Absolutely Adorable

I'm biased. I admit it. But I have the most beautiful child in the whole world. And his temperment is so peaceful too. We really are lucky parents. Owen sleeps a lot. And when he is awake, he is generally quite content.

Plus, Owen is so loved by all his "aunties" and "uncles" that he receives lots of love, hugs, kisses, and some pretty cute outfits as well. That combined with Owens Mama's obsessive photography makes for some adorable captured moments... like this one.

:)

Cousin Kristen

This is Kristen (my cousin), Owen, and me at Kristen's wedding shower.

Owen was so good at her shower. He slept almost the whole time, and just woke up to feed. He loves being held, and there was no shortage of women volunteering to hold him.

4 weeks old

Owen is 4 weeks old tomorrow. We went to the Chilliwack Health Clinic today to weigh and measure him. He is now 10-lbs 5-ounces, 54 cm long (21"), and his noggin is 38 cm around.

I didn't think he had grown so much (weight gain primarily), buit seeing a little 8-lb something girl there made Owen look quite big.

He was in the 70% range when he was born, and now Owen is in the 55% range. He is in a growth spurt right now, and the nurse figures he will get back up to the 70% range in the next month or so. That means lots of eating in the next few weeks!

Big Smiles!

Owen has been smiling for 2 days now. And not just the gas smiles, but big happy smiles for Mama. I do the crazy there's-a-baby-in-the-room, high-pitched voice and tickle him and he gives me the best faces ever!


I have tried to capture these glimpses of heaven on my camera this morning, but as I was holding him in one hand it was a little difficult to get them centered, and in focus. That's the great thing about digital cameras - you take take 100 photos to get 3 great ones. So these may not be the best photos, but he's smiling (or smirking) none the less.

Anyone know how to fix this?

Notice all the links & profile are way at the bottom of the page? Anyone know what's up with that & how to fix it?

Teddy Bear

Owen's room is decorated with bears, bees, and bears dressed as bees. Here is Owen with the largest of his teddy bears.

Pacifier, Soother, Suckie, etc.

Owen loves his pacifier. Gabe and I are still trying to figure out what we are going to call it - a soother, suckie, pacifier, choopa (soother in Japanese), etc. But whatever we call it, Owen loves it.

I am slightly afraid he'll end up being one of those 5 year old kids who still has it attached to his fce and screams bloody murder when you try to take it from him. I am slightly relieved that he doens't want it all the time, so maybe there is still hope.

But when he is fussy for fussiness sake, it is nice to be able to soothe him with the pacifier.

A friend of mine made a good observation about Owens love for his soother. Owen won't breastfeed - for some reason the kid just won't take the boob. So I pump and bottle feed him. That way he is getting all the nutrients from breast milk, and I know he is getting enough food as well. And he can polish off a 3-4 ounce bottle in 10-15 minutes. If he was breast feeding, it would take him 40 minutes to eat that much. So Owen is losing 25-30 minutes of "suck time". And babies apparently have a "suck need". So maybe when he feels the need to suck, but isn't hungry, the soother is the right answer.

Anyway, that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

(If you have a cool name for the pacifier, please let me know!)

Auntie Liz's Pictures

After the Bartons baby shower on Saturday, Auntie Liz and Uncle Adrian came over for a visit. Auntie Liz is the one person in the world more camera crazy than Mama. She took over 100 photos of me, and these are my Mama's favorites. I am only 18 days old, but look how photogenic I am!

- Owen

Bartons baby shower

The Bartons crew threw Owen a baby shower on the weekend...

Funny Faces

Here is Owen in his new favorite thing - an Oceans Wonder Aquarium Cradle Swing. He got it yesterday from the Bartons crew as a shower gift. He loves it. And I love it too becasue he falls asleep in less than 5 minutes when he is in it! Yay!

Owen makes some really funny faces when he is waking up, pooping, farting, or when he is hungry, tired, cranky, or just awake.

Here are some of Owens best funny faces from this afternoon...

Lanteigne Family Party

Left - Here is Owen with his Great-Mummo (Grandma).


It is Gabe's Mummo's 80th birthday this week, so we threw her a surprise birthday party on Saturday. We told her it was a baby shower for Owen.

And here is Owen with a group of family members. Owen still scratches his face (and pokes his eyes) with his long finger nails, so he constantly has gloves on to protect him from himself.

Our first outing

Owen and I had our first outing yesterday, February 16th. We actually left the house!

After packing up pretty much everything we own, we headed to my Moms house in Abbotsford. There we mert up with my Auntie Lori and my cousins Josiah, Giancarlo, Emmanuel, and Ariel (photo on left). We then ventured to SpeedLine (Mama's work place) and visited with Owen's "Aunts" there.

We even tackled Sevenoaks Mall and spent a few hours shopping. Owen slept through almost all of it - it was great! He loved movement - car rides, strollers, or someone just movging while holding him. As long as he is in motion, Owen is one happy little guy! And that means good things for Mama - I can get out of the house more often now!

Wonderful past 2.5 hours

I wasn't going to post this note as I wrote it in my personal journal, and thought it may be too... well, personal. But I've changed my mind and decided to share my inner thoughts with you my close friends and family.

"I just had the most amazing 2 and a half hours with Owen. He woke up happy just looking around. I picked him up and carried him to his room where I changed his diaper. He didn't squawk at all, but looked around with those gorgeous, big, dark eyes and that great 'Mr. Bill' face he makes. Then I positioned him in his crib, propped up against the big teddy bear (getting poses ready for when my camera batteries are done charging). After bringing him back to the living room I put him on the floor with his soother. Sometimes he wanted it and sometimes he didn't. The two of us just sat/lied there for an hour staring at each other and listening to a digital music channel on our TV (classical music). I massaged his whole body - head to toes. We did exercises for him to help get the gas out, and we did exercises for me (so I can fit into my new track-suit for the weekend). He was just happy as a clam, and I am in love with him! And then a great song came on and I picked him up and we danced until he fell asleep in my arms. How wonderful is that?! If only every day could be this wonderful. Oh wait - it can!

This being-at-home-with-a-baby thing is not what I expected at all. We've had rough nights, and my hormones are still going crazy, but being able to spend this time with Owen is priceless. I wouldn't change anything in the world!"

Proud Papa!

Every day Gabe comes home for lunch. He spends 30 seconds eating and the rest of the time cuddling and playing with Owen.

When the proud Papa is ready to go back to work, I get one kiss and Owen gets a thousand!

Owen is one loved little man!

:)

Got Gas?

Owen has some nasty gas. Not the smelly kind, the hurting kind. With every fart he seems to be in more and more pain. He fusses and cries until he can fart it out and then he's better.

Does anyone have any ideas for me to do so I can help?

- Mama

The 12 Days of Owen

Owen is 12 days old today! He is finally back up to his birth weight (8lbs 8.5oz) and his jaundice is going away, although he is still a little yellow.

the Melville Boys

This is a continuation to the "behind the names" blog that Gabe posted earlier.

Gabe and I met doing a UCFV show called "the Melville Boys". In the show our characters have a fling, he proposes to me, and I say no. (tee hee). The show only had 10 people involved from actors to costume manager, so all of us got to know each other very very well.

Gabe and I especially got to know eachother well as our characters were almost always either on stage together, or off. We spent 4-5 hours a day, 3 days a week for 4 months with the show, so after it was over it was really wierd to think I wouldn't be seeing him ever again.

2 weeks after the show we ran into eachother at another audition, and I knew then that I was in trouble. :) That weekend we had our wrap-up party where we were literally inseperable. After hours of talking and flirting we shared our first kiss, and the rest is history. We have been together for almost 8 years (dating anniversary is this Feb 23rd) and only seperated for a few days by necessity (work trips).

I have always loved the name "Owen", but as it was Gabe's characters name in "the Melville Boys", it has an extra special meaning to me. And now that it is our sons name, it is even more special.

At one point Gabe said he hated the name so much that I would never be allowed to name a child, or even a pet, Owen, so we named our Pontiac Sunfire Owen. 6 months ago (or s0) he decided that he really didnlt mind the name at all, and becasue I was pushing so hard for it if we had a boy, that he was going to tease me about it. He really kicked the "I hate the name Owen" up a notch, and so I had to kick the "I want to name our son Owen" up as well. I really didn't think I had a shot with the name at all as I didn't want to choose something Gabe hated, but I pushed none the less.

During labor I was 99% sure we were having a boy, and I had decided I liked the name "Noah". In fact, picturing our son and chanting "No-ah" helped me pass through hours of hard labor. But once he came out, he didn't look like a Noah at all. I was disappointed. But then Gabe turned to me and said "He looks like an Owen", and my face dropped. I hadn't cried at all up until then, but I felt my eyes well up with tears at that point.

Playing up how much he didn't like the name made naming Owen that much more special to me, and I will always thank Gabriel for the chance to give me the chance to tell this very special, and ever so romantic, story.

What a great Idea!

Well...isn't that...um...something?
A friend emailed me this picture of the new nursing bra they have in Japan. I'm happy to report I'm not thinking of using it any time soon. We'll leave the nursing up to Mom!

Grandma's

Aren't Grandma's the best in the world? I have to say, I'm floored by the amount of love & support Amy's Mom & my Mom have given us the past few weeks. Amy's Mom was with us for the enire labor & delivery & afterwards for the 5 days in the hospital. She was ready to come & take over when I or Amy needed a nap. Then My Mom comes out from Kamloops & stays with us for a week, helping us with everything from changing Owen to buying us groceries. I can't ever fully express my thanks to each of them.
Thank you Moms!!!

Gas is a funny thing

Whenever I have gas, the last thing I do is smile (I might smile when it's over, but never during). But with babies, God turns the whole thing around & you get a glimpse of what you child will look like when he smiles. & if you're really fast with the camera (and you all know Amy is), you capture the moment as shown.

The Story Behind the Names

So we had lots of people asking about the name & why we chose what we did, so here's the skinny:

Owen: Amy's favorite name for a while. When we first met we were acting in a play together called "the melliville boys" & my character's name was Owen. Sounds romantic right? Well, my theory is that she has such a huge crush on Owen Willson (the actor) that she liked the name by default. (note: there is another actor she likes alot, see if you can guess wich one by the name she originally thought of for our son : Bruce Willis JR.)

Pierre: Was my father's name. He died when I was just 7 years old & it was important to me that his memory & name live on in my son.

Edward: This one is two-fold & both reasons are equally imporatnt. 1) Amy's Grandfather is named Edward & we love him very, very much! 2) When you are baptized in the Orthodox Church, you take a Saint's Name. (I lucked out being named Gabriel, Amy chose Agustina), St. Edward the King Martyr, whom you can read a little about at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Martyr is not just a great Saint but is also our Godfather's Saint's Name. It creates a special, spritual bond between the two of them that was important to because we decided not to ask our own God parents to be Owen's as well. We thought it was important for his spiritual idependance to not share the same Godparents with him, but to have two other wonderful friends take on this important task.

Future man of the cloth

As you can see in this picture, Owen, or what will be his baptized name "Edward", looks great in a bishop's hat.

Here are a few Pics of the first week of Owen's Life. Lots more to come!

our little man