Monday, January 22, 2007

Let it Snow!

With global warming and this being an el nino year, we weren't really sure that Owen would get to experience snow until he was a bit older -- possibly while doing a semester abroad in Greenland his junior year of college. But then low and behold, we got a little surprise while visiting Mom mom and Grandpa Don up in Silver Spring, which Don managed to capture on film. The snow followed us to DC and was enough that Allen had to shovel the next morning, but not enough that the government was in any way delayed. So instead of celebrating his first snowday, Owen got his second round of vaccinations. Still, at least he got to enjoy the weather a bit.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Independece Day

Today I was just confronted with the first of what I expect to be a long line of events where Owen asserts is independence, and lets me know that he doesn't need me, he can do things himself, thank you very much.


Elaine is off at a wedding shower, so Owen and I are having a nice little father and son day, which I've been looking forward to (even after he had horrible nights sleep and a minuscule nap this morning, leaving daddy rather exhausted). The difficulties began when I tried to give him a bottle shortly after mommy left. I knew he must be hungry, but he was having none of it, screaming and turning his head away when ever I tried to convince him to eat. So, I decided to let him have it his way, and we put the bottle aside and went for a walk. When we returned he was starting to get really fussy, and I knew he really must hungry. We tried the bottle again, and again he refused it, hitting the bottle and turning his head away. Frustrated and about to give up yet again, I let go of the bottle, and to my amazement, Owen picked it up and started feeding himself. Fortunately, the camera was within reach, so managed to capture Owen's accomplishment. He ate for 18 minutes, fell asleep clutching the bottle, and I moved him over to the swing. Now, he might just let Daddy have a little nap.

(editor's note - Owen woke up before daddy got his nap in, but not before he but a little video clip of Owen and his bottle online here.)

Saturday, January 13, 2007

1000!

We just changed Owen's 1000th diaper! (522 poopy diapers and 478 wet diapers, with 56 leaky diapers and 60 open-air accidents.) Thankfully it took a bit longer to get here than we predicted after number 100.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Solid!

If you've been following the recent Owen pictures on the right, you already know that 2007 has brought some big changes in Owen's gastronomical options. On New Year's Day, we gave Owen his first taste of solid food. He had been showing some interest real food for a while (when one of your favorite activities is putting things in your mouth, how could you not be interested in stuff that even mommy and daddy put in their mouths!), so we decided that Owen's New Year's resolution would be to start eating real food.

I've waited a little while to write this post, because after we prepared Owen's first meal of ground up rice cereal mixed with breast milk, the adjectives "solid" and "real" didn't seem to apply to the type of food we were introducing him to. He didn't seem to mind though, and reacted to his first bite as if it were the most interesting thing he ever felt in his mouth (which it probably was). We spent the first week adjusting the whole family to our new routine. After the first feeding we quickly realized that it was time to add a high chair to our stable of baby accessories. We also decided that messy process of transferring food from bowl/chin/bib to Owen's mouth was a job best suited for daddy.

Owen's culinary adventures really began in his second week on solid food. While the rice cereal was a pretty uncontroversial choice for his first food, the real debate began when deciding what his second food should be. The choice really comes down to fruits vs. vegetables: some argue that fruits like bananas are best because your baby is already used to the sweet taste of breast milk, and the sweetness of fruits make for an easier transition; others argue that if you introduce sweet fruits first, it will be harder to convince your baby to eat vegetables later. We decided to split the difference and start Owen off with avocados. Avocado is a good Texas food, and while technically a fruit, it's not too sweet, and hopefully it will convince him later in life to love guacamole! Thankfully, Owen took to the avocado like a champ, and he really seems to enjoy dinner time. It looks like introducing him to a world of new flavors is going to be a lot of fun!

So how did that first meal go? Take a look for yourself...

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Future Wildcats


Between Christmas and New Years we managed to squeeze in a brief reunion with my college roommates in Michigan. This was technically Owen’s second trip to the Wolverine state, but as the first trip was the result of our missing an exit on I80 and Owen slept through the fifteen minute detour, he had a much better appreciation for Gerald Ford’s birthplace this time around.

The trip was motivated by Tracey’s return to the states from Australia for a brief family visit with Kailash and Satya in tow. Since Audra, Mike & Colin are now conveniently located in Grand Haven, MI, we descended on their house the 28th. Tracey and her brood drove up from Pickney MI the 30th. And while Cecily was unable to join us, we did manage to get all the descendents of the women of J1 together for a brief photo session. They’re all pretty adorable.

Satya was a bit under the weather, and so mostly slept and ate during our visit, but Kailash and Colin (ages 4 and 2 ½ respectively) were a bevy of activity and introduced Owen to the joys of toy firetrucks, cartoons and jumping on various pieces of furniture. Owen needed a bit of help to join in, but we figure by the next reunion he’ll be holding his own.

(click here to see all the pictures)

Monday, January 01, 2007

2006 - The Year in Sleep

New Year's Day, a time for parades, bowl games, and year in review articles. Here on our humble little baby blog, it's time to look back on one of the hot button topics of 2006: Owen's sleeping patterns.

Back in September we analyzed the first month of Owen's sleeping patterns. We've kept up the trixie tracking, and now we bring you 2006 - The Year in Sleep! As a refresher, each row in the graphic on the right is 24 hours worth of sleep patterns, starting at midnight, with more recent days at the top. The blue areas represent times when Owen was asleep, and yellow areas are periods of wakefulness.

So what's happened in the world of sleep since that first month of sleepless nights? A quick glance will tell you they've become a lot more restful. The almost random pattern of blue and yellow from the first month has separated into distinct days and nights. Owen's bedtime has marched steadily back from midnight to about nine o'clock, and hopefully the trend will continue for a bit longer. Those painful patches of yellow between 2 and 4 am have shrunk considerably. An ultra reliable 2 to 3 hour swing nap developed, and was only disrupted by travel and daycare. And, the blue stretches have on occasion lasted all through the night (9 h 8 min on Dec. 21st and 7 h 57 min on Dec. 28th).

Looking ahead to 2007, Owen will keep on sleeping, and we'll keep tracking, and with any luck our nights will be nothing but blue.