Rollin', Rollin', Rolling

That's right Abby is officially a roller! From both stomach to back and now back to stomach. Two nights ago I awoke in the middle of the night to find Abby as you see her below.  As it is not recommended for babies to sleep on their bellies I rolled her back to her back.  She clearly thought that her stomach was more comfortable and proceeded to flip back to the same spot.  I didn't sleep as well the rest of the night as I felt the need to check and make sure she was alright every so often.  I felt much better about her being in that position when I saw her flip back to her back on her own several times. The picture of Abby below is from a nap she took the next day in her new favorite position.

This video is from earlier tonight.  In it Abby flips all the way from her back to her stomach. She still continues to be a girl who loves to be on the move.  If she has it her way it won't be long before she can start to move herself around on her own. I'm hoping we still have a little bit of time before this happens. 

Pool TIme

It is HOT! The sad thing is it is only going to get worse this coming week. I have been trying to get out each day in the morning before the heat of the day sets in (90s with high humidity) and go for walks. During Wednesday's walk Jill and I started talking about how nice it would be to have a pool. Well after the 6 mile trek I stopped by Target to pick up a few odds and ends and I came across a blow-up pool on sale! After a bit of struggle to get a pump that works Jill helped me get the kiddy pool set up. The best thing about it is that there is a little seat making it quite comfortable, and with it being about 6 feet across which will make it a great place to kick back and read (if I can find the time....doubtful...but I'm hopeful) ! Abby was not so sure about the water it was still a little chilly. She was very content just sitting on my lap looking at the water.



Every other week in Fayetteville there is a free concert in the park. These have been a fun, kid friendly event. This past week we went with several other couples. Abby's boyfriend, Kyler, who is 5 weeks younger, was also there. Notice below the awkward moment captured when Abby tried to hold his hand and she was denied. Poor girl.

She just so darn cute! While waiting for Grant to finish up a few things at work I had the camera and started taking a some pics of Abby. Here are a few of my favorites.

This and That

We have been enjoying a busy summer.   Two weeks ago we flew home for Grant's HS Reunion.  We enjoyed getting to see friends and family although with it being such a quick trip we found we ran out of time, not getting to see everyone that we had hoped. Where does the time go?  

Abby is a fantastic traveler!  On our very first flight we were cutting it a little close (surprise, surprise), when flying Southwest this is not a good thing.  We were, I believe, one of the last ones to board the full flight.  So as I'm walking down the aisle with the baby only seeing middle seats I'm trying to scout out some friendly people who would be understanding.  As I'm looking people are diverting their eyes probably thinking, "Oh please do not let me get stuck next to a crying baby."  Finally I plopped down and got settled between a man who slept the whole way (taking up his seat and half of mine erg!) and a very kind lady who happened to be a grandmother and there for was very understanding. Abby only broke down for about 5 minutes take that sleeping guy who's intruding my bubble) the entire flight.  That actually ended up being the only time she fussed, for the rest of the trip's flights she slept her way through them.  This made Grant and I very happy.  I only hope it goes this smoothly when fly home alone with her for my parent's Jimmy Buffet party later this month. 

Below are some pictures from some summer events as well as our trip home.

Abby at her first baseball game...Go Naturals!

All clean after a bath

While home it was Flaming Gorge Days.  Like every small town festival they have a parade. Howard, who used to be a fire fighter, was invited to ride in the truck. He was up in front in the passenger seat while Grant was in the back waving out the window.

Abby, Sue, and I watched the parade. Abby was a fan till the fire truck came and scared her with the sirens....how rude :-)

The Fam enjoying 4th of July fireworks.

As I got out of control taking picture of this cutie I believe the flash scared her causing her to pull out the pout before breaking into tears. 

Abby has officially rolled over from her front to back by her self once. Of course the camera was nowhere in sight.  This video is of her somewhat rolling over with a bit of help from mom.  At the end of the clip she tells us what she just did, she is soooo talkative right now. I love it!

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to me!  I guess that is a little selfish, but it is my day after all so I should be entitled to be at least a little selfish.  Happy Father's Day to Abby's two Grandfathers as well, Pap-Pap (we decided we can't go with Geezer) and Howard (who hasn't decided on what he will be called).  There, that should at least partially save me for wishing myself a Happy Father's Day first.

Abby has had a great week, getting to spend a lot of time with Peggy's mom, or as Abby knows her, Nana.  Peggy went to a week long seminar for school this past week, so Nana flew down to be a babysitter for the week week.  Everything went well for all parties involved.  Nana seemed to really enjoy having the one-on-one time with Abby everyday.  Peggy left around 7:30 and was back home by 4:00 most days, and she survived being away from her baby girl for that long each day for five days in a row!  Now things have returned to normal, Nana flew back home yesterday, and we are gearing up for the week ahead.  

Next week will end with Abby's first plane ride, as we are all flying from Tulsa to Salt Lake City so that I can go to my 10 year class reunion.  I was on the fence on whether I was going to go or not, but it will give Peggy and I a good chance to test our nerves and quite possibly have an entire plane full of people hate us because of our crying baby.  In the end, who could pass up an opportunity like that!

On to the pics!

Here is Abby giving me my first Father's Day card!  We're both pretty excited about it!

Here is Abby looking pretty cute. (Which is a pretty normal thing for her to do!)
Here's a nice, happy, smiling baby!

In this video, she is talking to her zebra, until she realizes she's on camera, then she gets a little shy.

I think she is trying to do some crunches here, but she doesn't quite have the concept down.

Catching Up

Much has been happening in the past several weeks.  First off Howard will be done with his radiation treatments tomorrow. He and Sue have been down in Salt Lake the past six weeks. So I know they are looking forward to getting back home.  Grant and I will be flying back west later this month for his high school reunion.  We look forward to seeing them soon!

After our friends left my dad was in town for a few days as he ventured to North Carolina to ride the Dragons Tail.  He also stopped by on the way back through.  It was good to have him visit. 

The day after my dad left my mom flew into town to watch Abby while I attended a math workshop this week. That's right, this was my first time to be away from Abby for more than a day. It has been very hard to be apart from her.  I am very glad that I still have about 2 more months before school starts back up. 

And now news on the Abby front....

She is still a wonderful little fuzzball.  Her hair continues to grow (still showing no signs of falling out) and she is getting to the point where she needs a hair cut.  She can hold her head up for the most point but it's still a little unsteady, this makes me nervous with scissors.  I believe we will be doing the hair cut while she is asleep. Stay tuned to see what happens.

On a very exciting note we have a great sleeper on our hands.  For about the past two weeks Abby has been sleeping through the night.  She will usually be out around 11 and has been sleeping till 7:00.  That is 8 blissful hours of sleep.  Grant and I are loving it. 

And to celebrate sleeping through the night here is a small collection of sleeping Abby pictures...

Passed out after receiving her two month shots. Poor thing was not feeling too good and just wanted to be held.

Sleeping in style with her pig tails.

We know she's in a deep sleep with her arms are up by her head. They usually start by her side and slowly make their way up.

Watering plants is hard work!

Peaceful bundle of cuteness.

Cheers to Good Friends

This past week Alyson, Jim, and their daughter Lily came to visit us.  Alyson and I have been friends since 5th grade. She went to college in Oklahoma City so we got to see each other every so often during our college years. About 3 years ago she and Jim moved out to Idaho so sadly we don't get to see each other very often now.  The last time we saw each other was up in Seattle just before Lily was born, so we were very much looking forward to their visit.

During their visit we had constant entertainment from Lily who is 14 months old.  She is a girl on the move.  We quickly learned we have a lot of child proofing to do with our house. We would move one thing out of Lily's reach just as she would discover something new that we had missed.  Its amazing how much a baby will grow in a year, I find it very hard to believe Abby will just as mobile and interactive in a year from now.

Our happy girl showing off her favorite thing to do lately, watch Mom and Dad make goofy faces which she can smile at.

Abby and I checking out the wild animals at Wild Wildness drive-thru Safari.  We saw all kinds of exciting animals from monkeys to lion, tigers, and bears (oh my).

What were we thinking... I'm not sure but we thought it would be a funny picture.  

Abby's new friend Lily, who is just a bit bigger than her.

Abby just plain tuckered out after having a good 'ol time with the Kleins.

And now a couple of short clips:

This first one captures Abby showing off her smile.

I think we enjoyed the slide a little more than the girls.

Life's Ups and Downs

Sometimes life has a way to keep you in check.  One minute I was busy being the proud new father of Abby, the world's cutest and most perfect baby girl.  The next minute I was answering the phone to hear the news that my father was being taken by ambulance from his home in Wyoming to the hospital in Salt Lake City, UT.

Dad had recently undergone a fairly routine prostrate surgery, and following the surgery my Mom had noticed a few moments of forgetfulness and confusion.  They told his surgeon this, and he decided that they better get a CT scan to try to figure out what might be causing this.  When they did this scan, they found several "spots" on his brain, and they eventually decided that those spots may have been signs of a serious but treatable infection from the surgery.  

This possible infection is what led to the ambulance ride to the hospital, the doctors wanted to get Dad to the hospital quickly so that they could get the infection under control.  Once he got to the hospital and the doctors in Salt Lake City ran some more tests, it started to become clear that the spots on his brain weren't caused by an infection.  Instead of an infection, the doctors were starting to bring up the dreaded "C" word, cancer.  The only way to confirm exactly what was going on was to take a sample of one of the "spots".  There was one "spot" that was close to the surface, so he went in for a brain biopsy to remove some of the tissue in question to test it.  The results that came back were exactly what we didn't want to hear.  My Dad was diagnosed with a very aggressive brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme.

A lot has happened in the past four weeks since his diagnosis.  Peggy, Abby and I all piled in the car an made the road trip from Arkansas to Wyoming to be with my family, and to introduce Abby to her other set of grandparents, and also to her two uncles, Peggy's brothers Paul and Rick.  Abby did a wonderful job of bringing smiles to everyone's face, even though we had just been hit with some bad news.  We spent nearly two weeks back home, and now Abby can claim to have been in six states, which isn't bad for a nine week old!  

After meeting with doctors, my Dad decided to proceed with some treatment that should help to keep the cancer from growing too fast.  He is almost finished with his second week of a six week course of radiation therapy, during which he is also taking an oral chemotherapy pill.  So far things are going well with his treatment, and he seems to be feeling pretty good.  We know there is no cure for this cancer, and the prognosis is not good, but we are focused on making the most out of each day.  It is sad that sometimes it takes things like cancer to remind you that our time together is rather short, so you need to make the most out of whatever time you have left.

Life is returning to normal for us.  I have been back at work, and Peggy and Abby have been enjoying some nice springtime weather together during the past few days.  Abby goes to the doctor tomorrow for her first major round of immunizations, so we are all keeping our fingers crossed that that experience goes well.

I need to wrap this post up.  When I started writing this I was really at a loss for words, and I think I have more than made up for those initial few moments of not knowing what to say.  Before I go, here are a few pics of Abby in the wild West!

Here is Abby getting cozy with a very proud grandfather!

Abby and her grandmother hitting it off together...

Here is Abby saying hello to her Uncle Paul!

And here is Uncle Rick showing off his baby holding skills with Abby!