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.

How I spent part of my afternoon...

(sorry if it's playing kinda funny)

Greatest Giveaways!

Do you want to enter to win some awesome items, such as a free photo session, hair coloring, clothing, books, even new wedding bands!? Then check out Mormon Mommy Blogs at mormonmommyblogs.blogspot.com.

TODAY is the last day to enter to win, and winners will be announced tomorrow morning (sorry, I just found out about it today myself). It's free to enter. At least check out the site and see what it's about!

What We've Been Up To

Life has seemed a bit on the busier side lately. What we've been up to:

Owen was diagnosed with his first ear infection and was prescribed his first course of antibiotics. I am so grateful he's been such a healthy kid! But now I know how miserable life can be when your baby is sick and not his normal self.

Despite taking care of a fussy baby, I managed to pack up our whole apartment for our move while Josh has been busy with school and on-call nights. Then last week we moved to a bigger, better, and brighter apartment a few blocks away. We love it and are happy here! But man, moving is such a pain. And I think unpacking is way worse than the packing and moving. I still have things everywhere and need to buckle down and put them away. But, I seem to find playing with Owen more fun than unpacking. Someday our apartment will be in order and when that day comes I'll have to post some pictures of it.

This is NOT the definition of fun!

Owen walking

Here's the proof:

Videos

Some random videos from the past few weeks:

Owen's first horse ride at Aunt Chris's house in Queen Creek

Owen figured out the doggy door

some of the sounds I get to hear on a daily basis

Owen loves the swing!

Eleven Months Old

Owen just gets busier and busier and busier these days! He is my little energizer bunny and is non-stop from morning to night. I'm so happy that he's so happy. I love him to pieces!

Updates:
*I try to feed him almost anything now, but he has recently become quite a picky eater much to my frustration. He used to eat nearly everything I put in his mouth, but now if he doesn't like it he sticks his tongue out, grabs the food off his tongue, and throws it on the tray. And/or he'll make himself gag, even if there's no food in his mouth. A lot of times he won't eat unless he has a little cup and spoon to play with. He is starting to prefer only finger foods, hates peaches/nectarines and egg yolk, and could eat cheese and bread all day long. If I'm lucky, I can sneak some veggies in his diet.

*He walks well when we hold just one of his hands. He's still a scaredy cat and won't stand on his own.

*He loves to climb stairs and every time we come home he wants to climb the flight of stairs to our apartment.

*He tongue-trills all the time, especially when he's crying or upset. He's been doing this since January or February, but we thought he's grow out of it. Since he hasn't grown out of it I thought I better take note of it so I don't forget about it!

*He love to open and close things- doors, lids, containers. He loves to open pop-up containers with his bottom teeth.

*He loves all things with wheels and makes a "vroom" sounds when he plays with his cars.

*He loves to kick his soccer ball when we stand him up, and will chase it all over the room.

*He still loves dogs and loved chasing Teedo around (Josh's parent's dog).

*He is getting more and more stranger and separation anxiety. He will let a stranger hold him for maybe 5 seconds before reaching back out to us, and he still cries any time I leave the room he's in, even if for just a few seconds.

*He has adjusted surprisingly well to his carseat. After using it only once our whole time in Ecuador I thought it would be a while before he tolerated it.

*He definitely seems to prefer his right hand. They say handedness can't be determined yet, but I'm convinced he's going to be a righty.

Settling into Chicago

We've been in Chicago a week and a half now, and I'm just finally starting to feel somewhat settled. When we first got here we unpacked some of our things, but left a lot of things packed still since we'll be moving to another apartment at the end of this month. Then for a week we had to plan all microwaveable, grillable, and crock-pot-able meals because our cooking gas couldn't be turned on for a week due to the holiday weekend. We are also without internet service in our apartment and are waiting to set up service until we're in our new place. So, we've had to work around these little inconveniences, which we've been able to do fine, it's just been a little more inconvenient.

Fourth of July weekend wasn't as fun as we had hoped. On the 3rd we were able to have an in-house BBQ and we invited a friend. We had made plans to go see fireworks that night (Chicago's main firework show is on the 3rd), but then Owen suddenly got sick so we stayed home. Owen was pretty sick on the 4th-- he had a fever, would hardly eat, wanted to be held all waking and sleeping moments, and he wouldn't play at all so I knew he was pretty sick. I felt so bad for him, this was the worst he's ever had it!!! Before we left Ecuador I had joked that Owen since Owen was so healthy there he would get back to the US and get sick. Guess I was right.

Josh has been busy with school, and he's on-call every 4th day, which means he stays overnight at the hospital. So I've had to adjust to a new schedule. But, now we're settling into our new routine and Owen is healthy again and things are feeling much better.

Since being back in Chicago we've been reminded again why we like this city so much! The weather is so nice, we love all the green, we love that we can walk outside during the day (as opposed to Phoenix this time of year), we love spending time on the lakefront and at all the parks, we love being able easily walk to so many stores, we love the diversity.
We are excited for our last year here!!

Owen familiarizing himself with the new apartment

We made it to The Taste of Chicago one last time

Hanging out at the lakefront

Enjoying the park

Enjoying Arizona

Well, we're back in Chicago now with our car and all our belongings! (thanks to Josh who drove solo for 15 hours each for two days.) But before we got here we enjoyed spending time with our families and friends for about a week. Here's some of what we did:

Played with turtles and this desert tortoise. Owen thought it was one of his cars.

We went swimming.

Owen got to know his cousin Easton.

We did some more swimming.

Owen went for his first horse ride. He wasn't even scared at all!

Owen rode on his first quad. (don't know why the picture is funny)

Owen discovered the doggy door. By the end of his stay, he was quite proficient and crawling in and out of it.

We played with friends.

We had fun with family.

Owen had a blast with so many new things to explore! He really loved all the space, especially the back yard. We can't wait until we're in Arizona for all of Septebmer!!