Dylan is mobile!

Before we headed back to Texas for the month of December, Dylan was just starting to army crawl around the place. I was so excited about his mobility...what was I thinking??? He's all over the place now and I spend most of my time saying "no" and pulling him away from the cat, stairs, cat toys, receiver knobs, lint fuzzies on the floor, did I mention the cat?, speaker wires, and shoes. He has ventured onto his hands and knees and really crawled, but I think he prefers moving around on his belly since we have so much tile. He frequently gets to a sitting position from crawling and is pulling up on everything! Eeekkkk. He's had a few bumps on the head. If that weren't enough activity, he does his baby push ups several times a day to build up those pecs.

At his 8 month check up he weighed 17 pounds 9 ounces and the doctor could see a tooth just below the surface trying to poke through. That was on the 28th of December. When we arrived back in Dubai on January 8th I could see the tooth on the bottom poking out and also noticed the other one starting to peek. They are both out now! He's also trying to cut one on the top. I don't think that the whole teething thing has bothered him too much. Hopefully that trend will continue. At our visit the doctor told us that Dylan could eat pretty much whatever now. He eats our table food most of the time and I finally got him to drink from a sippy cup SOMETIMES. He really likes cheese and still loves bananas. His pincer grasp is improving, but it takes him a while to eat.

Dylan loves dumping his blocks out of their container and then chewing on them. He also likes to crawl under the coffee table and play peek a boo through the hole in the side. He is extremely social and likes to stay in the same room with me. We're working on waving bye bye and clapping. We can't wait for his first birthday when Grand Pa Rich and Grand Pa Frank and Grandma Debbie and Grandma Joni will be here to see him!

Dylan celebrated his first Christmas and it was awesome! He got so many fun toys to play with! In fact, we didn't have enough room to bring back everything in our suitcases! Luckily Grandpa Frank and Grandma Joni will bring Dylan his other toys in April. I helped him open his presents and he promptly grabbed everything out of my hands - wrapping paper, packaging, tags, and the toys. He seemed to enjoy the wrappers and packages almost as much as if not more than the actual toys. For good measure he tasted everything to make sure it was worthy.

Rain, water, and Bush

Let me apologize first for my lack of posts. We celebrated Thanksgiving here at our place with several other expats and cooking while my little pickle was roaming around proved a bit challenging! Then I had to prepare for the month long sojourn home.

Anyway, we're back and unpacked and adjusted to the time zone and waiting for the sun to come out again. For the past week we could have been in Washington (the state) instead of the desert. The rain keeps quietly falling and water has been finding its way into the villa. I haven't ventured out beyond our neighborhood, but I hear that flooding is rampant and several cars in typical Dubai mentality find their way into the "puddles" and surprisingly stall out. I'm sure adding water to the driving situation here is beyond scary!

If that weren't bad enough, we get an email on Sunday detailing road closures on Monday for President Bush's visit. The major highway is listed as well as several roads near the airport and around the mall area. Since alternate routes are non existent, the government decided to declare a holiday - George Bush Day. What was hilarious is that commercials were being aired on Monday afternoon for different routes to take to the airport. Might have been a little more useful earlier...

Day before yesterday I'm downstairs playing with the baby when I hear the unmistakable gush of water UPSTAIRS. I'm thinking that all the rain has caused a hole in the ceiling or some other horrible calamity. I sprint up the stairs and follow the sound to our bathroom where our ass cleaner is hosing down the room. I guess it was getting pissed from lack of use. For those of you who are clueless...the bathrooms here all have the spray nozzles next to the toilets for...well you know. We happily stick with toilet paper here, so the sprayers sit. I have attached a picture of the guilty nozzle.