The Watsons: 8 Months

I'm behind again. I'm just going to have to start doing this right after each month. He is growing and developing so fast, I have trouble remembering what happened during 8 months and what has happened so far during month 9! The bottom line is, Tim and I are so blessed by our sweet boy each day!

We had a big trip this month to Minneapolis. The Association of Biblical Counselors who Tim does some work for sent him to the Desiring God Conference at John Piper's church. Owen and I decided we would go with him! It was definitely a little stressful at times but it was such a great trip. Our hotel was in a great location so Owen and I could explore a little while Tim was at the conference. Tim worked the majority of the trip but with the little time he did have we had some delicious meals and went to some INCREDIBLE parks. It was just so great being outside. The West Nile virus kept us indoors a lot this summer. Minneapolis is one of the top cities in the country for cycling. That of course made Tim want to move there. There were so many incredible trails and parks. The trees were absolutely gorgeous too. The real experience came with the flight back. Before we left for Minnesota I had one of the amazing audiologists at the rehab clinic I work at look at Owen's ears. He had some congestion so I just wanted to be prepared. He did have some fluid in one of his ears. It wasn't infected but we just had to take some precautions flying. He did wonderful on the flight to Minnesota. He slept maybe 20 minutes and the rest of the 2 1/2 hour flight he was moving and looking around and having a blast. Several people came up to us after the flight to let us know Owen was the best baby they had ever been on the flight with. We of course were proud! Well, I guess we needed to be humbled because the flight back was a little different! That day we had to check out of our hotel at 12 and our flight didn't leave until 6:45. We just assumed Owen would sleep in the car a little as we drove around. Well...that didn't happen AND our flight was delayed almost 2 hours. So by the time we check in, get through baggage claim, get to our gate and get on the plane Owen has been awake for almost 8 hours. Oh my..he was a ticking time bomb (don't worry, we didn't say that on the plane). Well, because of the fluid in one of his ears we had to make sure he was sucking on something when we were taking off. The problem was he was SOOO tired he didn't want to take his bottle, pacifier, water or even nurse. He then got so mad at Tim and me for bothering him while he was trying to sleep he just starts SCREAMING and we couldn't calm him for a bit. We finally were able to calm him but by that point he was awake. Anything that he would want to do that we kept him from doing, he would cry. He pulled the person's hair in front of us, wanted to climb over the seats...if we kept him from doing anything he would cry. We would try to rock him to sleep...he would cry. It was a disaster. We finally got him to go to sleep with quite a few glances from people on the airplane. I of course was freaking out because when we were landing he would not take his pacifier or anything but the Lord protected his precious ears and he was fine! Let's just say the Watson's will not by flying for awhile.

Another great trip we had was with some good friends the Milam's and the DuBose's. We all took a long weekend and went to my family's lake house in Horseshoe Bay. It was such a relaxing trip and such a blessing to have such great friends that we can do that with!

8 Months
Length: 29 1/2
Weight: 20 lbs

Loves: being outside, "army crawling" everywhere, watching videos of himself, talking, attention, pears, sweet potatoes, getting to explore, putting anything and everything in his mouth, reading books, songs and music

Hates: rice cereal, oatmeal and avocados

Owen is wearing 6-9 months clothes and wears size 3 diapers still. He takes about 5-7 ounces of breast milk every 3 1/2 to 4 hours. He still is sleeping through the night but has decided that he wants his day to start around 5 or 5:30. We have even tried keeping him up later or doing a "dream feed" but he still wakes up at the same time. That has been difficult! On the brighter side he is taking 2-3 naps per day. If we can get him down to 2 naps he will sleep for 1-2 hours at a time. He does not want to be rocked to sleep! If we even try he arches his back and gets mad. He prefers to talk himself to sleep in his crib.

Owen is quite the mover. He pretty much moves all day long. He is talking like crazy..his favorite string of sounds being "dadadadada". One of the sweetest things ever is he will give us kisses...on his terms of course! The sweetest open mouth kisses in the world. He has also started waving when we say bye bye. He will see people at the store and even wave to get their attention. Owen also had his first hair cut this month. He is still spitting up a lot but it seems to be getting better.

The Watson family is doing great and once again so blessed and humbled by our little man!