Hot & Cold and Dada & Mama

Winter semester is officially over, but the poor Mr. doesn't get a break quite yet (enter in part-time job #2 & Spring term classes). He's doing very well with all the insanity though! His classes are rough, but he is rockin' them AND still spending time with his lucky family.

I recently got to learn a lot about swamp coolers. I spent 2 days last week leveling the dirt in the front shrub-patch and trying to make it look really nice for the owner - including sawing, hacking, and ripping out an old Juniper bush (for the record, those look great as ground cover, but once they need to come out it is SUCH a pain - think of your posterity before you put them in). And then promptly began working on the 8 swamp coolers for the complex. I think I went from knowing only that they use water to cool homes in less-humid areas to knowing how to fix just about any problem.

Clean up was messy, the roof was horridly hot, I scraped and cut my arms and hands multiple times, had to replace some of the tray drain/overflow tubes, put in new float valves, fix a leaky water line, and climb up and down an old ladder more times than I really should have. However, with the help of wonderful family and friends (those who helped out on the roof, over the phone, and those who helped by watching the Munchkin), I finally finished them. Just in time for a cool spring storm to come in. At least I can say that I can winterize and de-winterize my own swamp cooler later on in life. :)

In other news, I can't believe our little Munchkin is almost 8 months old! He has his 2 front teeth (on the bottom) and it's not even Christmas yet! It was a bit of a rough process for such a little boy. During the day, he is only slightly more irritable than normal, but at night, he just had a rough time sleeping. 

With two poking through, we thought we were done with this teething thing for a while. Unfortunately,  for the last two nights, Munchkin has been waking up 3+ times crying and only sleeps with his pacifier to chew on. In combination with more swollen gums on the lower level, I think he may have 2 more teeth trying to pop through. Wish we could find a way to get this little boy the good deep sleep he needs, but that won't happen when he's attached to his pacifier at night. Any ideas on breaking that habit now? Or do we just need to wait until the teething takes a pause?

Even with the sleepless nights, Munchkin is learning at a quick rate! He has almost got the crawling thing down! He's strong enough to get up on his hands and knees, but just hasn't figured out the coordination of moving the hands hand feet to move forward. Turning 360's on hands and knees as well as on his bum happens all the time. And, Munchkin has started pulling himself up on things (like boxes and the lovely handles on the desk drawers). Such a strong boy!

With all his strength, his smarts aren't far behind either! He's already figured out how to open a banana all on his own (promise, we did not assist at all)!

Most recently he has learned how to ask for mom and dad. He started with "da du du du du" and I finally connected that he was asking for daddy when the Mr. had to leave early for class one day and Munchkin kept turning toward the hallway and saying "da du du du du" all day until the Mr. came home that night. Just yesterday he turned that in to "ma mu mu mu mu." I went out to visit with some friends and was gone for about an hour. In that time, the Munchkin woke up from his nap and was super hungry. The Mr. told me when I came home that Munchkin had been saying "ma mu mu mu" since he woke up (and promptly started crying with hunger when I came home). He's totally figured out the beginnings of speech :)