Another Great Pic of Owen

More Pictures

We are so lucky to have such a great photographer as a friend and child care provider (for 2 more weeks). 

Frank the Tank

As you can see from his pictures, Owen has grown into a little tank. After wearing 3-6 month clothes for 4 weeks, he's already ready to move on to 6-9 month clothes.  Last week Amy took Owen out to the baby pool for his first swimming outing.  She attempted to dress him in his brand new 6 month swim shirt. It covered everything but his little tank of a belly.  Too cute!

We have survived 2 weeks of being back to work.  It has really helped that I have been able to spend my lunch hours with Owen at Amy's house.  Owen also loves spending time with Meghan and Kaden--they show him so much love and attention all day long!  He is really going to miss them when he moves on to his permanent daycare in a few weeks!

It seems like Owen is trying new things everyday.  He tries to hold conversations...through baby babble of course.  He likes to shake his rattles if you help him put them in his hand.  He loves his tigger and tries to pull him into his mouth.  Owen recently started watching a Baby Einstein DVD and it keeps his attention for a full 30 minutes.  He also really loves being read to...we read lots of books. 

Uncle Ben came to visit!

Someone looks like Daddy...

Finally caught a smile.  He likes to hide them from the camera.

Swimming!

Back to Work

Monday marked my first day back to work and Owen's first day of daycare.  As expected, he did well, and I did not.  I did manage to visit him over my lunch break and was happy to hold him for the entire night...even when he was clearly sleeping and ready for bed.  While I expect it to get easier for me at some point, I missed him just as much on day two as I did on day one.  I miss his smiles and little giggles.  I'm thankful that he gets to share them with Meghan and Kaden and Amy though!

As I was feeling sorry for myself this morning I was summoned out of my office to check out an event in the UNI Dome next door.  My co-workers and I were able to watch a send off ceremony for troops headed for Afghanistan.  While I've been working closely with the families and children of deployed soldiers for many years now, I was especially choked up by the other new moms in the crowd, feeding the baby with one hand and drying their tears with the other.  If these men and women can serve in a war zone away from their new babies and families for months at a time, I guess I can manage leaving Owen in daycare while I work.  It was a humbling experience.

In other news, we were happy to see a lot of family this week.  Grandma and Grandpa Beck made a visit on Thursday night and Grandpa Kennedy and Uncle Ben made it over for a visit on Sunday.  It was nice to see everyone!

Hanging out with Grandpa Beck.  We still like him even though he is a White Sox fan.

Owen loves playing with Grandma Beck!