Ash - 11 months!

Can you believe I'm almost a year old!?  I'm such a big boy :)  I'm wearing mostly 12 mo clothes with just a few 9 mo things still mixed in.  I'm so excited to start passing my clothes (back) to Aunt Lindsey for the baby boy growing in her belly; I got most of them from her after Elijah had outgrown them.  When momma measured me today I weighed 16.6 lbs (1st %) and am 29.25" tall (47th %).

Momma finally got smart and put me on the floor with a book to keep me safe & still for pictures

It has been a busy month around here!  When Nanoo came to visit, I was very sick with roseola (also known as 3-day fever), but got better in time for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family.  Unfortunately momma forgot to take any pictures of me and Nanoo, so you'll have to wait till next month after we get some at Christmas.

As you can see, I've blossomed in the tooth department.  I went from one to six in just over a month.  Whew, glad that's done for now.  Since I've got more teeth now, momma's letting me eat more and more finger foods.  Here's a picture of me having my first "big boy meal" with no puree, just eggs and pears and waffles.

I've also been working on getting up and around.  I love to cruise the furniture or pull up to standing so I can reach things that used to be too high for me to grab.  I finally figured out which cabinets are unlocked in the kitchen and love emptying them out and playing with the pots and pans while momma cooks food for us.  Sometimes I even climb into the empty cabinet. 

This was before I opened and emptied the other side too!

I've also had a couple brave moments in the past couple weeks that momma just barely caught on camera - pardon the blurry quality.  I climbed up a couple stairs one day last week, and this weekend I let go and turned around at the couch : look, ma, no hands!!  

I've also been working on my verbal skills.  I've had an obsession with clocks most of the month, and I make momma laugh when we're anywhere and I point at a clock and "tick tock".  I found one on a book at the library and momma told me that's a small clock you wear on your wrist called a watch.  I'm gonna have to get one of those when I get older!  In addition to my "tick tock", I've also been working on lots of other words.  Sometimes I get the sounds right and sometimes I don't, but it's fun to try.  I've been reading a lot of books to build my vocabulary too; it's been one of my favorite past-times in conjunction with naming everything I can.  Momma even put a couple big books in my toy basket for me to play with anytime I want since they're too big for me to get to my mouth.

Look, momma; I LOVE bananas!

Last week Rylee-girl stopped coming to stay with us (she has a nice aunt who wants to take care of her now), so momma and I had lots of time to see friends and run errands.  Wednesday was the Christmas party at daddy's work, so momma and I went to hang out and eat with them.  Some of the ladies had funny hats they let me try on.  I really liked looking at myself in the mirror with those silly antlers on my head.  It was a fun time and I got passed around to lots of the folks daddy works with.

Then on Friday, momma's friend Mindy came to visit.  She used to live here and moved away a month before I was born, so I was excited to meet her.  Unfortunately we waited till it was past nap-time to take pictures, so I was too tired to give a really good smile by then.  Also, I went Saturday night with momma to walk around the neighborhood and look at Christmas lights.  I have ALWAYS loved lights, but since we're traveling this year momma only put up one little decoration that lights up.  She said next year maybe we'll have a tree with lights on it and possibly even lights on the outside of the house too; that sounds fun!!

So that's been my month.  Busy and full of development.  And the upcoming month is going to be even busier!!  We're leaving Friday to fly on an airplane to GA to spend a week with Lola & Granddad and Great Grandma & Great Grandpa.  Then we're going to drive to NC to spend a week with Nanoo & PopPop and Uncle John at the timeshare.  I might also get to see some other family and friends while we're there.  Then after a that crazy two weeks we'll hop back on an airplane to come home.  And by then I'll be less than 2 weeks from turning ONE YEAR OLD!  I can't wait to share pictures next month of all the fun I have between now and then.

Until next time... I'm watching you!!

Ash - 10 Months

(daddy had to come and pin me down so momma could get a picture of me!)

Today I am 10 months old!  Only two more busy months and I'll be turning a year old; can you believe it?  9 months old has been a fun age for me.  My dr visit went well and my measurements there were the same as momma's home measurements.  The doctor was happy with my growth and development, even though I'm not gaining tons of weight.  I'm still wearing 9-12 mo clothes and 12 mo pj's.  I have graduated from my sleep sack to fuzzy feety pajamas at night.

Oh, you wanted me to sit still for these photos?  HAH!

I was so excited to have my Lola come visit for a few days last month.  We had so much fun together, playing and snuggling.  She rocked me and sang to me, and she crawled around on the floor and played with me too.  What a fun grandma!  She also got me some cool new clothes.  Check out my dinosaur outfit!  I don't like wearing hats anymore and have figured out how to snatch them off, so momma had to be quick to get my picture before I got it off.  I also have a dinosaur hoodie that goes with the outfit for those really cold days.  

Developmentally I've been a busy bee.  Last time I wrote I'd just started crawling.  Let me tell you, it is FUN being able to get around!  I love to follow momma into the kitchen and "help" her cook dinner or do the dishes.  She moved my animal magnets onto the washer & dryer so that I wasn't in her way in front of the fridge, but that doesn't stop me from getting in the way anyway! :)  I love to open the the pots and pans cabinet and pull them out on the floor.  I also figured out how to stand up this month.  First I was just pulling up in my crib, but now I've figured out how to do it on the furniture too.  I haven't really started moving on my feet much, but you'd better believe I'll be walking before you know it.

Now that I'm moving around so actively, my parents have put up a few baby gates to keep me safe.  The box that gate came in is the coolest toy ever! (I really enjoyed the flattened dog food bag too, what a crinkle!)  My parents said they're not buying me toys for Christmas, just wrapping up boxes for me to unwrap and play with.  Momma could barely get a picture of me in the "my first halloween" outfit I wore Oct 31st b/c I wouldn't stop crawling around long enough to get a good one.  Yep, I'm on the move for sure!

My fine motor skills are also developing.  I LOVE to turn the pages when momma reads me board books.  I'll sit through double readings of half a dozen books before I get bored!  I've also started to figure out how to put things down.  Now I know that might seem like a simple thing to you folks, but everyone's gotta learn sometime!  I have fun moving food around my tray or dropping things in the precise place I want them.  I've been picking things up for a long time, but just never thought about how to let them go.  I've broken a couple sippy cups dropping them from my high chair too.  Whoops!

Laughing at my bored & OCD mom lining up my pears

Other than the visit from Lola, it's been life as usual.  Momma and I have had a couple Starbucks breakfast dates before we go grocery shopping, which we both love.  I enjoy grocery shopping for a while, but I need a toy to play with or something to distract me by the end of the trip.  Mom's gotten smart and started bringing things for me to do.  Check me out chillin' in the cart and playing with momma's travel mug.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner.  Now that I'm eating so much table food, I'm going to really get to enjoy most of what everyone else is eating.  And as if one visit from a grandmother wasn't enough fun for one season, my Nanoo's coming this afternoon!  She's going to stay with us till after Thanksgiving and spend some time hanging out with my cousin Elijah.  Well, I'd better run; we've gotta go pick her up at the airport soon.  See ya next month!

Ash - 9 months

Distracted by SuperBear!

Mom gave me this toy to keep me from diving off the chair...

It's the first time I've played with it, and I love it.

Can you believe I've lived 75% of my first year already?  I've been out of the womb for as long as I lived inside it.  And let me tell you, I'm loving my ability to grow and learn!  According to momma's measurements, I'm 28.5" long and 16.5 lbs.  This puts me in the 58th% for height and 3rd% for weight.  I'll get measured "officially" on Friday at my appointment, and I'll be a little longer and a little lighter, b/c that's how momma's measurements always compare to the dr's office.  I'm wearing 9-12 mo clothes and outgrowing my 9 mo pj's pretty quickly.

Learning how to sit myself up and thinking about crawling

So at my last appointment shortly after I turned 6 months old, I heard Dr Dawson say that I needed to be making forward movement by my next appointment (9 mos).  I realized last week that we were getting close, so I got busy teaching myself to crawl.  I spent one whole day learning how to sit up on my own, then a few days later I spent the whole day figuring out how to crawl.  One day of practice, and I've got it down!

The new DVD shelves, so now I can't reach the movies

Momma & daddy put up some new DVD shelves so I couldn't reach the movies and bought ottomans to hold their stuff since I was pulling on the tray tables.  They have to be careful to make sure everything is closed and picked up now, otherwise I'll get into it.  I love when Daddy leaves his cup on the floor or the remotes where I can reach them!  Momma went downstairs to the basement one day and by the time she came back up I was IN the pantry!  Loads of stuff to explore in there!

Momma stood me up so I could play with Rylee

I love playing with the dogs too

I'm such a happy boy that my parents know when something is wrong with me, and so they were worried when I wasn't myself last week.  Momma thought it might have been something she ate, so they were shocked to find a tooth popping through my gums.  Let me tell you, that sucker HURT!  But now I love experimenting with different things in my mouth.  I especially like putting hard toys in my mouth, and get a kick out of biting down on the spoon when momma feeds me.

The day I got my tooth I fell and busted my lip on it :(

Pumpkin pancakes!

Speaking of eating, I LOVE food!  My fine motor skills are so good, momma has started giving me all sorts of yummy finger foods to try.  Even though I just have a nub of a tooth, I love to eat chicken and veggies.  And here's where I take after momma - I LOVE french toast and pumpkin spice pancakes.  I can also finish 4-5 oz of baby food and STILL find room for a WHOLE pear. (Don't ask me why I'm not gaining much weight...)  Yum, yum!

My first Ritz cracker - yum!

Food has also got me started talking.  When I'm eating something I love, I tell momma "mahr, mahr" ("more, more").  I also like to wave hello, especially when I first wake up.  I get very excited and giggle and wave at the super heroes and SuperBear on my shelf, or the dogs on the floor.  I also wave to my buddy Rylee when I see her after a nap.  Another skill I have learned is kisses.  Mostly I give them to stuffed animals or my blanket that has teddies on it, but I've been known to give them to momma and daddy, the dogs and Rylee-girl too.  For some reason, daddy doesn't like my wet, open-mouth kisses, but momma loves them.

Giving SuperBear some kisses

Speaking of kisses, I can't wait to hug and kiss my Lola!!  She's coming tomorrow night to visit for a few days.  Momma & daddy keep telling me how spoiled I'm gonna be and how much she's gonna LOVE hanging out with me.  Unfortunately she's only going to stay for a few days before she goes to visit Aunt Christen & Uncle Jonathan and the cousins.  But we'll get to see her in a couple months when we go home for Christmas, so I only have to save up my lovin' till then.

Well, I've got a world to explore, so I'm gonna wrap this up.  Just wanted to check in and let you know that everything is going well here and I can't wait to share again next month!  Bye-bye.

Ash - 6 mo photo book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

We made a photo book on Shutterfly and sent a copy to Josh's grandparents who don't get on the computer and therefore have no access to all the pictures of Ash.  These may actually be the first pictures they've seen of him at all.  But since I was making it, I figured I'd share it with y'all too.  Enjoy these "old" pictures till next week when Ash turns NINE MONTHS! :)

Ash - 8 Months!

Can you believe it's been 2/3 of a year since my birthday?  I've been so busy growing and learning and developing my own little personality.  Today I am 27.875" tall and weigh 16 lbs according to our home measurements.  That puts me around 50th% for height and 5-10% for weight.  I'm wearing anywhere from 6-12 mo clothes, mostly 9 mo stuff. 

In my physical development, I've been focused mostly on fine motor skills lately.  I love to manipulate my toys, and I've gotten pretty good at picking up puffs and mixed veggies at meal times.  Fruit is slippery and still a little hard to figure out.  I haven't started crawling yet, but I can roll and spin my way across the room in seconds.  I also spent a couple days working on pulling my knees up under me, face down.  And today momma caught me inching forward towards a toy by rolling from side to side and pushing just a little with my knees.  So I'm not there yet, but I'm definitely working toward the goal of forward momentum, and will get it in no time.  Daddy and momma did some baby-proofing since I'm pretty mobile anyway.  Now the only thing in the living room I can get to that I shouldn't is the DVD's, which I like to do when no one's watching me.

Verbally I'm still having fun babbling, but I don't have too much interest in real words yet.  Momma keeps practicing signs with me, but I don't do any of them on my own yet.  I just let her know by my expressions if the words/signs she's using are what I want.  I love to listen to Rylee-girl talk all day; she can be super loud, but she's also got a cute whisper voice momma wants me to imitate instead.

Things with Rylee are going well.  We like to play together, and I love how she pulls toys off the shelves so I can reach them.  Most days we nap at the same time in the mornings, which is nice for momma.  One day silly mom tried to take us to the library for baby story time.  Not only did she have her hands full at the library, but neither one of us could stay awake for the car ride home.  So until we drop the morning nap, she gave up story time.  We just read books at home every day.

The weather is starting to turn cooler, and so I've gotten to spend a little bit of time outside.  Usually I'm in the stroller or the carrier, but one day we were at Mrs. Kari's house and I played in the grass.  We don't have this nice green stuff in our yard, but mom & dad are hoping to get some put in next spring.

I went through another sleepless nights phase this month and was quite the grump, but came out on the other side just as happy and easy as before.  I'm right back to sleeping through the night with only one feeding and taking good naps for the most part.  We had a couple rough days last week b/c my parents had some important errands to run during my nap time.  This weekend we spent most of the day Saturday at the Honda dealership, and with only 1 hr of nap I was pretty grumpy by the time we got home past my bedtime, but momma & daddy were excited to come home with new cars.  Today I got to take my first ride in momma's new Odyssey.

So, mostly this past month has just been day-to-day life, eating new foods and playing with Rylee-girl, and enjoying life.  I'm looking forward to more of the same in the coming month.  No visitors planned, just daily life and occasional play dates.

Ash - 7 Months

I turned 7 months old today.  Momma tried to take my picture and I just laughed at her and stuck out my tongue.  Okay, so eventually I cooperated, but she keeps talking about wanting to invest in an SLR so she can get shots even when I'm busy moving - which is most of the time!

Neener-neener

I've recently had a growth spurt b/c when momma measured me at home, I'm up an inch and a pound.  My height was 27.2" and my weight was 16.4 lbs, which means I'm still hanging out around 50% for height and 15-20% for weight.  Consistent; that's my middle name.  Okay, well really it's Logan, but you know what I mean :) I'm currently wearing mostly 9mo clothes with just a few 6mo and 12mo in the mix.

I've been eating more and more new things all the time.  I've got quite a range of fruits and veggies, and I'm working on trying some new grains and meats too (quinoa and barley and chicken, oh my!).  Some veggies I didn't like at first, but momma mixed them with some fruit and I started to learn to like them on their own eventually.

 

You know how last time I wrote, I wasn't sitting up yet?  Well a few days later I decided it was time, and I haven't looked back since!  I'm not kidding, one day I was tipping over and the very next day I was doing it all on my own.  

Can you find the baby in this picture?

I've also been very active in my physical development in other ways.  I'm not crawling yet, but I roll and spin all over the floor, and work on my push ups and "superman" so I'll be strong enough to start crawling when I decide it's time.  One day momma came in the room and I had pulled the liner out of my toy basket and gotten it flipped over on myself.  I love to explore everything around me.  

I like playing with the dogs' toys too

I've gotten better with my hands too.  I'm in the beginning stages of figuring out how to point my finger and use the elusive pincer grasp.  Momma's been letting me have a few puffs after meals to practice.  I also practice grabbing her hair or clothes or whatever she's got in her hands if she's holding me.

I've started to work on my verbal skills as well.  I can be found talking to myself or my toys or anyone who will listen.  I like to giggle at the dogs and the superheroes on the shelf in my room.  You'd be surprised how loud a little guy like me can be! 

 

One night while momma was finishing her shower, daddy decided to read me a bedtime story.  But if you know my dad, you know he couldn't pick a typical bedtime story.  He read me a couple stories out of his Scary Stories Treasury.  But you know what?  I loved it anyway, and I slept fine.

It's been an interesting month for sleep!  I've had growth spurts and teething fits and developmental leaps that made momma fear my regular schedule was a thing of the past.  But finally in the last week or so I've found my rhythm again, and I'm back to sleeping 7-10 hrs before waking just to nurse, making a grand total of 11-13 hrs/night. Momma finally finished my 2nd sleep sack.  She messed up the zipper and had to redo it, so it took her a while to find the time to work on it, but it's super cozy and super cute, don't ya think?

Also this month, momma and I took an impromptu road trip to Farmington, NM to visit with her friend Cassandra and her family.  It was a LOOOONG day in the car down there on a Tuesday and a LOOOONG day in the car back two days later on Thursday, but we made it.  We stopped for lunch in Pagosa Springs where daddy and momma had their honeymoon, at the McDonald's that was near their timeshare.  And let me tell you, I've never been so happy to see my home, my daddy, and my dogs!  I just laughed and smiled the whole night when we got home.

And the biggest change happened this week.  Momma got a job, which means I have a friend come to play 3-4 days a week.  She's a cute girl that's two months older than me.  She crawls and pulls up to standing already, and she's eating all sorts of finger foods.  It's exciting to see what I have to look forward to.  And I LOVE having someone to talk to during the day.  I'll have to ask her momma if it's ok for us to take a picture together for next month's blog post.  In the meantime, I'll leave you with a few pictures that Jordan took while she was here that didn't make it onto her blog.  If you haven't already checked it out, you should do that when you're done here!  http://www.jordanweilandphoto.com/

Me and Elijah

Chewing momma's shirt

We did a few pictures during my morning nursing session and Dexter decided to snuggle in too

Giggling and laughing at momma-tickles on the changing table