...and he's mobile!

Cash began crawling last week and we are really amazed at how quickly he's become proficient at it. At first he would army crawl, dragging his hind-quarters behind him; then he started to get up on his knees and explore the carpeted area. Now he is just tickled with himself when he ventures out onto the tile. I guess the spirit of grand adventure outweighs the feeling of cold, hard tiles on the knees. For me, it's just plain uncomfortable!

It's great that Cash is crawling, but there are at least two "problems" that we didn't fully anticipate. His new found freedom means we, as his parents, have to begin setting physical boundaries and even discipline. It's a daunting task when up to this point most of our interaction has been so positive and encouraging. I'm having a hard time finding the balance again now that I am frequently saying things like, "No, Cash. It's not ok to climb into the fireplace." or "Don't touch the outlets." or "No! What did mommy just say?" I'm sure it gets easier, though.

Secondly, the developmental milestones are disrupting his, and therefore our, sleep. We are waking multiple times in the night again, which is frustrating considering that we've never really had a consistent chunk of time with good rest. Such is the life of a parent, I guess, although that is not the attitude I have at 2am. Oh, well, atleast Bella is sleeping well.

All that to say, and we are still so grateful that God has blessed us with such a joyful child. He is such a sweetie and we can't remember what is was like before he was here.

I love this laugh!

How can you watch this and not laugh? This kid has the gift of spreading joy for sure!

(By the way, if you need to turn off the background music in order to hear the laughter, just scroll down to the Easter post and hit the mute button at the top of the slide show.)

8 months old!

Wow! Time really is flying by! Cash is eight-months-old today, preparing to crawl and bubbling over with personality. Mick and I are eating it all up!

Cash now has five (yes, five!) teeth, three top and two bottom. The other day, to my surprise, I went to get him from a nap and there he was, sitting up in his crib. Let the baby-proofing begin!

Speaking of baby-proofing, we had our first semi-major injury last week. I was making Cash's breakfast with him in one arm and the hot pan in the other, when Cash decided to reach out with his lightning fast grasp and palm the pan! Needless to say, within seconds we were both in hysterics. Within minutes Mick was on his way home from work, my sister was walking in the door on the phone with the paramedics and her partner was pulling up to the house in a police car. The gentleman who cares for our lawn was quite puzzled by the fiasco. Anyhow, much to my relief, the doctor assured me that Cash's hand was ok, despite the second-degree burn, and will function just fine in the future. He also told me to let myself off the hook for making the mistake, which is better than him calling CPS for my foolishness. (I know it's silly, but it did cross my mind!) The most amazing part was that later that afternoon, Cash was using his hand like normal and didn't seem to think anything was wrong. Boy, kids really are resilient!

Anyway, we have been so blessed these passed eight months to have such a sweet, joyful and funny little man in our lives. Looking forward to more adventures...just hopefully not many that include emergency rooms!