Swings and Strikes

Owen and I went to the park this week, and Owen got in the big-kid swings! Well, okay, maybe the baby big-kid swings. But still, he was in the swings. And he loved it. Proof:







And as if that wasn't enough, Owen loves sports! He loves every sport with a green field: soccer, football, baseball. He loves 'em all! We were watching some of the Little League World Series yesterday and Dan was imitating the ump. "Steee-rike 1!" And Owen was cracking up! Here's a short video. So fun!

Jump!

Because we don't have quite enough toys and contraptions for the love of our life, here's a video of Owen in his new jumperoo!! Maybe adding some more exercise will help with sleep too...

Solid Foods - Continued!

Avocados are Owen's favorite food. Granted, his only other experiences are rice cereal, squash and now sweet potato, but that doesn't change the fact that he loves avocado. This week, we were unsuccessful in introducing yellow squash to Owen but sweet potatoes went over a bit better. Dan made a mixture of avocado and sweet potato, and we've been increasing the sweet and decreasing the 'cado. We also bought a high chair which means I got to watch Owen eat for the first time (I've been holding him while Dan feeds him). What a hoot! And of course, that means I had my hands free for pictures. Here are some of our favorites from today:

Sitting in his new chair, ready for food!


First bites:


Hmm...maybe this isn't so bad:


Cleaning up:


And our happy camper:


Tomorrow, we start bananas. Mmm...nanas...

A is for Avocado

We started feeding Owen solid foods on Friday night. We tried rice cereal but only got the icky face from Owen. He absolutely didn't want it and refused to keep trying. So we went with our gut and tried a different food - avocado. And he loves it! He leans forward to get his mouth on the spoon and eats a lot, and doesn't get *that* much on his face and bib. He seems to really enjoy it, and we have a lot of fun giving it to him. Here are some pictures of his first few meals.

First, bibbed up and ready for rice cereal:



Definitely not a fan, so we started reading up on other good first options:



And since avocado is one of the good options for first food, we thought we'd give it a shot:





Success!! And so cute too.

4 Month Check-Up

Owen is now 16 pounds, 14 ounces and 26.5 inches tall! That's 93rd percentile for weight and 87th for height. His head is 44 cm in circumference which is 88th percentile. He had to get two more shots today, and of course he cried, but he did so much better than the first time. He was smiling by the time we left and seems to be doing great.

In related news, the doctor gave us the go-ahead to start solid foods! We're starting with rice cereal mixed with breast milk which may help him sleep longer at night. I sure hope so! After that, we can introduce a new food every 3 days (to make sure he doesn't have allergies). We picked up some avocados, and then it's on to sweet potatoes and bananas. When breastfeeding was so hard at the beginning, I used to dream of the day when he could eat solid foods and all the pressure wasn't on me, but now I'm kind of sad that he's big enough already. I guess he has to grow up some time...

Here are some pictures from this week:

4 Months!

Owen is 4 months old today - holy cow!! Our lives have changed so much with the newest addition to our family and we couldn't be happier. Owen is a calm, happy baby, and he's the love of our lives! It's amazing to me all the things he's learned so far - how to eat, how to hold his head up, how to talk (in his own language, of course), how to laugh, how to roll over...the list goes on and on. I can still remember nursing him in our rocker the first week of his life and being so overwhelmed by the massive responsibility Dan and I made for ourselves. And if I do say so myself, I think we're doing a fantastic job!

We have Owen's 4-month check-up on Friday, so I'll post height and weight stats then. We're guessing that he has almost doubled his birth weight and we know he's gotten taller. Here are some then and now pictures for comparison:

Car seat - Bringing him home from the hospital versus packing up to head to Greenlake:



Wow! His whole torso and head fit into the part that his head is getting too big for now.

Pillow - Sleeping on a pillow as a newborn versus showing off in front of a same-size pillow:



He's so tall already!

On top of his physical growth, his personality is emerging. He is very curious and has started reaching for anything in front of him. We bought him an exersaucer this weekend so that he can build some leg strength and play at the same time.



And now that Owen knows how to roll onto his tummy, he refuses to stay on his back...ever...



We're so proud of our 4-month-old little man!!