On the Verge...

We just got back from my great grandmother's funeral in Poteau, Oklahoma this weekend. She passed away on Wednesday and the funeral was on Saturday. So we thought about flying, but last minute plane tickets are incredibly expensive. So, Quinn advocated for the 8 hour each direction drive. I don't really like taking Abram in the car for that long, because it really makes him hate his car seat for a few days afterward, but we wanted to go up there and see my family, so we went. It went well. My family is sad, but my grandmother was 99 years and 9 months old, so we can't say that she didn't have a long life! She had 5 kids, 9 grandkids, 16 great grandkids, and 3 great great grandkids. When we visited in March, we were able to get our 5 generation picture. I'm really glad she got to meet Abram. Taking Abram on yet another trip got me started thinking about how much he has traveled in his short, almost 8 month life. Here is the rundown: -February: 4 planes to g...

Well, Nana just left :( We were all very happy to have her around for many reasons, the greatest of which was that Abram got to see her and get to know her more. She is a wonderful grandmother and a fantastic mother. Whenever she comes, she always helps me do all of the chores that I have meant to do, but haven't been able to get to. And she does it in a way that doesn't make me feel like she is insinuating that I should have gotten to them before she got there. I love her. A lot. She was so willing to help with Abram and with fixing food and cleaning and laundry and I feel very lucky that she is a teacher that can come and visit for an extended period of time during the summer. Thank you, Mom, for giving up part of your hard earned rest time to come to us and help us out so very much! One of the reasons she comes down to Texas (from Colorado) for so long is that my sister and brother in law live in San Antonio and her mom and dad and brother live in North Texas (Paris...

Here is the latest installment of Abram's crawling documentation. He is still doing the Army crawl, but is starting to try and get his knees up underneath him to start the real crawl. He is also sitting up to the side like he might be able to push himself into a sit soon. As stated in the video, I am not sure how to get around the cat hair in clammy hands in the baby mouth dilemma of crawling in a house with a cat. Short of getting rid of the cat. I sure love Obie and he was my little baby before my real little baby came along. But now he gets very little attention. As Abram grows, he may start getting the kind of attention he doesn't like and the first time he bites or claws my baby, he may find himself in a new home faster than he thinks. So if you enjoy reading this blog and you do not have a little baby of your own and you sure love cats, let me know! I may be able to hook you up with a pretty cool cat. Literally.

This is the look of one tired baby. We just got back from Guatemala on Monday. One of Quinn's best friends Luis is originally from there, but went to college in Florida and has lived in Austin working at Quinn's company for something like 10 years. During his visits back home to see his family over the years, he met a beautiful girl from his hometown. After many years of a very long distance relationship, Luis finally moved back to Guatemala to marry her and start their new life there! We miss him already (I know Quinn definitely misses him), but we were glad that we could make it down to Guatemala for the wedding. The original plan was to leave Abram with my mom for the almost five days and have the trip be a third anniversary vacation for Quinn and I. However, as the day approached and I got more and more apprehensive about the logistics of leaving my 7 month old for five days, we decided to bring him with us. The logistics of taking a 7 month old on an international tr...

We just returned from a five day trip to Guatemala to attend one of Quinn's best friend's weddings.   I won't go into detail now, because we have pictures that I will share at a later date. And I am so tired that I don't have the energy to do it all now.   But in my very long blog break, my son has gotten cuter.  Here is a video of him playing in the sink with Nana.

My mom is visiting and it is so good to have Nana around. Abram has finally warmed up to her (there was a bit of stranger anxiety in the beginning, like he has had with most non-mom and dad people recently), but now he gives her lots of smiles. It's neat because she has been here to see most of the evolution of his pre-crawl scoot. I would venture to say that she will probably be around to see the actual crawl since she doesn't go home until July 5th and he is literally making daily progress with his mobility. Crazy that it happens that fast! Here is the latest Abram scooting video: He can now make it all the way across his mat. I am going to need to vacuum the rug in the living room every day now. Our cat, Obadiah, likes to lay on it and there is cat hair embedded in it at all times. When combined with clammy Smith-boy hands and incessant thumb and hand sucking you get lots of cat hair in the mouth. Yuck. My cat has enough hairballs, I want to avoid letting my son get ...

Documenting day number three of Abram's crawling progress. The scooting is getting much more visible and I have a feeling the days are numbered before we will be full on crawling. It's pretty cool how he literally makes daily progress. Well, Chelsea is here and I better get some stuff done so I don't regret not using the time later!