8 Months Old Today!

     It has officially been 1 month since we left San Antonio.  Driving away was absolutely awful!  Now that we are here, and getting settled in it's going good and we're getting used to it.  This weekend, Derek was a great sport despite being a little under the weather, and he helped me to finish unpacking everything!  Still a few things here and there to put away, but no more boxes!  Today is also Grayson's 8 month birthday!  He is so wonderful!
     No need to worry, I found fresh green beans!  Derek got a tip at one of his 30+ briefings last week.  They were briefed by one of the commander's (guy in charge of the entire base) assistants who cooks for him.  She told the guys that the time to get the best produce from the commissary is early in the morning.  I woke up early on Saturday and sure enough, found many fresh green beans at the store.  In fact, I'm cooking them now.  That brings me to Derek's week last week.  They started at 6:55 everyday with briefings that sometimes went until 5:00.  Then two days they had PT at 5:45!  The military is crazy.  Who operates on that early of a schedule?!?  In general though, I must admit that we are really enjoying his schedule.  He gets to come home for lunch everyday (with some exceptions) then gets off at 4:00.  It is great to have so much family time!

You can see the sturdy gate Derek put in!
(picture taken from middle landing on stairs)

     Now for Grayson...believe it or not, he has changed, even since my last post.  I found Grayson in the kitchen playing in Lola's water when I finished putting away laundry, he was just splashing away.  I put him in the Bumbo seat to try to contain him while I cleaned up the mess he made in the kitchen.  Next thing I know he has rolled himself right out of it, and is unhappily stuck face down between the Bumbo and swing.  Silly boy, he is just growing to fast!  So we had to pack up some of the toys that he has outgrown yesterday:  the swing (which he sits forward in and tries to pull himself out), the Bumbo (explained above), and the playmat (that he never stays on anymore).
     When Grayson crawls around he is doing great, moving fast and pulling up.  The trouble comes shortly after he pulls up, he plays for awhile then quickly realizes that he has nothing to do and gets bored.  It's histerical to watch him as he happily shakes his body around, and pounds on the table or couch (whatever he has pulled up on).  Then his mood quickly changes and he fusses until you move him to a new location on the ground.  All that has changed!  Grayson discovered on Saturday that he can plop down; this is a much better solution for me.

     I was right about the stinkin' smoke detector.  He has crawled over to it a couple of times now and pushed the button.  The first time you push it, it makes one beep, but the second time it keeps going off.  Grayson liked the noise the first time, but when it wouldn't stop he seemed to get scared.  It is challenging to keep him away from them!
     Grayson eats everything now days!  He is always finding the one random string, or Lola hair on the floor that the vacuum didn't pick up!  Other than the challenge of keeping him from eating those things, I have also been feeding him more food, and many new snacks.  He still loves the yogurt melts, puffs and these rice snacks but now he has discovered Cheerios!  It's the easiest for him to eat them when I only put one out at a time, otherwise it's like he's on overload.  If I put 3 on the highchair tray, then he has to grab all 3 before putting them in his mouth.  It's so fun to watch him eat them!  I couldn't resist, so I put about 10 on the tray, sure enough, he grabbed as many as he could (about 3) and put them in his mouth.  Then while he chewed he worked very hard to try to get all the rest in his hands.  It's great to see him work so hard to pick up the Cheerios, you can tell it is very hard work!  When he already has one in his hand and tries to get another, he usually looses the first, then starts over.  His hands look really pudgy when he's doing this, I guess just because he hasn't figured out how to spread his fingers to help.  Occasionally he gets frustrated and just opens and closes his hands over the Cheerios.
     Derek wanted me to include this, as last night while he was feeding him he took forever to eat.  Most nights while Grayson is eating his last meal, he sits in the highchair for about 10 minutes working very hard on a diaper.  "He is just like clockwork, always pooping before bed."  The funny part is that Derek's right, I hadn't put it together, but he really does do this every night.  Every other time when he's eating cereal and his veggie it goes pretty quick, but at night it seems to take forever.  When he's "busy" like that he won't open his mouth, so we just sit with the spoon waiting.


So, for the tour of the house, downstairs at least:

 LIVING ROOM

You can see the front door
and right behind the green chair is the kitchen.

Toys...

I love how many windows we have!

Here again, entry to the kitchen is to the right

KITCHEN

The large closed door right behind the refrigerator is...
the dreaded utility room.  It still needs work.

You can see outside

Into the living room