Friday, November 4, 2011

Owen is seven months old!

I'm seven months old!
At seven months old, Owen was (based on our scale at home):
Weight: 18 pounds, 5 ounces, 50th percentile
Length: 27 inches long, 50th percentile

     He didn’t have an official doctor’s appointment this month, but we did go to the doctor on Wednesday for his second round of the flu shot. He did so unbelievably great. He started like he was going to cry, but didn’t really. And he was smiling just a few minutes later. He was so brave!

Eating:
     Owen is still drinking five or six ounces of breastmilk at each feeding. He eats every three hours still until his last feeding in the evening. If wakes up during the night and I can’t soothe him back to sleep any other way, I give him a little four ounce snack bottle. He eats a meal of pureed fruits or vegetables two times a day, in the morning and in the evening. He still enjoys apples, pears, peas, and sweet potatoes. He tried avocado for the first time this month, but didn’t seem to like it very much. I think it was a texture thing. He also still hates bananas. 
Alas, I am too tired to eat!
     We bought new dining room furniture this month and love eating at the table together. Owen generally eats with us because otherwise we'd have to wait for him to go to bed to eat and that is a little later than we would like. Sometimes we wait and eat late though just to have some time alone. Anyway, Owen really likes the new table. He thinks it tastes great. Haha.
Sleeping:
    Owen has woken up once in the middle of the night for most nights this month. Though he has slept through the night recently for three nights in a row. We think that was because he was sick though and we gave him some Benadryl to help with his runny nose and coughing. He slept unswaddled for the first time all night on Oct. 29. When he is unswaddled, he sleeps on his tummy. When he is swaddled, he generally breaks out of the swaddle during the night and I find him on his stomach in the morning. He naps about twice a day now for anywhere between 45 minutes and two hours.

Other Things I Want to Remember:
     Owen is wearing nine month and size 6-12 month clothing. He wears size 2 diapers. He doesn’t wear shoes still. I think his feet are a little too big for size 2, but a little too small for size 3.
     Owen’s hair is getting thicker and darker. And his “bald” spot in the back is growing in. His eyes are a dark hazel color.
     This month Owen began sucking on his thumb occasionally. He drools a lot. We call Owen’s saliva corrosive because if he sucks or bites on anything made of paper like books or puzzles, they start falling apart. He loves playing with Tim’s hair and trying to play with mine.
      Owen babbles a little more now. He seems to really be experimenting with the different noises he can make. He frequently “growls” at his toys. He can also make buzzing noises with his lips. We have been working on Mama and Dada, but Owen’s noise of choice is currently, “Buh-buh-buh.”
     I am trying to teach Owen how to clap and high five. He hasn’t gotten it yet.
     Owen loves shaking rattles and other things that make noise. He has starting throwing things intentionally on the floor. He really enjoys books, but has a problem trying to eat them. He loves this fabric book that my mom got him that he can chew on and wrinkle up the pages. Owen’s favorite part of any toy is the tag. He finds the tags on blankets, stuffed animals, and anything really and flicks it back and forth with his fingers and sucks on it and “talks” about it. Tim says that he’s reading the care instructions. Haha. He likes playing peek-a-boo, particularly if I cover my face with a blanket or something that he can pull off my head. He loves being surprised. If you pop up and startle him, it makes him laugh. This kid will seriously love scary movies when he grows up. Owen also wants whatever we happen to be holding. He is very curious. We let him check out whatever he seems interested in. Excluding sharp knives and matches and our cell phones. 
Milk. Does the body good.
     Owen is still happiest in the morning, though he perks up for about an hour in the afternoon when Tim gets home from work. Tim generally will creep in when he gets home and stand watching Owen play until Owen looks up at him and recognizes him. It is such a cute, cute moment when Owen breaks out in this huge smile and squeals with joy when he sees his daddy. Then they wrestle around on the floor for a while.
It's wrastling time!
     Owen is not crawling yet, but does get up on his hands and knees and shifts his weight forward and backward. He also gets up on his hands and his toes. While Owen is not crawling yet, he does manage to move all over the floor though he tends to move backward or rotate in circles. I find him backed into corners and up under the coffee table frequently. It makes him pretty frustrated. The childcare workers at church call him a “toy monster” because he loves to play with all the toys in the nursery and will roll, scoot, army crawl, drag himself, or whatever it takes all over the floor to get to something that catches his eye.
    Here are some photos from his seven-month photo shoot:
Oh, what is this? Another sticker! I must crinkle it beyond recognition!
What are you doing up there, Mom?
It's my photo shoot and I'll cry if I want to!
I'm almost twice as tall as my elephant!
Hahaha! Peek-a-boo is so funny!

My crinkle nose smile is Mommy's favorite.
Check out the droolage. That sticker didn't stand a chance.
I can't keep my hands off it!
R.I.P. Seven month sticker.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Tasty Thursday

     This week, most of our meals are going to be made in the slow cooker. I just love using the slow cooker because it makes preparing meals so simple and it fills the house with a delicious scent all day. Plus, I dirty the kitchen up in the morning and can clean it during the day so that in the evening I don't have to worry about picking up and we can just relax after our meal. Most of my recipes that I'm using this week are ones that I found on Pinterest. Recipes on Pinterest are always a toss-up because while they might look good, you don't always really know exactly where it came from and who designed it. But they generally look good and the majority of the ones I've made so far have tasted great. Anyway, here's the menu for this week. Enjoy!

Thursday: French onion beef roast with baked potatoes and steamed broccoli. This is the recipe that I was going to make on Wednesday night, but Tim needed our slow cooker at the last minute for a work fundraiser so we went out to eat and I postponed our meal.
Friday: Leftovers over rice with green beans.
Saturday: Grilled chicken with foil packet bacon ranch potatoes and steamed broccoli. Tim requested to opportunity to grill and I found the recipe for the bacon ranch potatoes on Pinterest.
Sunday: Crock pot beef stroganoff with green beans. This is a recipe that I found on Pinterest. Tim likes beef stroganoff, but I’ve never made it before. Hopefully, this recipe, which is labeled “The Absolute BEST crockpot beef stroganoff recipe,” is good.
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Crock pot Italian chicken with salad. This is another recipe I found on Pinterest. I just love using my slow cooker and having enough leftovers that we can eat the same thing again the next night. Also, it has like five ingredients, which will save us some money at the grocery store.
Wednesday: Leftovers. I will also be making cinnamon rolls because I have to bring breakfast for the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group that I go to once a month on Thursday and it is also Tim’s last day at his current position in town before he moves out to the project site so I’m going to let him take some cinnamon rolls to his coworkers. This is the Pioneer Woman recipe that my mom and I made the other week when I was in Georgia. It is so amazingly good and fun to make. Look at the picture. Oh mercy.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

We are fam-i-ly!

     My trip home to Georgia with Owen went really well last week (minus the no husband). I had so much fun watching everyone play with Owen and enjoy seeing how he has grown and changed. Once again, I don't have pictures of everyone with him. I'm so bad about making sure to bring my camera out for everything. But I did get some good pictures of most of our family. Here are some of the pics from our trip!
At my parent's house, Owen got to play on the quilt that I played on as a baby.
Visiting Haley.
Aidan got to practice his sharing with "Oh-no."
Playing with Grams is more fun than eating store-bought baby food peas. Yuck!
Hey Nana, what's up?
Grams wanted a family photo shoot. Owen wanted to play with pine straw.
Minus Piper looking away, this one turned out pretty well. The more interesting picture would probably be all the hoopla going on behind me as my aunt and uncle and cousin Johanna tried to get Owen to smile.
Doesn't he look so grown up? When did my baby get so old?
This is Owen trying to eat getting to know Piper.
This is the new love of Owen's life, Leah. I haven't had the heart to tell him that she's already married to his Uncle Joseph.
Papa fed him an entire bowl of applesauce. Yummy!
Kisses from Aunt Jenny.
Jodi is apparently hilarious to six-month-olds. She even makes blankets funny.
Owen was willing to give Marcus and Jodi some baby practice.
Mama Jane got to have some Grandma practice.
Aunt Jenny wanted to take Owen to the pumpkin patch because really, is there anything cuter than babies with pumpkins?

How to best explore the pumpkin patch? By putting them in your mouth!
Hugs from Grams.
Grandpa gave Owen a bath.
Owen enjoyed his newest bath toys- sea turtles (and plastic cups.)

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Happy Halloween!

     Here at the Washington Rumely household, Halloween was a big deal. We went all out for Owen's first Halloween: doing Halloween crafts, carving pumpkins, buying entirely too much candy for the nine trick-or-treaters who came to the house, dressing Owen up, making pumpkin cupcakes, watching a scary TV show (AMC's The Walking Dead), and more. It was such a fun weekend. Here are some pictures from our Halloween. 
In case the last post made you think, "Jessica is so crafty!" this is what Owen's costume would have been if we hadn't bought one.

Owen "helping" Daddy carve the pumpkin. Note: the pumpkin scoop is fun to chew on.

"Please, please give me the pumpkin guts!"
"Ew...what is this stuff? I don't want to touch it. Take it away."

The finished product! Yay, Daddy. Super scary.

Our precious baby monkey.
Seriously, I know I'm biased, but this kid is so cute.
Are you looking at me?
Adorable from every angle.
Check out those eyes. The monkey costume makes them look really brown, but there's some green in there too.
Monkeys love bananas, right?
WRONG!!!!!
I'll let you put that banana next to me, but I am not eating it!
Hey, what's this?
This is my thinkin' face.
My tail is so much tastier than that nasty ol' banana.
Monkey hugs!