Uh Oh, Owen!

We're Still Alive

2012-11-14T20:22:00.000-06:00

It's been pretty darn close to a year since I updated, and I suppose it's time I stop sitting around being selfish and start sharing Owen's hilarity with all of you again.

Let me tell you, having a nearly two year old is... interesting. He's my best buddy in the whole world, but I also spend a good deal of my day thinking, "Why the hell would you do that? What is going on in your crazy little toddler brain."

At least with his new vocabulary I'm finally getting a little insight into what makes my son tick.

Owen took forever to talk, but within the last month or so he finally got to that 'language explosion' I have heard so much about. Now, he parrots just about everything we say. And everything Dora the Explorer says. And Team UmiZoomi taught him how to count, somehow, so good on them.

He can also tell me what he wants to eat/ drink now, which is helpful until he decides all he wants for supper is 'COOKIE! COOKIE!'

Since I don't plan on telling you every single story from the past year, I guess I'll just give you some recent highlights so we can get this thing back on track. How's that sound? Alright, then.

He loves Rick Grimes, just like Mommy. Well, maybe not JUST like Mommy does.

I'm sure you'll all be happy to know he continues to torture poor Rupp. Rupp continues to not bite Owen, even though he probably deserves it sometimes.

Someday I will have my revenge.

We recently had a super-fun trip to the ER because Owen couldn't kick a bad ear infection. He hated everyone initially during the visit (including us) until the nice nurses pumped him full of popsicles and Sprite.

Don't even think about giving me any actual medicine.

Our current favorite Owen-isms:

"Goggles!" (Anything he holds up to his eyes becomes 'goggles.' This includes bath toys, his hands, Daddy's glasses, toy dinosaurs...)

"Mo, man!" (When asked what Swiper says.)

"Dad-ma!" (When he's too lazy to say both Daddy and Momma, he just combines them.)

"Hat!" (Everything he puts on his/your/my head becomes a hat. And don't you dare take off that 'hat' or he will yell.)

"Buppies!" (This means he wants to watch Bubble Guppies. Usually at a time when the Bubble Guppies aren't on. A simple "The Guppies are asleep, Owen," usually gets the job done, though.)

Really, he's just kind of hilarious right now. It's hard to remember everything I should have been posting here over the past months (oops), but at least we're caught up now, right?

Right.

A year's difference :)

All Aboard the Cheese Bus!

2012-01-31T20:28:00.001-06:00

Yes, cheese bus.

We've discussed Owen's obsession with putting things down the trunk of his elephant ball popper, but I neglected to mention that he is pretty much obsessed with putting things in other things in general.

I guess it is also important to mention that we've been having feeding issues lately. Trying to feed a toddler is by far the most frustrating thing I've ever experienced.

Today, I had the bright idea to try and get Owen to eat a 'sandwich.' I put 'sandwich' in quotations because my brilliant idea was to feed it to him in parts so he wouldn't get bored so quickly. (The fact that I'm blogging about this should clue you in to how well it went.)

First, I fed him a piece of turkey. We have a lot more luck feeding him if we let him roam, rather than putting him in the high chair, so I just sat on the couch with a piece of turkey and he would come get bites from me every couple of minutes.

He ate nearly all of the turkey, which was great. Then, it was time for the cheese. I got a slice out of the fridge and after fighting him to take bites for a while, I decided to break it into squares and put it on the coffee table for him to munch on as he pleased (we do this with cheerios all the time, so I figured it would work).

What did Owen do with the cheese? He grabbed a piece to munch on, then walked across the room and came back with his toy school bus. He set the bus on the coffee table next to the cheese, and then this happened:

In case you can't tell from the crappy cell phone picture, those are pieces of cheese in the bus. He put every single piece of cheese in the bus, one by one.

What happened next can only be described as 'The Great Cheese Tragedy of 2012.'

He pushed the bus over the edge of the coffee table. Cheese went everywhere.

What did Owen do while I was cleaning up cheese off of the floor? He filled the bus with Cheerios.

Needless to say, that was the end of lunch time.

Elephant Surgery and Other Stories

2012-01-27T19:57:00.000-06:00

I would like to offer up this Owen video as penance for my incredible amount of blog slackery lately.

Ok, so now that you've enjoyed a little bit of Owen boogying, we'll move on.

My little toddler (eek!) has grown up so much in the last couple of weeks. The biggest thing I've noticed is that he has begun to play with his toys properly. Blocks are no longer just for banging together. Toy animals aren't just for chewing on. He can make stacks of blocks that are 3-4 blocks high. The animals now 'play' in the barn.

There is still one toy he can't quite master:

My parents got him this Elefun ball popper for Christmas and the kid loves it. Lo-o-oves it. He's figured out how to turn it on by himself, which is neat, but what he can't quite grasp is that you can't just stick anything in the elephant and expect it to shoot out.

I've had to perform elephant surgery several times this week to remove the following: pieces from his shape-sorter, a toy sheep and several goldfish crackers.

Maybe he'll figure it out eventually.

He's also picked up a new trick, and it is my favorite EVER. Owen now gives kisses. Yes, I ask him for kisses and he leans in and closes his eyes and goes 'Mmmmm, mah!' A-freaking-dorable.

I didn't even teach him to do it. He just magically woke up from a nap one day knowing how to give kisses. Maybe it came to him in a dream or something.

He also got his first haircut this week. By 'got,' I mean I strapped him in the high chair with a snack and did it myself. This is how that ended:

TANTRUM!!!

At least he looks cute, even if he hated me for a while afterward.

He also has a slew of new 'bad' things he enjoys doing. The most scary of these is the climbing. He climbs on the end tables, the shelves and into (and on top of) the toy box.

Reading is a lot more fun inside the toy box, apparently.

He has also gone from just trying to tackle Rupp to trying to actually cuddle with him. Owen cuddling is not normal cuddling, however. It generally involves biting and lots of nuzzling. You can imagine how much Rupp enjoys this.

Today, the only way I could get him to stop freaking out (for no reason whatsoever) was to let him sit in my lap. No problem, right? Well, it wouldn't have been if Rupp weren't already in my lap. So I wound up with the cat in my lap and Owen sitting happily on top of the cat. Rupp is the saint of felines.

I also caught him sticking goldfish crackers down the floor vents today, so that was fun.

I should have some wonderful 1-year pictures to show you soon that we had taken last weekend by the extremely talented Dianne of Dianne Lisette Photography, so get excited!

Party Time! Excellent!

2012-01-07T21:59:00.001-06:00

Today was Owen's birthday party. Going into it, I was ridiculously stressed. I had a million ideas of things I wanted to do, but when this morning rolled around and it came time to execute them I suddenly became apathetic to 90% of them.

We got to the church, threw up some balloons and scattered some confetti and called it a day.

Check out the ridiculously adorable cakes that our friend (and my former teacher) made:

After we made it through appetizers and whatnot, it was time to see how Owen would react to his smash cake. I went back and forth for a while deciding how to clothe him for the cake. Bib over clothes? Take his shirt off? Diaper only?

We eventually decided on diaper only (Trashy? Possibly. Practical? Absolutely.), and boy were we glad we did. Owen demolished the cake. Demolished might even be an understatement.

Digging in

Owen takes cake smashing seriously.

Ok, so now we have this chocolate-covered baby. What do you do with a chocolate-covered baby, you ask?

Hell if I know.

We still have to open presents. We can't just leave him like that. Is there a hose around here or something?

We decided on the sink.

Very funny, guys.

Once we got him (mostly) clean, we moved on to presents. Between Christmas and his birthday, I'm pretty sure there are no toys left that Owen does not have. Our living room looks like Toys R Us.

My favorite gift he received was a rocking horse. The rocking horse was mine when I was Owen's age. My mom had her friend restore it for Owen and it turned out beautifully. He loves it and has already figured out how it works.

Presents!

After presents, well... There wasn't really anything to do after that, so we cleaned up. My family is the best (no, seriously) and all chipped in and helped us get everything picked up.

He even helped clean up!

All-in-all, a huge success!

Ladies & Gentlemen, we have a toddler.

2012-01-05T18:16:00.000-06:00

Today is Owen's 1st birthday.

Let that soak in for a minute.

My baby is no longer a baby, but a toddler. I've lost track of how many times I've teared up thinking about this the last few days. I swear, and I know this is ridiculous, that Owen even looked older when he woke up this morning.

We are having his real party on Saturday, but we did a little bit of 'celebrating' today. For lunch, we went to Matt B's (which, if you're not from MKY, is the most glorious pizza place in the state) and Owen happily nommed a breadstick while Ross and I enjoyed some nice, greasy pizza. Then we went to the park.

Owen loved going down the slides and playing in the dirt.

Here's Owen at only a few minutes old:

And these are from our park adventure today:

That was fun! Let's slide some more!

Check out this dirt I found, Mom!

Daddy wanted to slide, too

Just a- swingin'

My favorite men

He wouldn't smile in a pic with Mom...

But he did have fun trying to steal my sunglasses

What a difference a year makes.

Owen has been such a blessing, and every moment of this past year has been priceless. It's been hard at times (the newborn days, for example), but it's all been worth it.

I have never been more proud of anything than I am of him.

Owen James, I love you more than everything. Thank you for making me smile every day. <3

New Year, New Followers Blog Hop!

2011-12-30T19:05:00.000-06:00

We're participating in a really freaking awesome blog hop this weekend! Click the button below and go check out some of the best blogs I've come across.

I guarantee laughter and lots of cute babies.

Now, shoo! Go follow these blogs!

And Happy New Year!

Owen's First Christmas

2011-12-30T15:15:00.000-06:00

Obviously, I did something super wrong last week and accidentally deleted all of my images. I'll be working on it as I can over the weekend. Until then, enjoy this post (with pictures!).

Owen's first Christmas was awesome. I don't even really know what else to say about it, except that it was my favorite Christmas ever. Seeing him experience it all was so much fun.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's (Ross's parents) house. Owen wore a sweater vest. (Who put me in charge of dressing a child?)

Thumbs up to Christmas!

Riding his new fire truck from his great-grandma.

Trying to figure out the ball popper from Grandma and Grandpa

New hat from Aunt Rachel. I love it because he can't figure out how to take it off.
High five for this one, Rachel :-)

The future of Racer Band?

Owen talking with Aunt Rachel

The best picture we could get of Owen & Daddy

Owen & Mommy (still holding on to that drum stick)

Laying down some beats with Grandma

Reading with Daddy

On Christmas day, we started by opening presents at home and eating breakfast (I make awesome french toast, just so ya know).

Rupp decided to crash the Christmas Tree picture

Owen & Daddy opening gifts

He's obsessed with his activity table. He dances along with the music.

He stole the Reese's candy cane out of Ross's stocking

And the candy canes off of the tree.

After that, we ran off to Nanny and Papaw's (my parents) house.

Reading books with Nanny

He kept looking up my dad's nose. Boys are gross.

Pouting because I wouldn't let him break all of the ornaments. (Notice he stole Ross's stocking candy at my parents' house, too. )

Petting Big Kitty for the first time. Kitty was not amused.

My new favorite picture.

We ended the night at my aunt's house. I suck and forgot to take pictures there, but we had a ball. Owen loved all of the attention he got, and even put on a nice display of his 'tricks' while we were eating supper.

My favorite part of that night was when my 8-year-old cousin asked me if she could borrow Owen to star in her silent movie, 'Attack of the million foot baby from OUTER SPAAAAAAACE!'

Did I let her borrow him? Yes.

They eventually fired him, though, because he wasn't being monstery enough or something. The best part was, they were so serious when they told him they were replacing him. 'This just isn't working out.'

I love my family.

I hope all of your holidays were as happy as ours! Now we're in the countdown (6 days) to Owen's birthday. Unreal.

Wordless Wednesday: Peek a Boo!

2011-12-06T21:33:00.001-06:00

He's so sneaky you can't even tell there's a baby in this picture.

11 Months

2011-12-05T21:14:00.001-06:00

Today my little stink is 11 months old. That's hard to swallow.

It seems like he just got here but, then again, I can't really remember what life was like before him.

My big 11 month old is too busy 'reading' to look at the camera.

The last few days Owen has been obsessed with books. If you sit down in the floor, he automatically grabs a book and plops down in your lap. This may be my favorite phase so far. I love having him just chill and snuggle with me while we read. It's so rare that he stays still for very long anymore, so these moments are precious.

I had a big losery mom moment today. Driving to work, I was listening to a country station and 'There Goes my Life' by Kenny Chesney came on. I knew I should change the station, but didn't. I made it to the last verse (you know, the part where the kid goes off to college) before I was bawling my eyes out. I can't think about him being a grown up yet.

I can't even handle that he's going to be one in a month.

Christmas Picture Outtakes

2011-12-05T03:18:00.001-06:00

We've talked about how much of a fail our little Christmas card photo shoot was the other day. Today, I finally got around to actually uploading the pictures.

Even though none of these will be gracing the inaugural Miller family Christmas card, I thought I'd share them anyway because, let's face it, Owen is adorable.

Yeah, the kid wouldn't even look at me. We're trying this again this week, though, so *finger crossed* maybe we'll get some decent ones.

Color me stunned: Owen behaves (mostly)

2011-12-01T21:11:00.000-06:00

You've all read my tales of my stinker of a child and his shenannigans. Well, today he was awesome. A perfect, well-behaved child.

Except for this:

It's a miracle Rupp has not destroyed Owen by now. I have the most patient cat on the planet.

O did too many awesomely adorable things today for me to recap them all, but my favorite was when I was sitting cross-legged in the floor playing with him. He walked across the room, grabbed a book and then sat down in my lap and handed me the book. He wanted me to read to him.

We read a book about a very helpful bunny (the one he picked out) and then cycled through his wildlife board books and Aladdin. He loved every second of it.

I'm so glad I have a child who seems to enjoy books (at least so far).

The rest of the day was easy and fun. We rolled around in the floor, watched some Baby Einstein, chased each other around the living room, read some more books and made silly faces at each other. AND he took three naps. Three LONG naps. Heavenly.

I seriously have the most awesome little boy on the planet, even if he's a stinker 90% of the time.

Well, that didn't go as expected...

2011-11-28T22:36:00.001-06:00

I had high hopes for my post today.

This was my to-do list today:
1. Make handprint ornament
2. Take picture of ornament for blog
3. Take Owen's Christmas card picture
4. Post cute pictures on blog

This is how things went down:

The Ornament
I made the salt/flour dough for the handprint ornament and stuck Owen in his high chair with some puffs to entertain/distract him. I rolled it out into a circle and then went in for the print. I honestly didn't think it would be a big deal. I figured I would distract him, grab his hand and smush it into the dough.

I was mistaken.

I grabbed his hand and pushed it into the dough. He closed his hand and ripped a chunk out of the middle (of the dough, not his hand). Well, crap.
Tried again. Same result.
I even tried pinning one of his arms under the high chair tray so I only had to deal with one grabby baby hand.
Yeah, so that's not as effective as it was a few months ago.

Eventually, I did get one alright handprint. Popped that sucker into the oven to harden.

Dammit! I forgot to poke a hole in it to hang on the tree!

I pulled it back out and it was already beginning to harden. I scraped the best hole into it that I could using one of those random little pointing things that came in our knife block (what are those things for, anyway?).

It didn't look awesome when it came out, but hopefully painting will improve it because Lord knows I'm not trying it again.

The Pictures
I wrestled Owen into his Christmas pajamas (seriously, dressing a 10 month old is the most frustrating thing on the planet). Owen, I promise no one is trying to kill you. People wear clothes. You can't just be naked for the rest of your life. It's socially unacceptable. Stop biting me!

I finally got him dressed, and then attempted to put his Santa slippers on. Nope. Not having that.

If Owen could talk, this is how that conversation would have gone:

Owen: "Hey, let me chew on those!"
Me: "No, they go on your feet."
Owen: "I'm going to chew on them, ok?"
Me: "No. Just let me put them on your feet."
Owen: "Fine, but I'm going to bunch up my toes. Good luck."

More wresting ensued.

Ok, so now the kid is dressed. I set him in the play pen and removed the Christmas tree barricade:

The barricade

I handed him a present with a bow in the hopes that it would distract him from the tree. Then I sat him under the tree and all Hell broke loose.

First, he started tugging on a sparkly green reindeer ornament. I took it away from him. Then, he started using the present as a weapon. His was beating the Christmas tree with it.

I kept snapping pictures, hoping he would eventually turn and look at me (or that I'd at least get a cute candid shot). Nope. Nothing.

Then my camera battery died.

Sigh. I'll try again tomorrow.

I promise adorable Christmassey Owen pictures in the near future. It will happen.

I hope.

I am ashamed (not really, though)

2011-11-21T20:08:00.001-06:00

Today I did something that I'm ashamed of.

I used hair product on Owen.

Owen woke up from his afternoon nap with the most ridiculous case of bedhead I've ever seen. His hairbrush was lost months ago, so I usually just smooth his hair down with my hand. That wasn't enough to combat this bedhead. It needed something more, so I busted out the pomade.

This was the result:

Mean face mohawk

I know, I know, it's ridiculous and cliche (I guarantee that at least 101% of parents have given their child a mohawk as a baby), but there's a reason so many people do it. It's adorable. I may do this to his hair every time I take him out in public.

I also finally got a recording of his Chewbacca noises. Ross ruined the end of it, though, so you're not allowed to judge the fact that the video ends with him saying, "They're gonna do it!" (We were, as usual, watching the Walking Dead, which is what the inappropriateness is about.)

Here are some more Owen shots from the last few days:

Drooly, smiley little guy

Mean face!

Snuggling with Daddy

Just chompin on this puff can. Nothing to see here.

And one more of the mohawk.

My Two Dudes

2011-11-20T16:40:00.001-06:00

Ross and Owen are best friends.

There's no denying the connection they have, and I just wanted to share some of my favorite moments between the two of them.

The first picture I have of the two of them. Owen was only a few hours old here.

Having a conversation before we headed out to Grandpa's retirement party. (Almost 3 months old)

Playing at Applebees (6 months)

6 Months (Photo by Dianne Lisette Photography)

Like father, like son

Owen loves sitting on Dad's shoulders. He also loves pulling hair.

Owen makes a mess (imagine that)

2011-11-18T19:13:00.000-06:00

There are few phrases I hate more than, "Look what your son did."

Today I was sitting on the couch, minding my own business and watching Zombieland while Owen played on the floor. That's when Ross said it.

Look what your son did.

I'll preface this by saying that the last couple of days Owen is obsessed with opening and closing things. The door, wipe boxes, the diaper pail (ew) and apparently Gerber Puff containers.

I looked down and the floor was covered in puffs. Owen took the lid off, dumped them in the floor and then started alternating between waving his arms around like a madman and shoving puffs into his mouth. (Again, ew.)

Witness the excitement:

Owen and Ross thought this was hilarious. I'll admit, ok, it was pretty funny for a few minutes. It stopped being funny when puffs started getting crushed into the carpet.

At least Owen had a good time. He likes eating crap off of the floor, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

We Have a Walker!

2011-11-16T20:33:00.000-06:00

If we're facebook friends or you've had the pleasure of running into me lately, you may have already seen this, but Owen took his first vertical journey across the living room last week.

Ignore my squeeling. I was obviously excited.

Since he's figured out he CAN walk it's all he wants to do.

It's so unreal to see him doing his little drunk baby walk as he follows me around the house. This new-found skill has lead to a sharp increase in Owen injuries, though. I've lost track of how many times he's gotten a little overly ambitious and fallen head-first into the coffee table. (Speaking of, does anyone have a rec for a bumper for a large coffee table? I ordered one on Amazon not long ago and it doesn't fit my massive table.)

Ross and I have been watching too much Walking Dead lately, and like to yell, "OH, NO! A WALKER!" when Owen is walking toward us. Luckily he's not old enough to understand how nerdy we are.

He has also continued to ignore me when I tell him 'no.' I had to take all of my books off of the bookshelf in the living room because I finally got fed up with him pulling all of them off. I think I may have to put all of my books on his bookshelf (which is high-up and built into the wall) and move all of his board books into the livingroom shelf. At least he can't tear those apart.

He has also been 'talking' more and more. My favorite is when he just starts yelling, "Yo! Yo! Yo!" My child is hip.

Other favorite Owen noises include (but are not limited to):

"Dee Dee Do!"
"Mum. Mum. Mum." (<---- Mom!!)
And, of course, his new Chewbacca noises. I'll make a point to try and catch those on video to share because they are freaking hysterical.

He has also spent a significant amount of time wrestling/ eating the gigantic teddy bear my mom bought him when he was born. When she brought that thing to the hospital, my first thought was, "Where the hell am I supposed to put that thing? There's no way he'll play with it." (Sorry, Momma! Love you! haha) But, as usual, my mother knew what she was doing. He will spend 15 or 20 minutes at a time rolling around in the floor with it (that's an eternity in baby attention span time).

The bad thing is that he also enjoys eating the bear. No, not chewing on it. He will literally rip mouthfuls of fur out of it. I'm constantly checking his mouth to make sure there's no bear in there. I think it's his way of asserting his dominance or something. Hell if I know. I just know it's gross.

This next part is gross. I'm warning you. It's about poop. (When you have a child, you'll realize how much of your day revolves around bodily fluids. It's awesome, let me tell ya.)

So, on Saturday the three of us went back home for a memorial service for my uncle. Owen had no pooped all day, so I brought an extra change of clothes along just in case shit went down (pun intended) while we were there.

Luckily, nothing happened while we were there. Well, we got within about 15 minutes of home when I started to smell it. There was the poop. It had arrived.

Our usual method for deciding which of us gets to change the dirty diapers is Rock, Paper, Scissors. When we got home, I told Ross that if he grabbed Owen that we could RPS when we got inside to see who got stuck with it.

When Ross brought him in, he just took him straight to the changing table and started to undress him. I was in the other room when I heard, "Oh my god. Oh... Oh my god. Oh, Brittney! This is the most poop I've ever seen!"

I ran into Owen's room to find him sitting on the changing table in just a diaper. Ross was trying not to gag. When I got closer, I saw it. The entire back side of Owen was COVERED. There was not a non-disgusting surface on the back side of his body. Now, we've dealt with messy situations like this before, but we were flabbergasted by this.

How did he do that? Where did it come from?

We stood there for about five minutes just staring at him. Thinking.

The conversation went kind of like this:

Me: "We need a plan."
Ross: "Alright. What?"
Me: "Ok, first we play rock, paper, scissors."

**insert RPS game. I lost.**

Me: "Damn. Ok. Go start him a bath then come back here and hold him up while I clean him off."

You can imagine the rest.

It took two people at least 10 minutes to change this diaper. That's how ridiculous and inhuman it was.

Owen thought it was hilarious, of course.

He also enjoyed his surprise bath. He especially enjoyed splashing Daddy.

Being a parent is glamourous.

Oh, here's a picture of Owen being pissed at me because I made him wear a stupid outfit to go play in the leaves:

WTF, Mom?

New Tricks

2011-11-09T20:05:00.001-06:00

I swear I haven't intentionally been a blog slacker lately. Owen just makes it nearly impossible to get out my laptop.

If I do it while he's awake, he freaks out trying to grab it and rip it in half. If I do it while he's napping, he wakes up the second I get Safari open. (It's like he knows.)

He turned 10 months last week, and it feels so strange for him to be in 'double-digits.' I told Ross the other day that I won't be able to come to terms with it when he turns one. I'm just going to tell people he's 12 months old. Ross asked if I was going to do that until he graduates high school. So what if I do?

Here's a picture of my little Darth Owen in his Halloween costume:

He refused to let me get a good picture. We took him outside to get festive pictures with the pumpkins and stuff and he spent the entire time grabbing them and refusing to look at the camera. Moved him away from the pumpkins. Then he just played with leaves. I couldn't win.

We didn't actually get to do anything with him for Halloween, but we had fun dressing him up and playing in the yard.

His bag of tricks has also grown in the last couple of weeks. He's learning to associate words with actions.

When we say, "Where's your mean face?" he does this:

The newest thing we're trying to teach him (yes, we spend our free time teaching him tricks. haha) is to throw both of his hands up in the air when we yell 'rollercoaster!' So far, it works about 50% of the time. We'll get there. ;-)

Mostly, we're just having a blast with him right now. He's always been outgoing and spunky, but his little (or big, as the case may be) personality just gets more fun every day.

He's starting initiating games with us. He has invented at least 17,000 variations on peek-a-boo.

My favorite Owen moment so far happened on Sunday. Ross and I were enjoying the day off, watching the first season of The Walking Dead. (Which was awesome.) Owen was playing happily in the floor in front of us.

After a little while he pulled up on the couch, grinned at me and then took off around the arm of the couch. He would hide behind the arm of the couch and then pop out at me. I pretended to be scared and he would crack up. It was the hardest I have ever seen him laugh.

This game went on for at least 15 minutes. It was awesome and hilarious.

Also, (and you're not allowed to judge me for this) Owen and I went on an adventure to Wally World to buy Christmas decorations yesterday. We found a new (cheap) Christmas tree (since Rupp broke ours last year) and lots of plastic (Owen proof) ornaments. Owen got a kick out of playing 'throw the ornaments out of the cart' while we were in the store, but we eventually made it out of there with about 80% of the things I originally put in the cart.

We also put up the tree yesterday (props to Ross for indulging my early Christmas spirit), and now Owen has dedicated his life to trying to destroy it.

Creative suggestions for baby-proofing the Christmas tree are greatly appreciated.

Owen has a Mean Face. And loves Gourds.

2011-10-23T20:59:00.000-05:00

Today we took Owen to the pumpkin patch in Princeton. Not only was the place absolutely adorable, but he had a blast. He especially like trying to eat the pumpkins. We got a ton of adorable pictures, too:

Diving in to the pumpkins

Owen & Daddy

He always smiles so big for the camera. Such a little ham.

Again, smiling big for Mommy.

These pumpkins were HUGE. Owen loved standing and pounding on the tops of them.

Owen officially has a 'Mean Face.' When you tell him to do it, he scrunches up his face and snorts. It's hysterical!

Owen and Mater

Owen & Mommy with Mader

Daddy covered Owen in gourds. They both thought it was really funny.

My child is a gourd-loving fool.

After the pumpkin patch, we went and ate pizza at Nanny and Papaw's (my parents) house. We had a great time, and Owen went to sleep nice and early when we got home. Mommy and Daddy are watching the World Series.

Today = Win

Racers! Racers! Goooo Racers!

2011-10-19T22:48:00.000-05:00

Owen went to his very first tailgate last weekend! (It was also my first tailgate.) We had a blast.

Owen was excited because he got to pet a puppy. He also got to pet Racer One (the horse that runs around the track when we score a TD), but we didn't get a picture (boo).

He also loved getting to hang out with his 'Aunt' Felicia. They had a good time together, and Owen even gave her a GIANT kiss when we left.

Here's O (making a funny face) hanging out with Daddy.

Chilling in the parking lot:

He was so excited about all of the people. He knows he's cute, and enjoys having people around who will remind him every few minutes. He also loved having lots of ladies to flirt with.

Eventually, the excitement was too much and he passed out during a stroller ride with Grandma.

He was absolutely perfect the whole day, and we all had a fantastic time. I can't wait to take him back for homecoming next year!

PS- We won the game! I guess that's semi-important information. haha

Clap, Clap!

2011-10-11T20:48:00.000-05:00

I finally got a good video of Owen's new 'tricks!' Enjoy :-)

It's quickly approaching...

2011-10-10T22:47:00.000-05:00

It's become obvious the past few days that my little O-dawg will be running around the house breaking things (as opposed to crawling around and breaking them) very, very soon.

Don't worry. We don't really call him O-dawg. Not out loud, anyway.

Lately, he has been transitioning from his normal routine of cruising around to coffee table to trying to make it from the coffee table to the couch. Granted, he doesn't 'walk' from the table to the couch, exactly. It's more of a dive-toward-the-couch-and-take-some-steps- in- the-process. (I like hyphens.)

I've been experimenting with this and am slowly inching the table farther away from the couch every so often. This hasn't intimidated him in the least. I think he sees the ever-growing gap as a challenge.

I'm half-excited and half-scared of him becoming more mobile, but I suppose either way it's inevitable.

He has also learned how to give high fives (not just one at a time, though. You have to be prepared to get at least 30 'fives' before he gets bored with it) and clap. The clapping is ridiculously cute. Of course, he won't do it when I try to catch it on camera, though, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Also, when I have a little more time to post without Owen trying to rip my laptop in half I will finally post pics of the new place. I did some home improvement this weekend and I'm excited to share. :-)

Oh, and here's a cute picture of Owen and Daddy:

Playing Catch- Up

2011-10-07T09:54:00.000-05:00

I finally found my poor, lost camera cable (it got misplaced in the move for a while), so I finally have some new pictures to share that aren't just crappy cellphone pics.

The first two are from our cousin Madison's birthday party:

This is a common sight in our house. Wherever Rupp goes, Owen isn't far behind:

No, Mom, I would never rip up your magazine!

Playing with the keyboard like Papaw:

And one last one, just because I think he's cute:

Happy Friday, everyone! Hopefully I'll get pictures of the new place up soon.

Reflections on Nine Months of Motherhood

2011-10-04T22:50:00.000-05:00

My little (big) Owen will be 9 months old in a matter of hours, and it's hitting me like a ton of bricks.

I know, I know... It's 9 months. It's not like he's turning 1 yet or anything, but this just feels significant to me.

Ok, I'm giving a cheese warning before I start typing this.

I have the most incredible child ever. He amazes me every day with his intelligence and personality, and I love him more than I could have ever imagined loving anything. I know that everyone says this about their children, but I get it now.

I understand why my mom was such a worry-wort about me growing up. I understand why my parents were always so kind to me, even when I made stupid decisions. I know why they did the things they did, and I know that I will be the same way with Owen as he grows up. There is literally nothing he could do that would make me turn away from him. This, my friends, is unconditional love.

I still remember the first time he 'interacted' with me. He was maybe 5 weeks old, and we were sitting on the couch. He and I made eye contact and I 'ooo'd at him. He 'ooo'd back. It sounds insignificant, but it was incredible.

It's been so fun to see the way his interactions with us have developed since then.

Now, Owen and I have 'conversations.' They tend to go kind of like this:

Owen: 'Di di di uh-bu!'
Me: 'Di di di uh- bu?'
Owen: 'Grrrrrrrrrrr.'
Me: 'Oh, yeah? Why are you growling at me?'
Owen: 'Dada.'
Me: 'Say 'Mama''
Owen: 'Grrrrrrrr!'

Though he may only speak in gibberish right now, we understand each other. I know what sound means he wants me to pick him up and which cry means he's hungry. I know which growl means he is just playing and which one means I'm going to have to change a diaper in the next 10 minutes.

He gives me high fives and plays with the buttons on my shirt and grabs at my phone while I'm trying to talk on it, and I love it. He pulls things off of the coffee table. He follows me to the door when I'm leaving for work (which makes it hard to leave, I might add).

Today, when Ross got home from class Owen was ecstatic. As soon as he saw Ross, he followed him around and yelled until he picked him up. I know it made Ross feel good that Owen was excited to see him. There is no better feeling in the world than knowing someone missed you while you were gone.

We are Owen's entire world, and he is ours.

I cried the other day driving to work thinking about him being only 3 months from a year old. I can't believe that my squishy little chunk is growing up so quickly. He's already trying his darndest to walk. He climbs things. He has 8 (sharp!) teeth. He's so big. I can't even handle it.

It's hard to think that one day he'll be so grown up that he won't want to follow me around the house all day. He won't enjoy me singing him obnoxious Veggie Tales songs or dancing around the living room. Hell, I'll even be sad when he learns how to pet Rupp correctly (without ripping chunks of fur out, that is).

I know this is rambling and scattered, but I've had all of this on my mind lately. If you have any suggestions for making time pass slower, I'll gladly take them.

They day he was born:

Today:

Destruction!

2011-09-28T19:35:00.000-05:00

So, I thought we got lucky when Owen took a nice, long nap this afternoon. It turns out, instead of napping he was doing this:

I guess it's time to take the mobile down.

I had to put the baby gate up in the living room for a minute so that I could get it put back together. It was hard to do with this staring at me through the gate:

Ok, one more photo and I'm done. Owen had prunes and pasta (weird combo, I know) for lunch today and this was the result:

Food is messy business around our house.

Evidence of the Growling Baby

2011-09-22T15:24:00.000-05:00

I told you he was vicious.