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.

all kinds of stuff

This week Justin and Lewis went to the lake with Justin's family. Justin came back yesterday, and Lewis stayed for a couple more days. As a result, Owen and I have had some good bonding time. Here are some pictures before his 2nd bath.

The shocked pose:

























The happy pose.......could this be a smile?

























The "get on with it" pose.


























In the bath.





















We failed to report that Owen's cord fell off at 2 1/2 weeks and his first bath quickly followed. His belly button has healed nicely (see photo). We also weighed him at the health dept. on Monday and he was 10 lbs., 8 oz. He's really growing!

On Sunday I got to catch up with some friends when Jenny Rone had an open house at Spencer's. She had been on Stint in Sweden for the last year, and it was good to see her. L to R: Shelley, Jenny, Madelyn Boyer, Julie Boyer, Grace Boyer, Mandy Guss and in front, Heather Snyder holding baby Owen.



















We have also failed to report that Lewis has learned some more signs the last few weeks. He now signs grapes, pretzels (Justin made this one up) and cracker. Here's a video of him signing grapes on the day he learned it.

trains and tummy time

Owen has been spending some time on his belly. He likes it much more than Lewis ever did. He usually just lies there calmly and then tries to lift his head and move his little legs around. No screaming like his brother. Here's some cute pics.








































































Lewis got this Thomas the train set for his birthday from my sisters, but was not too keen on pushing the trains around the track. Then the speech therapist brought him a battery powered Thomas that is strong enough to push the wooden trains around the track. This makes Lewis very happy! We spend quite a lot of time watching the train go around every day. Here's a video.

random

Here's a cute picture of Owen.

























And one of Owen and Aunt Beth.



















And Lewis in the laundry basket (Justin put him in there for some fun).


























Our new shower curtain.......our old one fell apart and I know it's keeping people up nights wondering how we fixed it.

circus square park

We just got a new park in Bowling Green called Circus Square Park. They put in a fountain for kids to run through and Lewis got to go when my sisters were visiting and absolutely loved it! It's right downtown which is convenient for us, so we should be going often once we got a little more on track with Owen's schedule. Here are some pictures and a video.

an elmo kind of birthday

With Lewis' birthday a week after Owen's, we had a much lower key celebration this year. When my sisters were visiting, we went ahead and celebrated Ellen's birthday (which was yesterday) and Lewis' at the same time.

Lewis loves Elmo, so I made an Elmo cake. I have to give credit to Marquita Miller for teaching me enough about cake decorating to do something fairly simple like Elmo! It's really fun, but one or two cakes a year is all I can handle. Here he is:



















Lewis tries to touch the cake.


























We all wore Elmo party hats, which really confused Lewis!





















Lewis again opted for ice cream instead of cake.




















Dad holding Owen.

lewis' 2-year stats

We got to see Dr. Fraser again this week for Lewis' 2-year check-up. He is doing well physically.

Weight: 28 lbs.
Height: 36 inches or 3' tall

He's slightly above average for height, average for weight and his head is large, but they don't tell us that measurement unless we specifically ask for some reason......and we didn't ask!

We have a lot more pictures and video to post, but it's hard finding the time with a new baby. Keep checking in and we should have some stuff posted soon.

Owen's 2-week stats

We took Owen to see Dr. Fraser today. He is almost exactly the same size Lewis was at 2 weeks. Here's the breakdown:

Height: 21 1/4 inches
Weight: 8 lbs.
Head: 36.7 cm

We were really happy with Owen's weight gain. He seems to be eating well and enjoying his little life so far. He's a very content baby overall. Here's a picture of him snoozing with Aunt Ellen.

other highlights

Lewis has continued to enjoy receiving birthday gifts. Lewis got a lawnmower from his Aunt Monica, and despite the fact that it took him a while to figure out how to work it, he is now pushing it all over the place. He loves it!




















Lewis has also been exploring his own fashion lately, and is trying to make a statement as some sort of athlete apparently. A couple of days, he's worn this headband for several hours......go figure!

























My sisters came to visit this weekend, and we tried to get a picture of the boys in their 4th of July attire. This is me and Beth.....Lewis is not too excited about getting his picture taken.




















Here's a close-up of Owen. My step-sister, Leah, gave him this little shirt since he was due on July 4th. Thank God he came sooner!


























We made it okay for a few days when Justin went back to work last week, but have enjoyed the reinforcements and entertainment the aunts provide. I was really surprised that things went so well when it was just me and the boys. Lewis has been very agreeable despite the fact that he doesn't always get to do what he wants when he wants. His new toys are helping a lot too.

double stroller

Here a couple of pictures of our double stroller! We got the Schwinn double jogging stroller. We've taken it out several times already, and the boys enjoy riding in it. It is super heavy to carry, but once unfolded, it is so easy to push, and such a smooth ride. The only downside is that it won't fit through any of our doors, so we have to load it up outside. It's worth it, so far!