15+ months

Oh wow...so much that I haven't written about lately.  We've had a few things happen in the last four months.  Rowan turned 1 (O-N-E!!!!!!).  Rowan enjoyed a couple of weeks with both mom and dad home while I was furloughed.  We've done a trip up to Minnesota and two to Kansas City.  Rowan got to go trick or treating with his cousin Hudson.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  And now w'ere getting ready to celebrate Christmas.

Christmas is still my favorite time of year. I'm so glad that we get to celebrate with our friends and family.  Plus I feel like this is Rowan's 'real' first Christmas.  I know we had Christmas with him last year, but he was still so little.  This year Rowan is starting to get Christmas.  He loves reading our Christmas books and doing our advent calendar each night (though I suppose the fact that our advent calendar comes with a daily dose of chocolate has nothing to do with it...)  Plus this year for Christmas we'll get to see both sets of grandparents.  Bonus!

Alright, that's enough talking for now.  Here are some vital stats and pictures!

-Rowan has grown quite a bit.  I honestly can't remember what he was at a year (and I somehow managed to NOT write it down somewhere) but he was 19lb 7oz at his first 15 month check.  He was super sick at his 15 month check.  He hadn't eaten much the couple of days before so we're guessing he had lost a little weight.  Since he was sick, our doctor didn't want to do shots that day.  So we ended up going back just shy of 2 weeks later for shots and a weight check.  He's now 20lb 7oz.  So yeah...not eating for a few days takes a toll on a baby's weight.  He's about 32 inches long too.
-Rowan now has 13 teeth.  Almost has a full set of chompers!  He loves to brush his teeth each night.
-Rowan has a few more words now (banana, uh-oh, mom, dad, woof).  He also tells the dogs to sit (kind of...it's more of a short "eh", but he only says it when we tell the dogs to sit).  He has a few signs too (milk, eat, please and we're working on bath and water).  He has also learned to shake his head no...and he does that one a lot.
-No walking yet, he's content to crawl and be carried.  He's willing to stand unassisted for a bit now. Yesterday he even took a small step towards Ian after standing unassisted for about 20 seconds.  Walking is on the horizon, just not sure how far away that horizon is yet.

Avid reader.  We have to read each day, and he knows which books  he wants to read on any given day.

I'm ONE and awesome!

Halloween 2013

We loved pumpkins, before cutting them up

And then we cut them up...dis.like.

But carving with mom was fun.

Daddy's boy

Cheese!

Ready for our next adventure!

Lounging in his big boy car seat

Bath time.  True story: Mom spelled out Rowan, and Rowan added the V onto the wall.  We know, we know...genius child 

MacLeod family-December 2013

11 Months

Holy crap...that means in 4 weeks from today my baby boy will be O-N-E.  That's just crazy!  It's so bizarre to think of all that he's been through this year.  He started not being able to do much of anything...just eat, sleep, and poop pretty much.  Now he's crawling, standing, eating solid food (and real solid food...not mushed up food), laughing, having temper tantrums, and showing some definite preferences. I'm constantly amazed at how we are created.  Life truly is a miracle and I'm so thankful that We were entrusted with Rowan.  We're pretty darn lucky.

Alright...enough sappy talk.  Rowan...11 months.  What's going on in his life?  Well, not much new.  He's eating solid food almost exclusively.  I'm still breastfeeding about 3 times a day.  He nurses first thing in the morning and before bed.  He'll usually nurse once more during the day-either around lunch time or mid afternoon.  He'll get milk in sippy cups too and does really well with that.  He loves fruit, dairy, and MEAT!  This boy is definitely a meat eater at heart.  He shows his preferences at meal time every day.  We'll put a variety of foods on his high chair, and he'll immidiately go for his favorites.  One of our new favorite meal time games is feed the puppies.  If the dogs are inside, Rowan loves to throw his left over food on the floor and watch the dogs eat it.  Thankfully he's good about eating for himself first before feeding the dogs, but feeding the dogs is hil-arious.  It's even better when the dogs come up and lick his hands.  Belly laughs.  Every. Time.

We're sure he's put on weight, but we're not sure how much.  He definitely had a good growth spurt and is much longer now.  He also looks quite a bit chunkier in the thighs and belly.  Anxious to see where he's at at his next check.  Even though he's gained weight, he's still a peanut.  Just growing out of size 2 diapers (using disposables at night time) and still in 9 month clothes.  The 6-9 month clothes are a bit tight now and not quite long enough.  I'm guessing we'll have to pull out the 12 month clothes either just before or shortly after his birthday.

Rowan is also very good at throwing temper tantrums when we take something away from him.  He loves our phones, but does not like when we have to take them away.  You would think we were hurting the baby by taking the phone away.  But thankfully he does calm down relatively quickly.  Unless he's tired.  Then it's a rough go for a few minutes.

He has nine teeth popped through now.  Eight teeth in the front and one molar.  The molar was a bit rough for him.  We just picked up some teething tablets the other day-wish we had done that sooner.  They seem to work well for him. Before then we were getting by with tylenol or ibuprofen. 

We had our first scary fever incident earlier this month.  Rowan came down with a fever quick and hard.  Got all the way up to 104.7.  We didn't have to take him into the hospital because he was staying hydrated and we could get the fever down with meds, a cool bath, munching on ice chips, and a cool wash cloth on the back of his neck.  The fever lasted for about 71 hours.  The last time we took his temp, we were going to take him into the doctor if he still had  fever and it was 97 something.  Poor guy just wanted to cuddle, nurse, and sleep. 

While he's pulling himself to standing all the time, he's not seeming all that interested in walking.  He's scooted along the table once, but that's it.  He's perfectly content to crawl.  Ian's betting that he'll go from standing to walking in about a day-once he decides he wants to that is.  =)

That's about it for our little boy.  Next month-his birthday.  Crazy and so very exciting all at the same time!

Photos galore!

Nothing but photos.  Enjoy!

It's all fun and games until we realize we can't sit up straight.  And yes...he put himself in there.

Cheese!

I love my puppies!

Weeee!

Swinging is the best!

Daddy's hilarious!

Funny daddy.

Standing tall 

Gamer in training

Preppy even looks cute on this kid

9 and 10 months-words

9 months old and NOT wanting to cooperate for this photo.

10 months old...not looking like a baby anymore

Wow...Rowan is 10 months old now.  Where did this 9th month go?

Since I skipped a month of updates, I may miss some...sorry about that!  This last month and a half has just been crazy.  Rowan got to drive across the state of South Dakota 4 times in 10 days.  Once for a vacation out to Gillette, WY to see his grandma, grandpa, uncle, and cousin.  The second time was out to Rapid City for my uncle's funeral.  He traveled like a champ.  The trip to Rapid City went quickly for Rowan because he had his cousin Derick in the car to keep him entertained.  On top of travels, we were finishing up derby season and found out we need to do some major home repairs (bathroom, roof, and basement).  So all in all, it's  been one busy summer so far and we're just about half way through!  But...enough of my excuses, here are some 'stats' on our no-so little man.

-At his 9 month check, Rowan weight 17lbs and measured 28.15 inches. His doctor wasn't concerned about his growth, but she wasn't happy with it either.  She asked up to step up the breast feeding.  We had been giving him milk 3 times a day and solids 3 times a day.  She asked us to start doing milk at least 4 times a day.  We have been trying...but frankly Rowan's just not that interested any more.  We can get 3 good feedings in no problem.  Getting a 4th good feeding in is hit or miss.  Not sure where he's at weight wise now, but I certainly feel like he's gotten bigger! He's still in 9 month clothes.
-We've added sooooo many new foods into his diet!  He's now eating squash, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, carrots, spinach (new), strawberries, blueberries (new), white potatoes (new), mangoes (new), huckleberries, apples, grapes, bananas (he'll eat a WHOLE banana in one sitting if we let him!), pears, peaches, nectarines, yogurt (new), egg yolk (new), chicken (new), hamburger (new), and cheese (new).  I'm sure there are some foods I'm forgetting, but there's so much he's eating now.  He still LOVES to eat everything we put in front of him.  He's a little hit and miss with meat.  He'll happily put it in his mouth.  Sometimes he eats it right away; other times he just lets it sit in his mouth and sucks out the flavor.
-Sleep is still good.  Nights are amazing...now sleeping 11-12 hours a night.  Naps are getting better.  He's starting to take a good afternoon nap.  Still super sleepy in the morning.
-We have six teeth.  Three on top and three on bottom.  A fourth one on top has looked like it's been wanting to come in for a while, but no luck yet.  With the six teeth in there I'm kind of glad that he's starting to self ween from the breast a little bit =)
-Rowan crawls really well and in starting to pull him self up to standing pretty steadily.  When he stands up he sometimes gets a look like "now what?" and then plops back down.  I'm sure it won't be too long before he's walking around though.
-Rowan's starting to babble with some more sounds.  He's not very conversational though he does talk a lot...it's just that most of his sounds are just loud vowel sounds.  Lately though we've started to hear more 'babababa' and 'dadadada' on top of 'nananana' and 'mamamamamama'.  We will hear a distinct "mom" every now and then that just makes me so very happy. (Ian is anxiously waiting to hear "dad") His hearing is fine and according to the audiologist we saw at our ENT appointment (had a meet and greet after our 3rd ear infection just in case we need to talk tubes down the road...nothing yet though!) said he didn't have much fluid there and his ear drums were vibrating.  Guess he's being an average boy and a little slower on the language development than his female counter parts.  
-Rowan is definitely showing preferences.  When he's playing, he definitely has certain books/toys he wants to play with at certain times-and he can get mad when he doesn't get what he wants.  His new favorite book is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?"  We have a version that is a 'slide and find' and he's now able to slide the tab over to see the next animal. He loves that book.  I kind of hate reading it to him because it never fails...we take it away to put it back on the shelf when it's time to be done and he SCREAMS because he wants to read it one more time.  He also loves musical toys, Ian's computer, and our cell phones.  (Un)Fortunately Rowan is a smart boy and knows when Ian locks his phone-and he does not like that either.
-Rowan still loves his puppies and really wants to play ball with Bishop. Bishop has yet to realize that when Rowan gets a little older he will play ball for hours on end.  I think once Bishop realizes that he will be the happiest dog in the world.

 That's all the words!  A mass uploading of pictures to follow in the next post!

8 months old

Well Rowan has hit the 8 month mark. Like all other months this one has flown by. The 7th of each month comes up so quickly. It's hard to believe we'll need to start actually planning a birthday party here soon.

This month was also full of milestones.

-Rowan has 3 teeth fully emerged. One other top tooth looks like it wants to cone in but it's been shy for about 2-3 weeks. Those chompers are sharp though. He bit me once hard enough to draw blood....while nursing. Thankfully it was just the one time.

-Rowan is a crawler! He started to crawl about a week or so ago. He's still a little robotic when he crawls, but he is certainly figuring out how to get around. It's great to see him exploring.

-Rowan said 'mama'. Well, kinda. He says 'mamamamamamama' a lot. He seems to say it when he's hungry, tired,or otherwise upset. I don't think he has connected me to 'mama' completely yet, but I still love hearing that sound.

-Rowan is probably a little over 17 pounds now. He loves his food. We've added squash, zucchini, green beans, and strawberries into his diet. Strawberries were an oops. We gave him some strawberry yogurt things and he really liked them, so we decided to do a strawberry/pear mix. He hasn't seemed to have an allergic reaction, but we're preceding with caution.

I'm quickly realizing my time with Rowan as a baby is coming to an end. He's looking more and more grown up as time goes by. I can't say I was the least bit sad when I got to hold him for an hour and a half while he napped today. It was sweet and something I won't get to do a whole lot more of with him.



Heart. Breaker.



Michief. Maker.

7 Months Old!

7 Months Old!

Daddy's Mini Me

Rowan turned 7 months old on Sunday.  Crazy to think we're more than 1/2 way to his 1st birthday.  This time last year we were about ready to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.  Now we have a happy little boy living in our house that is FULL of personality. 

Rowan's still growing like he should.  He's passed the 16 pound mark...we think.  He seems like he's A LOT heavier.  Either that or I'm getting weaker...  Next official measurements will be at 9 months. 

He loves food!  He's had a few puffs now and does pretty well with them.  Since they're crunchy (at least until they get wet) he's not quite sure what to do with them.  His face is pretty comical when he starts chewing them.  He had his first allergic reaction to food too.  We're not sure if it's pears or the other brand of oatmeal we tried.  Who knew changing brands could cause allergic reactions?  We eliminated both of them from his diet and we'll try to reintroduce them over the next few weeks to see what caused the reaction.  It wasn't anything major, just a little rash around his mouth.  A third tooth just broke through on his upper gum.  That toothy smile just melts my heart.

I. Want. That. Paper.

Got it!

Rowan started to take his pacifier more regularly too.  He's pretty good at putting it in his mouth when he wants it.  He isn't dependent on it to go to sleep, but he'll actually suck on it for a while.  Here's hoping he only stays moderately attached so when we take it away for good it's not traumatizing for him (or us!). 

He's QUITE determined when he wants something too.  He's good at getting what he wants, even if it's 'far' away.  He hasn't quite figured out crawling yet, but he's good at rolling to where he wants to go.  He's up on his hands and knees quite a bit now, so I think crawling will happen soon-ish.  Until that happens, he's content to roll, scoot backwards, and put his head down on the ground once on his knees for a minute.  Silly little boy.

Sleeping so peacefully

He's still sleeping...a lot!  10ish hours per night is regular now.  My only complaint about that is now I no longer have a 5:30 alarm I have to wake up for.  Great on the weekends...bad during the week when I have to work. 

Other than that, we're loving seeing his different facial expressions.  He's so very expressive and happy.  We are laughing to much around him all the time.  He's really brightened our lives and we couldn't be more thankful for our sweet baby boy.

I love playing!

It's a duck!

Rowans Favorite Things

Right now Rowan's favorite things include laughing and blowing spit bubbles with his tongue.  We managed to get a video of both.  Though towards the end of the laughing at Bishop video he starts to get tired and a little less laughy and a little more fussy.