New Years Eve

New Years Eve is always a big gathering for my mother-in-law's family, and this year we had two new additions to the clan.
Elizabeth doesn't look too happy here, but it's definitely fun to hold a little baby.

Owen made it through dinner without too many interruptions. He didn't really want to sit in the highchair when all the action was going on at the table.

Finally, a decent shot of the two cousins together!

Then we wanted to get a shot of the entire group together. What a good-looking bunch!

But before bed, we had to make sure we got a shot with Aunt Barbara, who is a faithful blog follower. Hi, Aunt Barbara...it was so nice to see you, and thanks for Owen's toy cars (he loves them).

These Were Daddy's

This highchair was Daddy's (and Aunt Leslie's) when they were babies. How cool is it that Owen is now using it when he visits Grandma & Grandpa's!?!

I had to include this picture because it makes me laugh. If Owen could talk, he'd be saying, "Mom, stop taking pictures and give me my FOOD!"

This rocking chair is another piece of Daddy's childhood. It makes me want to run out and buy Owen a rocking chair for home so that we have it for his kids some day!

Meeting Henry

These aren't the best pictures in the world, but I couldn't leave out a mention of our visit to Rob and Gayle's house. Their pug, Henry, and Henry's cage, were a huge hit with Owen.

Gifts with the Kuders

Back in Cleveland we had our Kuder gift exchange. Owen made out again.

Uncle Eric

Owen was a bit apprehensive about Uncle Eric. I think any guy with facial hair makes Owen a bit scared. But this didn't deter Uncle Eric. Eventually Owen got used to him.

Do you remember that episode of the Cosby Show where Bill Cosby gives the neighbor kid, Peter, a ride on his knee? Uncle Eric was trying to re-enact that scene with Owen.

And ultimately Uncle Eric was able to win Owen over because he feed him! There's no better way to win over a kid than to give him some yummy food!

Just Hanging Out

Owen warmed up to Grandpa really well.

And he had no shyness around Aunt Cat. She would hold her hands out, and he would go right to her. He doesn't even do that for Daddy!

A Midas Touch

Owen was really curious about Midas, Uncle Eric's dog. Midas loves to be petted, but he didn't particularly care for Owen's version of a pet, which was a grab and pull of his fur. Midas is 13 years old, which is getting up there for a dog his size, so he spent most of our visit trying to avoid Owen.

A Wade Christmas

Next we headed down to Middletown to visit Mommy's family.
Grandma Wade had a good time helping Owen open some gifts.

Aunt Cat enjoyed showing Owen how his new toy works.

One fun thing about having kids in the family now is there are tons of toys around that are fun for the entire family. We all enjoy playing with them. Grandma Wade bought a train set that was more fun for us big kids. Uncle Eric and I had a terrible time trying to figure out how to put batteries in the train engine. Toys shouldn't be that hard!

Meeting Cousin Elizabeth

Our first order of business in Cleveland was meeting our new family member, Elizabeth. She was so tiny. Hard to believe that Owen was that small at one time! Uncle Brian looks like a pro!

Owen did a bit of curious looking at Elizabeth. Grandma was just trying to get the two of them close enough together to snap a shot. This is kind of hard since Owen doesn't stay still at all!

Aunt Leslie wanted to hang out with Owen, but he was not too thrilled about it.

Next Stop, Ohio

We headed to the airport in Manchester, NH and had a good airport experience as far as those go these days. Owen was really into checking everything out as we waited at the gate. The big windows had his tiny hand prints all over them. He would squeal with delight as he was looking out at the airplanes.

Our flight was easy and uneventful. Owen nursed during take-off and then proceeded to sleep for the entire 2 hour flight. Gotta love that!

Christmas Day

Owen took the unwrapping in strides. Once we got a piece of wrapping paper going, he was pretty good at grabbing on. There's something magical about watching a child unwrap a gift.

Goodies galore! Santa must have had Owen on his "nice" list.

Owen's favorite gift by far is the learning table from Uncle Matt and Aunt Shannon. Standing up AND pushing buttons are a combination of his two favorite things right now. It's so cute when a song comes on and he starts bobbing up and down to the music.

Just a cute family photo of the three of us. 2008 was a wonderful year, and our Christmas together was the icing on the cake.

Merry Christmas

My Christmas kiss from Owen. I am filled with so much love and joy. What a special Christmas this has been for us as a family. Owen got lots of fun stuff and enjoyed opening everything this morning. There are lots of photos to share...hopefully I will get to that soon. BUT, tomorrow we are off to Ohio to visit family so that'll have to wait. Hope everyone has enjoyed their Christmas, and may you have a wonderful 2009.

Christmas Eve

My father had a tradition of taking us to a movie on Christmas Eve. This is something that Brian and I have continued since moving to Boston, in which we added eating out for dinner to the tradition. Since Owen is too young to sit through a movie, we had to settle for going out to dinner (and watching a movie at home after the little guy was in bed). Owen is getting to be such fun when we eat out. We pack up some snacks for him and he loves to sit in one of those restaurant highchairs. Let's hope he is always this much fun when we eat out!

Sunday Morning Ritual

Every Sunday morning, Daddy and Owen get on speaker phone with Grandma to do football picks. Owen has figured out that the telephone means talking, so he's babbling more and more. He must be a pretty good consultant on the football picks because Daddy and Grandma are doing really well this year.

Visiting Santa

We got a ton of snow yesterday, so we were feeling a bit stir crazy. Thinking that no one would be braving the roads we decided to head to the mall to take Owen to see Santa. It was great. No waiting. We walked right up and plopped Owen down on his lap. Owen was not too thrilled at this development and started crying the second he sat down. Santa was a good sport about it all!

It was Bound to Happen

Owen figured out how to stand up in his crib. The sleeping struggle now begins. Right now he thinks it's hilarious and is just standing there waiting for me to peek my head into his room. It's all downhill from there.

Fun with Owen

Isn't it fun how kids can have fun with the silliest of things? Lately Owen has been into some empty wrapping paper rolls. What is particularly cute is his look of awe when you whisper to him through the roll. He can't really figure out what is going on, but he recognizes your voice. I can't wait until he can whisper back!Owen also loves to pull himself up. The couch doesn't seem to be enough. He likes to head straight for our glass coffee table in our living room. To keep things safe, we took the coffee tables out of our family room, so he had to sniff out another one. What are we going to do with him?

Owen's First Snow

This morning we got our first snow of the winter. Brian thought it would be cool to lay Owen in it to make a snow angel. Owen isn't one for laying on his back, so he immediately turned over then started crying. That was a short lived experiment. Still, the white powder looks beautiful...for now!

Incident Report

So I got a phone call from daycare at work today. My pulse immediately skyrockets every time I see "Infant Room" on my caller ID. And the first words I hear are "Owen is okay, but..." This time they were calling to let me know that he fell and hit his head on the bottom shelf of the bookshelf. See that nice red bump between his eyebrows?!! Now that Owen is crawling everywhere and pulling himself up I'm getting more and more of these phone calls. Each time a child takes a spill the teachers have to fill out an Incident Report. Let's hope I'm not signing these frequently.

For the Love of Paper

Owen loves anything paper. I think he loves to hear the sound of it crunch up. Lately he's taken to babbling when he gets it in front of him...almost like he's trying to read what's on the paper. It's very cute.

Christmas should be interesting with the unwrapping of gifts. I'm not sure how he's going to handle it all. Usually, once he gets a piece of paper he's content. I wonder if he'll catch on to the whole tearing frenzy?!?!

Merry and Bright

Have I mentioned how adorable Owen is?

My cousin Mary says that Owen always looks so serious. I realize that his photos probably come across that way because it's hard to get a shot of him smiling at me. This is probably because I get him to smile then put this big SLR camera up to my face and he gets all confused about what is going on. He really is a happy baby, I promise.

Santa Baby

We braved the mall today to pick up a few gifts and grab some lunch. Don't dress your baby in a Santa hat unless you want to be told by everyone how cute he is!

Playdate with Danila

Today we had a playdate with Danila, who is the son of Sasha and Ana(a co-worker of Brian's). Danila is a month older than Owen, but his parents are jealous that Owen is crawling and Danila isn't yet. In case you are wondering, NO, I'm not spelling his name wrong. They are Russian...well actually Ana and Sasha are from Minsk which is actually Belarus. Did you get all that? They speak Russian only to Danila (which we pronounce Daniel). Sasha says that Owen speaks Russian already since da, da means yes. I told him when he says "privet" we'll know he speaks Russian. Did I just impress you with my mad Russian skills?
We brought Danila a Christmas present and it was fun to watch the boys unwrap the toy. Owen is crazy for paper so he was all into getting himself some wrapping paper.

9 Month Checkup

Owen had his 9 month doctor's checkup and Dr. Palant, our pediatrician, said he's doing wonderfully. All traces of his fever from earlier this week were gone and he's growing right on track.

Weight: 19 lbs. 14 oz.
Length: 28 1/2 inches
Head Circumference: 44 cm

And thankfully he only had to have one shot this checkup. It's still painful for me to watch him get a shot, but his tears are always short lived.

Kuder Christmas Tradition

So Grandma Kuder has this tradition of making sugar cookies which happen to be Brian's favorite. He complained a few years ago when she took a year off of making them. They seem to be an important part of Christmas for him, so I thought it would be nice to make them with Owen...to carry on the tradition. Boy, cookie cutter cookies are a lot of work. Owen isn't much of a help at this age, but he was fascinated by the rolling pin! We had a fun evening making a mess.

And for future reference, the famous recipe is:

Sugar Cookies

2/3 cup Butter flavored Crisco

3/4 cup Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 Egg

4 teaspoons Milk

2 cups Flour

1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt

Cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Add egg. Beat til light and fluffy. Stir in milk. Add dry ingredients. Divide dough. Chill 1 hour. Roll to 1/8 inch thickness and cut. Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes.

9 Months

Owen is 9 months old already. What an amazing and exciting 9 months it has been. We couldn't have lucked out any more with such an adorable baby who is now this little guy with a happy temperament and wonderful emerging personality. I like to say he's easy-going and mellow. I just love everything about this little guy.

Owen's 9 month milestones are:

• He's crawling everywhere. He doesn't sit still anymore. With this crawling comes lots of exploring which full of new surprises.
• Owen can pull himself up to a standing position. This is also a fun and new way to explore and get into things that he shouldn't. We've started to be really mindful of what we leave lying around. He is cruising around everywhere! One tiny problem is that now he pulls himself up in his crib and can not get back down, yikes!
• Owen is sleeping like a pro. Bedtime is usually around 7:30 and most nights he sleeps straight through until 6 a.m. when I'll nurse him back to sleep for another hour of sleep. He still does three short naps a day at daycare, but at home he naps much longer so he usually only needs two.
• Owen is starting to understand a few words. Besides recognizing his name, he is catching on to words like "No" and "Look". I think he's also figuring out what "Up" means since I use it a lot when I pick him up. When I say it he ususally holds his hands out for me.
• He officially has 3 teeth (2 on the bottom and 1 on top) with the second top one that seems like it'll be in anyday now.
• Another achievement is the use of his fingers and thumb to poke, pry, probe and pick up smaller and smaller objects. We've been giving him little fingerfood to try. He has a hard time getting the food from his hand into his mouth but he is almost there.
• Owen is really babbling a lot now. Sometimes I think he knows when you are asking him a question because he'll start to "talk" back to you. I've noticed that giving him a book or the phone results in his adorable babble.
  

A New Cousin

Elliot Matthew Wade was born today down in North Carolina, weighing in at a healthy 8 lbs. 13 oz. Contratualations Uncle Matt and Aunt Shannon!