Day Care

Owen started part-time day care last Wednesday - and so far, he's enjoying it. He attends just in the mornings. 7 other babies, from newborn to 12 months, are in the Wee Bears room, and he has two teachers: Tara and Lindsay. His friend Myah is also in the class. Every day the teachers send home a progress report - how much he ate, at what time he took a nap, etc. They even include some more interesting information, such as, "Owen enjoyed sitting in the shade of the trees and being outside today." We've decided to keep the reports so that Owen can see them when he's older and track his own development. Because truthfully, these reports are more thorough than we can ever be with his baby book.

When we began looking for daycare, we were surprised to find that many daycare programs in this area only accepted new kids at the beginning of the school year. As a result, we enrolled Owen in part-time care even though Dave is home full-time until January 2009. But this way, Owen will be socialized with other kids, and he'll be eased into part-time care so that when he has to attend full-time in January, it won't be such a shock.

Owen's First Meal

Last Sunday Dave whipped up some rice cereal, and I have posted the short video taken during Owen's first meal. (Ingredients: rice and milk. Then pulverize to reduce the kernels.) As you can see, Owen took to the meal immediately, and then afterward I fed him regular milk to wash it down. Those rice pieces can get stuck in the throat.

Yesterday we moved from rice cereal to bananas. (Ingredients: bananas. Smush with a fork and feed.) Owen seems to prefer the bananas to the rice, but we don't have any photos of that yet. And yesterday and today I also shared my yogurt with Owen, who is quite pleased to be included in all this food sharing. We thought he was ready to start solids, but we weren't expecting him to be so participatory just yet. Today we attended a friend's birthday party (Happy 1st Birthday, Jacob!) and Owen eyed the sandwiches with great interest. Too bad he has a ways to go before we share those - some teeth would probably be helpful.

Back to School/Work

Today was my first day back at school/work. I did pretty well - I only cried twice. It was definitely the longest time I'd been away from Owen, and even though he was with Dave all day, I worried and fretted and felt a bit lost wandering the halls of the SU Law School.

The Office of Student Life has provided me with a private room where I can pump milk during the day, so Owen will continue to be breast fed from afar.

When I came home this afternoon, everyone was exhausted from our first day apart, so the whole family took a group nap on the bed. It felt great.

Those People

Owen Prepares for Travel

During our recent airplane travels, we dreaded becoming "those people" - the people with the screaming baby. On our way out west, Owen slept through the whole event, and we were relieved. Two rows in front of us, some other travelers with two small kids were "those people," and their children screamed for hours aboard our 5 hour flight. We scoffed at them, clicking our tongues.

As they say, payback is hell. Our flight from Portland to Charlotte, NC went smoothly, and Owen made lots of friends along the way. He smiled sweetly at the twenty-something fellow sitting next to us, and batted his eyelashes at the flight attendants. But then he decided to cry for the first thirty minutes of the flight from Charlotte to Syracuse. We knew exactly what Owen wanted - someone to stand up and rock him to sleep. But we weren't allowed to stand up because the "Fasten Seatbelt" sign was lit, and no matter what else we did, he cried and sobbed and giant tears rolled down his face. We apologized to our seat mate and the flight attendants, and eventually the sign was turned off and Dave rocked Owen to sleep in the small area around the lavatories. It was stressful. But I also learned that at some point, you stop worrying about being "those people" and just worry about making the baby as comfortable as possible.

Owen Enjoys a Cucumber

We are introducing fruits and vegetables to Owen - including cucumbers, as you can see in the above photo. Owen doesn't actually eat anything, just tastes it. But next week we begin some solid foods, which I'm sure will present a number of great photo opportunities for us.

We are in Oregon for the week, and Owen is relishing all the attention from our West Coast family. Except maybe from Dudley the dog, who thinks Owen's feet are just delicious.

He Flips!

Owen Prepares to Flip Over

Today it happened! Owen flipped over from his stomach to his back - and both Dave and I were watching! Then we clapped, cheered, smothered him with kisses. Owen looked at us like, "What's the big deal?"

Four Months of Owen!

Friday was Owen's Four Month Birthday and his four month checkup at the pediatrician's office. He's now 24 inches long and 16 lbs 12 oz, and the doctor says he is well-proportioned (not too much weight in any one place). This means he's almost tripled his birth weight! Dave and I are developing bodacious upper body strength, and we'll let you feel our arm muscles for a small fee that we'll put in Owen's college fund. (this is a joke - you can feel my muscles for free)

One result of this growth is that sometimes Owen doesn't really look like a baby to us - he looks more like a little boy. At first I thought it was because of his full head of hair, but I'm coming to realize it's because of his size and stature. He's also begun playing with his vocal chords, and although it's baby talk right now, you can already imagine his little voice saying, "Stop bragging about me, Mom."