puff eating: a lesson in technique

Asher is now an expert Puff eater.

At first there were a few things that tripped him up. 

1) wet baby hands = sticky Puffs
2) holding the Puff too far back in your hand = it can't get in the mouth
3) being greedy {a Puff in the hand is worth 2 in the mouth}

Don't let this happen to you!

Instead, follow Asher's tips for successful Puffs eating:

First, select your target.

Next, pick up carefully, making sure your hands are dry {see Trip Ups #1}

Make sure it's all the way in there.

Chew carefully.

Or, if you don't chew, gag a little when the whole Puff hits the back of your throat.

If this happens, just cover your mouth until you recover.  Then enjoy the delicious goodness.

Repeat until your tray is empty.

Then check your lap for any that may have gone missing in action.

Patiently wait for the next course.

That's it!  Asher's 9 step plan for successful Puff eating. 

Bon appetit. 

remote broadcast

Asher and I have hit the road!

We're coming to you live from Raleigh, North Carolina - happy fall, y'all!

It had been quite awhile since we visited my parents and decided that this was the perfect time.  Of course, it feels less like fall and more like the 4th of July { 90s anyone?? } but we're having a great visit anyway!

Ash and I decided to stay for a few days so we had to leave Drew behind in DC to man the homestead {and go to work - thanks Daddy!}  We miss you!

So far Asher has had an excellent time being spoiled by his grandparents.  He's such a lucky boy.

We have some exciting stuff planned for the next week - now I just need to remember to take some pictures as it happens!

lean into it

Asher gets into the funniest positions sometimes.  The other day he was sitting crossed legged in front of his music table when he decided to reach up and open/close the green door.

Rather than scoot his legs around and get up on his knees in the traditional sense, he just l-e-a-n-e-d up onto his knees while leaving his legs crossed.

 Wow!

Um, first of all, that's not super easy to do.

Secondly, in my humble opinion, if he can flaunt these maneuvers, then he can definitely get himself into a sitting position and is just holding out on me.  C'mon Asher, show me your other moves!

like father, like son

This morning as Drew was getting ready to leave for work I handed him Asher so he could say goodbye.  When I looked over at them I noticed that they were dressed alike!

Way to coordinate with Daddy, little bear!

What cute boys I have {if I do say so myself}

how do you spell cute?

Around here we spell it A-S-H-E-R

And it looks like this

tall in the saddle

A few weeks ago we graduated Asher to his convertible 'big boy' car seat.  He wasn't officially too small for the infant seat {according to the manufacturer}, but I thought he looked really cramped and might enjoy more space to spread out.

Turns out, he does!

Another big fear of mine was that car rides would become a battle because he wouldn't have his trusty {and much loved} turtle toy to keep him occupied.

I shouldn't have worried.  I link-a-doo'd some toys to the headrest and he's perfectly happy with those.  In fact, I think now that he is sitting up higher he can see out the window because more times than not he abandons the toys just to gaze out at the world flying gently cruising by.

One more 'baby' thing we're leaving behind!  Sad, but proud, once again.  :o)

dairy-tacular

I'm back!

I'm back!

I'm back on dairy!!

Asher's pediatric GI said that we should start incorporating dairy back into my diet when Asher turned 9 months old and see how he does.  I didn't waste any time and started {slowly} having dairy again last week.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration at all to say that it's made my year to be back amongst the dairy.

{Asher was born in 2009, so I can say that and not lose my mother of the year award}

I think Ben & Jerry's Phish Food frozen yogurt is the BEST food ever invented.  I could eat it all day long.  In fact, yesterday I did.

And Emily looked upon the empty pint and saw that it was good.  Oh, so good.

So far, Asher's doing great with the addition of dairy.  I know it might take awhile for his system to become irritated enough to start showing blood in his poo again, so I'll be, um, monitoring his diapers for the next few weeks.  If all remains well then we're on track to give A an oral dairy challenge once he turns a year old.

Wish us luck!

In other big news - Asher ate Puffs today!  All on his own!  He chewed them up and everything!  Yay, go Ash!

crawling and cuteness

Drew and I realized the other day that we haven't been taking nearly enough videos of Asher.

Thus, all the film that I'm inflicting on you all.  Sorry.  Well, I'm sure the grandparents and aunts/uncles appreciate it!

Asher is doing so much these days we have to capture it all!!

He is currently doing this adorable crawl / scoot / army crawl move to get around.  It's so deliberate - I love watching him see something, decide that he wants it, and do what is necessary to get over there.  He just started moving like this a few days ago.



I know it won't be long before he gets his belly off the ground and is moving even faster.

Oh my.

Then I was recording him playing with his truck and he morphed into this little cutey telling me stories and playing games.  Love him!



Oh, and for everyone who asked about the farm toy - it came to Asher from my parents.  I believe they found it in the Kohl's toy section. {Correct me if I'm wrong here, Mom}  It really is such a fun toy - I hope you all can find one too!!

ulterior motives

He may be young, but he's sneaky.

Asher, please don't open that drawer.

What?  I'm not.  I'm just playing with my box.

Asher.

What?

Asher.

This seriously happened!  He's too funny!

And I need to babyproof.  Like yesterday.

dancing king

You can dance...

You can jive...

Having the time of your life.

See that boy...

Watch that scene...

Dig in the dancing king!



Once again Asher collapses after having too much fun!  He loves, loves to dance every time his toys play songs - which, if you know baby toys, is all the time.  Adorable!

old mc-asher had a farm

Asher has a magnetized farm toy that he loves to play with when I'm working in the kitchen.

If you haven't seen one of these before, let me explain - all of these animal 'halves' are magnetized and snap in and out of the holder.  When you match them up correctly it plays a little song and when you match them up incorrectly it...plays a little song!  Surprise!

A doesn't press them hard enough to get the song playing {so I help him with that part} but he loves pulling the magnets off the fridge and sticking them back on! 

And, of course, eating the animal pieces.

Hey, it's the little things that make life great.  :o)

mark of determination

When we were at the beach a few weeks back I brought along Asher's pack 'n play for a crib substitute.  He has slept in this bed a few times in the past and never really has any issues with it.  This trip was no exception.

Except one day at nap time.

Mr. A decided that playing with his cousins would be a lot more fun than taking a nap, so after I laid him down he started crying and complaining.  I left him alone, but watched over the monitor to make sure he fell asleep before too long.

Well, I guess he was trying to follow me out of the room because here's how he fell asleep:

Poor guy!  His nap wasn't very long so I didn't get too worried about his neck. {Although that was my first thought}  Our pediatrician told us that babies can sleep in really weird, uncomfortable looking positions and be perfectly fine.

After he woke up I sat him in the Bumbo for a snack and told Drew to snap some shots of his battle scars.

Think he was leaning against the mesh side of the playpen?  Just maybe!

I probably shouldn't laugh at him, but this was just too funny!  Little guy has super impressionable skin! 

{Just like me, I might add}

what goes up...

On Sunday Drew encouraged me to get out and have some "me" time.  Last week was really crazy at Drew's work and he didn't get to see Asher at all from Tuesday to Friday.  This not only meant that Drew missed Ash, but also that I had baby duty 100% of the time, for 4 days straight.

{major props to the single moms right now - I don't know how you do it!}

This combo equaled Drew missing A and me really needing a break from drool and diapers -  an afternoon off sounded perfect!  It had been approximately 9 months since I bought myself any new clothes, so I headed to the mall to find some fall staples.

I had no clue what the boys would do while I was gone, but figured it would involve some toys, teethers, baby food, and naps.  Oh yeah, and football.  Of course.  What I didn't anticipate was that Drew would make a little video showing Asher's major accomplishment that I would miss!

Wait, before you watch I need to warn you about something.  Those of you with little ones will realize that a baby's first time standing solo isn't all that stable.  Drew thought this was a possibility, but couldn't zoom out far enough if he remained close enough to catch a falling baby.

This, I believe, is the main difference between moms and dads.  If it had been me I would have stayed close and just not had a video.  Drew really wanted to record this moment for me since I was missing it.  I appreciate that - I guess.  ha!

Let me just emphasize that Drew shouldn't be villianized here.  He's a great Dad and would never put Asher in danger.  That said, I did almost have a heart attack the first time I watched this.  I grew all of those little parts from scratch - let's keep them intact!

By the way, how tough is my little guy?!  So chill, so calm.   :o)

{oh, keep your sound on - Drew incorporates some pretty priceless commentary}

nine months old

Asher, you are 9 months old!

Normally I take the monthly photo with your stuffed elephant, but over the weekend Daddy and I took you to the National Zoo in DC, so we got some photos with the real thing!

They throw our scale off a little.

You had a lot of fun at the zoo! 

I think it was our first major trip out somewhere like that.  You loved watching all of the other people watch the animals.  Did you actually notice any animals?  Well, not that we could see.

Haha, oh well! 

I say this every month, but I'll say it again.  If possible, the time is passing more quickly each month.  It literally feels like days ago that I was writing your eight month post and here we are at nine months already.  Slow down, little mister!

These days you change and learn new things so quickly I almost can't keep up.  Just yesterday I was working in the kitchen and Daddy yelled at me, "Mommy, come quick, he's crawling!"

And you were.

You have this adorable little half scoot / half crawl thing that you do to get around.  You still barrel roll to get from here to there, but you are starting to abandon that for a more direct route.  I'll try to get it on video before you move on to the next stage!

At nine months, Asher:

• weighs around 20 pounds
• wears size 9-12 month PJs and onesies
• wears size 6-9 month pants {except for 2 pairs of 3-6 month pants that still fit!}
• wears size 3 diapers
• has 2 teeth, with 2 more coming in
• drink 4, 8oz bottles a day
• eats 3 cubes of food for breakfast and dinner
• eats 1 cube of food for lunch
• eats sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, applesauce, bananas, blueberries, peaches, pears
• has tried, but hates chicken
• loves dill pickles!
• won't eat finger foods of any kind
• drinks water from a straw sippy cup
• plays with lots of toys!
• loves his music table, plastic keys, stacking rings best
• 'talks' all the time, saying mmmm, blah blah, and dadada
• splashes like crazy in the bathtub
• has moved into his 'big boy' car seat and loves the extra space!

Asher, you are so loved.  You keep us laughing and guessing all the time.  Every day we look forward to seeing what you'll do next!

he's crying. we're thrilled!

As Asher scoots around he tends to find the most random stuff to grab.  The other day he found a loose hair on the floor {yuck!} and snatched it up.  Once I saw what he had I took it away from him and...

he started crying!

Yay!

Most parents hate to hear their babies cry, so you might wonder what's wrong with me that I was excited by this.  The fact is that this was the first time Asher ever cried when I took something away.  Normally he just looks for the next thing and couldn't care less. 

You're probably still wondering what's wrong with me.

Let me be more specific.  Once babies cry when an object is taken away it proves that they have achieved the concept of object permanence.  Do you know object permanence?  O.P. is a major neurological development that most babies achieve between 8 and 10 months old. 

Simply put, it means that these tiny humans finally understand that when things disappear from their line of sight those things don't cease to exist.

Until object permanence kicks in babies believe that if they can't see it, it doesn't exist.  They won't look for a hidden or dropped toy.  The crying happens because they finally, finally realize that what was taken away still exists somewhere, just not with them.  And that makes them mad!

This is huge!  The fact that Asher has reached this milestone means his brain is on track developmentally.

Thus, the happiness over his crying!

However.

You know what else comes with object permanence?  That's right.  Separation anxiety.

That crying we are not so thrilled about.

Asher is having major separation issues these days.  Last night he woke up for some reason at 11:30 and started crying.  And crying.  And crying.

He never wakes up at night anymore, so this was really strange.  I went in to comfort him and see if there was some obvious problem.  There wasn't.  As soon as I picked him up he stopped crying.  We rocked for awhile and he snuggled into my neck and instantly fell asleep.  Once he was out I laid him down in his crib and his eyes popped open, he gave me the saddest look and burst into tears with his arms reaching up.

BREAK. MY. HEART.

As sad as it made me, I couldn't rock him all night, so I said good-night {over the wails} and headed back to bed.

Of course, I watched him over the monitor and when he didn't settle down after 10 minutes I sent Drew in to see what he could do.  Seeing me tends to make situations like this exponentially worse, so I was trying to stay out of it.

Asher's cries lessened when the door opened, then got way louder when he saw that it was Drew.  Daddy was not going to do last night!  I had to go back over and do our rocking thing again.  It was wonderful to be wanted, but I'm really hoping that tonight goes better - I'm not used to this interrupted sleep anymore!  ha!

Then this morning at church we had to be called out of service to retrieve Asher from the nursery.  He normally does great, but today he realized that the people working there are strangers and he wanted his mommy.  I was happy to oblige.  Poor little guy, he can't help it.

Extra hugs and kisses for Asher!

alert the media!

{or at least the grandparents}

Asher cut 2 more teeth!

Apparently his teeth come in pairs because the bottom two came in within days of each other as well.

These new guys are on the top, center - directly above the 2 that he currently has.  Asher is nothing if not symmetrical.  Gotta love that.

Mom, there's something in here.

He's been working on some for awhile now {you know the drill - extra drool, extra whiny} but I couldn't see anything until this afternoon when he was giving me the dinosaur roar.  A wide open mouth was all I needed to see the little white poking through.

Wait! There's 2 somethings in here!

No photos yet of our new friends yet - I didn't want to lose a hand - but soon, I hope!

Happy weekend!

he's a pickle baby

The other day I was eating a dill pickle spear while holding Asher and he kept lunging at it.

He does this at anything I'm holding.  It's lots of fun.

I decided that if he wanted it so bad, I should oblige.  I figured he'd hate the sour taste and would {maybe? please!} leave my other handful alone.

Well, as happens every time I assume something about A he loved it!

I wanted to see if it was a fluke, so I offered him another one yesterday.

He made this same yuck face at first, but then he kept coming back for more!

By the way, this is the same baby who regards banana Puffs as dangerous and to be avoided.  He hates those, but loves him some pickles.

Go figure.