Owen is 13 Months!

Size:  Owen is still a chunker!  I love his thunder thighs and squeeze them all the time!  He is fitting into 12 month clothes still, but is making his way into 12-18 and 18 month clothes.  It all depends on the brand and how everything fits.  His rash guards and swim suits don't fit anymore, thankfully he got some 18 month sizes for his birthday!

Special Trips/Visits:  We have been trying to get out of the house almost every day.  Owen gets bored sitting around and playing with the same toys all the time, so I try to break his day up and take him out to do something in the middle of the day.  Sometimes it is just errands that I need to get done, sometimes we go to the pool, and recently we have joined a play group in the neighborhood.

Chillin' at the pool with Mama!

Firsts:  Owen has been saying more and more words and using them in context.  His favorite word right now is 'ball.'  Every round object he sees is a ball and he loves to point at all the balls he sees in public and say the word over and over!  He threw a fit because I wouldn't let him play with the watermelon I bought.  He stood at the counter banging on the cabinets saying "Ball!  Ball!" wanting the watermelon!  I've been keeping a list on my phone of all the words he can say... Mom (yes, Mom, not Mama!), Dada, Doggie, Ball, Bye Bye, Baba, Nana (for my Mom and for bananas), Bird, Tree, Yay, and Woof Woof (also calls the dogs this).  He also understands a lot of directions and phrases.

Owen eats banana every morning for breakfast.  

As I'm cutting it up for him he says "Nana!  Nana!"

Likes:  Owen's favorite thing to do lately is drink from your cup.  He loves drinking from a straw or from a camelbak water bottle.  I drink from a water bottle with a straw all day, so he is constantly standing up and patting my legs when I'm taking a drink because he wants some.  Even though it is the same thing that is in his sippy cup (water!).  He also loves playing with plastic water bottles.  We discovered this at the beach and today he saw one again and went crazy for it!  He loves to crunch it and throw it around.

Owen has had a blast at play group!  He has met a couple other kids his age and then a couple that are 2-3.  He really loves other kids and socializing, so it's important for me to bring him around other kids where he can express this part of himself.  The first time I brought him to play group he crawled over to a little girl who is only three days younger than him and gave her a hug, several times!  It was the sweetest thing!  Such a ladies man!

Owen LOVES riding his new toy he got for his birthday!  We take him on walks in the evening (when it's cool enough) or give him a ride around the house.

Owen and Pops matching in Harley Davidson shirts!

Kid got so grumpy when I was changing his diaper I decided to just let him roam free for a few.  He ran to his toy and demanded a ride!  This is going to be one of those pictures I will use to embarrass him when he is older!

Hold on, let me just make a quick call!

He also loves this new toy he got for his birthday.  He loves pushing it all over the house!

He has been more interested in books the last week or so.  He pulls all the books out of his book basket and looks through them.  

He got a new tooth brush and enjoys brushing his teeth each night before bed.  

There is a Rafi song called "Brush Your Teeth" that he loves and makes the "sshhh" noise along with the song, so we use that to encourage him to brush his teeth!

Dislikes:  He is so easy going most of the time... the only thing that he doesn't like is when you take something away from him that he is playing with.  Our house is child proofed so that he can play with just about anything he gets into, so this only becomes a problem when we are out somewhere.  The key is to distract him with another toy!  He also loves to climb stairs, I mean LOVES it.  We have baby gates, so it's not an issue at home.  But when he sees stairs at someone else's house, he B-lines it for them.  Then he throws a little fit when you take him away from them... like I said, the key is distracting him with another toy!

Family Update:  Everything is going really well.  We are anticipating the arrival of Baby 2 and getting all the little details finished for that.  I'm really enjoying staying home... I was worried I might get bored, or feel like I need more, but I'm feeling great.  I feel blessed to be able to watch Owen grow and I can tell that my bond with him has already gotten stronger.  He says 'Mom' all the time now, and I LOVE IT!!!

Here are some more cute pictures that I forgot to add to previous posts...

Squealing in the tent at the beach.

Checking out the tigers at Barefoot Landing.

I can put a cup on my foot!

MOM!  Are the cookies done yet?!?!?

Loving on Pops at the aquarium.  He has a special bond with Pops!

Mimi showing him the fish at the Bass Pro Shop.

Chillin' after a long day in Myrtle!

We had his 1 year photo shoot about a week and a half ago.  Here is a sneak peek picture!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!  I'm actually getting excited for fall (I know, I shouldn't wish time away...).  I'm so excited to do all those 'fall' things with Owen like carving pumpkins, taking him apple picking, taking him to the corn maze at the Farm Market down the road, and trick-or-treating!  He is at the age now where it will be so much fun to do those kinds of things with him.  The holidays are going to be SO much fun this year!

Love,

Judi

32 Weeks

32 Weeks Along...

I'm a little late with this post since we were on vacation!

Along:  32 1/2 weeks along now.  I'm in the home stretch.  I will not last until my due date, due to scheduling a C-Section, so I really have less than 8 weeks left.  I can schedule the section at my next appointment in two weeks.  

Size of Baby:  Baby 2 is anywhere from 17-19 inches long and weighs more than four and a half pounds.  Baby 2 could grow a full inch this week alone.  Weight gain can range to a third more growth to a full doubling before his big debut.

I just had my 32 week appointment yesterday and found out that Baby 2 is BREECH!  He still has a couple more weeks where he can rotate before it gets too tight in there to move around, but my doctor thinks that it is highly unlikely he will move since Owen was breech too, and since I'm pretty petite it is pretty tight in there for him already.  

After much thought and weighing pros and cons, I had already decided to do a scheduled c-section.  Since I had one with Owen, I got to choose if I wanted to do another one with this pregnancy.  I decided to go ahead with the c-section because I was worried I would have these plans of a natural birth and then something would happen and I'd have to have a c-section anyway.  Scheduled c-sections are so much easier to recover from than emergency ones.  You don't even go through labor (well, unless he comes earlier than the scheduled day!).  With Owen, the worst pain I felt was the IV in my hand!  My recovery was excellent with Owen too, I did not think it was nearly as bad as everyone had made me feel like it was going to be.  After all this thought I put into what I wanted to do, turns out Baby 2 may have decided for me!
Gender:  BOY!  I'm so excited to have two boys so close together.  They are going to be best friends!  Now that I am home with Owen every day and I see how much he would love a friend, I'm even more excited for him to have someone to play with.

Sleep:   For a couple weeks I was having some insomnia and only sleeping a few hours a night.  But since we got home from vacation I have been sleeping great!!!  The past few nights I haven't woken up once!

What I Miss:  Enjoying a nice cold (alcoholic) beverage on a hot summer day and being able to move around easily.  I was a little sad at the beach last week because I couldn't drink and hang with everyone the way I wanted to.  I also couldn't move and chase Owen around as much as I wanted to.  I'm really relying on Jimmy to be the one to chase Owen when he is home (kid is just SO active).  I'm sure this would be the case no matter how old Owen is during my second pregnancy.  Having a basketball tummy just limits what you can do! 

Cravings:  Ice cream, peanut butter, cookies, pineapple... Lots of sweets.  I craved the same things with Owen.  I wonder if it's a gender thing?

Symptoms:  Lower back pain.  Although it is not as bad as it was with Owen, it is still pretty bad sometimes.  Some days it hurts to walk or pick up Owen.  I've also been having some acid re flux  which I didn't have with Owen at all.  It's not that bad, nothing a couple tums doesn't fix.  I wonder if this one will have more hair than Owen did when he is born?

Best Moment this Month:  Our beach vacation!  You can check out my previous post for more pictures and stories of how it all went.  :)

Family Update:  I'm officially off work and hanging out with Owen during the day!  I'm loving every moment and soaking in all this special time with just me and him before number 2 comes along.  It is amazing how much he learns and grows each day.  Mimi swears he is a genius baby!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!

Love,

Judi

Myrtle Beach Family Vacation

We just got back from Owen's first Myrtle Beach vacation!  My parents own a condo down there, so Jimmy and I have been down several times, but not since Owen was born.  It's a 4 bedroom 4 bathroom condo and sleeps at least 12 people (probably more), so it's plenty of room for the whole Clem Clan.  My sister and her boyfriend came down and stayed the whole week.  Then my brother, Miles, and a family friend, Lyndsi, came down the Wednesday before the 4th.  And of course, my parents were there too.  It was a full house, but SO much fun!

The first few days it thunder stormed on and off, so we all went to the aquarium.  Jimmy scoped this out online and we were really excited to take Owen to look at all the fish and animals.  The aquarium was actually really cool, and we all had a blast!

I think Pops had just as much fun as Owen!

He loved the clown fish (Nemo fish).

Peeking at everyone from the inside of a clam!

We went to the pool several days and Owen loved it.  This pool was just made for kids.  It's only 3 feet deep and has one part that is less than a foot deep for little ones to play.  It is also a salt water pool, so it was warm!  And, it's huge!  Plenty of space for everyone to play around.

I didn't get very many good ones at the pool, I wish I had gotten more the last day we were there because he was splashing around, laughing, and smiling a lot more.  

We went to the beach on July 4th and Owen was in heaven.  As soon as I sat him down he was on the move (as usual).  He grabbed the sand a few times and tried to pick it up and decided he liked it.  Then he was off!  Crawling all over the sand finding shells and sand straw (and of course showing me everything he found).  The sand was a good temperature, not hot, so it didn't bother him to crawl around on it.

A ball?!?!  I gotta get it!!!

Once Jimmy and the guys got our tent set up we headed into the water.  During low tide the are little tide pools that Owen could just crawl around in.  It was only a few inches deep, and in some of the pictures you can see the sand bars in the background and the waves breaking beyond that.  This was so awesome because we could just let him GO!

He booked it ALL over!  Jimmy and I just had to follow him around so he didn't bother other people or get too close to where the waves were breaking.  Every time we picked him up he started crying because all he wanted to do was crawl around in the sand!

Can you believe I actually put on a bathing suit?!?  Haha!

Jimmy took him out into the ocean a little bit and dipped down when the waves came so he could feel the waves.  He loved this and smiled and laughed each time!

We had a little family photo shoot on the beach.  Who doesn't love beach pictures!?!

And, this is the result of our beach day...

We had the best time on our vacation!  The thing that warmed my heart the most was seeing my family with Owen and how much they all love him!  He had so many play mates and everyone just loved spending time with him and making him smile.  I know Owen won't remember this vacation, but I know that someday he will look at all these pictures and know just how much his family loves him!  I'm so glad that we went and could give my family such great memories with Owen, I think they will always remember this trip and how special it was!  I'm a little sad it's all over... but now we can look forward to next year... and next year there will be TWO beach babies to chase after!  

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!

Love,

Judi