Lobster ala Owey

What a busy last couple weeks we've had.

Owen up to his old tricks...

Exhibit A


Exhibit B
Exhibit C We do question his need for continuously splashing milk on his face...
I really have no idea why he finds this so entertaining.

My big boy, his first attempts to climb the stairs came about a week ago...ugh-nothing is safe now!


Lobster ala Owey!

Bon appetit!
I never thought I'd have a baby be in as much hot water as Owers has been!
Jakers showing off his preschool head band!

My favorite new thing! Owen says "Are you sure this thing is road worthy, mom?"

"Uh oh, I feel a bit car sick"
Hey, this isn't so bad-check me out!
Lovin' my new wheels! (which are really very old used wheels from a yard sale find-$10!!!)
A great day outdoors!



Look at me mom! Did you know I could do this?

Ok, so actually, we did. Owen has been pulling up some for about 2-3 weeks, but today when he pulled up on the gargantuous ottaman like he's been doing it his whole life, we were awestruck It took him like .001 seconds to pull up. So, what baby do you know that struggles to keep his balance sitting but can climb stairs and furniture like a pro? And he's lightning fast too...he can get around this place faster than I can! At the church nursery today (yes, I finally broke down and last weekend was his 1st official complete stay in the nursery and they love him) I was paged to come for him but it was because the crazy baby was so all over the place he slipped on a toy and bumped his head-he was just fine and no mark even. He's even pulling himself up on his exersaucer!
One of the boys last fun outdoor weekends of the summer. They lived it up as you can see from the dirt!

On one last more serious note:

Please pray for us this Wednesday as we travel to Indy, yet again for a gazillionth opinion about Owen. We will see Dr Escobar, Geneticist from St. Vincent's. He saw Owen "unofficially" at the LPA conference we went to back in March. He was really great with Owen and I really am hoping he can look at all the info we have gathered to this point and lead us closer to a diagnosis for Owen.

Pray for our safe travels and for guidance for Dr. Escobar.

AFN, Renay :-)

The Survey Says...

Remember last week when I posed the question: What is this?


Does this help?

How about this...
Yes, yes. It is a nicely vacuumed carpet. It's my favorite room to vacuum. We call it our fireplace room-we've never had a fireplace until this home and we LOVE it! It's an open floor concept just off the kitchen and I LOVE to vacuum this room and then try to keep off the carpet as long as possible (if I do it around bedtime, it means up to 12 hours of undisturbed vacuumed beauty.
We have a great vacuum! Ok, so-I'm losing readership here, huh? Who cares about my vacuumed floor? I get it-but everyone has their quirks (right?) and my house is not spotless-nor even tidy most of the time. I have 3 kids-I learned long ago I could be sane (kinda) with messes and kids or insane with OCD cleanliness and very unhappy kids (and hubby).
So, it's a fun thing for me. Did you know that a thorough vacuuming is 10 passes in the same area? Talk about insanity! I do one pass to get the pretty pattern and call it good.
Thanks to my contributors Amy and Jennifer! You guys get the kuddos on guessing it right! If anyone ever has a great "what is that?" picture to contribute, feel free to email me and share!
AFN ;-)

Do you like seafood?

I do..."see food"!!!

He, he! These are some of my fav pics of Owen feeding himself. He prefers the fistful, clutch method, but he is able to do the pincer-grip method also, where he picks up the puffs with his index finger and thumb. He's becoming quite a pro!


What am I???

I thought I'd try a fun little game of sorts. Every so often, I see something and it intrigues me-like this photo, do you know what it is? I'll post the answer in my next post;-) feel free to COMMENT on your guesses;-)

Owen's first french fry experience...his first thought "Mom, are you sure I should be doing this?"

Hmmm....smells good.

Oh well, I give it a try.

Ummm, good! Yum, YUM!!!

Sometimes he gets a bath just because, but this time, it's cause he needed it-apparently, even the best diapers don't hold 5 pounds of peeps!

It's a little cold in here mom.

Whoa, who's that handsome dude?

Look mom, he's touching my hand!

Is it going to be a bad hair day?

A tale of a naughty boy:

The above picture is what I found the other day after a disciplinary issue I had with, of course, the Jakester. I told him (in desperation to avoid abuse;-) to go to his room.

When I walked into MY room, I see this new fixture on Tim's pillow...

Is it a new ARM belt? No....

Ah, the belt has a face!

And the buckle is broken...

Hey, look how cute I am in my "new" duds...

Ok ,so these aren't new duds, they are hand-me downs. But, I'm stylin'! This is the first time for me in jeans and SHOES!!!

32 years in the making...

September 9th, 1975...oh what a day in history! A special thanks to Tim's parents for making this day possible! :-)
In case you are wondering...a FABULOUSLY sinful Cotton candy Ice cream cake from DQ. Super yum!

And if the picture posts weren't enough...here's an interesting question for you posed by my 7 yr old, TJ.

Why do fish have a heart and lungs like we do (as in humans)?

So, it occurs to me...do most creatures have lungs and for that matter, a heart? Are you worried that a person such as myself, with a college degree-who even got an A in a VERY challenging BIOLOGY class can't answer a simple question from her son about creatures?

Do you know? DO all creatures have hearts and lungs? Like ants for example-do they have LUNGS? I seriously don't know-and the kicker, neither does my genius husband. I guess this is one more reason as to why we don't home school. Feel free to enlighten me with your knowledge-but be nice!

Now and then...

Finally getting to post Owen's measurements from yesterday. This is day 2 BTW, of me being up at 6am-grrrrr.

Ok, enough venting, on to my precious "O".

10 month measurements:

Head circumference now 44.5cm (last month = then), then 44.3cm

Length now 25 1/4 inches, then 24 5/8 inches

Weight now 14 pounds 14 ounces, then 14 pounds 3 ounces

So Owen's not growin' so much. But he is outgrowing his summer clothes. His 0-3 and 3-6 month onesies are getting tight. His size 2 diapers are still perfect though (the longest we've ever had a kiddo in the non-cruisin' diapers;-) I have some VERY cute fall clothes for him but it's all 6-9 months and currently way big.

CDC (Yeah!!! I figured out how to link to other sites all by myself!!!) says a baby in the 50% percentile would weigh 21 1/2 pounds, be 28 3/4 inches and have a head circumference of 45.5 cm

With Owen's size (assuming the 50% percentile range), he's measured up like a 7 month old for head size, a 4 1/2 month old for length, and 4 month old for weight.

Interestingly enough, if you look at the chart that compares weight for length, he is in the 50%!!! See, perfect!

No, I'm not obsessing about what the CDC says (ok, maybe a little), but seeing all his cute pics doesn't put it into perspective what size he is-when's the last time you saw a baby the size of a 4 month old sitting up or crawling? So, I just like to put it into perspective for those of you near and far.

BTW, speaking of far, I have a new link in Owen's friends category...it's for the soon to be born son of Andy and Claire in the UK. They have found out that their Andy Jr. likely has achondroplasia (the most common form of dwarfism/skeletal dysplasia). It's fun to keep up on the progress of the pregnancy and pray for fellow Christians!

In other news, here's a few have-nots that I'm anxiously awaiting:

Owen has not gotten any teeth, nor said any words, waved bye-bye, pulled himself to a stand, crawled well on all fours, sip a straw, and raising his arms to me when he wants up!

There are others I'm sure, but that's just a handful of things we work with him on or watch for.

His therapists all think he is doing so well. Some weeks he doesn't do much new and other weeks (like now) he is a new baby when they come!

One thing Owen is doing that's new is feeding himself!!! He can pick up the little baby food puffs (like cheerios, only dissolve more quickly in your mouth if not chewed) and put them in his mouth! It's so cute. He chews like his dentures are out! SO funny!

Ok, back to my real job now, endless laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc!

Oh brother...

Question: What do you get when you have a busy mommy, a showering daddy and a 3 1/2 yr-old in charge of a ten month old?

Answer: Tears and this nice head injury inflicted by a cabinet door, courtesy of the oh so helpful, Jakester.



What? Did I do that?

Ummm... yep!

So anyway, I'm ecstatic about the injury as it really adds to the 10 month pictures we need to get of Owen. He's 10 months and 1 day and I'm slacking. Tomorrow we go to the MD to get his monthly measurements and we need to head into Penney's for our monthly photo venture as well. This month we'll try bath time pictures, as Owen is finally strong enough to sit in the cute tub they have as a prop. I like to try to get similar poses each month of what the other boys had but in this case, Owen's tub pictures are delayed a bit.

I worked the whole Labor day weekend, but Tim took the boys to our Nephew Grant's 3 yr birthday party (about 3 hours away). While Grant was the star of the party, of course I have no picture to post as none were shot of the budding 3 year old (with our camera), but this cute picture of cousins Owen and Drew was taken. It's so strange to think of another child in our family as more of a baby than my Owen, but when we speak of Drew, we always call him "Baby Drew". He was born mid-April (I can't remember the date, it is so hard to be pre-Alzheimer's, sorry Les), so he's about 4 1/2 months old.

I'll update Owen's vital 10 month statistics soon!