Rolling along.

DW is a master at rolling.  Put him down in the middle of the room, turn your back, and he's managed to tumble into trouble.  Here he is trapped under his play gym:

And here he is trapped under the train table:

Notice how I like to take snapshots before rescuing him.

Now, this sort of thing would never happen with a first child.  For a first child, when they start moving and rolling, you remove all obstacles from your home, including coffee tables and other useless furniture, that might impede your little one.  You watch them like a hawk with your video camera as they barrel roll around your meticulously clean floors.  

For second kids, that obstructive coffee table might get pushed over a few inches, but you are sure as heck not moving it out of the living room like you did for #1.  And you are too busy dealing with toddler meltdowns now to notice #2 chewing on non-infant approved toys and sampling crushed up goldfish crackers in the carpet.  You are just going to hope this kid is a quick learner about how to survive the jungle.

I like touching everything and sticking it in my mouth.

DW is seven months old today!  And he's still not sleeping through the night!  (Sad face.)

Anyway, what do babies do at seven months old, you ask?  They roll.  A lot.  They touch things.  A lot.  They stick things in their mouths.  A lot.

Nothing is safe.  You are holding a hot cup of coffee?  His hand is in it.  You have an important document in your hand?  It's crumpled and shoved in his mouth.  You left an open 2 lb bag of cat food next to the changing table?  It's now spilled all over the diapers, the baby and the floor.  You are trying to text on your iPhone?  He is chewing it. The cat wanders past him?  He now has two fistfuls of fur.  You have an envelope to mail and you thought it was safe to put in his lap in the infant carrier while you waited in line at the post office?  He bit a corner off of it (sorry to my babci, your letter was half eaten).  You have nothing in your hands?  Then he's going for the face.

It really is a fun age.  Everything is full of baby slobber and no one around here seems to mind.

Orbit.

AW really loves reading.  He is so advanced he now reads full-size novels.  This is his latest book of choice:

He's been working on this one for about a month now.  He seriously reads it a lot. He even takes it on the go:

I've never read Orbit, it's one of HW's books, and sorry, John J. Nance, it may be the greatest space novel ever, but I like to make up my own story when AW asks me to read it to him:  "Once there was a space doctor named AW, and he was the best space doctor ever.  He cured all the current diseases in the world and talked to his mom on his space phone every day.  He also always picked up all his toys and was nice to his little brother. The End."  

AW really prefers reading it to himself though:

I wonder what plot lines he is coming up with in his own little head.  Perhaps one day we will find out.

New books.

Remember that awful trip to Barnes and Nobles a few weeks back? (If not you can read about it here)

Well the one good thing to come out of it was that the two books we bought that day are now AW's most favorite books ever.  And it is pretty darn cute to hear him pronounce "Awf-a-bet Twucks" and "Wid Boo Twuck".

I have most of his favorite books painfully committed to memory since we read them over, and over and over and over and over...well, you get the point.  It's nice to get some new books in his library.  And these two are pretty cute!

Come and knock on our door.

One of the cute things about living on a military installation - you get to have your name on your door.  This way everyone knows who lives there and can properly avoid them...or at least put a name to their silent judging of taste in outdoor decor as they stroll by.  (Yes, that's me silently judging you if you still have a Christmas wreath out on the first day of spring.  You know who you are.  Take it down for the love of "the person we celebrate on Christmas."  Which is in December.  Which was three months ago.)

While we were out at the maintenance office the other day we picked up some letters from the housing office for our front door.  No one else in our unit has their names up but I think it's nice and makes things more neighborly.

AW liked calling out the letters as he slid them into the door slot.  He pronounces "W" as "dub hoo."  It's really the cutest.

Looks good, AW!  Now if only those rascally kids next door would stop messing with them.  Yes, I'm watching for you, kids.  And don't think I won't catch you.  Perhaps that's why no one else has their name on the door....hmmm....

Grammar police, get on this.

Dear Readers,

I'm a little rusty with my grammar.  I just realized I have not been putting punctuation inside my quotation marks, but outside of them.  The shame, the shame, the shame!  I am probably committing a mountain other grammar atrocities as well.  I apologize.  It is so unlike me to be haphazard with what I write, but internet culture and being away from the "real" world has made me lazy and forgetful.  I aim to do better from here on out though!

Sincerely,
Me

An impromptu trip to the stables.

Today we had to go pick up some light bulbs from the maintenance office.  And guess where the maintenance office is located?  Right next to the horse stables!

If you know me, you know I love horses. But I'm not a "horse person," per say. I don't know anything about them. I can't ride them, I can't groom them, I can't talk intelligently about breeds. I just think they're pretty. 

 This one liked us.  And we liked him.

AW was too shy to pet him though.  Maybe next time.

As we were driving away, I asked AW if he would like a horse.  He said "yes."  Get on that, HW!