Fussy day fun

Getting ready to go play outside after a weekend snow/ice storm. Thanks Bubbie for the hat and vest!

Hiking last weekend in lots of snow!

Sorry for the delay in updates! We've been a little busy out here with grandparents moving in to town, and the house until they close on the new place. As for the 9 month measurements, Abraham weighed 21# 11 and was 30.5 inches long. That puts him in the 75% for weight and "off the charts" in height. At least, that is what Dr. Mulder said. We didn't get the actual percentile for that. Everything checked out fine at the visit. Aber's currently has 11 teeth, with at least 3 more coming in. We'll all be ready for these teeth to be in. He is having a hard time figuring out what he likes to eat. We go from having him eat ANYTHING to eating pretty much nothing. Even the old standby's won't cut it these days.

Abraham is a mobile monkey. He is a super fast crawler, great stair climber, and walking toy pusher. He tries to pull himself up, like a pull up, to see what is on the table. He has just mastered coming DOWN the steps all by himself, by sliding down on his belly. We have a bit of a hard time getting him to turn around to come down, but once he gets a bit of assistance, he's down in no time.



These days, we are hearing lots of Dadada, mamamama, babababa, and we even heard guh-ma! He is also making tons of other sounds, clearly trying to tell us what is going on. One day last week, he was having an unusually fussy day and I was out of ideas to make him happy. He was already in his highchair, so I just dumped 1/3 c of flour in front of him to play. It was a great activity actually, giving me 45 minutes of no fussing!!


We are heading to NOLA for a quick trip. David has a conference and I get to visit with the Landry's, the former head of CSS. We'll be sure to update with fun pictures when we get home!

Things you can do while at the cabin...

Happy Fall everybody

Abraham and I just got home from a week at the cabin with Grandma. We thought we would tell you about our trip with pictures. Too bad it rained all week, we didn't get to go the St. Louis zoo as planned. Sorry, we don't have a picture of tooth #9 that came in while we were there. Here are Aber's favorite activities of the week...


Playing with the carseat before we left.


Wearing an outfit mom and her brothers all wore when they were little.


Playing INSIDE the cabinet.

Watching the fire in the mornings with Grandma.

Unloading the storage container cabinet.

Feeding the deer.

Playing in the play area at the mall.

Checking out South Dakota.


Sitting by myself, until the flight attendant told me I couldn't.

Helping rake leaves when we got home.

We head to the doctor next Friday, so look for the updates soon.

Love

Jess and Abraham

8 months

Well, it seems that fall is setting in here in Colorado this morning. We woke to big winds, cold rain/hail, and no sun! Maybe we'll have a wet, snowy winter so we can get some snowshoeing in!! Abraham went out with me to inspect the work in the backyard that was done while I worked this weekend. He kept trying to eat the wind!

With mom measurements, he is 20lb 5oz and 30.5 inches today. He keeps getting bigger and bigger. We have to go out and get new clothes. He's in 18-24 month stuff and we don't have any of that except for his carhart overalls. Guess I can't keep him running around in his diaper/cover anymore with cooler weather setting in.

Handsome blue eyed men...

Hard day at Model UN in Denver with dad on Saturday. Mom worked.

As of now, he refuses all baby food. He loves spicy thai food, vegetarian meals better than meat options, cheese, yogurt and most fruits. Vegetables still aren't the best unless they are sauted and super soft. Meals always go better if he can feed himself but then we've got quite the mess!!

Here's a video of dinner last night:


Lots of changes going on in this neck of the woods. Grandpa Al gets out here soon to start work with a visit from Uncle Christopher for 24 hours to drop off the stuff for the apartment. Uncle Jake is moving out and up to Parker for work. We'll be down to 5 people and 1 dog when he leaves. Sad to see them go...Aber's loves Uncle Jake time. Then, Abraham and I head out to the cabin middle of October to visit Grandma Lynn since she is staying in Ohio until their house sells. Should be a good time! Nothing like travelling alone with a crazy, crawling man.

Way to go Uncle Jake...Getting the stink eye from a floating Abraham for leaving!

Labor day fun

Hope everybody had a great weekend! We headed out of town Sunday to the little town of Westcliffe, CO. It is a super cute little mountain town sitting at 7888 ft. We've gone down there for the last 3 years for a nice night of camping at the Alvarado campground. This year, we were just about at the top of the campground, closest to the trail head. We had great weather and good food. David made pita pizzas for dinner and omelets and sausage for breakfast. It was quite delicious! He might be a convert to the car camping stove after all! We had a good time with Bertrand as well...one of David's best friends from Cameroon.

19 weeks and 7.5 months. One year, big difference. Pretty awesome!

Chef extraordinaire!

Teaching the man about aspens.

Abraham, as it seems to be the case, far prefers the outdoors. He was great the entire time, fell asleep easily in his tent, and then had a rough night as the evening got cold. I guess his thermarest isn't quite as nice as his parents. It lets the cold come right through. Dad being the trooper that he is, slept at the bottom of the tent curled in a ball so mom and Abers could have the 2 good thermarests. As soon as we did that, he slept like himself. The moon was big and full for us. It looked like there was a street light right over our tent!

Here are some older pictures as well, from Robins 14th birthday. Also, Aber's chowing down on some corn on the cob. He can pull himself up in his crib to standing these days. When we go in to get him, he is up, crying super loud, looking like a pitiful jailbird....poor guy.

Yummy corn on the cob...7 months

A look of shock at getting her phone.

7 months old!

Hard to believe that the man is already seven months old! Cheesy as it sounds, it gets better every day and there is even more love floating around. The big guy weighs in, on the home scale, at 19#4. Definetly getting to be a heavy guy to lug around. He is now 19 1/8 inches. Needless to say, Abraham is big. He eats tons of real food. If he could talk, I'm sure he would tell us that baby food is for the birds. He'll eat just about anything we let him, as long as it is the same thing as what the big people are eating.

Now, for the long awaited other accomplishments. I know, only a mama can be truly excited about most of this stuff. Oh well. He has 6 teeth, four on top, 2 on the bottom. There are 2 more that are super close to in on the bottom. His other big feat of the month was learning to crawl. He's been trying for weeks and finally figured it out for Grandpa's birthday present. Here's a little video of the "crawl" or more of a belly drag.







I'll try to post of video of his giggle. He loves, loves, loves to laugh and it is the great sound ever!! It makes an entire room of grown-ups laugh right there with him. Can't wait for Grandpa Al and Grandma Lynn to get out here! Abraham, as well as mom and dad, are looking forward to having more family around to be a part of raising Mr. Mandela.



'Til the next round...

Pictures to go with our trip

Waiting to catch the clipper over to the island. Dad holding on tight as the catamaran cruises along at 30 knots.

Getting blown away on the observation deck. Hanging out with second cousins Evie (curly hair) and Elise (short hair.)


Big old bear in downtown Victoria. Crazy Dr. Suess tree in front of the Empress Hotel.

First backpacking trip!!

Cool suspension bridge on the Juan de Fuca. Cousin Drew and Anna...

Lunch time break...stick for Aber's! At our campsite!

Hanging out at the beach, eating gourmet dinner!

Lunch break on the hike out!

BC's youngest driver. He laughed for 15 minutes! His belly kept getting in the way and honking the horn. It was very cute! Next to cousin Evie who is four days older.

In Strathcona Provincial park.

Vacation in Victoria, BC

Here's the first international vacation update, with lots of pictures, as soon as we find the camera cable. Mom, Dad, and Abraham packed up after a week at home in Colorado to head to Vancouver Island. We were there for about 2 weeks and had a great time. Thanks to the Beiderwieden's for hosting us at the best unofficial b & b around!

While in Victoria, we got some rest, but toured the island as well. Abraham went on his first backpacking trip. It was 18 km round trip, with an overnight camped out on the pacific ocean at Bear Beach. We were on the Juan de Fuca trail. Much as you would expect with the name, we did encounter Aber's first bear on the trek. Coming around a corner, cousin Drew started talking to what we thought was a person. In fact, it ended up being a big, black bear. She was none to scared of us. Even with all of us making noise and clanking metal poles, she thought she would take a few steps closer. Dad just missed a picture of her. We had an amazing meal with Abraham camped out in his tent on the beach with us while we ate. On our hike out, there was a pod of whales just off the coast. Again, no pictures, but we were able to hear them surfacing/blowing for a while.

We did lots of site seeing in town, visiting museums and playing tourist. There was some quality time with cousins, including the newest set of twins in the family, Evie and Elise. Abraham is 4 days younger than the girls, but a bit bigger. It was great to have the all together and watch them interact. After our relaxing 10 days, it was back on the ferry to Seattle. Abraham had a great time playing and charming everyone around. Poor mom got a little green in the gills though.

In Seattle, we were joined by Uncle Ryan and his family. Mom and cousin Ava got to spend their birthday together. Free grand slam at Denny's! Thanks to those guys for driving up and hanging around Seattle with us. We went to the famous Pikes Place market, but didn't rsee them tossing any fish around. Unfortunately, we didn't hit the first starbuck's but thought about it.

More to come when we upload pictures!!

Love,
jess, david and abraham!