Not his favorite solid...

We've been trying new solids every 3-4 days or so. Needless to say, apples have not been his favorite. Sorry Abram, I think there was a green one in that mixture!

Weekend Away

The last weekend in July we traveled south of Nashville, TN to attend the wedding of one of Curtis' co-workers. It was a very pretty catholic wedding and small reception. Abram was very good. Didn't fuss at all through the whole event...such a sweetie!

Bryan and Emili McBride

After the wedding, we drove back up to Nashville and spent the night at a Holiday Inn. Abram's first hotel! We had his pack n play and he slept through the night.

It was late, but we just had to do the pool!

He really likes the water...splashes like a fiend...but it was a bit cool, so we didn't stay in long.

On Sunday we visited the Nashville Zoo. It was the first visit there for all of us, but Abram's first ever zoo of course. :-) It is located on an old property called Grassmere. The house was built circa 1810! They give tours, but we didn't go in, just looked around. Very beautiful property. All the zoo exhibits seemed to be built into the natural landscape and water features. It made for a very beautiful zoo.

We fed the lorikeets.

Abram liked the meerkats.

He got sleepy and fell asleep after he ate...he'd had an exciting weekend with very infrequent naps.

These are 2 of the many pictures I took of the koi at the zoo...I find these fish to be absolutely beautiful. I hope to have a koi pond one day!

Although he slept well on the way home, Abram was pretty zonked out when he got home to Mammaw. What a weekend!

6 Months!!

"You guys are so silly!"

"I'd rather do a serious pose."

"Ha ha ha!"

"Well, hello there."

"Getting late, Mom. Isn't it jammie time?"

I never knew six months could go by so quickly...soon it's going to be hard to keep him in the chair for these photoshoots!

A Few "Firsts"

There are so many fun "firsts" with a new baby. This month Abram has been changing so much! Things he's doing:

• He remembered how to roll from belly to back...so belly time lasts about 2 seconds flat. Still doesn't roll from back to belly. I think he'll move to crawling from sitting...we'll see.
  
• Can sit up independently and play with toys. We place pillows or boppy behind and beside for the occasional flop over.
• We started practicing in the high chair at the beginning of the month with some rice cereal from a spoon and drinking from a cup. The cup drinking is quite comical...laps it like a dog and most of it ends up on his bib. Now that he's 6 mos. we've also introduced oatmeal and carrots.
• LOVES the pool. Splashes like a crazy baby and doesn't seem to mind pool or bath water in his face.
• Looks and smiles in response to our voices.
• Will occasionally giggle when tickled or at other random actions he finds funny...doesn't go into any hysterics though...just a chuckle or a squeal.
  
• Loves to sit out on the porch swing with us and watch and listen. He's at his most peaceful when he's swinging.
• Also loves to be in his Aunt Kimberly's baby walker and can scoot around almost anywhere. Likes to open drawers now and tries to reach the cats/dogs.

Here are so fun first pics from July:

First museum visit (Frasier History Museum) and using the stroller without the infant seat. We went to see the Da Vinci exhibit with Grandma and Grandpa Hardacre.

Sitting up and playing...

First Fourth of July!

First pool party at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

First time in floatie.

And first time wearing sunglasses. When in the sun, he seemed to understand their purpose!

First time he met my great-uncle Jim Hobbs, who's been like a grandfather to me since my dad's dad died when I was 2 yrs old.

Abram with his great great Uncle Jim and his second cousin, K eagan (11 months old).

Abrams first "haircut". Technically I just removed that little ear-lock so that he wouldn't be lopsided anymore. I like symmetry.

Abram's first use of a restaurant high chair and first lunch out with his friend, Lewis (5 months).

First taste of carrots! We'd been "practicing" with rice cereal and started oatmeal right before carrot. Solid foods, here we come!

Not the first picture in this walker, but this is something new he likes to do. Crane his head back to see what's going on in the rest of the room. Cute, although a bit frustrating when he should be nursing. I also just really like these jammies!

Despite the heat...

I love summer. The greenness. The flowers. The sun. Even the pop up thunderstorms.

Our garden has gone crazy this year. We ended up pulling up every other row of beans because they were way too crowded.

We tried planting sugar snap peas this year. They are doing well and taste so good!

Gladiolus are one of my favorite flowers.

Curtis has done quite a bit of canning already.

Yet Another Project

Curtis writes:

Question: How do you eat an elephant?
Answer: One bite at a time!

Another multi-delay, over-budget project has been finished (at least, as soon as the grass starts growing).
From the day we moved in we knew we wanted a fence, check, and then a more functional back deck. It was a great size but basically served as a walkway from the garage to the back door. We couldn’t fit any patio furniture, as we would have to squeeze by it every time we came to/from the garage. The steps were also deteriorating and come to find out, not built correctly at all.

So as with most Cunningham projects we went from a simple “lets move the steps to the other side” to “might as well put in a walkway, retaining wall and stone steps to the side yard.” And since we live on a ever-sloping piece of land, all of that seemed to be twice the work.

Also in line with Cunningham projects, this was drawn out over eleven months as I had the end of a baseball season, an early freeze, a baby arrive and a new ball season begin.

So onto the pictures!

Before

July 2010 - New landing and steps - thanks Chris!

August 2010 - Demo and the start of excavating....all by hand, through clay and a nice surprise of a layer of gravel!

November 2010 - a big hole ready for the 8 ton of gravel

The pile - thanks Dean for helping move this pile into the hole! I was also lucky enough to be able to borrow multiple tools from work, including a plate compactor, which saved me a ton on tool rental fees. Thanks Tom and the Bats! You can also see my dad's truck that I stole for a couple months - thanks dad!

November 2010 - first course down (Redi-Scapes wall block). Each block was about 40 pounds each. By the end of everything I'm guessing I moved a small freight train in combined weight.

November 2010 - as far as I could get before the first freeze and subsequent snow. Note the drawing pad on the wall. I was basically going off of a sketch of Rachel's - not a to scale technical drawing but I guess I figured things out!

January 2011 - this little guy arrives and I don't think about decking, walkways, walls, work, anything for a while.

April 2011 - steps and caps are finished. Will pay someone else to do something like this next time - I am no good at angles, rise, run, etc.

May 2011 - Rachel and Abram went home to visit family while I had a long weekend of work. First, edging went down, then sand, then the paving stones (Mega Arbel from Belgardwhich weigh about 53 pounds each). I was beyond tired by the end of it. Word to the wise - go with a simple pattern, it will save you a lot of time and headache!

May 2011 - end day 1. It would take another two days to get all the cut pieces in.

May 2011 - all pieces in. Nice sunburn, constant ringing in my ears from the concrete saw and ready to clean up.

After

July 2011 - most recent picture. The grass is starting to grow back where I had to "re-slope" the yard and put in drainage tile. The first big rain we had after putting in the joint compound sand (and compacting again) deposited mud over a good portion of the walkway. The walkway was sloped correctly, but the yard wasn't.

So, next would be to stain the deck to match the original, build some planter boxes for the top of the wall, seal the walkway, maybe add some lighting and hopefully get some more grass to grow. While I complained throughout the project I did learn a lot and I'm glad I did it myself and more glad that it's over! I'll be happy to give anyone pointers but I believe my time hardscaping has come to a close.

Rachel writes:

...until we have enough money saved up to start on the front of the house! It's already been sketched!