Owen 18 months!

Sweet Owen,

You are 18 months old!  Where does the time go?  Your daddy and I were commenting today how you look like such a big boy now.  You have gotten so tall and have quite the personality.

You will eat anything my dear. You are such a good eater and have never been picky.  Your favorites are anything with spaghetti sauce or cheese. 

You are now walking everywhere and are so close to running.   You are getting faster and faster everyday.  We love watching you when you play, because you will squat down to play with your toys.

Your favorite activities are hide and seek (I usually do all the hiding though), peek a boo, singing songs, playing outside, going to the park, anything with music, balls, cars (you've recently started making noises like "vroom vroom" while playing), playing in any water, playing in sand, going on walks, "talking" on the phone, being tickled, reading books with mommy or daddy or to yourself, playing in your room by yourself, and any organizational toy.  We have begun working on colors and letters and you are loving this.  You aren't quite getting it yet,  but I know you will. 

You don't watch a lot of tv, but maybe one show a day.  The only shows you like right now are "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" or "Yo Gabba Gabba." 

You LOVE to talk and although we can't understand you when you really get going sometimes, you are so adorable.  You know where your belly button, nose, mouth, and toes are.   You say car, ball, mommy, daddy, Mawmaw, Pawpaw, Mimi, dog, belly, milk, more, juice, book, and many many more things.  You are very smart and you learn things very quickly. 

You love to give kisses and hugs, high five, knuckles, put clothes in the dryer, turn on and off lights, close doors, throw things away, pick up your toys, and snuggle.  You are our little helper and we love how you love to help. 

Some funny things you have begun doing are barking like a dog when you hear one, telling yourself no no if you know you are doing something you aren't supposed to, walking all over the house talking on the phone, climbing on and off the couch a hundred times in a row, closing the door in our face and saying bye bye as loud as you can, dancing when you hear music anywhere, and laughing when you hear us laughing even if you don't know whats funny.

You are getting your molars in and you are not happy about it.  You have always been a slow teether and we will get through this my little one. 

You are so sweet, loving, fun, hilarious, and a delight to be around.  We get compliments all the time about how well behaved you are and about your red hair and blue eyes.  We love you so much and can't wait to continue to watch you grow baby boy.

Love,

Momma and Dadda

Owen 1 year!

Sweet Owen,

You are 1 years old!  This year has flown by!  Your dad and I love you so much and we know that our love will only grow more and more each year.  You are an absolute delight and we love being your parents.  You are so much fun and we love watching your unique personality develop.  You are quiet and analytical and will sit by one toy or something unfamiliar and try to figure it out.  You also can get upset if you can't figure something out or don't like it.  We think you have a mixture of our two personalities and we love it!  You are developing into a curious little toddler, and one day you will be a little boy, then a teenager, then a man.  We want to raise you to love Jesus and to grow into the man of God that He created you to be.  When we decided to become parents, we could have not asked God for a better son.  You have totally surpassed our expectations of what we thought being parents would be like.  We are so lucky to have you in our lives and we can't wait to continue this adventure of life with you. 

Love always,


Momma and Dadda

Owen 11 months

Sweet boy,

You are 11 months old!  In exactly one month, we will celebrate you being here with us for a full year!  You are such an amazing addition to our family and we truly love you more and more each day. 

You are still crawling everywhere and aren't really showing any interest in walking yet.  That's ok son, because your dad and I were both late walkers.  It must run in the family!  When you see or hear something you really want get to, you will crawl really fast, almost like you are running, and will make a really excited noise.  You are constantly crawling with something in one of your hands.  We say that you can't leave a toy behind!  You also love to stand up by holding anything and everything.

This month, you have become very independent with eating.  You LOVE to feed yourself and we are starting to offer you more foods.  You have had fish, homemade pizza, peas, carrots, grilled cheese, maccaroni, waffles, toast, and anything else that is easy for you to pick up and gum.  You refuse to take a sippy cup with milk, juice, or water and will either throw it on the floor or push it away when we give it to you.  We have also tried different kinds of sippy cups and you are just not having it.  What can I say, you love your bottle!

Since getting tubes, you have felt a lot better!  You have started experimenting with making a lot more sounds and just seem to be in a lot better mood!  Now, you are working on getting more teeth.  You have white spots on several spots on your gums and we are wondering if you are about to have a bunch of teeth appear at the same time!

We haven't weighed or measured you this month, but I know you are growing!  You are outgrowing a lot of your clothes and you just look long like your daddy.

This month, your new favorite word is mama.  That's right, mama.  You say it all the time now!  You used to call everything dadda and now everything is mama, including me!  You also love to echo sounds and will say "uh" when I say "uh oh." 

You love to read books, play with balls or anything else that you can bang on the floor, you are beginning to roll cars, and you love music! 

You will reach out to be held and just recently you started reaching your arm towards something you want.  I love that you are starting to become more independent and your personality is really starting to show! 

You truly are the sweetest baby.  Everyone we meet comments on your red hair, how good you are, or that you are so cute!  You really are all of these things and we cannot imagine our lives without you!

Owen 10 months

Sweet baby,

You are 10 months old!  We are very soon going to start planning your one year birthday party and I hate to admit it, but I get tears just thinking about how big you are already getting!  You have no idea how much joy you bring to our lives!

You are still crawling everywhere!  You are pulling up on everything still and you are starting to cruise while holding onto furniture!  This month, you have also begun to dance!  It is absolutely the cutest thing ever!!!!  You will be standing, crawling, or kneeling and will hear a song and will just start bouncing up and down.  I guess you had no choice but to like music!

You are starting to eat more foods like waffles or toast, cheese, and carrots. You are still taking stage 3 babyfood too.  You are eating snacks once-twice a day now and you like Gerber puffs, pinwheels, cheetos, and Yogurt melts.  You are down to 16 ounces which means only 3 bottles now!  You are starting to take to your sippy cup more now and are starting to hold it by yourself.  You make this cute face where you make your lips look like a monkey when you are really concentrating on picking up food.  It is so cute!

Poor baby, I'm sorry to tell you that you will be getting tubes in your ears this month.  You have either had one long ear infection, or four in a row.   You are on your fourth round of antibiotics and each one has been different.  You also had to get an antibiotic a shot in both thighs. We hate how you had a week where you woke up in the middle of the night, diarrhea, fever, and pulling on your ears.  These last two months, you have been a trooper and have still been such a sweetie throughout this whole ordeal.  We are so excited for you to start feeling better.

You weigh 22 pounds this month!  You are growing like a weed and probably by 5th grade you will either  be as tall or taller than me!  This month, we have really seen a change in your face.  You are looking so much older and are growing into such a handsome little guy! 

You will suck your thumb to soothe yourself when you're tired.  This is always our cue that you need a nap or that you have just had enough!

You are still babbling by saying "dadada" or "bababa".  You started saying a bunch of gar and gr sounds this month too. 

You are so funny when you're tired.  You will start making the funniest noises that sound like you are clearing your throat really loudly.  When you do this, we will do it back to you, and we will go back and forth over and over.  You think it is so funny!

You have started to enjoy peekaboo this month and I will hide behind anything or just my hands and you will giggle when you see me!  Your laugh is so contagious and we absolutely love to hear you giggle!  Your other new favorite thing to do is when I roll the ball to you, you will throw it to me!  You will smile as we do this over and over!  You are also really starting to enjoy hearing stories more and you love looking at the pictures!  It is so sweet to see you as you look at the pictures, or turn the pages. 

You have a tooth cutting through on the top and so with this and the ear infections, you are not a happy camper at times!  I love your little teethy grin!

You had your first Christmas this month!  You had a Christmas with MiMi at our house first, then we traveled all the way to Louisiana for you to meet all of MawMaw's family!  You did soooo good in the car and only had two minor meltdowns.  They loved you and kept commenting on how sweet and laid back you are. Oh yeah, and they also kept saying that you are a big boy!  You didn't really understand the whole Christmas thing.  I would open presents for you and then you would just stare at me or the present like "what is this?"  Now you have a million toys and you are having so much fun exploring all of them! 

Love you pumkin!