standing on the edge of everything...

... seventeen.

Tim McGraw's words have never rang more true.  Gunnar at 17 months is literally on the edge of EVERYTHING.  He climbs, and climbs, and climbs, and then he climbs some more.  He used to be afraid to stand up on whatever he just scaled, but that phase has passed and now he thinks it's hysterical.  He will stand up on the table, and bounce, and jump, and give me a heart attack.

I have started him in gymnastics (forgive me if I've mentioned it before, my mind is in one thousand places right now) and he is loving it!  Even though he is the youngest in the class, he is picking up on things SO fast. He used to be terrified of the balance beam, and now he barely needs me to do it.  Before he didn't have any interest in the bars, now he runs to them and tries jumping up to reach them.  I couldn't get him to crawl through a tunnel at the park for the life of me, but throw one down on the bouncey gym floor and he owns the freaking thing.  He used to be so confused when we tried to get him to do a forward roll, now if I say "tuck your head" at any point during the day (in class or at home) he bends over, hands on the floor, head tucked ready for me to spot him.  What a champ!  Here's a photo from today, swinging on the rings, a favorite activity of his from early on:

Less literally, he is also right on the edge of talking.  He has started repeating things all the time.  He will say "bubba" for Winston since apparently I call him that more than his real name.  He has even picked up on my "jacko" instead of "Jack Jack".  He knows where to look when we talk about birds and calls them all "geese" since those are the loudest ones we see.  And, of course, Mickey Mouse "mee m-ow" is a favorite.

Speaking of Mickey, his 17 month birthday fell on Valentine's Day, and we got him a new DVD for car trips.  He was slightly excited.  See for yourself:

On a side note:  the puppy kisses card is musical.  It sings "bow wow wow yippe-oh yippe-ay" and he carries it around opening and closing it, and dancing his little heart out.  Love.

down under

If you know me and Patrick well, I am sure you have heard the story I should be telling now.  But because I love my husband so much, I won't say anything more than this: for the last 8 years, there has been a running joke amongst our families that Patrick owes me a trip to Australia.  Well, it turns out he has decided to cash in big time.  We are headed to the land down under.  For two whole years.

Yep, you heard right.  Orders are in, and ours are to Queensland, Australia.  From what I understand this is a Royal Australian Army base, so I am not expecting many, if any, Americans.  It will certainly be our biggest adventure to date.

We have absolutely loved our time in North Carolina, and are sad to see it end. And, I have never been more proud of Patrick (and his work) than I have been at this duty station.  I know, even through the long hours, he has thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities and responsibilities given to him as company commander.  We will definitely miss our 2D Rad Bn family.  But, nevertheless, I am slightly excited.  Actually, more terrified than excited, but I'm sure that will balance out as things get crossed off our never-ending 'to do' list...

Right now, I am still in a state of shock, and even re-reading these words I get dizzy.  Discussing things we need to do 'for Australia' still sounds like a joke.  We weren't expecting this at all.  It came up rather quickly.  One day Patrick got an email that a billet had opened up and he was on a very short list to fill it.  The next day he said we got it, and orders would be written up later in the week.  Crazy.  Now, we have a LOT of planning to do, and then some.  Stay tuned for plenty of exciting/scary things to come in the way-too-near future.  I still can't believe that in a few months we will be living on the other side of the world.  Wow.

slime day

Well, I thought I was going to be a good mom and keep my toddler entertained inside on this blustery day.  I believe what will follow can only be defined as a "pinstrosity".  Pinterest educated me on several different recipes for making your own "slime".  All of which claimed to not be messy, or stain, and were easily cleaned up.  Liars.  I picked three, yes THREE, different recipes and tried my hand at each to see what the best outcome would be...  I'm not even going to bother with giving you the recipes because they failed so miserably.

The orange never solidified at all.  The green was a little more solid, but mostly in the sticky, goopy way that dough is kind of solid.  But it still ran through your fingers (and stuck to them at the same time).  The blue was the biggest success (I use the term loosely), after I poured a liquidy layer off the top.  Although it still was not slime.  It was rock hard, and if you dug your fingernails into it hard enough to break off a piece it was that weird, looked-like-a-liquid-but-felt-like-a-solid thing.  Until you played with it too much, then it just crumbled into a million pieces like dried out play-dough.

Gunnar DID have fun, until he didn't anymore. And I had fun taking pictures of him, until I had to clean the bathroom.