Mom! (at 22 months)

  Ah, Gypsy! Still willing to take almost anything Abram dishes out!

      Finally, in the last several weeks, Abram has realized the "power" of spoken language. Words have been forming at a very rapid rate! When we were at grandparents for Thanksgiving, my mom started a comprehensive list of his vocabulary. Not all of them are pronounced correctly of course, and I know we've missed a few, but here is what we came up with.

Dad           Bird        Grandpa       Momma (mom)

See           Fish             Moo            Car          

Bubble     Got it          done            tea        

 Excuse me       bite please    toe    cracker      

down         star      choo choo        spoon    

 Moon       dog             kitty          book     

 chip         no       ball/ba-ball (refers to football or basketball)   sock         

 hi gypsy     hobo     Tyson        chocolate

blue          shoe          blow            cookie  

 movie    elbow     cheesecircle        meow        

 bokbok        Wy-wy (wyatt)     Lincoln   nite nite     

 beep        poop        bye-bye        drop    

all gone    not done     eye             tongue    

 Football      Nemo       Baby         teeth

56 words....and i know there were more we didn't think of...and more are being added every day! It really is amazing. I'm now hearing "MOM!" quite regularly and when I say "yes?"  he just smiles, like, "ah, that's how I get your attention!"

I had heated water to make tea and thought I'd make a cup of hot chocolate too. Abram seemed to be familiar with the drink...Grandpa? He's a good little eater really, has his moments where he's finicky or doesn't want to eat something he's loved before, but overall, he's eating all food groups, so can't complain!

 

Grandpa (Bapaw!) reading "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub", one of our favorite library books due to the illustrations by Don Wood! At bedtime Abram asks for "one book?" while holding up his index finger. He really loves to be read to and will sit through fairly complex stories if he likes the subject matter!

 

 Lookin' pretty snug in his hat and vest. Grandpa took him over to shoot basketball at the neighbors house. Abram, of course, found a stick. 

       We turned Abram's car seat around. It was getting increasingly frustrating for him (and us) to try to communicate on trips...and he's just tall. Short car rides he does very well, although he fusses if the sun gets in his eyes, and frequently will ask for a "cracka". He can still be a nightmare when we drive to Grandparents house (3 hr drive). I was reduced to tears on the way home for Thanksgiving because of the incessant "whiny cry". We utilized snacks and my parents portable DVD player on the way back and that was VERY helpful! 

 

  

     This month he branched out from Veggietales "Penniless Princess" and now favors "Finding Nemo". He also loves the Pixar short films and any other veggietale movies. He even stayed interested in "The Sound of Music" for quite a while the other day! I'm trying not to get in the habit of "plugging him in" every day, but it sure is handy for when I'm trying to fix supper and need to keep him occupied! He loves to play with blocks and his marble tower, and of course ANY ball he can get his hands on. He's also showing a growing interest in coloring and always wants me to draw a star for him...definitely his favorite shape! He recently tried to draw several stars of his own, christening our living room wall with the ball point pen he found in my prayer journal. Fortunately, we plan to paint soon!

 He managed to throw the block up at just the right spot to where it caught on the fan blade! I did not condone the action, but I was impressed enough to take a picture. 

Mega block tower that we built together
 

This was the tail end of a phone answering session where every toy in the box was treated to "'H'wo? Bye" and then discarded. Now he'll walk around with a toy phone and have more of a conversation in between! haha

For the last several months I've babysat for our neighbors. Abram loves when they come over and play, although "sharing" can be a real issue most days.  Abram can see their house from his bedroom window, so now before nap he waves out the window and says "nite, Inca (Lincoln), nite Wy-wy (Wyatt)". So sweet:-)

 

Here are the 3 amigos all squished in one chair ready to watch VEGGIETALES!

Snuggling with Mom and taking pictures, one of his favorite things to do!
Just look at that ornery smile, not to mention the shiner!

36 Weeks

36 Weeks

We had trouble with this photo shoot. Curtis kept laughing:-) I am huge! I am carrying differently this time at this point...low and sticking straight out! Just a few more weeks to go! Abram came at the very end of 38 weeks, and I'm hoping this baby follows suit! I'm hoping to keep a good distance between labor and Christmas so that we can go home! Also praying for a safe, successful VBAC so that I'm not recovering from a C-section (ugh!) during the holidays! No changes at my 36 week appointment, but since then I've had some more discomfort and cramping over the Thanksgiving weekend.My Dr. is out of town at the end of this week and through the weekend, so hopefully no action until NEXT week! I'm nervous/scared about delivery/transitioning to two, but can't wait to meet Levi/Lydia!

Trunk or Treat!

When I was pregnant with Abram and left my Olive Oyl costume in the closet and went with a "cowgirl" look. It wasn't too difficult since I had boots, hat, jeans, and plaid shirt. I rented a fringed vest, bought a sheriff's badge and I was set! Well, once again, my belly prevents my Olive Oyl costume from fitting. And when I found a fringed leather vest at a yard sale this summer, that sealed it. Cowboy costume for Abram! It was a bit challenging getting all the elements together, but I searched diligently and was very pleased with his costume.

The only think I ended up making were his chaps (and bandana). They turned out SO cute! I made them from fleece I had leftover from his hat last fall and then embroidered some designs (stars are his favorite) and sewed on some buttons.

I bought the hat at a party store and find the vest at a consignment shop in Sellersburg. My neighbors had some boots that fit him...barely!

"Howdy, partner!"

"Yee-haw!"

 I facepainted again at this years "Fall Festival" at our church and Curtis brought Abram out for the "Trunk or Treat". It was SOOOO cold! 

I took a break from face painting, shucked my coat and walked around with him while he got candy.

 He didn't quite "get it" yet, but he was more than willing to get pieces of candy out of the bowls! Unfortunately, most of the candies were the hard kind that he really can't eat....and I really don't like!

We had someone take our picture before we bundled back up (Daddy, the belt didn't fit...oh well). Curtis took Abram up to see the petting zoo, where he got scared by the goats, and then they headed back home to warm up! I finished face painting, made much warmer by the hot chocolate Curtis brought to me. Such a good man:-)

Fall Leaves (aka Aunt Krista Moment)

Fall leaves with Grandma Cunningham.

 Abram pushed the button for this one.

 My handsome little monkey. October 27, 2012

Cakes and Crochet

Abram is now the official "taste tester" of the beaters. This one passed his inspection!

Curtis was commissioned by a co-worker to make the groom's cake to be served at his rehearsal dinner  last week. He requested a "Block O", the logo for Ohio State, and so, that is what we made!

We had a few snags with this one. 

1.A white cake that didn't come out of the pan clean, requiring another cake. 

2. Bought a few buckeyes from a local candy store, only to find that they weren't really "buckeyes" but rather chocolate covered peanut butter balls with a dab of peanut butter added to the outsidHad kind of a nipple effect...and they would fall off...not good. So I got a recipe from my mom, sized it down from the 300 it was meant to make and made 37, two of which we used on the cake. 

3. Tried my hand at chocolate leaves. Process involved painting several layers of melted, colored butterscotch chips onto back of real (washed) leaf, freezing, then peeling off leaf. Time consuming but effect was well worth it!

4. Getting the perfect "O", with much measuring and calculating by Curtis and much "eyeballing" by me. 

5. Getting the icing to stick to "raw" sides of white cake that was so crumbly! We probably won't use white box mix again. We've got to make something that's a bit denser.

6. Making the right shade of "gray" icing...not as simple as adding black to white! It looked lavender and after a bit of googling, we went with my first instinct and added a bit of yellow. Perfect!

It was a challenge, but we faced it together and we were both very pleased with the final product! And so were the bride and groom and their family!

Lookin' snazzy for the wedding the next day. Mom and Dad were here and watched Abram for us so we could use this as a "date night".

Rather than make a cake for my birthday, we made a cake for one of the cleaning ladies for the Bats. She was also born on Oct. 24th! I had fun making chocolate shavings/curls and Curtis worked on basket weave and shells. He's getting pretty good! We used the scraps (the destroyed white cake and  the tops left from leveling) from the grooms cake and this cake to make some "cake balls" for me. Yum! We've had way too much sugar this month!

The weather has gotten cooler, so my crocheting has started again! I've been working on several different projects, including these two Newborn beanies that I gave as a baby shower gift this weekend. Newborn beanies are so quick and easy...and SO cute!

Painting Pumpkins

 Usually I'm a pumpkin carver and I've had tons of fun carving out intricate designs the last few Octobers, but Abram's a wee bit young to start putting blade to gourd. So I pulled out the acrylics and we painted our pumpkins this year. 

 This was fun for several reasons. No carving means less sticky mess AND the pumpkin will last WAY longer than if it's carved. Also, this was Abram's first real experience with paint. He seemed to really enjoy it and wanted me to keep squirting more paint on the plate.

I chose a color palette that would remain "pleasing" even when all mixed up (light green, dark green, yellow) and let him slap it on.

 I would go back and fill in a little as he painted, but I resisted the urge to keep painting after he was done (lasted about 15 minutes or so). 

Abram's Pumpkin, 2012

Mommy's Pumpkin, 2012 

(I couldn't just let Abram have all the fun!)

 Abram has several super cute glow in the dark Halloween shirts, but this is my favorite! It's a t-shirt hoodie with candy in the skeleton. Abram loves candy corn (which I have in the candy dish right now) so I think this is his favorite too:-)

Harvest Homecoming

Abram "helping" Daddy with the sweet potato harvest. We have had really great luck with sweet potatoes in our raised bed...they've even been in the shallow end.  We also have a good little patch of Kale and Green Leaf Lettuce and have been having some very yummy salads the last few weeks!

 We had a few ginormous sweet potatoes but most were just average and a few teenies. They keep well over the winter and it'll be good to cook/mash/freeze some for new baby!

Curtis' Keller William's office had a "float" in the New Albany Harvest Homecoming Parade. It was a pretty day and Abram managed to stay pleasant despite being out and about during his entire nap time! He crashed for two hours when we got home though!

"Buy or sell a house with my daddy!"

He liked to hold the signs and actually waved to people! He was "too cute"!