games, big brother riding his bike.. and is delighted with it all. 

-He has discovered the delight of Peek-a-boo! He's quick to smile and easily entertained. I love that about him. 

-He is into anything Austin is in to. I've tried to explain (as much as one can explain to an irrational threenager) that Owen is going to be interested in his toys. And touch his toys. And slobber on his toys. And that's how things are. And maybe try giving him something to distract him? Divert his attention? We hear "no baby Owen!!! Don't touch dis!!! Mom, he's chewing on it!!!" a lot already. 

-He loves taking baths and is still a major splasher. 

-He's still pretty obsessed with me.. he fusses when he sees me walk in a room and I don't immediately go to him.. then when I pick him up, he immediately buries his face in my neck, or sucks on my chin, grabs my hair, and starts bouncing up and down in my arms while squealing. Adorable, much??

-He's very expressive and blows raspberries a lot, and has a ton of funny little faces he makes. 

-He is not quite as fearless as Austin was.. but he has a lot of curiosity and is adventurous.. he just is more aware of if I'm around, or Daddy... and needs that "safe" feeling. Austin was like "see ya!!!!" and could care less if we were around while he was exploring. 

Our little Bo...he's pretty awesome, and pretty sweet.. and has the loudest cry/scream I've ever heard (which is not awesome at 3am), and doesn't sleep all that well (sigh) but is full of sloppy kisses and affectionate hair pulls and is just a little love.