Careful...

...I bite!  Well, he now has the potential to, at least! :) 

Yes, Asher has finally gotten his first tooth.  Well, I say "finally" because he's into his 9th month, but in all reality, I've been just fine with those toothless gums!  :)  We can see it and feel it, but it's not really visible in pics yet... so don't strain your eyes.  It's only about a tenth of an inch out of the gums.  :) 

Asher's running pretty much right on the text book schedule with the large motor skills... not early, not late... though we've said it once, we've said it a hundred times, that we think he's workin' on the verbal stuff first, and is doing pretty awesome with the small motor skills...  Anyway, here's the highlights of the week: 

1.  The tooth.
2. He started actually sucking on his sippy cup...after giving it to him at every meal, every single day for the last three months only to have him just chew on the darn thing... we're singing hallelujahs over this one!
3.  Today he made his first attempt at forward motion crawling... we thought he might skip that stage entirely, since he's hated tummy time most of his life and has been pulling up on furniture for over a month... but alas, it seems he might still crawl after all.  :) 

Anyway... here's the pic of the week @ 9 months, 1 week.  Such a joy!

And I'm off...!  Can't take my eyes off this kid for a second anymore when he's in this chair... he was almost on his feet leaning off the chair before I got to him!  All boy for sure.  :)

 

#Meagan

What a difference 9 months makes.

Asher is celebrating nine months today (yesterday... it just didn't get finished), and I was reflecting a little on what a huge difference nine months makes. "Huge" is a bit of an understatment. :)

5 months

8  months

9 months!

We planned to go on a cruise in March of 2011... before starting a family.  Then, we found out I was pregnant the day before we left for the cruise... pretty great reason to celebrate!  Here's a profile of myself from that trip - for comparison (1 month pregnant?).  :)  Yeah... Eric volunteered me to go up on stage during a comedy show.  Granted he thought he was volunteering himself... but let's get back to the point here... seriously, wow, nine months!   

 

So on to Asher's first nine months of life... (or is it his second nine months?)   
       We re-created some pictures from when he was just a few days old....   

To today.   He has now been out in the world as long as he was in my belly. :) 

Growing baby... shrinking mommy!!!!   Woo hoo on that latter point!

 

 

I can't believe how much can happen in nine months. From pretty much being able to do nothing but lay around like a cute little lump... our little boy can now sit up on his own. Entertain himself for 20 minutes playing with toys, picking them up, switching them between hands.  Pull up on furniture. Roll around the living room.  He's trying his darndest to crawl.  He can eat real food, drink from a cup.  He can mimic our actions.  He can clap, wave bye-bye, and turn the pages in a book.  He says mama and dada, and a whole bunch of other jabbering noises.  He smiles, and laughs, and has his own sense of humor.  He cracks himself up everytime he sneezes or someone else sneezes.  He loves when daddy is home in the morning on the weekends and can hardly contain his excitement when he gets home from work.  He loves to jump when supported, and makes himself bounce when he's sitting on something soft.   Eric even thinks he's starting to take some steps. 

It's truly a miraculous wonder and miracle of God that in 9 months a baby can grow from being smaller than this dot (.) to the 10 lb giant in my belly, and then again from an adorable little lump to an inquisitive, interactive, jabbering, mobile little boy. 

I can't even go to the bathroom anymore without him getting into mischief, which is what I was innocently (and quickly) doing the other day and came back to this.  Umm... pulling up on a drawer... not exactly safe, buddy.   As he pulled up, the drawer came out, plopping him back down on the ground.  But he was still trying to stand up with it in this precarious postion!  Thankfully it didn't come all the way out and smack him in the face!!!

I'm not sure when our baby turned into a little boy, but this picture from a couple weeks ago, continues to amaze me!  He just all of a sudden got big. 

 

 

All I have to say is, Wow, nine months!  What a difference such a short amount of time can make!

Happy nine months, Asher!   We love you!

 

#Meagan

Sleepy boy

We decided to take our weekly pictures first thing this morning.  He was happy as a lark, but it still took a while to get this smile...

Most of the first few pictures we took looked more like this... just not quite awake yet. :)  Makes me laugh every time I look at it!  :)  

Anyway, we're thrilled that it's finally cooling down.  There were very few days in July when we wanted to brave the heat and venture outdoors.  So we're definitely soaking up the cool mornings and getting out for walks and to just laze in the yard!  It got down to the 40s here in the early morning hours and the house this morning was pretty cool so we got dressed all snuggly-like.  Welcome early fall!  But I doubt we'll get to leave the sweatshirts on too long... it is still August in Iowa after all. :) 

Asher is going to be nine months tomorrow!  I continue to remain in disbelief over how fast time is going, how big he is getting, how fast he is growing.  BUT with that, he's just continued to be more fun everyday - since the day he was born, I think! :)   We just get to see more of his little personality and he is more interactive all the time! I'll give you a more thorough update on him tomorrow though.  I've got a nine month blog post idea in the works!  So you'll just have to wait until then! :)

Happy Tuesday!

#Meagan

The State Fair, part 2

We LOVE using the park and ride to the state fair.  We park downtown in a nice shaded uncrowded parking garage, hop a two dollar (round trip!) bus that delivers us to the fair gate and returns us from the fair gate to our car, no walking, no fighting crowds to park... it's great!  Asher was pretty enamored with his first bus ride and to be in a moving vehicle without being in his car seat.  

Eric and Asher strolling through the fair.



Asher loved watching the baby chicks!

He also loved petting the baby goat.  Sooo soft!

He also enjoyed seeing turkeys, cows, and sheep.... and, of course, the butter cow!

I was not so excited about going to the fair this year, we've been there the last three, and I'd seen it all for awhile.  But Eric thinks it's an annual thing, and after we went, I'm starting to agree, because I hadn't thought about how much fun it would be for Asher to see the animals and everything!  It's just going to be more fun every year as he gets older and can express himself more!  So I guess we can go every year... at least for now.  :)
  
#Meagan

Asher, The Talented... a.k.a. The State Fair, Part 1

We had NO idea our son was so talented... or so sneaky!

Who knew he raises turkeys,

"Yeah, that's right..."

"Whoa, I look awesome in that previous pic!"

 cows,

"It's soo heavy, mom!"

cartoon pigs, too???... daddy knew, I guess,

"Uhh... sorry, I didn't tell you., mom."

...well, I admit I knew he was in FFA...,

but I had NO idea he was a bee keeper too!

"I LOVE keeping bees!"

Yeah, our son is pretty awesome!  Way to go buddy!

"arghhh"

Okay, Okay... we'll have the serious pics up tomorrow... or maybe later today.  But check back because there's some truly adorable pics of him seeing and petting animals for the very first time!  So many firsts for him at the fair. :)  We really had a blast with him!

#Meagan 

Crazy day

It's a crazy day 'round here so this is going to be short. 

For one, we were at the State Fair yesterday (which was super fun and we got some awesome pics that I'll share tomorrow!) but it always throws my week off a bit when we're gone on a Monday. Things that I usually do on Monday (like laundry and grocery shopping) don't get done and disasters happen... like no clean undies.... oops :)  Sorry if that was too much infomation.  But there was definitely some speed laundry going on this mornin'!   

Secondly, we started a simple project this weekend that I thought might take an hour that morphed into a much larger project that's cluttering my entire upstairs and which I'm STILL trying to wrap up.  Why does that always happen with my projects???

Thirdly, we're hosting our bible study tonight, so I'd better get back to tidying the house and folding laundry so people don't have to sit on the piles of clean clothes that are all over our couch! 

So, anyway, here's Asher's pic of the week - check that off the super long to-do list for the day!  I know I'll appreciate having these pictures in the long run, and most the time I love taking them, but some Tuesday mornings (like this one) it feels like just one more thing to do!  Though he's as adorable as always...

Can't wait to share our pics from the fair so be sure to check back tomorrow!!!

#Meagan

My new fave... storytime!

Reading books with Asher is a new fave of ours. We've made it part of our routine before bed and sometimes before naps.  He snuggles up and actually looks at the book most of the time... and my favorite thing of all - at 8 1/2 months, he actually turns the pages for me!  Eric got in on the fun last night, and I just couldn't not post this adorable picture of my boys.

#Meagan

Mobile Baby

Well at 8 1/2 months our baby is finally mobile.  He recently decided he was no longer content to just sit stationary all day.  We're super excited he's learning and developing, but now that the day is here we're also starting to understand why everyone told us to enjoy he pre-mobile days.  :)

You may have seen the video Eric posted last week of him starting to pull up, but since then, he's also gotten up on his knees, and actually -yes, Asher (who has always HATED tummy time) - rolled ALL the way across the living room floor to get to daddy. :)  He's pulling up on more things everyday and is getting closer to crawling too! 

Such a blast.  :)  

Happy Tuesday!

#Meagan

Music to my ears...

Asher was being somewhat frustrating to me this afternoon, not for any big reason other than he was getting a little over tired and wasn't really cooperating with the going to sleep business, plus the fact that our lunch was boiling over and Eric was in the shower didn't help... but then as things were settling down, I heard for the very first time - "ma ma." And every crazy moment of the day was worth it. :)

Now I know he wasn't probably talking to me, just babbling like he always does, BUT it was the first time he's EVER made the "m" sound and it wasn't ma ma ma ma ma... it was just "mama". Anyway, just wanted to record this little moment in history... or well on the blog at least. :)

  Here's a few pics of our sweet boy from the last few weeks...










#Meagan