A giant duck, some signs, and a climbing accident...

This has been a fairly busy week for Gunnar and I with work and trying to get everything done around here. We decided to make the guestroom into a playroom for Gunnar, so we have started putting that together. It's looking great, and Gunnar has already had a lot of fun playing in there. It's right next to the office/scrapbooking room, so I can babygate Gunnar in his playroom, and work on some of his photo albums. Here's a quick view of what we have so far. I'd like to put a mural on the big empty wall, but we'll see what we get around to. No need to give myself a bunch of extra projects, since we already have several in the works.

I caught a few cute moments of Gunnar at play this week. First, since Gunnar now bathes in the big bathtub, and no longer needs a baby bathtub, we brought the duck bathtub downstairs for him to play with. He's had a lot of fun crawling in and on the duck this week, and occasionally crawled in to see if the duck would take him for a ride. One of Gunnar's favorite noises we make is duck quacking. That and a frog ribbit will get him smiling almost every time. Here's some proof of Gunnar's love of the duck.

Gunnar caught his first cold this week from daycare, and the poor little guy has had some rough nights recently. His biggest problem is breathing through his nose with a pacifier or bottle, so eating and sleeping have become difficult. He seems to be feeling better though, and I think he's a healthy little guy whose immune system seems to work pretty efficiently. Anyway, he's getting better, and I'm sure it's only the first of many colds. I read somewhere that most babies have an average of 6 colds before their 1st birthday, so in that respect, Gunnar's doing pretty well.

While we were in Montana, we accidentally left our Baby Einstein's First Signs sign language DVD, so when she mailed it back, we watched it again. Gunnar paid attention to it for the first time, and I caught what could be practicing? He really hasn't caught on to the baby signs yet, but I may be too inconsistent with my signing with him. Anyway, he seemed to be very intent on the DVD.

Gunnar's a spoiled boy, and while doing some grocery shopping at FredMeyer the other day, I saw a new truck on sale, so we bought it. Gunnar loves it, and it's perfect for little people with bad balance. It has a giant handle on the top for Gunnar to push around, which also helps him keep his balance at the same time.

Last, but not least, I caught Gunnar doing a death-defying act with his toy basket the other day. He saw a pacifier on the couch he wanted, so he decided to use his basket as a step-stool. Did he turn it over and stand on the bottom? No. He used the edge. He was standing there holding the couch like he could do it all day long, and then he lost his footing, and sort of slid to the ground. (I'm glad it wasn't a boom, since I was taking photos instead of holding on to him.) Here are the before and after photos. He's learning to bounce back quickly though, because when he hit the ground, he didn't cry, just rolled over and moved on to something else. He succeeded in his effort though - note the pacifier in his mouth.

We have a busy day planned today with errands and Maddy's birthday, so I'll be sure and take the camera. Justin has swat training this week, so Gunnar and I will be on our own for a few days, which with the dogs, is pretty interesting. Maybe I can spend my free tiem doing some fall cleaning around the house. Until next time...