In the Morning

Rowan has always been an early riser. If he sleeps until 6:30am, I'm overjoyed. Most of the time, he wakes up at 6:04am. Sometimes, it's as early as 5:30am. If it's the weekend and it's earlier than 6:30am, I'll get him out of the crib and put him in bed with us. Sometimes he'll doze off for another 30 minutes or so, but most of the time he tries to jump up and down or hit your face until you pay attention to him. And he isn't one of those kids who like to lounge around in the morning drinking coffee. Once he's up, he's up and ready to go.

Jason decided to document Rowan the other weekend. Here are some shots of our mornings with Rowan.

We're still here!

So, um, yeah....there's been a bit of a delay since my last post. No real excuses, except normal, busy life stuff.

So here's a brief catch-up on Rowan's latest happenings at 13 1/2 months:

• Walks sometimes, crawls sometimes. Still working on walking 100% of the time
• Moved up to the 1 year old group at his "school," which was a difficult adjustment but seems to be doing better now.
• Still no real words, just makes a bunch of noises and sounds. Although I swear he says "I got it!" and bathtub.
• Still gets up at an ungodly hour of 6am. If he sleeps to 6:30am, we're ecstatic.
• Loves petting and playing with the dogs but we're still working on being gentle.
• Eats great most of time, which is a nice change. In fact, at the last parent-teacher meeting at school a few weeks ago, they said he was one of the best eaters in his class. Go figure.
• Loves chicken, turkey, cheese, eggs, yogurt, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, sausage, cheerios, goldfish, french fries, milk, mashed potatoes, melon, bananas and any kind of bread or crackers. Not crazy about carrots or beef.
• Favorite toys include anything he can push or ride on, trucks, balls, blocks and anything that he can throw or make noise with. He also like looking at books with pictures of animals. He has started getting books down and looking at the pictures.

That's all I can think of right now. Now that I'm back in the swing of things I promise to post on a regular basis.

Monkey Butt

Feed Me

We started Rowan on solids a few weeks ago.  The previous attempts at getting him to eat cereal failed miserably, so I gave up and just decided to skip ahead.  Initially, things went great.  We started with sweet potatoes and he gobbled them up, half a jar at a time.  Ever since them, he's been all over the map.  Loves sweet potatoes, green beans and peas; hates squash and pears; still iffy on carrots and apples.  If he likes it, he will grab the spoon out of my hand and attempt to feed himself and suck down a whole jar in no time.  And if he doesn't like it, he clamps his mouth shut and refuses to eat.  It can get ugly, as he's mastered his fake cough that quickly turns to gagging and then puking on the floor.  

A Letter to Rowan on your 6 month birthday

Dearest Rowan:

It's hard to believe you've been here 6 months. Time has really flown by, although I will admit that the first few months were rough. It was hard to imagine you as you are now – a happy, curious little boy who loves to smile and play with daddy.

Over the past 6 months, I have watched you change more and more each day. So much of you and your personality are the same as your dad’s. I sometimes wonder where I am in you. You even have the same hairline as him.

You can now roll from you tummy to your back and decided sleeping on your side is fun. Early in the mornings you often roll around in your crib or kick the rails. We can hear you laughing while you do it. You can almost sit up on your own and like “standing” up on your legs. You love playing with your toys and are much more interested in the dogs now. Lucy often visits you when you’re playing in your exersaucer and you try to pet her. It’s so cute to watch your little hand stretch out to meet her.

You started eating food a couple of weeks ago. So far you’ve tried sweet potatoes, pears, green beans, squash and carrots. You didn’t really care for the squash. Since you started eating food, you don’t seem to like your bottles anymore, which makes mommy very frustrated. You probably don’t realize it but the doctors think you’re too small. You’re smaller than other babies your age so you need to drink all your milk to grow big and strong.

I love coming home from work and seeing your smiling face and big blue eyes. Your face lights up and you start kicking and waving your arms and legs. Daddy says you do the same thing for him when he picks you up from school each day. I think it’s your way of saying “I love you.”

Happy 6 month birthday Rowan! We love you very much!

We're still alive!

So, I'm just going to skip past the fact that I've been slack with blogging for the past 2 months. Between the holidays and going back to work in late December, we've been really busy.

Here's the latest with Rowan - at 3 1/2 months we've finally broke the 12 pound mark and are starting to outgrow 0-3 month clothes. He's started daycare and seems to really like it there and the "teachers" seem to like him so I'm happy with the decision. He's still eating about every 3 hours (except at night) and eats 5.5 to 6 ounces. He goes down for the night by 8 and I usually dream feed him around 10:30pm. He's up at 6:30am during the week but sometimes will sleep until 7am or so on the weekend. Rowan likes to be held in a sitting position and watch things. He loves to "talk" in his funny babbling way. He gives big smiles when you make silly faces or tickle his feet. He's discovered his hands and loves to chew and suck on them. He plays with his fingers and has started to pick up his rattles and attempts to put them in his mouth.  He also likes to sit in his Bumbo chair and look at the toys we put on the tray.

Oh, happy birthday Jason!  We love you!