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!

Dearest Grandma Ro,

I know I won't remember much when I grow up, but I loved you and I know you loved me. I will miss you, but I will look at the pictures from when I was first born and see your loving face smiling upon me. I will watch the video of my bris ceremony and see you kvelling as you held me when I received my Hebrew name. I will listen to my mommy tell stories of how you loved to kiss my little toes and how you interpreted all of my baby babble because you understood me. I am thankful for your last visit in February when you babysat for me and gave me love, hugs, and kisses. I will cherish our matching Hanna outfits. I love you and know you will always be my guardian angel watching over me.

Your loving grandson,

Asher Isaac

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!!

Mommy Brain and Asher's 15 month b-day...

How many moms out there started mixing up names of family members quickly after starting your own family? I find that I frequently start to call Asher Brent or Brent Asher. Does this happen more frequently when mothers have sons? Has anyone ever mixed up names for family members of different genders? I wonder if it happens more often when husbands and sons have names that start with the same letter/sound. It's a curious phenomenon.


Happy 15 month birthday today, Asher! We are not actually celebrating, but I've been thinking lately about weaning from breastfeeding. At first, I said I would breastfeed until he's one year old, as recommended by the AAP. It got hard when I went back to school in September and had to pump, and Asher would not accept formula supplement. Pumping sucked, even with a pretty good environment (a private space, understanding faculty). So when we cut down to just morning and evening feedings--no pumping--it was SO much more relaxing/less stressful/enjoyable! So then I said I wanted to keep nursing until he got his MMR shot, because you know, all the good immunity stuff in breast milk. Well, that happened last week. So now what?

Last weekend, I attempted to give Asher a sippy cup of cow's milk first thing in the morning, while sitting in the rocker where I usually nurse him. NUH-UH, MAMA! Asher was NOT having that, angrily hitting the sippy and kvetching/crying! After this rukus woke up Dad, I just went ahead and nursed him. My gut said it might be easier to cut the evening bed-time routine feeding before the morning feeding, even though you always hear the night feeding "should be" the last to go. But it just makes more sense to me to keep nursing him, and thereby cuddling him, when he is groggy in the morning, and try to adjust his night routine when he is up and about just before bed. On the other hand, breast feeding does tend to calm him down for bedtime, but then sometimes he also gets excited/excitable again when we brush teeth (which logically follows his last feeding).

But I haven't tried this adjustment to the night-time routine yet. Part of me wants to wean because I have this idea that it would be easier and I would be freer. But I don't know if that's true or not. I mean, I've been happy about nursing him since I cut out the pumping and went back to wearing non-nursing bras. The AAP also recommends breastfeeding as long as it is mutually desirable for mom and baby. Well, I can tell that Asher is still plenty contented to have the breast, and I do enjoy having that time with him--cuddling and kissing his feet. So maybe I'll just keep going a little while longer. Maybe a month, maybe 3? My only fear is that Asher will be too attached to want to self-wean, but I guess the bottom line is we'll just see how it goes.