First haircut

After Owen's first birthday I was willing to admit that his hair was rather shaggy:So it was time for his first haircut! We went to the local 'Cool cuts for kids', where they have a little firetruck-seat to entertain the kiddos.

They also put on Barney, but Owen wasn't very interested. Anyways, the haircut went without a hitch, although at times he got a little irritated that he had to sit still.

Here's a picture of my little guy with his new haircut: What a big boy!

First Birthday! (mmmm cake)

We celebrated Owen's first birthday (which was on Oct. 29) on Halloween this year, with family and friends. Kids were encouraged to come in their Halloween costumes (why not?!) and Owen was a furry blue monster:




He got lots of wonderful presents! But he was definitely more interested in his stacking rings than in opening them:




And he had his first, very own cupcake. He licked at it a bit, but didn't really figure it out until I cut it into quarters:




Yes, that was a quarter of a full-sized cupcake. What can I say, the boy loves his food:



After that piece, though, he was finished. The aftermath (the rest of the cupcake was thrown vigorously to the floor):



Happy Birthday, Owen!

Almost walking!

It's been a while since I posted anything, and that's because we've been pretty busy!

Owen started daycare a few weeks ago. Aside from him already being out sick twice (once with an ear infection and once with croup -- both his first :( ) he's doing pretty well there. I need to snap a picture of him playing with (alongside?) the other kids because it's super cute.

One of his favorite games currently is chase the ball :) He crawls around and hits the ball forward and chases it. It's a fun game for mommy and daddy because he pretty much does it all on his own and they just need to make sure he doesn't get distracted by the pretty outlets or go headfirst down the stairs in the living room (although he actually has done that last one once: they're only 2 and carpeted, so he was ok. now he waits for mommy's help when he gets to the stairs, though!) Here's a video from a few weeks ago playing the game. He generally moves a little faster than this, but you get the idea:



As the title of the post says, Owen is getting pretty close to walking. He's been standing for 5-10 seconds on his own, and he loves to walk around with someone holding his hands, or with a push-walker. Here's a video of him doing the push walker at home; there's an even better one at daycare that looks like a little shopping cart and is easier for him to change direction with. He loves it!



And finally, he's still our little water-baby. Here's a sequence of shots showing our little monster-butt crawling from the office into, his favorite, the bathroom, where daddy was getting the bath ready. We don't even have to tell him which direction to go!

Quick update and a sink-bath video

It's been a while since I've updated, and there's lots to share (I definitely have some videos and photos to post at some point), but for now I'll just write about the past few weeks as I can remember it and post a video I took with my phone the other day.

Owen is getting big, fast, and is now full-on crawling, and even trying to cruise a bit. It seems like he's been teething for the past 6 months, and has gotten the two teeth on either side of his two front teeth (and he's had the bottom ones for a while). The top tooth on the upper right is visible beneath the skin, so it'll be through any day now. His poor little mouth hurts him a lot these days, but now when he bites us to relieve the pressure he draws blood!

He is still mostly just jabbering away; I can rarely tell what his words are although I do think there are a few things he says that have meaning to him. He definitely knows the words 'cat' and 'dog', though, which in his version are 'at' and 'dah' -- when I ask him if he can see the cat/dog he looks around (and stops whenever there is a one within eyesight, which is often at my house). I'm also fairly sure he knows the word 'eat', which comes as no surprise to anyone who's had a meal with him.

He is such a happy, easy going little guy. I have no idea what I did to deserve this, but I feel very blessed most days :)

And here's the video. It's sideways and very short; taken on my phone at my mom's house. He loves baths, and once we started running the water for this one he basically couldn't be kept out of the kitchen. He very much enjoys getting water everywhere, and cries when they're over. Very fun :)

First word?

Owen's been jabbering lots these days, and we're expecting his first word any day now.

Sunday morning when we woke up, Owen turned to Brad and said 'Dada'! I was excited because I thought it was his first word (and a little bummed that it wasn't 'Mama', but what are you going to do).

Then he turned to the closet and said 'Dada'... So I guess we haven't heard his first word yet :D

Quick video of him talking

Owen has always been pretty verbal, but he's started putting syllables together. Today he started really saying 'dadadadada'; here's a video. He also likes to make lots of zerbet sounds and roll his tongue -- I'm going to have to teach him Spanish (and learn it myself) so he'll have a place to use the tongue roll :)

Sorry for the lousy and sideways video -- I was using my phone. And Owen would really love to grab/eat it!

new photos and videos

Owen finally got to meet Grandma and Grandpa Hughes this past weekend. He had a good time, despite his face during the group shot (we had been messing with the camera for quite some time by the time this photo was taken:





His favorite things right now are 1) anything that can go into his mouth (and pretty much everything can, it turns out), 2) naked time! (see pic), 3) standing (with hands for balance -- he often tries to stand when I'd rather he sit -- see video).





Just for good measure, here's another video of him giggling at daddy; listen to the belly laugh! And finally, I couldn't resist the pic of him sleeping with butt in the air on daddy this evening.

Complaining, giggling, and sophie

Owen has taken to complaining when he starts to get bored or tired. He just talks and talks and talks, but in a very whiny tone... Nik is convinced that his babytalk is another language like French or German, and that if we just spoke it we'd know what he's saying (A-Goo must mean something, right?) Here's a video from this evening; his complaining is on the verge of becoming crying.


He also has really started laughing hard, especially at daddy and pop-pop.

Finally, everything is going into the mouth right now, in record time. He especially likes Sophie the Giraffe that honorary-Aunt Rachel got him -- takes him about 2 seconds flat (which I think is hilarious)! He also tries to put things that don't really fit into his mouth ... (second is a pic of him with a ball a different honorary-Aunt Rachel got him)...




And finally, a pic of his in a cute little fleece soaker that I had made for him by a work at home mom. He is filling up the pack-n-play!

Grabbing the mushroom and new pics

Owen has recently started grabbing/batting at toys, and yesterday while I was taking my shower he realized he could turn on the music on his chair by pulling the mushroom. He has to concentrate very hard to achieve this, though, as indicated by his 'concentrating face':



I wish it didn't play midi 'If you're happy and you know it' ...




And here are two recent pics of him in a few super cute outfits that relatives got for him. First is a little hoodie pantset from Aunt Amanda; second is an adorable little soft fleecy outfit from his Great Grandma Hughes. Both are 3-6 month size, and both are getting dangerously small!

Merry Christmas 2009

Christmas at our house this year. Trying out our new digital camcorder.