Playing Catch

We have been doing lots of floor playtime with Owen lately. He loves to play ball, well let me correct myself, he likes to throw, so we make it into playing catch. The other night I was on the floor with him and I started bouncing a ball to him. He thought it was the funniest thing! Then he would throw it back to me. Daddy decided to grab the video camera and catch the moment on tape. (Yes, this is an actual video from the video camera! Now lets just hope that it works) I even edited a little bit of it out--I know, go me!:)

Back to Where it All Began....well sort of:)

So I finally got around to taking Owen in to the SIRM office to see everyone. We went this morning and it was really nice to see everyone. I didn't get to see Dr. Schultz, but got to see everyone else. They thought he was so cute and he of course charmed them all:) I also got to see the new office. It was SO much bigger than the old one and looked very nice. They even said that they upgraded their "sexy room" (as Tony as aptly named it!!) with a leather chair (well pleather actually) and DVD player! No more small gross bathroom in the back with a few mags honey! I told them that we possibly might be back there in about a year, but we would have to see:) I thanked everyone for everything that they did to help us get our little boy! It was nice to go back and show him off!

Gettin' Low

Well, Tony was greeted this morning by Owen standing up in bed holding onto the side of the crib rail......so that meant his mattress was lowered tonight! It was very sad putting him in bed....he was so far down:( This growing thing is happening way too fast!

Retirement

We have recently retired two very important items/toys from the early part of Owen's life. It was sad to see them relegated to the basement storage room, but they had served us well for 7 months and it was time to give them a break......

The Bouncy Seat: This was probably one of the first things we used and was used most often. Actually when I think back--we used it ALL the time. We used to put him in it and sit him on the table during meal times, when we took showers, and I remember carefully putting him in it so that he wouldn't wake up and sitting him next to me while I was on the couch trying to catch a few ZZZ's during those first weeks at home by myself. Then when I was finally feeling up to it, we would put him in it while we were downstairs working out together. I remember being amazed when he finally was able to reach up and pull the handle so the music could play all by himself....5 green and speckled frogs was always in our heads:) It seemed all too soon that he was starting to "sit a little low" in it and he would much rather be sitting up himself rather than sitting in it......so to storage it went to possibly await another Arms' baby in the future.

The Swing: I remember being very excited when we received this as a gift. He was probably a few weeks old before we put him in it, but he seemed to like it. He spent many a naps in there, especially before he was on his wonderful schedule that he has now. We used to take any time that we could get! In the past several weeks it had not been used much....again he was much happier sitting by himself on the floor...it is much easier to move about when you aren't "strapped in!" So, it was time to retire the swing as well. May it rest peacefully until it is called into duty again:)

Hard to believe he has outgrown those two items already! Time is flying by....coming up on 8 months! Tony downloaded the videos from the camera, so hopefully soon I will upload a few of those for everyone to see:)

Fortune

I met Tony in Peoria on Friday night to do some errand running. We decided to head over to the sushi place for dinner. Owen enjoyed sitting in his highchair and having his dinner of mixed veggies with turkey and applesauce while daddy and I enjoyed ours. At the end of the meal when they brought the check, they gave us 3 fortune cookies. We joked that they had "thought" of Owen. So Tony and I each took one and gave one to him to play with. We ate ours and read our fortunes....one of ours was to go on a vacation-which we are planning on doing soon:) Then Tony opened Owen's fortune....and this is what it said:

"Participation in sports may lead you to a lucrative career."

Let's just say that Daddy is very hopeful that this one will come true:)

Changes

So my I got an email today around noon that has kind of made me sad. It was announcing a new doctor with SIRM. I was hoping that this new doctor would be taking over for one of the many offices located around the country, but I had a sinking feeling that if I was receiving the email that it was probably for the Central Illinois location......and I was right:( Dr. Schultz is leaving on August 15th and a new doctor, Dr. Horowitz, will be taking over. I'm sure he is a great doctor, but I am a little partial to Dr. Schultz because she gave us our miracle baby boy....oh well, it is not something that I will need to worry about for a while. We've decided to wait on talking about trying for another miracle until this first one is a little older......which he seems to be getting all too fast!

Does That Count?

So last Wednesday evening, Tony and I were playing on the floor with Owen working on his crawling skills. Tony got him to take a few "steps" and I remember asking "does that count?" I have a calendar that I got as a gift (thanks Diane B!!) that I am tracking all of his milestones on and I was wondering if I could put the "crawls" sticker on. Tony thought that it counted, so on went the sticker:) Then on Thursday I got a text from my mom saying that he had gone about 6 inches, picked up a toy and then sat down with it......so yes, it definitely counted! So, for the past week we had been enjoying the fact that he WAS crawling, but had yet to figure out that it could take him farther than the 4 or 5 foot radius of his toys. Well, that was until I went to pick him up from my mom's house yesterday afternoon. When I walked in I got the "it's really exciting, but a little sad because it means he's growing up" look. She said that in the past 45 minutes or so that he had "really gotten the hang of it!" So her and grampa demonstrated his new found ability--and then I had the same look she had:)

So last night--yes less than a week after it all began--Tony and I got him on video. It's another one from my cell phone, so it is a little grainy--but you can definitely seem him moving:) (and we do have a really nice video camera that has a video of him crawling--but do you think I can figure out how to transfer the movies!!)

And even tonight he doesn't need to be "enticed" anymore--he just decides that he wants to go places now:) Gone are the days of leaving him in one place and coming back in a minute or two to find him in the relative same place!

Restaurant Talk:)

Owen is definitely a talker...Tony and I took him out to eat over the weekend and he wanted to tell EVERYONE in the restaurant how much he was enjoying himself while he played with his toy. I decided to capture a little bit of it on my cell phone.....enjoy:)

Dedication

Yesterday we had Owen's baby dedication at the church. It was so wonderful to have family and a few close friends there to celebrate with us. We stood up in front of the church and the senior pastor and children's pastor talked about what a miracle Owen was (don't we all already know that!!) and how important it is to raise him in the "right" way. Owen did really well--he watched and listened to both pastor's as they spoke to us. When the senior pastor took him and prayed, he wasn't too sure at first.....but then he realized that he could grab his microphone, so he was all about that! Mommy and Daddy were fast though and remedied that situation (mommy had to attach the microphone back to the pastor's ear while he was praying!!). He started to cry a little towards the end, but overall did great! We had so much family with us, that we took up almost the whole front of the church! We had everyone over for a luncheon afterwards to celebrate, which was a great continuation of our day. It was a day I had been dreaming about for a long time and it was finally able to happen--I will cherish that memory for a long time:)

Oh--and happy birthday Gramma! (She shared her day with Owen)

7 Months Old!

My baby is 7 months old! I cannot believe it! Time seems to be flying by. Everyday he is doing more and more things. It is so neat to get to see him learning new things everyday.

Here is the latest:

• He is sitting up like a pro! It seemed like only a few weeks ago we couldn't sit him up without being right next to him for fear he would fall over and bonk his head on something. Now he can sit for a long time--20 minutes or more just playing by himself with all of his toys.
• Movement: No crawling yet, but he spends lots of time on his belly and we are just waiting for it to happen. He is able to turn around in circles, both when he is sitting and laying on his belly. He is funny when he sits because he takes his hands between his legs and pushes himself backwards. When he is on his belly, he still mostly goes backwards. He attempts to get up on his knees and when they slide out from under him, he ends up back a few inches. In fact yesterday I tried to entice him with both the remote and phone (2 of his favorite things!!) and he ended up about 4 feet away in the wrong direction! We also never know how we will find him in the morning--he is all over the place in his crib!
• He is eating several things--all still made by me mostly. He has eaten a few "processed" foods but only when we are out where there isn't access to a microwave:) He still doesn't like many green veggies, although peas seemed to go better than green beans. He is also eating more than he was before--he has had a few tastes of things from the table, but not many.
• He is still breastfeeding/bottles about 4 times a day. Still can't believe that I am nursing! With how things started out--I literally shake my head when I think about it! He is also drinking water from a sippy cup at meal times and we have just recently put a little bit of apple juice in it--of course heavily watered down:)--and he seems to like that too!
• Sleeping: He has really gotten into a good routine these last couple of weeks. He takes a nap in the morning which usually lasts anywhere from 1-1 1/2 hours and then he takes one in the afternoon that usually lasts 1 1/2-2 hours. At night, he is usually in bed between 8-8:30 and sleeps until 5:30-6:30. So overall he has been doing great in sleep department, which has been really good for mommy and daddy (and gramma too!)
• He is an excellent waver now and he just started clapping last week! Will try to get some video of it, but he still seems to sense when we are trying to get him to do it for video!

It is amazing to us that he is getting so big! I can only imagine how much more he will be doing in another month.....although I really don't want to think about him getting any bigger!

Hanging out with daddy!

For some reason he liked laying in this position:)

Evidence of Movement! He actually started out sitting

up in the Boppy and this is where he was when

I snapped the picture...actually a little bit forward:)

1st Ballgame!

This is a couple of weeks late, but Owen got to go to his first baseball game. We headed to our local Cubs affiliate to enjoy a game and daddy got an autograph from Greg Maddux to put downstairs with our sports memorabilia. He did really good--made it through half of the game before he and mommy needed to head home for bed time! I'm sure it will be only one of many during his lifetime:)

Daddy and Owen enjoying the game together.

Grandpa Steve joined us as well!

Happy 4th!

Owen enjoyed his first 4th of July today. We went to 2 different parties and he did well at both. He didn't make it to see the fireworks....bedtime encroached a little on those plans, but we were very happy with how he did. And so far, he has stayed asleep through all of the booms:)

Chillin' in the grass!