Growing.

We started letting Owen feed himself snacks from a little snack cup that was JJ's.  He loves it!

Owen had his 9 month check-up this week and he's doing really well.  The doctor said he's "boring," which is always good : )  Here are his current stats - 

Weight - 19.5 pounds, 31st percentile

Height - 28.5 inches, 58th percentile

Head - 47.5 centimeters, 93rd percentile

Now, I know it's not good to compare your kids, but here were JJ's stats at 9 months - 

Weight - 20 pounds, 39th percentile

Height - 30 inches, 93rd percentile

Head - 47 centimeters, 90th percentile

As you can see, Owen has slowed down in his growth and will take a lot to catch back up to his brother.  At this point, I think JJ will always be a lot bigger than Owen is, but at least they will both have huge heads!

I know I shouldn't jinx myself, but I'm going to say that Owen now sleeps through the night!  For more than a week now he has slept from 7 pm until about 5 am, I then feed him and he goes back to sleep until about 6:30 or 7 am.  It's pretty amazing!  Now JJ on the other hand, still doesn't sleep through the night.  

A few months ago JJ finally started staying in his own bed all night, which a good step, but he still wakes up at least once a night almost every night.  He'll wake up crying because he's cold, or can't breath due to his horrible allergies (he's currently been snoring as loud as my dad!), or he gets a bloody nose, or he's just crying.  We don't know what will ever fix his sleeping issues, hopefully he sleeps all night by the time he goes to college because I don't think his roommate will enjoy having to put him back to sleep all the time!  One culprit lately might also be his growth spurt.  He got measured today and he has gained 2 pounds and grown an inch-and-a-half in the last 3 months!  He is currently taller than the average 5-year-old!!  Hopefully we'll get to move back to San Diego in a few years so that we can get him started in beach volleyball : )

9 Months Old.

No, not this one. . .

This one is 9 months old!

This is his absolute FAVORITE outlet!!  The fastest he ever crawls is when it's in his sights!

Owen is now 9 months old.  He's sitting, crawling, pulling himself up, cruising furniture, and getting into everything.  He still has zero teeth, but has been showing all the teething "signs" for months, so it could be any day now for him to pop through a tooth.  Luckily he's still enjoying pureed baby food, so it's not really a problem yet : )

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm wrapping up a relaxing Mother's Day with a VERY nice glass of wine and some blogging : )  My day started off with Owen sleeping through the night last night!  I got up at 5:45 am, fed him, then both of us went back to sleep and Brian let me sleep in until 8 am.  It was amazing!  

We went to church this morning, then both boys napped, and then we played all afternoon.  Our afternoon playing included a pretty epic game of hide-and-go-seek, which is one of JJ's favorite activities.  He now counts in Italian while we're hiding, so that's pretty fun.  I also carried Owen around during the whole game and we're not sure how he really feels about the game since he never smiled, laughed, or cried.  I'm pretty sure he's extremely confused as to why his family was shrieking and screaming whenever we saw each other and he's hoping that he'll be able to adopt a more "normal" family soon : )

More T-Ball.

Owen enjoyed being outside at the game.

This was JJ's third t-ball game and it went much better.  This week the coach had them take turns at fielding the ball, which was a HUGE improvement!  They each took their turn and there was no fighting.  Only a few kids threw fits about it, but luckily JJ was fine because he didn't like the whole "dog pile" situation from the previous games.  I think he understands that baseball is supposed to be the civilized sport : )

So last week I forgot the camera and I'm so upset about it.  During the time they were in the field, him and his friend from school were standing on the pitchers mound not paying any attention to the game.  They kept putting their mitts on their heads and then at one point the were giving each other cheek kisses like they learn in Italian school!  It was soooooo cute!  Of course this week, when I had my camera, they weren't doing it.  Oh, well, I can still tell him about it someday ; )

PS - Happy Birthday to my mom!  We love you and are so excited to see you next month!!

Updates.

So, things have been going pretty well in our house.  The boys seem to be healthy, but it's starting to be allergy season, so that's not going to be fun.  Owen is also having a rough time with our marble floors.  He's taken a few headers that have left a mark.  I think we might end up making him wear a helmet when he starts walking!  Oh, last night was the second night of Owen sleeping through the night.  Brian and I know better than to get our hopes up, but we're praying that sleep is in all our futures!

Notice the bruise on his forehead : (

Poor JJ and his "allergy eyes" : (

JJ is loving his little table lately.  Thanks to school, he will now sit and color or do "crafts" for quite awhile.  It's nice to have him calm sometimes : )  

Uncle Kevin!

Brian's brother, Kevin, was in France for work so he decided to take a couple days and come down and visit us.  We have really enjoyed spending time with him and JJ, of course, LOVES having him here.  

We took him down to the Amalfi Coast yesterday and it was a gorgeous day.

Owen didn't enjoy the ocean very much : (

JJ, however, loves playing in the water.  We didn't bring his swim trunks, but all the kids here just wear Speedos anyways, so it didn't look weird for him to be playing in just his underwear.

On a side note, Owen slept through the night last night for the second time in his life, which is 2 more times than JJ had at this point.  We've figured out that I haven't slept through the night in 4 years, so if Owen can figure it out, then maybe JJ will too, which would be really exciting.

Feeling Better.

Not sure who he was talking to, but it was apparently a very serious conversation.

We got them this new little play house and they love it!

Last Friday JJ woke up from his nap with a temperature of 105.1.  Brian took him to the ER and they diagnosed him with strep and gave him a shot of steroid and antibiotic, along with some Motrin.  It helped almost immediately and he was feeling better by the time he got home.  What the doctor didn't tell Brian though was that the steroid would cause JJ to act crazy at bedtime!  For 4 hours, we tried to get him to go to sleep, but he would just get back out of bed, turn his light on and play or color.  Brian finally got him to go to sleep by laying down with him on the couch at about midnight.  Luckily he felt better in the morning and has been back to "normal" this week.  

But over the weekend, Owen ended up having a fever that wouldn't break.  I took him to the doctor on Monday and he has an ear infection.  The worst part was that he had so much ear wax that the doctor had to dig it out before he could even see the infection.  Poor Owen was screaming and crying the whole time.  His fever finally broke though on Tuesday, which was good.  Now if he could just get some teeth to pop through, then hopefully he would actually start feeling better.  He literally wanted to be held all day the last 2 days.  

So, we're now praying that the boys are on the mend and we can have a healthy spring.  The weather has changed this week, so we're able to go outside and play more, which is good and will keep us active and hopefully healthy.

Random video - 

I love that the boys are now old enough to take baths together and that they seem to like it too : )