30 is the new 20, right?

Well, I am now 30. My birthday over the weekend was a lovely, low-key affair. Given that three of my closest friends have just had babies, I opted out of the big party, since they couldn't really enjoy it with me. We may do something in a few months instead. But I still had a great day. I had three birthday wishes: a romantic dinner with Steve, to sleep in, and to go for a long run by myself. They all came true! So as far as I'm concerned, 30 is off to a perfect start. :)


The only real downer was not getting to celebrate my birthday with Kristi, for the first time in years! But Owen and I had a little party in her honour, and sent her some pictures to let her know we were thinking of her. Here they are:

Happy Birthday Auntie Kris!

Clapping hands for Auntie Kris:

HOORAY!

Okay, I'm done.

On the Move, New Baby Makes Three!

It's official, Owen started crawling on St. Patrick's Day. And is he ever getting speedy! He loves to move, he'll crawl over to something, pull himself up on it, and then walk along it. He's been walking along behind his little push-car for about a week longer than crawling, so it's nice he took the time to actually learn how to get from one standing-assistance thing to another.

Meanwhile, it makes him a whole lot of fun to try and change or dress, because now all he wants to do is go, go, go! Here's a picture of him walking with his car, it's harder to get a crawling picture, because when he sees the camera, he sits down on his bum to reach for it! I'll have one soon....

And the third in our trifecta of new little cousins arrived on the 22nd! Lucas John Weber arrived, weighing in at 7 pounds 5 ounces. Owen is so very excited that this baby was a boy, since he'll have a little buddy to play with! A photo of the lovely Lucas:

Very exciting stuff. Welcome Lucas, we're so glad you're here!

8 Months Old!

Wow, I can't believe that Owen is 8 months old now. He's getting so big! I was just thinking the other day about when we went to Mexico, and that he's twice as old now as he was then (he had his 4 month birthday on Auntie Kris and Uncle Ryan's wedding day). He does so much, he "talks" all the time, sits up, rolls, crawls backwards (honestly, he's THIS CLOSE to going forwards!) and loves to stand and play holding onto furniture. He only nurses 4 or so times in 24 hours now, he eats so much "real" food.

Of course, the last few days, he's been eating hardly any solids - we've both got a cold, only his is making him much more miserable. He's having trouble sleeping because he's so stuffed up he can barely breathe, and he doesn't want food, only Mama's milk. I think maybe food must taste extra-bland because he's so stuffy? In any case, he's been a cranky, snuggly guy the last few days. Last night he perked up enough after a two-hour nap (on my chest - he doesn't sleep long lying flat!) to play a little with Daddy and take some eight-month pictures:

Yep, even when he's not feeling the greatest, he tries to be our little Cheeri-O. What a sweetie.

To catch up on other fun news past, we went to visit Baby Lily this week, and Owen got to play with Ella. Rachelle looks great, and everything sounds like it's going very well, so yay! We also got to visit Baby Olivia at home last week, which was awesome. Mommy forgot her camera (of course!) for that visit, but here are a few pics of our visit at the Andersons:

Steve's uncle wasn't able to make it down last weekend for a visit afterall, so we're rescheduling for after March Break. I found an awesome dress to wear to Auntie Lee Ann's wedding in the fall, and we had a fun day shopping (but not a long enough visit!) And we had a great time at Kristyn and Mark's dinner party. Kristyn posted some pictures of Owen and Abby playing on her blog, I'll let everyone head over there for the story. :) Today is Steve's last day of school before March Break, tomorrow we're having a bunch of the mommies and babies over to play in the afternoon, and this weekend my parents are coming to visit. So, the fun continues!

March: In like a Lamb

March actually came in like a lion, weather-wise, but since Owen is sleeping like a lamb for naps and at night now, it's wonderful. This past Friday was a snow-day for Steve's school, so we had Papa home for an extra-long weekend, which was really nice. I got to sleep in, and he got up with Owen in the morning. (Owen wakes to nurse just after 6 am, but after feeding, we can get another hour of sleep out of him, so I got up with him at 6, put him back down, and then Steve got up with him just after 7, and fed him breakfast). When I did get up, the house was super quiet, which was strange, because it was nap time. Nap time has still been kind of a fussy period - Owen didn't want to just go into his crib, but he had started struggling when being rocked to sleep - not too easy! But sure enough, he was sleeping. I asked Steve how he got him down, and he told me that he just put Owen in his crib, piled in ALL his stuffed bears with him, turned on the music, and left. Owen fell asleep on his own!

Now, he's been doing that for bedtime for several weeks, so we knew he could do it, but he just would not do it for naps. Trust Papa to think of putting all his bears in there with him to keep him company! And it's been working for every nap since - when Owen is tired, we pop him in his crib, all his "friends" are in there, and sometimes he talks to them for a bit, sometimes he flings them around a bit, but he eventually falls asleep, no fussing at all! And best of all, he wakes up happy! Cooing, and talking to the bears, instead of crying and wailing, like he used to wake from naps! I'm so happy. Here is a picture from that first nap with the bears: (Steve had just put the bears in the crib with him, so Owen is the one who piled them up like this!)

What a cutie!
I also tried to get a picture of his teeth to show off, but you can really only see the larger one as kind of a bump in this shot:

And finally, I have another video to share, of Owen clapping his hands, and showing off his musical stylings! Enjoy!