Happy Halloween!

This year we reprised the rolls of Popeye and Olive Oyl...and added in our little "Swee Pea". I worked long and hard sewing Abram's costume. I didn't use a pattern so there were a few surprises when it came to fit when it was all said and done with, but he wore it well!

We went to our church's Fall Festival. They had inflatables, Trunk or Treat, petting zoo, etc. Tons of fun!

And of course I face painted.

While SweePea and Popeye watched...and walked around the festival. Beautiful day, a bit cool and windy, but very nice!

Tongue Trauma

On Wednesday when Curtis was picking up Abram from JR's, Abram fell into their play table and bit through the side of his tongue. Curtis called our friend Donna (nurse) and then the 'on call ' physician at our local doctor's office. Both said to just get the bleeding stopped and he'd be ok. Not much can be done with a cut tongue.

I didn't know how bad it was until I got home from work. He was able to nurse/eat, but was obviously hurting and I was concerned with how far the cut extended into

his tongue, so we went to the doctor this morning. The doctor said he wanted us to see an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist, so we went to another doctor this afternoon. He said that the side of

the tongue should heal fine on his own, recommended rinsing with dilute salt water after he eats/nurses, and prescribed an antibiotic. We have another appointment in 3 .weeks so he can recheck and make sure it's healing ok.

Here are some pics of "the tongue trauma" and a video showing how he's not really phased by it 24 hours after the fact. Avert your eyes if you're squeemish.

A Few Videos

My parents wanted to see more videos. I don't post them as often because the process is more complicated. It takes too long to just post videos through blogger, so I put them on youtube and then link them. Sorry about the image quality on some of these...not sure why videos aren't focusing very well. And the crawling/walking videos were VERY close to nap time...so he's a bit fussy.

God bless Gypsy, the most tolerant cat in the world.

Crawling over to his "hippo" walker.

Walking his hippo.

Just Like Mom? or Dad?

When Abram was born, he looked just like his mommy (check it out!) He's changed so much, but what do you think? Does he still look like Mom? or Dad?

Curtis at 10 months

Rachel at 9 months

I think this picture looks like Abram in a dress! But I'm really seeing a lot of Curtis in him now too!

9 Months!

A little "pre-photo shoot" smiley-ness! He LOVES his blocks, especially knocking down the elaborate towers that daddy makes.

Big smile and BIG FEET!

A little more somber.

This is a "face" he's been making a lot lately. He sucks his top lip...I keep telling him it's going to get chapped!

Tired of holding still.

"Can I see what's out there?"

Oooooh!

Abram had his 9 months doctor appointment and they said he looks great! He was 29" long (75%) and 19 lbs. (25%). Long and skinny!

He's a good eater though. We've had to start offering him some formula because my milk supply has been dropping (leaving me feeling helpless and frustrated). He wasn't crazy about it at first, but he's been doing better taking it in his cereals and at least one bottle a day. He's tried several new foods lately including, multi grain cheerios, egg yolk and cottage cheese. I need to buy some broccoli and cauliflower so we can introduce those veggies soon.

He's been moving faster and faster by the day. Last weekend he left army crawling behind and now gets everywhere on hands and knees, pulls up to everything and will even let go of things for a few seconds and try to walk. I think he'll be walking before Thanksgiving for sure. We're going to buy a baby gate tomorrow to block the bottom of the stairwell!

He jibber jabbers a lot now. A lot of "yayayaya, bababdabagada". It's so fun to converse with him. He knows his name and will hold up his arms when we say "up". I think he understands "no" and "let go please" ( I say that a lot), but he thinks its a game. We'll keep working on that:)

Sleep. He's been consistently putting in 10-11 hour nights for several months now. For some reason I never take advantage of that (oh yeah, cause I stay up to pump one more time). He takes two long naps during the day and he's usually pretty easy to put down. He likes to stand up and bounce at the rail so we might have to go up once or twice to lay him back down.

Such a good baby. Love you so much, Abram!

Just Cute

This is the position of choice lately. He'll stand like that and "jump" and watch us while we're doing stuff in the kitchen or living room.

Curtis and Abram went with me to a festival where I actually got PAID to paint faces. It was a long day, but fun. Very nice weather and decent crowd.

Here's an example of my work. After I took the picture, I painted her lips black too and that really improved the overall appearance. This little girl was sweet, the granddaughter of the woman who asked me if I wanted a booth at this festival (she'd kept my card from an event at church), and I had painted her full face rabbit that morning, but lunch had pretty much destroyed it, so she came back for the tiger.

Abram was SUCH a good boy that day. We took a tent so I could nurse him. Curtis took him on walks in the stroller and he slept some that way. He was so happy and everyone cooed over her him.

Grandma got Abram some classic wooden blocks and he loves to knock over the stacks we build. We also noticed a little misprint that cracked us up.

Gypsy is the most tolerant cat in the world. She'll just lay there for a while while he pats, smacks, stomps or pulls. I would feel sorry for her, but she's perfectly capable of moving...which she does eventually, but usually only a foot away where he can reach her again in 2 seconds.

Mamaw and Papaw visited for a few days and Abram spent some quality floor time with Papaw.

Occasionally I wake Abram up from a nap...but more often I find him like this, or standing like in the pack n play. I've also found him with his legs dangling through the slats below his bumper and that cracks me up. He still takes a paci when he sleeps or when he's just really fussy. It will probably be a while before we can wean OURSELVES off of this sleep aide!