Mr. Handsome

We had church photos Thursday night for the new directory and Owen was still all smiles once we got home.  I took advantage and snapped a few more of him.  I think I could take pictures of this smiley face all day long!  I just love those smiles!

 

 

  

 

These are from yesterday morning... again, more smiles and reaching for the toes!

 

 

P.S.  I'm not always successful, however.  This is what I get when I try to photograph these two while they're watching Mickey Mouse!

 

Owen At Three Months

My absolute favorite thing about Owen right now is his big, gorgeous, toothless muppet smile.  There is nothing more precious than a baby's smile in the first few months.  He started smiling before he even turned two months and has been melting hearts ever since.

Speaking of his mouth, this little guy has also had his fingers in his mouth constantly  for over the last month.  He still gets more comfort from his pacifier (which never seems to stay in his mouth) but there's something about his fingers right now that just feels good I guess.  Kind of annoys me a little but if it makes him happy... 

               

I also think it's great that Owen is such a strong little guy.  We already know that he can hold his head up great but his latest thing is trying to sit up.  For a while it felt like he kept trying to do tummy curls while I was feeding him his bottle but then I realized all he wanted to do was to sit up straight!  He does the same things now in his swing and in his bouncy seat or car seat where he keeps leaning forward trying to sit up.  I guess he just wants to see the world head on and is tired of laying around!  Even when we go for our stroller rides we now need to use the harness so he can sit upright and watch the world go by.

Owen officially rolled over on July 28th, so 2 1/2 months old.  I had him on the floor for some tummy time and when I came back into the room he was on his back!  He did it four more times in a row for me and then a couple times once John came home.  I hadn't been able to recreate it, however, until today.  I guess he just has to be in the right mood and moment.  Even on his back he quickly flips to his side with ease.  I'm sure it won't be long until he's rolling that way too!

When awake, Owen is always grabbing or batting for toys.  I think he thinks it's cool that he can see something and then actually be able to touch it himself.  Lately all the little things on his bouncy seat and floor gym have been flying around as he bats at them!

Owen continues to be an excellent eater.  He is doing up to six 6oz bottles every day (depending on how he sleeps at night).  Last weekend we noticed that Owen got pretty putzy with his bottles so John had the great idea to put the faster nipples on his bottle since he was now 3 months.  Well, wouldn't you know... no more putzy eater.  He had no choice but to drink his bottle fast!  Since Owen is drinking close to 36 ounces of milk every day it is a struggle for me to keep up but so far so good!  Even though sometimes it feels like he is drinking just as fast as I can get it out!

Sleeping... that is a touchy subject right now.  He goes to bed relatively easy in his swaddle but sleeping through the night has been kind of hit or miss lately.  I know Owen can do it and had done it rather consistently once I returned to work.  When he actually does sleep through the night it's a solid 9-10+ hours.  However, in the last two weeks I think he only slept through the night two times... I've readjusted my body to waking during the night now but that first week was tough.  I figure he just needs the extra calories since he is growing so much right now.  Plus, it's that weird transition time right before he's allowed to eat cereal which will stick in his tummy longer.  I remember Megan eating a ton at this age as well.

Other items... Owen's been in size 3-6 month clothes for the last month and is wearing them well.  I don't have a ton of fall clothes this size so once the season changes we'll be stepping it up again.  I also switched him up to size 3 diapers since I ran out of the size 2's.  They are still just a tiny bit big but work just fine.  (Plus, these might help control the blowouts!).  John also adjusted the straps in the car seat since Owen's shoulders are now at the next height.

The above pictures were taken within the last month but I realized that those were the only recent ones I had of him alone so I snapped a few more this morning.

 

 

Weighing In

The time had come for John and me to start trying to lose weight.  He had gained a few pounds with me during each pregnancy and was actually up about 20 pounds from our wedding four years ago.  Me, I had an instant weight loss plan called giving birth but even that doesn't take it all off and also leaves you with a completely different body shape.  I was actually down to my pre-Owen weight but mostly concerned with the weight that Megan left me with, also up about 20 pounds from our wedding.

We decided to do Sunday morning weigh-ins and our first one was on July 29th.  John weighed in at 270.5 and I was 140.5.  Our goal is to see if John can lose 20 pounds and me 10 pounds before Thanksgiving.  My brother and his fiance are planning a destination wedding for the weekend before Thanksgiving so we'll be going to Florida.  How nice it would be to look a little more fit for the trip!

I am so proud of John so far.  Just two weigh-ins after the initial one and he's already down 8 pounds!!!!!  He downloaded an awesome app onto his iPhone where he can program how much he currently weighs and how much he wants to weigh by Thanksgiving and it tells him how many calories he is allowed every day.  From there he can enter in recipes or scan product UPCs right onto his phone and it will keep track of everything for him.  John's doing a great job not cheating and staying right in line with his allowances.  Yesterday he even passed up really big Bavarian cream filled donuts at work AND cake!

Unfortunately, I am not doing quite as well as John.  I'm in a tough situation because, although I would have no problem cutting back on food, since my body is still making milk, I need the extra calories to keep my supply up.  I have a couple pounds so far so my weight loss will just be a little more gradual.  I'm also hoping to tone specific areas as well as lose weight overall.

In addition to just watching what we eat we are also walking about four nights out of the week, generally for a half hour or 1.5 miles.  John found another app for his iPhone that uses GPS to track the distance we walk, the duration of the walk and then calculate the calories burned.  Then he knows how big of a bedtime snack he can still have :)  We do allow ourselves a free day, Friday, where we don't count calories.  So far John has enjoyed pizza, fair food and burritos!

Hopefully this will result in more of a lifestyle change and last longer than just through November.  We joined Safari Island today so we will have a place to walk and work out during the cold months.  Hopefully we take full advantage.  I know Megan is looking forward to all the swimming opportunities!

Park Time!

As I was relaxing on the couch last Saturday during Megan and Owen's naptime I got a text from a good college friend of mine saying that she was in town visiting her cousin in the hospital and wanted to meet up.  Since our house was a mess I didn't want her coming over we decided to meet at a park since she had her daughter along.  John and I pushed the strollers up to the castle park next to Bayview (I think it's Cedar Point).  We chose it because we had yet to take Megan there and we needed to get a good walk in that day anyways.  

Megan had fun exploring someplace new and John and Owen bonded over the slides and swing.

 

 

We couldn't get Megan and Karina to play together that much but they actually loved going on the tire swing.  They kept telling me to push faster and faster!

 

County Fair 2012

It's County Fair time again!  We could tell that it was quickly approaching, not just because it was August, but the fairgrounds were starting to get all shaped up and we kept seeing cattle trailers being pulled through town.  On Tuesday night we took our nightly walk up to the fairgrounds to give Megan a little sneak peak.  Already there were plenty of tractors on Machinery Hill and a few campers.  

My parents took Megan to the fair on Thursday night.  They mainly walked her through the animal barns.  Apparently she was very concerned for the horses' legs being all wrapped up and she thought they were all hurt.  There was a goose that scared Grandpa and in each pen she had to label every animal with a family member's name: Daddy, Mommy, Megan, Owen.... no matter that every animal was exactly the same size.

Then on Friday night my mom was nice enough to stay with Owen so John and I could go up to the fair with Megan.  It was nice to give Megan some quality Mommy-Daddy time and Owen slept the whole time for Grandma so I'm glad we didn't end up bringing him.  I was suffering from a cold all week and was leary about going up there since I usually get a cold from things like these.  I took a benadryl before we left home and also wore a mask in the barns so I actually feel ok now.

We arrived at the fair in time to get a good seat for the bear show and for me to quickly grab some boar bites and french fries before the show started.  Then we wandered through some buildings and Megan kept asking for more animals so we knew we better get a move on.  On the way to the cattle barns we stopped at Machinery Hill so Megan could sit on some tractors and mowers.  They (obviously) didn't move so she kept telling me that Grandpa needed to put some batteries in them so they would go.  

We walked through the horse and cow barns as quickly as we could since those are the ones that bother me the most.  Megan got to "milk" the cow before we left the barn.

We then started walking towards the small animal buildings, stopping for a pork burger and milk on the way there.  Megan loved the goats and sheep and pretty much everything.  It was nice having the stroller because we would let her out as we entered each barn and when she bored with the particular animal she would just go back in the stroller and we'd make our way towards the exit.  She got to feed the exotic animals which weren't as cool to her this year as last, although we did get some pretty good giggles out of her as she fed the ostrich.

We saved some of the best for last.  The much anticipated pony ride!  And she so happily waved to me every time they went around.  She had a blast!

Then we had to use our free Ferris Wheel ride coupons.  I couldn't believe how excited Megan was to ride it!  Even as we got going she never got afraid, instead was smiling from ear to ear.

 

After the Ferris Wheel ride we back-tracked so John could get a strawberry malt which he figured he'd share with Megan.  We sat down near the patio area and Megan barely wanted any ice cream at all - she just wanted to dance, dance, dance to the live music, showing off all her wild moves.  She even wanted me to dance with her - this was my favorite part of the night!

Kid's Workshop - Cork Board

Last Saturday, the 4th, was another opportunity for Megan to go to Home Depot's Kid's Workshop.  John was working so the kids and I met him there.  John and Megan proudly displayed their aprons before heading back to the workshop area.

The project this time was a small cork board.  Not near as much assembly required this month as with the Penske truck.  All they had to do was hammer the four sides onto the middle cork part and add a hanger to the back.

 See....

Then we had to paint, of course!  John did most of the painting but did let Megan try painting the middle section by herself.  I figured we would just do all brown so we could put it downstairs by her desk.

Brown ended up being just a little too boring so Megan added some bright red and blue to the cork.

And after the project was over, Megan couldn't wait to go get popcorn!  I still think this is her favorite part about Home Depot!  After all, that's what she thinks Daddy goes to work for - to make popcorn!

Father & Son

I don't have much to say tonight but wanted to share a couple pictures of Daddy and Owen that I took on Sunday.  These are my favorite pictures so far of two of the most important men in my life.  I know I speak for John when I say he is so excited to have a son and looks forward to many special father-son moments together as Owen grows up.

Love you guys!

Back To Work I Go

The time had come and my 12 week maternity leave was finally over. I returned to work last Thursday full time.  What a change this has been, but for the better I think.  As much as I loved staying home with Owen (and Megan most days) it was time for me to get back to reality.  With my first maternity leave I only took 8-9 weeks, but even though my last month or so this go round was essentially unpaid I am so glad we were able to make it work.

I seemed to bounce back both physically and emotionally rather well so I actually got to enjoy my time off.  The only thing that would have made it nicer would have been some not so hot and humid days but I am so thankful for the good-ole AC!  It felt like we were go-go-go the whole time but it's summer, what do you expect?

Even though my first words of advice to women expecting their second child is to keep their oldest in daycare while on their leave, I am so glad that I was able to spend some quality time with my daughter.  Sure, she would drive me nuts and things got kind of hairy at times but I wouldn't have traded it for the world.  How she ever matured in the last two months!  By being home with Megan I was able to help her learn to ride her tricycle, learn her colors and to count to 10, learn how to use the computer mouse and navigate through pre-school websites, help her start using the potty, use her ever-expanding vocabulary to turn her words into sentences and witness her unending affection towards her little brother.

And for Owen, he has changed and grown so much in these last couple months and sure doesn't look like a newborn any more.  One benefit of going back to work here is my back will get a little break as I won't be carrying around a 15+ pound baby around all day long!  I'm continuing to pump breast milk for Owen and hope to give him my mommy juice until he's six months but we'll see how that goes.

Even though it's work, it's nice to be back and see my co-workers again, have adult conversations and actually use my brain again!  I got a little rusty and there is definitely a little re-learning curve but for the most part it seems like I had never left.  (There is also a little cleanup effort on my part but that was to be expected... No one else is as anal about formatting their Excel spreadsheets as I am...)  I decided to go back last Thursday since the end of the week is usually a little more relaxed than the beginning.  And I got through my nearly thousand emails before lunch the first day!  I would have had a lot more had I not setup rules in Outlook to auto-delete daily things.

I won't be around Megan and Owen much during the days any more but I know that they are in excellent care.  John's parents will typically care for them on Mondays and Tuesdays, my mom on Wednesdays and Fridays and John is usually off on Thursdays.  We are thrilled that they can spend such quality time with grandparents!

Plus, there is nothing better at the end of the day than having a little one run up to you with open arms screaming, "MOMMY!!!!"

Friday Funnies

I hoped to get this post up earlier today but the last few days just got away from me.  Anyways, it is still Friday when I'm typing this so here come a few funnies from the last few weeks.


For those of you who don't know, Megan calls my mom Mama Mimmick (for Grandma Gennrich).  She was watching Megan one day when my grandparents decided to stop by.  My mom was in the basement when Megan, on the main level of the house, heard my grandparents' car doors open and close.  She quickly ran to the top of the stairs and yelled down, "Mama.... More Mimmicks!"

Megan and I were going to go to Target together one day and leave Daddy home with Owen.  Sometimes I don't put my seatbelt on right away until we are out of our neighborhood.  But Megan, our backseat driver, sure notices these things.  She quickly points out that the seatbelt is not buckled and giggles with her hands over her mouth.  "Oh Mommy.... the seatbelt!"

My poor laptop computer is probably close to six years old... I had it even before I met John.  Needless-to-say, sometimes it has problems keeping up with all of Megan's gaming websites and recently has started freezing on her.
Megan: Computer broken.
Me: No, it's not broken.  It's just tired.
Megan: Daddy fix it?
Me: Daddy can't fix it.  It just needs to rest.
Megan: Me fix it.  I get my hammer!

Megan recently has become obsessed with garage sales.  (I need to remind her of this when she's a tween and won't wear anything from garage sales much less go to them...  I'll enjoy it while it lasts...)  She knows that we tend to get a lot of clothes, toys and books from the garage sales and especially loves seeing the colorful stickers on every item.  Garaging on Wednesday with my mom she was saying, "Grandma, buy it, buy it!" to some toys.

Megan doesn't quite know how to say the word "feed" yet.  It comes out as "eat".  We know what M egan means when she says this but always sounds quite funny at the time.  For instance: "Papa's at the farm.  He eating cows again" and while she's holding Owen "I eat him?"

And finally.... Megan has such a good vocabulary and I think she actually talks very clear for a girl her age.  But sometimes she gets so excited and can't get the words out fast enough so the words just get all jumbled up.  So Daddy says, "Megan, it would help if you didn't begin every sentence with 'Da bit, da bit, da bit, da bit!"

Daddy Daughter Vacation days 2 and 3

Sorry it took a few days to write days 2 and 3 I haven't been on the computer much since to get to writing this.  I've also updated the post on Day 1 to include some pictures so be sure to scroll down for a look.

On Friday the four of us set out early and went to the Kansas City Zoo.  Megan really liked this idea since she wasn't able to go the zoo earlier in the week since plans had fallen through.  We thought that if we went earlier in the day Megan would be able to get a nap in and also go while it was still cooler out.  By the time we had gotten there it was already boiling.  Our first big surprise when we got there was that we were able to get in for a whole lot cheaper than we had previously thought.  We expected to be paying about $12 to get in but when we got the the window to pay they had asked if we were from one of the counties in the area.  We said no and they said that it would be $6 then.  I don't know if it was just because it was during the week or for something special going on but who am I to complain about being able to go in for so cheap.

We go inside and it appeared be be a really nice zoo.  I would love to go back again.  The only down side was that everything was spread so far apart.  That's nice in a way because they could make everything look like it's natural habitat and for some animals there were no fences.  You in theory could just right up an touch a kangaroo if you wanted to.  We even went into a bird area and had a couple real big birds just resting on a railing to would look over.  Near the end they had a little petting zoo for the kids and it was pretty much just sheep but that was alright.  The sheep were just walking around on there own and Grandpa thought it would be nice to feed the sheep so he walked up the the dispenser to grab some food and all of the sheep rushed over to him just so they could eat.  I was surprised Megan was even able to get to Grandpa to feed them also.

 

 

 

We were starting to walk back and then going into a different section of the park and we saw an area to take a train ride around within the area of animals we just saw.  With it being so hot and the amount of walking it would be we thought that it would be fun.  Once there we saw that instead of just the $2.50 charge just to take the train we could have unlimited rides on the other modes of transportation throughout the park for only $8 so we took it.  The train was a little small for me but Megan just loved it.  Especially the 2 tunnels we went through.  There were a couple young girls a few rows in front of us that screamed for fun every time we went through a tunnel and Megan now describes her train ride as Train, tunnel and then she screams.  Boy I hope she doesn't remember that one for the future. 

After the train we got off and decided to take a tram ride over into the Africa area of the park.  On the way Megan got to see 6 big elephants.  At first she only saw 5 but then a little bit farther she saw the sixth.  Now when you ask her if she saw elephants she says 1 more.  Which is kind of cute.  We got to see a few more animals even if they did come fast at us. 

With the heat and the free rides we just didn't want to walk any more so we went straight over to the safari sky ride and rode over so different animals.  Megan really loved the giraffes.  She even got to see one eating right from the trees.  What I was most surprised about was the heights didn't even phase her.  She just sat in the chair with me and enjoyed the whole thing.  We got off looked around for a few minutes and went back across with no troubles either. 

 

We then went over to the water and waited for a boat ride that we could do and that was a lot of fun.  It showed us the same animals that we saw on the sky ride but it was still fun.  While we were waiting for the return trip back Megan got to see a little turtle sunning itself on a log which she enjoyed. 

 

After the boat ride we decided we have had enough and that it was nap time so we were taking the tram back and were starting to walk to the exit and saw a carousel going so we decided to take a couple trips around.  Boy does Megan love these.  Whenever she sees one she needs to ride.

After the zoo we decided it would be nice to take a nap before the Twins game but I think Megan had something else on her mind because she kept playing and playing and when we had turned the lights out it turned to crying which didn't stop for about a half hour.

By the time she was down she would only get a half hour of sleeping time in before we had to wake her up and go to the game.  This was her first baseball game ever and she was very well behaved.  She sat on our laps quietly and actually watched most of it.  It didn't hurt that she got a hot dog and 2 bowls of ice cream either but what she was really waiting for was the fireworks at the end.  All in all 11 innings had passed the Twins ended up winning and then for the show.  She was smiling from ear to ear and loved every second of it.  She will describe to fireworks show just by the colors she saw of red, blue, green, purple.  She just loved it.  Afterwards we went back to the room and went to bed around midnight.

 

 

On Saturday we woke up around 8:30 and hit the road to come back home and made a straight show north.  Our only stop besides gas, potty and food was a Russel Stovers chocolate store in Owatanna and Megan and I got 2 big boxes of chocolate for 75% off.  I think it was almost 3 pounds of chocolate for only $9.