Owen is A-Growin!

Mr. Magoo, Dino, the Cowardly Lion: just a few nicknames for our littlest man, Owen! These past 2 months have gone by very fast. And Owen has kept us on our toes (although he is the easiest part of having 2 kids). Everyone who has seen him recently is surprised that he is only 9 weeks old-they think he is older. We are excited to take him to his 2 month appointment to see how much he has grown.

Although, we knew our kids would be different from one another, it has been quite interesting to see just how different they are. For instance, Graham loved to be swaddled and would sit in his swing or bouncer happily while sucking on a pacifier or sleeping. Owen, however, has shown no interest in being swaddled or his pacifier and would rather be held. He usually starts fussing as soon as we put him in his swing and somehow knows when the person holding him has sat down-the little stinker!

Also, Owen started life with a bit of gas. Nothing that caused too much pain, but he would definitely grunt and struggle to work things out. We found that he was much more comfortable on his stomach and although this is not the suggested position for sleeping, we are making it work. It's a good thing they now have movement monitors that alarm parents when baby has stopped breathing/moving.

Owen has also been doing a great job at breastfeeding. We are exclusively breastfeeding without needing to supplement with formula and clearly our little chunker is getting all the nutrition he needs.

Another new thing we have done with Owen is cloth diapering. A couple of weeks in Owen was really red in the diaper region and often sticking to the mesh in his diapers. Since, my sister was nearby and had all sorts of cloth diaper paraphernalia we decided to give it a try to see if it helped to clear things up. Luckily, it did and you can often catch little Owen with a "fluffy" butt.

Please enjoy these photos of Owen...

Brothers

Snuggling with Aunt Erica

Our chubby checker

Momma and Owen

The classic "Daddy and me" shot

Playing with Auntie Bethany and Uncle Brandon

Monthly photos-can you see a difference?

Play time!

Owen and Grandma

Uncle Jordon!

Owen in one of his cuter cloth diapers
Smiling at around 8 weeks

Graham at 15 Months

Graham is now 15 months old! He has almost mastered walking, though still doesn't quite have a good sense of what's around him... so get out of the way! He's getting pretty adept at stairs as well, and is now mixing in "stepping" up and down stairs (on just his feet) along with scootching or climbing up and down.

Here are some pictures of Graham at Gymboree, playing with Grandma and Uncle Jordon. While Graham hasn't gotten to Gymboree as much recently with all of the turmoil of moving, he loves going with his cousin, Nellie!






Graham LOVES his Daddy. Of course, he loves his Momma too... but he seems to be infatuated with Daddy to the point of crying when he leaves a room! Graham loves tackling Dad and chasing after Dad in order to catch him. Here are some action pics!






Graham's beginning to sign, and is doing a good job with "More" (which also seems to mean "I'm hungry") and "Milk" (which also seems to mean "I'm thirsty"). We're hoping he begins to use words soon as well... he's babbling quite a bit!

Here are some more photos of Graham and our happy family! We hope to have more pics and to post them more frequently soon!

A Quick Clark Update

Well, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. But we have been extremely busy. The last two months have been filled with figuring out a new routine now that we have an additional family member, completing the building of our house, packing and moving and unpacking! Plus all of the other things that come along with moving into a brand new house. I (Lorri) feel like I've been a prisoner of my own home. I've had to be home to let a multitude of people in for various items. Conversely, Alex has been home even less with the start of his graduate school classes. But we are beginning to feel at home in our new place. We have wallpaper in our powder room, a fabulous faux treatment in our foyer/living room area, gorgeous landscaping, some new furniture, and 95% of our boxes unpacked. Once (most) everything in the boxes has found a home we will post pictures of the new abode. Hopefully, that won't be too long from now.