5 Year Birthday Interview with Owen

I sat down and asked Owen a few questions for his annual birthday interview...

Your favorite...

Food: Corn dog

Drink: Root beer
Treat: A big sucker

Toy: A rocket ship

Color: Black

TV Show:  Ninjago 

Outfit: Dino shirt and soccer pants

Game: Pokemon (yet we've never played it)

Animal: Crocodile

Song: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Book: A dinosaur book

Place to go: Grandma's house

Thing to do outside: Ride bikes

Thing to do at school: Play with snakes

What do you like to take with you to bed? 2 little Donalds (Donald Ducks Tsum Tsums)

What do you want to be when you grow up? A knight

What makes you happy? Getting kisses and hugs

What makes you sad?  When I don't get to play my game all day
Who are your best friends?  Simon, Ivo and Aulden

What's your favorite thing to do with Mommy? Hug

What's your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Wrestle

What's your favorite thing to do with Joe? Play with him
What's your favorite thing to do with Miles? Hug him
How old is Mommy? a 5 and a 1....25...I think you're turning 5...yeah, you're turning 5!
What does Daddy do for his job? Works with people
What do we love to do as a family? Family hugs and kisses

Anything else you want to tell us?  No, that's it.

Lougin'

We always have plenty of fun things going on in Wausau to keep us busy, but to be honest, one of my favorite parts of being back home is simply lounging around and hanging out
with each other. These are the moments I will always remember.

Birthday at Grandma's

This weekend was yet another birthday celebration for Owen.  We drove up to WI to
celebrate with my mom, Larry, Hannah, Alex and their families.  My mom does the best job
of making my kids feel extra special.  Friday night was part one of the birthday party.
She made dinner and we sang to Owen and ate cake.

Then it was time to open presents.  Grandma and Grandpa got Owen this awesome castle
with a set of knights and horses that kept him and Joe busy for quite awhile (which is always
a win in my book).  They also got him the Secret Life of Pets movie, which they watched two
or three times by the time we left to come back home.  A few additional games and
workbooks, and I'd say he was one lucky little boy.

Then on Saturday we went to a new restaurant in Wausau called W.O.W. for part two of the

birthday celebration.  It's a place similar to Chuck E. Cheese, but not nearly as crazy.  The

front room is filled with various arcade games that the kids win tickets on.  At the end of the

night they trade in their tickets for prizes that probably cost about 1/20th of what it cost to

win them. 😉 The boys had a blast though and even Ryan and I got in on the action.

Owen's favorite games were the ones where you race or you shoot at things.  They had

an awesome Jurassic Park game and a Ghostbuster game that Owen loved.

I can definitely see us coming back here.

I think we succeeded yet again at making Owen feel super special for his birthday.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!! 💓

The Little Things

Owen got a birthday card in the mail today from my dad.  He had printed out a picture of his
Bitmoji avatar jumping out of a cake and wrote on it like a card.

It was so simple, but Owen thought it was absolutely hilarious. I took a video of him right
after he opened it and it makes me smile every time I watch it. 
"Grandpa Jim...he's in a cake!"

7 Months Old

That's right....Miles is 7 months old.  I can hardly believe it.



Growth Stats
Weight - 16.9 lbs (22nd Percentile)
Height -  27 in (32nd Percentile)

Things are moving right along.  It seems like I was just writing his 6 month blog, now here
we are a month later.  It's sad to think we're slowly growing out of our baby phase, yet at the
same time it's so exciting to watch him get bigger and accomplish each new milestone.

This past month he's really come a long way.  He's rolling all over the place now.  Last
month it was rare to see him voluntarily flip onto his belly.  He still needs help sitting up, but
we practice a little every day.  And the big news this month is we started him on solid foods.
He is not a huge fan yet, but he's getting the hang of it.

 Foods we've tried: Sweet potatoes, carrots, avocado, peas, pears

I'm surprised he's not wanting more because he is always so interested in what we are
eating.  He reaches for absolutely everything I try to eat or drink, but when it is his turn,
he is not nearly as excited.  There have been a few times where he opens up his mouth
in anticipation for the spoon, but other than that, it is mostly sneak attacks.  Then once we
sneak the food in his mouth, he sits with it wide open like we just poisoned him and I have to
try to coax him to close it and swallow. It's a work in progress, but I'm having fun with it.  The
one thing he seems to love are Baby Mum-Mums.  Since he loves chewing on everything
else, it makes sense that he would love being able to chew on something edible.

The other thing we're working on is a sleep schedule.  It's hard because we are on the go
so much!  It makes it near impossible to keep him on any sort of routine.  I always used to
go run my errands after we dropped the boys off at school since it was the only time I was
down to one baby.  Miles would sleep right through it all and it was perfect.  But now he
doesn't sleep so soundly and he doesn't get as good of naps in when I'm constantly
taking him in and out of the car.  So when I can, I've been trying to come home right after
school drop off to let Miles get a solid nap in.  It works out well because it gives
me some much needed downtime too.  :) 

The one thing I can count on is there will be the perfect nap opportunity for him in the
afternoon since the older boys are napping too.  Then depending on when that nap ends, he
typically goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:30PM and wakes up once during the night.  There
was a magic week right after Christmas where he slept straight through, but now we're back
to waking somewhere in the middle.  The hard part it is never the same.  Sometimes
1:00AM, sometimes 4:00AM, and when I'm lucky, he makes it past 5:00AM.  I'm hoping that
if I can regulate his sleeping during the day, the nighttime routine will follow.

Not knowing when he's going to eat or sleep can be hard because he doesn't take a bottle. 
It's difficult for me to make plans to go out in advance because I don't always know when I
am going to need to feed him.  Once we're on a schedule it will give me a little more
freedom and flexibility which will be nice.

Another reason the sleep is a big issue for me is it seems like Miles has been a little more
cranky these days.  This is uncharted territory for us.  He has always been, and mostly still
is, such a happy baby.  Always smiling, always content.  Yet the last few weeks he's been a
little more fussy.  Whining every now and then and not always his happy self.
I've narrowed it down to a few things I think it might be.   

#1. He's hungry - He's on the smaller side of the scale and with him always grabbing at
whatever I'm eating, it makes me think he could be hungry.  Maybe even going through a
growth spurt.  But I feed him whenever he seems to need it and even after that the
crabbiness continues.  Therefore I don't think this is the entire problem.
 #2. He's teething - This is also a big possibility because we're at the time frame when teeth
can start to pop up.  While I don't see any yet, he's been chewing on any and every thing he
can find for the past month so I have a feeling they're going to make an appearance soon.
#3. He's tired - Since he's not getting the greatest and most routine naps in, I have a feeling
he's needing a little more of a schedule.  In my mind this is the most likely culprit and there's
only one way to find out.  Unfortunately I have two active older boys who have school and
activities that take us away from the house a lot.  All I can do is my best to balance it all
and hope Miles starts to feel a little more rested.

Even though he has his cranky moments lately, he is still so happy, smiley and playful.  He
absolutely LOVES playing with Owen and Joe and is so entertained by them.  He also loves
bouncing in his jumperoo and rolling all over the living room floor playing with the various
toys I lay out for him.  He is so sweet, he loves to cuddle and I equally, if not more, love
cuddling with him. I love watching him grow and being able to introduce him to new things
like different foods, games, books, toys, and tricks.  I'm loving life with my three little boys
and I'm excited to see what fun new things we experience in the coming month.