On The Road Again

I think we could officially be considered vagabonds. We haven't slept more than 5 weeks in a row in the same bed since August 2008. Guess that's the life of crazy travelers and students!

This time we packed up and drove to Arizona where we will be residing for about 5 or 6 weeks, then we'll be off to Albuquerque, NM for a month. For med school, Josh elected to do two month-long "away rotations" in emergency medicine. This allows him to familiarize himself with programs he may be interested in for residency, and allows us to see if we'd like to live in these areas. We are excited to be close to family during this time!

Josh had school on Friday until the afteroon, then as soon as he was done we were off! It was a little hard packing everything we would need for 2 1/2 months into our little Corolla, but somehow it all fit. I was also a bit worried about how our 12 year old car would handle so many miles on the road, but it's been a trusty little car thus far and everything checked out at its last maintenance check-up. So we hoped for the best and it drove well, but Friday evening we blew a tire. I must be bad luck because this was Josh's 4th time making this drive, and the only other time he had a tire blow-out was the first trip when I was with him! Oh well.

We pulled to the side of the highway and Josh put our donut tire on. We were about 20 miles south of Springfield, IL, so we thought we'd turn around, find somewhere to stay, then first thing in the morning get into a tire shop. Well, we drove to the next exit to turn around and Josh decided to first stop at the gas station and if there was shop nearby so we wouldn't have to drive all the way back to Springfield. Long story short- a few phone calls and a short drive later, we were in the garage of a friendly guy in small-town Litchfield, IL getting our tired changed. We were definitely watched over because things could have been much worse, and we were still able to get to our desination stop that night!

That was our only major hiccup during the trip. The rest of the drive was just L-O-N-G. We even had really nice weather nearly the whole way, with just one patch of rain through New Mexico. I was a bit worried about driving 25+ hours with a 12 month old, but things ended up ok and Owen did much better than I expected. He took long naps, and was pretty content with his toys and books. He did throw up once on the 2nd day, so you could definitely tell we were traveling with a kid by the scent of our car. His hardest time of day was the evenings when he just did NOT want back in the car and all he wanted to do was play. We broke our "No McDonalds" rule for him one dinner so he could play on the playplace equipment.



Owen hangin out after a long days drive. Aren't the his and hers lazyboys pretty sweet??!!

Even though this drive was very long, it's fun to see all the countryside, diverse landscapes, and unique landmarks such as this cross. It's the largest cross in the western hemisphere, in Groom, Texas.

Approaching a rain storm.

My one picture of me from the trip.

Finally entering Arizona! We made it to Phoenix on Sunday night and it felt really great to finally get out of the car. We hope to have a fun month in hot Arizona!

Afternoon at the Beach

We love having beaches so close to us. Even though the water is a bit cold for our liking and sometimes the wind can make it a bit choppy, it's still a great way to spend a morning or an afternoon.

Birthday Videos

Singing Happy Birthday

Eating the cake

(ps- this is my 200th post!)

Owen's Birthday Party!

Owen had a lot of fun at his first birthday party! And I think the 1st birthday is the most exciting and memorable for a new mother, so I had a lot of fun planning it. :) Since we aren't near any family right now, we invited a few of ours and Owen's friends to our apartment for a little party.

I also decided to make a fun cake, especially because I never had before and I figured I was up to the task. I had fun deciding what to make, and even making it was pretty fun! Though more time-consuming than I had planned. I made a 2 layer cake--one chocolate and one white--that I cut into a number '1' shape. I covered with homemade buttercream icing and fondant decorations. If you remember my previous post about my first fondant, you'll remember it was a disaster. But this fondant was SO much better!! (thank you Rochelle and LuAnn for for encouraging me to try again!) I think the marshmallows were absolutely the key factor. Ecuador marshmallows just are not the same. And with the Crisco there was no sticking and it rolled out very nicely. Anyway, I stuck with only 2 colors and simple shapes to decorate. I think it turned out pretty cute! I'm sure Owen did too. :)



We know every kid must indulge in their own piece of cake on their 1st birthday, so here's how Owen's cake experience went down:

Starting out by inspecting it, not sure what it is.

He didn't want to eat it so I gave him a fork to use. He often won't eat food unless he can hold a spoon or a fork. He starts to dig in...

He decides the fork doesn't work real well, so he finally puts his fingers in it and picks at it.

He manages to get a few licks of icing, but really isn't too interested in it. At this point he is getting bored and just wants out of the high chair.

He shows us his plate to tell us he cleared it, and now wants out. Too bad it all ended up in the chair next to him! At least he had a little fun and we had fun watching him.

After a much-needed bath, we gave him his presents to open. He didn't quite understand why we were giving him so much attention! We gave him a bigger and fun present to open first (a little xylophone) which he loved, then he didn't want to open anything else! But eventually we got everything opened, and he loved everything. Thank you everyone who gave a gift! We had such a fun day!!!

The Party Gang

Twelve Months Old

Owen has turned a year old, and I can hardly believe that my little baby is no longer my little baby!!! How time seems to pass so quickly when you look back on things. This year has been quite a busy and memorable one! Owen has been such a good baby which has which helped make things a lot easier. We are very blessed to have him in our lives, and he brings us so much joy and makes us more happy than we could have imagined. He is truly a blessing in our lives!

What a difference a year makes:

newborn

6 months

1 year

Owen Facts:

*He weighs 19lbs 14oz (5-10%), and is 29 inches long (10-25%). I was hoping he'd make 20lbs by his first birthday, but he barely missed it! He may not be my baby anymore, but he's still a little peanut! At least his growth has stayed on the same curve since he was born.

*He can walk!! We started to wonder if he would do it before his first birthday, but about 2 1/2 weeks ago he proved to us that he can indeed walk. He gets really excited when he walks, but will only do it if we get him started and encourage him on. Crawling is still his preferred mode of transportation.

*He often comes up to us, grabs our hands, then pulls us along to go for a walk! He loves it. He will also grab at our hands and move them to where he wants them when we're playing with a toy or reading a book. His favorite is to put our hands on his touch-and-feel books so we can feel them.

*His language and communication skills are really developing rapidly. He can say mama and dada discriminately now, and he also says ball ('ba') and book ('bu'). He can understand simple phrases such as "Give me the ____," "Go bye bye?," "Where's the___," "Get your ball," "Close the door" and he reacts accordingly.

*One day he just started clapping his hands. I was getting worried since he still had not ever done it. But now he loves to clap his hands, and when I say "Owen, clap your hands" he immediately starts clapping his hands! It's so fun and cute.

*He is still a bit of a picky eater, but just recently he has gotten better. I just had to figure him out. He will not eat anything that I serve him from a spoon, except for yogurt, which he loves. He'll eat from a fork or spoon as long as he's the one controlling it. But since he's not very good at it I have to put the food on the spoon or fork, hand it to him, and then the food usually ends up in his lap. But he's getting better at getting it to his mouth. He loves finger foods, and does not like anything pureed. He finally warmed up to some meat, and now he loves blueberries. It's been a challenge figuring out what he'll eat, but he's starting to like a larger variety of foods (not just bread and cheese anymore) which makes me a happy person.

*He is completely weaned from breastfeeding and formula. He only drinks cows milk now, and took to it really easily.

*He has discovered light switches and loves to turn them on and off. It's hard to walk by a switch without him reaching over to play with it.

*He's never fallen asleep in a random place, such as in his high chair, on the floor, etc. He'll only go to sleep if he's in someone's arms or in his own bed.

*One of his favorite toys is our computer, keyboard, and mouse. He would play with them all day if we let him.

*He has 8 teeth now- 4 on top and 4 on bottom.

*He's lived in 2 countries, 2 states, and been on 20 airline flights.

Field Day

We love free days at the museums! Yesterday we went to the Field Museum of Natural History. Josh and I hadn't been in a long time, and we wanted Owen to experience his first big museum. We think he had an enjoyable time, even if he didn't learn a whole lot about natural history. :)

I just love the main level, it's like a huge grand entry way with beautiful ceilings and architecture. We of course had to stop and see the famous T-Rex, Sue. We also got a picture with giant elephants. Owen was pretty intrigued with them, and in the picture with Sue he is actually looking over at the elephants. He wouldn't take his eyes off them!

On this trip to the museum, Josh and I were able to see an area we hadn't been to before: the children's discovery area! It's meant for kids aged 2-6, but we took Owen in there anyway and he absolutely loved it. He played just as if he was a big kid.
When we were done at the museum we played in the grass right in front. It was such a nice sunny day, not too hot as it had been a few days previous!

Days like these are what Chicago summers are all about!

City Living

You know you live in the city when you're coming home from a shopping trip and you consider.....

backing up into the loading dock,

getting your baby out of the car,

taking elevator to the 2nd floor to get a shopping cart (there for this purpose),

going back down the elevator to the car,

loading up the cart with your bags,

taking the elevator up to your floor,

unloading the bags into your apartment,

taking the elevator back to the 2nd floor to drop off cart,

going down the elevator to your car,

putting baby back into the car seat,

parking your car,

getting baby out of the car again,

walking to your apartment building,

and going back up the elevator to your apartment

CONVENIENT!

I'm a Winner!!!

I entered a drawing on Mormon Mommy Blogs on a whim- I found out about it on the very last day to enter, and I'd previously never even seen the blog before- and

I TOTALLY WON SOMETHING!!!

I don't usually ever win drawings like this.

I won a Baby Banz and Hat from BabySafeTravel.com and I'm so excited. I picked the Little Hunter Camo style because all boys look cute in camo!

I hope Owen loves them as much as I probably will.