Current favorite activity: stirring a cup of ice cubes

With bonus 'chicken', 'truck', and 'santa' fun.

Blueberry Plinkplonk

14 months

The big news this month: Owen can WALK!  At first it was just a few tentative steps.  Then it became a drunken, slow-motion tightrope act.  But now Owen can walk with confidence all across a playground or the yard!  He still falls down a lot and he's very slow, but he's getting more steady by the day.  He is starting to prefer walking to crawling. 

We have started taking him to the local playground, which has two sections--one of which is small and is designed to be wheelchair-accessible, which makes it perfect for very little boys and girls.  It's not as exciting as the big playground, which keeps the bigger kids away.  And it's fun to walk up and down the ramps.  Owen even went down the little slide by himself a couple of times.  

While he worked on walking, Owen abandoned a lot of other things.  He regressed in his vocabulary and forgot pretty much all his signs for a few weeks.  The week before he started to walk was the most challenging week we have had since he was a tiny newborn.  Huge tantrums lasting more than 1 hour were happening more than once a day.  He wouldn't eat.  He wouldn't sleep.  He didn't want a bottle.  He didn't want to be held.  He didn't want to be put down.  He didn't want ANYTHING.  It was horrible.  I tried to return him, but they said they could only give us store credit. 

We are just now starting to see him pick up a few words again and use his sign for "all done."  Yesterday I think I heard him say "ball," although it's possible that the ball was just another balloon.  He's transferred the word balloon, or a variant on it, to nearly anything in the sky or on the ceiling.  Light fixtures, smoke detectors, the moon and airplanes are all "boon"s.  He loves to pick out airplanes in the sky.  It's become an important part of our bedtime routine to go into the back yard, say goodnight to the chickens and then point at airplanes and the moon and say "boon.."  

Yesterday we took him to a pumpkin patch at a real working farm.  You would think he'd be excited to see a field full of orange pumpkins but he really only had eyes for a yellow balloon that some other kid had forgotten. Fortunately we were able to carry the balloon with us on the hayride and to pick out our pumpkins, otherwise the trip may have been a bust.  He enjoyed hugging onto some soft sheep and friendly goats in the petting zoo! 

(More photos to come...)

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me

Owen Walks!

Rare footage of the elusive Owenbeast walking.

First steps!

Owen took his first solo steps into the world on Sept 28th.  He was bringing me a book he wanted to read. 

We haven't captured video of him walking unsupported yet, but here's a little teaser:

13 months +

13 3/4 months!  What's up with Owen this month: he loves peaches.  Oh how he loves them.  He loves them whole, he loves them cut up; he loves them with skin on, he loves them with skin off.  He loves them frozen.  He loves them with cheerios.  He loves them in the morning and the afternoon.  It's been a good year for peaches.  Nothing is funnier than watching him devour a whole peach. 

Owen got two new teeth since last update, first his lower left 2nd incisor and then (finally) his top right 2nd incisor.  His 1st year molars are in the works but no sign of them yet!

 We took Owen to the County Fair recently, where we rode and elephant and ate fried kool-aid and they had THE BEST petting zoo.  He got to meet a piggy and a llama and some deer and many, many goats.  I especially love the tiny goats, not even as tall as Owen. 

Speaking of tall, this boy is so tall.  The doctor measured him at 32" last week, but I swear to you he has grown about 4" since then.  Look at the picture above taken on September 16th--his head is not at the top of the cabinet.  Today the top of that cabinet is at eyebrow level.  He also seems so much taller because he can stand up without holding on.  You can put him down in the middle of the floor and he stands there.  It's like a magic trick.  And it makes him seem so much bigger.
 

Owen's had some rough patches this month.  He had a rash that I think was making him itchy (the doc said it was a minor virus, no big deal) and it led to deeply interrupted sleep and MUCH screaming.  He also transitioned from 2 short naps to 1 long nap this month, and the in-between was a little bit of a trial.  There were some very tired afternoons.

Owen is starting to say some words, but not being able to communicate completely is sometimes quite frustrating.  And, even worse, sometimes he doesn't get what he wants even when he is being perfectly clear.  For example the other day he woke up at 5am on a Saturday and said "GO OUT" while pointing at the front door.  I told him no way.  He dissolved in anger and disappointment.   His new height makes it possible for him to reach all kinds of new trouble, and he gets told "ah-ah-ah!" all. the. time.  This has also become a sore point.  So many RULES!  AGH!

Other words (besides go out) Owen has so far include: Makena ("enna" or "nena"), Scout (which comes out "la-la", go figure), peach, mama, dada, bye-bye, up, out, cheerio (just the "ch" really), gramma, and everyone's favorite: Uh oh.

As in, throw the fork on the floor and say "uh oh!" Throw the peach on the floor and say "uh oh!"  It is very hard to be stern about throwing food.  Its so cute because it comes out in this tiny, clear perfect voice.  I've been trying to capture a video for a week but he refuses to perform.

Another wonderful game right now is talking on the phone.  He picks up my cell phone (or really any rectangular object--remote control, etc), holds it up to his ear and says "a-oh?"

Firsts this month+: first haircut, much to daddy's dismay--it was hanging in his eyes.  First elephant ride.  First time putting his finger up a llama's nose (also last time? Only time will tell).  First time touching a pig, goat, deer, and sheep.  First time eating cat food.  First time-out, after biting Mom.  First time stringing two words together.  First time he was a cousin to someone!  And my next post will be about his first steps, which he is poised to make any moment now.

Standing Up!

1-2-3!

Owen: 1 year

Owen is one year old!

This month he's learned so many new things and had so many experiences.  Where to begin.

On July 7th we departed for the Great Mid-Atlantic Tour 2011.  We visited friends and met lots of little kids...

went to Marv and Michelle's wedding...

Visited JoMom's family...

 

Visited Pops, Nonnie, Uncle Dan and Aunt Meg... 

and celebrated Owen's Great-Grandma's 90th birthday...

 Owen also proved his worth as a world-class traveler.  This was a crazy trip with many, many destinations (he slept in 5 different pack-n-plays in 9 nights, if that gives you any perspective).  He did really great.  He adjusted to the 3-hour time change literally overnight.  And we even had wonderful weather! 

Two biggies this month on the development front!  While we were away, Owen encountered stairs for the first time and immediately pushed up to standing on a lowest step.  It wasn't for a couple more weeks that he started pulling up to standing wherever he was and finally, just about a week ago, he started cruising.

Also, COMMUNICATION!  He learned to give high-fives just before we left for our trip, and he started using a few baby signs this month.  But in the first week after his 1-year birthday, his communication development has exploded.  He has started to really use signs to communicate "milk" and "eat" and especially "all done."  He is waving and clapping is hands.

And, drumroll please...  FIRST WORD!  The official first word is: Balloon!

It is possible that he is also saying "Enna" for "Makena."  It's a bit hard to pin down whether he's really saying that, or if it's just coincidence.  One thing is sure though.  He loves that cat.  Ever since he learned to be "gentle" with her, she has been amazing with him.  Never in all of creation has a cat been so nice to a baby. 

He also says "Da-da" while pointing at his dad, and "Ma-ma" while pointing at random objects which are sometimes his mother. 

Owen got another upper tooth just after we returned from our trip, making for 5 teeth.  This 5th one has come in extremely fast, and it's now longer than the first incisors.  And there's no sign of it's partner on the other side, either.  I guess this tooth just had places to be and got ahead of schedule.  

Gramma and Gramps arrived for a 6-week visit at the end of July.  They are taking care of him while Noah and I work, and everyone is very happy with this arrangement.  Owen loves having two grownups to play peekaboo with,

 

 

And of course, Gramma and Gramps are having fun too.    

On August 7th, to celebrate his birthday we had a great birthday party at the park with a special rainbow cake and tons of little friends!

Birthday Boy!

 

Happy 1st Birthday Owen!  

(don't worry, a real post is coming soon... )

Makena Hug

Fancypants!

11 Months

It's a little hard for me to remember what happened in his 11th month, because we have been SO BUSY, I feel like I somehow pressed fast-forward by accident!  Even more than usual!  We have decided that it will be easiest for everyone if Granma and Gramps stay at our house during their next visit, which is coming up in under a week.  So we were very hard at work getting the new Grandparent Suite ready for them.  This project triggered a domino effect of other projects around the house: unfinished bedroom trim work, paint in the living room and spare bedroom, much removal of old peeling paint.  The house looks great.

Owen got sick a couple of times since my last update.  He had a double ear infection, what a miserable time that was.  He was so sad, his ears hurt whenever he laid down and he didn't sleep at all for 3 nights in a row.  It was rough.  Antibiotics and plenty of hugs fixed him up pretty quickly.  Makena was particularly kind to him during this time, she must have sensed that he was in a weakened state and allowed him pet and snuggle her.  Below is a picture of the only smile he gave anyone for 3 days. 

 Just a few days after the antibiotics were finished, Owen was again feverish and fussy.  I took him to the doctor immediately, but his ears were fine.  The doctor said now that he's crawling and in group day care, we can expect him to get sick every 2-3 weeks for a while.  Ugh.  But the good news is that by the time he starts school he'll be immune to everything.


We were very surprised at the doctor's office to learn that he has not gained any weight since our last visit.  He's still around 21.5 lbs.  But, he is getting much, much longer. 


Owen FINALLY got his first two top teeth.  They were quite a process, it seemed like week after week that we expected them.  And what teeth they are! They are huge compared to the bottom two.  No wonder they were such a trial. 

We celebrated Noah's first Father's Day by going to the Hollywood Park horse track and teaching Owen all about the ponies.  Since he had just learned to point a few days previous, we hoped he would pick a winner.  Sadly he didn't point to any horses and we didn't do much winning, either.  Maybe next year.

Besides pointing and blowing raspberries at things that interest him, Owen's favorite activities this month include banging on things and throwing and then chasing small balls (cat toys, actually).  In the photo here he does both at once.


He also loves to play music on his baby MP3 player and piano (or just by banging a drum), and he's really into practicing those fine motor skills with toys that have parts that move back and forth or spin.

More Teeth!

 

Finally!

percussionist

10 Months

This month, as devoted readers already know, Owen reached a huge milestone: crawling.  The boy is on the move.  It took him about three weeks to work out how to go from hands-and-knees to forward movement, but one day he made it work.  At first it was a slow zombie crawl, first the hands then the knees dragging up behind, both at once and a little sideways so he looked like he was in the music video to Thriller.  But after just a day or two he had improved his technique and was fully coordinated--one hand and the opposing knee in sync. 

As soon as he became mobile, he showed us what it meant to be babyproofed.  It's like he has radar for the most unsafe thing in the room and beelines straight for it at incredible speed.  When you take it away, he beelines for the second-most-dangerous thing.  Wires, tall lamps, anything that can be knocked over or pulled down, anything sharp or small enough to choke on.  By now our living room floor is about as spotless as it's ever been, not a stray cable or old piece of hot dog or dust bunny to be found.

Once the obvious hazards had been investigated and removed, Owen's attention moved to the cats.  He loves LOVES the cats.  The cats hold Owen in contempt, although to different degrees.  Makena views him like all things in life.  She doesn't really like him, but she doesn't really care, either.  She is very patient with him and will allow him to "pet" her under adult supervision, her face buried in the sofa as if to say "not happening not happening not happening."  She plays a great chasing game, as well.  She sits on the floor and when Owen gets close--squealing all the time--she just gets up and moseys about 4 feet away, cool as a cucumber.  Then she sits down again with her back to him and her tail out like a fishing line.  Repeat endlessly. 

Scout just hates him.  She watches him approach, her ears back, her eyes filled with mistrust and rage.  Then when he gets close she slinks off to a safer corner.  When he loses interest and goes after something else, she turns her baleful yellow eyes toward us.  "Why???  Why???" 

The other day, I closed Scout into the kitchen with Owen and I (there are baby gates at both exits now).  Scout didn't hestitate, she jumped over the gate to safety.  This unexpected kitty behavior struck Owen as absolutely hilarious.  He nearly fell over to the floor, he laughed so hard.  He has a real sense of humor for the unexpected.  If I am walking around and then change to a silly walk of some kind--peals of laughter.  If the cat is sitting calmly on the sofa and then shakes her head, flapping her ears--hilarity.

This leads me to another new development.  Owen is just a lot more clever these days.  He makes up games.  One of his favorite games lately has been 'put it in the bank.'  There are many baby gates around the house these days, and he will take a small toy, crawl over to a gate, and then place the toy between the bars and drop it.  Repeat with another toy.  Then he reaches through the bars to get the toys. 

Two days ago, he figured out how to push buttons (literal buttons, not emotional buttons).  He has a toy cell phone and when the # button is pressed, a very pleasant 5-second song plays.  I have showed him 100 times how to make the song play.  The other day, I showed him and he just understood.  He immediately started to press the # button and then smile to himself, pleased with the song.  It is not a random activity--there are at least 12 other buttons on this thing, some that make beeping sounds, some that play voices.  But he likes the button that plays the song.  He also transferred this understanding to "car-dog", a stuffed animal which plays many, many sounds which I keep in the car in case of traffic jams.  Just as soon as he figured out the # button on the phone, he understood to press the heart on the dog to make it play a song. 

Other fun games: feeding us his finger foods then laughing when we eat them, call-and-response raspberries, lid-flipping (this is a game where he tosses a plastic lid into the air and watches it fall on the tile kitchen floor.  if it starts to spin, Win!  Funny!  If not, try again!), dancing with us (if we do a little dance he wiggles back and forth too).   Driving things on the walls has also been popular on and off (wherein Owen puts a small toy on the wall and releases it to watch how it rolls down the wall and then falls on the floor). 

Perhaps my favorite thing at the moment is that he's really into giving kisses, and they're getting a little more precise (though still completely open-mouthed).  He'll just get it in his head that it's kissing time and give me a bunch of kisses in a row.  So sweet.  

Owen is getting closer to having top two teeth, but the progress stalled just when I thought we would have another birthday tooth. 

Now that he's crawling, he's putting all manner of things in his mouth and he's been sick twice--first with that little cold and then last week with a minor stomach flu, which ended up being a MAJOR stomach flu for me and Noah last weekend.  I figure it must have been a really nasty rotavirus and his vaccine protected him for the most part.  Why don't they re-vaccinate the parents too??  Good god it was horrible. 

Owen is developing new picky food behaviors.  Some days, he only wants foods that he can pick up.  Other days, he wants you to put food in his mouth.  Some days he loves cheese, some days cheese is like bitter poison.  Some days he drinks tons of milk, some days he wants no part of a bottle.  Go figure.  He is getting much longer and another batch of clothes went in the too-small bin last month, but a recent check in at the scale indicates that his weight is at a plateau.  Probably because he's so busy burning those calories all of a sudden.  Another side-effect of crawling: Owen has to wear shoes, or the tops of his poor feet get chafed and dirty from all the rug friction. 

Kitty!

At the Zoo with Friends

 

Slimed

 

Trouble--Now spelled O.W.E.N.

9 Months

There's so much to report this month, I admit I feel a bit overwhelmed by the task.  Let me just begin with a list of new developments and happenings: 

- First tooth--bottom front right--on 9 months birthday!  Its partner tooth 4 days later!  The teeth came as a bit of a surprise in the end.  He's been sort of teething for so long, I guess I thought the teeth would never arrive.  He was picky about his food and very, very clingy for about a week before the tooth appeared.  There was more waking up in the night.  But he didn't have a fever and didn't even seem particularly miserable, except in the night immediately before the tooth broke the surface. 

- Camping!  He got his first tooth after his first night of camping, at Wheeler's Gorge near Ojai.  He loved camping.  The tent, the trees, the picnic table, the birds, the wasps, the ants, the river...  all of it was wonderful.  I can't wait to camp with him next summer, it's going to be so fun. 

- Picky eating!  Finger foods!  Favorite foods: blueberries!  So many blueberries!  Presented with a mixed plate of fruit, cheese, crackers, etc, Owen will pick out the blueberries one by one and reject the remainder.  Other favorites now are applesauce, yogurt, rice, cheese sauce (used judiciously to make beans, broccoli, spinach, etc. acceptable), and the latest: puree of mixed vegetable soup with tiny pasta stars. 

- diaper rash!  This month was the first time Owen had any diaper rash.  I think it was from eating SO many blueberries.  We are being more moderate now.

- Pushups and rolling!  Owen is pushing up to all 4's and is inspiring me to take up yoga again.  He does an amazing pigeon and double-pigeon, and can even do plank for a few seconds.  From all 4's, he can scoot backwards, and just a couple of days ago he learned to scoot backwards into a sitting position.  He can also roll, over and over and over, to get from one side of the room to another.  We have the living room and his room fairly well babyproofed since he is on the move.  This new mobility plus sleep training (see below) has meant we have to use the Pack n' Play for him to sleep in, otherwise he rolls out of bed and bonks his head on the floor in his anger about being left alone to sleep.   

- Weaning!  Owen is just done with nursing.  When he can satisfy that big appetite of his in a few minutes on a bottle, why bother with the boob??  He just wouldn't do it anymore.  I am also pretty done with nursing, so this is a happy coincidence and I did not push the issue too hard.  I have many reasons, but primary among them is that pumping is incredibly time-consuming and with my short work days, it was pretty unmanageable.  It's also just not that fun for anyone when it's a battle. 

Owen is getting mostly formula now.  He seems to like it just fine, in fact maybe better.  I think we all feel good that we made it to 9 months on exclusively breast milk.  The pediatrician said we can start to introduce some whole milk around 11 mos and by 12 mos he can switch entirely to whole milk, so formula will be a short period. 

- Sleep training!  We were having such nap problems, oh my lord.  Naps were the bane of my existence.  There was literally nothing, nothing I could do to help Owen get down for a nap.  After 30 minutes of crying, screaming, squealing, etc he would finally crash for precisely 25 minutes.  And, our new pediatrician told us that Owen can and should be sleeping through the night.  And, after 8+ months of being up at 3 am night after night, Noah and I had reached the point where our desire (need?) to sleep outweighed any concerns we had about going ahead.  Our friends Olivia and Brian hired a sleep trainer to help with their daughter's sleep problems, so I was able to pick Olivia's well-informed brain about how best to proceed.  We initially decided to use a "graduated extinction" method, which means after putting him down, you go in to reassure him that everything is OK after 5 minutes of crying; then again after 10 mins; then again after 15 mins.  This did not work at all.  Owen would be crying at, say, a level 4.  Then we'd go in after 5 minutes to "reassure" him.  Crying would instantaneously escalate to level 8 and remain there, until we came back to "reassure" him again, then it would go to a 10 and remain there.  Instead we found there was much, much less crying and less intense crying if we just left him be.  So, in the end, we turned out to be hard-core Ferberizers.

Amazingly, this worked almost right away for nighttime sleep.  Owen started to sleep through the night consistently after about a week.  Naps have taken much longer.  Most naps still involve substantial crying and then last precisely 25 minutes.  Sometimes--one nap in 4 at home--he sleeps 50 minutes.  He's better with Noah than with me, and Ozie reports that he sleeps 90+ minutes at her place, so I think this has something to do with Owen's awareness that I am here.  At the end of that sleep cycle he wakes up partially, remembers that I'm here, and wants me to come in and see him.  So, we're working on that.  Its better than it was but still a major source of frustration for me.

- Games!  Owen has several new games that are fun for us and for him: for some time he's been enjoying taking his toys out of boxes, but now he's putting them in boxes.  Another fun game is put-it-in-mommy's-mouth.  He will take his pacifier (sophie/piece of bread/whatever) out of his mouth and reach it out to me.  If I grasp it in my teeth he just dissolves into giggles.  Hilarious!

He now plays peek-a-boo pretty independently.  If you put a blanket over his head he becomes perfectly still and waits about 2 seconds.  Then with a great big squeal of delight he pulls the blanket off his head!  Boo!

- Babbling!  Owen's babbles sound much more like words now.  There have even been a few occasions when he said Ma-ma-ma and looked right at me like he was saying it for real.

-Separation anxiety!  When I drop Owen off at Ozie's he shows distinct separation anxiety.  It's pretty cute because he's obviously happy to see Ozie, yet as soon as she reaches out for him he realizes that I'm going to leave and starts to throw a fit.  Ozie is quite adept at making my departure brief and then distracting him with Cookie, her little yappy dog whom Owen ADORES.  I can hear them from outside the gate as I go back to my car.

Ozie: Owen!  Look it's Cookie!  Cookie Cookie! 
Cookie: YAP YAP YAP YAP YAP!
Owen: Waaah waaaaaa waaaaa...  waaa  hee hee waaaah...  HA HA HA!  SQUEEE! 

- Waving, signing, etc...  we aren't quite there yet with waving consistently or any other signs.  Sometimes he'll wave, usually not.  We are working on using baby signs for eating and milk more consistently.

There is probably much more to say, but I'll stop here and try for a mid-month update.  I'm sure crawling will be here before 10 months!