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 ;)

Cloth Diaper Give-away!!

I found this Bum Genius give-away through Elita's Blog (Thanks, Elita!) These are the exact diapers we use and love!! We already have enough, but it can't hurt to have more or perhaps gift them around town to some of my friends, you know, to get them hooked on cloth. Make sure you enter by August 6!

How to Make a Fruit Fly Trap

Do you ever get annoying fruit flies in your house? I thought I would share this easy way to trap those pesky buggers. My friend Bonni taught me how to make this back when she worked with drosophila in a biology research lab.

Materials:

• sheet of paper
• scissors
• tape
• glass (or some sort of cylindrical container)
• pieces of bread
• red wine (I bet grape juice would work too)

Construction:

1. make a paper funnel by cutting a slit in the paper and shaping it into a cone. Tape the cone together and cut the tip off to make a SMALL hole.
2. put small pieces of bread into the bottom of the glass and pour some red wine in there. Just a little to let the bread soak it up, but don't drown the bread.
3. set the paper funnel into the mouth of the glass. It may help to tape the paper to the rim of the glass to make a seal.

The idea is that the flies will be attracted to the wine and bread, they'll find their way to it through the hole in the funnel, but then they won't know to get out back through that hole. They will try to get out at the top of the glass, so the seal is important. Hope this helps someone, I know it has helped me numerous times!

Red White and Blue

July 4th was a fun evening. First we went to Vanessa's party, where Asher was a hit, of course. Here he is trying on Vanessa's hat:



Then we went to the roof of Brent's office building to watch the Boston fireworks show. Asher didn't know what was going on at first, but then he got the idea. He was very tired though.







The next day, we visited our friends Bill & Cara, who are expecting a baby boy in November. I don't know Cara very well (this was the second time meeting her), but she is super nice and easy to talk to, so I felt very comfortable sharing my birth story with her. I realized how incredibly crazy my stories sound when told all at once! Meanwhile, Asher had his first taste of watermelon



Asher chewed a little of it but then next thing I knew, the bits of melon were on his chin. He doesn't quite have the hang of chewing solids yet, so we are still mostly on puree. Today he did have his first Cheerios! He did a decent job of getting them to his mouth and he will chew/suck on them until they disintegrate in his mouth. They will be good to have in restaurants when Mommy and Daddy want to eat their own food!

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:

another matching outfit

Daddy & Asher in matching outfits, how cute!

good eater

My Asher is a good eater. He doesn't usually refuse food, and the latest development is that he seems to voluntarily open his mouth for more. I am trying to build the variety of foods in his diet, and now that he's 8 months, we can add dairy and meats. Last night I gave him yogurt for the first time and he was OK with that. I mixed plain with some fruit. Maybe next time I will try the vanilla yogurt. Soon to try will be egg yolks. I'm not sure about chicken or beef yet, I would have to puree it and that just seems gross. Hopefully Asher will get more teeth soon! Meanwhile, we tried a teething biscuit, WHAT A MESS!!



I realized I never wrote about Jenn's wedding. It was a lot of fun and Asher looked super cute.



Now that I am using Flickr, when you click on the pics here and get to my flickr page, you can then look through my photostream to see lots more pictures. There is a "set" for Asher pics.