I’ve been lacking in my posts lately (OK, for about a year now – sorry!), but I’ve wanted to share some footage of Owen walking.

He’s 13-and-a-half months old, and I guess he’s been walking for about two weeks. It’s only been the past couple of days, however, that he’s gotten adventurous in terms of letting go for longer stretches, turning, etc. He kind of has a Charlie Chaplin-like waddled. Soon, he’ll be everywhere and the walking will be second nature. For now, it’s an adventure. Enjoy:

Hard to believe it, but our little boy is 11 months old today. Yes, little Owen who we seemingly just brought home from the hospital is almost a year old. He’s growing so fast.

He’s bulking up, eating more and more solid foods. He’s also crawling everywhere. And he’s always good for a laugh as he tugs away at my hair and tries to poke at my eyes and mouth with his tiny hands.

He finally cut his top two teeth just a couple days ago. It was a really long wait, as his two front bottom teeth came in more than three months ago. I believe we have a note from his pediatrician with a November date on it that says these top teeth would be coming in any day now. Better late then never, I guess.

So now we enter the final month of his first year on this planet. It’s been a great 11 months so far. I couldn’t have asked for a more easygoing baby. But man, time sure goes by so, so quickly.

So much for our immobile little baby. Owen is now crawling. He started last Thursday with a couple 2-foot traverses across the carpet, and now he’s (almost) a pro.

It’s exciting, but as other parents know, it’s also just one more thing to worry about. Now we can’t just plop him down with toys or at a table – we have to keep a really close eye on him at all times. But it’s not only to make sure he doesn’t get hurt – it’s also to keep him away from his older brother’s precious toys! Yes, Owen likes to burn over to Oliver’s train table, where he does his best Godzilla impersonation, eating freight cars and tossing bridges and tracks all over the place!

I’ve been trying to get a decent video of Owen crawling, and finally did tonight. Here you go:

While it might not sound like much, I’m 100 percent certain that Owen has said his first word. He’s been babbling “da-da” for weeks, but last night I noticed something. He was really cranky, but when I sat down next to him and started into his eyes, he whispered, “Dada,” and then grinned ear to ear at me. He did it a couple times. Since he associated “dada” with me, I think that makes it officially his first word!

Tonight, after work, I went over to talk to him and the same thing happened … I made eye contact with him, he stopped his cranky noises, and he whispered, “Dada, dada, dada,” and then smiled at me before carrying on with his whining. I yelled over to Sarah to listen, then asked him who I am, and he whispered, “Dada,” again.

Finally, I grabbed my phone to shoot the video below. By this point, he was getting pretty cranky, but you can hear a really clear, whispered “dada” at the beginning and then an even fainter one near the end of the clip. Pretty cool stuff – at least to me. Here’s the video:

For those of you who’ve not seen the boys since I went on so-called “blog hiatus” a few months ago, I must say that Owen is getting quite big. He’s 8 months old now, and really getting interactive and making all kinds of fun sounds. Below’s a video of him playing by himself. Enjoy.