Parenthood | Amy Scott's Thoughts

Flying Through August August 17, 2014

Filed under: Family Time,Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 4:37 pm

Here we are over half way through the month of August! I’m not sure how, but time keeps zipping past me. This last week was a full one for the Scott Family. On Monday, Jeremy took some of our graduating 5th graders to the Mariner’s game. I didn’t stay up to wait for his arrival home, but I did ask Siri on my iPhone who won the game before I turned out the lights. Siri informed me that Seattle crushed Toronto. I found it humorous that she used the word crushed, not something like the Mariner’s won or what not.

On Tuesday, Owen had his 9 month well-check appointment at 10 months old. Since this appointment had no shots, I’m guessing it didn’t matter that it was a little off schedule. I was grateful to not have to deal with a cranky baby who doesn’t like shots. They did have to do a finger prick, but Owen didn’t even cry. The nurse said that they don’t often cry at this age because they are so used to getting banged up through exploring the world. It’s true. Owen’s exploration and mobility have left him a bunch of bruises. I’m about to wrap him in bubble wrap! Of course, it’s always fun to see the stats. Owen is 19% in weight, 30% in height and 73% in head circumference. To my surprise, Owen weighed in at 19lbs. 6 oz. He has yet to break the 20lbs. mark! I’m okay with him being on the smaller side because he is healthy and happy. Our doctor was really encouraging and said Owen is doing great.

The latter part of my week was spent the good old Southwest Washington Fair. Our MOPS group has a booth at the fair and each of the leadership team members took two shifts. The shifts were four hours each and they dragged on a bit because our booth wasn’t really hopping. We offered a diaper changing station and a private nursing room. I was a little disappointed more people didn’t take advantage of it. On Thursday, I was paired at the booth one of our mentor moms, Kate. It was fun to chat with her and get to know her story more. On Friday, Jeremy and Owen joined me. Once my shift was up, we met up with my sister and brother-in-law to have dinner and explore the fair. It had been years since I’d gone to the fair, so I was super excited for the fair food! I had my all-time elephant ear and I was a happy camper! Yum!

Fun @ the SWW Fair

After some busy days, we had a day around the house yesterday. When Owen napped, I laid in bed and read. True luxury! I’m currently rereading the Anne of Green Gables series. I’m very happy to loose myself in the world of Avonlea and Prince Edward Island. Jeremy picked some apples off our trees. We have a great crop of apples coming in this year! I spent part of my afternoon making a homemade apple pie with home grown apples. You can’t beat that!

Around the house on Saturday! Toby needed to make a blog appearance since it’s been awhile!

That’s what the Scotts have been up as of late! We have family coming into town this week and we are looking forward to being reunited with some of our South Dakota family members. This will be there first time to meet Owen and we can’t wait to make the introductions! I know that the month will be over in a blink and the new school year will be starting. I’m trying to enjoy these last few summer days before the fall schedule picks up again. I love the seasons and the cycle of time. It’s been a good summer and more fun is still to be had. However, there is lots to look forward to just around the bend! We are blessed!

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Baby Containment August 11, 2014

Filed under: Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 12:19 pm

After a few weeks of chasing Owen around the house, Jeremy and I broke down and got a baby containment system. Owen will not happily play with his toys if he knows there is big world to explore. So for now, it’s baby prison for all. On the bright side, if you’re in baby prison with him, Owen doesn’t seem to mind it all that much. Despite the eye sore, it’s working for us. I’m grateful to not be running around the house trying to keep Owen out of trouble.

Make-shift containment

Here is a reason why containment is necessary!

A new look for the family room

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Double Digits – 10 months! August 8, 2014

Filed under: Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 11:59 am

10 months!

Wow, here we are 10 months of Mr. Owen. How did that happen? 10 months is a long time! Almost a year! Crazy! This last month has been a full one with baby development. Owen has started crawling. He is into EVERYTHING! Our house is fairly safe for children, but Owen finds all the spots that he shouldn’t play in. We are having to put latches on our cabinet doors to keep him from any harmful chemicals. Keeping Owen alive got more interesting with the addition of crawling. Owen can also pull himself up on furniture now. He thinks he is the coolest, but he doesn’t like how he can’t get around once he is up. Our church nursery has a toy that you can push to stabilize for walking, so Owen now pushes that around and walks around the nursery. As much as he enjoys crawling, he still would prefer to hold onto your fingers and walk around like a big boy. Mobility is a very big deal these days.

Owen continues to be loud. As I’ve had to “redirect” him lately, he has developed a blood curdling mad scream. It’s practically ultrasonic. On car rides, Owen loudly yells almost the entire time. It’s not an unhappy yell. It certainly is intense though. Jeremy and I really want to know what he is thinking! Owen doesn’t have any words yet. He is still sputtering out syllables, but nothing that makes much sense to us. He has started pointing at everything. He especially likes to point at things outside while looking through the window. He loves to give kisses. He kisses certain pictures in his books. It’s super cute. He loves to read books while sitting in my lap. It’s one of the ways I can keep him in one spot! Owen is also mastering waving good-bye. He usually does it after we walk away from the person. It’s a delayed wave. This week he learned how to clap! Now when he hears music or gets super excited, he claps. It’s adorable!!!

Just yesterday, we bought Owen a new car seat. He was getting too long for his infant car seat. It makes me kind of sad that he won’t be using an “infant” car seat anymore. He keeps growing up and becoming a big boy. In true Amy fashion, I’m already thinking and planning for the big 1st birthday! It will be here in a blink! I also went shopping yesterday for more 12 months clothes. Owen is right in between 9 months and 12 months when it comes to clothes. We also picked up a new toy that made Jeremy and I little nostalgic. Being a parent is fun because you can share the things you loved as a kid with your kid. Owen’s 9 month doctor’s appointment will be happening this next week (we know, a little late). We’ll have the current stats on Tuesday. I thinking Owen might have broken the 20lbs mark! We’ll soon find out! Keeping up with this kid is crazy, fun and wonderful!

Stopping to get a weenie whistle!

Exploring

First time to Ikea!

Playing with his Little People farm. Jeremy and I loved this toy as kids!

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Getting Around July 28, 2014

Filed under: Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 11:54 am

It’s amazing the changes that can happen in a span of a week. Owen has grasped on to the concept of mobility and he is getting around! Owen went from being able to inch his way here or there to full on scooting this last week. It’s not a true crawl because he can’t get both legs under him. It’s a scoot and it’s working for him. He is now into everything. With this new found mobility, Owen is learning to hear a new word a lot – no! No, you can’t put the door stopper in your mouth. No, you can’t push the buttons on Daddy’s Xbox. No, you can’t climb on the hearth. No, you can’t pull the books off Mommy’s bookshelf. I certainly have to keep my eyes on him now. Gone are the days of leaving him for a minute knowing that he will be in the same spot when I return. My life has taken a drastic change. I know someday this will be normal, but for now I’m in major adjustment mode.

He started in the family room with me in the center of the rug… Someone is getting around!

Owen didn’t know how to get from laying down to sitting position until this last week. He quickly grasped that concept as well. I walked into Owen’s room a couple of times to find him sitting up in crib. Then I saw him sit up while playing and I realized that it was time to lower the crib. Jeremy and I debated lowering it just one setting, but we figured we would go all the way down. At this rate, he’ll be standing and running marathons in a month. Okay, maybe not, but it seemed the best use of time just to lower it all the way. The changes just kept coming as we decided that Owen is done with the penguin bathtub. He has loved it so much that we didn’t want to miss with the bath time happiness, but… after seeing him play well in the pool, we figured he would play well in the tub too. We were right. So now Owen takes big boy baths.

He’s got the whole tub to play in now!

When I bend all the way down to pick Owen up out of crib, I am reminded just how big he is getting. He is heavy and long and feels less like a baby in my arms. When he started scooting, Jeremy said it’s like he is not a baby anymore. I exclaimed that he is for sure a baby because is not toddling and if he is not a toddler than he is a baby. This is my mommy logic. While, he is still a baby, he is certainly becoming more a big boy each day. This last week of milestones has grown him up in our eyes. It’s hard to believe how much can happen in one little life in such a short amount of time. He continues to amaze us (and keep us on our toes)!

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Welcome Summer! July 26, 2014

Filed under: Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 1:00 pm

This week I got the chance to drive up north with my mom and Owen to meet Miss Summer Taylor Boone. My forever friend, Maggie, is a now mom! I’m so beyond excited for her and her husband, Chris. There are a lot of little boys in my circle of friends and family (and I love them dearly). This last weekend at my one and only niece’s birthday party, I was reminded again just how precious little girls are. Brinley’s sweet exclamations as she opened her presents melted me. I love little girls! All this to say, I am SO happy to have another little girl in my life. As an unofficial auntie, I now have another reason to buy something pink. This gets me really excited. As I held Summer, I remembered how small newborns are and how quickly they grow and change. She is beautiful and tiny and loved! I can’t wait to see who this little girl grows up to be. Being on this road of motherhood is more fun with friends. I’m sure Maggie and I’s relationship will only deepen as we love on our kiddos and do our best to be the moms they need us to be. The road ahead is full of adventure and a lot of love. Can’t wait! Welcome Summer!

We prayed for these babies and here they are! We are moms! Crazy and amazing!

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Soda Experiment & Other Randomness July 16, 2014

Filed under: Parenthood,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 4:10 pm

I’ve passed the mid-week mark. I am now in the home stretch of Jeremy’s absence. The week has been a good one. It’s gone better than I expected. I’ve maintained my watering regime and even got the trash can and recycling can out on time. Owen has enjoyed our adventures and he has gotten some new toys to entertain himself through this week without dad. Thanks to the wonders of FaceTime, Jeremy and Owen have had daily chat times and Owen really enjoys being able to see his dad on the screen.

New toy from Grandma

Like I mentioned in my last post, its been a week full of projects and visits. Yesterday, my big project was sorting and boxing up some of Owen’s baby clothes and moving them to the garage. Owen is still in 9 month clothes, but will be transitioning to 12 months sooner than I care to admit. Owen happily played in his room while I sorted his clothes. The other project was taking apart his mobile and getting it out to the garage as well. The mobile had become something Owen tugged on and kicked when he should be sleeping. It seemed like it was time to take it down. Now his crib looks weird… Something is missing.

New toy from Dad - Jeremy has left Owen a herd of new toys this week!

New toys from Dad – Jeremy has left Owen a herd of new toys this week!

I had an odd experiment that I wanted to try for a while and today seemed like a good day to do it. I used to be addicted to Dr. Pepper (very hardcore in high school and college). Once I decided to stop drinking my calories, I couldn’t switch to Diet Dr. Pepper because if I couldn’t have the real stuff, I didn’t want a knock off. That is how my addiction transferred Diet Pepsi. It’s been years since I had any Dr. Pepper product and I got curious. Do I still like Dr. Pepper? Is Diet Dr. Pepper really has bad as I think it is? Is Diet Pepsi better than Diet Dr. Pepper? So I set out on an experiment. I poured each of the sodas into a cup that was labeled on the bottom. I mixed the sodas around until I wasn’t able to remember what soda was what. I then did a blind taste test. I was able to figure out which soda was what instantly. The verdict was surprisingly the same as the past. I still think Dr. Pepper is the best. Diet Dr. Pepper is a sad version of the good stuff, but it’s not as bad I remembered and well, diet pepsi…. It’s my second love, not my first. Now I won’t start drinking regular Dr. Pepper again because it has a lot of calories, but it was an interesting experiment to see my taste buds had changed over the years. Turns out that they haven’t. Also, I should mention that I couldn’t let the sodas go to waste once I opened them. I’ve now had double the caffeine I usually have in day (it’s still less than a cup of coffee). I’m hoping it will give me a little extra get-up-and-go as I finish out the day. We’ll see!

The experiment

Since it’s Wednesday, I have church tonight. Half of my class is summer camp with Jeremy, so I’m expecting it to be a quiet night. For the girls that do come, we’ll have outside play time, a card game and root beer floats. We’ll take a night off from the serious stuff since it will be a small dynamic. Breaking routine is fun every once and a while and hopefully it make the absence of our classmates a little more bearable.

That’s the update. Jeremy should be reunited with us soon and we are looking forward to it with great anticipation!

PS – This little girl is 2 today! Happy birthday to niece, Brinley!

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Holding Down the Fort July 14, 2014

Filed under: Family Time,Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 5:34 pm

Owen, Toby and I are keeping on eye on the homestead while Jeremy is away for 6 days at Kid’s Camp. Jeremy had an overnight commitment in April and I had my sister come spend the night with me. That makes last night my first official night alone with Owen. Obviously, we lived to tell about it the next day. Only 4 more nights to go! While I miss my hubby terribly, I have packed my week full of projects and outings to keep myself and Owen occupied. Yesterday, Jeremy took off after church so Owen and I had the afternoon/evening to fill. We went up my parent’s house to have dinner and play with their exciting toys. After dinner we came home to finish off the evening with DVR’d television, laundry folding and book reading. We’re an exciting bunch.

The mystery bags! I’m trying to patient and not open them all at once!

Jeremy left 5 bags of surprises for us while he is gone. Today Owen and I got to open up the first bag! Jeremy got cookies for me and a toy for Owen. At least, I assume that was the gift breakdown. He didn’t say. I do love little people so maybe the toy was for me. I’m not sure I would like to see Owen on an Oreo sugar high. I’ve already dug into the cookie stash today!

Monday’s surprise goodies!

Apart from keeping Toby and Owen alive, I am also responsible for watering Jeremy’s many plants while he is away. There are two planters in the front of the house, the flower beds, his garden and the green house. Lucky for me, Jeremy has most of these set up with sprinklers and drip hoses. All I have to do is remember to turn on the water… and off. I’m two days into my watering commitment and so far so good. If these plants die, it’s not for a lack of water.

Trying to keep the green things green

Today, Owen and I have worked on a couple of projects (I will blog about these next week – they are a surprise for Jeremy, who reads this blog). I ran some errands while my mom watched Owen and we have a meeting with a family at church. Tomorrow we have MOPS in the park in the morning and we’ll be stopping by sister’s house to check it out. We haven’t been over since moving day, so I am excited to see how she’s settled in. I have packages to get into the mail, baby clothes to sort, my regular house chores to do, root beer floats for my Wednesday night class and a new book to finish. I even have a soda experiment to perform this week. Never a dull moment! I hope all this activity helps us to sleep hard at night and makes the days fly by so we can be reunited with Jeremy sooner! I sure miss that man!

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Celebrating 8 years of us & 9 months of Owen! July 8, 2014

Filed under: Family Time,Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 12:37 pm

Celebrating 8 years!

Today is a very special day. Two things coincide on this one day. Today is Jeremy and I’s wedding anniversary. We are celebrating 8 years of wedded bliss! I’m grateful for the 7 years that Jeremy and I had together before having Owen. Our marriage has been built on a strong foundation. It’s been an adventure figuring out our lives as parents. I’m so glad that I get to be on this adventure with Jeremy. He has the ability to make me laugh whatever mood I am in. He is giving and caring. He does little things often to show me he loves me. He is a wonderful provider for our family and I am blessed by his strong work ethic. It’s been fun to watch Jeremy with Owen. They are good buddies. Owen is lucky to have a father who is so invested in his life. The last 8 years have been filled with ups and downs. Jeremy has been by my side for all them. I’m so excited that this is still just the beginning of our love story!

9 months

The other fun element of the day is Owen is now 9 months old! Somehow our little boy has reached the 3/4 of a year mark! How? I do not know. Owen continues to grow in personality. He loves to laugh and talk. Our baby is not a quiet baby. I know I say this monthly, but I am amazed at how vocal he is. He now says Dada and Mama in a way that makes me think he understands what he is saying. Another big milestone is Owen got two teeth this month! With the addition of teeth, Owen has shown slightly more interest in finger foods. He is still cautious, but he seems more willing to lick things and try to put them in his mouth. If you hand Owen something, he will immediately hit it on something to see what sound it makes. He loves to make noise. Other random Owen news, he now likes to hang out on the wood floor. On the floor, he has the ability to scoot. Owen isn’t crawling, but he is moving. He knows how to get around in a very makeshift kind of way. He loves to hit the bins on our bookshelves and he enjoys laying under is jumperoo (weird kid). He also loves to walk while holding our fingers. He can practically run! We did have our mishap where Owen let go of Jeremy’s fingers and biffed it. The couch leg caught his fall and cut his eyebrow. He handled it well, but there goes that modeling career! Overall, Owen is a happy 9 month old baby boy! It’s been so amazing to see the changes month to month and I am excited for the little boy he is becoming. He is a sweetheart who now gives hugs and kisses. I could keep sharing tidbits endlessly, but alas, all blogs must come to an end. I will leave you with some recent photos!

Hanging with Grandpa

The socks totally go with these jammies, right?

Pool time with Daddy!

New favorite spot

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An ER Trip & A Zoo Trip June 30, 2014

Filed under: Family Time,Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 4:12 pm

This last weekend was an exciting one. Owen experienced many firsts – his first trip the ER on Friday and his first trip to the Oregon Zoo on Saturday. Friday was my grandma’s 81st first birthday. My mom, Owen and I drove up to Puyallup to celebrate with the birthday girl. We got there and socialized with my grandma and great-aunt and great-uncle. My cousin, Charlotte, stopped by for a few minutes. Owen got to play with his 3rd cousins, Forrest and Lincoln. Forrest and Owen are 10 days apart so it was fun to see the two babies together. After all the socializing, we went out to a yummy lunch at Olive Garden. Owen had moments of fussiness at the restaurant, but he held it together pretty well for a baby who needed a nap. My mom offered to stop at Starbucks on our way out of town and this where the day went downhill. Since the drive thru was crazy busy my mom decided to go in and place our orders. I was sitting in the car with Owen who was sleeping and breathing a bit funny. All of the sudden the sound of a puking baby could be heard. I got out of the front seat and opened the car door in the back to see Owen covering himself in puke. It was bad. Very bad. Puddles… Anyway, I got Owen out of the car seat and started to clean things up as a best I could. Thank God for baby wipes. I had to clean the car seat and the area surrounding it, I had to wipe down his toys and then proceed to clean Owen with my mom’s help. My mom’s vehicle has a nice spot in the back so we laid Owen down and gave him a baby wipe bath and a fresh diaper and outfit. Mom questioned putting him back into clothes, but I thought this was an isolated incident (rookie mistake). We reloaded and took off for home until… the sound of baby puke could be heard again. We pulled off in a local church parking lot and started the process of cleaning up Owen again. And then Owen threw up twice more. This time it was all over my lap. Yep. Good times. At this point, we decided to wait out the bug and return my grandma’s house since we were only a few minutes away. Once we got to Grandma’s, Owen was asleep so we decided to turn around and head back for home. However, Owen’s breathing got weird and his color was super pale. He threw up a couple more times and we finally made the decision to take him to the nearest ER. As you can tell, there was a lot of driving and stopping and puking. I made many phone calls with Jeremy and our doctor’s office before finally making the decision to go to the ER. The 15 minute drive to the ER was one of the scariest in my life. Owen was so pale and I was scared if he closed his eyes that he wouldn’t wake up, so I kept him awake (more for my sanity than anything else). We arrived at the ER and Owen perked up. It was crazy. I’m fairly certain it was an answer to the prayers our family had been praying for us. It was a tough call but we decided to stay and have Owen seen by the doctor just to be on the safe side. This led to us spending over two hours in the ER waiting… for no real reason. We were seen by the triage nurses and told Owen was fine but if we wanted we could go back to the waiting room and continue to wait for a room to open up and a doctor to see us. Jeremy arrived after this conversation with the nurses and we decided it was time to go home. Owen was doing much better and had stopped throwing up. He had no fever and seemed to be his normal self again. We took our chances and signed him out of the hospital. At this point it was now 5:30pm (we originally started to leave for home at 1:00pm) and I was exhausted from the day. It was so challenging to me to make these decisions regarding Owen’s health all on my own. I’m so grateful that my mom was alongside me for this adventure. She really helped me keep it together. We were both so grateful when Owen perked up. He was a totally different baby by the time we took off for home.

After all the drama of Friday, you would assume we had a quiet day to lay low and just recover? Nope, wrong. It was Family Zoo Day for our church. Jeremy felt awkward about going to the Zoo without his family and I totally understand. As the leader of this event, he really couldn’t stay home. So we all went to the zoo on Saturday. Owen had no fever and hadn’t thrown up since the whole ER ordeal. We decided we would greet the families at the zoo and then leave whenever depending on how Owen was feeling. The whole day had me a little nervous, but it turned into a really great family day. Jeremy and I enjoyed taking Owen around the zoo. Owen clued into the animals and loved to watch them. The weather was off and on rainy so the zoo was kind of quiet. After the drama of Friday, it was just nice to be together as a family. I was so glad that Owen was feeling better and that we could have that time together. I wasn’t sure how the day would go down, but it turned into an family memory that I will never forget. We had a really good time. The contrast of the day before only made it sweeter. I really appreciated it!

Cousin Time

Family Zoo Day

Flowers from my hubby after all the drama

Feeling better and ready for the week ahead!

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8 months! June 8, 2014

Filed under: Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 3:44 pm

8 months!

It’s time for Owen’s 8 month blog! The months keep flying by and each one brings new adventures and experiences. The first year of a babies life can be so crazy and so amazing all at the same time. When Owen was first born and people commented on how quick the months ago, I was tempted not to believe them. Adapting to a major life change made the days feel long, but now that we’re getting more in sync as a family, the days speed by and so do the months.

This month Owen has officially mastered rolling over. He was late to the game when he came to rolling, but now he’s got it down. He also plays with the slats on his crib and moves around the crib during nap times. I never know what position I’m going to find him in. As of late, he likes to roll over on his side when I put him down for a nap. I have no clue if side sleeping is normal, but Owen seems to think so.

Owen and Toby have become better friends this month. Toby sniffs and licks Owen now. Owen loves watching Toby and talking with him. Toby usually responds to Owen’s calls by barking and this delights Owen. I wonder if the break through in their relationship happened through food. Owen has no interest in finger foods other than dropping over the side of his high chair. Of course, Toby loves this and runs over when ever he hears something fall to the ground. Owen might not like puffs and yogurt bites, but Toby sure does!

Crazy curl!

When we go out with Owen the first thing people always comment on is his hair. Owen’s hair is pretty crazy these days. It’s quite the mane. This baby has some serious length, volume and curl. Jeremy and I have talked about getting it cut, but I’m afraid it might only make it zanier. So for the time being he’ll just be the Fabio of babies. I always said I wanted a baby with hair. I had no idea what I was asking for!

Time for a walk!

The weather has warmed up and we’ve been talking lots of walks up and down our street. I love getting out into the sunshine! We have a new swing set thanks to Papa and Nana so now we’ve added swing time to our outside routine. Both Owen and Toby love being outside, so this time makes them happy. You can’t beat fresh air. When the days get hotter, Jeremy got a little kiddy pool to splash around in. Since Owen loves bath time so much, I’m assuming the pool will be a hit on a hot summer day.

Owen keeps getting bigger and bigger. He is now weighing in around 18.5lbs. He likes to stand using objects to support himself. If you give Owen something to hold, his first response will be to bang it on something. He likes to hit things together and make noise. Maybe a little drummer in our future? I better start stocking up on Advil now. However, Owen makes all sorts of fun noises and one of our friends suggested he might be a trumpet player. Jeremy played the trumpet so this suggestion really resonated with him. Either way, drums or trumpet, I have feeling Owen will loud no matter what. On a random note, Owen loves theme songs. If we’re watching a show on TV, Owen will stop everything he is doing and just stare the TV when a theme song comes on. Once it’s over, he goes back to his playing. It’s the craziest thing. He is really into music.

That about wraps up this monthly update! Of course, it wouldn’t be a good Owen blog without pictures! Enjoy!