I learned today, I am never going to host a birthday party for my son with more than 4 or 5 pre-schoolers. I went to the library on base and read a story and did a craft with 30 of the little monsters. It was a nightmare. Fortunately my boss is only going to have me go once a month and I figured out how to make it a little easier next time.

It was pretty bad on its own, but then I had Paul II with me, as my friend was busy with a class until the story hour was over. So in between breaking up squabbles and making sure everyone had their supplies, which there weren't enough of to begin with, I had to watch over my son.

Well, since he's crawling more now, he figured all those kids would be fun to play with. It seemed like every five minutes I was bending down, grabbing him in the crook of my arm and plopping him back in his corner. I have never had such a mental drain in my life, I was THRILLED when it was all over.

I finally received a toy I ordered to our German address today. It's a Fisher-Price tub toy that sticks on the tub wall. Paul II was so excited about it. When I first started bathing him, I had to play with it about 20 times before he even noticed it. You pour water onto the toys and they spin, flip or dribble. Well, he decided the water wasn't working well enough and started spinning the cup on the lobster himself. He LOVED it. He would whack the cup and watch it spin, giggling like mad. Granted, the way he was giggling like it was the greatest thing in the world, was proof he was tired, but with a giggle like that, I wasn't about to stop his fun just yet.

I turned on the video camera and caught the fun on tape. He was so excited, he didn't even see the camera to give it a blank stare. Unfortunately, as cute as that clip is, I can't put it online for my family. Someone will report me for posting child porn, because that's how extreme people have become these days. He's almost 8 months old and nothing was showing on the camera, but he's a naked child.

I remember 20 years ago, when it was fine to take bathtub pictures of your child, as long as they were really young. Now, no one will develop any naked baby pictures and confiscate the film. Ridiculous. Oh well.

Tomorrow will be a busy day for us. He'll be turning 8 months and it's Daddy's birthday. So we have to catch the train to Heidelberg and do a little shopping at the big base. I want to get a good computer game for Paul's gift, as well as some things for around the house.

I have come to a new stage in parenthood. The freaking out phase. We had it all planned. My husband and I were leaving our son for the day with a lady I used to work with. I had no fears and was okay with them being alone. But to make my husband happy, I was going to stage a "pick up" by our friend. Meg was going to stop by to pick up a video and really be checking in on Paul II.

I had the GPS all set with all the museums we were going to visit and we hopped on the train for a 30 minute ride to Mainz. When we got there, we called Meg, but she couldn't do as I planned, as she was out of town. Oh well.

Then I called home to make sure Paul II and his sitter, Sarah were fine. No answer. I left a message on the machine, realizing I hadn't told her where the phone is and it's hidden from sight by the computers. Still no answer. Okay, she's probably chaning his diaper or in the bathroom.

I try back a few minutes later. No answer. Paul is anxious and so am I, but we go through one museum and give Sarah some time in case she was busy. Half an hour later we're done in the museum and try again. No answer, but the answering machine keeps picking up.

At this point every possible negative thought is going through my head and I'm too far to run to my son. My husband is equally upset. So we begin calling everyone from his unit with no luck. It seems like everyone must be at church. We're about ready to call his Company Commander and have him knock down the door with the MPs. Finally we get a hold of someone and have him check on our son.

He calls us back and tells us everything is fine, the phone is just broken. A small weight lifts off our shoulders, but we're already back in the train station, tickets in hand and we're WAY too spazzed to hang out in Mainz any longer. So about 40 minutes later and we were home.

Yeah, the phone had died. It's really messed up and now it's working again. It's like it gets surges occassionally and you have to shut it off for a day. Well, I won my battle finally with Paul. From now on we take our son EVERYWHERE with us. We'll try the babysitter thing again sometime, but not for a long while.

It was a good thing we came home though. About ten minutes later he finally sat up. Sarah said he'd been doing it all morning. We were so proud.

I'm also working on walking with him. He takes tentative steps, then tries to take huge ones and loses his balance while I hold his hands. It's really cute.

Well, it's official. I have birthed a vampire. When his top right canine came it first, I figured, okay, that's weird. But now that his top left canine is his second tooth, I've begun to wear tutrle necks and ropes of garlic. I'm not religious, but I'm seriously considering crosses around the house.

Okay, so I'm more saying aww, how cute, but there's that thought in the back of my mind.

I tried the Zwiebach toast again today. It was really funny when I popped it in his mouth and he just sat there with it hanging out. I went through the motions a few times, where I put the toast in his hand, moved his hand to his mouth and tried to get him to feed himself.

Honestly, I just don't get it. He'll shove anything and everything into his mouth right now. Except tha darn toast. He just looks at it blankly. Oh well, we'll just have to keep working on it.

He crawled into the kitchen yesterday, while I was in the bathroom. But today, I actually saw him do the whole trip. After I put him back in his play area, he made another trip. Both times he went straight to his Exersaucer and reached up to play with the toys, while lying on the floor. The second time was funny though.

The Exersaucer was close to and my sneakers were against the wall. He tried to crawl between the two, to finish his journey. Unfortunately the soles on the sneakers caused some difficulty and held him back. I've never seen him so ticked off before. If I spoke baby, I'd swear he was cussing.

Not too much has happened lately. Paul II's tooth is still growing and it looks so weird to see this little canine sticking out of an otherwise toothless mouth. But it did get Paul I and I talking about the tooth fairy and how much to give. While I used to get a quarter, or later fifty cents, Paul received a dollar. Wow, his tooth fairy was pretty generous. So we decided we'll give a silver dollar for each tooth and have our son save them.

Paul II did discover another feature of his Exersaucer. It's a big play area he sits in and he can rock and bounce while he plays with the toys. But until today, he never bounced. We pressed on it a few times to give him the idea, but he didn't catch on. But today he finally understood and had a blast. We think it may be, because my husband adjusted the height properly. He bounced and slammed that thing around. It was great. The more excitedly he bounced, he would slap his hands on the toy tray and start to squeal with a HUGE grin.

Two days ago I watched our friends 11 months old daughter. It was very different than dealing with Paul II. While he stayed around his play area and slowly crawled to a few places, Emily grabbed the couch and sidled over and tried to walk everywhere. I was not prepared and had to keep running to move her elsewhere.

I'm looking forward to when our son can walk as well, but I'm also not looking forward to it, now that I know my days of a low maitenance baby will be over. Oh well.

We also started to play patty-cake the other day. Paul II just sits and lets me tap his hands, but when I'm done, he throws his hands up and down and slaps mine when I put them on his lap. It's so cute.

He also crawled farther today. Paul I sat across the room by the computer and called our son to him. Until now, Paul II has just gone where he wanted, but he went to Daddy and we were so excited.

Well, Paul II has made some New Year's resolutions and kept them. He's better than his father and I. Yesterday morning, Paul I came running into our bedroom and woke me up. It turns out our son sat up, but neither of us saw it. Paul I had set the baby down to play and was off doing something else. Then when he sat back down, he saw the baby sitting. It took him a moment to realize he hadn't propped him. So of course when I watched him all day yesterday and today, he didn't do it again.

He also crawled. That we did see. Now that he knows how to crawl, he won't stop. It's so frustrating, but also so funny. I've been working on jigsaw puzzles next to his play blanket, so I'm still near him, yet I can keep occupied. Well, he has decided he really likes my puzzle and wants to help me by mixing up the pieces I haven't put in yet. What a sweet boy. So now, I turn him with his butt towards me and place him at the opposite end of his blanket, but he seems to crawl to me awfully quick, too quick for me to get much done.

It was really cute. I went to prep our son's bottle and my husband tried to get him to crawl to him. He put Paul II's little stuffed tiger in front of him to motivate the baby, but to no avail. I kept telling him to put out his water bottle which the baby was enthralled with earlier. But no, Daddy wasn't going to listen, he stuck with the tiger. Finally I had the bottle ready and placed it in front of Paul II. Guess what? That little demon went flying towards it. You know, I think he fully understands the concept of the bottle.

Also, he kept one more resolution. He broke his first tooth finally. Now of course, our son isn't normal. A normal baby pops out the two bottom front teeth first. Not our son. No, he pops out his top right canine. So now he's growing a little vampire fang. But I still love him.