Coming up on 11 months

Where has the last year gone? It's gone by in thousands of diapers, hundreds of nursing sessions and dozens of books read before bed. Here are some of the latest shots of Owen.

It's fun to watch his personality and temperament develop. He's an intensely curious kid and can't play with something without turning it over to be sure he's not missing anything on the back. If he really, really wants something, he doesn't stop trying to get it until he's succeeded in getting it. He's skilled at getting a spoonful of food into his mouth, although sometimes he takes the easy way out and just sticks his fingers into the food and puts it in his mouth that way. He loves to look out the windows and tries to make a beeline for the door whenever it's in sight. He's still very happy and smiley, but it's harder to get those shots because he rarely stays still long enough to get a picture.

Our trip to the zoo

We had a gorgeous Sunday in Madison last weekend and thought we should get out and do something, so we decided to hit the Dane County zoo. Apparently the animals agreed because many of them were out and busy.

It's so fun to watch Owen in a new setting, because it's amazing to see him taking everything in. He's so serious about it and his head darts back and forth as he looks around him. He seemed to like the bear the best and even yelled out a "ba!".

A kid after my own heart

You can't imagine how happy it makes me to see the smile on Owen's face when he gets his hands on a book. Whether it's one of his board books or one of my hardcovers with the crinkly library cover, he really does love to touch the pages and look at the covers. (He's probably thinking, "How can I get this in my mouth?" but I like to think he has other reasons.) I hope he won't grow up and think it's dorky to love reading, and I'll do what I can to encourage him.

He's discovered his shelf of books next to his play area in the living room and delights in taking all the books off the shelf. Every once in a while, he'll stop to look at one of them. One of his favorites is a book about the Little People's class trip to the nature center, fire station, dinosaur museum, science museum and aquarium. It's got lots to look at and tons of flaps to lift on every page and he loves peeking behind those.

I got out all the lift-the-flap books now that he knows what to do with them. (That alone amazes me -- it wasn't too long ago that he didn't have the concept of object permanence, and now he knows to look at what's hidden behind a piece of cardboard.) I even got him an Easter card with a flap, and as I was buying it, I thought, "Owen will really like this." And thinking about it later, I decided it was pretty cool to know him well enough to know that's something he'll like.

In other Owen news, he's now the proud owner of two teeth in the middle of his bottom gums. He's also gotten quite adept at picking up food and putting it in his mouth. For a while, he was using a two-handed technique, using his left hand to bring the piece of cereal or meat close to his mouth and using his right index finger to work it into his mouth, and half of it would end up in his lap. But now he can pretty much do it in all one motion. Dinner takes a lot longer when he's feeding himself!

Where's my cookie?

On the move

Here are two videos of Owen crawling, taken about a week apart. As you can see, he's gotten much faster and precise with his moves, and he can really cover a lot of ground quickly. While we want him to crawl, we're not sure that we...and our house...are quite ready for it.
And here's a video that was taken over the weekend. We've found that any piece of electronic equipment -- a cell phone, camera, remote control -- is enough to send him skittering across the floor. His little phone -- not so much. And he does a mean Michael Phelps impersonation with his lunge on the last stroke.


Is he trying to crawl or do pushups?

Almost eight months

Owen's been a very busy little fella in the last couple of weeks. He hasn't worked his way up to his knees yet, but he has perfected a military crawl. (More on that in a later post.) We also decided it was time for a little trim to get those side wings under control, so Owen had his first haircut over the weekend.

While Owen is having fun moving around, he's less than pleased about the two teeth poking their way through his bottom gum. The worst part is that he's used to being able to chew on things without those teeth getting in the way, so he's managed to bite his lip. Ouch!

Where Owen meets Blackhawk

When people come over to visit, they often walk in the door and say, "Did you name Owen after the street?" because Owen Dr. meets up with Blackhawk Ave. just outside our door. No, we didn't, but we still think it's kind of cool that Owen Dr. ends at his house.
Too bad our last name isn't "Blackhawk."