Lake Chelan

We had a lovely time in Lake Chelan.  We drove to Leavonworth and spent Thursday with Pam and Don.  Friday morning we continued on to Chelan and enjoyed three nights there.  As per our summer routine, we took along our fabulous nanny and best friend, Rachel.  We enjoyed spending time with Alex and Patrick.  Aside from Saturday morning's 10K race and one afternoon of wine tasting; the weekend consisted of swimming, drinking, cooking, chatting and lounging in the sun.  Owen handled the disruption in his routine like a champ.  Every time we travel with him I am surprised by how much easier it is than anticipated.  This is the first summer since I moved to Washington that I've gotten a tan without leaving the state.  It's been fabulous.

7 months

It has been an atypically warm and wonderful Seattle summer.  Owen is growing and changing every day.  He eats solid food, has two teeth, babbles, sits up and crawls.  We have been having a blast and basking in all the joys of summer.   

We still aren't on any type of schedule.  I thought that one would naturally develop but it hasn't yet and it has actually been working out quite well for us.  It's nice because I feel like we can go out and do things as the mood strikes us.  We're not tethered to the house during nap time and Owen sleeps on the go in his carseat and/or the ergo.  When he goes down for a nap I never know if its going to be 30 minutes or 2 hours but he usually takes at least one long nap a day.   He generally saves the 2 hour naps for when we have somewhere to be but they are glorious none the less.  It's so nice to have the days of battling over 30 minutes naps behind us.  That being said, it is getting harder and harder to get him to nap outside of his crib and I think these days are gradually coming to a close.  We follow his lead and will start staying home during nap time once he indicates to us its necessary.  

Nighttime sleep has gotten much better.  He puts himself to bed without a fuss between 6:30 and 7:00, wakes up to nurse between 2 and 4 and gets up for the day between 5:15 and 6:30.  It's hard to believe it has been 7 months since I've slept through the night.  Although O is sleeping a good 7-8 hour chunk, I don't go to bed until 9 or 10 so I am still sleeping in 4 hour blocks.  I am defiantly fantasizing about an uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep and feel like Owen is waking up out of habit rather than hunger.  Our plan is to start giving him a bottle at night so we can gradually give him less milk over a few weeks and then we'll cut him off.  It's kind of bittersweet because I do love nursing him at night, but it's time.  After he starts sleeping through the night maybe we can find a way to tackle to 5:15 wake ups, but we'll pick our battles for now.  Our biggest success in the last month is that Owen has figured out how to put his binky back in his mouth independently.  That saves us a lot of trips in and out of the nursery.  

Ty had his first major parenting fail a month or so ago when he let Owen fall out of his swing.  I had mine last week.  Owen was in his crib going down for a nap and I was eating trail mix.  He was fussing so I went in to check on him and accidentally dropped a walnut in the crib.  Some kind of motherly intuition prompted me to check on him again and when I went back in he was smiling and chomping away on it.  Luckily he didn't choke or go into anaphylactic shock so I guess all is well that ends well. 

Feeding him solids has been really fun.  So far he has tried avocado, sweet potato, banana, strawberry, carrots, green beans, broccoli, and pear.  Bananas seem to be his favorite thus far.  I have been mashing up his food and introducing a new one every three days but now I feel like he's ready to start eating whatever.  I'm attempting to start feeding him what I'm eating in small chunks.  I want to give him a variety of beans, chicken, and salmon in the next few weeks.  

To sum up what he is up to these days; he is rolling like crazy, sitting up, has two teeth, says mama all the time, reaches for everything, loves watching and petting Jake, cracks up when tickled, usually falls asleep in the car, is starting to hold the bottle to feed himself, rolls onto his stomach and kicks on the changing table (it's almost impossible to change his diaper and put pants on him) loves to drink water out of a cup-- he laps it up like a dog, went in the pool for first time, loves the swings at the playground, 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed is his new favorite song, he's an iPhone fanatic, and favorite toys seem to be water bottles, fun size chip bags, paper and the remote control. 

Rach has taken over as our summer nanny.  Her and Owen are having a wonderful time together.  I love how enamored with him she is and that she gets to see him grow and change every week.  She has been teaching him sign language and is a total natural.  We are incredibly blessed to have her.  I can't wait for her to have a little one of her own, she is going to be an amazing mama one day.