8 months old

Today Makayla is 8 months old and life is getting interesting. She has been up to so much. She has changed her "danceing" from her one leg going up and down, to her whole body moving up and down. She also can get around the living room without a problem, but still is not crawling. She has 2 teeth that are completly in and I think she is working on another. She has also figured out how to "walk" around the house in her walker. Its wierd to be in the kitchen cooking something, and you look over and there she is! I think she likes her new freedom. I really have to baby proof the house now. I find my towels from the kitchen, in the livingroom, and find her under the dining room table pulling on the table cloth. She would be pulling out my files, and cords from the walls if her arms were a little longer.
She has figured out how to turn on and off her mobile. I laid her in her room yesterday and put her classical CD on for her. I went into my room to lay down and before I could get comfortable I heard a clicking and a different song coming from her room. I laid there confused for a while, then realized what it was. For the next 10 mins I listened to her turn her mobile on and off. She finally gave in and went to sleep. It was kind of weird because the day before I went into her room and started to change her diaper, but she was squirming everywhere. As I reached to turn the mobile on she watched my every move. I thought to myself "she is going to figure this thing out before I know it." Sure enough... I was right!
I recently went to Pennsilvania, with about 90% of my unit, for a conference and a Soldier of the quarter board. The conference was OK... there was just a lot of drama. I HATE drama! The board was good. Soldier of the quarter boards consist of Soldiers that all dress up in their Class A uniform (SO uncomfortable) and go infront of higher ranking Soldiers who ask questions to test your knowledge of different aspects of the military, as well as see how professional you can be under pressure. It is a competition. This time there were 9 of us. Some of us had been to boards before, while others (like myself) were experiencing it for the first time. We were all so stressed out and nervous. Here at Fort Knox we have been studing for about 2 months. It covered all kinds of areas like, leadership, M16A1/2, NBC, Counseling, current events, field sanitation, uniforms, NCOER's, the code of conduct, customs and courtesies, military justice, land navigation, first aid, and drill and ceremony. I think there are a couple of other sections, I just can't think of them right now. Althought I didn't see anyone else's performance, I think we all did very well. To my surprise I won! I was happy, but at the same time more stressed out. Winning just means I have to go to the Soldier of the YEAR board. I'm not really sure how I feel about that yet. At least this one will be here at Fort Knox, and I won't have to spend 4 days away from my baby.
The time away from Makayla was probably the hardest to deal with. I had 5 or 6 people asking me if I was OK. One person even went as far as to say "You really don't want to be in the army do you?" Usually that is a "smart ass" remark for a Soldier who has been getting in trouble a lot, so the first thing that came to my mind is "DAMN... what the hell did I do?" I had to explain over and over that I just missed my baby. My Interent is back up, so I am working on uploading some pictures. It's friday. I figure by Sunday we will be back in action, but no promises. :-)