Cute Little Boy

Here's a video I took of Gumba today, it's a lot of fun. At least I think so! I had a few good chuckles, which you may be able to hear. I know that it's long, about 10min, but if you like Gumba, it's worth taking the time to watch! You'll see how incredible close he is to crawling. Husband and I can't believe he isn't on the go yet. But we're prepared, sort of. Is anyone ever truly prepared? So I couldn't upload the video, it's too big :( So very sad, because you all would have enjoyed it.

I'd post some pics, but I see that I'm taking more video of him now than pics. But I do have this really cute one of him from yesterday. Gumba is still a fussy pants, so I've been trying to keep him interested in anything and everything. I decided to take him out on the deck in the JumperRoo. It made him very happy for 30minutes or so, a lifetime for me at the moment! Here's a pic that I got of him:

Gumba's Cage

We finally did it, made our stairs and banister baby safe. We decided to go with lattice. We had other not so cleaver, visually appealing, and cheaper ideas, but we figured there would be more than one child and therefore should fine something we could live with for several years. Especially since I told Husband I was through with moving for the next two decades or so. Yes the lattice is very secure, it's made out of hard plastic so baby can't break it. Also, notice the cute cat escape hatch on the bottom left corner. Husband thought Jasper should have the option of not being around us/have access to the litter box whenever he wanted. I don't think we have to worry about a baby falling through the little hole. Here are before and after pictures. I'm also going to have Husband put sliding face plates on the outlets. When asked why since we have the outlet plug covers, I told him Gumba would eventually unplug something, and then we'd have a free outlet for his cute small fingers to explore. That's the next item on the baby proofing list.

Has it Really Been 5 Years?

Husband and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on Saturday. Can it really be five years already? They sure have flown by, here's a recap:

Year 1: Moved to Michigan for paramedic school. I ended up in the Upper Peninsula for three months while Husband was down in Ann Arbor.

Year 2: Moved back to AK, bought a house.

Year 3: Bought a car for me.

Year 4: Bought another house, became landlords (not slumlords :)

Year 5: Had a baby.

And of course in between there were vacations, adopting numerous pets, and other fun, frustrating, fascinating things. Husband and I were able to go out and celebrate thanks to my mom, who was in town, and provided excellent childcare. Husband was able to see the second Transformers movie. Let's face it, some movies should be seen on a big screen, and since I haven't approved the plan for one to be built at our house, we had to go out. It was fun to be sans baby, but I was glad to get home!

All in all it's been a great five years. I'm not sure if we're any closer to figuring each other out. As the time changes, so do we. We figure we have another 65 years give or take a few to get things right. We'll have to wait and see what happens in this sixth year. Pretty hard to top the first five.

Mr. Fussy Pants

Care to guess which one of the following Gumba is right now?

1. Over tired
2. Frustrated at the world
3. His first tooth
4. Practicing a new sound

I don't have a clue which of the three it is, all I know is that I want it to stop. Gumba has started whining/fussing constantly. There is only a total of one hour reprieve from the ear piercing, eye-rolling sound. I have no idea how to stop it. I post a video of it, but I wouldn't want your eyes to roll into the back of your head, or your ears to bleed. It is that annoying. Husband and I think he is overtired, but, how do you make a child sleep? We offer three naps a day, and twelve hours of sleep at night. So, if it's not over tiredness, what could it be? Does teething produce almost constant whines? I've felt in his mouth, there are no inflamed gums, no pearly white teeth. So, if it is a new sound, the chances of this stopping soon are slim. Once Gumba tries out a new sound, he become addicted to it for two-three weeks. If we're lucky we'll hear cheerful baby sounds in about a week and a half. If he's overtired, I hope he learns to take longer naps. Any of you mothers remember such a thing happening?

Gumba is this Close

Gumba is nearly crawling. It happened so fast. On Saturday he started to get on his knees, and then started to rock like a mad man! I told Husband that once he got home it was imperative for us to figure out how to close off the stairs and the banister. I did not want to become one of those parents who was "going to get around to that" and then have Gumba tumble down the stairs. We already have a baby gate up. We're really not quite sure what to do with the banister, but we figured we'd try lattice first. Here is a video of Gumba almost crawling. You'll see we're really in for it soon. Enjoy! Forgive me for the amature videography. I hope it doesn't make you dizzy.

Oh, and Husband is home, safe and sound. He was gone for twelve days, and here are some of the pictures he took while gone.

Leo Went to New Home

Well, I finally did it, Leo is off to a new home. And, surprisingly, I feel terrible. Leo got into a pretty nasty fight with an animal outside a while back, and his wounds seemed to be healing. Then last night when I got home I noticed that it had opened into a 2x2 inch wound and had to take him to the vet. No easy venture since Husband is still out with Forestry. Our good friends who are amazing took Gumba for a couple hours. After speaking to the vet about the care Leo would need, and the cost, and the high probability he would need additional sutures because the area would be prone to opening back up, I opted to sign Leo over to the clinic. He will get adopted into a home that can love and cherish his quirkiness and persistent personality. But, I feel awful about the whole thing. Hopefully time will take away the guilt of abandonment I feel right now. I know it was the right thing to do...I think. It's best for him to be in a home that appreciates him. It's just hard feeling like I failed one of my pets. And in the end I'm going to miss him.

Forest Fires...

Take Husband away...again. Husband went out to Nenana on Friday, and today I received a phone call saying he was headed up to Circle to provide structure protection. Not sure when he'll come back. So far it's been something like the third warmest, or driest (can't remember) summer on record. Obviously this isn't helping with keeping fires under control. However, this year isn't as bad as 2004; the summer which all other summers will be forever (hopefully) compared to. 2004 was the worst fire season on record, over 6.6 million acres were burned over the summer. To put this in perspective, Connecticut has approximately 3.5 million acres to it's name. Fairbanks was bathed in smoke for weeks, and to top it off it was HOT HOT HOT. I believe our top temperature was in the low 90s. Very few people have air conditioning because it's Alaska, so we all sat inside sweating, praying for sweet relief. My relief came when it was time for Husband and I to go on our honeymoon. Thankfully it's now August and the daytime temperatures are starting to dip a little. Still can't open windows though, or take Gumba out for very long. We've had ash falling at our house off and on again for weeks. I can't imagine what's in the air that we're breathing. It's off to single parenthood again. I hope Gumba cooperates and makes the next however many days it may be, pleasant.

A little bit of this and that

- Fairbanks is once again cloaked in smoke. We've been lucky in NP, but not today. Last night when I got up for the forth time to take care of Gumba I could smell the smoke permeating the house. Ughh. The interior has had a lot of fires, and more are starting everyday. Husband had to go respond to a wildland fire in the city at midnight the other night. And, to top off his tiredness for working hard, Gumba didn't take very good naps. Poor Dad.

- Gumba was sick on Sunday, his first pucking experience. It of course came on before bedtime, so I got to worry all night long that he was dehydrated and would die, and it would be all my fault. Husband was of course at work through all of it.

- Gumba is still waking up many times a night. I am at such a loss. I'm starting to think he'll never ever sleep for longer then 3hrs and I'll be sleep deprived forever. The pediatrician told Gumba he was well on his way to having his prayers answered, he may end up being an only child. What happens if we hit the lottery more than once and get a child like this again?

- Oh, let's not forget that Sadie had the runny runny poops. I woke up three mornings in a row and had to clean her up. Ughh. Pets are wonderful, however when they're sick, it sucks.

For some much better news:

- I weighed Gumba the other day, and he is a hefty 19lbs 14oz. Now, remember that he is only 7 months old. I wonder what he'll weigh on his one year birthday.

- I bought an organic crib mattress for baby. It was very expensive, and I'm sure many will think I'm nuts, but I feel good about it. I know he's not inhaling fire retardants, and other, what may turn out to be, harmful chemicals.

- My friend Jenny had her baby!!! Hudson was born on Wednesday. Congratulations McCulloch family!

Listen to Gumba Screech!

Gumba has decided that he will only communicate through loud, variable pitched screeches. Luckily he does this only when he is happy, which is 99% of the time. I know screeching annoys most parents, but I take great joy in it. Gumba went through this faze at six months were he stopped vocalizing and it scared me, so I'd rather have deafening noises then silence any day. So, I have a video for you all, a sample if you will, of what we've been hearing at our house the last couple of weeks.

Also, Gumba has just about mastered sitting up. It was amazing how quickly he caught on. I'm sure it had a lot to do with my mother-in-law taking the time to give him practice. As it turns out, I'm the slow learner. It took me watching Gumba hit his head on the hard floor three times before I figured out putting him on the bed first would be a good idea. Luckily his head has healed and he won't have any memories of how dumb his mother is.

Cute Video

This video is one of my favorites. I hope it brings as many smiles to your face as it does to mine. In this video Gumba is almost three months old. Sorry if the quality isn't very good. We use our camera that's considered ancient in the world of technology.