11 Months Old!

Owen is 11 months old today! He and I just hung out at home together this afternoon. We took the pictures for his birthday invitations and got them put together. They turned out really well! I can't believe that we're already planning his birthday party! It's all very bittersweet. He's growing up so fast, but it's fun to see his personality develop.

Trip to Eckert's

We decided to take a trip to Eckert's on Saturday to go apple picking. The trip turned out to be a bust. We all get there and take the tractor out to the orchards to find out that we can't even pick apples off the trees! Apparently the crop was not very good this year, so all of the available apples were in large bins that you could pick from. The fact that it was almost 90 degrees out didn't help the situation either. Something about picking apples in shorts, t-shirts, and sweat just doesn't seem right. Oh well, at least we got some cute pictures of the kiddos. We also got some apples and were able to see animals at the petting zoo.

Mike had kickball games right afterwards, so the three of us headed to Tower Grove. I ended up having to play the first game because they were short girls. Despite not having played kickball in a year or so, I ended up driving in the winning run. Well, Shot to the Balls are still undefeated so far.

Owen hung out with Grandpa Watson the rest of the night. Mike went on a bus party for Krissy's 25th birthday/going away party and I ran some errands. The house was a mess and I had a few things to get finished for Mandy and Evan's wedding.

Finally Sleeping!

I've been waiting 10 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days to write about this! I finally got a full night's sleep last night. Owen slept from 9 pm to 7 am in his own bed! Actually Tuesday night he slept from 9 pm to 6 am, but I thought it might be a fluke and didn't want to jinx myself. The CIO ended up working well and he's no longer standing up to sleep. The past three nights he's cried for less than 5 minutes and went to sleep. It's such a nice feeling knowing that once he's in bed, I don't have to listen for him to be up in an hour or so. Let's hope that this continues!

Bully?

So where is the line drawn between babies just playing and a baby bully? I'm thinking that Owen is that kid. You know, the one that beats up all the other kids and takes toys away from others. I was looking through the pictures that I took at the zoo on Friday with Jace, Kaden, Rylynn, and their moms and noticed that there were several pictures of Owen hurting the others. He also does this thing at home where he hugs you and then bangs on your face as hard as he can. I'm hoping we're not raising a little bully here!

CIO Stories

So we decided that Owen needed to figure out how to fall asleep on his own. He's been a terrible sleeper since he was born, but it's been getting worse instead of better. The first night (Wednesday) we put him in his crib and he cried for about an hour. I decided to check on him and make sure he was okay. I'm expecting to find him passed out in his bed, exhausted from the crying. Instead, he's draped over the side of his crib sleeping while standing. I managed to get a few good pictures of it :) The next night, we had about 30 minutes of crying, still standing and sleeping. Friday night, Shari babysat and he fell asleep in about 30 minutes and he was lying down! Tonight there was about 2 minutes of crying, still standing up though. I'm not sure what we're going to do about the standing up and sleeping, but it's pretty funny to watch.

Florida Fun

We got back from Florida yesterday and everyone survived! Owen had a great time and did wonderfully on the plane ride there and back. He was definately better than his mom was! Anyway, we all had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We went to Sea World, Disney World, Busch Gardens, and Kennedy Space Center.

We went to Sea World on Sunday and it was a little more crowded than the other parks. We were able to do everything we wanted to before the weather started to get bad. Owen saw Shamu and tried to touch the stingrays and dolphins.

Owen met Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, Tigger, Pooh, Pluto, Donald Duck, Goofy and Mickey Mouse at Disney. He loved watching the characters and having his picture taken with them. There weren't very many people at the park when we went, so we were able to do a lot without waiting in long lines. Owen slept through It's a Small World and Peter Pan and was a little scared of Dumbo.

Busch Gardens was a lot better than we expected. We ended up driving to Tampa with Carrie and Joe since everyone else had other plans. There weren't very many rides for Owen, but he was able to pet a giant tortoise and see a lot of other animals. Mike and Joe went on almost all of the rides since there was no one at the park.

Last was Kennedy Space Center. As much as I didn't want to go, it was actually pretty interesting. Mike was in heaven looking at everything. It was a long day, but we all had a good time.