To the desert...

Owen and Mama went on their first solo adventure, over the mountain and into the sagebrush. For one week we would stay with good friends, relax, sort through baby gear (our mission was to help them prepare for their upcoming stork delivery), play with their 3 dogs, soak up the dry heat and swim. A vacation away from the everyday of our every day.

Pretty brave of our friends to have a 10 month old let loose on their home and their dogs... it was sort of a "research trip" for them, to see what they needed to babyproof and how the older kids (aka Timba, Remy and Pete) would do with a small, less hairy sibling.

The Dude lost his dude-ness temporarily... he had a hard time with the dogs at first. They were a little bit scary. First, they are bigger dogs than his Penny - secondly, there are more of them - and lastly, one of them jumps! High! Remy is known for jumping up to five feet (or more) into the air when she is excited. This was the first site that Owen got of her. We were all walking towards the door and this brown, pitbull of a pogo stick was jumping to see us thru the glass. It totally freaked him out... Mama wasn't expecting that!

After a couple of days, they all started to get used to each other. The dogs learned that the kid drops food under the high chair, and the kid learned that the dogs just wanted to lick him and clean his face. They then became fast friends...


(The third dog, Remy is not in the picture because she was assuming her position directly under the highchair - where she was all week, waiting for a Cheerio to drop)

We helped clean, sort, assemble and organize all the piles and piles of gear, clothes, clothes and more clothes that were piled in their living room. They quickly became aware that having a baby requires a lot of "stuff". Amen.

The Dude broke in the new, white, organic cotton travel crib (much to mama's dismay) after we discovered that he had outgrown our own that we brought. Luckily, he didn't sleep in it too much so there wasn't much threat of messing it up... Yeah, you guessed it - he didn't sleep much at all that week.

Did the lack of sleep keep The Dude down?



On our last full day, we headed down to the park to feed the ducks and sun our bellies. The ducks were very interested in Owen's toes...more so than the bread we brought.



Despite the lack of sleep, the onset of the "Mommy Phase", the constant monitoring of the dog's water bowls, and the testing of her patience, Mama had a good time too.

How could she not?

10 Months Old

Since we didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, the weight and height stats are an unknown at this point. He definitely feels heavier to us - so perhaps the advice we've taken from the doctor is working.

The Dude is more mobile than ever. He pulls himself to his feet whenever, however. And like the photo below, he often times will balance himself to stand on his own...


He crawls with lightening speed (especially towards that doggie door) and can get to something that he wants in nano seconds... which almost always happens to be something he shouldn't have - like power cords and the stereo.

The latest mobility development is doing a sort of bear walk when we put him in the grass...



He's added actual words to his constant ramblings - well, what we consider to be words anyways. He says:

-ball (bah)
-bye
-more (muh)
-Ma Ma (which may also mean "more", he only says it at eating time)
-book (buk)

He LOVES any kind of ball-like object ("Bah!"), being chased by mamma and papa then tickled endlessly, animals (he points at them and says "Oooooooh!"), eating and any thing that is on the floor, the tinier the better, that he can put into his mouth.

Oh, and he also LOVES the vacuum cleaner. We mean L-O-V-E-S. As soon as we pull it out of it's "house" he starts to point at it and say "Oooooh!" very excitedly...

All the toys in the house, and his favorite thing is the Bissel.
Go figure.

Catching Up

Holy Crow! We can't believe that nearly a month has passed since our last post..... the time is whizzing by (Can you believe that it's almost Labor Day?!)

So pardon us while we catch up a bit and batch post, if you will. We'll make it worth your time - we promise.

Uh Oh....

We were wondering how long it would take him to figure it out.

One of his favorite things to do is to sit at the sliding glass door and watch Penny run around on the back deck and go in and out of her dog door.

Little did we know he was planning his escape...





Victory!

Camping Trip #1

Last weekend we felt adventurous. "Let's go camping!", we happily exclaimed.... Poor Goldie (Poppy's camper van) has been waiting and waiting for us to say those words.

So we loaded her up with all the "life support systems" and headed towards the mountain, not exactly sure of our final destination - and that was ok with us. We settled on a mountain lake, and then finally on one of the 4 campgrounds, and lastly on the perfect spot.

Our view was breathtaking-



But the look on The Dude's face was priceless -



The urge to crawl around and eat dirt and rocks got the better of him, and we let him get a little taste here and there, but we kept him pretty clean for the most part. Luckily we had Goldie as a place to land, crawl around, escape from the MAMMOTH mosquitoes and make a damn good cup of coffee.

Owen even had his own captain seat -



As the first inaugural camping trip for The Dude, we didn't do too bad... things could have been a lot worse. Next time we will know more of what to do and what not to do - for instance, spend two nights instead of one - and we will try to get more sleep.

Well, some of us anyway -

9 Months In - 9 Months Out

The Dude has been on the outside just as long as he was on the inside.
Pretty cool to think about, eh?

We met with The Doc this morning to gather the latest stats:
(Drum roll, please....)

-Height: 27 1/2" (an 1 3/4" gain in 3 months)
-Weight: 17lbs. 2oz. (2lbs gain in 3 months)

He's fallen down the sliding scales of "averages". 10th percentile in weight, and 28th percentile in height. (What can we say? We have us a little Mighty Mouse!) The doctor isn't concerned about his lack of weight gain, but he did say that we probably need to up the fat content of his foods. Time to introduce whole milk dairy and proteins. We have a feeling he'll be okay with that.

And with all the moving around he's been doing lately, he's going to need the extra energy! Holy cow, The Dude is ON THE MOVE. He has completely mastered the art of crawling (on his knees, not just pulling himself around) and he's quick. Watch out - 'cause he'll be across the room before you can say "Where'd he.....?".

He has also mastered the art of pulling himself up - on EVERYTHING. The couch, the coffee table, Mamma's legs, the high chair...

Even this:


Oh yes. We promptly lowered his mattress so that it now looks something more like this:



He babbles constantly, and loudly at times. He says "Ma Ma Ma" and "Da Da Da", but we're not really sure if he knows which is which. He went swimming in a big pool for the first time the other day, and LOVED it. And he has learned how to flip over on the changing table, and gets red-in-the-face MAD if you don't let him.

We discovered a new tooth emerging on top, so now he has 5. And despite what The Doc said this morning, he eats like a pig... and is doing quite well with finger foods. Cheerios are his favorite, and he stuffs his cheeks like a chipmunk.

The changes are coming at us pretty fast.
We're currently lacing up our running shoes...

Summertime is Berry Time

Auntie A had a great idea... Berry Picking! Of course! Something that The Dude has not yet experienced. So we loaded up Goldie (Poppy's VW Camper) and headed West to one of our favorite local farms that is a short drive, yet a long ways away from all the concrete of the city.

We rode the tractor out to the field, rolled up our sleeves (and applied sunscreen, of course)and got right to it...



The Dude was enamored with the glowing red orbs... he couldn't resist -



Mama and Papa cringed as the red juice dripped down his front and stained his clothes... but watching his face light up as he sucked on his first Strawberry made it all worth it.