Happy Birthday Owen

I’m totally baffled sitting here thinking that my little baby Owen is 3 today. Owen was in a hurry to make his grand entrance into this world, arriving 6 weeks early. Maybe he thought it would be fun to play with his brothers, little did he know, his older brother Cody was not happy with his arrival and thought it would be funny to hit Owen on the head with a toy hammer, grab his little arm and pulled him across the floor, and sling him across the room using his bouncer. We still are not sure how he survived to see his first birthday. Owen has grown a lot in the last 3 years (obviously, kids grow). We have been through so much with this little guy. The first 3-4 months of his life, he did nothing by cry. Cry Cry Cry, nothing would make him happy. Chris would hold him all night and I would hold him all day. I have said from day one, if Owen would have been my first child, he would have been my last. Finally, after Owen realized there was more to life than crying, he started going extended periods of time without crying, usually only crying when Cody stepped on him, or chucked a car at his head.
They say never compare your children's development, but how can you not. Since Owen was 6 months old we noticed there was something different about him. Didn’t know what, he was not active, didn’t play, just laid on the floor, didn’t crawl, roll over, nothing. He was perfectly content staying in one place. Several months later, I was changing his diaper and noticed his “man hood” area was as swollen as a tennis ball. Might not seem too big for a grown man, but for a baby, those suckers were huge. I loaded him up and headed to the ER. Come to find out, he had a double hernia. The doctor wanted to try and hold off surgery until Owen turned one. The day before Owen’s 1st birthday he had surgery. Owen’s surgery was successful, a few days after the surgery little Owen was a totally different baby. He started to become active, play with toys and fight back with Cody. According to the doctor, Owen was probably uncomfortable, therefore not wanting to be active and move around. So, over the next year Owen had a lot of catching up to do. It’s been two years since Owen’s surgery and he is a normal, active, outgoing, silly-but serious little boy. He is still very different than Cody. Owen loves to cuddle, lay on the couch with you, read and he will play independently. We are still struggling with talking, but we have made huge steps towards improving his speech. Owen can count to 11, sing simple songs, is potty trained, and loves to eat.
Owen is such a blessing and I love spending time with him. He gets so excited over the little things. Out of the 4 boys, Owen is our baby. He is a mommy and daddy’s boy and does not like to leave our side. He wants to be carried everywhere, loves to have you lay with him at night, and still wakes up at night and asks you to lay with him. Owen is very sensitive, he very seldom gets in trouble (unlike Cody), he usually listens very well and follows directions (unlike Cody, although, Cody is getting better), if Owen does do something wrong and you ask him to go sit in timeout, he will flip his bottom lip out and go sit in timeout (you got it, unlike Cody, who you have to threaten or on the count of 3 is slowly going towards timeout).
We are looking forward to another fun year watching Owen grow, learn and explore.

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY OWEN

I couldn't decide which picture I liked better, so I posted all 3 of them. It might just be a mom thing, but I have the best looking boys around!