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Here's a little recap of our 2013 so far, as well as Owen's six month write up...
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| In January, Mr. Kennedy (who taught me either math or science all four years of high school) retired from teaching, and here is a group of us at his retirement party. Mr. Kennedy genuinely cared about his students, and I have fond memories of our class joking around with him. |
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| Since Kate was in town for the retirement party, we were able to meet at Chick-fil-A for lunch. Jackson, Everett and Harper were enjoying some ice cream at the kid table. :) |
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| It was Kate's first time to meet Owen and my first time to meet Nora! Hurray! |
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| Owen is at the hair grabbing age right now--beware! Kate was a good sport as Owen couldn't resist her long locks! |
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| Krister, Tobin, Marin and Parker came over one Saturday in January to hang out. We helped Marin and Harper make homemade play dough. I had never done this before, but it was truly very easy, and the play dough has an awesome consistency. Here is the recipe we used... |
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| The girls got to giggling! |
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| Playing with the yellow homemade play dough...We made a yellow batch and a green batch--both very vivid in color thanks to the girls' generous dispensing of the food coloring! Ha! |
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| Also in January, Holton turned two! He had an adorable Elmo/Sesame Street party. I couldn't believe the homemade cake that Jenevieve made!! |
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| Owen and Mimi at the birthday party |
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| Although Owen is six months old now, I wanted to post one of his five month pictures from January. Love that smile! |
Princess Ball
One of my favorite events that marks the passage of February each year is the Princess Ball at our church. It is a special Daddy/Daughter night, and this was Harper's 3rd year to attend with Brent.
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| Brent had a rose for Harper when he walked in the door after work. Harper was thrilled! I know it made her feel very special, and she loved that Brent had chosen her favorite color pink for the flower. |
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| One happy little girl excited about the fun ahead! Now that two weeks have passed since receiving her flower, it is reaching its end in its little vase on the kitchen table. When we asked her if it was time to throw it away, she said, "No, because Daddy gave it to me." |
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| A part of the tradition is taking pictures beforehand with some of the other little girls. |
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| Harper, Ryleigh and Aubrey |
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| Owen was my handsome date for the night--although we just went home and had a peaceful evening of getting things done. When he's a little older, though, we will go out and do something fun together on this night! |
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| Love seeing a little glimpse of what went on during the evening--looks like the bubbles were a big hit! |
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| And this candid shot that was captured makes me laugh a lot. Brent talking to Rod, wearing a crown, while Harper tosses all ladylike dignity aside to make some snow angels on the ground. That's our girl. :) |
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I just love watching their sweet relationship. Brent is such a good Daddy to her, and I know this will bless and influence Harper her whole life.
Here is some sweet video footage Brent took of the night... |
One weekend in February we had no plans the whole weekend! A rare treat. It was nice to spend a relaxed day playing together with no agenda.
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| Big Sister engaging Little Brother... |
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| ...a block city... |
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...and a blanket fort (with Harper's large crew of stuffed animals inside as well)...
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| Harper's Valentine's Party--playing Bingo |
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| Harper's class with their "love bug" hats |
Six Months
Owen is a smiling joy at this age. We love him so much! Here are some things about Owen at six months...
1) Owen nurses about six times a day, and we have just started solid foods (more on that later). I am having to work on him nursing gently when he is in a wide-awake and feisty state because he has the urge to chomp down sometimes. I will try telling him "Owen, no bite." But sometimes he just looks at me and smiles this huge grin like he has no idea what I am trying to communicate. So after a few times of that, if it's not working, I will just stop and try again a little later when he is hungrier or tireder. I remember going through this same phase with Harper and know that it will pass.
2) He doesn't have any teeth yet, but he still drools a ton and wants to chew on everything. Surely it will be soon??
3) Owen likes the exersaucer, bouncy seat and jump-a-roo and will usually be content in there while we are doing other things. However, if he is sleepy, he doesn't want to be in any of those things and wants to be held. So we use the sling to have him on our hip like a little monkey. He loves to be held if you are walking around.
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| Six month photo--Owen is already pulling his sticker off his chest. I have no idea how we will ever get to 12 months with those things! |
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| Who can look at the camera when there is a funny sister to laugh at and watch? |
4) Owen is doing a good job in the sleep department overall! For a few weeks we were in a definite pattern of him sleeping 12 hours straight at night, waking up around 6:30 a.m. for the first time. Awesome!! But then who knows what happened, and that hasn't been as consistent recently. I am hoping for a return to it soon.
Nowadays, if Owen cries, and it's not close to morning, I will roll over and pray for some self-soothing to take place--which indeed happens much of the time. But if it's clear that that's not happening, I'll get up and feed him and put him back in his crib. If his wake-up time is relatively close to when the alarm is set to go off, I will bring him to our bed for some early morning cuddling.
Often he will fall back asleep between us until the alarm goes off, and those times are sweet, precious moments that I wouldn't trade for anything. The memories I have of doing this with Harper are some of my fondest from her babyhood. So we are cherishing these special moments with Owen too while he is a little squirt. :)
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| Saturday morning cuddle time in bed. Of course, cuddle times on Saturday are the best because there is no alarm and Brent doesn't have to go to work! |
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| Owen has found his toes and loves to grab them while on his back or in the car seat. |
5) We are about calling it that Owen will not be a pacifier kid or a thumb sucker. Sometimes we will still pull out the pacifier in a half-hearted attempt when he's fussy, but he mostly spits it out. So at this point, why keep trying? The way he has chosen to self-soothe is to suck on his index finger backwards. Brent has this captured on video, but I don't have a photo of it yet.
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| Quiet thoughts while rocking with Mommy |
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| Hoping for another little bookworm! Owen likes to pat the pages of the books. At six months, Owen is sitting up independently for brief periods of time before toppling over. |
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| Owen loves to be swung into the air and held up like he is flying. It always gets a smile and a laugh. |
6) At Owen's six month appointment, Owen got a great report! And best of all, we were told that he would not be needing a helmet. What a relief! Owen is still in the 75% for length (27 1/2 in.) and 50% for weight (17 1/2 lbs.). The pediatrician described him as a happy, strong, curious go-getter. He is a precious gift.
Here are some pictures from Owen's first solid food "experience!" I had read some recent articles stating that the pendulum is starting to swing away from the first food having to be the traditional rice cereal (as we had done with Harper). Basically, the "food rules" seem to be loosening up a bit. So we just went with that and tried avocado first. Besides, rice cereal was never kind to Harper in the bathroom department so I was just fine not going there again, at least not as the first solid food.
Owen was very happy to explore and play with the avocado. He sucked some off my fingers and would open his mouth for the spoon. I am not sure how much he actually swallowed because his tongue pushed much of it back out. The first time with oatmeal was the same. However, the second time with avocado, he seemed to be starting to swallow some by the end! A little sad for the milk-only era to be at an end (mostly out of laziness), but this is the start of a whole new adventure!
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| Checking out the avocado... |
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| ...Hmmm... |
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| Love his belly rolls! :) |
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| Owen's first time to try peas--some physical gagging took place--poor thing! We'll keep trying, though, and hopefully he will become more accustomed. |
We also took video of Owen's first food. But typical second child, Harper is chattering in the background about what she learned at school and then has a small meltdown when part of her block city falls down. Owen is not phased by any of it, and continues "eating." So funny. But I did want to post a short video clip of Owen getting tickled at Brent shaking some toy keys. Anytime I need a pick-me-up in the day, I watch this video! :)
