Where o where has my living room gone?

So...

My house now looks more like a day care than a place we live and I've decided to accept it- for now.

Between the toys, baby walker, Baby Einstein music, corner cushions, safety gates, outlet plugs,  and the pack n' play, our living room is officially baby proof.  Our poor dogs can't even get a drink of water any time they want to because if their bowls are down for longer than a minute little baby hands crawl their way over and start splashing!  What a difference crawling makes! :)  

In a way it's sad because now Beckett wants to go everywhere himself and only wants to be held when he's tired or hungry (he is getting bigger and heavier though so there are times my armsare happy for the break).  My little boy is growing up!  I looked at him this week and he really seemed more like a little boy than a baby.  I'm so excited to see who he is going to become and how his personality is going to develop, but part of me will always miss my little baby boy.

Beckett has also started recognizing us as "ma ma" and "da da". It's so fun! He will also look at the dogs when you ask him "where's the doggie?" he knows what his "ba ba" is and gets excited when you start filling up the bottle with water.  He's such a smart little boy, we can tell he's starting to figure things out; for example, he is very aware what the "big boy food" is and makes a point to gag and choke when we try to get him to eat it, but anything other than people food goes straight to his mouth! Who would rather eat grass or a shoe than Cherrio's? Beckett. :)

So, at the end of the day, I suppose that sacrificing the floor space in my living room and having to hurdle a safety gate to get to my kitchen,  are small prices to pay for a bouncing, crawling, giggling, gabbering little boy.