My Sweet Baby is Eight Months

Abram turned 8 months old this week.

I find myself frequently wishing I could stop time.

I love to peek in on him when he's sleeping and look at his little fingers and toes sticking through the crib slats, his eyelashes, his little nose and cheeks...and I think,

"...wait, this is my baby?  And he's 8 months?"

I'm totally loving being a mother.  I feel so blessed to have him in our family.

Lately:

-He scoots forward on his bum by bouncing up and down.

-He dives forward (slowly) from the sitting to superman.

-He rolls all over (I have to pin him down while I change his diaper).

-He loves, loves, loves keys and phones.

-He also loves reading books...mostly due to my amazing sound effects (Ben's come in a close 2nd), and he loves turning the pages.  If he gets tired of the one we're reading, he hangs his arms over the arm of the chair and looks at the pile of other books, and then we switch.  :)

-More people are saying he looks like both Ben and me instead of just Ben...interesting.

-When he's tired (and calm), he likes to snuggle and rest his head on my shoulder before his nap.  (...the moments when I want to stop time...when he starts kindergarten or graduates high school, I know I'll look back on these days and wonder where they went!)

-He still has a calm and content personality, but we definitely know when he's excited about something!

-We say, "Abram, kisses!" (when in the right mood), and he'll give us "kisses" on the cheek (an open-mouthed slobber mark).

-He loves it when Ben comes home.  Even after the initial greeting, he keeps tabs on where Ben's at and watches his every move.  :)

-We're about to join the cheerio club at church because we're starting finger foods!

How I love my sweet boy.

Home Sweet Home

A year ago, I would have hesitated before calling Minneapolis, Minnesota "home sweet home," but that's what it is to me now...and we're so glad to be back!

A blessing of this past summer was that it made me realize how much I like it here.  :)

Here's a couple tidbits of our last days in Missoula, namely, Abram's...uh...bathing dish?

The stand-alone tub didn't have bath capabilities, leaving us with this option.  He was just small enough to fit.

So cute.

But he learned how to splash, and so the hundred-year-old, unassuming bathroom tile experienced hurricane-like waves on a daily basis.

(We kept trying to use the washcloth for modesty but Abram just couldn't resist sticking it in his mouth...so please excuse my (lack of) editing skills.  :)

Our last road trip was up to Glacier National Park.  It was so beautiful!  We had a great time.

We stopped at a cherry stand on the way up.  So fresh and yummy.

This was taken from the car on the "Going to the Sun Road."

Abram had more interesting things to look at than snow.

I mean, he did spend the first half of his life living in several feet of it.

Much to Ben's (and mine, but mostly Ben's) delight, we saw a lot of wildlife, including deer,

a grizzly bear (hard to tell in the picture),

big-horned sheep,

mountain goats,

and even a black wolf (Ben's claim to fame :)!

We stayed in a really cute cabin just outside the park.

And went on one of the prettiest hikes I've ever been on--the Avalanche trail!

Too bad this one turned out blurry.  Bless the old man who took it.

And, to finish things off, here's where Ben spent his days in Missoula:  Community Medical Center.

(They were doing a ton of construction near the real main entrance, so this was the make-shift main entrance for the summer...hence the tacky sign.  :)

Ben enjoyed his time there--the people and the experiences, which made it worth it...

but I'll say it again:  I'm so glad to be back!