Owen's First Year

Owen is 1 year old today and, wow, what a year! I thought it'd be fun to put together this quick picture slideshow to watch his progression from being 6 hours old to 1 year old. Each picture, except for the first of course, was taken on the 1st of each month. Enjoy!

Owen in his Birthday Suit!

He's not exactly naked, but then again, he's not exactly 1 year old...yet. The big 0-1 is Thursday!!

How Did We Get Here?!

Owen had a rough weekend. He was cranky, which isn't too unusual. The little guy is starting to understand his world and gets frustrated when things don't go his way. But he was extra cranky this weekend. I think it might have been constipation, since neither his father nor I had the pleasure of changing a poopy diaper for over a day.

Actual text message from my husband this morning: Owen pooped. A lot.

My actual response: Thank god! He might feel lots better now.

I'm not quite sure when we crossed that line - you know, the one that divides our lives into "the years we don't write about poo" and "the years that it's okay to write about poo." I'm a little distressed to discover that I not only find it appropriate to talk about poo so casually, but I do so with glee. Owen pooped!

I'm so sorry we've left you all hanging for so long! Life gets busy and we don't have time to blog. At least, that's the excuse I'm using today!

Lots has happened since our last post on January 3. We got new neighbors; the house next door was finally rented out, after nearly 10 months of blissful quiet. We're reserving judgment on the new folks, but keeps your eyes peeled for a new blog post announcing that we're moving. :)

Owen is "walking." Wait, let's back up. You may not know yet that Owen is crawling; he started doing that during Christmas vacation in PA and he's been a little mobile warrior ever since. He's already pulling himself up and cruising along every couch, table and toy in the house. Every once in a while, when he's not thinking about it, he'll let go and just stand there, unaided, testing out his little legs. It's awesome!

He still doesn't wear shoes, but I have a feeling that walking unaided will be much more likely once Owen can wear shoes. Right now, he's got chubby little feet and can't fit into any shoes! We bought size 4 wide, but that doesn't help when his foot has half an inch of fat on top. I'm certain, though, that the fat pad will shrink the more he moves; in fact, we already see little dimples in his cheeks now that he's starting to lose some baby fat on his face. Super cute!!

The big 0-1 is coming up on April 1. I can't believe how fast the year has gone by!

Giving the Hut a New Look

For those of you that have been to our house or have heard us talk about it you've either seen or heard about "the hut." For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the hut is what we call the small concrete structure that we have sitting in our back yard. All of the lots in our area are zoned "R-2," which means that they can have up to two residential units in a single lot. We're not sure if the hut was ever used as a dwelling but for us it works as some much needed storage.

The hut is 250 sq. ft. and the interior was in poor shape when we bought the house. It needed a new coat of paint, the linoleum tile was grey and ugly, and there was the frame of what was once a closet stretching from wall to wall on one end that was now just a bunch of 2x4s and '70s wood paneling.

One Saturday while Bridget was pregnant with Owen I decided that I was going to take down the closet frame to buy us more room for storage in the hut. Since Owen is now over 9 months old you can infer how long ago that was. Since then I've been working for an hour or two whenever I have had time to turn the hut into something a little bit cleaner and more organized. As of today I finally finished.

The finished look

In the end, as you'll see in the pictures, it turned out OK. I put a coat of primer and paint on the ceiling and all of the walls, ripped out the tile on the floor and put down a coat of primer and concrete stain, and installed the Rubbermaid FastTrack system along part of one of the walls to really help with organizing some of the bigger items.

The FastTrack system really helps to save space and better organize larger items

I am quite impressed with the FastTrack system. There are a number of systems like it on the market, but this one was at my local Home Depot and the whole thing including the two tracks and all of the accessories on which to hang everything cost me $150. Since I was hanging the rails on concrete instead of drywall I could not use the screws and anchors they provided. So I drilled holes using my Bosch hammer drill and used 3/16" x 2 1/4" Tapcon screws to secure the rails to the wall. Pretty sure those rails aren't going anywhere. The FastTrack accessories just snap onto the rail, no screws or tools necessary, so I can rearrange things within minutes if needed.

It was a long project and took about 12 times as long as it should have (sometimes having a baby to take care of will do that), but I am pleased with the result. Now, the only question is what project do I tackle next???

Thanksgiving "Vacation"

I knew going into Thanksgiving this year that things would be different. We had a kid now, which meant no more lounging by the TV watching the Lions lose another Thanksgiving day game, less time to enjoy the feast, and no time to fall asleep on the couch in the traditional post-dinner coma. Wow, did I underestimate the "fun" we'd have on Thanksgiving.

Owen still manages to smile through the pain

Don't get me wrong. It was great to see everyone, especially my nieces who change so much in a year and Sam, my newest niece, who I was meeting for the very first time. What I wasn't prepared for was Owen being sick the ENTIRE TIME.

We got in a little past Owen's bedtime on Tuesday night and so we attributed his foul mood that evening to him being overly tired. On Wednesday he was still a bit out of sorts, but we figured he was adjusting to a new environment and was a little off of his schedule. However, by Thursday, something was definitely wrong. Our little guy, who is usually very pleasant and thoroughly enjoys life, was crying all the time, sleeping way more than normal during his naps, and not eating his normal amounts.

Fortunately for us, Ali, our sister-in-law and our hostess for the weekend, is a pediatrician. Talk about being lucky when you finally decide your kid is sick and it's Thanksgiving Day. Ali took a look at his ears and said he had an ear infection in his right ear. First ear infection. Great.

Needless to say, we spent Thursday through Sunday dealing with a baby who had an ear infection, a runny nose that wouldn't stop, and a developing cough. Throw all that together with him being in a new house, sleeping in a Pack 'n Play instead of his normal crib, and meeting 30-40 new people and it was definitely a Thanksgiving to remember.

On Sunday evening, after we arrived back home, Owen seemed to be getting much better. But he wasn't done yet as we found out on Monday when at 4:30 he started shrieking in pain. We ended up at the pediatrician 90 minutes later where we were told that the ear infection had moved to his left ear and was more inflamed than the right one ever was.

Finally, today, Thursday, after 7+ days of being sick, Owen returned to daycare and seems to be feeling much better. Bridget and I were able to have a normal day at our jobs, which was also quite welcome after the last week.

Funny thing is it that after all everything that happened I still had a great time at Thanksgiving with Owen. Even when he's sick, he's still on hell of a kid and I'm already looking forward to next year (of course if he decides to be healthy next Thanksgiving that is fine with me).

An Afternoon at the Pumpkin Patch

I'm pretty sure this is an obligatory post for all parents with young kids. Today, we took Owen to his first pumpkin patch and I'm almost positive that he had a better time than his mom. While Owen's mom was sure that the horses and ponies would eat Owen as a snack he was busy taking in all the sights and sounds (and smells!) at the farm that hosted the pumpkin patch.

Needless to say Owen did not, in fact, get eaten and we ended up with some great pictures of the event. What made it even better was the cold front that passed through here on Friday. No, we did not dress him warmly so that he'd look cute in his pictures. It was mighty chilly here today (in the 60s!). For you northerners, that's downright cold in Orlando.

Here's the slideshow of our pictures. If you want to see the photos in our Picasa Web album, click a picture in the slideshow below or click here.