One of those days

Some days (and nights) are really hard. For instance, last night my little angle decided to wake up at 11 pm and stay awake until 2:30 am. To make it just a tad more challenging he cried for all but 30 minutes during that 3 and 1/2 hour marathon. As I watched the minutes pass by, I knew that I would be exhausted today. I kept holding onto the hope that maybe he would nap well since he slept terribly. Oh no. . . it has been one of those days. He skipped his morning nap (well cried through it), then I accidentally woke him during his afternoon nap. Believe me it was a very sad moment when I made a noise upstairs and then heard him start crying on the other side of the door. In all, he has slept for 30 minutes today. Needless to say, the kitchen is still a mess, the laundry is still folded in the baskets upstairs, and my sweet little guy has left a trail of toys through the living room. I am not sure how much of that will change before I crash tonight.

But . . . then there are moments like these

. . . and I find that the exhaustion and frustration just seem to melt away. I mean just look at that cute face!

* And yes, I took pictures today of my super cute boy instead of putting away the laundry :)

8 Months and He is Mobile!

It has been a crazy busy month for us. Owen celebrated his first Christmas as you read in my last post, and since then, he has been knocking off the milestones one by one. I can't believe January is about to end, and before I know it he will be 9 months, then 10, then a year! I guess I should stop there before I cry! Needless to say, we are loving every moment with our little guy. He is so curious and interactive right now, and it is amazing to watch him learn and grow every day. Here are his latest achievements.

The weight gain has been a little slower this month. He put on another half pound bringing the total up to 18 lbs 15 oz.

He is crawling! This milestone has changed our lives dramatically! Just before Owen turned 8 months, Luke helped him learn how to get up on his knees, move back and forth, and eventually take the lunge forward. It was as if Owen decided it was time to move and off he went. Now he is crawling everywhere and getting into everything. Naturally, Luke and I weren't quite prepared for this quick change in mobility, so we have been following him around the past week finding all the spots in our house that are not baby friendly and trying to figure out a quick solution.

Since Owen reached the crawling milestone, his movement and coordination have rapidly increased. It was not long before he was easily going between his tummy, crawling, and sitting, but what he really wants to do is walk. All I have to say is yikes! He has only been crawling for one week, and in that time he has learned how to get up on his knees, balance himself, and is desperately trying to pull himself up into a standing position. He tries to pull himself up on everything in sight, the couch, ottoman, chair, wall, door frame, dresser, crib, mom and dad. . . It is a non-stop effort! As a result, we have suffered a few spills, and I am reconciling myself with the fact that I can't prevent every bump and bruise.

In the few weeks after Christmas, Owen had three more teeth come in. I knew he was working on at least one top tooth, but little did I know that all three were trying to come in at the same time! No wonder we had some sleepless nights and one cranky little guy for about two weeks. I thought we were in for a break, but in the past week, two more top teeth have come through as well, making for a total of 7 teeth (4 on top and 3 on the bottom). I have decided that he is going to have all of his teeth before he turns a year!

Owen is now clapping. This is one of my favorite milestones from this past month. I just love watching his face when he gets excited and the hands start going. When he first learned the skill, he clapped non-stop for a few days. Mealtimes were a little more interesting with his new found skill. I felt like I was trying to pass through a gauntlet just to reach the prize at the end.

Since Christmas, Owen has enjoyed playing with all of his new toys. One of his favorites is a sit and ride toy that has a steering wheel. His favorite thing to do is have Luke push him around the living room while he spins the steering wheel around. It is fun to watch him transition into this new stage of play. Don't worry though, he has not completely moved on from his traditional play. He still loves to throw, bite, and bang his toys, and of course, wrestle with his daddy.

My Two Boys

Here are a few pictures of the face Owen has been making lately. It cracks Luke and I up every time.

The Holidays

Luke and I are so blessed to have wonderful families on both sides! The only difficult part of that situation is being away from one side or the other on any given holiday. Someday we will win the lotto, buy a ton of land, and build a Walker/Maissen family compound where we can all live happily ever after. Until then, we will continue to rotate Thanksgiving each year and split Christmas break in two so that we get time with both families. This year we spent Thanksgiving at the Walker's. Bekah wrote a great post about the highlights of that 5 day vacation which was aptly titled "the Owen show". Click on the title and you can read her lovely writing and see a few pics from the weekend. Silly me didn't take any pictures while I was there!

Christmas felt like a whirlwind! After a 36 hour stop in Spokane the week before Christmas to visit my extended family, Owen and I returned home to find Luke sick with the flu. He spent the next four days on a pedialyte diet while the rest of us enjoyed a breakfast feast prepared my Dad, a pioneer woman themed Christmas dinner, and Bev's famous sugar cookies. Despite missing out on some good fixen's, Luke was a great sport and joined in on the family fun whenever his energy allowed. For the second year in a row we made our way up to Seattle to enjoy Christmas Eve service with Jennie and Chris at their church. We then gathered down here Christmas morning to open presents and partake in LOTS of eating. Of course Owen stole the show this year. All 9 adults just sat and watched as he ripped at paper, chewed on boxes and bows, and paid very little attention to the new toys he had just received.

The day after Christmas, Luke and I packed up and made the quick trip over to Bremerton. While we were there, we enjoyed some quality family time, daily homemade lattes, and of course a few extra helping hands with Owen :). This extra help was quite handy since just a few days before we left Owen decided that it was high time to start teething again. This time around however, he wanted all of us to know that the top teeth are a lot more painful than the bottom. Needless to say, Luke and I didn't get much sleep at night, but Bev, Rick and Bekah were always ready the next morning to take Owen and give us a little more time to rest. It is pretty hard to leave that kind of help behind so we didn't, and our short visit quickly went from four days to six. Before we knew it, New Years Eve was upon us and we were gearing up for another long night. But for the first time that week, Owen decided to go to bed early and actually stay asleep. Since we were all pretty tired, we slowly made our way to bed one-by-one. Luke and I were the last to go at 11:30, and just as we were about to crawl into bed, Owen decided it was time to wake up, of course. So Luke, Owen, and I rang in the New Year nestled in bed listening to the fireworks outside. It was kind of a nice way to start a New Year.

Now we are back home, everyone is healthy, and Owen's tooth looks like it could pop through any day. I hope your holidays were filled with family, food, and wonderful memories just as ours were.

Walker family picture on New Year's Day

Pictures from the East vs. West Basketball game. Owen's first time watching his Grandpa play!

Pictures from Christmas day - Owen is eyeing another box he can chew on

Pictures of the kids/grandkid (Maissen side)

Maissen family picture

7 Months

I feel like I blinked and Owen turned 7 months. Maybe that is because it took me so long to get his 6 Month post done! Well, It has certainly been a fun month. Owen celebrated his first Thanksgiving at my in-laws, and as my sister-in-law puts nicely, the five days were essentially the Owen show. All the adults just huddled around watching his every move, and Owen enjoyed every moment of it. Now we are gearing up for Owen's first Christmas at home with my family. I will be sure to post some pictures when the festivities are over. For now, here is a list of his latest accomplishments.

Owen is now a whopping 18 lbs 6.5 oz. I was a little surprised that he hadn't gained as much this month, but he has certainly grown in length. I haven't actually had a chance to measure him, but I have noticed that all of his pants are becoming surprising short, and we had to move him into this 12 month pj's a couple weeks ago.

Owen is continuing to try out new sounds much to the delight of his doting parents. My favorite of course is "mamama". I only wish he would say it when he wanted me or when I came in the room. Instead, he mostly says it when he is sad and fussy. Regardless, I love hearing it every time. He is also finding great joy in saying "babababa". He will work really hard to get his lips in just the right position for the sound. Then, when he accomplishes it, he often seeks our approval, which of course is never hard to come by.

Owen is FINALLY rolling both directions. We have turned a major corner here. I had resigned myself to the fact that he would sooner walk before he decided rolling onto his tummy was worth his while. But to my surprise, he just up and rolled onto his tummy two weeks ago! We have come to the conclusion that two major factors played a roll in him reaching this milestone. First, he has discovered that being on his tummy means mobility. He can now roll himself around and also scoot himself in circles (crawling still seems to be a ways off) Second, he loves expensive electronics. I was able to get him to roll like crazy when the laptop was just out of his reach. Why did I not try that sooner! Anyway, when he first rolled onto his tummy, I got so excited he started to cry. Poor little guy! Fortunately, the tears were brief, and now he is an old pro at rolling.

Owen had his first visit to the eye Dr. the day before he turned 7 months. Although it really isn't an accomplishment, it is a first, so I thought I should log it down in his virtual baby book. We have noticed that Owen has one eye that occasionally drifts in. Since it has persisted past his 6 month checkup, our Dr. recommended we see an eye specialist. We made the trip to Bellevue last week and saw a pediatric opthamologist that specializes in eye alignment. We were pleased to find out that Owen's eyes weren't crossing (well at least not at the appointment that is). However, we did find out that Owen's eyes are quite farsighted for a child his age. This farsightedness could lead to further issues down the road, so we are headed back to the Dr. in three months to see if his eyes have gotten stronger on their own. If not, our little guy may have some baby glasses in his future. I can only imagine how difficult it could be keeping glasses on him so we are certainly praying that his eyes will get stronger on their own.

And best of all, here are the pictures. Beware, I went a little crazy this time, but isn't he just so cute!

My Sweet Husband!

As you can tell from my earlier posts this blog has become mostly about Owen, but today it is all about Luke. At 10 this morning the doorbell rang, and much to my surprise, I found a box of flowers waiting for me on the doorstep. I quickly opened the package while Owen played and read the sweetest note from my husband. He had sent me one flower for each year we had been together and one for the future! It was 11 years ago today, when Luke was just 18 and I was 19 (yes I am older), that we started dating. Rarely do we remember this anniversary expect for in casual conversation so this was a huge and unexpected surprise. It was fun to think back over the past 11 years. Oh we were so young when we met! Now 11 years later we have been married 6 and 1/2 years, have been blessed with the cutest little boy, and well we like to think we are still pretty young :). I am so thankful for him everyday. I love watching him be a father to Owen, and as you can tell, he is pretty wonderful husband. I can't wait to see what the future will bring! I love you Luke.

Here we are 11 years ago!

Here we are today!

6 Months!!!

Well, technically Owen is 6 and 1/2 months, but for some reason I have had a harder time starting this post. I think it is because I can't really believe that much time has already passed. Has it really been half a year! It seems like he has always been with us, and at the same time, it feels like we are moving at lightening speed. It is amazing how much he changes every month! Here are his latest accomplishments.

At his 6 Month appointment Owen weighed 17 lbs 11 ounces (55th percentile) and was 27 inches long (75th percentile)

He is now sitting entirely on his own. He loves the independence it offers him as he plays with his toys and looks around the room. The only downside is that he hasn't figured out how to get himself into sitting position from his belly.

He is doing better with his tummy time. I didn't know if I would ever get to say that :) It still isn't his favorite position to be in, but he now tolerates it since he has figured out that he can scoot around in circles and chew on his toys while on his belly. He has occasionally scooted himself backwards, but we still aren't seeing any forward movement from him.

Rather than pushing himself to crawl, he has found a way to scoot himself around on his back. This really hasn't come as much of a surprise since he has always loved being on his back. The movement involves him arching his back up, and then while he is straightening himself out, he pushes himself backwards.

He has expanded his sound vocabulary to include dada. He discovered this sound on our way to Spokane for a quick weekend visit so Luke heard it for the first time over the phone. He doesn't have any association with what the word means, but it sure is cute when he says it around Luke.

Our boy is now eating solids. About a week before he turned six months we started him out on rice cereal, and he has quickly moved up to three solid meals a day. His favorites by far are green beans and apples, although he will pretty much eat anything. He sure does love to eat! A few videos of him eating are on Facebook if you want to check them out.

As mentioned earlier Owen LOVES people. He beams every time we take him to the nursery and we have noticed lately that he really enjoys being in large groups with tons of people oohing and aahing at him. I guess we have a little extrovert on our hands.