Our Growing Family: under construction

I know I've been missing from the blog lately and my loyal readers (all 5 of you!) are going through Owen withdrawals. Unfortunately, we never found our camera so I think it's a goner. We're going to be getting a new camera in the next two weeks. I'm planning on taking a ton of pictures of Owen's latest tricks and getting into a better blogging schedule. We've had a fun and busy summer and are sad to see it come to an end. Chris started back with inservice today. The kids start next Monday so I get to enjoy this week of just me and Owen before I go back to work too.

Owen has been a busy boy this summer and has really shown a growth spurt in his cognitive development while his physical development has stayed the same. He's walking, running, climbing everywhere and is exhausting to keep up with sometimes. He's learned to climb onto the furniture now so we're constantly serving as "spotters" in case he takes a tumble.

He's really affectionate (which I love) and loves to give hugs and big wet kisses. He knows what he wants and will yell at you (literally) in his own language until you figure out what he's talking about. He's particularly passionate about cleaning (don't know where he could get that from!) and is happiest with me when I vacuum or sweep. His language development has not quite caught up with everything else. His expressive vocabulary pretty much consists of "daddy" which comes out as "daddeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" It's too cute to hear him say it. Although, we've suspected that he's trying to say the word "sit" for a few weeks now and this morning I heard him clearly tell Emma to sit. When Emma's being rowdy and jumping up we always say "sit Emma!" so he hears it alot. He has conversations and entire monologues that sound very serious and meaningful. Unfortunately, they're not in a language we understand!
The therapist in me has to tell you that he can follow 1 step directions without a model and has a great grasp of the concept of object function.

He's not the best eater in the world so we're currently struggling with getting him to eat more than cheese or peanut butter. His favorite foods are currently: cheese sandwiches, peanut butter toast, chicken strips, french fries, mandarin oranges, pineapples, and crackers of any kind. We were able to transition him from the lactose free milk to regular whole milk with no problem last week. He's a major milk lover so we know he's at least getting some nutrition from his milk.

I've included some pictures in this post that Melissa took while we were out working at Nonnie and Papaw's house last week. Owen loves going out there and playing in the dirt. We've learned to dress him accordingly which will explain his outfit in these pics. Enjoy!

just another ranch hand!