Adventures in Babysitting

We have neighbors, Emi and Carlos, who have a little boy, Keifer, who is 9 days older than Owen. Carlos is in the military and has been away since December, and will be gone through April. Upon hearing that he'd left, we let Emi know that if there was anything we could do for her while Carlos is gone we would be more than happy to help.

I was genuinely excited to get an e-mail from Emi asking if we could watch Carlos for her because she had to work over the weekend. We, of course, said yes. Friday night we stopped by to see Emi and Keifer to see if there were any special instructions. She had Keifer on the floor and we put Owen down on next to him. Owen immediately rolled closer to Owen so that they were shoulder-to-shoulder. They happily shared a rattle, and were soon shrieking and screaming together.

Keifer was a joy to babysit! Owen had just gone up for his morning nap when Emi brought Keifer over. He played in Owen's Jump-a-roo and with some toys. Once Owen woke up, it was time for Keifer's nap. Owen then had lunch and played as well. Keifer took a nice nap. I tried to feed him afterwords, but he was too curious about his surroundings and wouldn't take his bottle from me (luckily it'd only be an hour until Emi would be picking him up, so she could take him home to feed). So we put him on the floor to play with Owen. The two of them had a good time together. They rolled around, they played with toys. Keifer is laid-back and sweet. Owen is outgoing and sweet. A great combination, I think. They had a great time. We can't wait to get the two together again!

Hey man, what's up?


I'll put my right foot up, and you put your left foot up.


Owen looking like he wants to wrestle.


So many activities!

Happy 6 Months Owen!

Wow...where has the time gone? Our little boy is 6 months old.

Owen had a doctor's appointment on his 6 month birthday. Grammy Penny was here while Chad had to go to South Carolina for work. He is weighing in at 17 pounds and 13 ounces. He is 27 inches tall and his head is 17 inches big. He is in the 75th percentile for all mesaurements. He also got some shots, I don't know if they're less fun for me or him.

We had a nice visit with Owen's Grammy Penny. It was truly a joy to see my mom with Owen. It truly gets harder and harder to live far away family, especially now that we have Owen.

Owen continues to grow and thrive. He has great dexterity when it comes to handling toys. He will roll from one end of the quilt to the other when he's on the floor playing. He shows happiness by laughing, smiling and shrieking. Really, our little boy is pretty happy all around. But he's funny in that he shows his displeasure by groaning and grunting. He can be kind of dramatic at times. In fact when he got his oral rotovirus vaccine he was making grunting and gagging noise, of which the nurse said, laughingly, she'd never heard a baby do. Yup, that's my boy.

Owen has been enjoying his solid food. He really likes his rice cereal. He has also tried bananas and avacado. Today after his nap, he's going to try some sweet potatoes. Once we get past him trying various foods and figuring out what he likes, and making sure he doesn't have any allergic reactions, I'm going to make his food. Yup, I'm going to be one of those mothers. :o)

Owen had his first Valentine's Day. He got a lot of cards and some Valentine stuffed animals from his Grammy and Auntie Lisa.

I think that's it for now. Just some pictures, of course.

Our happy boy:


Grammy Penny feeding Owen avacado:


Owen and some of his Valentines:


Owen and Grammy Penny:


Peek-a-Boo!:

Mmm, mmm, good!

I had done all kinds of reading on introducing solid food to Owen. Most of what I had read said that if you are exclusively breastfeeding to wait 6 months. This in spite of our pediatricians giving us the green light to start him at 4 months. My Mommy instincts kicked in and I felt like he was ready before the 6 month mark and we started feeding him rice cereal on February 1st. This would be more like 5 1/2 months.

So we put Owen into his high chair seat and put on his bib. I had alerady washed some bowls and his little spoons. I mixed the rice cereal up with the breastmilk and we were ready. From first spoonful he enthusiasticly and sloppily gobbled it up. We're on day 6 now of the rice cereal and I've learned, after making it a little too thin a couple of times, how he likes to eat it.

Here are some pictures of his first eating adventure. One of the baby food books I borrowed from the library has said that avacados are a great first food. So I bought some of those and we will try those next. Hopefully, more on that in our next blog entry.

Looking oh-so-dashing his a Dr. Suess bib.



Mmmm, that wasn't bad.




I don't know what this thing is, but it tastes pretty good!