Numero Siete

Another month has gone by, and little Abe continues to amaze all of his admirers. At seven months he's doing a pretty good job sitting up. He loves solids! (So far he's tried apples, pears, peaches, carrots, green beans, squash, sweet potato, chicken, beef, oatmeal, and rice cereal) He rolls over from his belly to his back. He loves bath time, swimming, music class, and exploring his vocal chords. And we're having fun meeting up with some of his friends that he's made to go for walks and lunch dates. Time sure does fly!
Abe munching on a spoon at Burrito King with Grandma and Grandpa. Abe loves those spoons!
Abe and Banjo pose for their monthly picture. (well they appear in photos a lot more often than that)

Abe Potter and the Half-Blood Poodle

Abe has gotten in the nasty habit of taking a long time to fall asleep at night. Well, he'll fall asleep, but when we put him down in his crib he wakes right up. Not only that, he likes to wake up in the middle of the night now, too. My Mom told us the other day that when Scott was young and she put him down in his crib for the night, the first night he cried for 40 minutes. Then 20 the next night. Then 10 the next. And then he would go down to sleep on his own.

We tried to put this advice into practice at 4am on Friday morning when Abe woke up. Emily put him back in his crib, and he decided to start crying. And cry. And cry. And cry some more. The Little Buddy cried until 5am when Emily finally went to pick him up (I had to get up to go to work). When Emily went to see him she found a giant gash across his forehead - it appears in his frustration and anger, Abe sliced his forehead with his amazingly sharp baby-fingernails. But he is in good spirits now, and his gash is healing nicely.On Friday Emily went
Here is the poor boy after his night of terror. The boy is happy because he is eating some meat and carrots.Banjo keeps Abe company while he eats (mainly because he is waiting for scraps).
Emily went on a walk with two of her mom friends on the Coastal Trail on Friday afternoon - Amanda (with baby Aaron) and Chris (with son Elijah). It was a beautifully sunny day out (it was super-sunny and hot (40's) today too) for the walk. Of course Emily brought Banjo on their walk. When Emily took his leash off, he sprinted off towards the water on the mudflats. At least a few people die each year when they walk out on the mudflats and get stuck, so Emily was worried for poor 'Dood. And because he looked like he was going to run and run forever. But he finally came back - even if he was coverd in mud.

Let the Madness Begin!!!

This morning Neil took off of work to stay home and watch the basketball tournament. I made waffles and Abe had some rice cereal. Mmm... Some actually did end up in his mouth.

Neil didn't get dressed till noon. Although to his credit he was up at 5 with abe and then on the computer doing some nerdy bracket stuff for the games.

This is what was on our tv all day long.
Abe and I sported our UW gear to cheer on the huskies for their game. He even got a little husky dog from grandma & grandpa.
Neil had a party for watching the UW game, so david and diane came over. They made nachos, adn then went to Anchorage's favorite burger joint while I went to swimming. (Apparently the place has gone downhill since a few weeks ago when they last went there.) Do you like abe's blue and red suit that's on under the tee? It's his retro 1980 throwback gear that neil used to wear.

The Littlest Leprechaun

Yesterday Abe and I started off St Patrick's Day by going out to lunch with my new friend Guan Ming. She's the lady I met at the music class last week with the little girl who is also 1/4 Chinese. Some people at the restaurant mistook her daughter and Abe for brother and sister. (I think it made Guan Ming's day).

In the evening we had the Hoff's over for an Irish feast--corned beef, carrots, potatoes, cabage, and green cake with coconut frosting. Yum Yum. They brought over these silly festive hats for us all to wear. Neil and David had giant beer bottle hats, which Abe happened to fit inside of. Abe, Diane and I each had the green glitter hats, which happened to shed glitter. Pretty stylin' if I do say so myself.

Spring time in Alaska

Here are a few pictures from our camera that we just uploaded. As you can see the weather has been really nice up here. Nice and sunny, and the days are getting a lot longer. I think it's been light out until after 8. Unfortunately I think this is confusing for Abe, because he doesn't seem to like to go to bed until late now. Silly boy.

On Monday we took Abe to his 6 month doctors appointment. Contrary to all of our guesses, he hasn't quite cracked 20 pounds yet. He now weighs 19# 8 ounces, 28 inches tall and 44.5 cm head circumference. The doctor isn't too worried about his lack of growing over the past month or so. He's at about the 50th percentile.

Final Outing to Flattop

We made one final outing to Flattop before our plane takes off. The next time we come Abe will be crawling and maybe saying a few words. It warmed up to 30 degrees, the highest it's been since we got here.

Abe's Six Month Anniversary Dinner at Aladdins

When Abe was 9 days old we went to a Greek restaurant called Aladdins. Tonight we went there to celebrate his six month birthday & the owner remember us. He also remembered that we sat at the same table & that I sat in the same seat. The specials were even the same. The halibut with a spinach white sauce was delicious. The only thing different was that Abe has doubled in size.

Alaskan Abe doesn't get cold on Banjo's walks.

This afternoon we took a walk at dog park.

Hello Abe, Hello Abe, How Are You, I'm So Glad to See You

We took Abe to Penny's for his six month picture in the outfit a couple of days ago.
I saw this eagle this morning while walking Banjo around the lake.
Every Alaskan has to have a flannel shirt.
Yesterday's big activity was Abe's music class. They sang all the old favorites; "Everbody Loves a Saturday Night", "Hello Abe", "Jack & Jill went Up a Hill", "Clap, Clap, Clap your Hands"...

The teacher is the one in black. She was pretty good. Emily met a new friend from Los Angeles that has only been here for three weeks. She (forgot her name) made a connection with Emily because they are both half Asian & their kids are one quarter.

We went to dinner at the Hoff's & watched part of the Stanford-UW game until someone had to go to bed. We had a hearty beef stew & sandwiches. They were making fun of me because I've been planning the stew for a couple of days. It turned out pretty good. I should have taken a picture.

Guest Post by Grandpa.

mmm... I'd like some more please

As we suspected, Abe has a healthy appetite for semi-solid foods too. We pureed some carrots on Monday for him to try (mixed with a little milk) and he gobbled them right up. Next we tried green beans, which he actually wasn't the biggest fan of. In fact he scrunched up his face in a similar way as when I put the vitamin dropper in his mouth. The texture was a little different, and quite frankly they didn't taste very good, but I thought that was because of the breast milk I mixed with them. Then later we gave him some pears. Those were a real hit! I think he may have a sweet tooth. His dad loves pears too. I've been freezing the food in the little trays that Rachel gave us, so we have a good stock built up now.

Abe Hur on the Snow Chariot

Even by Alaska standards, the weather is cold. As you can see, it will get down to zero later in the week. In Fairbanks where the Hoffs are its below zero.


We took advantage of the new snow & took Abe for a ride in his snow chariot. Instead of people mowing their lawns, they are out with their snow blowers.

Abe's first solid food.

Grandma baby sitting Abe while Emily & Neil took Banjo to the dog park.

We saw Sarah Palin's House

In the morning we took Banjo for a walk to the lake near Emily & Neil's.

We should have put his shoes on because he got some ice in his paws. We saw our first moose on this trip during our walk. As you can see it was a nice sunny day. It was in the low 20's. At night it will get near 10 degrees.

Getting Abe ready for his walk.

We're standing on the frozen lake. The area behind us is the skating rink. It snowed last night so they have to scrape it off. After the walk we drove up to Willow (the name of one of the Palin kids) where the official start of the Iditarod is. It's about 1.5 hours north of Anchorage. We didn't get there until after it started. There were only 5 parking spaces left at the lot. We had to park on a frozen lake. I was a little nervous since there was some standing water near our spot, but I think it was snow melt over ice.

Check out that guys hat.

A lot of people were taking pictures of these native women in their fancy coats.

The Hoff's are staying in Wasilla since they are going to Fairbanks this week. On the way back we stopped at their hotel since Abe was hungry. Sarah Palin's house was four doors down from their hotel. The house is on Lucile Lake.
Abe was showing off how he can roll over on the hotel bed.

Guest post by Calvin.

Ceremonial Start of the Iditarod (downtown Anchorage)

Today we went to see the dogsleds parade down fourth avenue. As you can see by the flags, this year marked the race's first Jamaican musher. Today is pretty much just for show, then tomorrow we'll drive about 2 hours north of Anchorage to Willow to watch the restart, where the 70 mushers embark on the 1150 mile race across Alaska to Nome, AK. The dogs are amazing! So small, but they sure do have a lot of energy! I wish I could hook Banjo up to a sled and see how he'd do.
Mush Mush!
All the crazies came out of the woodwork for the event. The other side of this guy's sign said, "God bless the Iditarod"
Apparently wearing fur around the dogs is the thing to do. I tried to casually get a few photos of people. Here's a wolf/man walking down the street.
When this guy saw me try to get a picture as he passed by, he stopped and posed so that I could get him in all his glory.
This little boy didn't mind posing for the camera either.