9 months

Owen is 9 months old today!!

As you see, he's learning to use the technology...


He's an aspiring chef....


and a foodie....


definitely a music aficionado...


and a seasoned traveler...


He's bigger than most turkeys...


And a world-class clapper.


and definitely the apple of his mom's eye.

another musician in the family?

This one is for Grams. Making use of those Kinde.rmusik instruments!

Starting to Scoot

Owen is not crawling yet, but I wanted to share this pre-crawling video. He is picking his front end up and just starting to push himself backwards. You can tell it won't be long!

The second video is me trying to capture Owen babbling back and forth with me. It wasn't very successful, but still cute.

August pictures

Owen's 5 month portrait (Aug. 3). He turns 6 months next week!!

Starting back to work has obviously meant that I have less time to post...but I'm finally getting around to processing my pictures from August. Owen is doing so well. He seems to be perfectly content to go to his daycare. He loves the bigger (i.e. 12 month old) kids. He's rolling over. He sits up, but not without my help. He's a really big boy (wearing 9 and 12 months sizes at 5/6 months). He's just as babble-y as ever, waaaaay more aware of his surroundings, and grabbing for things (like people's faces) left and right. He is so happy. He hardly ever cries or fusses. I just don't know how I got so lucky, but believe me, I thank heaven every day! Oh, and did I mention he is sleeping through the night?

Concentrating hard in his fancy bouncer (a loaner from a colleague)!

Peach fuzz. Definitely getting more hair, and it's dark.

I am working at home on Fridays, which is awesome. Here Owen is helping me work by doing a little reading on the French artist, Jacques Callot.


Reading the New Yorker. Yes, he's a reader. And someone may as well read it.

Grapes are Funny

Finally caught Owen laughing...enjoy.

Solid Foods, Back to Work, Jumping, and Bubbles

Well, Owen has grown leaps and bounds since my last post. We started solid foods (so far he has sampled rice cereal and bananas). He has taken to it very quickly. I like it because he seems to sleep better at night! He is getting really sturdy. He was 16 lbs 9 oz at his 4 month checkup. He's 83 percentile for length, and 79th for weight. Big boy.

His mom, that's me, started back to work last week 3 days a week. The first week was really hard. It felt, well, wrong. The strangest thing was going out for lunch, without him obviously. I felt guilty for having a nice time without him. But we are both getting acclimated and doing well. While I am part time he is staying with my next door neighbor, a home daycare provider. When I return full time in mid August I am taking him to a bigger daycare center. I want him to be around other babies his age and make friends.

Here are some videos of his recent developments. I still haven't caught the real belly laugh on film, mostly because I am usually picking him up over my head, or tickling him when it occurs (I would need 3 arms to take video, too). You get just a little bit here though...




He loves his jumper. Absolutely transfixed by the lights and noises...the jumping seems to come just by impulse...




And he is forever blowing bubbles these days. So cute.

In western New York

We are in NY state visiting family for about 3 weeks! It's great sharing my little boy with my family. Can't wait for the cousins, aunts and uncles to arrive next week. Here he is on his first boat ride, with Grams.


And with his grandpa ("Pops"), who is trying to come up with "the" nickname for Owen. So far he calls him the Little Monster, and RumpleChubbskin most often.

And charming the socks off his Great Aunt Gwen (not pictured).


He has changed so much in just the last two weeks. He's started to try to pull himself up! He is totally unsuccessful at this point, but we give him lots of help. He loves it...all of a sudden he wants to be upright as much as possible. He doesn't show any interest in rolling over, though. Here's a little montage of Grams helping him sit up. He really braces for it and tenses all his arm and core muscles...very good for him!



Other recent changes:

he has a full-on BELLY laugh, which is so adorable it's hard to even describe. It is still very selectively deployed.

he has more hair

he has really become aware of his surroundings. He follows voices and people as they come and go. he has also noticed the t.v., which isn't such a great thing.

he is sleeping GREAT. Usually from about 8 at night until between 5 and 6 in the a.m. (Now his mom has to go to bed earlier to get more sleep). He is also taking 2 and sometimes 2-1/2 hour morning naps and long afternoon naps as well.

he is getting better at finding his mouth with toys, hands, whatever

he has a new sound. I call it the mmm mmm sound (well, that's what it is...). He exercises it often!

he has started to notice FOOD. I have a feeling he will be wanting to eat solids sooner than 6 months.