20 Months

Abram continues to provide us constant entertainment and somehow has tapped into an endless source of energy.  Some might say our energy level is in an inverse relationship to Abrams.  (Mr. Miller would be shocked to know that I remember that term). 

We are roughly 14 weeks away from meeting baby #2.  The baby is moving more and more each day which makes everything seem more real.  I am starting to wonder how we’ll make it with two.  We are lucky that in a few weeks Grandma Debbie is moving to town to help out with Abram and the new baby when he/she arrives.  This will be a huge help!

I don’t have a lot else to report – Abram is learning new words every day, we definitely have to watch what we say around him.  I’d say we know what he’s trying to communicate 80% of the time which we think is pretty good.  Abram continues to have very strong opinions about books, food and life in general. 

Some of his current favorite things to do:

-At bedtime Abram has learned to say ‘one more’ which comes out as ‘one mo.’  He says this on his way to the bookshelf.  He will proceed to pull out what Josh calls the encyclopedia.  It is Abram’s biggest book.  His favorite page has trucks, cars, planes, boats, etc.  He will sometimes get impatient and flip to his favorite part.

-Another great thing about books at bedtime is that Abram has learned that he can prolong storytime if he will listen to longer storybooks.  This allows me to read Abram childrens books that I remember growing up.  Our current favorite is, ‘There is a Monster at the End of this Book.’

- He continues to love dancing to music, brushing his teeth and taking baths.  Of all of these baths pretty much trump all other fun activities.  This is especially true since he got bubble bath and bath foam for Christmas.

We've had some cold temps and yucky winter weather so we were stuck inside most of the weekend - here are a few pictures from our weekend inside.

Livermore Christmas

So this is my third attempt to get this post to save and each time everything gets deleted, so my descriptions have gotten shorter each time. Last weekend we celebrated Christmas with Josh's family.

So many presents!

Abram cut straight to the chase and grabbed his Christmas stocking/bag.

Who needs to open things one at a time when you can just dump everything out at once.

Abram was nice enough to share his treats with great-grandma Artis.

Abram opened up a great gift from Grandma and Grandpa Livermore and all the aunts and uncles.  They each put together a CD of music they thought he would enjoy and he got a Lego cd player.  Abram loves to dance so we've been listening to his new cds and he has had a dance party each night.  What a wonderful present!

Here he is is jamming out.

Abram also got an amazing chair/stool made by his great-grandpa Rex.  Here he is enjoying his new truck in the chair.  It was a good day for Abram.

Josh and I also got to go out to lunch one day on our own while Abram hung out with the rest of the family.

They got some pretty great photos of our little guy.

It looks like he was really sad that Mama and Papa were out of the house :)

 Let's Party!!!!

It seems like Abram may have worn out grandpa.

Christmas Continued...

 And the goodtimes and pictures continue..

Grandpa's place has all kinds of fun toys, fish, and loooooooong hallways for Abram to run down.

Of course our Christmas wouldn't be complete without putting Uncle Chris in a headlock.

This was actually taken Christmas morning, it was Abram's first peak at the stockings filled with goodies.

It's our family tradition that our stockings are actual socks - so here Abram is showing off his Christmas socks.

And what would to do next?  Put your socks on your hands and try to keep your blinking antlers in place.

Baby #2 received their first official gift.

Showing off all our Christmas socks.

Abram was pretty sure that Nana's new coffee maker would work better with his assistance.

Abram was pretty tired of pictures by the end of Christmas day so this is the best shot we could get with Aunt Vicki and Uncle Chris.

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas - Part I

We had a great Christmas - the best part was spending 4 days with Abram (and the rest of the family).  Since I had four days to take pictures there are quite a few.  I might not put captions on all of them.

Our holiday started out great by seeing Peter and Liz on their way from Denver to Marshalltown.

We got to meet their new puppy Max and had some fun too!

 We also got to spend lots of quality time with Great Grandpa Clayton.  He and Abram get along really well, Abram likes to push his chair around, sit in grandpa's lap and especially take rides in grandpa's chair.

While we mostly had fun - sometimes too much fun leads to serious meltdowns.  Fortunately we didn't have too many as there was always someone around to do whatever Abram was interested in.

My favorite part of Christmas vacation was getting to spend 4 days with my little guy.  With #2 expected in April I cherish any one-on-one time we get these days.

Family Pic!

Aunt Vicki helped Abram practice being a good big brother to his baby doll.

to be continued...

19 Months

Abram turned 19 months old yesterday.  Time is flying by and we are 21 weeks along with baby #2.  Abram knows to say baby when he sees my stomach but he also thinks there is a baby in his tummy - so we're not quite sure how much he grasps but he does love babies.

Other things Abram loves:

-Brushing his teeth.   Abram calls this 'breeshing.'  It is his absolute favorite thing to do.  This activity even trumps going outside.  I found this out today when he had half of his outdoor gear on and then started yelling breesh, so we had to stop getting ready so he could brush his teeth.  On an average morning Abram will ask to brush at least three times before he goes to school.


-Tacos.  Well at least he likes to say the word tacos which makes Josh so proud.  Abram even requested tacos for breakfast yesterday and pointed to the stove so we knew he meant business, Josh had no choice but to whip up some breakfast tacos for his favorite little guy using his favorite word.

-Shoes. This is an ongoing love affair but Abram still can not get enough of shoes, boots, basically anything we put on our feet.  He loves them in all forms.

-Adel.  Our neighbor who is also 19 months old.  He's started saying her name when we're driving home in the evenings and turn onto our street.  He'll say it lovingly, adoringly and then with such sadness that we have to go see if she's home to play.   Lord help us when they're not home and he feels betrayed when we have to turn back around, all the while Abram is screaming 'Adeh, Adeh, Aaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.  It is unfortunate that his second best friend our neighbor dog Max, is usually not home on these nights either.  It's unfortunate because usually the only thing that will get him to stop crying is his sudden interest in seeing if Max is home.
-Books.  I am so happy that Abram loves books.  He will let you read to him all day long if you're willing.  He's also learned to say 'one more' which comes out, 'one mo' at night before bed.

In his spare time he likes to wrestle his new alligator.

Evidently, the gator must have had it coming. 

But then he can be very loving.  It's hard to tell in this picture but Josh is hanging onto the cat pretty solidly, as the cat is trying to run for it's life.

Once we started saying how cute Abram was being with the kitty he definately hammed it up.

The rest of these are just fun pictures from our time outside today. I didn't get pictures of Abram on the 'big' hill we went to but he loved sledding!  He kept saying 'again, again.'  Fortunately he has a papa that has a hard time saying no to that little face.

Happy Weekend!