Happy 15/16 Months!

This post is a little bit overdue, hence the 15/16 months instead of just 15.  I blame the puking and wanting to go to bed at 6 every night.  But just wanted to do a little recap of this awesome time with Owen.  He is such a fun kid these days and I'm really trying to cherish every moment now that I know it always won't just be the 2 of us at home all day.
The Stats
Length: 31.25" (56th percentile)
Weight: 23lb 8oz (35th percentile)
Head Circumference: 45.2cm (6th percentile) - don't worry about your small head buddy.  there's a big brain in there.
New Things
WALKING, finally! Well, it took him awhile to get there, but I can officially say we have a walker. In the last couple weeks, he's been getting braver about letting go on his own and not only when there's someone to walk to.  I only have some really bad videos, so I need to catch a good one.  Here's a pretty bad one from when we were playing on the patio. He's still a little wobbly on his feet, but he can stand up now without having to hold onto something!


He lifts up his feet to get out of his pants and likes to try to "help" you button or zip his clothes.  He also loves to point out things that are on his shirts. In almost all of his books, you can ask him to point out things, and he can get them.  It's fun to see how much language he has in his head already.  Whenever you ask him a question that doesn't know the answer to, he holds his hands up like asking "what" or "I don't know." 

Talking
He jabbers all the time which is hilarious. He has a few words that very distinguishable. Mama for me, gaga for dada. Can't get those d's quite yet. He says 'melmo' for Elmo and clearly says ball. His truck noises and firetruck siren are awesome and he does a killer 'moooooo.'  If you ask him, Owen say ____, he'll always say something.  It's not quite distinguishable yet, but he almost always repeats back the right number of syllables.
Eating
Owen's still a really great eater!  His breakfast favorites are oatmeal, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and any kind of fruit.  He'd eat any kind of fruit all day if I'd let him, well that is except for watermelon.  For lunches and dinner, the kid loves yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese sticks, (beef only) hot dogs - seriously, peas, corn, edamame, and anything we're eating for dinner of course!  He usually acts as if I never feed him and is never one to turn down a snack!
He had his first allergic reaction during lunch a couple weeks ago.   You can see by the picture that the red rash all around his mouth didn't seem to phase him at all.  The nurse I called recommended waiting 4 days and then reintroducing the foods I'd given him one at a time.  The only thing we haven't re-tried yet were the raw carrots with ranch dressing.  She guessed it was likely the carrots although he's never had this rash before with them.  Poor guy, I was really hoping we wouldn't have to deal with any allergies.

Sleeping
Can I skip this section?  In all honestly, since pregnancy tiredness hit, I've given up on any form of sleep training.  It's called get as much sleep as I can, any way I can get it.  Every little nap he takes, you can usually find me sleeping as well.  He takes about a 25-30 minute nap in the morning.  Although some days lately, he's been able to do ok without it.  So I think we're heading into that hard transition to one nap.  I have to kind of play it by ear every day right now.  His afternoon nap is also just 30 minutes, but sometimes I can get him to go back for another 30-40 minutes.  At night, he gets up 3-4 times and is currently coming into our room into his pack and play around 3ish.  It's the only way he'll go back to sleep.  We're both hitting major frustration levels, so we're trying to make a new game plan.  This kid has got to learn how to sleep before this baby gets here!

And to end this little rundown, here's a few pictures from the lovely sister of course:

moved and pictures

So I wanted to write a nice post to wish my sister goodbye and good luck in Denver. But honestly, one minute it doesn't really feel real and the other minute I'm crying about it. I'm finding it hard to believe that we have no (immediate) family left in town.

I guess I'm just realizing that Owen's growing up will look slightly different than mine, which is fine, just different!  I grew up with with 21 cousins all in Champaign/Peoria and seeing them all the time. All of Owen's grandparents and aunts/uncles now live in 5 different cities in 4 states.   I know this is pretty norm these days. And we'll make it work with lots of road trips so he knows them all. And it doesn't look like he's getting cousins anytime soon. But anywho, we miss her already. Lots. So here's some of her awesome pictures from our last photo shoot at Curtis Orchard. I have over 200 and want to frame them all!

vet med open house

Before church this morning, we visited the Vet Med Open House.  This is a Champaign tradition every year, I remember going to it when I was a kid.  We are so glad we got there right when it started.  By the time we drove back by after church, there were cars overflowing the parking lot and people everywhere.  We pretty much walked in and got to see everything we wanted and walked out.  We tried to milk the cow.  Owen loved it from far away, but almost lost it when I put him down to milk her.  Maybe next year buddy when you're a big bigger.  Please excuse the fake smile:

 

We saw the famous fistulated cow, basically a cow with a big hole in it's stomach.  They give you huge gloves and you can put your hand in.  We opted just to take a look.  It was a massive cow!

Checking out the goats:

Taking another look at a cow:

 

a visit from friend

Sara and Phil came for a short visit this weekend. No matter how short, it's always great to see them and that sweet little girl. They went on a date to a dinner at Prairie Fruit Farms.  We got to be the first babysitters to put Liana to bed!  She loves to bounce, so we got out Owen's jumperoo which she loved! 

She did great eating her sweet potatoes.  But come bath time, she wasn't too happy that we were loaning our baby bath tub to someone else, so she had to use the Bumbo.  Don't let this picture fool you.  They were both in tears before long.

But overall, we had a great time.  And when you get paid to babysit in beer, gelato, and raspberries, it's a good night.  Love you guys!

Baby #2 FAQ

Well, the word is out, but you blogger friends get the first dibs on all the info!  Owen is going to be a big brother!  We are so thrilled and excited!  So here's a couple commonly asked questions that I've been asked when people have found out!

When did you find out?
Tuesday, August 9 - saw this bright and early in the morning.  I resisted telling William (so hard) as I had an idea I wanted to do to tell him.

Wednesday, August 10 - went to do a pee test at Carle.  They require this now before they'll schedule an appointment.  Must have been implemented after I had Owen since I didn't have to do this.
Friday, August 11 - first major round of bloodwork - learned my progesterone was ok!  What an answer to prayer as I had to take progesterone for 14 weeks with O.
Saturday, August 12 - second round of bloodwork.  HCG was doubling and I started breathing a little easier.
Thursday, September 8 - had first ultrasound and saw a beautiful heartbeat (158 bmp).

 

When are you due?
Still a little up for debate depending on who you talk to, but on the official Carle papers, it's April 21st!  That means that Owen and his brother or sister will be about 22 1/2 months apart.

So, how far along does that make you?
I'm in week 11!

How did you tell William?
It was so hard not to tell him as I saw the 2 lines come up!  But as soon as he left, I got working on a little shirt for Owen and went and bought a non-cheapy pregnancy test.  My idea was to have Owen wearing it when he got home from work, but a friend decided to stop by right around that time.  So scratch that.  I was DYING.  So I sped Owen through dinner and gave him the fastest bath ever and changed him into the shirt and pj pants.  I had been making big brother/sister shirts for a friend, so it took William a second to realize that Owen wasn't just modeling a new shirt.  He jumped up off the chair, and we kissed and hugged.  Good times!  That Saturday, my mom was in town and we were able to tell her the same way and then texted the picture to my dad.  We Skyped later that night with William's folks with Owen wearing it as well!

How are you feeling?
Well, I've been trying really hard not to complain.  Because I am so so thankful that it took barely no time this round to get pregnant and that things are working so far.   So this will be my one time shot to say that I have been SO sick.  With Owen, I felt nauseous in the evenings and occasionally puked. But with this kiddo, I've been sick from sun up to sun down, throwing up at least twice a day.  When I was down 10 pounds in a couple weeks, my midwife gave me the option of starting some medicine.  The medicine is what they give to chemotherapy patients, so it's pretty good stuff.  My insurance only covered about 9 days of pills (wow, they are pricey).  The first day, I was back to my old self, but it must have been a placebo affect, because the puking came back full force the next day.  Just in the last couple days, I've been holding food down much better and am hoping that as I get closer to second trimester, things will only get better. And yes, most people hear this and have said "It's totally a girl."

Will you find out the sex (and tell us)? 
Yes and yes.  We'll be finding out late November, early December and will definitely share the news!  I would be so thrilled to get to use all of Owen's clothes again as the seasons will work out pretty good.  And so many of my friends have 2 little boys and it looks so fun to have a little playmate for Owen.  And it would be really helpful on my super tight budget.  But of course, we'd be over the moon too if it was a girl!  Cannot wait to find out!

Ok, I think that's it for now.  Knowing how awesome the end product of a baby is makes this so super exciting.  We are so thankful it took such a short time for it to work and we're in love with this little peanut already!

about to go public

{title goes here}

I've been wanting to write this post for a long time now. But I just couldn't come up with a great title. Here were a few that I was kicking around:

• Why are there goldfish crackers in my fridge?
• And I thought I knew what tired was.
• The top 10 stores in C/U with clean toilets
• "I'm so excited, I just can't hide it!"
• What did we do?
• Saltines Suck

And I was so busy trying to come up with a title, I forgot what I was actually going to post about.

week in review

Dear Diary,
This has been a really busy week and we're all tired.  So here's just a little recap of what's been going on, sans any pictures.

Tuesday: After I did a bad job pulling together outfits for a photo shoot, Jenna went out with me to help me shop and we found the perfect bright colored outfits for our upcoming pictures.

Thursday: Baby Ryder Austin made his appearance, finally.  Congrats to Lori, Randy, and big sister Avery!  We can't wait to bring you a meal and meet that sweet babe!  We also had a nice time at Curtis Orchard doing our last (for awhile) photo shoot with my sister before her big move to Denver.

Friday: Baby Audrey Edel was born to Michelle, Doug, and big sister Bella!  Cannot wait to meet this tiny beauty!  Then in the evening, Pam hosted the going away party for Jenna.  It went over great with amazing people and tasty food!  I think it  was a great way to send Jenna off although it did make it a little more real that she's really leaving. :(

Saturday: my parents spent the night and let us sleep in!  My dad and William then got Jenna's apartment packed up and moved into our basement.  She's living with us for the next week until she makes the move. Then I got to go the great football game with my dad while Owen stayed home!  We got to be in the skybox, which is so much fun with great food and oh my the dessert cart.  It was a great afternoon away and I think Owen had a great time with Grammy!

Whew, fun and busy week!  And oh the sweet new babies, cannot wait to meet them!

piano

2 weekends ago, my parents were awesome and loaded up the really heavy piano in a U Haul to bring it back to Champaign. Funny story, as my dad was driving into our drivway, a sheriff pulled up and blocked him in. He asked him if he could search his truck. Turns out, because it was the weekend of 9/11, they were searching all large vehicles that could be carrying a bomb. Really, in Savoy, IL? Of course, all they found was the piano and the car topper which we're taking from them too for those road trips we plan to do someday with lots of kiddos and luggage. :)

Anyways, I've loved having the piano here and it makes me want to paint and decorate that room. And here's my little musician in the making:

snack time

These 2 were dressed alike on Monday, so I had to snap a picture. Miss S is such a sweetie and I think Owen really enjoys having her come play with us!

first trip to Curtis Orchard

Last week, William's parents were in town for the week, so we tried to show them around to some of the Champaign places they hadn't seen yet. Curtis Orchard was first on the list! William met us over there during lunch and we had a great time!  We of course came home with donuts, apples, and some other goodies.  I had never eaten lunch there, but I highly recommend the little cafe!  Our chili, homemade applesauce, and cornbread were delish!

hanging out with PawPaw before we left

just getting there and seeing dad!

umm, I don't get it.  am I supposed to smile?

he of course tried to sample the goat food himself

he was nervous at first, but eventually let them eat out of his hand

he liked the tractor!

he made his truck noises the whole time he was "driving"

Can't wait to go back today with Jenna to take some family pictures!! And of course get more donuts.

bad blogging

I've been a bad blogger. We had a couple slow weeks and then the inlaws were here for a week.

Ok, let's just be honest. Grey's Anatomy Season 7 finally was released on Netflix. I have now watched all 22 episodes to be ready for the season premiere this Thursday night. All naptimes and evenings were consumed leaving no time to blog. I will catch up. Soon.

weaned!

I still have a hard time believing that as I type it. My little boy has been boob-free for the last week.  I really thought it would be an easier process than it was.  So many of my friends said, "oh (s)he was just ready" and "I just knew it was time."  I didn't really experience any of these things.  I had told myself that I would just see how things went this summer.  But as we were approaching August, I had dropped a couple feedings and the times he did nurse were super short.  But he was definitely not in any mood to stop them.  He would point at my chest, grab my shirt, and scream pretty good if he didn't get it.  But over the next few weeks, I just kept telling him that he was a big boy who drank milk from a sippy cup and offered the boob less and less.  And then last weekend, I just decided we were done.  He was pretty mad for a few days, but in the last couple hasn't even "asked" for it.  So I guess that means, he's weaned!

It has been such an incredible journey.  I am so thankful for the awesome breastfeeding I've had.  I know that not everyone has such a good experience.  He latched on from the get go:

And pretty much didn't let go.  I have truly loved breastfeeding.  It's been a wonderful experience with my little guy these last 15 months.  I thank God daily that I've been able to have a great supply, a guy with no latching issues, and a desire to do it that never wavered.  As it came to an end, I didn't shed any tears like I thought I might.  Largely because I know he won't be our last kiddo and I'll hopefully get to do this again!  And it will be nice to have my boobs to myself for awhile.