Owen at 13 months

Having just had his 1st Birthday, Owen was ready to do and learn so many new things.  He is anxious to be near both mom and dad and see what we are doing.

Owen wanting to cuddle with a sick dad (thus the covered face).

Owen has a pretty solid routine at this point, not only for eating and napping but also nighttime activities.  (Almost) every night, Owen gets a bath, which is one of his favorite things.  After he has had his fill of bathtime, he gets out, gets dried off and goes streaking through the house.  He goes running out the the bathroom into the living room and gets the biggest smile on his face.  A few pictures from his streaking adventures one night...

Shortly after Owen's birthday we celebrated Thanksgiving.  We had a very nice long weekend.  Our friend from Jacksonville came over Wednesday night to to visit, spend Thanksgiving Day with us, and to meet Owen.  On Thursday we got up and drove across town to participate in the Turkey Trot 5K.  Jed and I jogged and walked it while Owen cheered on from the stroller.  Jed pushed him the whole way and when Jed slowed down Owen got fussy but when he sped up Owen laughed and got excited.  After the race we came home and cooked a turkey and all our usual side dishes.  It was time for Owen's Thanksgiving Dinner: Round 2 (if you'll remember he had some mashed potatoes and cranberry salad at a mere two and a half weeks old last year).  He loved it!  The cranberry salad was his favorite and the mashed potatoes and stuffing came in close second.

Owen's walking is really improving, right after his 1st Birthday he started walking backwards (just 2-3 steps) but loved his new talent.  Then shortly before his 13-month birthday he got to practice steps when we took him to get his hair cut.  He was quite the champ but wasn't completely confident on the way down.

Owen is such a big, strong, smart boy.  His favorite song is "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and loves it when his singing puppy sing it for him.  With the help of the song he has now knows where his head is.  He has also learned where his tummy is and can show you where they both are when asked.

Owen hanging out with daddy on the couch before bed.  He has moved more from momma's boy to daddy's little buddy.

Owen's feet must have been cold (despite the footie jammies) because in the morning we found him with feet tucked under the sheet saver.

Owen has learned to not only imitate us but also his friends from school.  We picked him up one afternoon and his teacher told us that one of his friends screams a very shrill scream when she gets upset or frustrated.  She then proceeded to tell us that our sweet little boy will lay on her to make her scream, just so he can imitate her with the biggest grin on his face.  We wondered why he was all of a sudden letting out the most ear-piercing screams.

 

Owen imitating Dad and trying to carry his backpack one morning.

Owen loves his food and usually lets none of it go to waste... however, one afternoon, we found him in the kitchen with a trail of goldfish behind him leading to the living room.  Not sure what happened that day.

 

 

Owen's First Haircut

Anna decided that Owen's hair had gotten entirely too long since the front was almost in his eyes and he was rockin' a serious mullet in the back so for her birthday there were going to take a trip to trim it up.  We went to Rinse & Repeat here in town.  It's brand new to town, family-owned salon that is just for kids.  They were so wonderful with Owen and he was fabulous during the haircut.

Owen's hair before in the front

Owen's hair before on the side and back

 

 Owen's hair before in the front (here you can really see his length)

Siting in the chair getting ready

Towel is on, ready to start

The first snips

 

Calmly sitting while she worked

Owen was engrossed in the comb so she let him hold it

Trimming behind the ears

Trimming up the back

Back is all evened up but needs taken up some still

 Finishing up the back

Much better!

Owen's hair after in the front

Owen's hair after on the side and back

Owen Turned 11 Months Old

Owen at 11 months old has developed quite the personality. He is happy, fun loving and is always an explorer.

Owen at 11 months old

Owen no longer lays still on the changing table. He wiggles and squirms and tries to grab whatever he can. There aren't many times that we can get his diaper changed without giving him a toy to occupy him. One day he kept trying to get the baby powder bottle so I let him hold it but forgot the top was open. It only took a second and *poof* he was covered in baby powder.

Owen's antiquing gone wrong

Owen is such a good eater and is always looking forward to the next meal. There isn't a food that he doesn't like.

Owen eating peaches and bananas (amongst other things) for dinner

Owen is only mellow immediately after eating, and only for a moment

Owen is so busy and loves to take his toys and put them on the other side of the baby gate, on the blocked off side of the living room or out the dog door. Most of the time when he puts them on the blocked off side of the living room he tries to reach between the couch and the ottoman to get them. Sometimes he gets stuck.

Owen stuck between the couch and the ottoman

Owen loves to sit in his chair and read a book, watch the activity in the house or drink a bottle.

Owen hanging out in his chair

Owen loves the camera and is such a ham

Owen loves both the dogs and loves to play with both of them. Owen will chase them around and plays tag with Nanuq and gives Darth hugs and climbs on him. Darth is pretty good about letting Owen climb on him as long as one of us are nearby.

Owen playing with Darth

As soon as Owen started crawling he was into everything. He would go into the kitchen and figure out which cabinets weren't unlocked and take everything out of them. One of the unlocked cabinets had cookbooks, vases and a few other random things in it. For the longest time Owen would just take all the cookbooks out but one morning he discovered the joys of breaking glass as he slammed the sun tea pitcher onto the tile floor (fortunately he came out without a scratch). No more cookbook fun for Owen, it was time to lock that cabinet too.

Owen helping Dad put the lock on the cabinet

Since Owen's 10 month birthday he has taken his first steps. Although we don't officially consider him a walker at 11 months, he is able to stand on his own for a few minutes and take a few steps without encouragement. He started out by standing on his own, then he would take a step or two with encouragement. Eventually wanted to take those steps on his own without us cheering him on but was so excited to please us.

The three "babies" waiting for us to come in from the garage

Also since his 10 month birthday, Owen has discovered the dog door. He often goes and looks out the door or throws his toys outside. He loves to watch the dogs outside and has only gotten stuck trying to get out once and gotten outside once, YET.

Owen playing at the dog door

We have used several objects to try and blockade off areas of the house. For awhile we were using Owen's walker to block off the back side of the couch but one day he figured out how to bypass it. He crawled up and into the walker and was on his way out the other side when he got stuck.

Owen trying to climb over the walker

Owen loves to be outside and loves to explore. One day we were out in the front yard unloading the truck and put him down to crawl around. Owen decided he wanted to go explore down the street. I figured like most kids he would try to run off to Grandma's but never thought he'd try to crawl away before the age of 1.

Owen off to go exploring

Owen and Dad enjoying the evening

Thanks Uncle Josh and Auntie Natalie for my Seahorse,
I sleep with him almost every night

Owen playing with the dog door, again

One of Owen's birthday presents is a cop car just like his Grandpa Grumpy's. Owen couldn't wait to play in his car, he had to help dad put it together.

Owen helping Dad put his car together

Owen ready to patrol the neighborhood

Along with all the walking practice comes a few bumps and bruises. One day Owen fell at school and bumped his check. He wound up with a battle wound.

Owen with a bruise from walking practice

Owen sitting in one of his favorite spots, the video rocker

I don't have any pictures of it, but Owen loves music. He has an activity center table that plays music and he has figured out how to make it play. His favorite song is the ABC's and he plays it over and over again. Most of the time he will stand at the table and do the squatting dance where he bounces up and down to the music.