On David's 7 month birthday (Nov. 26), he started crawling!!! But, he doesn't approach it with the traditional style. His left knee is on the floor while his right foot does all the maneuvering. It's absolutely precious. He is loving his new-found mobility and is getting better and better at it everyday. I'm not able to post the video of his first attempts (the file size is too big). But here he is today, crawling toward one of his favorite books:

A Very Thankful Thanksgiving

Today was a wonderful day! For the first time, David participated in a Gilbert family tradition- the day before Thanksgiving cooking marathon. He watched from the floor while we prepared the first few dishes.

Then, after a good nap, he helped his cousins make the cornbread dressing. He squished the bread in his little fingers and may have tasted a little bit during the process.

As I watched him take part in this long-standing family tradition, I couldn't help but become overwhelmed with emotions. I recalled how only two years prior I was praying everyday that God would bless me with a child of my own. And then one year ago, Ryan and I were preparing to tell our extended family about our pregnancy and I couldn't wait to hold my little one. And today, my precious, little boy was here! My heart is full of thanks.

I was having a hard time deciding what to blog about tonight. Not because I have no material, but because I have too much! So, I decided to share all three videos from today.

First, David has tons and tons of toys, but his favorite thing to play with is the bag we use to carry his toys when we travel:

Second, David doesn't use his pacifier too much these days, mostly when he is going to sleep. But, he has learned how to put it in his mouth recently:

Third, Ryan is always the entertainment at dinner for David while I finish eating. Tonight, he was extra funny:

Thanksgiving with the Abercrombies

Today started our Thanksgiving week celebrations. We ate lunch at David's great-grandparent's home along with his 2 sets of great aunts and uncles, 6 2nd cousins, 4 3rd cousins, 1 set of grandparents, 1 aunt, 1 soon-to-be uncle, and of course his mama and daddy. In addition to all these relatives, our very dear friends and wonderful photographers David and Stephanie Cannon attended the meal to take candid and posed pictures of our family.

David spent the day playing with his great-grandparents:

Napping during our meal:

We took LOTS of posed pictures and David did great the whole time (I don't have any pictures of that, but will post the link to David and Stephanie's website when they share it.)

Then fell fast asleep on the way home because he was so exhausted from all the fun:

For the last 3 years I have participated in a half marathon walk to raise money for the Loran Smith Center for Cancer Support at Athens Regional Hospital. I thought I was not going to be able to walk this year, but at the last minute our plans changed. It was too late to sign up for the walk, so David and I went to the event this afternoon to cheer on those that made the 13.1 mile trek around Athens, GA. We celebrated with the walkers as they crossed the finish line. The weather was absolutely perfect! David loved all the cheering, music, excitement, and most of all, the attention from so many adoring women. I think he is already learning how to make the ladies smile. He flashes a big grin at them, then turns away bashfully and the women just love it. He even had his picture taken by several total strangers just because they thought he was cute and wanted to share his cuteness with others!

During bath time every night David and I play a little game with his rubber ducky. I ask him what the duck says, then say, "Quack, Quack", while he watches with curiosity and then smiles. During the last week or so it's seemed like he was trying to respond when I would ask him, but I wasn't quite sure. Well, tonight I could tell for sure. Here he is giving his best duck impersonation:

We decided to give David a go with a sippy cup this evening with his dinner. He didn't know what to do with it at first. He seemed to be thinking, "Is this a toy?", "Should I chew on it?", "Maybe it's a teething toy." I showed him how to hold it and he caught on quickly. But, it was hard for him to turn it up enough to get the watered-down prune juice out. He tried it a few more times and then was ready to move on to his dinner.

6 Month Check-up

David went to the doctor for his 6 month check-up today. We waited for the nurse to call us back:

Then off to the scale we went. He got to sit up this time and was very wiggly. The sweet nurse kept him safe while I snapped a quick photo. She also said she wanted to put David in her pocket and take him home because he was so cute.

We waited for the doctor for just a few minutes.

David had a great check-up! He weighed in at 17 lbs. and 8.5 oz (50th percentile), measured 27 1/2 inches long (75th percentile), and his head is 16.9 inches (25th percentile) around. The doctor was very pleased to hear that David is working hard at sleeping through the night, eating (both solids and nursing) very well, and is a happy, healthy little boy. The doctor said we can increase the variety and frequency of his solid foods, introduce sippy cups, meats, zwiebacks, and more complex foods, all when I feel David is ready! Everything was going great, until...the nurse came in with the shots. David was happy as can be until those thin, sharp needles pierced his precious little thighs. It hurt us both.

The rest of the day David was cranky and clingy to me, just like last time. With the help of a little Tylenol and some long snuggles with Mama, he was much more pleasant this evening.

David and I spent the weekend at Ma and Big Daddy's house with a special visitor...Great Aunt Rhonda! We were having such a wonderful time that I forgot to take many pictures. David loved playing with his Great Aunt and showing her how he is so close to crawling. She brought her cute dog, Lula, who David thought was a very fun toy. On Saturday, Ricky and Cate joined our fun! We had a great time roasting hot dogs and making smores for dinner. We played all Sunday morning until we had to say good-bye to Rhonda, but not before we finally took a few pictures:

Post #100

David really enjoyed taking his Around-We-Go for a spin this evening. Until today, he could get around it pretty well, but not at this speed and with this much joy.

I know I've posted a video of David laughing before, but it's been a while and I just can't help it. He's too cute!!

These days David's "smile" is a precious, big, wide open mouth:

There were two changes in David's room today...

First, some added decoration. David's initials now hang above his changing table.

(they look much better in person)

Second, since he is able to sit up on his own now, we moved his mattress down one level. My little boy's one more step closer to growing up way too fast.

HAPPY 65th BIRTHDAY, Boscoe!

Over the last few days, David has been working hard at getting into a sitting up position on his own. He's been doing it for several days, but it's been difficult for me to get a video of it. He's very quick at going from his belly to sitting up right! It's amazing how quickly he figured it out.

David stayed with his first babysitters EVER last night for a few hours while Ryan and I (along with Ma and Big Daddy) attended a dinner meeting at Berry College. With a little help from their parents, (David's Uncle Rich and Aunt Laureen) Ricky and Cate did a GREAT job playing with him, making him laugh if he got upset, feeding him dinner, giving him a bath, and reading him a bedtime story.

When we came to pick him up, David was happy and ready for bed. The report from the sitters was he did well and only cried a few times. Mama, on the other hand, was thinking of him the whole time we were apart and couldn't wait to get back to her baby boy!

The weather was so nice this afternoon, I couldn't resist:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

David had a super fun 1st Halloween! His nap schedule worked out perfectly so he had tons of energy to go trick-or-treating. We (Uncle Rich, Aunt Laureen, Ricky, Cate, Daddy, David and I) loaded up in Big Daddy's RTV and rode around their neighborhood on Saturday night. David absolutely loved every moment. When he heard other children laughing, he would giggle with delight. When he saw someone put candy in his bucket, he would smile so sweetly. When we were riding to the next group of houses, he stared at Cate with a gaze of amazement (she was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz). He never got tired of walking from house to house (Mama on the other hand...). And when we got back to the house and poured out our loot, he had even more fun than he knew he could have. We had so much fun that I hated to see the night end. Here's a summary of our evening in pictures.

(the bib from his Great Aunt Rhonda)

(on the back of the RTV)

(the kid's cheeks were getting sore because I was taking so many pictures, they were such good sports!)

(even though he didn't get to eat any of the candy, David had a GREAT 1st Halloween!)