Off to Denver: Gillen's 1st Plane Trip

 We're headed off to Denver for a week for our first family vacation since Gillen was born. Owen was very excited about going on an airplane to see his "Gogi" and has been telling anyone who will listen all about it. We installed his car seat on the flight and he sat quietly eating his weigh in snacks while watching the iPad. Gillen fussed a little but mostly slept - overall a great plane trip! We're excited for our week in Denver!

VOTE FOR OWEN!!

One of Owen's five month pictures was accepted into the Gerber Generation photo contest this month. If you win in your category (yellow category "supported sitter") for the month you get a HD Flip Slide camera! You want to see more adorable videos of our boy, don't you? THEN VOTE NOW!!

You can vote by clicking below on the "click here" link. You will be directed to the site and have to give your email address and then confirm your vote when they send you an email (they only want legit people voting). You can COME BACK AND VOTE EVERY DAY!!

PLEASE VOTE FOR OWEN!!

CLICK HERE

A visit from Nana and Papa

A few months ago, Jeremy's dad (Papa) was diagnosed with colon cancer. We were all very worried and with Jeremy swamped with residency it was particularly stressful for him not to be there for his dad. Papa had half of his colon removed and with it "bye-bye cancer!" His lymph nodes were all clear so we're all optimistic that there will be many, many more years of grandfathering left for this man.

Papa was finally recovered and strong enough to travel so his doctor Ok'd him to make the trip to Pittsburgh to visit baby Owen (and us of course, but we're always secondary these days ;))

They had not seen Mr. O in three months and were astonished at how much he's grown (and that he no longer tolerates being held like a baby!) Owen had a blast playing with his grandparents. Nana played with Owen in his exersaucer and Papa brought Owen an adorable cloth doctor's kit made especially for him (thanks Gail!)

Papa even tried a hand at feeding Owen some solids!

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

Papa's mouth was open wider than Owen's ever was!

Nana and Papa even watched Owen while we went on a date and again while I went to a doctor's appointment. SO NICE! It was wonderful to have company and Jeremy had an unprecedented two days off in a row(only because they forgot to give him days off last month...but who's counting. Ahem.) We celebrated birthdays, ate lots of good food and there were lots of snuggles for baby Owen.

Admiring our boy - how BIG he's gotten!

Smiles for Nana and Papa

We are all so happy that Papa is recovering well and our prayers were answered. Thank you so much for your visit - COME BACK SOON!

Adventures in Babyfood

I've decided since I am home with Owen I would make his food. I figure it is a healthier option and I have found it is much, MUCH cheaper - plus I really enjoy doing it. Like I've said before, I'm following some of the recipes and recommendations in the Super Baby Food book.

A few weeks ago we found avocados on sale for $0.40 each. I scooped out the creamy goodness and pureed it in the mini Cuisinart (*love this thing*) and froze it in BPA-free trays with lids.

Three avocados made 24 food cubes (approx. 1 tbsp each). That's 24 servings for Owen. The jar of organic baby food that I have was $0.99 and has 2.5 oz (5tbsp).

Store bought baby food = $0.39.6 per TBSP
Homemade baby food = $0.05 per TBSP

YAY! We're saving money and I feel good about Owen eating food that I made for him. Once the food cubes are frozen, I pop them out and store them in freezer bags in the back of the freezer. I can thaw a cubes in the fridge the night before, out on the counter or in the microwave in a pinch.

SO far I've made avocado, sweet potatoes, bananas and mango (we haven't introduced Mango yet). Owen is still not sure about solids. I try every day - some days he opens his mouth, some days no. Some days we have gagging and head turning and all sorts of mealtime dramatics - other days he's yelling for more and slapping his little hands on the tray. We try to mix some of the new foods with rice cereal and he'll usually tolerate it. He still eats A TON from me, so I'm really not concerned. Our pediatrician said that as long as I'm still taking my prenatal (which I am) Owen should be fine on iron. She said as long as he's doing well with solids by nine months there is no reason to worry or push it.

Daddy tries avocado with Owen for the first time 8/20/10, at first he's not sure

Then he decides it's yummy - well he did that day anyway...

I have a feeling that one day out of the blue, this boy will be an eating machine. But I've learned that's how things roll with Owen - he'll do it when he wants to - and not a minute sooner.

Too cute for words is right!

Our Tampa Trip, in pictures

Owen meets Pop-Pop (great grandpa) for the first time

Babies *LOVE* Pop-Pop

Raider tells his cousin Owen all about the Jellyfish

Tired baby at the aquarium

baby play time!

Owen observes all the things you can do when you are SEVEN months old!

Owen with GiGi and Pop-Pop

Come to Pop-Pop

Owen is just starting to sit up all by himself

Pittsburgh to Tampa

Owen and I traveled to Tampa to meet Gigi and Pop-Pop (my grandparents) last weekend. Owen was a champ on the flight. On our flight departed at 6:40am and even though Owen had been up since 4am he was still adorable as ever when we boarded the flight. As I was getting settled by the window next to a really nice man, the flight attendant asked if she could take Owen. My crazy pants internal dialog was screaming, "Don't do it - you have no idea where her hands have been!! What if she takes your baby and runs! What if she isn't even a REAL STEWARDESS JUST A BABY STEALER IN DISGUISE!!!"  but somehow I just smiled and I promptly handed him over. TO.A.STRANGER. She snuggled him and passed him around to the other flight attendants. Owen was just eating up all of the attention - flashing each one his shy little smile but always looking back to make sure he could see his Mama. Then she announced that he was going to meet the pilots and I scrambled out of my seat as fast as possible so I could get a picture. The pilot and co pilot were so sweet with him, "Hi Owen! Is this your first flight? [joking] It's our first flight too!"  I knew Jeremy would be SO JEALOUS that our boy got to sit inside the cockpit like a real pilot. What a great story to tell him when he's older! Owen nursed on the way up and slept for most of the flight. I was packing up our things as we taxied and the man next to me asked if I wanted him to take Owen while I finished. People don't usually offer to take a baby unless they want to hold him - so I handed him over. AGAIN, TO.A.STRANGER. The nice man held O up and played airplane with him until we stopped at the gate. The ladies sitting behind us were cooing at him and commenting what an adorable boy he is. I'm going to have to agree with them.

I let seven strangers handle my baby on that plane that morning. I've come to learn that when its just the two of us, sometimes I need to put some of my fears aside and accept a little help here and there. I'm glad I did.

 As we left the plane the pilots and crew waved goodbye, "Bye Owen! Great flight today buddy!"

It was just adorable.

The wheels on the bus from NY to Pittsburgh

Earlier this month my cousin Marissa and her boyfriend Pat came to visit baby O. They took the Megabus from NY to Pittsburgh and we were SO HAPPY they did!

We had a great weekend, and they watched Mr. O so Jeremy and I could go out on a date - a first for us since moving. We celebrated a belated anniversary at Joe's Crab Shack and even indulged in a Pomegranate Pop-Rocks Margarita (which was every bit at fun as it sounds).

We went out to brunch at Pamela's and Owen fell asleep in the Ergo - napped the entire time! (my sweet baby)

We all went to the pool and baby O tried out his new wet suit!

And we went out for some yummy Thai food!

Marissa and Pat were both great with Owen - he loved meeting his cousin! Thanks for visiting us and for watching our sweet boy while we had a nice dinner out. We miss you already so hurry back!

Heading South

Me and Spider Man headed south last weekend. It was Owen's second plane trip! We went to meet Gigi and Pop-Pop (Great Grandma and Grandpa) and LOTS of cousins in Tampa. We also went to St. Pete to meet Owen's girlfriend who was born last month - Evelyn Pettigrew.

We just got back late tonight, and four days without internet has been crazy! I will post pictures from our trip soon!! My boy was such a trooper for his first big trip alone with Mama.