Grandpa's Doggy

The as of yet un-named "Grandpa's Doggy" is fast becoming one of the favorite toys of the bedroom. This is especially true when the doggy comes to "get" Owen. He laughs, shrieks with joy, and grabs the dog to his face. Of course in typical Owen fashion he takes the cuteness down a notch when the camera comes out.. but it is still pretty good. 

Stupid Drumming Monkey!

Owen and I read some books the other day. We started with "Red Hat Green Hat" a riveting tale of animals putting on clothing of different colors. That story ended and we moved to a long time favorite, "Hand Hand Finger Thumb," a classic tale of a monkey drumming on a drum. These were Owen's reactions along the way... 

This is so amazing.

WHAT? Yellow Pants???

This just gets better and better...

Hey! Look, I have a ball

What do you mean "over"

This is crap! This book should not be over yet. 

I HATE THIS MONKEY DRUMMING ON A DRUM

I don't care if "Hand picks an apple, hand picks a plum"

If I hide my head will it go away?

Can I eat it?

$%$#$^@!!! Dum ditty Dum Ditty Dum dum dum my @$$!!!

5 Months

Things we've learned about Owen now that he's five months:

1. He's rolling all over the place, scooting a bit, and is sitting for 10-15 seconds, but hasn't quite mastered sitting up or crawling.

2. Pulling off his socks is his new favorite game.

3. He likes to be read to and enjoys peek-a-boo, patty cake & the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

4. Owen has developed a fear of the hair dryer. I can sometimes talk him down, but usually he gets a really sad look on his face and starts to cry about 30 seconds after I turn it on.

5. His newest motions are to chomp like he's chewing gum and if he gets excited he'll squeeze his hands tightly and stick his hands out to his sides while making a squealing noise.

6. Owen's new bath time ritual is to suck on a washcloth in the bath. He frequently sucks to much water and coughs. He thinks the washcloth is pretty great, and will try to take mine if he's dropped his.

We conquered sleep training this past month and it is no fun for baby or parents. After our trip to Canada we decided it was time to teach Owen how to fall asleep by himself. Our prior routine was to bounce him for a few minutes on the exercise ball while singing him a lullaby and then put him into his crib awake and he'd fall asleep. Well at about 3.5 months that no longer worked. The second my butt left the exercise ball he started screaming. We were getting played. Thankfully after the dreaded sleep training, which based on stories I've been told we had it pretty easy, we have a little boy who quietly puts himself to sleep by having a short conversation with himself. It's pretty darn cute to listen to him. At some point we'll consider training him to sleep longer than 3.5-4 hours at a stretch at night...

Back to Work

Yesterday was my first day back at work. adidas extended me an offer for a regular full-time HR Generalist position when Owen was about one month old and the best part was they were willing to hold the position for me while I took a six month leave. I'll be working three days a week for the next month and then I will be back full-time. Over the past month I've had my doubts if I made the right decision to return to work. I've always been career minded, have really enjoyed my profession and liked working for adidas, but just the thought of bringing Owen to day care and being away from him all day almost brought me to tears. I believe a woman should do whatever makes her happy, work outside of the home or stay at home; a happy mom makes for a happy baby. The million dollar question is am I a happy mom working or staying home? Thankfully I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to discover what will make me happy.

It was incredibly hard to drop the little boy who I love so much, enjoy spending time with and haven't spent an entire day apart from off at day care. I t  w a s  t o u g h. I think I was only able to do so because of my incredibly supportive and amazing husband who hashed and rehashed the topic with me over the past months and assured me that it would all be okay and Owen would still remember who I was at the end of the day and that we found a day care provider, Ms. Kristen, who we really like and think Owen will like as well. 

After basically handing Owen to Ms. Kristen and bolting for the door because I was starting to cry and crying in my car on the way to work, I was able to hold it together for the rest of the day. It helped that I was incredibly busy and got frequent updates and a photo from Ms. Kristen. It looked and sounded like Owen was having a good day. He didn't sleep much, only three 30 minute naps and didn't eat much, 5 oz, but he didn't cry all day and was in a good mood.

Doesn't he look happy?

Minnesota 2nd Edition

Owen and I returned to MN last week for about five days to attend a good friends wedding reception. I thought if we were going to MN of course we couldn't go just for the reception so we spent a few days with my family. It was great to see them again. His Grandma, Grandpa Joe, aunts and uncles and cousins all shower him with attention. He's one lucky little boy.

Owen loves his cousins.

Kaylie changing her very first diaper. She's a great little helper.

Parker & Kellin couldn't get close enough to Owen.

Swinging on a breezy MN fall day.

Kellin & Parker LOVE four-wheeler rides. I'm sure Owen will next summer too.

Kellin looking a little skeptical.

Cherry tomatoes from the garden taste the best.

Our handsome little boy on his 5 month birthday.

Girl's Weekend

My good friend Richelle visited about a week ago for three days. It was a lot of fun to have her here. I wish she lived closer, like next door. We introduced her to Owen, visited a few of Portland's hot spots, including Voodoo Donuts, McMenamins wine country, Multnomah Falls & the Rose Garden. Andrew and I also ran the Warrior Dash with some friends. It was a lot of fun and very dirty. 

Playdate

About a week ago we had dinner with a couple of moms from my mom's group, their babies and husbands. It was the first time Owen paid any attention to any other baby. Owen wanted to grab his little friend Juliet. A few days later I babysat another mom's son Elliot for the afternoon. When Owen saw him playing with his activity mat he didn't know what to do. It was pretty cute to see the two boys notice the other. 

Mmmm... Feet Taste Good

Over the past few days Owen has become increasingly interested in putting his feet into his mouth.

Our Little Camper

We took Owen on his first camping trip this past weekend. We went one night at Stubb Stewart State Park with two other families. Owen did fantastic! He was fortunate to have four other children running around entertaining him and four other adults pampering him with attention. 

Prior to the trip, I was most anxious about how he'd sleep, i.e. if he'd wake all the other campers in the middle of the night. Thankfully, he actually slept pretty well. We had him in a pack n' play in our tent snuggled in a onesie, socks, pajamas, a cotton sleepsack & a fleece sleepsack. He slept from about 8:00 - 10:00 p.m. & 10:40 p.m. - 4:30 a.m. His hands were a bit cold when he woke at 4:30 to nurse so I snuggled him in my sleeping bag. He had fun swatting at the sleeping bag and grabbing my face for an hour before getting just another hour of sleep; Mom didn't really get any sleep after 4:30 a.m. 

We're really looking forward to taking him again next year. Hopefully we'll camp more than just a night.

Chillin' in the Bumbo outside his day tent with Eva.

Enjoying the conversation around the campfire.

Our tent.