asher's first birthday

We had the best weekend. Friday night after work we drove up to Virginia to celebrate Asher's first birthday. Asher had so much fun.

Here he is bright and early on his birthday morn.

We decided to get his very first haircut on his birthday. Just in time too. 4 people in the last two weeks had called him a girl.

Those are the before shots.

His first sucker helped him stay still (for the most part).

The after picture.

Daddy and the birthday boy.

His cake survived the journey up from North Carolina. Also, it was my first attempt with fondant and I think it turned out ok for a complete novice. Thanks to the cake master my Aunt Candy who consulted!

Mom and the birthday boy.

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

Not quite sure what to do...

He figured it out.

He received many great presents from everyone!

Asher and Chloe had a great time playing together. Chloe showed him the ropes including the fun that is Grandma's spice cabinet.

After Asher's party we celebrated Cara and Quinn's birthday. I don't have any pictures of that because my camera died, but Cara captured it perfectly on her blog. Check it out here.

Thank you everyone for helping make Asher's first birthday so special!

go go go

There are moments (like this very second) where I feel like I gave birth to the energizer bunny. Asher is non-stop. There are very few still moments with him. One comes first thing in the morning. After we get him out of the crib he will lay with us in bed and drink his bottle. I love this time. As soon as the milk is gone the moment is over. He usually will throw the bottle at his Dad's face to signify he is done and then play time begins. It rarely stops. Getting a diaper and clothes on him is a exercise in distraction. From the moment I put him on the floor to diaper him up he is off and the chase is on. I'm usually exhausted by the time he is finally dressed. And to make matters worse he seems to be resisting his morning nap with all his might. I read in my sleep book bible (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child) that 17% of 12 month olds have dropped their morning nap. I fear we are going to be part of this statistic. It really wouldn't be so bad except that will mean that I no longer have his morning nap as a time to bathe and dress myself.  I still haven't come up with a good solution to this problem.

Happy Birthday!

My wonderful husband turned 29 years old today. One more year and I will no longer be the lone adult in their thirties in our family. Quinn needed to work late tonight so we celebrated early this morning (hence why I did not pose in any pictures).

Asher was super excited.

Asher also got in some good unwrapping practice for his big day next week!

Happy Birthday Quinn! Asher and I love you!

first "hike"

We took Asher on his first "hike" on  Saturday. Ok, it was really more of a nature walk in a park but he loved it nonetheless. We were going to go for a walk with him in his stroller but then we found this trail and decided to explore.

He spent most of his time on his Dad's shoulders.

In other mischevious Asher news on Sunday he was bound and determined to retrieve the measuring cups from the top level of the dishwasher, but he couldn't reach. Then he figured out that he could stand on the door of the dishwasher and everything was suddenly within reach.

He was pretty proud of himself.

all grown up

Do you remember this post? I remember being so excited when I bought that little suit. Dana had told me that it was so hard to find good church clothes for boys so that if I ever came upon a great deal to snatch it up even if it is too big because eventually they will grow into. So I've had that suit since October 2008 when I was 5 months along and he finally wore it to church yesterday.

Isn't he so handsome? I can't believe how fast time has gone by and that he can wear it I can't believe he is turning 1 this month.

I just smiled everytime I looked at him with his little suit coat on crawling on the floor at church yesterday.

primping and mess making

I've talked about Asher's obsession with my hair brush before. It has reached a new level. He now goes to find and it and brushes his own hair with it. It is adorable.

These were taken first thing this morning hence the bed head.

In other news, I'm still feeling under the weather. So this afternoon, I just let Asher loose while I tried to stay awake on the couch while watching Persuasion.

(notice the scene right before Louisa stupidly falls in Lyme)

He made a huge mess and I have no intentions of cleaning it up anytime soon.

my valentines

I was lucky enough to have two Valentines this year. Aren't they handsome?

I love them both very much!

Asher has been sick since Thursday. This is the first time he has ever really been sick and it broke my heart. He is on the mend now. Last night he finally slept peacefully. The last few nights we could hear him moaning and tossing and turning all night long. Now he just has the remnants of a cough and a runny nose but is back to his jovial self.

Because he was sick, Asher and I were pretty much homebound since Friday. I had intentions of doing my shopping for Valentines Day on Friday but never got around to it. So Saturday I asked Quinn to go out and pick up a little stuffed animal so we could give it to Asher. You know those $1.99 stuffed animals you can pick up at Wal-Mart or Walgreens? Well, instead Quinn came back with a bear as big as Asher.

Asher loves it! He plays with it and wrestles with it and thinks it is the best thing ever.

private

We were private for a few days. Sorry for the confusion it caused some people. A link to our blog was posted on a gaming forum discussing Quinn's former company. I went private until traffic on the thread died down. I think all is well now.

a new toy for Asher

We all went to the grocery store today to stock up for the week. While I was busy getting milk, Quinn found a SunnyD display and found an empty box. He promptly put Asher in the box. He then proceeded to carry him around the entire store while still in the box. He joked to everyone who commented on it that there was a great deal on babies on aisle 7. He even put him on the conveyor belt at the checkout stand. The cashier played along and said she couldn't ring him up because he is priceless. 

The box is now a new toy and Asher had tons of fun playing in it at home.

sophisticated palate

Turns out Asher has a pretty sophisticated palate. I will try foods with him thinking there is no way he will like them and he does. He begs for anything I am eating. Often times I give him a taste thinking he will dislike it and this will stop him from whining, but usually he just wants more.

For instance, just now I was feeding him some dinner of sweet potatoes, green beans and crackers and I was munching on some dried cranberries. He soon became disinterested in his food and wanted mine. So I put one on his tray thinking he would promptly spit it out given its tartness. Not so. He begged for more. He ate a big handful of them before I finally put a stop to it.

Another example happened last week when I made some roasted winter vegetables consisting of brussel sprouts, parsnips and potatoes for our dinner. I didn't offer any initially to Asher because I thought he wouldn't like them. I was very wrong. He begged to have some and then promptly devoured every last brussel sprout I put on his tray (and that was a lot).

But if you think Asher is a food snob, he is not. He also knows how to keep it real. Just today he had his first meal of Easy Mac. A true rite of passage for all children.

snowed (iced) in

We haven't left our house since Friday evening.  We have had  a pretty big storm here and they say the roads are terrible. We have enjoyed spending most of the time in our pjs and just playing with Asher. This morning (since church was cancelled) we bundled up Asher and took him outside to enjoy his first North Carolina snow storm.

 

  

  

  

  

notice Quinn's feet, after snow then sleet plus really cold temps the snow is frozen solid and you can pretty much walk right on top of it

incommunicado

Our cell phones have suffered a set of unfortunate setbacks and alas we are without any sort of phone in our house. First, I left Quinn's phone in the Cincinnati airport a couple of weeks ago. That is what happens when you have a 5 hour layover. You lose track of things and somewhere along the lines I must have set his cell phone down somewhere and not picked it back up. Someone did find it and called my phone to tell me they had it and asked for our address, but alas we never actually got it back.

We had not been to the cell phone store yet to get a new one because, let's face it, going to that store is torturous and I think on some level we were hoping for a miracle.

Then yesterday, my cell phone finally succumbed to Asher's slobber. I know I shouldn't let him play with the phone but he just whines for it and eventually I give in. So it bit the dust yesterday. The screen went black. It resurrected for a brief moment yesterday before it died again. So now we have no phones. No way of talking to anyone. Well, except for IM, Facebook, email, and Skype of course. But that is it.

Hopefully we will go get new phones this weekend. This will also mean we will probably have to get local numbers now. I hate having to switch numbers. Such a pain.

10 months!

Asher is 10 months old today!! He is getting so big. We went to the doctor last week and his stats are as follows:

Weight: 20 lbs 1 oz (45%)
Height: 28 1/2 inches (60%)

He loves food. He can eat and eat. He had spaghetti for the first time the other night and LOVED it just like his dad. He has also tried filet mignon (we ate at The Outback when we had 5 hours to kill in the Cincinnati airport) and loves that too just like his mom! He will still eat baby food but also loves table food. He loves crackers, string cheese, gold fish, graham crackers. He loves loves loves yogurt. If he just sees you get it out of the fridge he goes into total freak out mode. He has finally mastered the sippy cup, which I am very excited about and since he HATES formula our pediatrician gave us the go ahead for introducing whole milk to him in the next month.

This picture was taken while he was enjoying a delicious birthday lunch of crackers, cheese, and pears and blueberries!

He is getting his top teeth in right now and this makes him very tired. He has started taken three naps a day. Obviously I don't mind this little development at all. He is really the greatest little sleeper now (hallelujah!) He goes down around 7:30 and we don't here a peep from him until around 7 am.

He is still extremely fun-loving and happy all the time. He just loves to laugh and play.

He has the layout of the house down now and just crawls wherever he wants.

His favorite toy is his high chair. He crawls to it, pulls himself up and then basically uses it as a walker and scoots it all over the kitchen/dining area. He can do this for hours and often does while I'm busy in the kitchen making dinner.

He has a fascination with brushes. He crawls to my bathroom drawer and pulls out my brush and just loves to play with it. My powder brush is also a favorite of his. He even knows where his brush is and gets it out all the time to play with it.

His balance is getting better but he still doesn't really let go while standing but I think this will happen soon.

Yesterday we tried swings for the first time at the park and they didn't go over so well. We will have to work on that one.

He is handsome as ever and we could not love him anymore then we already do!

ringing in the new year

2009 brought our family many blessings...a new baby, a new job, a new state and a new home. We were very blessed and are excited to see what 2010 will bring us. Hopefully a little less change then last year!

Asher had a great time ringing in the New Year (well, until about 8 pm anyway)

 The rest of us kept partying until about 12:05

 

 

christmas morning

Sorry for so many posts in a row but I'm trying to catch up.

The kids woke up around 7 am...ok, I think actually Quinn and I woke up and then we woke up the kids but either way we all got up around 7 to see what Santa had brought. He did not dissapoint.

Asher was happy with his gifts from Santa.

 But also kept a look out to see if anyone else had something better.

The babes enjoyed playing together

We had a lovely breakfast of a sausage breakfast strata and monkey bread and waited for Cameron and Ashley to arrive (they flew in that morning).

Once they arrived we opened presents. We started with the kid tree first.

Marshall was surrounded with many gifts but luckily Mallory was there to help him.

Asher enjoyed opening gifts as well.

After we took care of the kids we migrated over the the adult tree.

I got Quinn a new wedding band since his old one doesn't fit, but he didn't like it so we exchanged it the next day for one he did like.

I loved my new Uggs from Quinn and they are coming in very handy right now during this extremely cold time in NC.

Asher was loving all the boxes and paper...a child's playland.