On the Verge...

Nana and Papa are coming into town tonight with the end of Abram's birthday presents. And then we will be done. He doesn't understand the concept of presents (or unwrapping), but he sure enjoys new stuff... uh oh. Oo! Speaking of "uh-oh", Abram is now saying it perfectly clear. He mastered the "oh" sound the other day and is now calling Obie "Oh". Very cute. Here are some pictures of Abram enjoying his birthday stash: An alphabet book from Uncle Allan, Aunt Pam, Larissa, and Andrea Balloon from Sam, Jenny, and Chloe Kwon and car from Grandma Gae and Bopa Scott Super neat nursery rhyme book from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Barbara Money from Grandpa and Grandma Ward Target gift card from Aunt Liesl and Uncle Eric Money from neighbors Robert, Sharon, and Blake :) Sock Monkey from Uncle Dean, Aunt Cindy, Larson, and Olivia This kid got way more presents than we had planned. But he loves them all! Thank you to all of our wonderful family members and...

Birthday party success! Abram enjoyed himself. We enjoyed having friends and family here. Now we are sitting here in the living room enjoying some presents from Grandma and Bopa and getting ready to eat some left over Pok-e-joes from the party. So for those of you who were not here, enjoy the pictorial evidence of the 1st birthday fun. First, some people who came to the festivities: Miss Lacy and Abram's awesome balloon from the Kwons! Bryan and Ryan Grandma Gae and our friends Shanda and Dave's sweet baby girl, Elliot. Jenny and Chloe Kwon Robert and Blake Danny and his adorable daughter, Zoe (who I think looks just like her mom, Abby). Aunt Liesl, Uncle Eric, and cousin Fenway :) Close up of the party animal. Abram's amazing birthday cake, made by friend Melissa Martinez! Singing "Happy Birthday" Concentrating on the cake The chorus of singers Family shot First bite of cake (or any "sweets") ever. It was carrot cake. At least he was getting veggie...

So we decided on a name for Habibi. Her name will be Selah Christine Smith (pronounced Sell-ah). Neither Quinn nor I like to wait on naming our babies. If we agree on a name, then we figure we should decide on it and go with it. Otherwise I get super analytical and change my mind a lot for no real reason. In deciding between Selah and Phoebe, we thought that Abram and Selah sounded better together, since they are both from the Old Testament and both Hebrew. We had also thought we decided on Selah already and then threw Phoebe in the mix at the last minute. I really, really like the name Phoebe, but whenever I think about this baby and calling her something, it just feels natural to call her Selah. It's too bad that she will have to correct the pronunciation of her name regularly and that she will have to spell her name for everyone. But the same thing happened to me and I really like my name... now. And that's that. I understand why some people don't like to let anyone ...

We are also on the verge of one year old (like, it's tomorrow), but I will do a one year update when I update about his party we are having on Saturday. It will be much more picture heavy that way. I've been trying to get Abram to drink out of a sippy cup for a few months now. We've tried the kind that tips, but he didn't get the tipping. Or he tipped it and it spilled everywhere. So we tried the kind that tips, but he had to bite and suck to get liquid to come out (to prevent spilling), but he couldn't figure out how to do all those things at once. We tried the straw kind. But also to prevent spilling, they are air tight and require a substantial amount of sucking to get just a little sip out that then sucks back down into the cup when he lets go. This is our sippy cup graveyard: There have been more than this, but they were either able to be returned to the store (because some of them were kinda pricey), or they are in a bag in our garage with the bottles th...

You can talk about baby names all day long when you are not pregnant and come up with what you are sure you will name your non-existent child, but when the reality of actually having to come up with a name that you will all have to say millions of times for the rest of your lives sets in, things tend to change a little. While I was still pregnant with Abram, I posted a nice musing blog about what I was sure we were going to name our next child. Needless to say, neither of those names made it to the short list for Habibi. On our 8 hour car trip this weekend, Quinn and I talked a lot about names. We had pretty much decided that if this one was a boy, his name was going to be Simon. We were unsettled about the middle name. Quinn really wanted Simon Peter, but I mean, come on. It was just too much. So we were still in talks about that one. We had thought that we had decided on the name Selah if it was a girl. In case you don't know, "selah" is a word found through...

It really is just on the verge. Most of his signs are only versions of the real thing. But the important thing is that they are consistent and he understands how to communicate important ideas. The important ideas pretty much all have to do with food, but feeding table food to an almost 1 year old takes up a large portion of his day, so proportionally, we are doing pretty good. I don't have pictures of all of them, but his master list consists of the basics: "milk", "more", "all done", and "please". We are starting to add more and his pointing has gotten laser accurate in the last few days, so that's really helpful. Honestly, four days ago when he started pointing, he finger would be all off to the side and he's be looking somewhere he wasn't pointing and we weren't really sure what he was pointing at. Now, if Quinn asks, "Where's Mommy?" I get an almost intimidating stick-straight finger and eye contact th...