St. George With a Baby

We took Asher on his first trip to St. George this weekend. We had a great time which means it was the first of many.

Asher had a nasty little cold and by the end of the trip I had caught it too, but despite all of that we had a good time.  We went swimming and Asher absolutely loved it.  He would just splash and splash and kept accidentally sticking his face in the water.

The weather was so warm and gorgeous and we enjoyed going on walks, doing some shopping, and just enjoying the nice weather.  We also got to spend some time with Jamie and Adam and their cute Millie.  We went to dinner with them and hung out at their house.

Me and Jamie and our big babies.  Blurry pic but it's the only one we got of us!

It was so much fun to see little Millie and Asher together and watch them interact.  Millie is such a calm, sweet little girl, she is adorable!  And Asher was being a little bit of a goof ball and showing off for his friends.

A Day in the Life...

I realized that so often I don't take pictures because I want my pictures to look perfect.  I want them to look professional and gorgeous and just capture the moment so perfectly.  And, well, let's be honest, I can't do that.  Since I can't do that, sometimes I choose to not take a picture at all.  But I've realized how sad that is and decided I wanted pictures of Asher (and me and Marcus) throughout a normal day, unposed and just how things are.

So here is a day in the life of Asher.  Taken by me, mostly, but a few from Marcus, like the ones first thing in the morning when I'm feeding him.  Lots are taken at awkward angles or aren't the best pictures, but to me they represent our day and all of the small moments that are so sweet (or crazy...)

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Good morning happy baby.  You watch me as we make your bottle.

You love to reach up towards me while you drink your bottle.  You reach for either my mouth or my nose, and like me to nibble on your fingers while you eat.

Then we go eat.  Today you had carrots and squash for breakfast.

Bathtime.

You go through a good part of your day without any pants on.

You play so well in your exersaucer while I run on the treadmill...but not until you'd fully examined my shoelaces first.

Naptime.  First I swaddle you up and let you play with my hair to distract you from the fact that you are being swaddled up, and about to be put to bed.  And yes, you are almost 7 months old and still like to be swaddled to sleep.  Just from the armpits down though, so you are free to move your arms or suck your thumb as you please.

Then you always play with the mobile for a minute, and think it is hilarious.  But sometimes it makes you frustrated that I don't let you eat it.

and then you go to sleep.  An hour or two later you wake up and I come get you.  And you are happy as can be to see me.

You are such a busy baby.  I put you down in the center of the closet with a toy and the next time I look over you are playing under dad's shirts.  Even though you can't crawl you can get to most places you want to be.

I couldn't make your bottle fast enough and you got pretty upset.  The water just takes so long to get warm!

I let you play in the sink when you were bored even though that is probably not a good place for a baby to play.  So when you are older and say I never let you do anything you want to, you can look back on this and see that I did.

When dad got home we took a little trip to Target.  Here dad was passing you off to mom because you needed your diaper changed - silly dad.

One of your favorite toys right now is a little white matchbox car that dad bought you.  Tonight you were getting tired and fussy and dad dumped your whole basket of toys out for you to play with and the little car is what you chose.

Goodnight sweet baby boy.

Love This Bug

Seriously Sweet

I have some seriously sweet and very creative family members.  My mom and sisters are all so thoughtful and do the cutest things.  I usually feel like I'm the least thoughtful and am so lucky to have these guys.

Katie made all of us the cutest Valentine's day bunting.  I loved it so much I still haven't taken it down.

Every year my mom makes us darling Valentine packages.  She has never missed a year and it is always so fun to see what she packages up for us.  This year she had assorted candies all wrapped up, a cute book and a mini little toy for Asher.

Over the weekend I heard Elise talking about homemade valentines she made for Mike, her friend on a mission, and Joe on his mission.  Miles heard her talking about it and said he forgot to get her a valentine.  He ran upstairs and got her the friendship bracelet he had been working on.  It was so sweet to see that he is learning to be thoughtful and giving too!

And then just yesterday I got the most fun package in the mail from Tierra.  The first thing I opened was a little envelope, and this is what it said:

Then inside the box:

All of these tiny little cute packages of yellow and orange things.  Sunshine in a box!

starburst, juicy fruit, crystal light, reese's, dots, sugar sprinkles

m&ms, cough drops, crayons, gobstoppers, goldfish

So cute and so fun!

A Logan Weekend

Me and Asher picked Marcus up from work Friday afternoon and headed up to Logan to hang out with Katie and Nate and Mike and Elise.

Katie and Nate are so great to let us come crash at their place and hang out with them for the weekend. Every time we go it's like a mini vacation.

We stayed up late, played lots of farkle, watched Jackson's basketball game, went to lunch (without Asher! His first non-family babysitter), and did some shopping to dress Marcus in business casual. (Sadly it didn't work -- Marcus left the store with a tshirt like usual...but everyone tried!)

Kate and Lise - with the babies.  Stella loves Asher and Asher thinks Stella is hilarious.  It is such a cute thing and so fun to watch them interact!

The Bottle

After a pretty miserable few days Asher is finally fully converted to formula and actually loves his bottle.  He gets so excited every time he sees it and it is hard to believe he ever refused it.

Everyone told me that a baby would not starve themselves and that they would take a bottle once they got hungry enough.  I left Asher home with Marcus and figured he would get frustrated and mad but would eventually take it.  I thought it might take 2 or 3 hours.  Boy was I wrong.  After 3 straight hours of refusing it he went to bed hungry.  (Except for the little bit that dripped into his mouth over the course of 3 hours!)  Marcus' instagram pretty much sums up the night.

I was sure he would take it first thing in the morning but he was not about to give in.  He held out for most of the morning and ended up going almost 20 hours before our stubborn little baby finally gave in and took the first bottle.

I thought it was all going to be good from there on out...again I was wrong.  The next day he went 12 whole hours without eating, and only ate at 8:30 a.m. and then again at 8:30 p.m.  I couldn't believe that the bottle was awful enough that he would just starve himself!  I felt like a horrible mom and it was so hard holding this starving, sad baby all day and not just giving him what he wanted.

He was so lethargic and would just lie on the carpet, suck his thumb and fall asleep.  He was so cuddly and had absolutely no energy.  He didn't even cry for the most part except for when we got the bottle near him.

Luckily enough he quickly caught on by day three and from there things have been great.  He has been taking better naps, sleeping through the night again, and just seems so much happier in general.  Poor little guy was just hungry before.  I am so happy he finally took the bottle and that we were able to make this transition.

VaLeNtInE vAlEnTiNe

1. sushi and other deliciousness for a valentine lunch at the kyoto.

2. my valentine present from marcus.  yes, it's a lion, and it's over a foot tall, and i LOVE it.  I am obsessed.

3. lots of loves from the tiny guy.

4. happy valentines from our blurry faced family.

A Follow Up Post

First of all, I've had a few comments after my "In a Rut" post.  So I have to say -- I love my life.  Really, honestly, I do.  I am not depressed, and didn't mean to come across that way, if I did.  I think I live a charmed life.  I stay home with a sweet little baby and get to do fun things all the time.  I am married to a perfect for me guy.  That's not to say we don't have our own challenges, but we live a pretty simple, wonderful life.

People have also asked for pictures of Asher in his gray and white outfit that he was wearing when he was mistaken for a girl.  So here they are.  

I was given this outfit as a baby gift from a friend.  I still think the outfit is darling.  And I will be dressing him in it regularly.  It also has a gray hoodie that goes with it and that definitely makes it look more masculine, but I love it without it too.

There you have it.  Not too girly at all!

6 Months Old

Asher is six months old!

I cannot believe that this little guy is half a year old!  He is getting so big and doing so much.  I would have never guessed that at 6 months old he would have such a definite personality!  Asher is so busy and such an intense, fun little boy. 

At Six months:

Weight: 15 pounds 8 ounces (20 percentile)**
Height: 25.75 inches (40 percentile)
Head: 17 (50 percentile)

Asher Loves:

-Eating.  So far he has loved everything we've given him and we can't shovel it in fast enough.  He has tried rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, avocado and bananas.

-Rolling.  He is a rolling machine and can get just about anywhere he wants to with this method.  (Even if it takes him a really long time.)  He is a little wiggle worm and it is already hard to keep him still while changing his diaper or his clothes.

-Attention.  He just constantly demands attention.  He will be grumpy or screaming until you look at him, and then he bursts into a huge grin.  At church or running errands he will make all kinds of noises to get people to look at him.

-Sitting Up.  He does pretty well on his own but we have to be careful because he will still topple over. It gives him so many more options and he can see what is going on and play so much easier.

-Giving kisses.  It is so cute, he just opens his mouth wide and slimes you.

-Throwing.  He throws things on the floor over and over again for as long as you will keep handing it back to him.

-Mom and Dad.  He sometimes gets little nervous of other people and definitely is most comfortable with mom or dad at least in the same room as him.

-Water.  Out of his sippy cup, a normal cup, and especially out of a straw.

-His exersaucer.  Especially if you are sitting near him and giving him attention while he plays. 

-Reaching.  For my hair, earrings, necklaces, or just anything that he can reach up and grab.

-Making noise.  He is such a loud baby and screams all the time.  He also loves to just babble like crazy and does it in a softer, almost sad voice.  He'll do it while sitting and just put his arms all the way out wide and babble, babble, babble.  

Asher Hates:

-Lotion.  He hates when we lotion him after bath time.

-Getting dressed.  He screams and screams until we are done.

-Being left alone.  If you sneak away and he doesn't notice you're gone, he's fine, and definitely capable of entertaining himself with toys, rolling around, etc.  But if he watches you walk away he cries to get you to come back in the room.

-A Bottle.

-Watching us eat.  He gets so frustrated if we are eating and he doesn't get any.  Going out to eat is a challenge because he just grunts and reaches for our food, drinks, or anything he could get his hands on, and gets more and more upset if he doesn't get anything.

**Asher has gone from 80th, to 50th, to 20th percentile in weight from two months, to four months, to six months.  We've been worried he hasn't been getting enough milk but since he won't take a bottle we haven't been able to supplement with formula.  He needs more so I think we're going to have to stop nursing so that he is forced to take a bottle.  This might be a rough week.**  

See last month here.