just a blur

Life continues to blow by like a hurricane. In the last week or so, Owen has gone from sleeping about 6 hours a night, to more like 8 or 9. Several mornings I've had to wake him up so we can get on with our day! Despite the good sleeping, we're still pretty tired. Who knows what that is about, but we should get caught up and feel more normal soon.

Last week, Lewis happily went to 'school' without any prodding. Today he was less enthusiastic, but still had a good day. We are gearing up for his next evaluation with First Steps, and his teachers are happy to let one of our therapists come and observe him there to see if he is more receptive to learning (or acts any differently) away from home. He has learned several more signs, and has made some up himself*. He now signs:

please
more
candy
grapes
pretzels
milk
cracker
chips*
yogurt*
cookie
ball
water
french fries*
beans

We are hoping for real speaking, but the signs definitely help. He's been playing a lot with his blocks lately.

























And his brother (but mostly his brother's toys, that used to be his).



















Owen gets to play under the crazy archway by himself sometimes.

























Or he just lays around with his keys or this easy to hold ball.



















We are taking a lot of walks still. Notice how much bigger Owen is, and the matching outfits! It seems like every time I try to dress them alike, something happens and I have to change one of them within an hour or two. Still, it's cute while it lasts!



















Other recent happenings:

--Lewis walked all over some friends' backyard barefoot, by himself! He was slow and hesitant, but he walked around for a good 20-30 minutes.
--Owen successfully has taken milk from a bottle. We are using a Haberman feeder like we did with Lewis in the beginning. He doesn't 'get' regular bottles just yet.
--Justin and I got to go see the new Batman movie. Justin's parents watched the boys over the weekend, and got to feed Owen one of those bottles so we could be gone for a little while. It was nice!
--Owen got to meet several of Justin's cousins before the movie outing. Fun times!
--I got to sit at Panera by myself this morning for a little while, well....Owen was there, but sleeping. It was rather peaceful!