1 YEAR OLD!!!

It's official, as of last Thursday, my sweet precious child is 1 year old! AAHH, I'm still in a little disbelief/shock to actually write that...We had a grand time last Thursday and had a GREAT day...all about Owen, of course!!! When Tony was leaving for work I asked him if he wanted to wake him up to sing Happy Birthday with me, but Tony said to let him sleep and he'd wish him a Happy Birthday when he got home (Tony leaves for work about 7:15 am and Owen and I don't usually get up till around 7:45 am). So when Owen woke up I burst into his room singing the "Happy Birthday" song and I must admit, I started choking up a little because I was just so excited for him--and also in a little disbelief of how fast he's growing up! He's almost always in a great mood in the morning and used to my silly songs in the morning, but I'm not sure he knew what to think with his crazy mama singing that loud song ;)

The entire day was quite a lot of fun! Sara, her mom, Jack, my mom, Owen and I went to a consignment sale that morning and Owen got lots and lots of great spring & summer clothes! We really racked up and I'm so excited about all the adorable outfits Owen will be sporting soon :) Then Geebee came back to our house and hung out with us for a while. Later that afternoon Tony, Pops, and Noni & Grandpa all joined us. It was such a nice day that we went outside and watched Owen play with the balloons that Noni & Grandpa brought him for a while before going back inside for a yummy dinner. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY...I'M SOOO EXCITED!!! Loving on our special boy!
One very blessed little birthday boy with all of his wonderful grandparents!

Group shot :)
Hamming it up for the grandparents
We tied the balloons to his overalls so they wouldn't float away :)

Balloons are so much fun!

After dinner, we took Owen to Dairy Queen for his very first ice cream cone ever! We were all so excited to see what he'd do with it...plus, ice cream is my favorite :) When we got there, they were having trivia night and it was packed, but luckily we did find a table. There was lots of fun music, which of course Owen loved! With all the excitement of the day, I'm sure he thought all the people and music were there to celebrate with us! I'm not sure if it was all the distraction, or the coldness, or what, but Owen wasn't really too huge a fan of his ice cream (he's his father's child in that respect!) and was content to play with it and eat the cone instead. He did get quite a kick out of taking a plastic spoon and flinging ice cream all over Tony and the floor quite a few times! It was SUCH a great day and evening, and a very, very happy birthday celebration for Owen!!! Daddy, Mama, & our birthday boy!!!

hmm, I'm not sure about this stuff...

It sure is cold!

I think it's more fun to play in it!


Owen at a glance: 12 months...
I would definitely say that Owen is officially walking now. He still will crawl quite a bit, but takes steps 5 and 6 at a time (his most at once is about 10 so far) and does this frequently throughout the day.

He is getting better & better at "copy catting" things that we say. He won't repeat everything, but will repeat quite a bit.

He is getting more and more dance moves every day and is now doing lots of head and body swaying back and forth, up and down. He is so precious to watch and I am still trying to catch this on video, though I haven't gotten a really good clip yet.

He has developed quite a bit of self independence and will play with his toys by himself for 20 minutes or so at a time. He's still quite the socialite though and LOVES to play with other children!

Owen loves to capture the spotlight! Whether we're at a restaurant or we just have family or friends over, he wants to be the center of attention with all eyes on him. He'll talk, shout, dance, and move around until all eyes are on him...he's quite the little ham :)

He's eating more and more solid foods these days and we usually try and give him a little of whatever we're eating as long as it's is soft and easily chewable.

12 Month Measurements
18 lbs. 4 oz (0-3rd percentile)
31 1/4 inches (75th-90th percentile)
and I didn't catch his head measurement, but I do know it was 25th-50th percentile

Owen is still quite the slender little thing, but his doctor isn't concerned. He says that around his age, babies that were born premature start catching up to the full term babies. They do this at a very rapid rate and so it knocks the slower growing children down a bit on the charts. Our little skinny mini will catch up eventually :)