Mow, Mow, Mow

Owen has added to his outside addiction....he is now enthralled by mowing. He loves to watch Tony mow.....or anyone else for that matter! If he hears someone in the neighborhood mowing, he points to the door and says "mow, mow, mow"! The boy's eardrums apparently don't have enough room to vibrate due to fluid...but he can definitely hear when a mower is running!

A few weeks ago we went to a cookout at a friends house and they had a couple of play mowers...and he was in heaven! The next day we went out and bought him the bubble mower. We waited a few weeks before we put bubbles in it...but he could care less about the bubbles! If he is outside, he is mowing:) He prefers to mow the sidewalk because it is easier to push, but when Daddy is outside mowing, he wants to be in on the action! Tony asked if they made mowers for kids that actually worked....he thought it would help cut down on his work:) The last time we were outside, I snapped a few pictures of him in action.....

Helping Daddy out....on the part he already mowed:)

Ugh....its hard to push in the grass!

Ok, I'm right behind you dad....

Wait up! Did I mention it's a little hard to push in the grass!

Workin' with Daddy

After the ENT appt last week, we brought Tony back to work and Owen and I decided to get out and say hi to everyone. Daddy then decided to show him all of his cool toys....lets just say that Owen will love to visit Daddy at work:) In fact....he cried when we had to leave!

Driving the cart with Daddy:)

Working with the forklift.

In the BIG tractor!

ENT Appt

Owen finally saw the ENT on Friday of last week. We picked up Daddy on the way and headed over to the office. When we first saw the doctor he asked us a little about his history and why we had been referred after really only 1 ear infection. We told him how bad it had been and that we had to go through 3 antibiotics before it cleared....and he began to understand:) He checked his ears and he had fluid in his right one....which we knew about, but his left one was looking good. He wanted us to meet with his audiologist and have his hearing checked and then we could have a "discussion" about where we thought we needed to go after that. So we headed to the other side of the office.

When we met with the audiologist, she first checked how his ear drums were vibrating by giving him a little puff of air into each ear. His right ear was basically flat (fluid) and his left had a little movement, but not full range. I then went with him into the sound-proof booth and he sat on my lap. I had to look straight forward and not give any indication that I was hearing anything so as not to disrupt the test. She got a little bit out of him before his 18-month boy wiggles got the best of him...even with mommy trying to wrangle him:) We then headed back to meet with the doctor.

When the doctor returned he said that the audiologist thought he heard ok with some sounds but not so good with others. He also said that after reviewing his chart again (which is something I thought they were supposed to do before we came in for the visit!!) that his right ear drum had been registering "flat" for basically 3 months, so he thought we just needed to go straight to tubes....so much for a discussion:) Tony and I agreed with him though. While he is talking, his words do not seem to be getting any clearer so we were beginning to wonder ourselves about how well he had been hearing lately. While we aren't too keen on the fact of him having to go under anesthesia, we do want him to be able to hear!

So then it was time to get the surgery scheduled....we headed off to meet with the scheduler. She went over everything with us and then when we started talking dates....the first one in which they could get him in was Aug. 11th! So I guess another 6 weeks of not being able to hear clearly is not too big of a deal.....we aren't too happy with that, but figured we better take what we could get! So hopefully now we can keep him ear infection free until Aug.....

Test Post

I have been having trouble with my blog/blogger ever since Tony upgraded to Internet Explorer 9. We thought it was our computer....but alas after some research we found that there were all kinds of issues with IE9 and blogger. So, I now know why I could type all I wanted but the "publish" button never worked! I always had to go to another computer to be able to publish....which usually meant going to work and hitting the button in my spare seconds:) It also explains all the crazy formatting that was starting to happen with my last couple of posts.....So now, I'm trying to post using Google Chrome....lets hope it works!

*****It Did!****

18 months

Sorry for the delay in posting. Our computer was on the fritz and we had to take it in to be serviced....so I just got it back:)

Here are his stats from his appt last week:

Height: 33 1/2 inches (75%-90%)

Weight: 23lbs 9ozs (10%-25%)

Head: 49 cm (75%)

Overall he continues to be a tall skinny boy. We were happy that his weight was back up into the 10%-25% range. He still continues to be a good, healthy eater so we are pleased with that. He still has not been big into meat, but recently he has been eating more with us at dinner. Cheese, vegetables, and fruit continue to be his favorites:) He is talking more and more which is really neat to hear.

His appt went well and he checked out healthy. He had a little fluid in his right ear and the doctor was waiting to hear what would be happening as a result of our ENT appointment (which was today...more on that in another post). Unfortunately earlier this week he came down with a fever and a pretty nasty cough. We took him into the doctor and the fluid had turned into another ear infection....so he is on antibiotics now. We were definitely ready to get into the ENT at this point!

He is a growing and happy boy...who is still mostly a momma's boy! Daddy feels a little left out sometimes, but I keep reminding him that he loves him and pretty soon he'll be outside playing sports with daddy and leaving mommy on the sidelines:)

Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks:

He loves to lay sideways in his crib....this is the result:) And we love how he shoves his little blankets underneath him!

He has been more insistent on doing things himself lately, especially when it comes to feeding himself. Here is one of the first nights using a spoon and eating yogurt.

He did pretty good, but you can see by the end he had it everywhere....even up by his eyes!

I had a peach for lunch one day and he had to have one too...of course, all by himself:)

Tooth #15

I felt around tonight in the bath and tooth #15 had finally popped through! It is the top left eye tooth....he seems to be a left-side first kind of boy:) One more to go....well until the 2 year molars:)

Same old, same old

So, I know I said I would be better about posting.....but I have not been! Time just seems to get away from me these days! But now I am officially on summer vacation....well, I go back on Monday for 1/2 days, 4 days a week, so I count that as my vacation:) I hope to have more time in the afternoons to get caught up on the millions of posts I have floating around in my head!

For now though, things are going pretty well. It is hard to believe that he will be 18 months old in just 2 short days! We have our well-baby appt next week, so I will be back to share those stats with you soon....I promise:) We also went and had some blood drawn today to check for allergies. He has been getting random rashes lately and we just can't seem to figure out what they are from. His daddy has pretty bad allergies and sensitive skin, so we are guessing that Owen is unfortunately following in his footsteps in that area. They expect to be able to share those results with us at his appt on Thursday....so here's to hoping for good news on that front!

Until then, here are some pics to hold you over:)

Trying out his new bubble gun with Daddy:)

Big Helper! We only lost 1 piece in the process:)

Just love to watch him sleep! He takes his blankets and shoves them all underneath him when he sleeps. Cracks us up:)

First cubs game of the season.....and unfortunately it looks like it is going to be a long one!