10 months

Wow!  Owen is such a busy body these days that I failed to write a 9 month post.  He is into EVERYTHING and our house is far from baby proofed so I spend all day either following him around and keeping him out of the plants, dog food and toilet or taking him on adventures.  He isn't walking yet, just crawling (very quickly), pulling himself up on furniture and cruising.  He likes to put everything in his mouth and thinks electrical cords and the toilet are particularly fascinating.  He loves baby story time at the library and the aquarium.  Luckily for me, he still loves riding in the stroller.  Even though the fall rain is upon us, we have managed to make it out for a walk pretty much everyday.

I remember thinking that having a newborn was the most challenging stage of being a parent and that things would just get easier and easier as Owen got older.  Now, I am beginning to understand that each stage is equally challenging in new and different ways.  The newborn days were tough at times, but easy in the sense that Owen would take multiple two hours naps a day and didn't have the capacity to destroy a clean house in less than an hour.  At months 4 and 5,  he would lay on his play gym (without moving) for 15 minutes while I did the dishes and it seems pretty great in retrospect.  These days I can only do the dishes while Owen naps, otherwise he pulls himself up on the dishwasher and plays the knives.  I have a feeling that once he's walking I'll feel nostalgic about this stage as well.  This is one of the reasons I am so looking forward to having a second baby.  I've gained so much perspective and feel like I will be able to take advantage of each stage so much more the second time around.

We finally bit the bullet and hired a housekeeper. Best decision ever.  Seriously.  A friend recommended a lady, Elizabeth, and she is amazing.  We all know how anal I am and how over the top my cleaning standards are.  There are three ladies that comes and they clean everything.  They get the cob webs out of the rafters, clean the blinds, vacuum the flies out of the window seals, scrub the bathrooms, wipe down the inside of the fridge, vacuum under the bed and couch cushions, dust, mop, you name it, they do it.  It's such a load off and gives me the freedom to spend my days playing with Owen instead of worrying about all the needs to be scrubbed.  There is still laundry, dishes, etc and a lot of the things they do never got done before so it doesn't save me that much time but it gives me SO much piece of mind.  Knowing all that has been done every two weeks makes me feel so much better.  Can we afford it?  Not really.  But we are making it work and it's worth every penny.

As I am drafting this post, I am thinking about what I usually include and sleep has been an important topic.  It's not a huge deal anymore.  Owen consistently goes down easily, sleeps through the night and takes naps at consistent intervals.  I can't say even in the family is well rested 100% of the time, but who is?  I still nap with Owen when I can, although he won't sleep in the bed with me anymore.  He rolls all around and likes to sleep on his stomach so he has to be in his crib for now.  I hope this is just a phase and he will love napping with me again soon.

Owen has recently started eating way more solid foods and preparing two to three meals for him a day is also quite time consuming.  It's been an interesting lesson is how we eat now that Owen also wants to try everything we have in our hands.  Ty has really stepped up, kicked his junk food habit, and is making a conscious effort to model healthy habits for our little guy.  Even though he is taking lots of table foods I don't really feel like Owen has slowed down on nursing much.  I'm not exactly sure how to start cutting back but am hoping it will happen naturally over time.  I'm not in any huge rush, despite the judgement I can already feel coming my way if I decide to breastfeed for more than a year.

We kicked off the tradition of family dinners (with Ty's side of the fam) last month and I am super excited we are doing it.  We are meeting once a month with all the brothers and babies.  This is a tradition that is near and dear to Ty and Chris from their childhood.  As we are approaching the holidays and the end of Owen's first year it's exciting to start making family traditions that will cement memories into Owen's childhood and give him a sense of family pride.

I really love having a baby.  It makes everything so much more fun.  I love Owen more than I ever thought I could.  He brings so much love and joy to my life that I'm already dying to have another one.  Of course motherhood has its many ups and downs but it gives life so much meaning and purpose.  I'm crazy obsessed with my little man and can't believe we are already nearing the end of the first year!