Owen the Destroyer

Into each life, some towers must topple. This is Owen's newest fascination. He just can't resist a newly constructed tower of cups. It gets his legs twitching and his fingers stretching, so I'm hoping this is motivation to start crawling. (You may recall a month ago, he was all legs in motion. Now he's all arms. Hopefully, he'll put them together soon!)

I tried to get a better video of this today, but he simply pushed himself backwards until his legs were completely under the ottoman like he was a human door stop. Oh well, you know what they say about working with kids and animals... :)

Fun With Daddy

Every little boy loves spending time with his daddy. Owen is no exception. Here's a compilation of some good times had by the two of them! (Brace yourself. Owen's latest noise is screeching.)

Mini Milestones

For the record, we've had a few mini milestones in the past few days.

1) Owen joined us for dinner out and sat in the provided high chair (rather than his car seat) for the first time. We used a cover (yea for the Bilby!). It would have made for a good picture, but I forgot my camera. However, we felt like we were having dinner with a little old man, since he was slumping down, grunting (his latest noise), and his shorts were hiked quite high. Maybe we'll take a little pillow or stuff a bunch of napkins behind him to fill up the chair next time. :)

2) I left him in the care of the nursery staff this morning for a couple of hours, while I attended a mom's group at our church. It was a small step, but it marked the first time we've left him with non-relatives/friends. It all went well though. In truth, it seemed he didn't even notice me coming or going! I'm thankful for that, because I know in a few months that won't be the case.

3) At some point last night, he managed to untie the loop we were using to keep the diaper stacker hanging outside his crib. This sent the diaper stacker to the floor, but he kept the ribbon for himself! Needless to say, I had a bit of a scare finding him clutching onto a foot-long ribbon in his sleep and am now finally motivated to start baby-proofing. Yikes!

Now, because it's not really a post without a picture, here's two of Owen at play:

Boy in Motion

Owen has been entertaining us some more with his range of motion. Not quite crawling yet, but spinning 360, rolling, inching forward and even pushing to reverse. His favorite area for all of this movement seems to be on the tile apron by the fireplace, maybe because of less friction? Anyway, this video will give you a little peek at the level of wiggling going on at our house these days (it's been sped up for time's sake).

7 months old!

Just a couple of pictures to mark his 7-month milestone. I think he's working on more teeth, but we managed to get some smiles out of him after dinner.

Leave it to Teether

We're beginning to suspect that Owen's working on some more teeth. His favorite teether is a frozen washcloth. Here's a few action shots of him, witty captions included for your benefit.

"Ah, that's nice... so cold... Slurp!"
Distracted, "Ooh, I love this color!"
"Will you put that flashy black box down already?" (That's 'camera' for those that need a translation.)

Still trying to get a picture of his teeth now that they've come in a little more. You can see them below, front and center!
Happy boy! If only your mom could multi-task a little better, your face might be in the middle of the picture. :)
Feet are always cute (at least at this age):

In other news, we've been progressing right along through other solid foods. I've even made some of my own (so proud!), including sweet potatoes, green beans, zucchini, peaches, and carrots. Luckily, he doesn't seem to be much of a picky eater!

Happy Independence Day

I know the 4th was several days ago, but close enough... The Petersons came into Austin to celebrate! We had an enjoyable, long weekend visit with them. Here's Owen's patriotic look:
Eating some Tex-Mex with Oma and Opa before they return to the Midwest:
Three generations of Peterson men:
Enjoying guac and chips with the grown-ups:

In other news, Owen's two teeth are making more visible progress, but I still haven't gotten a good picture of them. He's also been making funny 'old man' faces as he plays with his new teeth.

Houston, we have teeth!

Sorry for the time off from posting. He's been working on his two lower teeth for the last week, so there's been much fussing and chewing going on. They are both through, but hanging out close to the gum, so it's nearly impossible to get a picture of them, since his tongue hangs out when I pry his mouth open. Look closely just below my finger!

He has also become much more aware of the cats. I think their days of careless freedom are numbered. Superman attack!