changing of the seasons

In the midst of the economic crisis and the presidential campaign, Owen and Lewis have been having fun playing and trying to synchronize their nap schedule (which is one of our long term goals).

Last week we took our last trip to Circus Square Park for the year. It seems impossible that it might warm up again to endure the cold water.

















And kind of in the spirit of summer, we got Owen a "Tummy Time Surfboard" so he can enjoy playing with the fishes while building those muscles.

















Owen is getting so heavy, he's filling out those 3-6 month clothes nicely now.






















We took a time out to try and get a picture of me and both boys the other night. It was not easy.
































As the weather has gotten cooler, we've had to get out the warmer clothes.

















I even found a cute hat in our stash to put on Owen when he sleeps to keep him from losing all the heat out of his head.






















The drooling has begun too. It seems like Owen is really working on teething. Lewis "teethed" off and on for months and never got a tooth until he was 11 months old. If I had to make a bet, I think Owen will get his first tooth much sooner, but we'll have to wait and see. Poor little guy tries to stay in a good mood, even when he's obviously in pain.

In other news, Lewis learned the sign for "baby" this week. He has also learned: help (which we see all day), book, and music.

a visit from tasha

This week's highlight was a visit from my former roommate and close friend, Tasha Caruthers. She lives in North Carolina so it is a rare treat to see her! We got to spend time together with another former roommate, Heather Morozov, and her 10 month old daughter, Annabella. Heather's hubby and son were visiting family in Minsk and didn't get to join us. And we always miss our friend Natasha when we are together and she is far away in Ukraine. :(

With two babies we didn't manage to get any photos of the 3 us together, but here's a few pictures.

Owen and Tasha. He really loved staring at her!

















Annabella (who just woke up with crazy hair) and Heather.

















Annabella, me and Owen:
















And Owen sleeping .
















Owen has settled into a nighttime routine of going to bed between 9 and 9:30 p.m. and waking up at around 6:30 a.m. He then goes back to sleep until 10 a.m. or so, which gives me and Lewis some time to get going in the mornings. It is nice! I don't know how long it will last, but it has been great getting good sleep and having some sense of a normal routine again. :)

more owen

Owen is becoming a lot more interesting! He moved into his own bed in his own room when he turned 3 months old. He continues to sleep through the night and is seriously a really happy and easy baby. Recently we tried out the Bumbo chair for the first time. He can hold his head up enough to handle it in small doses.





















Sometimes Lewis shares his ball so that Owen can have some real fun.






















Check out his fat rolls.





















He also has fun with daddy.
















He's fallen asleep laying in the floor a few times this week. It's probably time to put him to bed earlier. :)

















My sister got these jeans for Lewis, but they cut off his circulation at 6 months. We decided to let Owen wear them much earlier, and not only do they fit pretty well, but we got a huge smile when we put them on him.





















and a wider angle shot.

into october

We have been enjoying the lovely fall weather! Our church, Grace and Peace Presbyterian, is getting ready to officially begin services. To kick things off we had a launch party at a local park. Justin's parents were in town so Grandpa got to come and have some Culver's frozen custard with Lewis. They both really liked it!





















Lewis was really exhausted from a full weekend.
















We tried really hard to get a photo of the Shepherd men. This one turned out pretty good!

















Owen has been taking some interest in his big brother and his tower building skills.

















And otherwise, Owen continues to get bigger and be a generally happy and cute boy.

After his bath.

the bridge to a haircut

Last week I took Lewis down to THE bridge. If you live in Bowling Green you know the one I mean. Lewis was so excited to run across the bridge, but absolutely did not want to walk back over it the other way. We still managed to get a few cute pictures.
















I tried out a different camera setting.

















Later, we cut Lewis' hair back to manageable length. Justin blew bubbles, and it went pretty well.

















Here's him ready for bed afterward.






















While all that was going on, Owen was trying to hold up his head.

video highlights

We took a couple videos of the boys recently. Justin made up a little song with hand motions that Lewis picked right up. He wants to do it all the time these days along with "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes." He can touch most of his body parts except the shoulders, knees and toes......so it's pretty interesting as you can imagine! He does try to touch his shoulders sometimes, but he is closer to chin/neck area most of the time. At least he's trying. Anyway, here's the clip of "Where is Lewis?"



We also took a short and not very exciting video of Owen in his baby carrier, totally enthralled by the dangly toy lion attached to the handle. He was quite taken with it.

three months old!

Owen is three months old today! It is so hard to believe he is getting so big. I put him on the scale with me today and he weighed close to 15 lbs. Of course, that is just a guess, but a little old lady at church tonight asked me if he was 5 or 6 months old, so he must look pretty big! We have had a busy week, so here are some pictures.

He's trying to hold up his head!

















And he's really filling out that carseat!






















We took him to a birthday party last week (for Spencer's own, Rebecca Pennington) and he, and Lewis esp., had a great time.






















We all went out to Balloons, Tunes & BBQ last Saturday, which turned out to be pretty lame! There was not a single balloon there at the time, but i guess Friday night is the time to go if you want to see the hot air balloons. Maybe next year.


















There was a small petting zoo, and Lewis really liked the donkey.

week in pictures

This week started with a trip to Louisville for my dad and Martha's joint birthday party. Martha's birthday is at the end of August and dad's is actually today (happy birthday, dad!) so they had a party to celebrate both in between.

Here they are getting ready to cut the cake.



















Here is Ellen with Lewis and cousin Will holding Owen.



















And here is one closer up of just Will and Owen.






















Lewis has been loving on his brother this week






















And discovered how soft his head is.





















They got to dress alike again.
















Lewis also learned where his cheeks are.
















And here is a picture of Owen just hanging out.





















Here's me and Owen.





















Owen has been cooing a ton, especially on his changing table. He can be in the worst mood and when we put him up there he gets real happy and makes all kinds of sweet sounds. Here's a short clip of him doing just that.

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!

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.