A cute little sneeze

I have allergies in fall so he does hear a lot of sneezing. Actually he caught on from my mom sneezing and they started a fun little game. Now I just hope no one in the store is offended by an adorable baby mimicking their sneeze.

And for those of you who can't get enough of his laughter, here is another video where he is cracking himself up. He laughs so easy and I find his laugh very contagious. It is such a blessing to hear his joy. I love that little guy!

Big changes ahead

We are about to embark on a new adventure. After lots of discussions, weighing the pros and cons and talking to different mentors, Andy has decided to join the Army. That is, he officially joined as of August 7th. The day that adorable picture of Dane was taken. How fitting right? We both have a peace about it and Andy is very excited about this new experience. To some it may seem out of left field. First and foremost you must know he never would have gone through with the decision had I not been behind him and ok with it. Six years ago when he first brought it up, I was a little freaked out, not even an option. How in the world would I survive on my own? I know, I know people do it all the time and are just fine, but me? No way! Not something I could do or be willing to do. But I guess time has changed me and I know I will be ok in the end. Can't say I am looking forward to him being gone for so long and of course I will miss him like crazy.

This has been something Andy has always wanted to do. He almost joined one other time, before I knew him. He even had a shipping date, all he had to do was sign. I guess it wasn't time then. Well now that he is done with college he can go in as an officer, which is what prompted his thinking about joining again. There are many reasons he is doing this and he feels he has made the right choices for our family. The worst part of all this, is that we will have to move away from our church family and friends and other family members. Who knows maybe we will move back someday. In the mean time I hope we get to live either somewhere cool or near family and not get stuck in Oklahoma or Ohio or something.

He will be leaving for Basic training on November 4th. We are both glad he will be here for Dane's first birthday. After basic, he will go to OCS (Officer Candidate School), then onto his job training whatever that maybe. So it looks like his training may last until next summer. In the mean time I am staying put here in Iowa. It will probably be part way through OCS when he finds out what he will be doing and where we will be moving.

Looooong week

Crabby crabby baby. He has had a personality change and his sin nature is roaring it's ugly head. He has a cold and we were gone for 2 weeks, got home last Saturday. It is Thursday. How long will it take to recover from our trip? I just want my sweet happy baby back. I feel pretty good aside from getting up anywhere from 1-2 hours in the middle of the night. I would love to hold him only he would rather thrash about. He needs more sleep- I think and a schedule again. I am trying with new resolve to work with him on all of this.
I started today working on some high chair manners if you will. Not going over real well, though lunch was better than breakfast. Then he busts out this cute new move completely unprompted. He hears our dog barking outside. I swear he said 'doggie' and started mimicking his bark. So cute I tell you. And then he continued to mimic the arf arf arf until the mailman had left and Magnum settled back down. We have been reading this book "Doggies" by Sandra Boynton and he loves it. His favorite bark is the yap, yap. I personally like the Arroof, Arroof, Arroof. But 'yap, yap' gets him everytime. One of my bloggy friends posted the cutest video of her little girl doing the nine dogs on a moonlit night. Oh it was so cute. As soon as I heard him practicing his barking skills I grabbed the camera and taped him. There is a little propting for the sake of the video, but believe me he started it up on his own.

Sunshine

We are back from our trips to Indiana and Colorado and are trying to settle back into a routine. The sunshine spots on the floor have fascinated him for quite sometime now. I love when he goes over and tries to pick it up:o)

so big

This idea was recently brought to my attention. At what point in life is it rude to say "you are getting so big." People love to say that to babies. They ask how old then they usually follow up with the comment to your child "you are so big", or "look how big you are" or better yet "check out those chunky thighs". Would you say this to a 40 year old woman? "You are getting so big!" Throughout childhood people usually comment on how big you are getting. When does that stop? Jr. high? High School? Maybe old people would still say that to a highschooler that is rounding out into her womanly form. You are getting so big! This really made me laugh. But then got me thinking. I am usually not too sensitive to comments, they don't usually haunt my thoughts. But reflecting on 'so big' comments about Dane, I find myself trying to tell people that he really isn't all that big and is actually only average in weight. Right in the 50 th percentile. He did start off big, I will give them that. And I know no matter what size he is I will always love him. And growing kids are healthy kids, it's what they are supposed to do. I just thought it was a funny idea.

Monkeys and Balloons

Today was so beautiful outside and it was just plain old fun. Andy's brother and his family came into town just for the day today. We spent some time with them and all the rest of the family. I just love it when the weather is so perfect it is like there is no temperature. not hot. not cold. just perfect. Actually we have had many days like that this summer which is really rare for Iowa. In the evening Andy, Dane and I headed over to the Indianola National Balloon Classic. It was reminiscent of our Albuquerque days when we would see hot air balloons in the sky most everyday. One Saturday morning one even nosily landed right outside our third floor balcony. And of course Albuquerque is home of the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta with many many more balloons than Indianola.

I am feeling silly tonight and didn't pick my best pictures but the ones below just make me laugh. Doesn't it look like there are two little blue eyed monkey's in that hammock?

And this last one cracks me up. He was giving me the limp kitten, resulting in me looking like I am strangling him. He is perfectly fine and no strangling took place.

9 months

It's that time of the month again:o) That is probably what Dane thinks every time I get that bunny and the camera out. Another month is down and he is 9 months old. Though I never get this posted on the actual day, the 31st, but at least I get close. I can't even remember all the things he learned this month. He started clapping. He claps all the time now. Like when we say good job, for pat-a-cake, to get the dogs attention, when he is throwing a fit. It is sorta funny when he starts kicking his legs in anger then starts clapping while he is turning red in the face and crying. I don't let him see me laugh though. I am not sure if he claps to be cute so I will change my mind about the nap or if he is just expressing his anger. I also know it won't be cute when he is 2. He does like to make me laugh though. Last night before bed we both got the giggles and just laughed at each other for like 20 minutes.

He has even started saying a few things lately. Awhile back he said 'hidad' for awhile and usually when Andy walked into the room. Just the other day he started saying 'Magum' fairly clearly. He can also say mama and dada.