Official 9 month stats

Well, at 9.75 months we finally had our 9 month appointment so here are the official growth stats:
length: 29.75" (95%)
weight: 18lb 4oz (25%)
head: 44.1cm (25%)
weight to length: still at the 5% - he's my little string bean!

Here are some highlights from the past week or so!

Owen is pulling himself up on everything these days!

but those darn slippery socks still land him
on his bum on occasion!

Owen continues to be enthralled with the kitties and chase them everywhere!

   I took this mostly to compare with the
bumbo pics when he was little.  He's grown so much!

But he has learned that the "baby back arch" is a
 key maneuver for escaping the bumbo prison

As you can see from the above pics, he's also become my duster.  Who needs to sweep the floor when you have a baby with static-y fleece pants crawling around?  (just kidding Mom...I still vaccuum).
On a side note, nice pants, eh?  (They were my recent sewing project - I also made a super cute pair of overalls...I'll try to get a pic soon!)

This is Owen's newest face!  It's so funny!  He uses when he is concentrating!

moisturizing is very important...

On Saturday we headed to Aaron and Allison's for a Halloween party.  Owen is in full stranger anxiety mode, and was not too happy if he got more than 2 feet from me...unless of course it was under his own power and he crawled his way across the room...then it was fine!

Little monkey!!

so sweet! with MJ and Greta - MJ takes such good care of him!

Owen in a box

Step one - put the box on the floor
Step two - let mammals crawl into the box

they'll get you with their devil eyes

museum fun!

It's MEA, (MN Education Association - conference for K-12 teachers...but for some reason, just 2 days off for college faculty!!) so I had a couple days off to hang out with my favourite little guy and for our rain day activity today we headed to the Children's Museum.  Last time we went was with Tor and Elissa before Owen was mobile, but now that he is crawling, it was a whole new world of activity for him!

"look Ma, two of me!"

"Is this thing on?"

Owen made a friend over by the bells

ah, the elusive Tree Beaver..."A Part of Our Heritage"

see those two lower chompers?

This morning

I heard Owen chatting to himself around 7:30 this morning, so went in and found him like this:

Just standing up having a grand ol' time!
Not even the struggle of a two feed night can mar great mornings like these!

Best friends

 Owen is really on the move these days, and one of his favourite things to do is chase after the cats...mostly Flax as Dribble runs away before he even gets a chance to get near her.  Flax lets him get within about an arm's reach, sometimes closer, before running to the other side of the room...which just prolongs the chase.

It's a cat tunnel standoff!!

Flax has the upper hand/paw

Owen is also starting to pull himself up to standing.  I found him standing up in his crib pulling toys off the top of the bookcase at the end of his bed after his nap this afternoon!

Standing practice with the futon in the office

This is a fairly classic photo...if the camera comes out, he must grab it!

he's also going through a bit of Mommy clingy-ness these days.  Dad just doesn't have the same appeal!

Fire! Fire! Fire!

In preparation for the re-siding and re-roofing of our garage in a couple of weeks (hopefully...Dave still has to order the materials and procure the labour...uhm, I mean friends to help him) we decided to have an all afternoon fire to burn our woodpile - I use the term loosely, it was mostly sticks and leaves taken off our trees over the past year.  This also included a couple big pots of chili and cornbread, plus plenty of friends to enjoy it all.  

And of course, we had to get pictures of Owen's first backyard fire!

bundled up and ready to burn stuff!

post nap the "bundling up" got more serious
with the full fleece suit

and I'm happy to report, sock monkey still fits!

"What's in your mug Mom?"

"profiles only please"

Owen is on the move constantly these days...as a result he won't sit still long enough for me to get nice head on photos.  So the camera, and I, mostly see him in profile only these days!

"books, books, books...I love books"

"This one looks good"

And Dave was the lucky one who got in the pool last week during swim lessons!

still working on perfecting his back float technique

the water adds ten pounds...and removes ten inches!
Ha!  He looks like a midget!