At Oma and Opa's

Rowan is standing up quite well now. He's able to stand up without holding onto anything, for a little bit anyway. He hasn't taken any steps with out holding onto something yet, but I'm sure he's close. He likes to wait until he's really ready, then he just takes off. I'm sure that two days after his first step, he'll be all over the place. I don't have a picture of him standing just yet. Soon, though.Here he is with a chocolate chip cookie that Oma gave him. Looks like fun, doesn't it?

One thing he's doing is prefering to go to Oma or Opa rather than his own mother! Of course, this usually happens after being with them all day while I'm at work. He leans over to come to me, but as soon as he's sure I'll take him, he wants to go right back to Oma. Hmmm. I'm sure this is just a phase, right?

On the plus side, I've been able to get Yahoo IM to put our webcam online. This way Eric can see Rowan. If anyone else wants to chat with me on Yahoo, my login name is bluprnc. The webcam even works on dial up connections. It's not great, but it's better than nothing :) Hopefully, I'll see someone online soon.

Settling in

Well, here is a picture of Rowan sitting in a chair with my cousin Mary Beth. He really likes her a lot. She plays with him and talks to him. He thought the best thing about that chair was that he could lean all the way back and touch his head to the floor.
He has been having a lot of fun most of the time. He loves to meet new people and there are always different people around here.
Here he is helping Opa cut the grass. Oma thought they were a perfect match in their bib overalls. Maybe we should get some overalls for Opa with Winnie the Pooh on them to match Rowan's? That would be a sight to see, wouldn't it? Anyway, Rowan liked the ride on the mower. I remember riding the mower at my aunt's farm when I was little, too. One of my best growing up memories.
Here Rowan is with Mojo. Mojo lets Rowan pull on him and climb all over him. And they share toys and kisses too! Rowan also signed his first word the other day. Of course his first word would be "dog". He's done it many times since, so it's not just a fluke. Imagine, not quite ten months old and already signing! I can't wait until he signs more words. I've been working hard, getting used to working day shift. Uggghhh! I don't really like the getting up at 5:30 am to get to work. Although, for some reason getting up at 5:30 pm would be no problem. Go figure. :) Oma and Opa are having a great time with Rowan. We are getting close to teaching him that he's not supposed to eat the dog food, but he thinks it's great to spread the kibbles all over the floor and spill water everywhere, too.

Start of the hot, wet summer

Well, it sure has been a busy week!!!
I worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights and came home Saturday morning, finished packing and tried to get a couple of hours of sleep. That didn't work. For some reason, I couldn't fall sound asleep. So I got up, Eric drove Rowan and me to the airport and said our good byes for most of the summer. It's exciting and a little scary too. At the airport, we asked if there was an earlier flight to Dallas. Our original one had us coming in at 11 pm and having to drive another 2 hours to mom & dad's house in Longview. I was not looking forward to getting to their house somewhere between 1 and 2 am. Ugghhh! There was an earlier flight, but that only gave me about 1/2 an hour to get to my connecting flight. But the plane would land at 8pm. I decided to go for it. We ended up getting in about 12:30am. Better any way.
Rowan was very good on the first flight. He played with the 6 year old girl sitting next to us the whole way. He was in a very good mood. At Salt Lake, he was a little confused with the run through the airport and not very happy that he didn't have time to crawl around before getting on the next flight. Also, he wanted a bottle, which I hadn't had time to make for him. The flight attendant wasn't able to get any warm water for him until the plane levelled off. By then he was screaming and the whole plane was willing to wait while she made him some warm water! He got his bottle and went right to sleep. He slept almost the entire rest of the way. He really does travel pretty well.
We got into Dallas, were picked up by Mom's Taxi, went to eat at the five star restaurant, Denny's and drove home to Longview. Rowan and I slept most of the way. We were able to take Sunday and get some much needed rest for both of us.
I started the new job today. I oriented to the hospital and met my boss. I have my schedule for the next few weeks. Basically, they fit me in wherever they needed me. I'm a little split up, but it's not too bad. At least it's not Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday!! That would be horrible. :)
I have tomorrow off, and I don't know if I'm gonna try to rest some more, or go out with Mom. I guess we'll see if the draw of shopping is bigger than the draw of sleep. Hmmm....
Pictures to come soon, I hope. Rowan is starting to cover his face with his hands. It's pretty cute and Oma is trying to teach him to blow kisses. Opa feeds him bananas, whole of course! And Uncle Jude makes faces at him. He and the dog are sharing toys. She takes them right out of his hands or mouth, whatever the case may be.

The newest one!!

Well here it starts again. We found a home for Kharma, the lab that we had adopted last summer. She found a really good home with another lab and three cats. Also, Christine's decided she needed to move into a house closer to town. That means we'd be down to two dogs. Tigger is getting older and Gwen needs someone younger to help keep her on her toes. We thought we'd just keep an eye out for something interesting. Well, of course as soon as we decide to look around we found an ad for mastiff/great dane cross puppies. We went to see them and fell in love with a merle female. Her name is Morgan. She's about six weeks and 12 lbs and loves to chew on Rowan and Kayleigh. They like to chase her around too. It's hard to believe that this little puppy is gonna grow to be over 100 lbs!! We're looking forward to watching her grow and learn with Rowan. Her parents are very friendly and very big! She's spending a lot of time sleeping, eating and pooping. Sounds very familiar. The good news is she's already sleeping through the night. That's much better than Rowan or Kayleigh ever did :)