Owen David is 6 1/2 Months Old!

• At Dr. Fletcher's 6-month wellness checkup you weighed in at 17.2 lbs (40th percentile) and were 28" long (85th percentile).  A bit bigger than Kaden, and we're all thinking you're going to be able to hold your own soon.

• You have THE best smile & laugh that can instantly put people in a better mood.

• You are extremely ticklish and you have a deep belly laugh.

• Right now your eyes look dark blue (beautiful!) and your baby hair has mostly fallen out.  It has come back straighter and lighter but it's not quite blonde. 

• People constantly comment on how well-behaved and happy you always seem and we would have to agree. 

• As far as sleeping goes, you have suddenly just started sleeping through the night. And by sleeping through the night, we're talking about going down around 10:30 and sleeping soundly until 7 a.m. (with the occasional cry out at 4 a.m.)

You just got your 1st tooth with a 2nd to quickly- within days of each other.

• You bit me the other day and nursing almost came to an abrupt end... BUT I think the weaning process has begun.  You've started eating brown rice cereal mixed with a fruit/veggie in the morning and just before bed (which has helped with the sleeping at night).  So far you seem to enjoy everything I've given you (banana, avacado, applesauce, sweet potato, squash) with the exception being green beans (which I thought tasted quite gross too).
 
 
• You are somewhat of a pacifier man, but nothing like your brother was.  You've started chewing on it while teething and you seem to like it more when you're exhausted.  You still fall asleep without it and we don't go into crisis mode when we can't find it.
 
 
• Dr. Fletcher asked me if you were a "roller" or a "sitter" and you are definitely a roller.  You are starting to cover some ground- even on the hard floor.  If I sit you up, you may stay briefly but you quickly fall to one side or the other.

• You tend to rock forward & back as you sit, which is what causes you to fall over (or backwards).  You definitely like to kick your legs and JUMP!

• The few times that we placed you in the pool, you continuously kicked your legs.

hanging out in the jumparoo

 
• We really don't know who you look like, although I have always thought your expressions look like those of your papa (David Dow; looks like we picked a good name for you!)
 
 
• You have recently found your voice.  If you ever watch the movie "Dumb & Dumber," you have been making a noise that rivals "the most annoying sound in the world".  It's a shrill shriek and it's quite entertaining... most of the time.

You enjoy being held but as you get bigger, my arms can't take it for long periods of time. 

Thank God for the Moby Wrap!

Oh Owen... O-wee (as Kaden, Shanny, and I sometimes call you)

You are such a wonderful little person.  You bring complete JOY to our lives.

We've Moved!

Well, not exactly...

We bascially just took all of our furniture on a tour of the house.

Ben & I have suspected that hardwood floors lay hidden underneath our carpet for years…
But until this summer we weren’t positive and then we didn't know the condition they were in once all of the carpet was removed.

Here’s what we discovered a few months ago.

After much discussion we finally decided to purge the carpet and explore other flooring options.  Ben did some research on refinishing hardwood flooring and then I had a professional come over and give us his honest opinion as to whether this could be done at our house.  After pulling back pieces of carpet, Jeff told us that there might be a few "character spots" but the bottom line is that you never really know until you get the carpet completely out.

This process has been similar to moving.

Don't we look like hoarders?

 We had to move everything out of the 3 bedrooms & living room. And when I mean everything, I mean everything needed to be off the floor, off the walls, and out of the closets.

As the guys were pulling out the carpet they discovered more than just a character spot.
 It was apparent that at some point in the last 60 years, a lot of water made its way into the living room and sat for a while, which caused many of the boards to be dark/bowed.  In other words many of the living room boards needed to be replaced, which added a few more days to the process.

 View of the living room sub-floor

A look at Kaden's room as they started sanding.  Some darker spots, but good overall. 

Owen's room looked pristine, as if the floors hadn't been touched in 60 years!

We knew this going in, but it is a JOB to restore hardwood. (A job I am grateful we didn't have to tackle alone!) Sanding, replacing, filling, dusting, CLEANING up dust, sealing... drying... and then staying OFF them while they cured.

I really don't think this process would have been possible had it not been for Ben's parents and their willingness to let us move in for 2 weeks... dog and all.

   breakfast at the bar

The move back in should have been quicker, but there were a couple of setbacks. This entire process took a few days longer than everyone anticipated and the day in which we were able to move back just so happened to coincide with Ben's golf trip that he had been planning for months...
 
 Then, there was the kid factor (thought I might kill myself-or Kaden-moving this king mattress alone!)
SINCE I realized that I couldn't move furniture by myself & would have gone insane just sitting at the Dows. With the beauty of those new bare floors, I felt the need to spuce up the dark walls with a lighter coat of paint AND was determined to do it before Ben could come home object.

 painting the bedroom while the boys slept

  before & after

So almost a month later, we're finally back to "normal"

Quick Trip to Dallas

or Grapevine (the Dallas-Fort Worth area) to see Ben's family. 

A weekend trip to Dallas isn't really that far of a drive (at least for us) so we went for a quick weekend trip and stayed with Deann & Norman.

In just a couple of days, we seemed to pack in a lot of action.  

Along with Deann & Norman, we went out to dinner with Ben's cousins: Greg, Andrew (and Angela).  We were there a long time and while we were having dessert, a table across the room spotted Kaden... Apparently they were doing some type of temporary tattooing & they thought that he might like to choose one.  

A "sfarkly sfider"

The pool at their house was also a giant hit (besides Kaden's accidental step off into the deep end & Deann's quick-response lifeguarding skills).  Thankfully Kaden still wanted to swim again with daddy a few hours later. 

Kaden & Ben enjoying some time in the pool after a hard day of golf with Greg. 

Deann & Owen

A few years ago Deann bought a motorized bumper-boat type toy for their grandson, Sam.  Kaden tried it out last year but he didn't fully understand how fun it could be until this summer.  

Before leaving town, we went to the Grapevine Mills aquarium.
I may or may not have been the most excited about the excursion.

love this picture

daddy & Kaden at the Grapevine aquarium

I got my equivalent of golf as Kaden & I took a trip through Central Market.  If you've never heard of this magival place, it is a grocery store for those who are "really into food."  Super fresh produce, a gigantic bakery section, isles upon isles of gourmet foods/sauces/dressings that I don't typically see in Amarillo.
I don't know how else to describe it.
Ben doesn't really get my obsession (? not sure if that's the right word ?) with food, but then again, I don't really "get" his addiction to golf.

My idea of a vacation...
road tripping with my cup of coffee and an excellent book...
with children sound asleep in the back.

Owen Starts Solids

Hallelujah, I got another one to the 6-month mark!
What a feeling to know that you alone have nourished and kept another human being alive & well for 6 solid months.  From day one in the hospital, Owen has done extremely well with nursing and hasn't had to use any formula.  (I think the body automatically knows what to do the 2nd go-round.)  
He also hasn't been sick at all and I don't think that's just a coincidence.

But all good things eventually come to an end and Owen has started solid food.  

suspiciously eyeballing the box of brown rice cereal

not quite sure what to think

 I kind of forgot that it takes 20 minutes to get a few teaspoons down and how 1/2 of it winds up everywhere but his mouth.

Classic Owen
So happy!