Car Wash

Since it was such a beautiful day today we decided to take the van to get washed. The last time my van was clean was back in September when my Dad took it to be washed since it sat outside for most of the summer getting sapped on because our garage was filled with furniture for their new house. Mom and Dad just recently gave us some money for gas due to driving back and forth to their new house to help them unpack and paint. I had just recently filled up my tank so I decided to use some of the money to wash the van. As you've probably figured out washing my van is not a high priority on my list especially when it involves my money. I actually don't ever think I've personally paid for my van to be washed. The closest I've come is washing it by hand once this summer and I didn't do a very good job so I probably won't be attempting that again. Anyway back to the point I was trying to make...this was Owen's first time going through one of those automatic car washes. I wasn't sure how he'd react, but he's a pretty brave kid. I mean he chases the vacuum cleaner when it's running because he loves it so much. However, by the time the second "octopus" (the long soapy arm things at the car wash) came by he was really freaked out. Daddy had to jump in the backseat and calm him down. He has a little bit of a cold so he's been kind of sensitive all day anyway so he might do better under different circumstances.

Christmas Day

After opening our presents we got ready pretty fast so we could get over to my parents house early. We helped set up and ate way too much before dinner was even ready. We had dinner at 2ish and it was so yummy. I have been craving ham for the longest time so it was perfect. There were 16 people in all at Mom and Dad's new house in Orting. It's a good thing it's quite a bit bigger that their old house. They have done so much work unpacking that it was hard to believe they have only lived their 6 days. After dinner we opened presents going oldest to youngest...sort of. It got all messed up along the way, but it doesn't matter. We ended up having Owen open his presents last since he takes forever. Of course he's more interested in the paper and boxes right now than the actual presents. Once we got them out of the box though he enjoyed playing with them. We watched the movie Home Alone during which Michael fell asleep on the floor, most likely from a food coma. Enjoyed dessert later on and headed home around 7ish. It was almost a white Christmas too...we had about 5 minutes of snow early in the day. Too fun!

We'll take a table for 16 please!

Owen eating ham for the first time and being one!

Owen's bouncing zebra he got from Grandma & Grandpa Grant!

Owen and Grandma being silly with a bow!

Ryan and Dad...it was nice to share Christmas with everyone this year!

Christmas Morning

On Christmas morning Michael, Owen and I woke up at 8 and went downstairs to have breakfast. Owen is a much happier boy when he's been fed...come to think of it so am I! We had Owen open his presents first which included...a musical barn, an Elmo tub toy & 3 books from us. Great Grandma & Grandpa Giest in Wyoming sent him a package too that included...a baby's first Christmas ornament, a track outfit and a teddy bear (I think I'm missing something).

Michael got a computer game, a movie, cargo pants, a gift card to Starbucks, a cellphone charger and candy.

I got, 5 peppermint chapsticks (In heaven!), a maternity retreat day at Gene Juarez thanks to Owen for "stealing" Daddy's credit card ;), and a wonderful storybook scrapbook that Michael made me. It was a flashback at our lives so far and it was the best gift ever. I never knew my husband could be so creative. It's fun that I'm still learning things about the one I love.

Christmas Eve

Michael's family tradition has always been to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. It really works out great since my family's tradition has always been celebrating Christmas on Christmas Day. This year we were at Mom & Dad's duplex they are renting. It was decorated so nice! Dinner was fabulous and we had such a fun time.

Owen trying to eat paper...it's a daily thing!

Avery, Cooper & Paige in their new PJ's...it's a Christmas tradition!

Camryn being sweet with Grandpa!

Michelle super excited about her gift cards to Starbucks...they have probably been used up already! :)

Becky with baby Samantha...she's almost 2 months old now!

Not Eco Friendly!

Lately Owen has learned something new that involves using up a bunch of water. Whenever he is in our bathroom he just loves to reach up and turn on the water to the big tub. Fortunately he's too small to touch the water itself, but he loves to turn both knobs and let it run full blast. About a week ago after Michael got home from work he needed to take a shower and I needed to make dinner so he took Owen up with him. While I was making dinner I thought I heard water running louder than normal, but I didn't go up to investigate. Turned out poor Michael's shower was cut short because Owen had turned the hot water on in the tub and it ran out before Michael was finished. That little stinker! :)

12 month clothes

On Friday I went through all of Owen's 12 month clothes gearing up for him to fit into them. To my surprise he could have actually been wearing many of them for some time now. It really irks me that all baby clothes can't be standard. Like Gerber clothes they run terribly small, but Carters run big. These train engineer bibs are from Oshkosh and they fit Owen perfectly, but he's only in the 1 percentile for his size. This just makes no sense to me. An average size baby would have been wearing these 12 month bibs back when they were 3 months old. It just really makes it hard when you are trying to organize your clothes for you child.

Straws

Owen still loves to chew on pretty much anything. He's not teething right, but he still just chews and chews. I've been trying to drink more water so I've been using this mug my friend Nikki got me and I have to use a straw with it. Well Owen thinks that the straws are something new for him to chew on not really for me at all.

What A Ham!

On Friday I was having a lot of fun with Owen while he was in his Exersaucer. For the most part he doesn't really like it anymore, mainly because it keeps him in one place. The thing is if we want to get anything done on the computer we have to put him in it or there will be a baby playing in the cat food or litter. YUCK!!! Anyway I was spinning around in the office chair scaring him and he was laughing so hard. It was tons of fun!

Tongue!

Owen has recently discovered that he can stick out his tongue. Here's a little video for you to enjoy!

French Fries

What kid doesn't like french fries??? Owen sure likes them...in fact he enjoys potatoes all around as long as they aren't mashed.

Got Her!!

Triumphant at last!!!!

Packin' On The Pounds

By the title you might think this post has something to do about me gaining pregnancy weight, but it's not! Yesterday I took Owen to the doctor to get his flu shot and since we were there I had them weight him. It's been two months since his last appointment and he gained 2lbs 3oz!! That's really amazing since from his 6 month to his 9 month check up he only gained 1lb 3oz. He's now weighting in at a whopping 17lbs 6oz. He went from being 0.5% in weight to 1.64%. Pretty Impressive!!!

Playing on the toys

Yesterday after lunch and going shopping for a little bit we took Owen down to the Super Mall to play on the toys. At first they were way to busy and there were too many big kids, but we did a little shopping at came back and it had really slowed down. The wonderful thing about the toys at the Super Mall is they are really geared for much littler kids than other mall toys. Most of the malls have those boats and they are just way to big for kids that aren't walking yet. The toys at the Super Mall are all really low to the ground and the theme is breakfast foods. There are two pieces of bacon, two eggs, a banana and three banana slices. It really is cute. They use to have two waffles and a bowl of cereal, but they have been taken out. I'm not sure if kids kept getting hurt on them or what. Yesterday was actually Owen's second time playing on the toys. He played on them when we went shopping with Aunt Michelle, Cooper and Paige on Monday. I was really surprise how much he actually got into it. I thought he would be clingy, but he just started having a ball. Yesterday was no different except once he saw that people had brought strollers into the play area the toys were really chopped liver. He just kept crawling over trying to play with all the wheels of the strollers. He's such a funny kid!

Elf'd

Check this out!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1218248936

Excuse the stranger dancing with us. There needed to be four people so the program randomly selected someone. Also I think it's hilarious that both Michael and Owen are dancing with girl bodies and I'm with a boy body.

Kisses

Owen has learned how to give kisses! It's the sweetest thing. Of course like all kids he doesn't understand that he should close his mouth yet so instead of looking like a kiss it looks like he's going to eat your face off, but it's still so cute!

First Boo Boo!

On Monday night Owen got his first real boo boo. He was playing with his Leap Frog Learning Table and I think he just lost his footing and banged his face into it. He cried for a little bit, but nothing out of the ordinary. A few minutes later I looked at his face and noticed his lip was bleeding. He actually split it open. We think when he hit it forced his tooth into his lip or actually made him bite his lip. Michael examined it as close at he could without making Owen freak out and he didn't think it went all the way through so we didn't make a trip to the Urgent Care place down the road. The next morning all was well though. He's one tough cookie!

Exploring His World

Owen has been getting into more and more stuff. We really do need to baby proof the house more. We used to be able to put his police cruiser in doorway that leads to the stairs and he didn't understand that he could move it...well now he just shoves it aside and up the stairs he goes. He's such a bulldog! He's usually on the third or fourth stair by the time I get to him. I'm going to get Michael to put the baby gate up TONIGHT!

Yesterday Owen decided to crawl under the dining room table for the first time. His main motivation was Punkin our cat. Punkin is absolutely terrified of Owen! Punkin was lounging under the table very content and then Owen caught a glimpse of him...the lounging was all over. You can still see Punkin in the picture above he's in the upper right hand corner. I was shocked he didn't hightail it out of there...I guess he was being brave.

We also need to get a baby gate for the office door. We can't shut the door because that's the room where the litter and the cat food are, but that's precisely why Owen wants to get in that room in the first place. It's the only room upstairs that he really hasn't explored yet. Every time I leave him in his room to go wash my hands after changing him he is on his way to the office. He knows he only has so much time before I come and scoop him up. Today I decided to let him get into the cat food and see what he would do. A little cat food never hurt anybody. Plus I decided he needs to find out the consequences to his actions so if he's wants to try cat food it's fine by me. Of course I had the camera handy so I could get a hilarious picture if he did in fact eat some. Sadly, he never did eat any. He did bring a piece to his mouth twice, but it fell out right before it reached it's destination. He mainly just wanted to feel the food and play with it. He made a total mess, but since it's dry cat food it was easy to clean up.

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.

Ba-Ba

Owen has been taking a bottle now for a week!! It's such a relief! We can already see and feel a difference in him. His little face and tummy are getting chubbier. I don't think my milk was bad, I just don't think my body was making enough of it for him anymore. He really does enjoy his bottle too. He gets this big smile on his face when I shake it up right before I give it to him. Yesterday he even said, "I want my Ba-Ba". Michael heard it too so it wasn't just me thinking I have the smartest kid around...it was true. I think he said it about 4 times. I don't necessarily think he knows what he's saying, but it's the cutest thing. He hasn't said that phrase this morning, but he has said "Ba-Ba" about a hundred time already...I think he's in love!

Haircut

My hair has been driving me crazy for some time now...so I decided to chop it off! This is the shortest my hair has ever been. I love it!!!

Out to lunch

On Thursday I went to a tea house with my friend Janet and GG & Peepaw watched Owen. It's the first time he cried when I left. He really is a mama's boy. He did have a good time though and GG even got to snuggle Owen while he slept on her chest.

Splish Splash!

Stairs

Owen has really started exploring the house...mainly because he's trying to follow me when I charge off to go do something, but at least he's getting around. He crawled all the way into the kitchen from the family room yesterday! A few days ago he finally found the stairs. I guess it's time to put up the baby gate. Michael and I have been such procrastinators about getting any of the safety stuff up. The only thing we have done so far is put the covers over the outlets. We just need to knuckle down and get it done before I have to call poison control because he's swallowed dish soap or something.

Road Trip

Over the weekend we attended a family wedding down in Salem, Oregon. We left on Saturday morning and took our time driving down. We went out Hwy 101 and ate lunch in Astoria, Oregon and then drove down to Seaside. It was actually pretty nice in Seaside, but Owen had just fell asleep so we decided to just keep driving. Next summer we are planning on going back when Owen can actually run around and dig in the sand. We arrived in Salem around 4ish, plenty of time to change, get some fast food and make it to the wedding at 6, right? Nope!!! With numerous errors on my part while driving we ended up being late to the wedding, but fortunately most weddings don't start on time and this one was no exception so we didn't end up missing anything. Michael's cousin Carissa looked gorgeous in her dress as did all the bridesmaids. The wedding was touching with Carissa's mom Terri walking her down the aisle and her Grandpa Roy & Uncle Dave "giving" her away to Ryan. Jessie Lynn (Carissa's sister) entertained us with 3 songs during the evening. Her voice is absolutely breathtaking! After the service there was desserts and dancing. Owen got to meet Michael's side of the family and "dance" with some of the baby girls in the family. In the picture above he is sitting with Aunt Vicki and Kayla. Kayla was born a couple months after Owen. We ended up leaving the wedding at 8:30 since both Daddy & Owen were exhausted. The next day we had lunch with some of the family members and then it was time to get on the road again. Overall Michael and I were really surprised with how well Owen did in car. He was a really trooper!