...of two years old!

That's right. My first born will be two years old tomorrow! I can't believe it. Am I really that old? Some days I feel too young to even have kids and some days I feel so old I think I should have grandchildren already. But I think that's the stress talking.

I know it's been awhile since my last post. I had grand ideas about blogging most days just to keep family up to date on what was happening, but so far that is so far out of the realm of possibility that I'm laughing a little right now. I can't even take a shower but every three days at this point. I've been busy in the past, but this is a new kind of busy. I think it's a extenuating circumstance busy and I am expecting that it will eventually calm down and become more of a daily life busy.

The move here has been epic to say the least. Don't worry, I will be updating on the house and all the happenings here soon. But this post is not for that! This post is for Abram! Abram has been one of the reasons for all of the busyness. Abram has been sick for a straight week and a half.

At first it was a stomach bug and then immediately into an.... I don't know what. Virus? Bronchitis? Pneumonia? Who knows. We are waiting it out and hoping that he will show some improvement soon, but it hasn't definitively happened yet. He just finished day number five of a constant 103 degree fever that we've been moderating with acetaminophen and ibuprofen and a wicked cough that is just getting worse. It's gotten to where he starts hacking whenever he tries to talk too much. And then he keeps talking while he's coughing and it looks like he's going to break all of the blood vessels in his little face. Poor guy.

So we had a party for him tonight with Steve and Katie and their kids. We were actually supposed to have a big party with a bunch of people from the church where Steve works and we will be attending, but all of the kids have been sick and two of them are still sick and we didn't want to get anyone else's kids sick. So it was postponed. But we still did burgers on a funny little charcoal grill.

We got Abram some balloons, which everyone seemed to love and definitely lifted his spirits.

And Selah watched with interest and chewed on Sophie.

We had cupcakes and milkshakes and hamburgers (not in that order).

And we sang "happy birthday" to Abram. He sings "happy birthday dear people" a lot, so he was a little confused that we were saying his name.  But he seemed to understand that the focus was on him, whether he really grasped the reason why.

We had this whole big plan to reveal his birthday present to him in a big reveal (for greatest effect), but he ended up seeing it early and then wouldn't do anything else until he was allowed to play with it. 

Some ex pats were having a garage sale and Katie went and looked at some stuff and we got a porch swing and patio table and chairs for the courtyard and we bought Abram a Thomas railroad set for his birthday. It was only 20 dhs ($5.50ish)! We actually got two sets, but Quinn put the other one together before we showed it to Abram and he said that it was too complicated. Abes just wants to play with the actual trains. The extra stuff doesn't really matter. So we'll hide that one and get it out later or give it to someone as a gift.

It was a fun evening of trying to get him to eat something and not touch any of our friends' kids or their stuff and not cough into the middle of the room. Poor baby. We are praying fervently for quick recovery and protection for everyone else. Steve seemed to have a less serious version of it last week and now their baby has a fever and yucky nose too. Honestly it will be a miracle if I don't get it, because he's coughed in my face innumerable times. But miracles do happen!

Just a few stats on our two year old:

-He loves vehicles.  Obviously.

-He has lost some weight after a few bouts of illness over the last month.  He used to weight 24 lbs.  Now I would say that he's closer to 22.  He's incredibly skinny.  A little worrisome, but will hopefully start eating better again soon.

-He talks all the time.  The newest cool language thing is that he's working on intonation.  He'll try and copy the way we say something.  Recently he's been saying "There we go!" very sing songy to everything and I think I must say it that way to him a lot. We are working on correct pronouns.  He says "Abey hold you" and "Abey help you" when he wants to be held or help.  

-He loves Selah.  It's really sad that I'm having to tell him not to touch her or get to close to her right now, because he really just wants to play with her hands and pinch her cheeks and stuff.  He was (pretty gently) trying to pinch her cheeks the other days and saying "Chunka monk! Chunka monk!"  

-His health was so good for about the last year and then all of a sudden we've just been hit by this stuff.  I hear that people in the States are sick a bunch, too, and people are definitely worse right now over here, so I think it's just that time of year.  Hopefully it will pass soon.

-He's wearing 18mo tops and 12 mo pants.  Some 18mo bottoms fit him if they have that elastic band in them.  Like I said, skinny.

Well, I'm tired and ready for bed.  So that will be all for now. I hope to be back sooner rather than later, but we shall see...

Happy birthday Abram Quinn!  You are such a blessing and we love you so very much!

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