8 months

It was 8 months ago today that I brought my little man home from the hospital.  With each month that passes I am more and more shocked at how quickly they go!  I don't think I'll ever stop saying that...

Guns has been SO much fun this month.  He is totally his own person now, and boy do I see some trouble in his future.  He wants to get into everything.  He says "mama" all the time now (hooray! I'm the winner!) along with a ton of other vowel-consonant combos that sound adorable all strung together.  He laughs like a real person now, and even though I miss his little baby giggles, the big laugh he has sounds even more funny coming from his little self.  He has also taken to roaring, singing, and grunting.  Love it!  He usually gets his shoulders involved, just like Dad.

My most favorite thing that he's doing now is reaching for me when he wants to be picked up.  Oh how it warms my heart!  It's like he's saying "Mama I need you NOW"! 

He's still working on crawling.  He will do it the conventional way sometimes, but he seems to like scooting on his belly best.  He also does this mountain climber variation where he will walk with his feet and his hands.  Quite interesting.  Just goes to show he's getting stronger by the day... he's even pulling himself up in his crib now (we dropped the mattress not a minute too soon)...

I have a feeling he's going to be the sweetest little terror.  I'm really going to have to work on my poker face since he's just so cute when he's being "bad".  He loves banging things, anything, even just his hands, on the table, floor, your face, whatever.  And just the other night he started telling us "no" by shaking his head, and Patrick and I couldn't stop laughing, so of course he did it more, and more, and more, and well you get the picture... So now I'm trying extra hard to work on positive motions like waving, blowing kisses and clapping.  We'll see how that goes...

He is getting taller by the second, and we already have a toddler seat waiting for him to hop into when his infant seat is outgrown... I know they recommend babies to stay rear facing for the first 2 years, but there's no way that can happen for us.  First of all, his legs have been scrunched up against the back of the seat since he was 6 months old.  And second, and most important of all, his seat is only safe as long as the top of his head is more than an inch from the top.  He has maybe an inch or two of wiggle room before it is no longer safe.  Hopefully we can wait it out until he is a full year before we turn him around, which worked for people for a long time before this recent adjustment in "recommendations".  Hopefully no one judges us, but seriously, we have a giant son.  What can we do?  I'd rather him fit the requirements of the seat and be early on the recommendation of the Dr. than be in a seat that is unsafe by being too small for him by the manufacturer's standards.  Plus, he loves the new seat already...

So for now, we will enjoy our little Goliath.  Which is a pretty easy thing to do... I mean, just look at that 8 month old tush!

for your entertainment

Check out how cute Guns is with the tissue paper from my Mother's Day presents:

He loved it.

And this is our ADHD baby, tired from all the "mamama" ing.

Hysterical.

mama

Today is my first real mother's day.  Yes, it's true, we have celebrated it with the dogs.  But this time it was with a real, live human baby.  And it was spectacular.  My morning started off with a nice run sans jogging stroller.  If you haven't run with one it's impossible to know how much harder it makes running.  Then I came home to a delicious breakfast cooked by my wonderful husband.  Scrambled eggs, topped with our very own home grown chives, bacon, and toast with home made fig jam.  Yum! 

After that it was present time, and the best one of all was this cute little canvas with all my boys hand/paw prints on it!  Love.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing around the house and an afternoon walk on the beach.  Followed by a nap with the reason I get to celebrate today.  Heaven.

Now, after a baked brie appetizer, I sit here as my dinner is being prepared.  Tilapia, wild rice, aspargus and corn on the cob... mmmm.

I must say, it is nice to be appreciated.  I know I am appreciated every day, but to hear my husband say "Don't worry about that, I've got it, go sit down" is a wonderful thing.  I sat on my butt all day and didn't feel bad about it one bit.  (Okay, I might have snuck in a load of laundry and dishes before he woke up... shhh).

Here's my extra special present from my little man:

Isn't he the cutest?  And don't you love his shirt?  He's been saying "mama" for a while now... more and more every day.  And I can't get enough!  This is the first time I caught it on camera though...

So Happy Mother's Day to all the mama's out there.  You deserve every bit of every nice thing you get today, and then some!

flip this

We recently redid our dining table and chairs.  The inspiration for the change was this:

It's a bench we found that matched the style of our set, only it was darker with black paint.  We had been wanting a bench to add to our seating, so after deciding to take on the project of redoing what we had at home it was a perfect match.
So we started here:

And sanded and painted:

And ended up with this:

Plus our gorgeous center piece... a gorgeous lapis lazuli bowl straight from Afghanistan:

Pretty nice, if I do say so myself!  Patrick did the table pretty much single handedly, with the exception of my handy sand work on the table legs.  And I did all the sanding and staining of the chairs, while Pat painted them.  Let me tell you... all those posts were a pain in the butt!  In the end though, it was worth it.  We love the refreshed look in our dining room!

remember these guys? part 2

And here's our newer tank, even though new means over a year old... a 29 gallon biocube.  We had aggressive fish in it before, but then we sold them because they were too hard to maintain, with Patrick deploying and all.  So for his deployment it sat, empty, and cycled.  Now it's awesome.

All 4 fish are present in this photo, can you spot them?

Meet:  Lenny, a lawnmower blenny (pictured with our clown)

 Meet:  Stripes, a six lined wrasse (also pictured with our clown, they are buddies)

Meet:  Shaq, a royal gramma (surprise! with our photo crashing clown)

And, meet: Clark, a clarkii clown (who apparently loves the spotlight)

remember these guys? part 1

So I wanted to write a post about Gunnar's first fish.  And then I realized that I have beyond neglected the fish on this blog.  That doesn't mean we don't love them.  Trust me.  I'm pretty sure we spend more money on the fish then we do on Gunnar.  Anyways, I thought I would introduce you to our tanks.  Some of these guys you might recognize from here, but this is our original tank, a 46 gallon bow front:

It's blurry but, here's the whole gang!  There's a prize if you can spot all 5 fish (not really but that would be nice wouldn't it?):

 Meet:  Panama Red, a flame hawk

 Meet: Benny, a lawnmower blenny

 Meet: CB, a coral beauty

 Meet:  Fatty, a grey damsel

And, meet:  Bagheera, a panther grouper

Little Guns picked him out at the fish store... he put his hand up to the glass and Bagheera followed him around, Guns laughed, how could we say no?