mobility!

he did it! he's crawling! and i watched him start! before long, he'll be all over the place and quickly. i'm just waiting for the day when little man crawls away, looks at us, grins and giggles as we chase him down. "chase the baby" will be our new favorite game! right now "peek-a-boo" is high on the favorites list.

i'm crying happy tears. he's so proud of himself. no more commando crawling (or minimal commando crawling)! i got it on video tape! max (the cat) had better watch out, because o thinks the cat is the coolest thing.

Learning Limits (I made him cry!)

Last night, I was sitting at the computer playing a great game (Lemmings Revolution) and had Owen in my lap. He decided that it would be fun to grab onto and yank my hair. I told him "No" with a pretty forceful tone in my voice. He scrunched up his little face and started to cry. (I'm such a mean mommy!) He got over it pretty quickly, though. He also hasn't yanked on my hair since.

Last Saturday, we learned a new trick. Owen can now sit up from being on his tummy. He did it once in the middle of the floor and again under the coffee table. I thought the latter was pretty funny.

No school tomorrow or Monday for the Memorial Day weekend. We'll have our niece for a part of the day (her day care center got closed down so we've been day care for the last two weeks. We love having her!) It's supposed to rain, otherwise I'd take the kids to the zoo. Maybe we can go to the history museum...dunno we'll have to wait and see. I'm gonna want to get out of the house, at least. As of today, we have 12.5 more days of school. Only one more full week, plus two partial weeks. Our last day is June 15. Yay!!!!!

I ordered a great DVD set today, though I won't get it until early August, since it's not going to be available until July 25. (Animaniacs!!!!!) Can't wait to get that and watch it! I used to come home from high school and watch that show every day.

Have a safe Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

Commando!

i'm typing with one hand and holding a sleepy 7-month-old boy who doesn't want to go to sleep in the other.

little man is so close to crawling. his current preferred method of locomotion is commando crawling, on his belly pushing with his legs and pulling with his arms. it's pretty effective. he's also an expert roller. he is frequently up on all fours, rocking, practically sitting up, and can move one or two limbs (usually arms) off of the floor with ease. one other thing he is getting good at is 'walking' while holding to my hands.

we've outgrown the carrier (too long!) and have moved into a convertible car seat (that can go backward facing, forward facing, and will also serve as a booster when he gets older.

***And now a word from owen!***
hk.v iv,ufk uv g fd y

A Sign?

I'm thinking Owen is starting to communicate with us now. Last night as he was having his bedtime bottle, he let go of the bottle and waved his arm around. He's never done that before. We've been signing to him, and "all done" is signed by shaking both hands...he was pretty close to that. I took the bottle away from him and he didn't protest at all. We'll see when he does it again. I was told in the Signing with Baby class I took that they will often do approximations before they do the real thing, especially if the motor skill required are a little more than they have. I'd say this is a pretty good approximation.

We got his convertable car seat yesterday, too. The nice thing is that it will go all the way up through a booster (until he's 80 lbs.) since it has the shoulder belt positioning things on the sides. One less thing to buy. I think I'm going to a seminar at the children's hospital here in town on Thursday to get a second one. For $35, you go to the 90 minute session and they give you the next size car seat that you need. Not a bad deal! This way we'll have one in my car and one in Jeffy's truck and we won't need to switch them back and forth.

Changing Every Day!

Wow. I'm amazed at how quickly Owen is growing and changing these days. It seems that he has a new trick every day, sometimes two new tricks. Take yesterday for example. He not only got up on all fours and rocked for a few seconds, but he also earned himself a hose-down in the kitchen sink. Jeffy tried the bathtub first, but then I mentioned the sprayer in the sink, which worked beautifully!

Owen is getting so mobile and he's not even crawling yet! He can roll anywhere. He will also "flop" (go from tummy to back or vice versa but moving his legs to face a different direction. Basically doing rotations and revolutions), do the inchworm thing on his back, and do an army crawl on his tummy. Time to get anything we don't want him to get off of the floor!

Owen's other big news is that he now has two teeth. He cut his second tooth on April 22. He has chomped down after nursing a few times. That's fun...