Owie's on the mOooVe.....

Owen is officially too busy!!!
On April 14th Owen learned how to be mobile...he started army crawling and scooting on his belly!!! He can get wherever he wants to be and has already destroyed two of my Willow Tree Angel Statues...both broken while Dad was in charge!!! Owen is also probably only days away if not hours from truly crawling, he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth and you can see his little mind trying to figure it out...how can I go faster???? He loves to crawl over to the stairs and will look back over his shoulder to see if you are coming for him...when he sees you he gives his little evil laugh and tries to crawl faster, laughing the entire time. Owen wants to be wherever his brothers are and he knows that they are downstairs, so the stairs are quite appealing. So life as we know it is over, feeling safe and secure that he isn't into anything or just having him sit where you put him are done!!!

When I say he has an evil laugh....HE DOES!!! We love it...he knows when he is being naughty and gives us his little evil laugh. One of my most favorite sounds he makes is when I call Tate or Davis' name, and he will then make this sweetest "huh" noise, I truly believe that he thinks he is calling his brothers like I am. When you ask him where the boys are he looks to the stairs or the door. He loves his brothers and I love that he loves his brothers so much.

May 4th marked his NiNe MoNTH mark, if you all can believe it, I can not!!!! My little "O" is nine months, I am not sure where the time goes...He has his two middle bottom teeth....Owen can clap his hands together and of most recent has learned how to wave and this morning shook his head no...he also can go from lying on the ground to sitting quite effortlessly....Owen lights up my life and the room with his smile!!!

I took him to the doctor today for his nine month check-up and what a difference three months has made...I am not sure how they figure it out, but he was quite leary of the whole joint. When I laid him down on the table he was unsure about it and the paper and he absolutely was suspicious of Dr. Bentley!!!! He defintely has some stranger danger going on right now....along with stranger danger, he loves to act shy and buries his head into my neck and shoulder when anyone talks to him. Owen only gained barely 1 lb during the three months, so has averaged out on his weight being in the 50th percentile at 20lbs and for the moment, a very small moment, is topping the charts in his height at 91%, 29.75". Dr. Bentley gave me the okay to start Owen on table foods as he is NOT eating baby food...thinking that he will like table food better than baby food...the jury is still out on that...sometimes he will eat things and I think that I have found the ticket and then the next time I give it to him he spits it out...go figure...but we will keep battling!!!

Unfortunately, today we found out Owen has to have surgery on June 1st. (I apologize for the next little bit...it will be sort of graphic, but without using slang terms...this is the next best description...so bear with me!)

Owen was born without either testicle, known as undescended testicles, quite common in little boys (well, of course). At about 4 months one came down on its own, unfortunately the other one has not made its way down yet. After the nine month mark, it is pretty certain it will not come down by itself...also leaving a 40% chance that he may not even have another one. But the only way to be certain that he does not have one is to scope into his stomach and see where the two blood vessels come together, if he doesn't have one, he doesn't have one...he will be able to lead a normal life with only one...we will just make sure he wears a cup during any sporting event he plays, just to make sure he protects the one he has!!! If they find one and it looks deformed they will remove it...leaving him again only one. If they find one and it is healthy and the blood vessels are just caught up in stomach tissue, they will cut the tissue and pull it down and attach it in his sack. If it is there and healthy, but the blood vessels are not long enough to let it come down into the sack, and that is what is holding it up, they will cut the main blood vessel and attach a smaller one...let that one grow for a couple of months and then go back in and then stretch it down into the sack and attach it...making him have two operations, a couple months apart.

Everyone we tell wonders why they can't tell if he has one by ultrasound or MRI, unfortunately they are so small and take on the same look as lymphnodes and so can give false results. They do not like to leave them in there for too long because it can cause them to go sterile and have also been linked quite often to Testicular cancer, both options we obviously do not want!!! Research has shown that an infants testicle at 1 year left inside the stomach starts to show major deformities...thus why they like to do the surgery before they are one...usually around the nine month mark!!! I am sure I have given you more information than needed, but unfortunately until the day they do surgery we will not know what we are looking at and those are all the many scenarios that they have given to us.

Ty and I also recognize that this surgery is very routine...but it does not feel routine when it is your little one that has to do it. I think anytime you are messing with anesthesia the risks are unfortunately scary, and for crying out loud he is only 9 months old. And as I express our concerns and fears they seem trivial to many and especially a dear friend of mine who has watched her premature baby boy go through so much and they have had to endure so much heartache and trials in his short little life and I feel bad complaining of our little trial. But she made me feel better when she said...everything we are all dealing with is relative to what you are dealing with and that we were absolutely justified in feeling scared and apprehensive it is your baby and anything they have to endure is scary. She made me feel better about being so worried about what seems so simple and basic to many....but feels so scary to me and Ty.

Owen is getting to be so big!!! After the doctors I went and purchased a new car seat for him, he has officially moved out of the infant carrier and into the bigger car seat...which is a hard step for me....nothing says toddler like a big boy car seat!!! I can hardly believe that he is nine months and in a few short months we will be celebrating his 1 year birthday!!! I love these pictures of him, he loves his tongue and they always seem to find its way out especially when he smiles!!! ENJOY!!!