Our previous roommate

We had some excitement last night at bedtime! Jerret noticed that Chloe was sitting still and looking very intently at the mantel of the fireplace. She was watching a little POSSUM walk around up there! We have been hearing something under the house, but weren't worried because we certainly didn't think whatever it was was COMING INSIDE!!! I had some plants on that mantel that were disappearing when we first moved in. They were broken and pieces were missing every morning - they got smaller and smaller every day! Jerret now admits that he thought I was crazy (and I kind of did too), but I guess not! Anyway, the little guy wasn't very scared of us and accepted crackers from Jerret, which helped Jerret lure him into a kennel. We are planning on taking him to a woodsy area today to release him to nature where he belongs. And we will be spending some of the day searching for and fixing any holes (particularly the one near the mantel) and cleaning up there and around the fireplace. For those of you who know us well, yes, we did discuss keeping him. Don't worry. We came to our senses, but he is very cute and is obviously at home here! Never a dull moment here at the Eastburg house! Here are some pictures for your amusement.

This is our new freshwater tank. Although we did keep our 1 Percula Clownfish, I am burnt out on saltwater and hadn't done anything cool to the tank in a long while. I pulled out the freshwater stuff and started this one a few weeks ago. It is new and fun and keep my hobby side occupied. So far, we have a school of Neon Tetras, a Dwarf Goraumi, a male Betta (B's favorite as you can see from the picture), a Red Wag Platy, an Angelfish, a Glass Catfish, a Gold Snail, a Black Snail, and a Clown Loach. They didn't all show up for the picture, but they're never all out at the same time. We may add an algae eater or two, but not too many more to prevent overloading it. Sorry for the bluriness of the pictures. It turns out that it's pretty difficult to take pictures of fish in a tank! They move a lot (and I'm obviously no expert!).


Betta


Glass Cat and Gourami


Neon Tetra School (see their little desks and pencils?)

B showing off his standing skills

Bruce is now over 11 months and is so proud of himself when he stands unsupported. It won't be long before he is walking all over!




Here are some pictures of our recent day at the lake.

Bruce and Daddy hanging out at home.

First Haircut and Birthdays

When I was cutting Jerret's hair, I decided to trim a few out of control places on Bruce's as well. This qualifies as his first haircut since he's never had it done before. It was a bit intimidating on a young child that moves so unpredictably. It's not very straight and I missed a few pieces, but I will go back and clean it up when I get my guts back. Yes, that's his toothbrush that he's holding. He loves it and we sometimes use it as a distraction.




Bruce's cousin, John just turned 1! Here are some pictures from his party.

Fishing through the toy basket



Sharing. Yay!



Happy!



Opening presents


Trying out John's new toys



Grandma trying out John's new toys!



Jerret fishing in Sara and Nathan's pond



Looking for rocks and sticks and other tasty things



Caught one! (actually caught 3 by the end of the day)



Another one

We had a small party for Jerret's birthday at our house on Sunday.

Jerret cake


Grandma and the tired boys

Crawling and Standing

Bruce at 10 months old, showing off his 6 teeth

Bruce is now officially crawling on his hands and knees. Just a couple days later, he learned how to pull himself up to standing! He keeps us busy as he is all over the place and into just about everything. He still ALWAYS says "what is that?" and now knows who "Dada" is (although he says it for a few other things as well - it can also mean "doggie", for example). Once when he was sitting on the floor sharing his Cheerios with Willow (yeah, I know - we're bad parents), he said "Wil-low" but we haven't been able to get him to say it again. We are both sad and proud to be working on the plans for his first birthday party already. I can't believe it's almost here!

Standing Up

"What's so interesting about this thing, anyway?"


Here's a video of Bruce crawling. He sometimes uses a combo of regular crawling and his old army crawl, depending on the circumstances and how fast he needs to get somewhere.

Here's him pulling up on his own. He's a bit wobbly, but can do it as long as the incentive is right.

The rest of the family is doing well and things are pretty uneventful (Bruce is so much more exciting than the rest of us). Jerret's job seems stable for now, even though the industry is taking quite a hit lately. We are praying his position remains unaffected. I stay busy with household responsibilities as well as some social and fun stuff throughout the week.

More Acrobatics

Here are some more pictures of Bruce's acrobatics. What a silly boy!




Here's another product of my cake decorating class. I didn't choose the cake's theme - and, no, we aren't trying to tell you anything! :)




Here's the first mosquito of the season (in the house, unfortunately). Huge!

Family Pictures

Bruce 9 months

I forgot to include these earlier. Enjoy!