Week 46 - May Long Weekend

It's hard to beleive but there are only 6 weeks left of Owen's 1st year. Thinking back to last year on Victoria Day weekend I was very pregnant at this point and counting down to my last few weeks of work.  Now I am trying to cherish my last few weeks of mat leave and quality time with Owen. Here is a picture of me last year on Victoria day weekend at 34 weeks pregnant and here is a video I took that weekend of Owen moving in my belly:

This year for Victoria day we had a great weekend with lots of good new memories.  Owen, Daddy and I wet to the Drive In movies. We did this last summer when Owen was 6 weeks old, but this time it was much different as Owen got to play at the playground including going on the swings and in a bouncy castle for the first time.  He also loved the old school music they played before the movie and had lots of fun dancing and laughing along to it. He also enjoyed some of his baby crackers while we had some junk food.  He sat inbetween us for the first 20 minutes or so of the movie, but then fell asleep. It was a nice family night.

 Enjoying the Drive In with Daddy

On the swings. He loved watching all the other kids.

He loved this slide!

On Sunday of the long weekend Owen and I took a trip to the Butterfly conservatory with Jen.
Butterfly's remind us of Owen's dear friend in heaven, Jen's daughter Angel, so it was very nice and peaceful and beautiful to visit this place.  Despite how hot and humid it was inside the conservatory on a very hot day, we had a nice afternoon and saw lots of pretty butterflies, turtles, birds and fish. Owen liked the waterfall alot too. 

When we got home on Sunday we went to a BBQ at our neighbors who live across the street from us. Here is a pic of Owen having fun with his neighborhood friends Julia and Ella in their backyard. Julia is 6 and Ella is 3 - Owen is only 10 months old. He really isn't that much smaller than either of them, actually Ella and Owen wear the same size diapers!

Ella and Julia have a bouncy castle in their backyard. Owen LOVED it! We are thinking of getting one for him for his 1st birthday.

They also have a hot tub which he also loved and ended up in it shortly after this picture was taken.

Week 45- 10.5 Months Old!

Owen is getting bigger and bigger everyday.  He is definitely one of the tallest and biggest of his friends his age.  He towers over most of the girls. We haven't gotten him weighed officially but at 9 months he was 23 lbs. On our home scale he weighs in at 24.5 lbs (most of his little girl friends are around 16-20 lbs, so there is a big differance) He is also getting cuter and cuter every day with more and more personality. 

His milestones this week were climbing the stairs all by himself. He motors right up them and doesn't need help at all (well we are right behind him in case he falls backwards).  You can tell he is very proud of himself.  He still has no teeth and is the only of his friends with no teeth at this point. But that doesn't stop him from eating lots of solids. His favorite right now is watermelon. He LOVES it, but is very messy!

Enjoying some watermelon and goat cheese

Owen is enrolled in a weekly class at the Burlington Parent Child centre right now called Baby Picasso. They do arts and crafts each week and he has lots of fun. Here is a pic of him last week doing some body painting.

 Playing on the toys at Baby Picasso

We took a trip to the Toronto Zoo last week with a bunch of Owen's friends- Kaitlyn, Annabelle, and Alistair. We saw Elephants, Giraffes, Zebras, Polar bears, penguins, worthogs and the list goes on. We were only there for a couple of hours so only saw a fraction of the animals there. We will need to go back again soon.

 Visiting the elephants at the Toronto zoo

 Fun at the park

Finally Finished his first bottle of Shampoo and Body Wash

It took over 10 months, but Owen finally finished his first bottle of baby shampoo and body wash. It's hard to believe these have lasted his whole life so far ( almost 10 months). We bath him every day but only wash his hair every second day. The fact that it has lasted this long feels like a milestone, lol. In a way I am kind of sad to throw away the empty bottles.

Happy Mother's Day!

Week 44 - 10 months, 1 week old

 Playing with the train table at the Oakville Library

 having fun with his buddy Kaitlyn in the play house

 Owen seems to love playing with toy kitchens. Maybe he will take after his Dad and become a good cook!

 Owen and Kaitlyn (6 days apart)

 Good morning- bed head!

 Practicing walking with Dad

Chilling outside on the front porch in his pack and play, enjoying a cracker. Don't you love his chubby legs! lol

Almost Walking


Owen likes the kitchen!



Owen likes his Elmo song

Week 43 - 10 Months Old!

Owen is now 10 months old! Only 2 months left of mat leave...can't believe it!  It's been such an amazing last 10 months with Owen, so incredibly wonderful. He brings so much happiness to Nick and I and makes our hearts melt on a daily basis.

Right now he is becoming very close to walking. If we stand him up and ask him to walk from one of us to the other, he will. He is yet to get up and walk somewhere on his own- he still gets places by crawling. But I am proud to announce that he is no longer doing the wounded soldier like crawl. He now is doing a full on crawl on his hands and his knees and boy is he fast!

This week we have also been giving him his own spoon and he has been using it to feed himself. We have to put the food on the spoon, but then we hand it to him and he puts it in his mouth. You can tell he is proud of himself.  He is also getting good at sharing. Nick will say "Can I have that" and he will smile and give it to Nick.

 

Owen having fun with some pals in a ballroom for the first time

Visit with his new friend Rishann born in early March and his big brother Rohan (2.5 years old)

Rishann

Owen finally meets his buddy Jacob born in late February.

Week 42 (9 months, 3 weeks old) - Visit to the Dutch Mill in Waterdown, Ontario

We went to a little farm / petting zoo in Waterdown Ontario on Tuesday with a couple of Owen's friends and Mom's. It was a nice day and we had fun.

Owen with his buddies Alistair (June 30), Kaitlyn (July 7) and Owen (July 2)

I think the Mom's were having more fun than the babies! lol

Crawling through the tunnel

Just hanging out with Stewie the goat

Owen’s newest thing is pulling himself up from sitting/crawling to standing and will do it on any surface or wall he can find. It is like he is obsessed with it. Sometimes he pulls himself up by grabbing my hair or my shirt and using that as his stability. Today in Babies First Story time class he was grabbing other babies heads and hair and trying to pull himself up- he tried to pull the hair clip out of one little girls hair and then tried to use her pants to pull himself up and nearly pulled her pants down! Then he grabbed him friend Ksenia’s face and made her cry!  He is also getting into everything. He just loves exploring. He will make his way around the room holding on to furniture and the wall and grabbing everything in its path. Today when we were upstairs in his room he was standing at his bookshelf and pulling each book off at a time and throwing it on the floor. He did the same at his toy box.  He is very interested in everything and just wants to touch and learn. His crawling is getting better and he is almost doing a real crawl versus a wounded soldier crawl. He is getting much faster and you have to watch his every move

He also loves to show off his tricks of waving, clapping his hands/paddy cake, and high fives.  He is starting to understand games like peek a boo, and his favorite is when he drops something on the ground and I pick it up and give it back to him and he drops it again or taking off my sunglasses and then I put them back on and then he takes them off again etc.  Some of his favorite non toy items seem to be keys, tv changers, and recently he has been having fun with Charlie’s empty food bowl. Nick gave him a wooden spoon yesterday and he spent about 20 mins banging it on Charlie’s bowl.

.Lately he seems to becoming more attached to me. He seems to always want me to hold him and gets mad/sad when I leave the room and very happy when he sees me. It is nice that he is attached to me but it makes me nervous for when he starts daycare in a couple of months.  I am going to try to take him to the Good Life Fitness daycare more often so that he can get used to it.

Two nights ago Nick and I were playing with Owen and all of a sudden I noticed some redish/pinkish stains on his collar of his shirt. Since Nick fed him dinner I asked him what he fed him that was red/pink. He said he didn't feed him anything that color. Thats when we realized it was blood and was coming from his mouth. We both started to get scared and Owen started crying when we tried to touch his mouth to see what it was. When he finally let us see his mouth we found a good size rock in there! He must have picked it up off the floor at the front door where Nick takes his work boots off. However, when we noticed this blood he had been upstairs for probably 15 mins, so that means he had the rock in his mouth for at least that long and was chewing on it! That was scary! First a peanut when we were in Florida, now a rock, what is next!?

Week 41- 2nd Trip to Florida this Winter!

Owen got to take a second trip to Florida this winter and this time got to finally meet his Aunt Sandra and got to see his Uncle Andrew again, as well as Grammy and Grampy Russell. We had a great time.  Owen was so well behaved on the plane both there and back. He gave all the other passengers so many smiles and waves and was the centre of attention.  Once we arrived to Florida he had a great time playing and visiting with Sandra and Andrew. I could tell that he really loves them. He got lots of nice gifts from the including a little mexican guitar, a wooden doggy that he loves, and some nice clothes, shoes and hat.  He had lots of fun going to the beach each day and playing in the sand. He put his feet in the ocean a few times but this time couldn't go swimming as the waves were too big each day (but that was lots of fun for us!). He spent lots of quality time with Grammy this trip as she baby sat him almost every night and gave him a bath and put him to bed each night (so Mommy could go out with Sandra and Andrew). He was a good boy for Grammy this time and went to bed very well for her each night.  Overall it was a wonderful trip and so amazing to spend time with Sandra and Andrew. Can't wait to see them again soon!

 Finally Owen meets his Aunt Sandra, and also got to see his Uncle Andrew again. He loves them both so much.

 Finally we are all together!

 Owen loves his Aunt Sandra

 Beach Babe

 Having fun with Grammy

 Happy boy at the beach

 Riding on Grampy's Golf car with him

Practicing his walking with Uncle Andrew and Aunt Sandra

Week 40 (9 months, 1 week old)

The last few days have been some big days for Owen. He started waving this past weekend and now has really mastered it and when you say “Hi Owen” to him he really waves at you and you can tell he is so proud of himself!Owen has been sitting on his own since he was 5 months old and has been standing since 6 months, but only when we put him in those positions. He was never able to get himself from laying down to sitting, or sitting to standing. This morning (today he is 9 months and 9 days old) during his morning nap I looked in the video monitor and he was sitting up in his crib! He was all smiles.Then during his afternoon nap when I went in to his room, he was standing in his crib. He did all of this in one day! After his nap I left him in his crib to play with some toys while I was doing my hair. I kept going in his room and he would be standing in his crib. I would then sit him back down (since we hadn’t lowered his crib yet I was worried he may tumble over it) and then would hear some giggling and went back in and he was standing up again. This pattern happened 3 times in a row (I think he thought it was a game).It was super cute but I think we may have some challenges for nap times coming up! Today he was also very vocal. He was saying “da da da da da” all day and also making a clicking sound with his tongue. I love this age, its so much fun to see him growing and learning!!