Baby contest- VOTE NOW

I need help in selecting a photo to enter Owen in a magazine cover contest. I need a photo were Owen looks cute/beautiful and the photo is in focus!! That last one is the tough bit.

So I need help in selecting one. Please use the comments to vote for your favorite one. Or send me an email! I have to select one by next week so please help!!

Baby tricks

And so we enter that awful world of "What can your baby do" a.k.a "Is your baby as fabulous as mine"? So if you are like me and compare your child to every other one to determine where in the "corporation" your baby lies (basement in the mail room or penthouse with the view), then don't read this as you will only feel better than me and I can't have that.

So Owen does not crawl. (dramatic pause)

He does try and gets frustrated (all good signs). Every attempt ends up in a roll. But at least he still gets around like a steamroller. And crawling isn't a developmental milestone. But everyone asks if he is crawling yet and I feel like I have to justify why he doesn't. "He is too good at rolling"..."I think he will just go straight to walking"..."I never crawled"... So I am here, proclaiming once and for all that no he doesn't crawl and I am becoming ok with that. But there was a time when I worried what the future would hold. How ridiculous am I?? Like crawling or playing with toys properly or waving (no he doesn't do this either) will determine his grade average in high school. So my new mantra is "He won't be doing (fill in missing skill/bad habit) when he is 14 years old so I won't worry about it".

Plus I realise that for everything Owen doesn't do he does a million other amazing wonderful things. Primarily he is such a wonderful baby, I almost don't care that he doesn't scoot around. Every smile outweighs an inch crawled.

So I have made my confession. And as always to redeem myself I supply a photo.

My funny boy

This makes me laugh EVERY TIME as evident in this video. The camera is sideways not for any effect but I just held it the wrong way. But Hopefully this makes you laugh too!

Turn me in

Further proof that I should have my mother license revoked.

1. On a recent trip to Toronto, I was trying to keep Owen entertained in the back of the car. Lately he enjoys holding and looking at anything. Usually I carefully select something without pointy edges, poison or little bitty pieces. So far... I though ah, a CD. Might be fun to look at with that prism effect. So I selected one of the home made ones that contained songs that were mainly Cris', so no loss if it got destroyed with baby drool. Owen was entertained by it for several minutes. Turning it in his hand, flipping it over, putting it in his mouth. I glance out the window and watch the scenery for a few minutes. When I turn back Owen has started sporting a lovely black mustache and a rather black mouth. An interesting look for an eight month old, but not one he should be seen in public with. I can't figure out how he got this new do. And then I realize the permanent marker on the CD ain't so permanent. So the CD no longer says "Cris' music". Now it's just a blur written on Owen's face. Luckily it came off everywhere easily, before the next service station.
   
   
2. I broke several rules with this next one. I make Owen a bottle at night to ensure he gets a good full belly in the hope that someday he will sleep through the night. The day before we went to Toronto on our disaster trip, I put some cereal in his bottle. I know you aren't suppose to do this but I really wanted to see if it would make a difference and help him sleep longer. Well Owen is on barley cereal now, which is thicker than rice cereal. I gave Owen the bottle but I noticed he was really struggling with it. The cereal had completely clogged the nipple. And everytime I cleaned it out and gave the bottle back, it would get clogged again. So I asked Cris to take the bottle and strain it, saving the milk (that formula is expensive I wasn't going to waste a drop). He did this and brought it back to me. He had ingeniously used a splatter guard we have to sift out the cereal. Worked like a charm. All the milk was in the bottle and all the cereal down the drain. Next morning, I run the dishwasher so we don't come home to a smelly load of dishes. As I am unloading the clean dishes, I notice they aren't so clean. Then I notice a huge brown murky pool filling the bottom of the dishwasher. Apparently, none of the water drained. I tried running the short cycle to get the water out. No luck. And now none of the dishes were clean as they had now been washed in this murky water. I realized then that the brown water had the same shade as...Of course barley cereal. We had managed to completely clog the waste line. But of course I had no time to fix it as we were heading off to TO. So the murky water and dirty dishes sat there for a week till I got back. A little industrial strength Draino and we were back in business. I was worried I would have to call a repairman which would have made this a very expensive mistake on my part. And by the way, he didn't sleep through the night.
   
   
3. During our visit to TO (the night Owen got sick actually), I went over to Cris' brother's house for dinner. They have a great apartment with beautiful hard wood floors. We too have hard wood floors and carpet in the basement. One of Owen's favorite things to do is to zip across the carpet floor. I grab his legs while he is lying on his back and pull him quickly to me. Makes him giggle. So far so good. Well, apparently, it doesn't work on hardwood. I thought since they were so nice and shiny, surely he would zip across the floor even faster. Nope. Instead his head bounced up and down as the traction slowed him down. Enough said.
   

Please check your local yellow pages for the number of Children's Aid. Being a bad mother, I don't have it on hand.

Thank god for free healthcare!

Ugghh. Cris and I are finally back from Toronto from what was most likely the worst week of my life. And no it wasn't because if the in-laws. We had events on two weekends in TO so we decided, to save my sanity, I would stay in TO for the week and Cris would take the bus back and forth. I stayed with Cris' aunt and uncle in Mississauga.

On Tuesday Owen developed a fever and I automatically thought of a urinary tract infection. So Tuesday night, at 10:00 p.m., Monica (Cris' cousin's wife) came with Owen and I to the closest hospital emergency dept. We were seen pretty quickly. But it took a really long time to get results from the blood work and the catheter test (sadly I am becoming an expert at diagnosis UTI's, I actually think I know more then some of the nurses, just because of my experience with UTI's!).

So at 4:00 a.m., they told me he had to be admitted. I was not prepared for that. I thought we would just get antibiotics and be on our way. But Owen was refusing to feed and they were worried he would get dehydrated. So to make a long story short, he was in hospital on an IV for 2.5 days. He had an ultrasound that revealed nothing. So we still have to wait to have a test done here in Ottawa on Sept. 1st.

Owen is fine and happy now. But it was a very stressful week for Cris and I. Cris had to leave work unpaid for three days. Who can blame him?! He couldn't concentrate with Owen being so far away and in hospital.

I am just immensenly happy to be home and I think Owen is too. Hopefully we can figure all this out, as to why he is getting the UTI's. I am not set up to handle repeated trips to the emergency department!

All the wonderful things...

I realized lately that this blog has taken a turn away from specifically Owen and focused on the crazy awful world of parents and babies. So I thought I would share a few of my favorite things about Owen. Just to redeem myself as apparent and reaffirm Owen's place as the perfect squirt.

• He loves string and ribbons. He gets so happy to be able to shove those stringing strands in his mouth. It must feel funny because he makes a weird face like he just ate a lemon. And then laughs. I love the simple pleasures. And clearly so does he.
  
  
• Probably his favorite toy is a blinking toothbrush my mom bought at a dollar store for him.
  
  
• He talks to the dog. I am not worth the effort but the dog is. I even feel a bit bad because the dog never says anything back. But Owen has not given up yet. He hangs over the side of his chair and calls to her by grunting and cooing. Then laughs if she turns towards him. Small successes. He will have Lola conversing by time he is 20.
  
  
• He has a Cabbage Patch doll that he just adores. Probably because she has lots of stringing yarn hair he can suck on. But he also slobbers all over her face. Its very romantic. The doll was a gift from my brother and Tara when we were expecting- practice for us. I can't remember what her "given" name was (yes I lost the Cabbage Patches birth certificate). So Owen and I went through a bunch of names (all the names I would have picked if Owen was a girl) and when I said Zoe, his face lite up and he had a big smile! Zoe it is!
  
  
• He loves people especially the ladies. I have been on patios, in bookstores, at bus stops and if there is a woman near by (especially a pretty one with long hair) the cat calls start. He grunts and laughs and says "oo oo oo" until they finally look at him. The he flashes that huge smile to seal the deal. And who can't resist smiling back. And then he smiles again. This goes on for ever till either I have to go (being completely left out of the interaction) or the woman has to move on. Owen is starting to warm up to men. But they definitely don't get the same treatment. Usually just a smile and laugh.
  
  
• When you go into his room in the morning to get him up (which he usually already is but is playing quietly by himself), he gives a big smile and starts flapping his arms and legs. We call it "swimming in bed". It makes the early morning worth it.
  
  
• And by early morning I mean 7:00 or 7:30. Another reason to adore him. Last week he actually slept in till 8:30!! Miracle.
  

And the photo speaks for itself.

Owen and his girlfriend Zoe.

"I command you..."