Grandma Mary, WALKING, and bye-bye Mr. Binks

My mom hadn't seen our new place here in Michigan since we moved here in November, because of traveling and the holidays, so in January she decided to come over for a few days. It was wonderful. I LOVE that we are only a short drive away from home, making it easy to do little visits here and there. We didn't do too much while my mom was here, but enjoyed going to story-time, the mall and the very first night my mom watched Owen for us while Cory and I got to sneak away for a little movie date. Thanks mom! The most exciting thing that happened while Grandma Mary was here was the Owen started WALKING! It was seriously out of no were. He hadn't been showing any interest in walking before my mom came, but by the time she left crawling was out of the picture and life was all on two feet from then on. I think because he had been a furniture cruiser for so long and blessed with large feet(hehe), that once he finally got the confidence to "let-go" he had no problem with balance. He really hasn't even had any big bumps or falls yet, except for one stairs incident at the mall that was more traumatic for me than him. Also, right around this same time my mom came to visit we decided to say goodbye to "Mr. Binks." We had already started the battle of trying to keep it in the crib only after naps, but that was not working out to well. He would just sob into my shoulder whenever I took it away. So we thought why not just cut it out cold turkey and be down with the binky all together. It was definitely hard the first week, especially around nap times, but after that he was doing great and its been over a month now! I felt bad taking it away from him, because he has always had a little attachment to it since he was born. I felt like I was just being mean to him by taking away something he loved. However, we just really thought now was the best time to do it, and are happy we did. I have decided that this age is a really hard age for many reasons, but also a very very fun age too. Wow, January was quite the month for Owen with a lot of change and growing up. Thanks for the fun visit mom! I think Owen started walking when you were here just cause he wanted to show-off for his Grandma Mary. :)