8 Months...What?!?

Gunnar is 8 months now!! I am tired, and ready for bed, but I am determined to do his 8 month update tonight. So here goes:

Gunnar crawls now. Gunnar eats all kinds of "solid" foods, and I am still making them myself, and still having lots of fun doing that. Gunnar's funniest moment this month was on vacation, when we had his pack n play set up in front of a mirror, and in the middle of the night, he sat up by himself for the first time (from laying down) and terrified himself half to death by staring at his reflection in the mirror. Gunnar STILL hasn't stayed overnight somewhere without us, and I am STILL not sure how I'm ever going to be ok with that, even though Michelle is adament that we need to do it SOON (and I admit, the idea of sleeping late while Gunnar chills with his grandparents sounds heavenly). Gunnar is napping like a champ, and has even taken a few 3 1/2 hour naps lately. Gunnar is still the sweetest, cutest, most wonderful little person that I know!

THE END

Vacation!

We just got back from our first vacation as a family of three. We went (of course) to South Padre Island. That is definitely our most frequented vacation spot. Nason's parents own a condo there, which they graciously allow us to stay at when we go, so it ends up being a pretty cheap vacation. Last year, around this same time, we went for our "Babymoon", and I vividly remember saying, "this will be our last time to come here before we have a baby". In fact, I think I posted a blog entry about it. If I was a bit more blog-savvy, and knew how to post that link into this entry, I would do so. But I'm not. Anyway, this vacation was interesting. Better than past trips to Padre in some ways, not as good (well, just different) as past trips in other ways. Better, because we had a perfect mix of "alone time" and "friend time". We were there for 10 days, and for four of those days, we had the Box's and the Hunt's join us. For three of the days, we had alone time, just me, Nason, and Gunnar, and for the remaining three days, Nason's parents joined us. DIFFERENT (or not as good) in that we maybe didn't have the right expectations ahead of time, about what a beach trip would be like with a baby. Gunnar just did NOT like the beach. Not at all. He didn't like the sand, he didn't like the heat, he didn't like the sun, he didn't like the ocean. We tried all kinds of creative ideas, trying to get him to enjoy it more, and he just didn't. He did enjoy the pool, but only for about 20 minutes at a time, and then he grew bored of it. What DID he like to do? Play inside the condo with his toys, and play in his baby pool out on the balcony. Both things he could easily do at home. Oh well. We knew ahead of time that going on vacation with a baby (or with kids in general) is definitely a different kind of fun than going on vacation without. However, we thought it would be an even trade off, getting to watch GUNNAR have fun. We didn't factor in the possibility that he might not. Although we should have..I mean, he is only 8 months old after all. What can you really expect?? Anyway, here are some fun pictures documenting our adventures is SPI....





Andrew and Michelle were staying at a hotel down the road from us, so we got to take full advantage of their hotel's nice, kid-friendly pool.



The Lovely Box Family




Nason and Jake made a rule that for 24 hours, they could only drink beer or milk. Here they are at 9 am one morning, drinking beer and smoking cigars.


All in all, it was a fun trip, and I think we've decided to try to make it an annual tradition. Hopefully, in subsequent years, Noah won't be scared of the sand, Camp won't be scared of the water, Gunnar won't hate everything about the beach in general, and the Losurdo's can join us!!