8 Months!

This look of excitement is because Chester jumped on the loveseat.

Is it even possible it's already the first day of July, and our "little one" is 8 months old? Where is the time going? Even though summer has barely begun, Halloween already feels just around the corner.

At our house, there are a lot of bumps, bruises, and comforting now as Liam is fully engrossed with pulling up and standing. He's no longer just pulling up on his knees, like he was for awhile, but usually gets up on his feet. Balance is a much tougher skill to master. He'll just start to get comfortable with standing, then too comfortable, and move in such a way that he ends up on the floor. Any time I hear a thud, I wait for the wail. He's already had at least 2 bruises on his forehead, but they seem to go away much quicker than my bruises do. Little by little, he's learning. And as much as part of you wants to put a helmet on them and pad the place, you know it's better they learn now rather than later (Mommy knows this from trying to learn to ski for the first time at age 21). He's also doing more real coordinated crawling, and parents keep saying kids learn to walk soon after they do that. Of course, I know all kids do things there own way so I'm not too worried. But I don't know if I'm ready for our infant to be a toddler yet!

Here are a couple other pictures from the last few days:

Liam at Aunt Amy's birthday party (poor Aunt Amy was sick with strep throat though). He didn't quite figure out the walker yet.

Yesterday while I was eating lunch, Liam begged me for food (yes, I gave him a nibble):

Liam and I have been making a point to go outside a lot recently. I have been taking him to some of my favorite local parks, and trying to go on walks most mornings. I am feeling a lot better in general since I have been walking and running more regularly. Also, so far, so good. I have not had any more bouts of insomnia. I'm still a little tired, but Michael let me sleep in yesterday when I really needed it, and it made a huge difference.

Michael's funding was renewed and I will start receiving unemployment benefits again after a 3 month hiatus when I was making enough from freelancing at home. This will carry us through the summer at least, in case my current job prospect doesn't pan out. We're thankful to have income coming in again. It was up in the air for the entire month of June.