peepee in the potty

This is just to say YAY ASHER!! for his first pee in the potty chair!

We've introduced the potty chair, and he likes to sit on it and look at himself in the mirror that's currently sitting in the hallway outside the bathroom. But typically, he is up and out of it after sitting for about 2.2 seconds. That's fine, I'm not looking to do the potty training for real yet, this is just an orientation period.

Today I am home with him (I am off on Fridays all summer). He didn't give me much grief today about napping, which was a problem last week. He took a nice long nap after lunch, and when I went to change his diaper after he awoke, I noticed it was mostly dry. So I left the diaper off and walked him to the potty. I grabbed a book to keep him sitting. He was engaged in the book and about half-way through... I saw he had peed! I didn't even see or hear it when it happened, but there was a bowl full of yellow liquid. I stopped reading and cheered for him. He looked down and stuck his fingers in it (just a little). I grabbed some tp to take care of any drips and then had him wash up. After that, he watched as I poured the pee into the big potty and we said bye-bye as the flush went down.

I'm so happy, but I know this is a one-time deal for now. I don't have the time to be consistent and I don't expect my daycare provider to be just yet. As he gets older and his language continues to develop, I hope he will begin to communicate when he has the urge to go and we can be more consistent. But I'll take these moments as the come all the same!

it's pahty time!

Asher's been developing in leaps and bounds, from more teeth (canines) to language (understanding and tons more expressive words) to his first haircut!! (See Brent's facebook for pics, I will post some here eventually.)

For a little while, he has been saying the word "poopy" and then we discover he indeed has a poopy in his diaper. He doesn't seem to be bothered by it, though, and he still has full diapers overnight. But then more recently, he's been saying the word "potty" and pointing to the toilet. However, he is deathly afraid if we try to sit him on the big potty. Yesterday, we went ahead and bought a potty chair, because it can't hurt to get him introduced to it. We got the Bjorn potty chair, which is super cute, looking like a real toilet in all white. There are some whacky potty chairs out there, ones that make sounds and even look like thrones... weird. I like that this is just functional and claims to be ergonomic, to boot.

We got home late from the store and dinner, so I didn't get to set up the potty yet. I am working today and Asher gets a Daddy day. I get a text message at work about some "news," but I am busy, so I said to email me. This is what I get:

"So we were watching noggin, and asher got off the couch and went to the bathroom and sat on the potty in his diaper. so I said to him, lets take the diaper off, I took it off and he sat for a moment, then he ran out of the bathroom into the living room and pee'd on the floor."

LOL!! I love it. This potty training thing should be a real blast, haha. I haven't read too much about it yet, so if anyone has any tips or advice, especially about training boys to pee sitting vs. standing, please chime in!

It's Dancey Dance time!

Things have been good. Asher is growing so big, and his receptive language is booming. Not a lot of expressive words, but a few. He like to walk and run, and he likes to climb up stairs (but not down). He can climb down from the couch, but doesn't climb up onto it. He went through some crazy growth spurt a couple weeks ago where he was hungry ALL the time, but that seems to have subsided since he now seems satisfied after eating. He might start teething again soon (oh joy). I always get good reports from his daycare, I think he likes going there. I can't wait for the weather to get nicer so he can really enjoy the playgrounds around Boston. We also hope to do weekend hikes this summer and we got the ergo carrier so we can carry him on our backs.

And now, here is Asher's 5 second debut of super awesome cuteness dancing!!

more teeth

Asher is now cutting two bottom teeth, but I'm not totally sure if they are the canines or first molars. The top ones are molars for sure, so I would assume it would follow the same pattern on bottom, but who knows. I think it's kind of crazy when I really think about how humans grow teeth and then shed their teeth to grow new ones.

AND, I think we are almost totally weaning from breastfeeding! We'll see how the rest of the week goes. I am partly sad about ending the breastfeeding relationship, but my little boy is growing up!

Milk Teeth

I meant to keep track on this blog of the dates when Asher's teeth come in, but I've not been precise about it. Asher has had all of his incisors (central and lateral) for a little while now, and I think it was last week that his first molars started coming in. I definitely felt the top left molar because he was teething hard. This morning I was making Asher laugh on the diaper table and he opened up wide and I saw that BOTH first molars on the top have cut through! It's kind of weird to see because you see the points coming through on the lingual and buccal (cheek) sides with gum still in the middle. I don't think the bottoms are in sight yet, but it's hard to get Asher to let me (or anyone) see in his mouth.

Apparently baby teeth are sometimes called milk teeth. Speaking of milk... we've gone two nights without nursing! Once we established bedtime snack, I removed the breastfeeding and he seems fine with it! We will still enjoy the morning feeding for a little while longer.

Now, my nose detects a stanky diaper across the house!!

All I want for Christmas...

I said a few days ago that all I want for Christmas is for Asher to walk. And... he took his first for real steps today!! For Daddy, but I managed to come in and catch a few. He was reluctant to repeat the feat, but he did take some more steps, then he got tuckered out. I'm sure he'll soon get the idea that it's a lot faster to transport yourself on two feet than on all fours, and then we'll really be in trouble!

Also, (dunno if i posted about this) he cut one bottom lateral incisor a week or two ago, and today he is cutting the other bottom lateral incisor. That will make 8 teeth total! I think molars might come next, yikes!

Friday evening will be Asher's first airplane trip. It was supposed to be on Monday, but weather postponed our trip. I am hoping for an easy ride, we shall see.

Merry Christmas and Happy 4th night of Chanukkah!!

Stand Up!

I know I am not keeping up this blog regularly, but I really can't. I'm back in school and I just don't have the time. But I will post every now and then when something exciting happens that I want to document. Like how this evening, Asher stood up without holding on to anything! All by himself in the hallway, he went from sitting to standing, with only some minor wobbling. Then the next couple times he tried again he didn't quite make it, falling on his bum. But then he did again and we clapped and cheered. I am taking this as a sign that walking independently is only a short "step" away :)

In other news, I am sad to say that we found out Asher has a peanut allergy. This is somewhat distressing, since Brent and I both love peanutbutter. And it's a pain in the arse to read every label and worry that he might somehow eat something with peanuts or trace amounts in it by accident for his whole childhood. But, I suppose it could be worse, it's just something we have to learn to live with.

Big Changes

Next week I go back to school. I found a daycare for Asher, a nice Irish woman who's been running a home daycare for over 20 years. Today was his first day where I left him, for a half-day. I took the opportunity to do something for myself--I got a mani-pedi :)

Asher has been growing in leaps and bounds. He can get around like a pro, and he's "cruising"-- walking around the coffee table or along the couch while holding on. It won't be long before he's doing it hands-free, I'm sure! He's eating well, more variety of foods, and getting the hang of feeding himself finger foods (and he's not overly messy, which is a big plus). And just today, when we got back from daycare, I saw and felt that his first TOP tooth is cutting through! YAY! I've been able to see those top central teeth just under the gums for weeks already. I'm still breastfeeding, but I'm trying to get him to accept formula for the times he won't be with me. I'm still going to pump when I'm away from him, but I don't know if my output will be sufficient, hence the supplement. I did some research and decided on an organic formula called Baby's Only. It doesn't have the DHA & ARA added, but it does contain sufficient amounts of the precursor fatty acids that the body uses to produce DHA & ARA. Plus, Asher is still being breastfed, so I don't think it matters as much as for babies on formula alone. He's not a big fan of the formula, I haven't tasted it (although I DID taste some Nestle Good Start premixed liquid, and it was awful!!), but the smell is definitely different from the smell of breast milk, which doesn't have much smell at all. This will all be an adventure over the next couple of months!

This summer, Asher took a swim class at the BU FitRec gym. I will (one day) post pictures, I swear!! I haven't even touched the camera in weeks :( Next month, Asher will be in a Baby Gym class, so that should be FUN!

What else... I don't know, but I may not have much time to update as my semester gets into gear, so please don't bug me about posting ;)

uh-oh, here he comes!

Asher crawled for real!! He's been rocking back and forth on his hands and knees for weeks, but now he's really done it. The rug in his room helps, because he doesn't manage so well on the hard wood, especially if we have him on a blanket on the wood, which just slides around. But check him out in all his glory:

Teeth!

Asher cut the other central incisor already! Can you just imagine how cute he will be when his two front bottom teeth are showing in that beautiful smile?! :D

biting gremlin

Exciting news! On Wednesday, I felt that Asher cut his first tooth!! You can barely see it and he doesn't really let you open his mouth to look, but it certainly is there. It's the bottom left central incisor. I think it has even emerged a fraction more in the past couple days. He will looks so cute with teeth :)

He's also been making some higher pitched sounds lately. He sounds like a Gremlin sometimes, lol. He is also getting up on his hands AND KNEES and rocking back and forth. I think he only gets on his knees when he has something to push his feet against, like when he's in the playpen or something is next to him.

He continues to be the best baby ever when we are out at restaurants and parties.

Growing fast

I know it's been forever, and please don't kill me because this post isn't even going to contain pictures. But I just wanted to write a quick update.

Asher can rollover in a fraction of a second now. He can push up on his hands, but can't quite get on his knees yet... but I think any day now. While on his tummy and pushed up with his hands, he likes to scoot back. He can actually get around a good deal between rolling and scooting with his hands. I am soooo not ready for this mobility! The house needs cleaning and babyproofing!!

Also, the other day Asher started clapping on his own! He was sitting on Brent's lap [side note: Asher can sit up unsupported for short periods of time now before falling over], just hanging out, and he started clapping his hands together. He has been "clapping" or rather banging his hand on another person's hand or face or whatever for a little while, but this time he got the coordination to clap his own two hands together and it was SO cute :) It was even cuter when he would miss and his hands would pass each other every so often.

We also lowered Asher's crib mattress. We probably didn't have to yet, since he's not pulling up on things, but he spewed (to use Rozzy's word) on the bumper one evening, so we just decided to take it out and lower the mattress. His crib looks so bare now without the cute bumper, so I will have to hang the quilt from the crib set up on the wall to give some visual stimulation. The other annoying thing about no bumper--Asher's pacis keep falling through the rails on the side against the wall and then I have to fish them out with a yard stick.

Tonight, Daddy babysits while I go to opening night of the Sex and the City movie with my friend Jenn. Yay!