if you're happy and you know it...

After months of clapping my hands in Gunny's face and clapping his own hands for him... He has finally picked up the skill! He started on Tuesday, and he is mighty cute doing it if I do say so myself:

double digits

I'm finally getting around to this post.  I probably procrastinated because I'm in denial...

Ten months.  One - zero.  My little man is so old!  And if it's possible, cuter than ever.  This month he started standing all by himself, all the time.  It's pretty crazy that the next step (ha) from here is walking.  I'm so not ready to be a parent of a walking child.  I have nightmares dreams about it that are so real I wake up fully expecting him to be running around the house in the morning. 

Another big accomplishment was he finally started saying "Dada" on a regular basis.  He threw it into some of his babbles here and there, but just the other day he started saying it in response to me asking him to say it.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that he started saying "Mama" first.  And it's adorable the way he says "maaaa!" when he's crying.  But I was starting to feel bad for Patrick.  Every time he asked Guns to say "dada" he got "mama" or a head violently shaking no (and the occasional raspberry).  Plus, now he can cry out for "da" when he's sad and we can share the screaming baby. 

One of his new tricks I ask him to do in the video (but he doesn't come through)... he blows kisses now!  Most of the time when I ask, he'll start smacking his lips together.  So precious.  He's also really stepped up his game on the high-fives.  Instead of just placing his hand on mine he will legitimately smack his against mine.  And then laugh hysterically. 

Other than that, he's just the same utterly adorable, tornado of a little boy.  He destroys the house on a daily basis.  His favorite thing to do is rip all of our DVDs down from their shelves.  And to protest napping and bedtime he now chews on the crib rail.  There are teeth marks residing deep in the wood, and when I get him after he wakes his cheeks are covered in wood shavings.  Healthy, healthy, healthy!  We are currently waiting on a fabric rail cover to be delivered that will hopefully remedy the situation.

 He's into absolutely everything now... In his own room he has taken to ripping everything off of his book shelf. 

 All those toys and he plays with a metal cup and a plastic bag...

 Trouble with a capital T...

 And this is what 10 months looks like:

And in the middle of our 'shoot' he reached over and grabbed the bear Dada brought back from Afghanistan for him. 

Oh how I love this kid.  He lights up my life everyday.  Thanks for making me smile for the past 10 months, I look forward to many millions more.

trouble

This post is just a little anecdote I don't want to forget...

So, this morning, Gunnar was quite content playing in front of our bedroom mirror, as he usually is.  This time he was even more occupied with one of Patrick's belts.  I went to feed the dogs, peaked in one more time, then went to throw in a load of laundry.  In less than 30 seconds, he quickly and quietly made his way out of the bedroom and down the hall towards the kitchen. 

I stepped out of the laundry room and saw Guns sitting in the middle of the dogs, reaching into each bowl, fishing pieces of food out.  While the dogs were eating!

I am extremely grateful they didn't bite him.  They take breakfast, and all food, very seriously.  But guys, a little nudge, or a bark to alert me, wouldn't have been unwelcomed. 

Isn't it nice how he chooses to eat dog food, but acts like I am poisoning him when I try to give him chicken and pasta?  What is that about?!

Gunnar left his newest toy behind when I scooped him up and picked what was left of the handfuls of dog food out of his mouth.  Here is the only evidence I have of the incident:

This completes the latest installment in my virtual baby book.  I'm sure with this monster cutie pie there will be more to add very soon.

pinpillow

Instead of blogging about the cutest baby in the world turning 10 months, the pinterest fairy strikes again!  Typical... But, I have just made these ah-dorable cushion covers for our sofa! 

 The pattern is a tan herringbone.  Love. Love. Love.

I started off picking up the fabric from Walmart ($2.50/yard thank you very much).  You need at least 2 times the width of the pillow and 3 times the length.  So for these two 20"x20" pillows I bought 3 1/3 yards.  Width-wise, it was just perfect as is.  Length-wise, it worked fine, but I think I would've liked a little more fabric to play with, so I would say maybe a little more than 3 times the length.  Then I cut my long piece of fabric in half, and wrapped each pillow like a present.  The hardest part for me was tying the knots.  Thanks to my OCD they had to be just right.  I finally finished the first one after several many attempts.  And then I got the second one on the first knot!  But, they didn't look the same, so I messed around with them until I was satisfied, and that was it!  Uber-easy.  Now the trick will be keeping the dogs off of them! 

I was inspired (and instructed) by this pin:

It was from here... lots of "insanely easy" DIY projects (aka my speed and talent level).  I fully plan on trying a lot more of these little projects.  I know, you are just as excited as I am.  Stay tuned...

not a TOTAL waste of time

So if you haven't heard of pinterest yet, get out from under your rock.  Just kidding.  But seriously it's one of the most addicting things on the internet.  It's an online pinboard; basically a place to give you a billion ideas for the zero time most of us have.  And we have even less time because so much is spent pinning away...

However, I have found a little time to do some projects I have 'pinned'.  You saw this one, but I stepped my game up for this more recent one...

With our ever-mobile baby boy we I have been baby proofing.  One of the worst spots was our fireplace.

Cute upon first glance, right?   Well look closer... biggest problem: no hearth.  AKA straight-on, baby-level entrance to the death trap.  It also features lots of filth and big metal posts capable of pucturing sweet baby skin and organs.

At a loss for how to block it off (glass doors to put in front are still dangerous and expensive) I took to pinterest and found this from apartmenttherapy.com:

So I came up with a plan to recreate it, ran it by Pat, and he shot it down.  He said no way it would work.  I was still convinced I could do it so off to Lowes I went.  My basic idea was to have a board of plywood cut to the size of the fireplace opening, glue some industrial strength magnets on the back (to stick to the metal surrounding the fireplace), paint it with magnetic paint (a chalkboard will be pretty messy indoors) and VOILA! death trap turned kid friendly.

Well I found the thinnest, lightest board I could and had it cut to the size I needed.  Found all the other supplies I needed and off I went.  At home I quickly discovered the saw at Lowes wasn't cutting exactly straight because one side measured correctly but the other side was about a quarter inch wider.  So I had to use a hand saw to to cut a tiny sliver off one side of the board.  It worked well enough, and then I sanded down the other areas that were just a little too wide.

After that was done I glued the magnets to the back to hold the board up.  Big mistake, you'll see why... Then I wanted to paint the board black as a background before the magnetic paint went on.  I figured I would use the spray paint left over from this project.  It was a pain in the butt, and all I'll say is that I would end up with nerve damage from pushing down on the sprayer too hard.  How do I know it's nerve damage you ask?  Well, remember this story?  I still don't have feeling in my left thumb, and now my right pointer is in the same boat.  I digress...

It was all for nothing because I ran out of spray paint before I could get the board coated evenly, so I sanded it down and decided I would make it a magnetic chalkboard, thinking the chalkboard paint would cover any icky areas.  I had to start with magnet paint, since it's a primer.  If you think you want to try a project with magnet paint, rethink it.  Here are my tips if you decide to go through with it:

-Have them shake the paint at the store, otherwise you will spend over an hour stirring it.  All of the magnetic particles glob together and make it ridiculously thick.
-Buy cheap foam brushes for each coat of the paint (you will need at least 3).  I got a bag of 10 for $1.50 (of course that was after I had to throw out our $7 brush)
-Don't try to clean the brushes, just throw them away!  You need paint thinner to clean them properly, and if you think you can just do it your own way you will end up throwing out your adorable watering can that you used to soak the brushes.

So four coats of magnet paint later, I was so over it.  Especially since it clumped where there were magnets glued to the other side of the board.  Ugh.  I didn't even care how magnetic or not the board was... I was done with it.  So I threw on 2 coats of chalkboard paint over top and thought I was done.  Wrong!  I had to take a razor to the edges since the paint dripping over the sides made the board too thick to fit in the opening. 

Once that was done, we had a perfect fit!  I threw some magnets on it, and let the boy have at it.  He liked chewing on them best.  Probably because when he touched the board they all fell down.  That's what I get for buying cheap/weak magnets.  But Guns still had fun so overall it was a success!

Then, I didn't make these, but pinterest did lead me to where I could buy them.  From theyoungbones.com:

Here is my very own pair, love love love: