Swim Lessons

Our local YWCA offers swimming lessons, so we thought that we would give them a try. We asked Gramma if she would be interested in taking him one day during the week (she said yes) and then we take him on Saturday mornings. His first lesson was this Wednesday and daddy skipped out on work a little so that he could take him to his first one! I got to go and watch on Saturday. He really enjoys the water! Gramma and I snapped some pictures of his first 2 classes that I thought I would share:)

Wednesday Class Pictures

His 1st class! I think maybe he is enjoying himself:)

Sitting on the edge....well kind of:)

Saturday Class Pictures

Splashing on his tummy and swimming for his toy!

Finally getting to the toy.

Floating on his back.

Kicking away!

Very sleepy at the end (naptime!!)

Being Thankful

So, I know I am a day late, but I wanted to make sure that I did get on and make this post:) I just looked at my post from this time last year. I remember being so filled with excitement at the impending arrival of our new little man.....and now to fast-forward a year later, I am again filled with excitement as we approach his 1st birthday. It amazes me how fast the time has gone and how SO much has happened in just one short year....but I am still very thankful for everything that I have!

I have a wonderful husband who has turned into the most wonderful father that I could have ever imagined, a supportive family who loves us more than we probably know, friends who are amazing, and a little boy who has touched my heart in more ways than there are numbers. I am SO thankful for everything and looking forward to another great year!

B-day Celebration #1

Well, Owen had his first 1st Birthday celebration:) We had to do it early due to some travel/work schedules of some on my side of the family. We also celebrated my "Unky Don's" birthday too:) My Aunt Debbie always makes the cakes and this time she did a great job for his first one.....it was a Monkey Cake made out of cupcakes! We did light the candle, but didn't really get it close enough to him....we had a bad experience with one of my nephews (sorry Aunt Deb!!):) He did a good job, although he really wasn't too interested in the cake. He liked smashing it around in his fingers, but didn't really get into eating it. We wondered if he wasn't very hungry since it was shortly after dinner. It will be interesting to see how he does the next time around!

Monkey Cake! He even had balloons.

Owen and Aunt Deb with the cake.

Getting his fingers dirty....finally!

Squish, Squish!

Kind of getting into it with a little help from Daddy:)

Grandma tried with a spoon, but he was done:)

All By Himself

Well, I had this great plan to slowly wean Owen from breastfeeding. It had been going great, cutting out 1 feeding a week and replacing it with a cup (I decided what was the point in weaning to a bottle when I wanted that to go away by the time he was 1). So, on Monday afternoon I underwent a small medical procedure to fix a few things leftover from delivery. My mom offered to keep Owen overnight and bring him back Tuesday evening when I was feeling better. He didn't seem to miss a beat and nursed fine last night. This morning however he decided that he did not want to nurse. I tried every different trick, but he was not having it. No big deal, we put him in his chair and gave him a cup of milk (we have also slowly been introducing whole milk into his breastmilk/formula combo to help with the transition when he is one--didn't want it to be hard on his tummy) and some cheerios and he was happy as a clam. So, flash forward to tonight. He got his bath, read his stories, then even walked over to me sitting on the couch (our spot for nursing). I pulled him up and got him positioned and he started crying! I couldn't believe it! I tried a couple of times but we figured he had made up his mind. As soon as I walked into the kitchen where Tony was making his cup he was all happy.....So I'm pretty sure he just weaned himself! Not really sure how I feel about it all......but my little baby is definitely growing up!

Weaning

So I mentioned in my 11 month post that we had started the weaning process.....and never in a million years did I think that I would be writing a post about it, but here I am:) We've just been plugging along with the breastfeeding and things have been going well with it, however he is getting close to turning one and we will be leaving on a delayed 10th anniversary vacation shortly thereafter and I made the decision a long time ago to not take my pump.....so I looked at the calendar and decided that I would cut out 1 feeding a week over the next three weeks, which puts me finished up Thanksgiving weekend. I started only pumping once a day at work last week, so this will be my last week of pumping! Not sure what I will do with myself....although I will be sad not to have an excuse to duck out of boring meetings:) My frozen supply has been drained over the past few months as my pumping supply had gone way down, so there is not a lot left of that either. Even though I can't boast that he has never had formula, especially with how the beginning of the process started out for me, I am very proud for making it this far and being able to do this wonderful thing for my baby. It always amazed me how my body was able to provide for him (most of the time) and even through all of my struggles I am happy that I did it. In fact, I get a little sad when I think about not doing it anymore! I will definitely miss "our time" especially in the evening when he is going to sleep......here's to hoping that my plan will work.....or maybe I should say that I'm able to let go:)

11 Months and Tooth #8

I can't believe that 1 month from today we will be celebrating his 1st birthday.......

Teeth: Daddy forgot to inform me after bath time last night that tooth #8 had made an appearance! Gramma mentioned it today when I picked him up:)

Sleeping: We are still holding strong at 2 naps a day:) He continues to sleep through the night, until at least 6:15 which is much nicer than 5:00 on weekends!

Eating: He is still nursing/bottle/cup 4 times a day, although the weaning process has begun (but that is another post in itself!). He basically eats just about anything we are eating, sans anything that they ask to wait until at least a year of age due to allergies. He is a really good eater so far and is even doing better with his green veggies! He still loves yogurt and his new favorite fruit is grapes! He is very good at taking bites and not shoving food in his mouth.....so far:) I'm thinking about slowing starting to introduce some real milk into his bottles to help with the transition when he turns a year old. Probably within the next week or so we will start that and see how it goes.

Mobility: Well contrary to my last post, this section does not just say walking! He is definitely getting much better and braver. We estimated he walked about 15 feet or so last night. He is so funny because he always claps for himself when he reaches his destination~very humble:) I'm guessing that sooner rather than later he will just be walking all the time, but crawling is much more efficient for him at the moment:)

Talking: He is still doing LOTS of babbling. We are pretty sure that he says "Tasker" now, along with pointing at something he wants and saying "that". Usually it is something that he just wants to touch. We are working on lots of words and he is starting to try to repeat a lot of them. He is also getting pretty good at imitating animal sounds~he and daddy practice almost every night:) We haven't really added any new signs, still working on the main few that I mentioned in the last post: milk, all done, more. And of course he still loves waving "goodbye"....which is still my favorite part of the day, sans leaving him of course:)

and now.....PICTURES!

Having fun with Daddy and Tasker!

The library had a story time for babies in the month of October.

Gramma took him and he loved going!

There was one little girl who always tried to kiss him:)

Bath time! We usually end up soaked afterwards:)

Practicing with is horse....before the monster gate was installed:)