Playing, Clapping, Sleep-talking, and vacation!

I know, I know...to many things in one post. First, we went our friend's house this afternoon. Ben used to live across the road from us and he and Abe have been friends for a long time (relative to their ages). Abe and Ben, for the first time, really played together. It was SO cute. They were following each other around, laughing and interacting!! It was just adorable.

Second, for the first time today, Abe clapped! Hooray. Like everything else, he did it once (without any previous attempts) and has continued to clap all day! You'll see both of these things in the video below.

Third, last night we were driving home from Tami's house and Abe, who had previously been asleep, started talking. "Dada, dada" initially...then a few minutes later "nonononono" and then he started laughing hysterically. We were at a stop light, so I peeked over his car seat and yep, low and behold he was sound asleep. I guess he takes after me.

Finally, I am leaving or vacation early on Tuesday morning, so I might be somewhat absent from my usual blogosphere. I'll try a post or two while I'm gone, but no promises! Wish me luck on my 4 hour flight to SLC (by myself...ahhh!!!)

Learning to Talk

Abraham has begun to have some intelligible speech. It has been fun to see what he says. We've heard "Dad" and "Dadda" several times. I've seen him go up to an outlet and then tell himself "nononono". He says "yea" and "go" and he still "vrrrrooms" as he plays with his cars and trucks. On Tuesday I was at my sister's house and she said my name. Abe was sitting on my lap and clear as a bell repeated, "Kim". Tami and I just looked at each other...confirming that we both heard it. I was telling Ken this the next day and Abe looked at me and again said, "Kim". Great, he's just shy of 10 months and already losing respect for his mother!

Could we EVER have enough of this laugh???

Carolina Mudcats

Some friends from church had some extra tickets to our local minor league baseball team, the Carolina Mudcats. So we headed out Friday night. The game started at 6:15 and since Abe is used to getting ready for bed at 7:00, we were worried about his behavior. We need not have worried, he was an angel. He loves watching people and had a great time staring at everyone around us and enjoying all the kids having fun. We actually stayed until the 7th inning! The Mudcats were ahead when we left, so hopefully they won!

Cousin Fun

We had Dallin and Madison here to play on Saturday, so Tami and Jared could go out for their anniversary. It was a little hectic, but fun. My favorite part of the day?? I got all 3 kids to nap at the same time!! My friend, Rachelle, had posted something similiar to this awhile back, but I didn't realize fully what an amazing feat it actually was!

Then yesterday Abe and I ventured to the far away land of Fuquay Varina and had a play date with Boyers again. We took some pictures of Abe and Dallin in their matching outfits (since both were about ready to bust right out of them. Maddie had to get in on the camera action too! It was so cute because Abe kept kissing Dallin!!! Awwww!

I think Tami got some better pictures of the boys, so keep your eyes peeled on her blog.

The Blueberry Chronicles

We have some friends at church who invited us to go and pick blueberries with them. I was very excited because the farm was giving them away for free to anyone who wanted to pick. This was my first batch: I took those and made blueberry muffins, blueberry freezer jam, and blueberry pudding! Yum!!

Abraham even got in on the blueberry action:

We decided that they were so good, and free, that we'd go back for Family night and pick some more. Ken and I took turns picking while the other entertained the buddy.

This is batch number two! I made some blueberry Jello and we gave a lot away. Ken keeps a frozen bowl in the freezer so he can munch on them, but the rest I froze to save for later treats.
Picking blueberries brought back so many wonderful memories of Arkansas and going to the Hubbard's farm. I remember waking up to blueberry pancakes and syrup and singing "There's a Hole in the Bucket" while picking. The taste of a blueberry fresh off the bush....yum!! The paste few weeks have a been a lot of blueberry fun!

9 Month Birthday!!!

The time has come for another monthly birthday report! I can't believe Abe is already 9 months old! This is the month that means he has officially been out of the womb longer than he was in! We headed to the doctor this morning and here are his new stats: He weighed in at 22 lbs and 11 oz (decreasing from 90% last visit to 78%). His height was 30 inches (95%). His head was, well, the doctor very kindly put it, "Well...his head is kind of off the charts, but don't worry that is okay." The shots were terrible, as they always are and as we walked out we made our appointment for his 1 year visit!!! This past month has been one of great discovery. Crawling is second nature now. He can crawl on his hands and knees, but prefers to continue doing the worm and crawling with his arms and stomach. He is starting to pull himself up more and like to get up on his hands an feet with his bum flying in the air. We had to lower his crib from the baby setting. He is making lots of sounds, but our favorite is when he "vrrrrooms" as he moves his trucks around the room, we are still attempting to get a good video of that. He loves his cars and trucks and loves dinosaurs! Such a boy already. He loves other kids and watching and playing with them whenever possible. He is such a delight and brings so much joy into our home.