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!!!

Dad a Dadda

As you can hear from this video, Asher has started saying Dadda!! It started on Wednesday night (Gords race car night). He was playing in his exersaucer and almost like he knew that Gord should have been home already, at 6:30, he said Dadda! There was also a bit more babble that went along with the dadda, but it was as though he was asking me where his Dadda was, since normally he would be home by now!

Ever since he has been saying "a dad, dadda" over the place!

He has been babbling and chatting to us for weeks, but the Dadda is by far the cutest yet!

Doing it all at once!

Asher seems to be doing everything all at one time! He started to roll from back to tummy at the beginning of January (he has been rolling over from tummy to back since he was 3 months), then he figured our his Jolly Jumper, he has been pushing him self backwards while on his tummy, and he mastered sitting up on his own just today!

These past few months with him have been a blast! He is so much fun now that he is figuring everything out!

Half a year of discoveries and reflections

Asher turned 6 months old this week, and over the last 6 months I have noticed how becoming a parent changes... well everything. For me it has changed how I look at the world, the people in it and how I interact with both!

Social Isolation

Before you have children and especially before you have a baby who is breastfed, get-to-gethers and parties are great; you socialize, eat, help set up and clean up etc. etc. etc. Once you have a child it's a whole new ball game. It starts before you even leave the house, making sure you have absolutely every possible item your child might need packed in a bag that never seems big enough. Then once you get to your destination, it's a balance between trying to be sociable and keeping your child content (AKA quiet). This leads to very unfulfilled conversations. For me it always seems like 30 minutes later while I am feeding Asher in a quiet room someplace, I think about how I meant to say this or that.

I do love breastfeeding Asher, in fact I think I would miss it if he stopped tomorrow, however because he seems to hate being covered by any kind of blanket, I tend to just go into a bedroom away from everyone to feed him, as it's much less stressful for all concerned. But in doing this I miss out on whatever else is going on beyond the walls of the room we are in. Granted sometimes it's a lovely break and a nice time to bond with him away from the crowd :O)

Joy

I don't think I have ever experienced so much joy in my entire life as I do/am right now. Watching Gord play, sing and talk to Asher makes my heart sing. Experiencing all of Asher's firsts with him and getting to see him smile and laugh each day has been truly amazing.

I think in life, some things are just meant to be. My dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 which has been difficult on everyone in our family. But I believe that Asher came into our lives to give us all something to smile about. And to give my dad something to keep going for (he wants to be at Asher's wedding).

Parenting

Knowing that we have just scratched the surface of this thing we call parenting I am excited to continue this challenge with Gord.

What we have learned so far is that nothing is what it seems. Before you are a parent you make all these assumptions as to how you will parent your child, and when you become a parent, all those assumptions go out the window. It has nothing to do with ideals and everything to do with temperament. Every child is different and not every method works for every child.

So far our two rules are:

• Pick your battles; and
• Find what works for your child and do that, then stop listening or reading everyone elses ideas/opinions.

All in all it's been a great 6 months since Asher entered our lives. We have learned so much and seemingly discovered a whole new world, and entered a new club (mommy and daddy club) in the process. Were lovin every minute and wouldn't trade it for the world!

Holidays

Well we had a wonderful first Christmas and New year as a family!

Gord has been off for the last 11 days, so Asher and I have been enjoying having him around and we have been able to get so much done around here too!

Since Asher has been quite a gassy baby since day one; about a week before Christmas we decided to try something. Because Gord is lactose intolerant himself, we decided that it might be a good idea for me to try going off dairy for a week to see if it made any difference for Asher.

Well the results are in, and as far as we can tell it seems to be helping. This last few weeks have been great! Other then the teething pains here and there Asher has been a very Happy baby making Christmas Eve, Christmas day and New years a breeze.

As previously noted, Asher is teething.... dun dun dun... the drool is phemonimal... not only does he drool but he has learned to spit, well kind of. I think he likes the noise he makes with his mouth!

We also started solid foods while Gord was off, which has been great also! We decided to start with pear since it is not a binding food and very easy on the tummy too! He loved it. Then we gave him some "sweet potato" which is actually yams... because yams are the orange ones and sweet potatoes are the yellow ones... but lets not get into it! He loves his yams even more!

We have been using this great book for making baby food (which I believe was given to Asher at his baby shower by Aunty Dara), and it has been a huge help in getting us started. We even boiled up some turnip last night, pureed it, and froze it in ice cube trays for future dinners! Yum!

Tonight I wrote down all of the fruits and veggies he will be trying and in what order so I can check them off once he has tried each one. It's kinda fun!

Here is a video of his eating some pears...





Here are just a few photos from the last few weeks:

Asher staring up at Daddy who is trying to put him to sleep...

Asher and Daddy opening an ornament on Christmas eve, Asher liked the paper best:

Gord learning to drive the bobcat:

More to come...

Roll Over Roll Over

OK I know it has been ages since I posted... so maybe I need to make a new years resolution to update the blog more regularly!!

We have been busy getting ready for Christmas; shopping, baking, wrapping etc. But were almost there!

Asher got his picture taken with Santa (as seen above) and actually quite liked sitting on Santa's knee! In fact Santa was excellent, very nice and since we were the last ones for the day we got a few extra pictures and chatted with Santa a bit!

We got some good news about my Dad's cancer this week! He went to his oncologist, she felt around his tummy and she said that it feels like the tumor may have shrunk a bit which means this new chemo might just be working!!! It's so nice to finally get a piece of good news on that side of things!

Since I don't have much time I'm going to have to cut this short but here is a video of Asher rolling over... for the second time! I took this video a few weeks ago, and I just love the look on his face when he is going over!!