more shepherds

We had a visit from the extended Shepherd fam today (Justin's parents). We got a few pictures of Owen with the grandparents!

Owen and Grandma



















Owen and Grandpa


























Happy Owen



















We also took the plunge and got a Wii Fit today. We already have enjoyed doing some exercise! I think it will turn out to be a good investment and a nice way to lose some baby fat. It's actually pretty fun.

In other news, we have been working with Lewis on using a spoon. He is really liking fruity yogurt so that is what we use to get him to eat. We got into the fun habit of singing to him while he eats (forgive us) so here's a clip of Lewis feeding himself. He has some improving to do, but he's getting better, believe it or not!



**I almost left out the most exciting part of our day. Owen slept 7 and a half hours last night! We're so proud of him, and hope he keeps it up. :)

owen's 2 month stats

We went to the doctor early this morning to see how big Owen has gotten! Here's the rundown:

Ht: 23 1/2 inches
Wt: 13 lbs. 3 oz.
Head: 39.8 cm

He is above average for height and weight and just average for his head size. He is bigger on all accounts than Lewis was at 2 months. We thought he was a big boy and now we know for sure!

He got some shots and handled it so well at first, but now he's getting a little cranky. Hopefully when he wakes up from his next nap, he'll be a bit happier.

lewis goes to "school"!

Today Lewis went to Mother's Day Out for the first time. He will be going on Thursday mornings at a local church. We decided to check into it since our pediatrician and therapists had recommended it. They think time away from us and around other adults and kids may spur Lewis to try to communicate more, since the new people can't read his mind like we can. :) We found one that seems great, and is really affordable. He's in a class with about 7 or 8 kids and 2 teachers.

Here's a picture of him before we left this morning. It's kind of blurry, sorry!




















He cried at first, but his teacher said he only cried a few minutes and played well the whole time. I thought I might get upset leaving him in tears, but honestly, I felt good about the whole thing. I know he's in good hands and will learn to function in a group setting which he'll have to do eventually anyway. He didn't magically start talking, but did interact with his teacher some. Playing with the other kids will take time!

In other news, Owen is 2 months old today! He goes to the doctor tomorrow for his check-up and shots. Today he has been sleeping a ton. Tuesday night he slept 6 solid hours! It was fabulous. Last night he went about 5 between feedings and then another 4. So here is a picture of him doing what he does best.

owen smiles, lewis matures

Owen is now 8 weeks-old. He is smiling quite a bit and getting some personality. My dad and Martha came to visit this week. Here are some pics. The four of them:




















Martha and Owen:

























Dad and Owen:

























Owen hanging out.

























Just for comparison, here is Lewis around 8 weeks

















And Owen in the same outfit.

























Tonight when I dropped Lewis off at the church nursery, he started his usual crying and freaking out routine. Then one of the girls grabbed the jack-in-the-box that he apparently loves and Lewis turned around and pushed me out the door. It cracked me up! I was so relieved that he actually wanted me to leave. What a funny boy! This was after a couple of days of an unusually bad mood because I bought green grapes instead of red. We corrected that today and we had a complete turnaround.

Here's a video of Owen doing a little smiling and sneezing.

recent happenings

We've been spending more time at the Circus Square park. Lewis loves that fountain, and it's pretty entertaining to watch him do his thing.




































We took him back to the regular park on Saturday once the weather had cooled off some. He looks like such a big boy in these pictures! He took a spin on the tire swing for the first time. Before we left we found him looking intently at a picture of the Powells we have on the fridge, no doubt reminiscing about good times.







































































Yesterday we went to Louisville for our friend Tim Jones' birthday party. We had a good time playing ping-pong and catching up. Owen spent some time just hanging around (and producing some interesting presents of his own!).

nathan's pics

Our friend, Nathan Morgan, is a professional photojournalist now! He got his first PJ job recently in Midland, MI and so he and his wife, Kelly, had to move far away. He took pictures one night when he and Kelly graciously watched Lewis for us. They turned out pretty good.....of course, we are the parents and may be biased. Still, I think you'll agree Nathan's pretty good at making even the most mundane things look cool. You should see what he can do with newsworthy kind of stuff! These were taken pre-baby, so keep in mind they're a couple months old. :)

Dinner time
































Riding in the stroller


















Walking around outside
































Posing with Kelly

10,000 B.C. ?

On Friday afternoon, right at 5 p.m., Lewis had been playing with our cable remote control while the TV was turned off. I was nursing Owen, so I didn't take it from him like usual and he lost interest quickly so I didn't think much about it.

A few minutes later I noticed our cable box displayed the letters "PLA" where a channel number usually is. I turned on the TV to find the lovely film 10,000 B.C. playing. Lewis had somehow managed to order this movie using the "On Demand" feature. When I pressed the info button, it said the cost for the movie was $4.

It amazed me that Lewis had pushed just the right buttons to order a movie that costs money, but also that he managed to pick the one film that got terrible reviews and that we are not at all interested in seeing. Had he picked most anything else, we probably would have watched it since the On Demand feature saves the film and you can watch it anytime.

I called on Monday and asked if we could get the charge taken off our account and the nice people at Insight granted our request. They also walked me through putting a PIN on our account so that Lewis could not do this again...........well, it would be extremely unlikely anyway! If you have a toddler and cable, watch out. You probably need to set up a PIN too.