Well, can you tell we're getting close to one year of weekly pictures? We keep getting things posted later and later :P Asher is continuously active, with his most recent affinity for climbing the stairs. Whenever he gets a moment, he loves to make a b-line straight for the stairs, so we're always on watch. We also purchased a gate for the top of the stairs, because he loves to make a b-line for the top of the stairs too. However, he doesn't climb down the stairs, he just makes an attempt to fly down them. His speed is still now match for ours, but I feel much better having that gate in place.
Here's his picture for the week, with him enjoying a book. He loves to have us read to him, and he loves to "read" to himself, though he generally ends up with the book upside down :)
Enjoy!
Birthday next week! We're looking forward to having family around and we'll be sure to post plenty of pictures.
It's been a busy start to the week already, so we're getting this one out late. Asher is continuing to develop, with improved crawling, taking steps while holding on to us, scooting backward into a sitting position, and continued babbling. A new joy for me as I come home from work is his reaction when he first sees me walk in. I really want to get a video of it, so we'll see what we can do.
Here's our boy, with his harvest overalls on.
And a couple more for good measure.
Here's an overalls comparison. I know what you're thinking, but yep, it's the same kid.
Well, another busy week has yielded another late post, so sorry! Asher continues to get bigger and bigger, and look like more and more of a little boy. Enjoy :)
Well, it's been a crazy week this past week, but it's also been a week of milestones for Asher. We've been fortunate enough to catch these on video, so here they are:
Last weekend we felt that Asher really started to find his voice. As such, he's gaining volume, but it's super cute.
Also, one that was somewhat unexpected last weekend was Asher mimicking us by clapping.
And this weekend, Asher has been working on gaining mobility. I got to experience it tonight as he tried to pull up on Meagan.
Can't wait to see what he pulls out of his hat next!
This weekend was the wedding of Meagan's sister Bethany, and it was a wonderful, beautiful event. Many congratulations go out to the newly wedded couple, who I'm sure are now having tons of fun on their honeymooon. This was Asher's first wedding, and much to my relief he fell asleep right before the ceremony started, and woke up to the applause after the announcement of the couple. Perfect timing to say the least. We'll try to scrounge up some pictures from the weekend. No guarantees.
Anyway, without further ado, here's the picture of the week. This kid is a blast.
In other news, Asher is now clapping too. We've got a great video that we'll post soon.
A while back I had promised a collage version of our weekly pictures (as requested by my mom, and inspired by our friend Bethany in her blog Sawdust and Embryos). I finally got that done last week, but I'm just now getting it up. It sure is fun to see him grow before your eyes :)
Also, I put together a couple pictures I took of him in his pumpkin hat from aunt Bethany. The first was taken at about a day old, and the other at almost 6 months. I may have to try and get him squeezed into it at a year! (or just stick it on top of his head, Abu-style)
For a little while now, we've been intending to upload a couple of older videos that are fun. I'm finally getting around to it, so enjoy.
Asher's babbling has taken a fun turn. He now repeats consonants, mainly the letter D, in strings. As you can well imagine, this brings me quite a bit of joy :)
He's also taken quite well to his little jumper, and is just the cutest thing to see.
It's just fun to see him progress. Still not crawling yet, but he sits like a champ, and is eating his mushy foods really well. Each thing in its own time.
Today's picture features Asher and his love of his feet!
And he's flexible in a funny way :)
In other news, yesterday when we got home he rolled from his tummy to his back for the first time! He had done it from his back to tummy, but not the other way around. This is especially great because he's not a big fan of being on his tummy :)
So Asher was showing me a thing or two with the AR-15 (you know, one inch groups at 200 yards)
when he was like "ok dad, enough for today. let's hit the movies!". As a reward I let him drive, but his legs are just too short to reach the pedals. We found a workable solution and were on our way.
We hit the drive-in at about 6:45 to stake out our spot, where we hung out until the movie started (the Avengers).
I'd tell you about how much he ranted and raved bout the film on the way back, but to be honest he didn't really even make it through the opening credits. Ahh, next time I guess.
We're in Rapid City for a visit with family and for my 10 year high school reunion. It has been Asher's longest car trip and farthest distance from home, and he did great. Grandma and Grandpa are loving having him (and us) here for the visit. I had intended to get the weekly picture done before leaving, but sadly we forgot. So we have a stand in chair courtesy of my parents. Enjoy!
We'll post more of our visit with granma and grandpa and aunt Lyndsey and uncle Brandon soon.
Today's picture features our spring chick in yellow on yellow. He just keeps getting bigger! By request, I'm working on a collage of his first 6 months of pictures for your enjoyment. Keep an eye out for it. We had a great weekend, with it being a 3-day weekend and Meagan's birthday! She'll update you on it soon.
And I just can't resist his squishy face pictures :)
Alright, we've got some catching up to do. Life's been nice and busy lately, somewhat taking priority over the posting. So here's a little catch up. My thought is that I'll go backwards chronologically. Hope that's cool with you.
Asher turned 5 months yesterday! I would include a cute little picture with a "5 months" picture slapped across his chest, but we just never bought those. Mainly because I didn't know where to look. Well, that was part of it. And wouldn't you know it, we don't have any pictures from yesterday. Or today. Good thing tomorrow is picture Tuesday.
Asher got sick again too, but this time, just a cold or something. Not sure what this kid has against staying healthy, but I'm going to have to talk some sense into him.
We got a high chair, which Asher now fits in. It's pretty fun to see him in it, and he's just all about playing when he's in it. It's a nice chair too. A big thanks goes out to the grandma's on Meagan's side of the family for that one :)
We aso celebrated Asher's first Easter, in Clarinda at grandma and grandpa Anderson's. We had some fun with them, as well as the cousins, aunts, and great grandma's!
Meagan, as always, was super excited for the Easter egg hunt...
..and so was Asher.
He was also a regular Picasso when it came to dying Easter eggs too. Here he is with one of his creations.
Okay, I may have helped a bit. But he was definitely there.
And finally, I give you the robin's nest that was built and occupied on one of our gutters. Here is the view from our bedroom window.
I was excited to document the goings-on of the nest and the little chicks that would soon hatch, but sadly they disappeared one day. I honesly don't know where they went. There were no shells down below as clues. I did see a squirrel running around with a tiny frying pan, but I have no concrete evidence.
So that's all for now, though I've got another video I want to load of this new thing Asher has been doing lately. No, it's not tap dancing. Yet. I'll post it soon.
Asher is an absolute delight to us, awake and asleep. He doesn't give us much trouble, and we're working on getting sleep patterns figured out. Lately, one thing we have really been able to enjoy with our video monitor is him waking up. He now wakes up in the morning happy and chatty. It is seriously fun to watch and listen when he wakes up. I caught it on video the other day, and figured I would share. He was still in the swing sleeping slightly reclined after his hospital stay and drainage stuff. Enjoy!
If any of you are thinking about getting a video baby monitor for your little one, I HIGHLY recommend it. They are simply awesome.
On Thursday Asher developed a bit of a cough. We didn't think a whole lot of it, but last night it got progressively more mucousy and thick, and today Meagan thought he was running a bit of a fever. We're in Clarinda, but we called Marshalltown first nurse, and she thought it would be a good idea to take him in to get checked out, which meant a trip to the emergency room. Once there, they did some tests to check him out.
Tests not seen would be looking into his little ear, listening to his chest, and sticking a swab pretty darn far up his little nose. Not sure, but there may have been a bit of gray matter on the tip when it came out. Needless to say, he was not pleased.
The outcome of these inspections/tests is that he not only has an ear infection in each ear, but he also has RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus). Sooo, he had a nebulizer treatment at the hospital, which we'll continue at home along with saline/suction and antibiotics.
But even sick he's got a pretty good temperament. He went to a baby shower this morning, and has been generally happy and chatty for most of the day.
We'll continue to monitor him, and hopefully he kicks this thing pretty quickly, because it just isn't very fun to be sick.
We'll post more about the weekend and the baby shower later. Keep Asher in prayer!
Sorry we're a bit late on the weekly picture today, it's been busy and we've tried to enjoy the gorgeous weather! We'll update more in the next couple days.
We have been waiting with great anticipation for the day when Asher would finally start laughing. He has been so close for what seems like a really long time. Well today we can say for certain that Asher is now a laughing baby. It is music to our ears, and we love every little sound he is making. We were even fortunate enough to get some of it on video. Please excuse my wierdness. Asher thinks it's funny.
And I don't know why this one turned blurry at the end...
And finally, short, but oh so sweet.
Hope you enjoyed the montage. Find something to laugh about too.
In the womb Asher enjoyed kicking, as far as we could tell. Whether it was Meagan's bladder, kidneys, or the outer walls, he was active. We're now getting to see that activity in him each day, but more and more under his own control. He isn't doing much self directed grabbing with his hands yet, but we get to see him figure various things out on a pretty regular basis.
Well our little heart breaker turned 12 weeks on this, his first Valentine's day. Much to the chagrin of all the lovely ladies out there, he helped me take his mom out on a date. We'll write up on that tomorrow, since the night is not yet finished. Here's his weekly photo op.
...aaand he's just not quite ready to sit up completely by himself yet...
