Friday, December 30, 2011

2011 - A Year in Review

Let's do a little recap, shall we?

January - We started the year off with a Maybe Baby, and by the end of the first month, Maybe turned into Owen! Henry was walking and starting to talk with a short list of words, and just starting to give me problems with his eating habits. Henry got his first official hair cut.


February - A pretty boring month ... Henry dropped his morning nap, and still only had 5 teeth! Henry played in the snow for the first (and only) time.


March - entered the third trimester of pregnancy with Owen, had to go to physical therapy for my back pain, did not do much blogging at all :) Henry got his first ear infection, and a rash from the ammoxicilin. We also took him to Chuck E Cheese for the first time!


April - I was officially a giant - biggest belly ever. These photos make me feel better about where I'm at with my weight/body issues today. I mean wow, I was huge!! Henry got a big boy bedroom this month, but didn't start sleeping in it yet. I'm sure this was also the month that I got laid off again and Nick started really hoping to be called back to Rockford.


May - Henry started sleeping in his big boy bed, and started acting up. He turned 18 months old, and we have some beautiful photos to remember that age by! My newphew Kelvin was born, and the cousins spent some time getting to know each other!



June - Owen Roger arrived safe and sound. Our daily lives and routines got 10 times more hectic, frazzeled, and full of joy. Well, sometimes joy. Thank goodness for having summers off to get to stay home and get to know this little stinker!



July - While enjoying the summer and adjusting to being a mom of two, Nick headed out to his summer job. I managed to stay sane, but am now baffled by women who decide to have more than 2 children. This was my world for most of the summer:



August - Henry began practicing for his future career in stunt deviling - setting up elaborate scenarios to fall off and hurt himself. And Nick and I began figuring out what on earth we were going to teach next month - I got assigned to 3rd grade and a new building. Nick was ecstatic to return to his old school district, but it took weeks to find out exactly what he would be teaching.


September - Back to work. Full time. This definitely has its ups and downs - and this month took a lot of experimenting to see what works best for our family. We realized Owen's head/neck issues, and started seeing the OMM Therapist for it. The annual Pig Roast was a blast - as always!



October - Henry finally started saying mom ("bom!"). He also started eating only cheese. Owen started sleeping through the night once in a while. Henry was the cutest Halloween dino ever!


November - Henry turned 2. Still unbelievable to me! Owen started on solid foods. We went to the Children's Museum for the first time. We hosted Thanksgiving and Henry's birthday party, which both were fabulous!



December - We had a lovely holiday season, full of family togetherness. Sometimes too much togetherness makes me freak out, so I also had lots of mommy night-outs! Owen is army crawling and so close to sitting up. No teeth yet, but chewing and drooling like crazy. Henry is starting to speak in phrases and short sentences. I love these boys so much.


It is amazing how far we can come in one year. 365 days.

What will 2012 bring?

The older Owen gets, the easier this whole "mother of 2" thing will get. He is at such a tricky age right now - I find myself struggling. I don't want him to grow too fast - because time always passes too quickly - but once he starts walking, I think my life will get better!

I will lose this baby weight. Gosh freaking darn it, I will.

We will get our finances in order. Perhaps start looking to sell our house. Perhaps buy a new house.

I know - my resolutions are completely original huh? I really wanted to come up with something completely random and fun, but I'm not feeling creative tonight.

Where is 2012 going to take you?

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Owen Roger - 6 Months Old

What? 6 Months? *sigh* My baby is growing like crazy. I keep looking at Henry's 9 month and 12 month photos, and thinking about how Owen will look like this soon - and I cry.

He has his well child on Wed - so I'll update the stats then :)

WAKE TIME
Same here - about 2 hours, sometimes more depending on what we have going on.

Formula
Owen usually has 4 - 7oz bottles a day

Solids
This boy loves his food. Loves it. For real. So far he eats: rice cereal, green beans, peas, carrots, bananas, peaches, squash and sweet potatoes.

In the beginning we had a mix of cereals going on, but some were causing him digestion issues. Eventually, we figured the rice is best. He's on kind of a weird schedule, but it looks like this:

6:30 - 7 oz bottle
8:00 - rice cereal, starting to add fruit this week
8:30 - nap
10:30 - 7 oz bottle
12:00 - nap
3:00 - bottle
4:00 - 2 oz vegetable (sometimes rice cereal mixed in to thicken)
5:00 - cat nap
6:00 - 7 oz bottle
7:00 - 4 oz rice cereal

Maybe over Holiday Break we'll work on getting him closer to a good breakfast/lunch/dinner schedule.

GAS

I've been giving him gas drops still - especially before bedtime.

NAPS
Still a struggle -- I can't wait until we get past the 30 min. nap in crib issue...

NIGHTTIME SLEEP
For the most part, Owen sleeps from about 8pm until 6:30 when I wake him up. Weekends he'll sleep until 7 or 7:30. We had a rough couple nights this week, but I honestly think teething is just around the corner.

OMM
Owen still goes to therapy every 2 weeks for his crooked ears. It seems to be working, but there's still a big difference from right to left, and we'll continue the therapy probably until he's 1 year old.

Milestones
The boy is so close to crawling. He does his own roll/army almost-crawl so he is able to get where he wants to go for the most part. Of course, I can never see it or video tape it, I just look back and all of a sudden he's all the way across the room! He doesn't have a lot of core strength so he's not really close to sitting up yet.

Here are some photos we had taken a couple of weeks ago -- I should make our holiday card soon too!