Ten Months!

Bonjour! I've decided that I will no longer make disclaimers for late posts. I'm just going to own it and acknowledge the fact that life is flying by us and I'll try to fill you in on it as much as possible! Boy, do I have quite the tenth month to share with you. I think I can identify with Johnny Cash and tell you, "I've been everywhere, man." We'll let that be the theme song of this post...

I ended my ninth month with a family-fun-filled trip to Gatlinburg, right before my Dad headed to the Middle East for 3 weeks. Let me tell you, folks– it is NO FUN having that guy gone. Mom did a pretty good job keeping me distracted though, hence the following travels...

Our first stop was at Big Daddy and T's house in good ole' Tuscaloosa.

I got lots of good snuggle time with T and Big Daddy helped me discover the inner rhythm that was hiding in my bones, waiting to break forth in dance.




I also love windows and doors. They have become a primary source of entertainment for me.

 It also doesn't hurt the fun if a vent is nearby.

I think the windblown look suits me...

We then headed north to hang with Nana and Papa in Decatur, where lots of fun new activities were waiting for me. Our first big night consisted of a cookout with friends before the annual Alabama Jubilee at Point Mallard where I got to see my first hot air balloons.

Don't hate on my pink chair. It was borrowed and I felt pretty legit sitting in it. I also lost one of these snazzy sandals that night. I shall forever mourn the loss of that stylish part of my life. Thankfully we found some similar replacements.

I sure do like hanging with this man. He's pretty great.

BALLOONS!!! Really big ones...

I was pretty mesmerized.

I also got to do some swinging for the first time, which was SO FUN.

I then decided to redeem myself in the pool department. I don't know if you recall my first swim, but this time around was a whole new ball game.

I loved playing with Cousin Emma. She makes everything more fun. [Even though I don't look like I'm having very much fun in this photo]

This is my look-over-the-shoulder-model-face.

I'm also all about opening cabinets and drawers, so Nana introduced me to the tupperware cabinet. I guess if I'm going to cause destruction, they want me to do it with some of the safest objects possible.

Emma teaching me her ways of destruction.

I must admit, I was skeptical at first.

But it didn't take long for me to fully embrace the fun.

Good thing Mom has one of these treasure troves at home...

Busted!

Fleeing the scene of the crime.

The aftermath...

The Alabama travels came to a close, only to bring forth the great crescendo unveiling the ultimate destination: PARIS!!

In my tenth month, I became a world traveler, ya'll. [And in her 25th year, my Mom finally did!] I was a champ on the 8 1/2 hour flight over and we finally got to reunite with Dad! We're never letting him go away for that long ever again. Unfortunately there are no pictures of this reunion because Mom was too busy kissing and hugging Dad. I made it a little awkward for them though because Mom had me strapped to her in the carrier. It was quite the family hug!

The last week of my tenth month was the first of three we would spend in Paris. Mom hopes to one day get some blog posts up of our time there, so here are just some glimpses of that first week. [And by glimpses I mean extreme picture overload]

Just hanging out in our first apartment, eating some rice cakes.

I really like it when Mom lets me eat in big boy chairs.

We were always on the go in Paris, so this happened a lot.

Not my best close up...

My parents were always entertained by my sweaty bed head. Sorry folks, they don't have AC over there!

Bread became my new favorite food! How can you resist a French baguette?

I finally got to try out my travel blow up bathtub. Success.

Smiling with Dad during a local French church gathering.

Laughing with my BFF, Haleigh. She's a fellow Auburner that spent time with us in Paris.

Our first day off happened to fall on my 10 month birthday [though I like to believe that they took off that day just to celebrate me], so we got to do a bit of sightseeing together.

I was excited to see the Pantheon.

Even more excited to participate in some good old fashioned people watching—something the Parisians do best.

Thus begins the hoodie photo shoot...

Jardin du Luxembourg, ya'll!!!

This is my life... Make them stop!

SO worn out...

Straight nappin'... And yes, I am wearing socks under my sandals. It's all the craze overseas.

A couple of quick developmental tidbits...
No more teeth, but I have a sweet looking gap between my two front teeth. No need to post another picture, I know you noticed. It's hard to miss.

I'm not walking yet, but still getting around like a champ. My new favorite thing is to have things in both hands while crawling around. I tend to implement them as sliding mechanisms as well.

Exhibit A...

Aunt Lynn also hooked me up with a new toy that I can play with standing up. It has a dancing bear on top that I like to slap around. It's also a good place to practice my new moves. I'm sure my Mom will get a video of that soon.

Hopefully there's not too many things I neglected to update you on. We are already about 3 weeks in to my eleventh month, so I did my best to remember it all. It's hard to believe that I'll be one year old in less than a couple of months. Poor Mom, her baby's all grown up!

grace to ya,
Haddon

Nine Months!

I must admit, I'm rather ashamed at how late you are receiving this post. I appreciate your patience, and I haven't received too much hate mail for my delay. I shall not make excuses, but I will make mention of the fact that my Dad is out of the country and has been since May 11 [the day after my 9 month birthday]. In our day and age, there is this little invention called Skype. It allows you to video chat with someone, no matter where they are, as long as they have an internet connection. This being said, Mom always is on the computer. Okay, maybe not always, but most of the time. [Are you catching my drift of why it's been hard for a guy to get a few quiet moments alone with the computer?]

But that's enough of that. Let's move on to what you're really here to read about. Mom better be glad I have an excellent memory...

I guess the biggest achievement of the month was that I left the army crawl behind. As manly as I felt, hands and knees have become much more efficient.


Now that this has happened, I am ALL OVER THE PLACE. Things are getting moved, doors are getting closed, and my parents are learning that the Pughplex wasn't as "babyproof" as they thought. I prefer the term, "Haddon proof," though. It makes me sound more legit.

I'm still barreling on behind that walker of mine. Unfortunately, I don't have an up to date video of the progress I've made, but for the sake of getting this post to the public, I'll impress you with my skills at another time.




As I predicted in my last post, my top two teeth have come through with full force [and quite a bit of space in between!]. The first one broke through on March 30th and the second followed exactly a week later on the 7th. I haven't been too cranky about them. I'm actually rather proud and smiley.

Rocking the bed head in this one!

These teeth have come in handy when my Mom decided to introduce some finger foods. Surprisingly I don't like any of the puffs or cheerios or anything. They're just too small... I prefer something I can take a chunk out of. Lately, my favorites are Baby Mum Mums and some Happy Munchies rice cakes. I'm trying the Mum Mums in the video below [I eat them much more assertively these days].



I also did lots of traveling in month 9 [I think that's going to be the theme of my summer]. We got to spend some time in Decatur and Florence to meet my new cousin— Baby Cohen!!!!!

Mom said that I used to be that small. Can you believe it? Being around him sure made me feel big.

The picture above is my favorite. I look like a giant!! Don't worry, I'm a friendly beast.

He looked like he needed some help with his seat belt. I showed him how it works.

I had to size him up.

He passed the Haddon test.

I also got to show him how to take a good nap in his car seat. He was a great pupil.

We also got to visit Big Papa [or "Poppy" as Cousin Emma calls him] at his new home.

Here we are! Cousin Emma was in Indianapolis, so I didn't get to play with her :(

His walker was so much cooler than mine!

We also got to spend some time in Tuscaloosa. Here are some of my Big Daddy bonding shots...

One of my favorite things about this past month was our vacation trip to Gatlinburg. It was supposed to be a Lakeview staff retreat for Dad, but that ended up getting cancelled. Thankfully, we still had rooms booked, so we went anyway! It was so good to have that family time before Dad headed off to the Middle East.

I experienced another first in Gatlinburg— the pool! I thought it was going to be awesome [Mom did too, since I love the bath so much]. Look how excited I was before we got in...

Well, then we got in...


Maybe it was the cold water, maybe it was how big and overwhelming it seemed, but something had me a little wigged out.  Don't worry, I'll try it again sometime. This was just not the day to have fun in the pool.

It didn't take much for Dad to cheer me up after the semi-traumatic experience.

Speaking of traumatic, I got quite the head injury during our vacation as well. We were at a restaurant and I decided to do a little acrobatics in my carrier seat that was balancing on top of a highchair [I will say the supervision on Mom's part was lacking a bit]. Before I knew it, I was flipping out on the floor. I'm not sure what hit my forehead, but something sure did.

Thankfully we had already finished up our meal, so the commotion caused was minimal. Poor Mom. She was so sad...

We've all recovered though and it's definitely the last thing I remember from our wonderful trip. Can you believe the next family vacay is going to be in Paris? I'll be turning 10 months over there, so my next blog post might be quite a doozy! Hopefully I'll be a little more punctual on that one— at least I'll have a 6 [or seven?] hour head start!

Thanks for wanting to know how I'm doing. I love my readers!

Grace to ya [Dad helped me come up with a new sign off],
Haddon

9 month check-up stats—

[5.14.13]
> 18 lbs. [25th percentile]
> 28 inches long [25th percentile]
> Head circumference of 18" [50th percentile]

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Yes, I went there. I let Shakespeare put into words what I experienced today. We sent this handsome man off today.

No, not Haddon :) I dropped Kam off in Atlanta today for his METS orientation. For those of you that don't know, Kam is going on a Middle East Travel seminar (hence, "METS") for three weeks. This is a trip that involves students from a handful of seminaries and our Kameron was selected to be one of those participants!

He's now in Stone Mountain, GA for a couple of days of orientation and then will fly out on Monday. This trip will include time in Jordan, Israel, and Greece. It really is the trip of a lifetime, but we'd be silly to think it won't be hard around here without him. Pray for our family! We do want to redeem the time and know the Lord has ordained these next three weeks, just as He has every day of our life. No pity parties allowed!

We were blessed to be able to have some vacation time in Gatlinburg this past week, so we were very thankful for a sweet family getaway before Kam headed out. [Shout out to the Speths for their timeshare hookup!]

Haddon and I will both miss snuggling with this guy, but at least we get to reconvene in Paris! For those of you that don't know, as a part of Kam's internship at Lakeview, we'll be spending 3 weeks in Paris. Haddon and I will fly over and meet Kam on June 3rd and we'll return on the 24th. So I can't complain too much ;)

When I googled the Shakespeare quote to make sure I had the wording right [so I wouldn't look like an idiot trying to sound romantic], dictionary.com provided me with this fabulous definition:

A line from the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare; Juliet is saying good night to Romeo. Their sorrowful parting is also “sweet” because it makes them think about the next time they will see each other.

Paris certainly will be sweet, Mr. Pugh! I'll leave you with another cheesy line...

P.S. I realize a certain someone's 9 month birthday has come and gone. There will be a post from that cute little guy, just not sure how timely it will be!