finally!!

the day has finally come - i can officially crawl!!! i'm still not thrilled about it, but i'm finally figuring it out and enjoying the challenge. mommy is kind of having a hard time with it though - she has both wanted it and dreaded it at the same time, and she can't believe i'm already 8 months old! so, of course she's prone to burst into tears at any minute because she already feels i'm growing up so fast. oh, mom... :)

here are some pictures of me going after some tempting bait the other day - the string from mommy's camera - yes! at first, i like to survey what i'm after - looks pretty good, and worth the trip...

next, i give it a good stare-down. as aunt chris would tell you, i'm always game for a staring contest, and i usually win. i'm pretty sure the string doesn't stand a chance...

but, being the realist that i am, i can see this is not going to be an easy task, and so i take a little break to gain more strength...

and then, rejuvenated, i'm off! at this point i'm remembering why i hadn't crawled yet - this is work! mom is sitting right there - why can't she just hand me the string? ugh!

but, alas, i must persevere...

and before i know it - the string is mine!! i crawled!! (actually, had mommy not gone crazy cheering me on and calling me a good boy i probably wouldn't have noticed, but we'll keep that our little secret.)

here are some other pictures of my crawling frustration. you can see that mommy doesn't sympathize with me very much but is apparently trying to teach me at a young age that life is hard and you just have to gut it up sometimes. i have to go now, but i'll write more soon and tell you about some other things going on. i had a great weekend hanging out with the dwights and aunt chris - yes! and i have 7 teeth now! :) and i'm 30 inches long - whoa! but really, mom's calling me, so i gotta go. more later! bye!

my new mohawk?

hello! well, we're back from north carolina and had a great time at aunt aimee and uncle greg's wedding. aunt aimee was beautiful and the cake was awesome! :) here's a picture of me getting smoochies from aunt elaina and aunt aimee. as usual, i was more concerned with chomping down on someone's fingers...


and here i am eating some silverware...

and here i am in the hotel bed. it was fun to be in a big-boy bed all by myself! the thumb there was as good as it is at home...

and finally, here's taylor playing with me. she is a lot of fun! i had a great time with all of my family and can't wait to see them again soon...

things are back to normal around here. there was a lot of buzz about Ike the hurricane, but we actually didn't even get a drop of rain here! but it has cooled off a little bit, so that is awesome! i love to be outside and am really looking forward to autumn.

here's a picture of my mohawk. don't worry - it was only temporary! sometimes mommy and i get bored at home and so she does my hair. (of course i'd rather be eating bugs or breaking lamps, but i will humor her until she has a girl.) :) maybe i'll be mr. t for halloween!


okay, daddy is home from work now, so i'm going to go play with him. bye!

my new playroom!

hi. i have a new friend - his name is fred.

say hi to everyone, fred...

this is my new playroom! i love it. mommy does too! she likes to play in there with me a lot.

pete is the pelican hanging on the wall. and there's doc from brent, and the horsey from beamee, and ben the duck that lauren made for me and named after me, and helga the hippo, and albert the alligator, and snowball the penguin from austin... i have lots of fun with my friends. i don't get in trouble for biting them (which is unlike when i bite mommy and daddy), so that's good. and whenever i finally decide to crawl i'll be able to knock everything down from the cube-shelves, so that will be great.

one of my favorite things is the life-size (okay, almost) map of the United States, so i can learn all the capitals and so that we can put pins in all the neat places we go as a family (courtesy of beamee, yes!). and there's also a lovely frame of vince young, courtesy of daddy and grandpa. you don't think it quite matches the rest of the theme? sure it does, just ask daddy. it actually matches his cowboy hat quite nicely. :)

anyway, that's what i've been up to. i'd like to give a shout out to paula if she's reading this. :) and in 2 days i'll be off on another plane ride - woohoo! we're going to NC for aunt aimee's wedding, so that will be really neat. i can't wait to see my family there and show everyone all my teeth (heh, heh, heh...). any day now hopefully i'll start crawling, but in the meantime i'll just keep banging on things, drooling, standing, chewing (i love cheerios!!), swinging, rolling, biting, dropping, laughing, screeching, and missing (everyone). bye! (p.s. this is the fraggle rock doll from aunt kara. he's trying to escape - get it?) :)

at the ranch...

hellooooooo ladies (and everyone else, but especially the ladies)! wanna come over to my crib around noon and play? :) just teasing - mommy caught me being cute in my crib the other day and so we're all having a laugh about this picture... (note the cardboard still zip-tied to the rails!)

in other news, we had a great time at the ranch last weekend! there is always a lot of fun stuff to do there, and i had a great time with my cousins and aunts and uncles and mimsie and grandpa, and... everyone! here i am with powdered doughnut on my face, contemplating life's deep questions...

and here i am with daddy - i sure do like him... and in case you were wondering if i got my hairline from mommy or from daddy, i think this picture pretty much answers that question!

and here we are fishing in the future swimming hole - there really are fish in there, but we didn't get any bites that morning...

and here is the hat club in the hot tub!! :) note the giant propane tank, the young kids driving the giant "mule", the camper (where 7 of us slept at night), and the barn in the background - this is not your average dude ranch... :)


and here i am giving my thumbs-up approval of the "pool" - it was a nice break from the heat...


and here i am eating daddy's hat, because they clearly aren't feeding me enough actual food...

and here are some cute pictures that mommy took of me on the backyard swing - i really like to swing! (adorable bug outfit courtesy of beamee!)

that's all for now... bye!