Owen's dance partner

Last night we went to Pat's cousins wedding in Wichita. Owen loved being on the dance floor so I was able to stay longer than I've been able to since having him which was fun. I think every wedding I've been to since becoming a mother I've left right after the toasts (at the latest) so it was fun to actually get to stay around and see everything. Owen liked chasing the flower girls around trying to touch their dresses. Not sure he ever succeeded at that though. Then this one little girl walked in and he fell in love :) He followed here around a bit then walked right up to her and hugged her. So adorable. I think he followed her around the dance floor a good chunk of the night trying to give her hugs. (I missed out on most of this since grandma let this mama have a break while she chased him around the dance floor.) I did see that when the little girl gave Owen a hug he ran away. Silly boy! 

Here's a photo that daddy caught

Vroom vroom goes...everything

I have a son that is all boy. The kid loves anything with wheels and I'm constantly hearing car sounds throughout the day. Owen loves driving his cars or trucks or tractors all around the house vroom vrooming them wherever he goes. He also loves books with trucks/cars/tractors. I found a book at the library yesterday that was about tractors and had to read it 4 times last night before going to bed. He wanted to look through it more times but I was done. We had this with one other book recently - Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose. Over and over and over. I love how much he enjoys books though so I'd rather have him ask for the same book over and over than not want to read any.

Owen has become an excellent walker and my days are now filled with chasing him around the house or outside. He's suffered a few skinned knees but usually just needs a quick snuggle before he wants to go again. I let him walk around the parking lot after we got home one day and he fell right on his knees and knowing how that feels I picked him up right away and instead of crying he was trying to grab his knees while saying "ooo ooo ooo". That was about 20 seconds and then it was time to run again. He's gotten pretty quick too which I'm still getting used to and does not feel the need to stay close to mom or dad when out of the house.

A few weeks ago Owen got to be a ring bearer in my sisters wedding and he (along with his cousins) was ADORABLE. I had made bow ties for the 3 little boys to wear and it was almost to much cuteness to handle. I failed to take even one picture the whole day which was really unfortunate. I think the photographer got some good ones of just Owen so I'm hoping to somehow get a hold of them.
Amanda's wedding day was beautiful and it was so good to spend some time with family although it was short.

(I wrote this post over several days so if I say yesterday or today it's more likely to be weeks ago)

I'll try not to neglect this blog so much in the future.

Trucks go everywhere with this kid

hugs and signs

Owen started giving "hugs" and they are the sweetest thing in the world. Whenever we as for a hug he just drops his head on whatever is nearest him. Sometimes we get a hug on the chest or the leg and sometimes it's the floor or a pillow. We love it!

Owen likes to pretend talk on the phone which is funny. He never sees me on the phone so I don't know how he picked it up but he did.

Owen's added a few more signs in the last week:
Outside (he may have been doing this one for a while but I just noticed because it's very similar to bird and duck and airplane)
Pear
Phone
Hat
Play (this is a for sure now)
Hot (for sure now)
Moon (it's pretty much the same as airplane)

walking and "talking"

I am doing a terrible job of updating lately. It definitely hasn't been for a lack of thing to write about. I guess it's just what happens when you have a very active toddler.

Owen is walking more and more although his balance still needs some work. He's choosing to walk more on his own and we don't really have to prod him much. One day he impressed me by squatting down when he started to lose his balance then standing right back up as soon as he had steadied himself.

His curiosity has not waned at all so he spends a lot of time opening drawers and cupboard doors, pointing and "uhh!"ing so that I will tell him what something is. His curiosity still gets him into trouble when he wants to look in the garbage can after mommy has said no several times, or just needs to be reminded what those buttons on the dvd player do, and sometimes it's just "I wonder if mom and dad REALLY mean no?"

Owen and I survived 4.5 days without daddy 2 weeks ago. It was not easy and further confirmed that I could not make it as a single parent. Being the sole disciplinarian was the hardest part I think. Pat and I tried to FaceTime once while Owen was up and it did not go well. Owen got very upset about only seeing daddy (as well as not being able to touch the iPad). We didn't try again! Pat's leaving for a few days in July so we might have to figure out a trip somewhere or have an auntie come stay with us ;) I wish I could say I had a good attitude while Pat was gone and tried to make the most of that time but I really was just in survival mode. Maybe next time. We had one morning where Owen would not go down for his nap and just cried every time I left the room so I sat in the rocker with him and he fell asleep in my lap for a while then I managed to put him back in his bed while he stayed asleep. I can't remember the last time I've laid him down asleep. It was fun to have some snuggle time as well as my usual time while he naps.

We turned our basement into Owen's playroom a couple of weeks ago and Pat is moving his "office" to our bedroom. It's nice to have a place for Owen that doesn't have anything in it that he can't touch. Our only issue is that he likes to climb the stairs so I'm going to have to look harder for a gate. The hard part of rearranging is finding a place for all of the stuff that was in the basement that can no longer go there. We've been working on getting rid of as much stuff as possible but it's tough!

We mad a quick trip to KC last weekend to celebrate Grandpa Downes' birthday. Pat and I got to go to a few garage sales on Saturday while Owen stayed with Grandma. We had a great time down there! We're leaving on Friday to go see my family so another few hours in the car for Owen. My sister is having a bridal shower on Saturday so we're looking forward to another weekend with more grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins this time!

Yesterday Owen was super cute while I was holding him. I had him on my hip and was looking in his dresser for some clothes and my hair was kind of in my face since I was looking down. He all of the sudden leaned forward to look at my face, smiled, then straightened back up. (Hopefully that description explains it well enough.) He did it over and over which was so fun.

We still haven't figured out if Owen has said any real words yet. He's been trying more lately it seems and Pat is pretty sure that he said "hawkeye" the other day. He loves to point out Hawkeye and Jayhawk logos. Pat has been teaching him to see "rock chalk" whenever he sees a jayhawk so I'm sure that will happen soon enough.

He is still obsessed with buttons and continues to point and grunt until you let him touch all of them.

Owen went through a growth spurt in the last 6 weeks or so. I had just started putting him in 12 month clothes 2-3 months ago and I'm already pulling out 18 month stuff. He's gotten so tall!

We think Owen had a nightmare the other night because he woke up about 2 hours after going to bed crying a scared cry that escalated really quickly. Pat ran up there to check on him because it was not a cry that we usually hear. He was fine after sitting with daddy for a bit though. I think hearing him cry from being afraid is worse than hearing him cry in pain.

This kid is picking up sign language so fast that it is amazing. It blows me away considering he didn't start signing until right around his birthday. Here are the words he knows although I'll probably forget some:

more
eat
milk
water
drink
all done
thank you
please
banana
apple
chicken
sleep (this one he just started tonight)
car
airplane
cat
dog
bird
duck
bear
leaf
play (this is a maybe)
fan
hot (kind of)
light
star
baby
shoes
toothbrush
ball

And these are some that Owen made up:
music - bops his arm up and down. He does this when he wants me to play music and it's also how he dances.
I want to watch Signing Time - stands in front of the tv and taps his pointers together.

I'm loving being able to communicate with him even when there are times I cannot figure out what he's trying to sign. I figure it would be the same if he was saying words though.

Owen started blowing kisses to people which nobody doesn't like! :)

This post got pretty wordy. Sorry about that. I'll try to find some photos soon!

Steps

Owen took his first steps yesterday! He's very nervous about it and won't do more than 2-3 at a time. It's so cute because he has this excited yet terrified look and laugh while he's doing it. Almost like he can see the freedom he's about to have which is exciting but still scary.
My friend Mindy was here with her little boy that is almost 7 months old and Owen had just whacked Sam with a plastic baseball bat and so Mindy was holding Sam and Owen I guess really wanted to go check on him and since he was standing he just took a couple of steps. He gets scared once he realizes what he's about to do or is already doing and just hits the floor.
I know everyone tells me to enjoy the time before he's walking which I have, but I am so ready for this stage.

Owen has become a FANTASTIC sleeper lately and I can take zero credit for it. He's been sleeping 11-12 hours straight at night then will take one 1.5-2 hour nap and then another nap that's around an hour. He's been doing this consistently for the last few weeks so I'm okay with sharing it here :-) I do think that the transition to 1 nap will be coming soon as he seems to be able to stay awake longer in the morning. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet!

Owen's become clingier lately. Pat dropped him off in the nursery on Sunday morning and Owen didn't want to let go and gave Pat the saddest face. We had our MOPS group on Tuesday morning and he did the same thing for me. They said he was fine until moms started coming to pick up their kids and he got sadder as he saw kids leaving. Up until now he's always gone to other people with no problem so this is new!

Owen has made it known that he knows what he cannot touch lately. He'll often point to things, usually cords, and just shake his head. Usually he has enough self-control to keep from touching things but there are definitely times where the desire outweighs the consequence. He like to pull himself up on the tv stand which is fine but he knows he's not supposed to touch the dvd player or the Xbox. Those times where the desire to touch them takes over and he gets caught and hears me say "no" he will instantly pull his hands away and put the on the other shelf like "I'm not doing anything mom!" The one thing I'm going to have to work on is that there are many times where he will continue to disobey until he sees me move towards him. Our goal in training him is that the time to obey is the first time and not when mom or dad start moving. We won't be doing the counting strategy around here.

I don't want that last paragraph to be the end of this post so here are are few photos and videos of Owen to end things on a happy note!

Am I really going to do this??

I'm doing it!!

Love love love this face. He's also wearing one of Pat's old outfits.

Watching some basketball and eating graham crackers.

Owen LOVES daddy's guitar. Pat led worship on Sunday morning and Owen got so sad when I wouldn't let him crawl up to the stage. He's become and huge fan of daddy in general too.

East coast trip

2 weeks ago we took a trip to Virginia to see our dear friends Joel and Tori with a stop in Kentucky to see my brother and his family. We left at 5am hoping that Owen would sleep for a couple of hours since he doesn't usually wake up until after 7. No such luck. He didn't nap well in the van like we had hoped. I don't think he slept more than 30 minutes at a time and it was only 2-3 of those a day. It was quite maddening. He actually did quite well despite the lack of sleep. I think it helped that we took a day off of driving on the way there to spend in Louisville so he didn't have two days of terrible naps and being confined in a car seat. It was so great to spend some time with family albeit short, as well as a few days with great friends that we have managed to stay close with even though we haven't lived in the same place for more than 4 years.

We spent all of Tuesday with Andrew and Bekah and the kiddos which was great. I love seeing their family and taking in the wisdom they have to offer. Being with family is such a comfortable place to be. The weather was pretty rainy while we were there so we didn't really venture out. We left their house on Wednesday morning at 5am again with the same sleeping results for Owen and arrived in Virginia Beach around 6pm.

We didn't get to see as many sites as we had hoped because we had forgotten to take kids naps into account but we did get to go to the beach and Owen and I saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time! Tori and I hit up several thrift stores sans kids which was a good time. Owen came back with lots of new clothes.
We haven't felt like we've made very close connections with people since leaving Ames so it was very refreshing to spend a few days with them and we're so thankful that we've been able to keep that friendship going.

We left Joel and Tori's on Sunday after going to their church and drove about 45 minutes to Williamsburg to see some more dear friends (Hi Bob and Nancy! Thanks for letting us stay with you and for showing us around!) Pat has known them since highschool and I met them the summer that Pat and I were engaged when we went to AtlantaFest. They've played a huge role in Pat's life and it was great to see them again and have them meet Owen. They are full of godly wisdom and so welcoming. They were gracious enough to show us around Williamsburg and the William and Mary campus which was beautiful. It was so fun being in such a historical place and hearing about all of the things that happened there so many years ago. We look forward to going back again and being able to show Owen a history lesson rather than just reading about it. Bob and Nancy have a beautiful home with a great deck that we spent a couple of hours enjoying after Owen went to bed. 

We decided that this leaving at 5am thing was for the birds and did not benefit any of us so Monday morning we left around 8:30am and drove back to Louisville stayed the night and started the final leg around 9:30am on Tuesday and got home around 5pm. We were so ready to get home at that point so we just pushed through as quick as we could. Owen cried the last couple of hours and was pretty inconsolable for the last 45 minutes or so. Those last two days were rough on him since they were spent in the car with not much of a break. 

When we left home on Monday morning it was just starting to snow and then while we were driving through Eastern Virginia on Wednesday we met up with the same snow storm (I think) and it made for some slow driving. I couldn't believe the amount of snow there was and during one stretch there were trees down on the freeways blocking one lane at least every mile. We stopped at one exit for a bathroom break and there were maybe 3 gas stations and a McDonald's. The McDonald's was closed "due to the weather" and only 1 gas station was open and there were 30-40 cars lined up. We didn't think it was that bad so we were a little nervous that we were about to encounter something pretty terrible. Although there ended up being quite a bit of snow during one stretch I believe that people from the Midwest have a very different definition of bad weather than those that live in the Southeast. :) When we left the following Monday we saw all of those downed trees being turned into mulch on the side of the road.

Wednesday morning Owen woke up with a fever that got up to 102º and stuck around for a couple of days. Poor guy was pretty miserable. I think part of it was from lack of sleep and we're pretty sure his molars are coming through so we didn't leave the house for 3 days with the exception of a 30 minute walk on Friday afternoon because it was too nice outside. One of those days I think he slept at least 4 hours during the day and most of that night as well so I think he was playing a little catch up. He seems to be doing a lot better and hasn't had a fever since Friday morning but you can tell his mouth is still bothering him and I have yet to see any white poke through so who knows how long this will last.

Here are some photos from our adventure!

Owen and Weston watching the rain

Smoky Mountains

The snow was weighing down the trees.

Trees in the road

Owen loved the beach

It was so cold!

Owen enjoyed pointing at all of the birds

The next 5 photos were taken in Williamsburg at the William and Mary campus.

Meeting Thomas Jefferson

Owen loved his face

I was taking pictures of the snow and Owen really wanted to be included

Because nothing is sweeter than a sleeping baby

New favorite game of pulling all of the books off of the shelves

Watching some Signing Time

This is between the door and Owen's seat. After a while everything just got pitched over the side.

Little explorer

Owen has started taking his curiosity all of the house. I think he has opened every door and looked in every corner he can get to. He also learned how to climb the steps recently. One day I looked away for a minute and when I looked up again I just saw 1 little foot peaking out from the bottom of the stairs. He slipped on the third step and bumped his face a little bit which stalled him for a few days but he tried again and made it all the way up!
He's been nursing more often and eating less table food and I'm not sure if one is causing the other. I have no intention of weaning him any time soon since that is not a battle I want to deal with. He's nursing usually 4 times a day but usually asks more often than that.
He's been signing a lot lately which is fun but he has about 3 signs that mean 6-7 things.
I counted the other day that he knows about 10 signs but doesn't always use them. He'll properly sign milk, eat, all done, fan and used to say more correctly but now more, please and eat are the same. He'll occasionally sign bird, dog and water. Owen also learned to pray before his meals which we love. We'll put him into his highchair then say "let's pray!" And he'll put his hands together while we pray. We borrowed some Signing Time DVDs from the library several weeks ago and he seems to enjoy them and I think they've helped him learn.
Owen hasn't been feeling well all day. He's been running a fever of around 101-102 which is sad to see but I'm loving the cuddles I'm getting. I think he may be getting molars in because he's been trying to chew on stuff in the back of his mouth. He ran a fever when his top teeth came in too so maybe that's all it is. He slept about 4.5 hours today so I'm hoping he still sleeps tonight and feels better tomorrow. Since we were traveling 2 days in a row he didn't get a real nap in either of those days which probably wore him out as well.