Follow me!

Owen is really cruising now when he crawls. He can go pretty fast too! Sometimes his legs go faster than his arms can and he face plants, but for the most part he does pretty well. We have been playing the "Get You" game with him for about a week or so and he loves the excitement that you are going to scoop him up and tickle him. He just tries to crawl faster and faster to get away. It's really cute!

On Wednesday at Little Gym I was talking with a new mom and Owen crawled over to his friend Margo. Margo is crawling now, but she not cruising around as fast as Owen is yet. When Owen got tired of being over with her he decided to crawl back to me, but not before he turned around and looked right at Margo and waved his arm at her to say, "Come on Margo, follow me". Margo's mom Kathy was beyond shocked. Yesterday when I was playing with Owen he was crawling away and he did the same thing to me about 3 or 4 times. He would crawl a couple times and then lean on one side and wave his arm at me to follow him. He must have picked this up from me because when I want him to crawl into another room I say, "Come on Owen", and wave my arms for him to follow. It really is amazing the things babies can pick up on.

Dinosaur Toy

Owen got this dinosaur toy from Aunt Linda back in May. He hasn't really been interested in it until recently when he figured out how to play with it...okay he did have a little help from Daddy. He's such a smart boy though!

Eating Puffs

Like I said in a previous post Owen is now feeding himself the Gerber Puffs. I took a video of it the other day. Enjoy!

Sitting in his chair

This is the chair I got Owen at the Mill Creek garage sales back in October. Whenever he plays with it we have to watch him like a hawk. He loves to either kneel or stand up on it instead of sit. Well last night he crawled over there to play and I was watching to see if he was going to do his normal thing, but instead he knelt on it with his right leg and slowly turned until his leg came off and his bottom sat down. I was so proud of him. This really is a hard thing for a little one to do. I immediately grabbed the camera and was able to snap this one shot. About 2 seconds after this he slid off his chair...the kid never stops moving!

Playing with Peepaw!

On Tuesday afternoon Owen and I went over to GG & Peepaws for a visit. We hadn't been there very long and to my surprise Owen willing went to Peepaw! This is such a shock because Peepaw is really the only person Owen ever cries with. I really think it has something to do with his voice. Peepaw has a gravelly type voice and we don't know anyone else who sounds like that so I think it concerns Owen for some reason. I'm so happy that he is starting to feel more and more comfortable around him and I think Peepaw's pretty happy with it too!

Alfalfa

Owen loves to play with his diapers. I was getting ready to take these downstairs and I decided to toss them all around him and see what he would do. It didn't take long for him to start having fun...but that's not the reason I'm posting these. The reason is because these pictures really show off Owen's cute cowlick. His Daddy has tons of cowlicks so it's not really a surprise that he ended up with one. And yes I do the typical Mom thing where I lick my hand and try to get the cowlick to lay down. It usually works until it dries. Oh well!

Heartbeat!!!!!

Today was my second prenatal appointment with my doctor and I got to hear the heartbeat. Actually, Mom and I got to hear the heartbeat. Michael doesn't really have anymore time he can take off of work this year so I just picked up my Mom from work right in downtown Seattle and she spent her lunch break with Owen and me at the doctors. It was so nice to have her there and experience that with me. Plus it was an extra set of hands to keep Owen busy!! :) Anyway back to the heartbeat...when the doctor puts that monitor thing on your stomach and you're waiting to hear that thump thump it's like the world stands still for those few seconds (which feel like hours!), but once you can hear it, it's amazing! I told the doctor it's a breath of fresh air. I'm always so anxious about my doctors appointments ahead of time since we've have issues in the past so it always lifts my spirit to walk out of that office knowing that my baby is perfectly healthy!

P.S. We are having the ultrasound to find out if it's a boy or a girl on January 7th!!!!

Finger Foods

Owen is now able to feed himself! I started giving him those Gerber Puffs last week and at first he had a hard time holding them. Once he tasted the Puffs those he figured it out real fast. In fact we have to limit how many we put on his tray because he'll shove them ALL in his mouth. He's such a glutton! We have been trying to introduce him to more and more finger foods, but sometimes he picky. Like yesterday I cut up some canned peaches for him and he wanted nothing to do with holding those slimy things. I was wondering if he just didn't like them, but then when I fed him he was fine. Picky Picky!!!

It's the Holiday Season?

It does not feel like it should be Christmas already! I'm struggling with even getting in the spirit this year. I think it has a lot to do with not working. When you are in an office environment the holidays are so much fun and you so look forward to decorating and time off work. Right now for me it's just another week. Last Monday I went to Costco to do my regular shopping and I couldn't figure out why it was so stinking busy until I got inside and saw the frozen turkeys. I didn't even remember that Thanksgiving was on Thursday. Now I'm trying to figure out when we are going to put our tree up, but I'm not really even in the mood to do that. I think it might also have something to do with being pregnant. I think I'm just in a mood! Hopefully I'll snap out of it soon!

Cat Whisperer

Owen has always loved the cats! Lately he has been trying to communicate with them and it's really cute. He'll be jabbering away at one of us and then a cat walks in the room and meows and he changes his voice and makes his own squeaky noises at them. I guess my baby is trilingual!

Pictures with Santa

Last night Santa Al came to Grandma & Grandpa Grant's house for a photo session. Owen did really well! He didn't even act like he was going to cry. This is one of the pictures...it's not the one we're going to send out as our Christmas cards, but it's cute!

Big Tub

Owen was making such a mess when I was giving him a bath in the kitchen sink that I decided to start bathing him in the big tub. We have a jetted tub in our master bathroom and he has taken a couple of baths with me in there and hasn't seemed to mind. Now he's big enough to sit in his tub seat and have a good ol' time. Plus it means mommy gets to take more baths every week! :)

Maternity Clothes...again!

It just seems so surreal to me that I'm wearing these again. I already feel so huge, but I know I'm not. Yesterday I wore maternity clothes for the first time this pregnancy. I didn't start wearing maternity clothes with Owen until I was 13 weeks. I'm only 11 weeks along now, but I guess my body just remembers since it's been such a short time since I was pregnant with Owen. Last night I got out all my other maternity clothes and some a friend lent me and started laundry since they all smelled a little musty. It's actually kind of fun wearing them again because it's like getting a whole new wardrobe!!

10 months old!

I can't believe Owen is 10 months old. So much has happened in those 10 short months. Babies develop and change so much faster than we do and it still amazes me. At the same time it feels like Owen has been in our lives forever. I'm sure the same will be true for the new baby...especially since it already feels like we are a family of 4 now and not 3.

Climber

Owen is such a climber. He has to get over everything...even if that means you. He's so funny because it doesn't matter what is in front of him he'll just climb over it. He is constantly dragging things around the house with his tummy because he won't go around it when he's crawling. Lately he's been really freaking us out when it comes to his chair because he doesn't think he should sit on it...he should climb on it.

Squealer!

Owen loves to make noise, but at the same time he can go through quiet phases too. On Thursday he was playing around the banister upstairs and he thought this was great fun. I snapped a picture right when he was squealing!

She's here!

Michael's brother Jonathan and his wife Becky welcomed their new baby girl -Samantha Rae Martin! She was born on November 2nd at 3:24am. She arrived a little over two weeks early. She weighted 7lbs 7oz and was 18 inches long. Not everyone made it to the hospital to see her so we had a bunch of family members over for dinner last Monday so everyone could meet her.

Avery with Samantha!

Cooper with Samantha!

Rick Jr & Paige with Samantha!

Withdrawl

As of November 4th Owen is completed weaned. The last couple of days I've been very sad about that...especially at night. I loved snuggling him close right before bed. Yes, I still snuggle him when he has a bottle, but the bottle kind of gets in the way and it's not skin to skin snuggling. It probably takes one breastfeeding mother to another to really understand the attachment and bonding that you have with your child during this time. It's a stage in Owen's life that is over and that makes me very sad! I fully intended on breastfeeding Owen until he was over a year old, but since getting pregnant it's just been too much for my body. Michael tried to cheer me up the other day by reminding me that I have a bun in the oven that will be happy to nurse once it comes out in 7 months. Knowing that does help!

Candid Camera

When I found out I was pregnant I decided that I was going to film Michael when I told him so I could capture the moment and share it. Michael thinks I was so mean for doing this. I told him that Owen learned something and I wanted to film him. Owen wasn't very happy while I was recording because this was right before we all got the stomach flu. I found out I was pregnant on October 12th and told Michael that night when he got home. (Nikki - even though it's not CC'd you can totally see the expression change in Michael's face after I said "Owen's going to be a big brother"....it's priceless!)

Baby makes 4!

I'm pregnant! Yes, you read that right. It took 6 years to get pregnant with Owen, but only 8 months for this one. I'm now 9 weeks along so the baby should be born around June 9th. That is if he or she doesn't decided to come early like Owen did or we'll have a May baby. Owen won't even be 17 months old when this baby comes so we are going to have our hands full. We are so excited and a little scared, but we feel totally and completely blessed. Here is a picture of our little baby blob...

Signing

I have been trying to teach Owen sign now for about 2 months and I was beginning to think he would never catch on, but lately I've been noticing him hitting the top of the highchair after every bite. It was like his way of saying more. Then yesterday he started hitting his other hand and today he started almost clapping his hands to say more. He's getting closer and closer to the really sign. It's so cute he does it after almost every bite now. We got it on tape, but for some reason it was going in and out of focus so sorry about that. Enjoy!

That's my boy!

Poopy Face

I finally captured the poopy face on film. It's really is quite funny, but at the same time I feel kind of bad posting this knowing that I would be so mad at my mom if she ever did anything like this to me.

Sucker

A recent addition to Owen's likes is suckers. He loves them! He's had many varieties too. In this picture he's sucking on one of those Crazy Dips suckers that you dip into Pop Rocks. Of course he only got the sucker not the Pop Rocks.