I’ve finally found a few spare moments to catch up on the blog. It’s been several weeks since I’ve been able to post anything but things have been crazy around here. So, here it goes:

My sweet little baby is now getting to be a big boy. He’s 9 1/2 months old! Soon, he’ll hit the double digits! At his 9 month check up he weighed 20 lbs, 12 oz. I’m not sure how long he was b/c Chris took him since I was laid up with strep throat. We did some informal measuring of our own with Chris’ tape measure and he was around 24 inches tall. He’s really blossomed in the past few weeks. He’s very mobile now and can go wherever he wants, whenever he wants (whether we want him to or not!). He doesn’t like to be held at all anymore unless he’s really sleepy b/c he’s just too busy playing! In the past few days he discovered that he can get around even better if he pushes his walking toy around the house. So, he “drives” his plastic car all over the place and at top speeds. He’s even been able to make turns on his own a few times. We think he’s going to take off walking any day now. This weekend he let go twice and took 1-2 steps on his own but nothing consistent yet. He’s a very fast crawler and you can always hear him coming because he breathes so heavy when he’s on the move! In the past week or so he’s learned how to open cabinet doors so we’re constantly finding him playing in the bathroom. The bathroom is one of his favorite play spots as you’ll see in the pictures below. There’s toilet paper to unroll, shower curtains to hide in, cabinet doors to open and close, and a toilet to splash around in! We finally broke down and bought a baby gate for our kitchen/living room doorway because he learned how to crawl through our makeshift barrier. So, now he stands and shakes the gate like he’s a prisoner. Mom’s trying to teach him to rake his tamborine across the gate. Gotta love them being here full time to teach him lots of new (and naughty) tricks! Owen’s currently cutting several teeth at once so the past week has been pretty miserable for him. He hasn’t slept much and he’s been very fussy and clingy. So, hopefully they’ll come in soon and give him a little break from the pain and discomfort. He’s been eating really well here lately and trying lots of new foods. He’s trying on independence now so he wants to feed himself and won’t let anyone help with the finger foods. He’s a huge fan of YoBaby Yogurt, sweet potato puffs, apple puffs, cheese crunchers, and veggie crunchers. He also loves crackers, macaroni noodles, and bread of any kind (he’s a carb addict like his mom!). He doesn’t like cheese though. He likes cheese flavored baby food and snacks but won’t have anything to do with sliced or grated cheese. I think it’s the texture that he doesn’t like because he freaks out when it gets on his hands. I guess he gets that from me. I have done my best to not pass on my distaste for cheese, but it must be genetic! Here are a few pictures of Owen’s latest adventures:

he loves to climb inside of things these days so his highchair is the perfect hideout! Notice Emma “standing by” to perform a rescue if needed!

I haven’t figured out how to move the pictures around to put them in order yet so I’ll have to explain them instead. Here he is after he figured out how to climb out of the chair he was inside of:
Here’s Owen working on his latest trick of opening cabinet doors. Now that I’ve seen these pictures I’m horrified at how much dust is on the doors. So, I’m off to wash them all down now!

Here’s his absolute favorite trick. He can now unroll an entire new roll of toilet paper in less than 30 seconds. The reason why he’s nude in these photos is because he won’t lay still after bathtime to get his diaper, pj’s, and lotion on. So, we now chase his naked tush through the house and speed dress him every night!

He is fascinated by Chris’ XBOX and particularly Guitar Hero. I think he’s a genius because he associates what Chris is doing with the guitar to what is on the tv screen. He sits so still and looks back and forth from Chris to the tv screen while he plays. Some folks have infants that can read, ours can figure out Guitar Hero! He’s naked in this photo b/c he crawled at top speed across the hall to see Chris after bathtime.
He’s obsessed with phones and cell phones in particular. Here’s Owen with his Aunt Missy learning how to listen to fun ringtones.
Here’s Owen inside his highchair. Note Emma’s nose in the left corner of the picture. She’s constantly with him “standing by” just in case he needs her. They are truly best friends. It’s too cute! Owen holds out her bone for her and she runs by and takes it. They do this back and forth for a long time every day. He tries to do it with my parent’s dog Annabelle but she’s not into the game like Emma is. He even tried to put Emma’s bone in his Nonnie’s mouth when he went to wake her up one morning this week. I guess we’re still learning that not everyone is a dog!
Here he is working on climbing out of the chair. It took him several minutes to figure out the best method of escape but he did it all by himself!
He l0ves the washer and dryer and will sit for a long time watching them work. This weekend we learned that he can unload the dryer in a matter of minutes so when it goes off I put him in the laundry room and open the dryer door and just stand and wait while he pulls all the laundry out for me to fold. It’s a fun game for both of us. Next, we’re going to learn how to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer!

He loves to “help” fold clothes too!
Here’s Owen waiting for the dryer to go off so he can get to work!
This was the last day of the “chair gate”. Once he figured out how to climb through it was over!
This is my favorite recent picture. He’s so proud of his accomplishment!
Owen has lots of other new tricks that apparently we haven’t caught on camera yet. So, I’m going to take some more pictures over the next few days and do another post with more fun and adventures! He goes for his baby day photo shoot next Saturday with Denise so we’ll be working on our wardrobe for the pictures this week. It’s his last scheduled photo session before his birthday pictures. Oh, how time flies! Stay tuned for more fun and adventures!