My Own Personal Cheerleader!

Ever since Owen has learned to really clap he has been clapping all the time now. He will stop what he's doing and drop whatever he's holding to clap. Well sometimes he doesn't stop what he's doing...he loves to clap while he's walking which usually ends up in him falling. Yesterday morning he was so cute, when I got out the shower he clapped, when I flossed he clapped, when I brushed my teeth he clapped. It really was nice to get praised on the simple things! It also reminds me that I need to be clapping just as often for him. It might seem like a really small accomplishment, but for Owen even the little things are a big deal. I think when we grow up we don't see that anymore and we forgot to say, "way to go" when we really should.

Playing Peek-A-Boo

The other night Michael covered Owen up with a blanket and they had fun playing peek-a-boo.

This is a picture of him once he got completely free of the blanket!

New Toys @ The Supermall

Back in January the Supermall got new toys. We've been meaning to go and see them, but just hadn't gotten around to it. I was really bummed when I found out about the new toys because I figured they would be more geared towards the bigger kids and Owen loved the breakfast food toys so much. Plus since the breakfast food toys were more for the little kids the big kids didn't really play on them at all. I was sure hoping the new toys weren't going to be another boat like they have at so many other malls in the area. Well my worries were put to rest when I saw the new toys. It's so cool! They are geared towards the bigger kids, but there are things for the little kids as well. It's an outdoors Northwest theme. One side is the White River with a bridge you can climb over and crawl under. As you travel down the river (blue carpet) you get to a fish that you can climb on and then a raft. In the middle is a big evergreen tree that you can climb up and slide down or crawl through the trunk. On the other side of the tree is Mt. Rainier which you can climb up and slide down or crawl through a curvy tunnel. On the other side is a dirt road (brown carpet) with two off-roading trucks from Doxon Toyota (they sponsored the new toys). You can climb up the trucks and you guessed it slide down. All on the perimeter of the play area are games you can play as well. It was a blast and I can't wait to take Owen back.

Owen playing with his BIG catch of the day!
My little mountain man!
Paige sliding down the mountain. See the cool tree in the background.
Cave exploration in progress!
Owen loves to crawl through tunnels!

Owen's First Carousal Ride

Last Wednesday Owen and I spent the afternoon with Aunt Michelle, Cooper and Paige at the Supermall. We ate at Johnny Rocket's and then went on the carousal. After that we went to play on the new toys (I'll post about that next). This was Owen's first time being on the carousal and he did pretty good. He pretty much leaned on me the entire time and at the end he was ready for the it to be over. It's a long carousal ride and I was actually getting dizzy too.

Messy Boy

Owen is really starting to get the hang of this eating thing. Last week I made tuna casserole and he just gobbled it right up. Since he was in the mood to get messy we decided to give him some of the leftover cake from Peepaw's party. At Owen's first birthday party he was not interested in the cupcake at all. He was still in that 'I don't want to get messy' phase. He certainly had no problems with getting messy this time around. The funny thing is he ate all the cake, but not the frosting. He's just like his mommy!

Owen's First Sleepover

Last night was Owen's first night away from home. Some friends are coming over today to help us completely change the furniture around in our house so my mom and dad are watching Owen for us. We took him up last night so he could spend the night so we could get right down to business this morning. We left him around 8:00pm last night and I admit I cried a little driving away from the house. Not because I feel like my mom and dad can't handle him, it's quite the opposite really, mommy and daddy take a backseat sometimes to grandma and grandpa. Owen is truly in love with them both and that makes my heart feel comforted. No, I cried a little more for me and selfish reasons. He's my baby boy and I cherish taking care of him. I love being the one to get him in the morning and snuggle him in my arms while he drinks his bottle. I guess this was the first time I realized that he is already getting to be a bigger boy. His independence is showing and he is not going to rely on mommy for a lot of things soon. When he was a newborn I was literally a life sustaining person for him. I'm sure every mom goes through this. Childhood passes too quickly and I'm sure I'll wish that he could stay this little forever, but at the same time praise the Lord that he'll grow up one day.

1 Year Pictures

About a week after Owen's actual Birthday we took him to Sears to get his picture taken. Of course that would be the day he decided NOT to take a good nap. He was also recovering from a cold at the time. He did pretty well considering! We got three really good pictures out of 15 or so. I haven't posted them until now because we were giving them out as gifts to family members and I needed to wait until they received them.

Peepaw's 88th Birthday

On Saturday we went to Peepaw's surprise 88th Birthday party at my parents house. There was lots of family and friends there to help us celebrate. It was even catered! My Dad had a theme about my grandpa being a "Wanted Man" so there were mug shots of my Grandpa everywhere. Dad even told a bunch of stories about Grandpa and it amazes me that he even made it into his 20's with how crazy he was when he was younger. It's a wonder I'm here today to write this!!! Owen was a really good boy during the whole party even though he wouldn't eat much except goldfish crackers! He even got to stay up WAY past his bedtime...he didn't get to bed until 9:30!

Clapping

We have been trying for months to get Owen to clap, but he has just refused. He would rather flap his arms then hit them together. I spent the day with Grandma Grant yesterday and I told her about him not clapping yet so she started showing him while we were driving in the van. This morning when I was doing the dishes and Owen was sitting in his highchair he started clapping all on his own! I was lucky enough to have the camera near by to capture it!

Walking

Owen has been walking more and more. He still chooses to crawl a lot, but he is getting more daring.

Owen & Jack

Last week when I was playing around with my new camera Owen decided to snuggle my tummy and I was able to snap a picture before he moved.

New Camera

Last week I finally went out a bought a new camera. My Nikon has slowly been dying and I had finally had it with it. It was having a terrible time focusing and sometimes it just absolutely refused to cooperate with me. It has been dropped quite a few times and it's a few years old. Since it was giving me such troubles I hadn't really taken any pictures of Owen for about a week and that was the last straw. I had been researching cameras online and found this brand new 8mp from Olympus. Here's the link... http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8670841&type=product&id=1197074238607

Owen and I went down to the South Center Best Buy and picked it up. I had a $5 off coupon from my Reward points and since I'm a Rewards member I got an additional 10% of the camera. With the media card it still cost me a little over $200, but it was well worth it. It works like a dream and has all these extra features that are so fun. Here a few random shots of Owen that I took with the new camera....

I love how it picked up his reflection in the glass coffee table!!!

He loves to get into the video cabinet!

Happy boy!

13 Month Weight Check

This morning I took Owen to the doctor for a weight check. Since he's been pretty consistent with his weight and in consistent I mean consistently low the doctor wanted him to be weighted again. He's now 18lb 14.5oz. In a month he gained 13.5oz. Not bad, but I was hoping he'd be closer to 20lbs. He has another appointment scheduled for his 15 month check up so maybe then. The cool thing I learned today is they have percentage charts for his weight for his age, but they also have percentage charts for his weight for his length. The weight for length chart makes much more sense to me since Owen is not a typical 13 month old when it comes to his size so of course he's not going to measure up to other 13 month olds. If you go by his age Owen is only in the 2.33% for weight, but if you go by his length he is in the 18.98%. Big improvement!!

Squeals of Delight

Owen is so fasinated with flapping his arms and he thinks it's the greatest thing if you join him. This video is from Superbowl Sunday right before we put Owen to bed, Daddy and him were having a grand old time.

Owen - Master of His Universe

This last week has been really great for Owen. It's like all the pieces are coming together for him and he's figuring things out in his world. He has really started eating better and more at a time. I'm looking forward to getting him weighed in a week and seeing if he's 20lbs. Some of the latest foods he's eating are...breakfast sausage, hot dogs, baked beans, peas and diced carrots. I'm so proud of him. He's also getting up the courage to walk more and more. He's been walking from one piece of furniture to another and he also LOVES to walk back and forth between Daddy and me. His communication skills are also improving. He's not really saying words, but he's definitely understand them. When I said it's time to go bye-bye the other day he waved. Also when we play with my cell phone and I say give kisses he kisses the phone. He also has a lion that goes with his Little People Noah's Ark set that Aunt Linda got him and with all the other animals around if you ask him to get his lion and you roar like a lion he can always pick out the lion. He's such a smart cookie!

Ya-Ba-Da-Ba-Do

This morning during breakfast I was trying to feed Owen some strawberry yogurt, but once he saw that I was eating Fruitie Pebbles the yogurt went right out the window. Fruitie Pebbles has been one of my favorite cereals since as long as I could remember. When I was little we didn't get it very much because let's face it cereal is expensive. Enter Wal-Mart or Winco - Fruitie Pebbles is quite affordable now so I can enjoy them as much as I want. Owen really seemed to like them too and he did eat his yogurt...if I put Fruitie Pebbles in with them!

What A Porker!

I'm not talking about Owen, but he does seem to be eating better so keep your fingers crossed. No, I'm talking about me. Yesterday I had my doctor's appointment and in one month I gained 7 pounds! At my previous appointment I had only gain 6 pounds...for the entire pregnancy! The nurse reassured me that it was quite normal to have a surge in weight gain around this time in my pregnancy. It doesn't help that I could basically shove food in my mouth 24/7. Once the doctor came in we listened to Jack's heartbeat and she also measured my stomach to see if I was growing on track. I'm measuring around 23-24 weeks pregnant when I'm actually only 22 weeks. Looks like Jack might be a big boy.