Swinging at Rady

Rowan likes swinging at Rady Park, but he also likes to people/kid watch. He is so interested in what other people are doing that he forgets that he is having fun swinging. Shey was out with her mom the other day, and so this was a Rowan and Daddy adventure to the park followed by a trip to Tropical Smoothie.

Break Dancing and New Friend

Rowan has now started rolling around the crib, flipping every which way and using the bumper as a kick-board to push off of, or just literally kick. He also has become fond of a new friend, a monkey actually, who we have named Michelangelo...Shey for the painter, me for the ninja turtle. Either way, Rowan is starting to show some affection, pretty cute.



And just to show his style while he sleeps:

Feels like summer

Josh took Rowan to the park yesterday for a guys afternoon. This series makes me laugh so much because Rowan is so serious, he really does like the swings, but he seems to be checking things out before he decides if this swing thing is a good idea.

As a side note this child as a pair of plaid shorts for every day of the week.

Spent some time outside today enjoying the beautiful weather.

Shinning moment of motherhood

So Josh is out of town and Rowan finally slept through the night for only the second time in two weeks...that is until our fire alarms went off at 5:30 am! I jump out of bed heart pounding, disoriented, and rush to make the noise stop (I did run in to his room first and check to make sure his baseboard heater was not on fire). After I determined there was no immediate threat to our safety, I grab our step stool and after repeated attempts to push the little button doesn't work I literally rip the one in our bedroom from the ceiling. This seemed logical to me at the time because it was making the most noise and did I mention I am a sleep deprived single mother right now. At this point Rowan is wailing so I go to comfort him. 20 minutes later he is resting quietly and I sneak out his door just to have the one right outside his door go off. More wailing, more yanking things from the ceiling. An hour and ten minutes later I am eating Hayden cookies for breakfast and all three fire alarms are outside on the patio, where they will stay until they promise to never ever do that to me again...ahhh motherhood.

This and that...

It has been a busy month and I haven't been good about getting the camera out as much as I should. Rowan has been teething again and this has meant some restless night for all of us. He is up to 19 lbs now and is working on crawling (sort of). He is dying to be mobile and likes to be up on his hands and knees but can't figure out what to do after that. He will stay poised and ready, beaming with his accomplishment until he can't take the temptation any more and dives toward whatever toy he wants. I think he is practicing his racing dive for the summer swimming he will do. He continues to develop his very strong personality and is working on expressing more what he wants and doesn't. He has taken to sleeping with this tiny little monkey finger puppet. Josh named him Michelangelo (after the ninja turtle not the artist). It is so cute, he will snuggle up with it and keep it right by his face.

He has also taken an interest in my laundry baskets...one day when I was folding clothes he was insistent on getting in one and was very pleased to have his snack there while I finished the laundry.

Josh isn't indoctrinating him toward a certain sport too strongly is he !?!

11 months old

Giving the monkey a kiss

My first mother's day

If you know me you know that when I was first pregnant (and for all the years before) I wanted a little girl. I know you aren't suppose to admit that, but it's the truth. If I ever imagined myself a mother at all, it was always to a little girl. I actually found out the sex of the baby strictly so I would not be disappointed when the big "it's a..." moment came. When we found out Rowan was going to be Rowan it took me a few days but I settled in to the idea. Now 11 months into being the mother of a little boy, I think there might be something to this. I have embraced trucks, and puppies and sports themed things. I like looking for bugs (I introduced him to his first wriggling worm the other day), and picking up rocks and sticks. I will help him catch his first frog and I will always pull over to rescue a turtle from the middle of the road. We like to throw rocks in the stream to see how big of a splash we can make...and I even have come to love growling like a dinosaur and pretending to attack to make my little boy squeal with laughter. Rowan and I had a very rough beginning, and there are some days that I can still feel the burning pain of what we went through, but on the other side of things I think there might be something great about being the mother of a boy.

Happy Mother's Day!

Dear Mom,

I wanted to wish you a Happy Mother's Day from your favorite little boy! I asked dad to type this up for me since I don't have a lot of coordination yet with my fingers in terms of hitting all the little keys by myself. Thanks for being the best mom ever and for taking such good care of me. And thanks for taking care of Prudence (the pigeon) so that I can have my first pet even before I turn one year old. I love you mom, and hope you enjoy these cute pictures of me! I will try to be good today.

love,
Rowan

Bird update

So we were finally able to get a good look at the birds band and found out it is from Greer, South Carolina. A little over 400 miles away! We aren't sure how this bird is going to get home yet, but we thought might like to know how far it's come.

New Pet

About a week ago a pigeon showed up on our patio. It has tags and everything. We gave it a day or so to rest and make its way home...but a week later it is still here. Prudence, a sensible name for a pigeon, now is so used to us it runs up to my feet when we walk out to feed it, and today let Rowan and I sit inches from it while it feed. Rowan loves her. He squeals with delight when we go out to see her and likes to follow her around the patio. I did refrain from letting him pet her though, much to his dismay. Too many germs. We have filled out a missing pigeon report (I kid you not) and am hoping to hear back from someone. We looked up her tags, she is a racing pigeon...so I suppose we could always make some money on her if she decides to stay. We also had a chipmunk in the house yesterday, but that is Josh's story so I will save that for another day.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Grandpa! Can't wait to see you later and help you celebrate...and maybe share some cake :)