8 Months

Here are pictures of Eric at 8 months:

He's mobile and likes to army crawl towards the camera...

Eric also likes standing.

Look at how much he has grown!

He has the cutest smiles!

Trying to get the camera!

Just moving away from where I wanted him.

Woohoo, I'm getting away from the picture area!

Okay, I'll give you a good shot, then maybe we'll get over this sooner than later.

And I'll play with the monkey.

So the above shots were from the second time we tried to take pictures, the first time all we got was:

A VERY unhappy baby!

Eric at 7 months

I have not been so good about uploading Eric's monthly pictures, but this past month has been out of the ordinary, so I'm sure you will understand. I started taking pictures and the first one turned out great, none of the rest turned out as cute, but we did get a few more good ones. The main problem was that Eric wanted to come get the camera:

One moment he'd be back against the couch and the next, he was up in the camera. Look at those beautiful blue eyes!

This was not the best picture, but it was close behind!
I love the shots of Eric playing with his green monkey!
Hugging the monkey, he's just so cute!
My little contortionist!

Oh, you're taking pictures?

And finally, this is the picture I LOVE the most, I think it turned out so great! Just look at that cute smile!

One Reason

In the post I let you all know that we were moving in with my parents for a while, I said this: I know there is a reason we're going back to live with my parents for a bit, and when I learn what that reason is, I'll let you know.

Tonight I know one reason that this move was suppose to happen. My grandmother (mom's mother) died this evening. Since we moved here, she was able to see Eric before she died (unfortunately due to an infection she had, she couldn't hold him.) I am grateful for that.

Eric at 6 months...

So I know this post is later than I wanted it to be... what can I say life is crazy! I may post on that in the future, we'll see... Here's the pictures, I'm skipping captioning them this time... I want to hear yours!

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Yes we are still alive

Apologies to anybody that is offended that we haven't posted recently, especially those of you who we haven't contacted otherwise to update you.

Thanks to some help from Steve and Johnny, we got the truck mostly loaded in about an hour. Margaret helped us organize a lot of the remaining stuff and took care of handing in our paperwork. Thanks again to her for letting us sublet her apartment and being so generous with us.

We didn't get started on the road until late Thursday afternoon. Eric was fine for the first few hours, but we ended up stopping pretty early in Cedar Rapids, IA. We had to get directions from Crystal's sister since I had managed to bury our road atlas somewhere. In case you didn't catch how ridiculous that is, I'll remind you that I make maps for a living...you'd think I would remember how useful they can be when traveling.

Our other stays were in Grand Island, NE and Rawlins, WY. We had originally planned on making the trip in three days, but it stretched into four. Eric was pretty sick of the whole thing by the end of the trip. He doesn't like getting into his car seat anymore. I can't blame the poor kid. His second tooth broke through on the last day of the trip and he also got a round of immunizations the day before we set out. On top of Eric, we dealt with the wondrous joy of driving a 14 foot truck. The air pressure was low on all of the tires and we couldn't find an air station that would let us fill the outside rear tires so I got to wrestle with the truck swaying around quite a bit.

Arriving in 'Roosevelt' we hoped would be the beginning of a sort of vacation. We did go on a date to watch a movie, but things haven't been as smooth as we could have hoped. Crystal's grandmother was life-flighted to Salt Lake while we were en route. Most likely, she was smoking with her oxygen running, causing the small fire. After a day or two in the hospital, she was sent to a rehab-center where she was not well taken care of. She ended up back in the hospital again. There is definitely more to the story, but suffice it to say that I would avoid the Arlington Heights center in Salt Lake. Meanwhile, Dennis, Crystal's brother came down with pnuemonia and had to go to the emergency room yesterday. He's back home and doing much better now.

Some other random bits:

Eric is as cute as ever. We really have to keep an eye on him as we haven't really had time to baby-proof the house yet. A few times, as I set him down, he manages to stay up on his feet and hands, but he hasn't gotten there on his own just yet.

I'm now on a mostly regular sleep schedule. I go to sleep at 10:30 and wake up at 7:30. Yay!!! In a day or two, I'll cut back light exposure to 30 minutes instead of an hour. In the mornings, I watch the family of California Quail wake up and start their day in the back yard. I also watch some White Crowned Sparrows and Magpies as well as a pair of Northern Flicker's.

Crystal says we'll post pictures of Eric at six-months sometime next week.

Our lives currently

So as it is September and back in June/July we were hopeful that we'd know what was happening in our lives at this point, I thought I should let you all know that we don't.
Daniel didn't get an appointment on campus this fall so we decided not to register for classes (tuition expenses are not something we're willing to pay out of pocket right now.) Due to that decision, Daniel is not able to work as a student (which he has been doing for the summer.) So we decided that the best course of action currently is to move where we have free rent and more support from family. We're in the selection phase of a few government jobs, but they could be selecting until November and waiting around in Madison is just not going to work out.
So we're moving to Utah to be with my family until employment is found, which will hopefully be in a month or two. We're moving the day after Eric's 6 month check up, which is on the day he turns 6 months.

We're going to miss a few things about the area (I'm going to be positive here so I'm not going to list all the things we won't miss). We're going to miss our favorite inexpensive places to eat - Qdoba, Noodles & Company. We're going to miss the fall here, with the colorful leaves. We're going to miss some of the great birds we've seen here: Northern Cardinals, Eastern Bluebirds, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, Baltimore Orioles, and the rare finds - Horned Grebe, Indigo Bunting as well as all those that I can't remember right now. We're going to miss the walks to picnic point, in the arboretum, and the conservancy. We're going to miss going to the Women's Hockey games and getting free frozen custard because they are so good (the team - every time they scored 5 points we got free custard). Most of all we're going to miss all the friends we've made here. We appreciate all the support and friendship shown to us!

We'll be packing the stuff we didn't unpack since we moved during the next week and a half. It all seems surreal. I was really hoping that this time we packed that we'd be off to a job (and they'd be paying for the move). I know there is a reason we're going back to live with my parents for a bit, and when I learn what that reason is, I'll let you know.

Eric Videos

So here are some promised videos of Eric...
Eric eating Bananas - his first food...

Eric Falling asleep...

This next one is a classic Eric - he waves his arm like that when he is hungry. When he falls asleep eating and is still only halfway coherent but wants to eat he does that with his eyes closed and opens his mouth expecting something to be put in it. It is so adorable!