Rowan's 8-month stats

As promised, here are the latest Rowan stats.

• Length: 28 in


• Weight: 20lbs


• Clothing size: 9 to 12 mos. depending on the brand


• Teeth: No new teeth have sprouted yet. I thought the next set were imminent, but he's still working on them.


• Mobility: He's crawling really well and covers a lot of distance quickly. He's also started to try to pull himself to a standing position. Last night he was able to stand up in his crib by pulling up on the rails.


• Sleeping: His sleep routine was really good up until last week. He used to go to bed around 9pm and stay asleep until 7:30am. Occasionally he would wake to wolf down an 8 ounce bottle, but he would go right back to sleep. The last few nights he has fought going to sleep. Once asleep, he'd wake up after about an hour wanting to play. Jeremy and I wish he would revert to his previous sleep cycle. It was so awesome!


• Eating: This kid can put away the food! On a typical morning he will start with about 8 ounces of milk. By lunchtime he is ready for his first solid meal of the day. Sample brunch menu: 1 medium banana, 1.5oz of oatmeal, 1 4oz container of fruit puree, about 4 oz. of milk. He may drink another 4oz of milk in the afternoon. By dinner time, he's ready for more food. Sample dinner menu: 2 4 oz. containers of veggies and 4 oz. of fruit for dessert. Sometimes I mix rice with the veggies if they are watery. He might also drink about 3 to 4 oz. of milk. Before bed, he gobbles another 4 oz. of milk. I have no idea where he puts all this food.


• Communication: Still no "mama", but "dah", "dee", and "uh" reamin popular sounds. He's also learned to click his tongue. He likes to clap his hands when he sees someone or something he likes. We've been working on waving hello and goodbye. He gets the concept, but is inconsistent in the application. Of course we are delighted when he performs any of his new tricks. :-) Oh, I almost forgot to mention my favorite new gesture. He does this cheesy grin that I call the "cheese face".

We're going trick-or-treating tomorrow night with the Carrolls. I'll try to post some pics soon.

Family, Apples, and a Birthday

Happy 8-month birthday to my sweet boy! I'll post some stats later. I need to wait for Jeremy to get home so we can weigh and measure Rowan. Handling him is a two-person job these days.

This past month has gone by so fast. We've been on the road for most of the past few weekends. We should be close to home for awhile.

We had a great visit with my parents. We also had a surprise visit from my Aunt Beverly and Granny. They came over for dinner on Friday night. It was kind of nice having a house full of family.

Saturday morning we headed up to north Georgia in search of apples and pumpkins. The Ellijay Apple Festival had good food (fried apple pies - yum!) and great people watching. We also drove down the apple farm highway to pick out fresh crop apples. We ended up with a nice mix of Arkansas Black, Mutsu, Winesap, and Fuji. The ones I have tasted have been really good. Jeremy said he sees some apple pies in our future.

Gettin' old - But having fun doing it!

This past weekend I went on a girls' trip to Massachusetts to see my friend and former college roommate, Amy, get married. I met up with Ali and Leslie, also good friends and former roommates of Amy and me. I had such a nice time visiting with them. Even though we don't see each other often, we pick up right where we left off, as if it's only been a day or two since we last saw one another. That's one sign of a great friendship.

Pictured in the photo above (left to right): Ali, Amy, Me, Leslie, Lauren, Sarah, and Suzanne. We were all college roommates at one point, except for Lauren (Amy's sister-in-law) and Sarah (Amy's friend and Matron of Honor from Tampa). All hail the House of Women!

I learned a lot on this trip. One is that it is good to get away from your baby for a little while. I adore Rowan and would spend every minute with him that I could... and I do. While this is great and wonderful, it's also healthy for both of us to have a little bit of time apart.

Secondly, I learned about Facebook. I already knew it existed, but I had disdain for it and relegated it to the younger, hipper crowd. Leslie and Ali both informed me that it was for adults and that it is highly entertaining. So, I decided to check it out. I'll let you know what comes of my explorations, if anything.

Lastly, I came to the realization that I am old. I had a feeling that I was just around the corner from being "old'. I just didn't know how close I was. Here's how I found out.

Leslie, Ali, and I went to see "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist". It's a fun movie with a great soundtrack. And, I do like Michael Cera's boyish charm. But I digress... In the movie, these high school seniors who live in New Jersey go into NYC for a Friday night. Not only do they find parking spots in front of clubs all night, but they never call to check in with their parents. Could this be any more unrealistic? The three of us noted that we seemed to be the only ones incapbale of suspending our disbelief. The teenagers watching along with us seemed unaffected by these details.

-

We are so old.

-

I posted some new photos of Rowan for your viewing pleasure. They are from October 8 and 13. You will see that we finally bought him a "for real" crib to sleep in. The pack-n-play was too rickety and he was crawling around our bed too much. He's slept in it two nights now - not for the entire night, mind you, but a good 6 hours. Last night he needed a bottle at 3:00am. I couldn't believe he could be hungry but he downed 8oz. in about 20 minutes. I have no idea where he puts all the food he gobbles.
-

My parents are coming up this weekend for a mini-visit. We plan to go to Ellijay and surrounding areas to check out the pumpkin farms and apple orchards. I'll let you know how it goes.

-

P.S. I don't know why, but Blogspot likes to monkey with my formatting. Arghh! If you see wonky spacing, blame it on Blogspot's crazy computer voodoo.

Famous Fall Fling

We spent this past weekend in Wise visiting with Jeremy's parents and good friends I like to call "The Wise Guys". The Wise Guys are childhood friends of Jeremy with whom he has remained in contact over the years.

The gang visited a little bit on Saturday at the Famous Fall Fling. The Fling is a festival on the town square where you can buy crafts, eat trashy fair food, watch cloggers, and go on a fire truck ride around town. We ran into a lot of old family friends while we were there. It was nice to enjoy the simple pleasures of small town living.

A small group of us went to Annette's Dari-Barn for an afternoon snack. (I highly recommend the butterscotch milkshake.) We saw a funny sign posted on the community bulletin board inside. Abby took a photo of it with her phone. It turned out pretty good. Check it out below.

"89 Jayco pop-up camper for sale. 92 Van for sale or will trade
for guns or four wheeler"

On Sunday we had a mini-reunion at a city park. It was nice to visit with the usuals and to meet some of the other characters who I have heard about. As the local paper, The Coalfield, would write, "...A good time was had by all."

Here's a photo of the whole gang. Pictured from left to right are: Pam - The rest of her tribe - Bill, Luke, and Lance - are at the top of the slides; Jeremy (aka, Big Goo), Rowan and Me; Jason H. (aka, Lump) and Abby; Chris, Josh, and Janet; April, Rachel, and Travis; and Drew, Cindy, Sarah, and Jason D. (aka, Gun).

I've posted more photos from this weekend on the Rowan album. We took some video, too, but it's going to take me a little bit to get those posted.

More videos and photos

Just wanted to let you know that I uploaded a few more videos and a couple of photos. Enjoy!