Long time no Blog!

I got a nudge today to put up some new pictures... I admit I haven't posted for well 5 or 6 months... but life is busy, really busy and that's all the excuse I have!

Anyways... we are all doing well! Asher is walking and talking like crazy! Christmas is coming and he seems excited! When we ask him what Santa says he says: Ho Ho Hoooo! And when he sees a picture of Santa he says: Danta!

He has more words then we can count and even says: " I OK" when he takes a tumble.

He seems to be at a very fun stage right now and we are loving every minute of it!

Here are a few pictures from the last couple months:

Wordless Wednesday

Those darn Teeth!

As you might remember, Asher was born with two teeth. We had been told that either these were his baby teeth or just a calcium deposit that would likely disintegrate and he would get his baby teeth in. At about 2 months old the teeth started to fall apart. We were sure if these were his actual teeth or something else. Over time the teeth broke down until we could only see a little bit of them on the surface. But periodically they would bleed and we felt that they caused him some pain. We took him to the dentist at about the time that he should have been getting his teeth in, they took a look and said that his baby teeth should push through soon. So we waited.

After a few more months and no teeth coming in we went back. We were referred to a Pediatric Dentist and had to wait about 3 months before we could get in to see him. In that time Asher's Top four teeth came in, as did his other bottom two. But not the bottom baby teeth to replace the ones he was born with.

A couple months ago Gord and I took him to the Pediatric Dentist to have them looked at in hopes that they could tell us what was going on with them. They took an X-ray and found that those were indeed Asher's baby teeth and he wouldn't get any other teeth until his Adult teeth came in.

The Dentist said that we would have to get his teeth extracted in order to prevent infection later on. We had the choice of doing it in office or at the hospital. We chose to do it at the hospital because we didn't like the idea of having to hold him down for the procedure in office, as he would only be on vallum.

Yesterday was his surgery.

We got there at 7am, and after a few tests, a video, and Gord getting into a Dr. outfit we were on our way to the OR.

Gord went in with him to the Operating Room and stayed with him until he was asleep. The surgery itself only took 5 minutes but the whole this took about a half hour and he was back with us within an hour. We stayed at the hospital for a few hours and they we were able to come home.

The whole experience was actually pretty good, Asher was such a trooper and hardly ever complained about anything. In fact I don't think he cried at all the whole time.

This morning he seems to be back to normal and is pretty happy and has a good appetite although he is restricted to baby food, soy yogurt and soy pudding for the most part!

I'm back!

It has been a busy few months since I last posted! We moved into the house, I went back to work and we have been settling in, building a fence etc.

Work has been good, initially I went back to the Ministry that I started in, since my TA was cut while I was on Mat Leave due to all the budget cuts over the last year or so. But shortly after my return, my office at AG called and asked if I would like to come back! I said YES, YES, YES! So for the last month and a half I have been back in the position I was in before I went on Mat leave and I'm so happy to be there!

The transition back to work has actually been quite good! As much as I miss spending so much time with Asher and watching him explore the world each day, I really like the 'Adult time' that comes with being back to work. I have also been catching the bus so I even have a little bit of Me time, where I get to read and listen to music! So it's actually working out quite well!

Gord has been the one who takes Asher to daycare in the morning, and they are doing quite well at it! Lucky him, gets a few more zzz's then I do since Asher quite often sleeps until 8am and some days Gord even has to wake him up to leave!

I think we are almost settled into the house, all our furniture that we bought while living at Gord's parents is here and I think we have found a place for everything now! There are just a few little things that need to be done but other then that I'm starting to feel like it's home now!

This weekend, Gord and his dad started working on the fence, they drilled the holes in the rock wall for the brackets and cemented the brackets into place! Asher played outside in his "muddy buddy" which is a suit that goes over his clothes that is water proof! It's yellow and blue! I wish I had a picture of him to post because it was so darn cute, but I couldn't find the camera at the time!

I have lots of pictures to share of the last 2 months so I will have to post again soon!!!

House Update

The house is well on the way to being completed! We move in next Friday/Saturday and can't wait!!

June 15th - Siding going on

June 15th

June 15th - back of house

June 14th - Driveway poured

June 9th - upstairs drywall started

June 9th

Asher's Tricks

In the last few weeks, Asher has aquired a few very cute tricks!

The first was waving, then clapping, "Baby dance" was next and now he is drinking from a straw!

I hate to brag but I just googled "when does a child learn to drink from a straw" and it said they wont learn that until at least 13 months and it can take some as long as 24 months to figure it out! So I'm a pretty proud mommy!

I guess he just really wanted some of my Orange Julius on Saturday because when I offered him the straw, I figured he would probably just chew on it and drool in my drink, but when I gave it to him, some of the drink came the straw! Since then I have been offering him water from a cup with a straw and he has been drinking that way! It's very cute!

Relay for Life for Dad

We will be walking in the Relay for Life on June 18th and 19th and are still looking for team members and donations!

If you are interested in joining Kenz Convoy here is the website:

http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/ccp.asp?ievent=330307&lis=1&kntae330307=F68367092FAA45F789530F3390B1DAD3&ccp=93363"

And if you would just like to make a donation here is the link to my Fightback Headquarters:

http://relayforlife.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=330307&lis=0&kntae330307=2C646CA115E247028F2E7924361F6BB3

Wordless Wednesday - Gosslings!

Gosslings

Went for our walk tonight and came across these Geese and their babies! So cute!

Walkin the tracks

Last night we went for a walk along the rail road. Our house is on the other side of the tracks, so we decided to take a walk along them and see if we could find a short cut from Gord's parents to the house...

Were not sure if it was quicker or not, but the trail was a little steep to get up to the tracks and we couldn't really get thru to the subdivision because all the houses have fenced yards and the area that isn't fenced is under construction... so we turned back :O)

Here are a few pictures from the walk...

Gotta love SLEEP!

For the last 3 nights the Sleep has been amazing!

A friend who had been bragging about her son sleeping for 12 hours a night sent me the Sleep Sense Book on Friday. So we made a few tweaks to our bedtime rules and voila, Asher sleeps almost through the night!

Basically the only real change we made was not going into his room when he wakes up in the middle of the night. Rather we wait for a minimum of 3 minutes (10 minutes at most) and give him a chance to put himself back to sleep.

We have been doing this for naps also.

Asher has always napped for about 30 minutes several times per day. But now, when he wakes up 30 minutes into his nap, I give him a few minutes and usually within a minute or so he is able to put himself right back to sleep.


Yesterday's nap was 1 hour and 45 minutes!
Last night he slept from 8pm - 7am and we only had to go into his room once during the night!
The night before he slept from 7:20pm - 8:30am and again we only had to go in once!

He is actually napping right now... and I'm hoping it will go just as well!

I have to say, having him nap and sleep so well at night makes me feel SO much better about going back to work!

Speaking of which, today was Asher's first morning at daycare!

Gord dropped him off at 8:30am and Tricia and I went out shopping for the morning. I was going to pick him up at 12 but as I was heading home I figured I would call to see how things were going and see if she wanted me to come and get him a bit early.

Turns out she did!

Not that he was terrible, but I think she was just a bit overwhelmed having a 10 month old and all the other kids too (she has two girls of her own and a boy she looks after)! She said that she forgot what it was like with such a little one. Apparently he didn't want to be put down so she had to pack him around :O( He didn't want to go down for a nap either... I felt kind of bad for her... she seemed a bit frazzled but assured me that both she and Asher would get used to it!

Hopefully the next time goes better!

Eating on his own

Over the past few weeks I have been giving Asher lots of opportunities to feed himself. This morning I cut up a whole Eggo and he ate it all, after which he scarfed down a bunch of peach slices too! I have been trying to post a video of this... however it seems to be too large to upload! So instead I will add a few pictures!

House Update!

Lots of progress in the last week and a half!! Starting to think that our new home might actually be completed on time!

Wednesday May 5th - Starting to to frame the 1st floor

Thursday May 6th - Framing of the first floor

Friday May 7th - Framing of the downstairs rooms

Saturday May 8th - Second floor walls

Monday May 10 - Second Floor walls and Trusses

Tuesday May 11 - Trusses spread out & peaks filled in

Wednesday May 12th - Roof on & front peak over porch

I have lots more pictures of the inside and the rear view of the house also, however the picture upload on blogger doesn't want to play nice tonight so they will have to wait!

The Last Month

Well this last month has been, to be honest, difficult.

On March 29th, my dad passed away. I'm so grateful that I went up there that day and was able to tell him that I loved him and say good bye. He was such a great father and grandfather to Asher, I just wish we had more time to spend with him.

It has been a difficult road for me... but I have learned a lot about myself and how I deal with stress and sadness.

Luckily we had already moved into Gord's parents the day before so I was glad that part was done. And thankfully Gord's Brother and Sister-in-law helped us clean our town house the next day so that we didn't have to worry about going back, and we were able to spend time with family.

I have been noticing over the last few weeks however that Asher has been a bit more clingy. I was wondering if it was a touch of separation anxiety and now I'm starting to think I was right. Just after we moved to Gord's parents place, I noticed that when I walked out of the room Asher was in he would start to get upset. Sometimes he would calm back down and go back to playing but other times he would get very upset. However if he didn't notice that I had left, he didn't seem to have a problem at all.

This has been worrying me quite a bit since I only have 2 months before I go back to work and I want to make sure he is going to be OK when I leave him. To top it all off, the daycare we had lined up for months backed out on us because she took on another child and wouldn't be able to wait to take on Asher due to financial reasons.... sooo... that really piled on the stress for me!

Luckily we were able to find a great lady to care for Asher during the week while I'm at work and she is just around the corner from where our new house will be, reasonably priced (if you could ever say that about daycare), and seems pretty awesome. So all going well at least that is one thing off our plate!

Yesterday I decided to go to the gym a bit earlier then usual and use the childminding that they have there instead of leaving him with Gord when he gets home. At first he didn't want me to leave... until I gave him to the girl and handed him a rice cracker, then he was just fine. He didn't see me leave and seemed to be fine for the whole hour I was gone. However when I went back to get him he couldn't squirm away fast enough and was SUPER clingy once he had me.

I got back to the Jeep and tried to put him in his seat but he wouldn't let go of me... I held him for a few minutes while I talked to my Sister and then put him in his seat... he was fine. But on and off he becomes super clingy and doesn't want me to leave a room... he did it again tonight after dinner. From what I read there isn't much you can do other then reassure him.

During the day if he gets upset that I'm not right there with him I generally go to him give him a toy or make his toy make a sound and then leave again. That way I figure, I'm not totally ignoring him but I'm not picking him up or anything... this usually works and he goes back to playing but there is the odd time when he all out cries and gets upset and then I will pick him up because there is no other way to calm him down... I have tried...

Everything I read says that it is a phase and will pass... I just hope it doesn't take too long!!!

That's all for now folks... any advice on the Separation Anxiety is welcome!!!

The Lot/Foundation/"House"

Here are a few pictures of our lot/new "house in progress....

Thursday April 15 - The Lot with a digger in it ready to dig!!!

Friday April 16 - The digger filling up a dump truck with dirt from out lot:

Saturday April 17 - The hole:


The week of April 19-23 they were very slow...
Here they had just started to frame in for the foundation and there is drain rock filled in. By the end of that week they had a few more boards put up around the sides but nothing picture worthy!

Monday April 26 - All the plumbing was put in (forgot my camera/cell phone that day)

Tuesday April 27 - Rebar, white plastic stuff

They really made progress this day!!

Wednesday April 28 - Foundation is poured!!!

Thursday April 29 - Walls are up for the foundation walls to be poured!

And today I went by and it looks like they have poured the foundation walls!!!!

That's all the pictures for now! Will try to give a written update some time this weekend!!!

Flashback Friday

Asher at 4 Weeks old, all bundled up and headed to the race track!

Long overdue!

Ok so I was informed today by Uncle Jack that I'm not Blogging nearly enough... and I have to agree with him!

So here is the update...

Since the last post when Asher started to say Da Da, we have been very busy!

We sold our townhouse and will be moving into Gord's parents place until our NEW HOUSE is built in June!!!

Our house sold in two days, it didn't even make it onto MLS and the woman who purchased it wanted to move in at the end of March so we had a little over a month to pack everything and figure out where we were going until our new house was ready! We move this weekend!

Asher has been busy too! He now says Mum and Mumma which I have video proof of somewhere in the picture file. He is trying to crawl but mostly just turns in circles rather then going forward! He is eating all kinds of solid foods, including cheerios for the first time yesterday, and really seems to enjoy feeding himself! He has the strangest/cutest little expressions and has such a funny personality!! I have posted a few pictures below of some of his expressions!

Asher in his racing gear!

Playing in his high chair...
Funny face

One of his many expressions

Smiley boy...

Enjoying his baby cookie

At the park

Doing the Laundry with mom

A few Videos....

That's all for today... more tomorrow... hopefully!!!