Eight months old...2/3 of his first year...wow! It seems like a long time ago that we were in those early weeks of Owen being a newborn, and yet it has also gone by so fast. Faster than it felt with Harper, but that is what I always hear about the second one. We try to enjoy and appreciate the blessing of this sweet little guy every day because he is SUCH a blessed addition.
With the tragic event of the explosion in West yesterday, I have found myself tearing up, especially after watching the video footage. To just imagine those families in the surrounding blocks being taken from this world in such an unexpected instant, it just makes you realize how fleeting and precarious life is. It is scary that we live not too too many miles away from West. That community is definitely on my heart today.
So with that heavy on my mind, I will try not to skew my words too much in the sentimental direction, but no promises. :) Here are a few pictures of Owen at eight months, as well as some little things about him at this age...
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| When any stranger talks to me about Owen, the first thing they mention are his big beautiful eyes. He is always watching and taking things in. He has started saying "Mama." I have noticed he says it most often in the morning when he wakes up, and it is almost as if he is calling for me specifically. I like to think that anyway! :) |
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| Happy moments hanging out with Daddy |
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| Harper loved this toy as a baby, and Owen is following in her footsteps. Now that he can sit up for long periods of time, he loves to look in the mirror and play the music. Still no crawling or pulling up yet, which is plenty fine with us! |
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Hanging out with Mommy on a preschool day. Owen just goes along with the rhythm of our days so well. He is happy, and his tears are usually easily resolved. His favorite sound is to click his tongue. When I do it back at him, he smiles every time like he got me to do exactly what he wanted.
But Harper still makes Owen smile and laugh the most! He continually watches her in the car, and Harper plays little nursery rhyme games with him where she will tickle him at the end. Or she will whip her blankie playfully at him in their car seats, which also makes him laugh. |
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| Owen's first time in the church nursery last week. Brent dropped him off after we fed him, and I was just settling into really listening to the sermon, when the pager went off. I went in and Owen was crying so hard he was having trouble catching his breath. It broke my heart! We will try again this week, and I hope it is easier for him. One of the nursery teachers took this picture of him while he was still doing okay. Awww... |
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| Still waiting for that first tooth! But no teeth doesn't stop Owen from eating. He started out slowly, but now he is eating larger and larger quantities and hasn't rejected a food in the past month. Even fruits are cool now. We tried little pieces of tilapia the other night, and he gobbled them up! |
So that is a little about Owen at eight months, and here are some more pictures from the past few weeks!
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| Spending time in Nana's backyard |
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| At the park |
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| Owen is too cute in his baseball cap! |
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Picking weeds flowers in the backyard |
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| One of Harper's favorite activities is any kind of writing, coloring or craft. She was thinking hard about her design here. ;) |
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| Harper likes to fold pieces of paper and color on them and say she is making a "gift card" for you. |
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| I have been doing some painting again too! Here is a shelf I painted for a friend's playroom. So fun! I think I am going to open up my Etsy shop again soon. |
With this beautiful weather lately, Brent and I have both had the itch to do some spring camping. Harper has been asking to go too. We heavily considered going camping with all four of us, but we just weren't sure we could put Owen to bed and then keep him asleep when we tried to put Harper down later on in the same tent. Owen is a pretty light sleeper. So this time we decided to do a little backyard camping, which made Harper just as happy.
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| Harper was very involved in the tent setup. She learned the word "stake" and was a good helper pushing them into the ground. |
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| The tent is ready! Now let's set up the sleeping bags! |
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To round out our camping experience, we went to a nature trail we like to hike on and brought everything to grill out hamburgers for a picnic dinner.
I recently managed to get mixed up with poison ivy (without leaving the city limits, no less) and had a seriously miserable two week experience with that. I had been exposed to poison ivy in high school, and I think I reacted even more severely since this wasn't my first exposure. It was even on my face! Anyway, I am so glad that is behind me now, but I was on the LOOK OUT for poison ivy at our picnic dinner!! Brent can tell you, I was googling images and comparing it to all the foliage around. :) We were fine though. |
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| Owen happy to be grilling out! |
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| Even though we didn't make a campfire, Harper was collecting wood like we needed to survive in the wilderness for a month. This monster stick (which was twice her height), had to finally be retired as we were all in danger of its sphere of attack as Harper casually wielded it around and nearly decapitated each one of us. :) |
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| Harper loved holding this caterpillar, even as it ignored her commands to turn into a butterfly. :) |
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| A big burger! |
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| Owen ate some homemade applesauce mixed with plain yogurt. Owen loves plain yogurt! We also let Owen eat some very tiny pieces of the hamburger meat for the first time. |
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| Owen loved being on Brent's shoulders! Total access to hair to pull. :) |
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| Back at the tent, Harper finally succumbed to sleep (about an hour after her regular bedtime). We couldn't resist snapping a picture with Brent's phone of this sweet sleeping girl with her doll Rose and her red blankie. Then Brent and I got out the laptop and enjoyed watching Lincoln in the tent. We had Owen's monitor hooked up in the tent by an extension cord, so we could keep our ears alert for baby boy inside. :) All in all, it was a great modified camping trip! |
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| We left the tent up for a bit of time (okay, a couple of days), so there was plenty of time to play in the tent even after the night of camping out. |
