Riding in Style

We bought a fun new accessory for our stroller.

Introducing the Piggy Back.

Now if we go for a shorter walk where Owen is going to want to walk most of the way

anyway, we can take the single stroller with the new Piggy Back.  Then whenever he gets

tired he can hop on for a ride.  Owen seems to love his new "skateboard" as we call it. 

Prunes??

That's right...our second solid food of choice...prunes.

Now prunes would not normally be one of the first foods I introduce to my kids.  There are so many other fun and delicious things out there...sweet potatoes, pears, bananas, apples.  But at this point the prunes are more functional and somewhat of a necessity.  Since starting Joe on solid foods he's become a little "stopped up".  Meaning it has been over a week

since he's pooped!!  I used to complain about all of the blowouts he had, and now I find

myself on the opposite end of the spectrum praying for a dirty diaper.

Come on prunes!  Work your magic!!

 

Peaches

After about a week of rice cereal I decided to move on to some more exciting foods for Joe.

First up...peaches.  While I realize they warn against starting with fruit as it may cause the

baby to develop a sweet tooth, it was the only thing I had available at the time so I went for

it.  Plus, if he has any of my genes he's bound to have a sweet tooth anyway, so there's no

use trying to fight it.  I don't think being a sweet tooth is all that bad.  ;)

 

 

I was so excited for him to try peaches.  I got him all set up in his high chair, got my little

bowl of peaches ready and couldn't wait to see the utter delight in his eyes when he got

his first taste.  Much to my dismay, he was not a fan.  We've tried two days in a row now

and I pretty much get the same response.

  

We'll give it a few more days and see if he comes around.  If not, we have many more

delicious new foods to try.  Maybe sweet potatoes...yum!!

Sitting Bumbo Style

Looks who's sitting up like a champ...with the help of the bumbo of course.

He's still a little wobbly and occasionally will barrel roll forward and 

end up face up on the floor (pretty impressive to watch actually),

 but he is doing a great job practicing.

New Ride

So last week I did the unthinkable...I left my $600 stroller sitting on the side of the road

and drove away.  I am actually still having a hard time believing I did it.  I was at the

doctor's office with both kids, which is always somewhat of a crazy situation.  I walked us

out to the car, took Joe from the stroller and put him in the car, took Owen from the stroller

and put him in the car, and then just hopped in the car and drove off.  There sat my stroller.

I didn't even notice it until the next day when I went to pull out the stroller at the grocery

store and it wasn't there.  It took all of 2 minutes for me to remember exactly what I did. UGH!!  I am still kicking myself.  It is so unlike me to do something like that!

Stupid things happen and you can't change them so we're moving forward..in style!

Our new stroller came and we took our maiden voyage.

It's the exact same stroller we had, just black and brand new.  We had bought our old one

from the neighbors so it was nice to have this one right out of the box and learn the proper

way to do everything.  No more squeaks like the old one, rides super smooth....

Am I happy I lost the stroller?..no!  But it is really nice to have a new stroller.  

Not only was it our first ride in the new stroller, but it was the first time Joe sat side by side

with Owen without the carseat.  He snuggled right in and seemed to really enjoy himself.

 

Two things are for sure...This stroller will be getting a ton of use, 

and you can bet I will double check it is in the car wherever I go! 

 

Touche'

Lately everything at our house is at some point a sword.  Sticks, handles from play brooms,

hockey sticks, wooden spoons, two pieces of train track put together...No matter how hard

I try I can't get the idea of swords out of Owen's head.  So I figure as long as he's

determined to do it, I might as well give him a safe way to play.

Introducing...Owen and his new foam swords.

 Anything that can tire him out like this is well worth the money. :)

Happy Easter!!

 We had a great Easter weekend spending time with our families.  We were going to WI

for the weekend, so Grandpa Joe and GiGi came to visit us on Wednesday before we left.

They brought Owen and Joe some Easter goodies to start out our weekend of festivities.

Owen was in absolute heaven all weekend with all of his cousins to play with.  We went on 

walks (or in Owen's case, runs) to burn off some energy,

 but his favorite activity by far was tackling.  He would run up to whomever was nice enough

to play with him at that moment, hug them around the neck, and they would both fall over.

They did this over, and over, and over again. 

 He and Joe are so lucky to have such a gentle and patient group of cousins.  They are so

sweet with Owen and always try to include him whenever they can.

   

Joe hung with me (literally..ha!) and did important things like decorate cut out cookies.

We also got to visit with Grandpa Jim and Sharon which is always a great time.

Easter morning came and Owen and Joe got their second visit from the Easter bunny.

 Here Owen is playing with his dinosaurs (Roar!) and hugging his new "babies."

 Looks like a satisfied customer to me.  :)

Happy Easter!! 

Thank you for all the great goodies Grandma and Grandpa....err, I mean, Easter Bunny! ;)

We love you and had such a great time spending time with everyone this weekend. 

 Even Little Miss Marley with her fancy new Easter dress Alex got for her.

 

Happy Half Birthday Joe!!

Guess who is 6 months old?....This guy!!

Height - 26 3/4 in (55th Percentile)

Weight - 16 lbs 8 oz (29th Percentile)

Head Circumference - 17.5 cm (81st Percentile)

I'm actually really surprised at where he comes in on the growth charts.  Everyone always

tells me how big he looks, but he's only in the 29th percentile for weight.  Crazy!

He must just have a way of looking big and intimidating.  That will be useful later in life.

Joe is one of the happiest babies that I know.  I suppose I am a little biased, but in all

honesty, he has such a good disposition about him.  The only time he gets a little

fussy is when he is hungry or tired, and those are easy problems to solve.  

The rest of the time he is happy just being Joe.  

Six months marks one very exciting first.  We got to start him on rice cereal, which we did

a few days ago.  He hasn't really gotten the hang of it yet.  He holds his mouth open with

this look on his face like I've just given him poison, and then it proceeds to run out his mouth and down his chin in a nice drool-like mixture.  Yum!  I'm sure with a little practice

however, he'll be eating like a champ in no time.

And with some solid food might come some better sleep habits?  Or at least one tired mama

can hope for that.  It's funny because I went back and reread his 5 month post where I

talked about being excited that he was sleeping 8 hour stretches.  It's sad, but we've taken a

few steps backwards since then.  Bedtime is still between 6:30 and 7:00PM, but he now

wakes up pretty consistently between 11:00PM and 12:00AM, and then again between

4:00 and 5:00AM.  He'll go back to sleep and wake for the day around 6:30AM.

 It's not terrible, especially since he always goes right back to sleep after I feed him, 

but I will be SO happy to sleep more than 3 hours straight in a given period. 

Another six month milestone that we're coming up on is teeth.  Although he doesn't have

any quite yet, I feel like they are going to pop through any day.  He is constantly drooling

and always wants something in his mouth.  Most impressive is when he puts his foot in his

mouth, but anything will do really.  Toys, blankets, his fist...when he started trying to

eat the tie sticker off his shirt today, I knew our photo session was probably finished.

 

Favorite Things To Do - He loves his jumper and is tall enough now where he can actually

jump up and down in it.  He'll sit in there and jump forever with a big smile on his face.  And it's the perfect place for him because he can watch Owen play which is another one

of his favorite things to do.  All Owen has to do is talk to Joe and he starts smiling

and laughing.  Overall he is so much more social which is fun.  

He smiles at anyone willing to engage him.    

Favorite Toys - Sophie the Giraffe, Star Teething Blanket, Manhattan Toy Winkel,

Freddie the Firefly

It's Time for Solids...woo!!

We've hit the 6 month mark which means this lucky little boy gets his first taste of solid food.

 

We started with rice cereal.

Let's see what he thought of his new menu option.

Let's just say he was a little unsure of this new substance.  

Truth be told, most of it ended up running down his chin.

But he did get a few bites of food down and he did really well with the whole experience.

I'm holding out hope that once he starts eating more solids perhaps he'll start sleeping

through the night, or at least drop down to waking up just once.  That would be nice,

don't you think little buddy??