A Day at the Zoo

Today was so much fun. I took the day off work. We got to spend time with my mom, Bob, Jamie, and Ella. We got to see a bunch of animals we don't see every day. Asher was in very good spirits the entire time, even with no naps. I remembered to put sunscreen on and managed to not get burned. I remembered to put sunscreen on Asher and he didn't get burned.

I spent close to an hour packing our bag for the day, and miraculously only forgot a few things. Of course, they couldn't have been minor things, like gum or hand lotion. No, if I'm going to forget something, I'm going to forget something. The first discovery was no juice. I brought two sippy cups, but no juice. Smart one. No big deal, though, since Asher really doesn't drink much juice. A half hour later I realize - huh - I remembered the formula, the bottles, and even plastic baggies in which to warm the water, but didn't remember one of the little venting pieces that goes with our Dr. Brown's bottles. And, of course, you can't use the bottles without the venting system, else you'll have quite the mess on your hands (and on your baby). So poor NeeNee and Aunt Jamie ran next door to the Walgreens and bought two bottles, bottle brushes, and dish soap so we could wash them in the Wendy's restaurant. There's nothing more sanitary than washing baby bottles in a Wendy's bathroom! Alright, so I got over that minor setback (thanks Mom!), we finally got to the zoo, and all was right with the world. I'm taking pictures - so excited to be using my new camera and even more excited that I actually remembered my camera for once! - when halfway through the ocean exhibit I realize THERE IS NO MEMORY CARD INSIDE THE CAMERA. Shit! Shit! Shit! F%&@ing shit! Luckily, Jamie and Mom had their cameras, but still...I'M PISSED! How is it that, no matter what, EVERY time we go someplace, I ALWAYS forget something. I can spend all day packing, can even make a checklist, but there will still be at least one thing I forget. IT NEVER FAILS.

All in all, though, the day went really well and we all had a great time. I think Asher enjoyed his first outing to the zoo. He was a wonderful boy the whole time, and it was so much fun watching him take everything in. I think his favorite part was the ocean exhibit, with all of the fast-moving colorful fish, sharks, penguins, dolphins, and sea lions. The grown-ups liked the plains animals the best - the giraffes, lions, elephants, tigers - you know, your typical big men on campus. We also liked getting to see the koalas, who are there only for a limited time, but we weren't extremely impressed because they were fast asleep. Ella, on the other hand, seemed most fascinated by Asher's stroller. Aunt Kimmie, can I push the stroller? How about now? Can I push Baby Asher? NOW? CAN I PUSH IT, PLEEEAAASE AUNT KIMMIE?! It didn't even matter if Baby Asher wasn't in the stroller, as long as she could push it. So, it's hard telling what her favorite animals were, but I can definitely tell you which part of the zoo was her least favorite: the petting zoo. She made it about halfway through and decided there would be hell to pay if she wasn't promptly escorted from the area because IT WAS STINKY! Girls will be girls, and she is most certainly ALL girl.

I'll post the pictures Jamie took as soon as I get them from her. We'll all be going to the Children's Museum on Thursday, and I damn well better remember the memory card this time. Let's just pray I remember the camera.

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He Stands!

Last night while in his crib, Asher nonchalantly sat up, grabbed the rails, pulled himself to his knees, and then pulled himself up to standing. I excitedly exclaimed for Stephen to look - Asher is standing! Then, Stephen nonchalantly said Asher had already done this for him on a few occasions over the past day or two.

Bastard.

It's okay, though. I witnessed the first times he rolled over and sat up on his own, and both times Stephen wasn't there to see it. So, I guess I can live with Stephen claiming this milestone. I guess...

I was able to catch it on camera tonight. What a little stinker butt!

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The Death of My Blogging Community

When I began blogging almost two years ago, it was because I really liked the idea of keeping an online journal that friends and family could read and keep themselves apprised of what (little) was going on in our lives. Since my pregnancy, I've used the blog mostly as a way to document Asher's life for him, us, and our loved ones. It's been an awesome way to share photos with grandparents and exchange baby-rearing wisdom with fellow moms. I know it's totally lame, but I get so happy each time someone leaves a comment on my posts. Sure, lots of people could be reading my blog, but how do I know if I never hear from those people? Not to mention, some of the comments I've received have seriously pulled me through the craziness of this year. So, if you love me, you will leave me a comment. (I'm going to be so distraught when I receive ZERO comments on this post.)

Much to my delight in the past two years, several friends and family began their own blogs. I love being able to click on a link and be taken into the "world" of my best friend, or my sister-in-law. Call me lazy, but it's awesome to be able to know what's going on with someone you care about without having to talk on the phone or e-mail, especially during this time of my life when being a full-time working mom with a very active seven month old makes it next to impossible to keep in touch in the traditional ways with people. To me, it makes the distance between me and other people much shorter. It's kind of like I get to experience a bit of their lives with them without physically being there.

Unfortunately, I've realized this week that nearly all of my linked blogs are dead and I fear that pretty soon I won't have any more blogs to peek in on. Most of my blogging community has gone MIA, and I'm pretty much left with two blogs to monitor. TWO! Satisfying my nosiness is going to be very difficult to do with only two blogs to read. People, for the love of God and everything holy, BLOG already! It's easy, it's a nice way to document your life - you know, if you don't mind everyone reading it, it's free, it keeps people connected, and, most importantly, it keeps me entertained. Lord knows I don't get much entertainment these days. Help a poor girl out - I'm lonely over here!

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He Sits!

While giving Asher a bath this evening, he did something incredible.

He sat up by himself.

He was playing on his tummy in a couple of inches of water with his ducks and fish and other various plastic animals that only seem to float well face-down like they're dead, when all of a sudden he just rolled to his side and sat up. No struggle, not even in the wet, slippery bathtub. Of course, he played on the floor for about an hour after his bath and not once did he sit up again on his own, but I know it wasn't just a fluke. He is capable!

I just don't know if I can keep up with this...it feels like one minute he was a blob, and the next he's this independent, mobile little person. At Grandfather and Marmie's house today, he showed Daddy his stair-climbing skills (last week he climbed two small steps there, but I was the only witness). He's getting up on his hands and knees more and more frequently "rocking," so we know it'll be a very short amount of time before he moves on from scooting to true crawling. He continues to try to pull himself up on us and other things. I had no idea he would make so many developments so quickly, and practically all at once.

The kid never fails to amaze me.

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Self Feeding (Sort Of)

Feeding Asher has become quite the chore. First we had the issue with the jimmy legs. Not only did we have to wrestle the jimmy legs into the highchair, we also had to continuously fight the one jimmy foot that liked to pop up over the tray when the big detachable tray wasn't in use. It seems that some babies like to mix in a little foot nibbling in-between bites of his food, which results in sweet potato toes that smear food all over the tray, high chair, other leg...pretty much all over the place. Not to mention, those feet are excellent at targeting the hand holding the food-filled spoon and kicking it as hard as possible, sending the spoon and/or food flying. His aim is awesome. Now that he's grown into his chair a bit and sits upright well on his own, though, we have conquered the crazy jimmy leg by putting the big tray on the chair. Whew!

Of course, the saying goes that when one door closes a window opens. So now that there is a block on the jimmy legs, the jimminess has apparently managed to escape the legs and travel north to the arms and hands. The jimmy arms and hands make the jimmy legs look tame. They want to grab the spoon. They want to grab the bowl. They want to grab Mommy's hands and wrestle the spoon away from her. They want to grab the food in the bowl. They want to slam their slimy little selves against the tray. I recently read that a good remedy for this is to give him his own spoon, that way he feels like he's part of the action, but I'm still in control of the REAL spoon. I haven't tried this yet, but definitely will give it a shot this weekend.

I also have started giving him finger foods to gnaw on, which has been absolutely wonderful at keeping him occupied and happy while we eat our meals. He's tried puffs, but has a hard time getting them out of his hands and into his mouth. Zwieback toast has been a HUGE hit with Asher. He seems to thoroughly enjoy gumming it into a disgusting, mushy mess. My hopes are that this will help Asher learn to chew and become accustomed to solid solid food, and that it will help reduce Stephen's crumb phobia (that's a whole different post).

I'm happy he's interested in eating, though. But I guess he's been very passionate about eating from the start, back when he was so violent with me during nursing. Like mother, like son.

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We're on to Climbing Already?!

Just as we're getting accustomed to Asher's newfound mobility in scooting around all over the place, he's already starting to hone some new talents to keep us on our toes. Like climbing. As in, climbing up the stairs. Granted, he hasn't quite mastered this yet, but it will be soon, oh yes. At Grandfather and Marmie's house on Saturday morning, Asher did manage to climb a couple of small steps in the guest room up to the adjacent reading room. These steps are about 3/4 the size of the steps in this picture, so it'll be no time at all that he'll be successful in his attempts to sneak his way upstairs on our staircase. YIKES! He's also starting to try to pull himself up on furniture and on us. Good grief...the kid is going to be walking before I know it, isn't he?

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I Had a Baby & Finally Have the Pics to Prove It

Not sure if you noticed or not, but I never made available the pictures that were taken at the hospital when Asher was born or the pictures from the month of January. What had happened was I lost all of those pictures when Stephen reformatted the computer mid-January. For some reason, the pictures suddenly became corrupt and the computer wouldn't open them. On top of that, I couldn't locate the memory card on which the "original" pictures were located. I was devastated. Then, after several weeks, I found the memory card - it had fallen into one of Asher's drawers. I gleefully bolted downstairs and put the card into the computer only to find a whopping eleven pictures on the card. Somehow, almost all of the pictures had been deleted off of it.

Luckily, Stephen had made a CD for my step-mom of these photos, and it finally occurred to us we could get the pictures back from this CD. DUH! So, this weekend, she brought us the CD and now I'm a happy girl again. I had been so sad thinking Asher's first month was gone forever!

Looking back through these, it feels like it's been ten forevers ago since they were taken. Our baby is so different than the one in those first few cold, gray weeks in January; it's amazing how much he's changed in just seven months.

For a trip down memory lane, here are photos from my hospital stay, and here are January's pictures.

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Some Good Cheese

This is what I've been listening to nonstop in the car this week. It's cheesy, but darn it, Junior Senior always puts a smile on my face. How could it not?

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Hair!

As adorable as it was, Asher is no longer sporting the balding man's mullet hairstyle that he was born with. Over the past few weeks, his hair has really started to fill in; although, his hair is so light that you have to be searching for it to see it. The exception to this is after bathtime when we put lotion on his head and his downy hair sticks out all over the place like he's jammed one of his slobbery fingers in a lightsocket.

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Little Scooter

Asher has definitely entered the curiosity-killed-the-cat phase of babyhood. He's always been extremely active, even when he was just a tiny little fetus with a crazy case of the jimmy legs. But now that he's got creeping down to a fine art, there's no stopping him. He's now crawling beyond the perimeters of one room at a time; if I leave him in the living room for two minutes, when I come back he'll often have crawled out into the foyer. I've finally placed covers on most of the electrical outlets that would be within his reach, which is a good thing, because today at lunch I caught him pawing at one. It seems like some of the most fascinating things right now to him are electrical cords, remote controls, telephones, the vacuum cleaner, computer keyboards, the camera, the breast pump (he thinks it's great fun to sneak over and yank the tubing out while I'm pumping), anything plastic or paper or tissue...Basically, everything you don't want your child to play with. He's so funny; he's constantly got this look of SURPRISE and EXCITEMENT on his face when he's creeping around, like the dog in the commercials panting, Oh boy oh boy oh boy - BACON!

He's a master of his walker now, too. Stephen was telling me yesterday that Asher was running in it after Sam. I thought he was exaggerating, so I put Asher in his walker at one end of the room and walked over to the other side of the room and called his name. Sure enough, the boy practically ran to me - you know, as much running as a walker will allow. He also likes us to stand him up - he'll stand with our assistance for several minutes at a time.

Yep, I think we've officially exited the safe, quiet, immobile months and have entered the scary and exhausting lifetime of mobility. I'm looking forward to it, but it'd probably be wise to go buy a baby gate for the stairs first.

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Better Late than Never...

I am SO belated in writing my congratulatory post to The Squinkors, it's embarrassing. I am the WORST SISTER-IN-LAW EVER. Especially considering the fact that Angela is providing another cousin for Asher to play with, you'd think I would be a little more vocal about my appreciation.

Yes, Angela and Jeff are going to have another baby at the end of January - we're so excited! I learned from one of their Twitter tweets that they will find out the gender on September 3. A girl would be nice for them since they already have a boy, but boys are so much fun that if there's another added to the bunch, we'll be thrilled. So basically, we're just ecstatic to be getting another baby! Asher is happy, too, because then he won't be the "baby" of the family anymore. Actually, her due date is perfect for me because, knowing me, I'll be feeling all nostalgic and sentimental in January since Asher will be turning a YEAR OLD. (YIKES!) It'll be good to have a newborn to love on at that time of year to kind of give me that baby fix I'll be craving.

I just know Rowan is going to LOVE having a little brother or sister to play with. He's such a good boy - when we were in Dayton last weekend, he was helping push Asher's stroller AND not once did he bully Asher. He'll be the perfect big brother, I just know it.

Congratulations, Brown Family! Angela, I need to see more pregnancy posts on your blog...you know, when you don't feel like death warmed over.

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Seven Months Old

Asher turned seven months old today. I thought time was flying before, but now he keeps us so busy that we can barely even pause to realize just how quickly it's passing. It feels like I just wrote his six month post yesterday, and I know I'll be writing his eight month post before I can blink my eyes.

One thing is for sure - things are definitely a lot happier around the house than they were a month ago. Nothing "good" has happened to cheer us up - Stephen hasn't had any job leads, the house is still going bye-bye, I'm busier than ever at work - but I think what has changed is our attitude. I wouldn't necessarily say our attitude has become more optimistic - we just aren't the "life is all butterflies and rainbows and unicorns and sunshine" kind of people. I think now that a little time has passed since Stephen lost his job and I have had to reluctantly continue working and Stephen has had to reluctantly become Mr. Mom, we realize that, OK, things aren't ideal. They aren't the way we planned them to be just over a year ago when I became pregnant. BUT, things aren't horrible, either. (Knock on wood.) The sky didn't turn black and rain frogs. We are learning to make the best of our situation and appreciate and focus on the positives in our lives. I'll admit, I've never been good with compromise so this has been pretty difficult, but I'm catching on. I've accepted the fact that I HAVE to work right now. But, I've also learned to remind myself when feeling down that this situation isn't going to last forever. It will either get better, which gives me something to look forward to, or it could get worse, in which case I need to appreciate and enjoy this time even more.

In other words, I guess you could say we've thrown our hands up in the air and said "Fuck It" to all the bad stuff.

So anyway, I've decided that Asher is just about the most amazing little creature I've ever encountered. I am totally in awe of how drastically and how quickly he has developed over his short seven months. It feels like forever while you're waiting for them to reach their little milestones, but once they start reaching them, you can't believe how quickly it happened. Take crawling, for instance. Granted, his crawling is still at the beginner's phase of army-style, but even still, the little booger is fast and determined. It felt like he was never going to reach this mobile phase, but now that we're here, it seems like only yesterday that he couldn't even hold his head up. Really, babies are incredible! Just over half a year old, and look at all the accomplishments. I'm so proud of him. On top of beginning to crawl, he's also beginning to sit up unsupported. It's so crazy to place him on the floor so he's sitting up, walk out of the room and put a load of laundry in the washer, and walk back in the room and find him still sitting there!

I will be honest, though; there are some things Asher has been doing lately that I'm not very fond of. For one, there's the problem he's been having with staying asleep through the night. BIG INCONVENIENCE, Asher. You were doing so well; what happened? We LOVED our sleepy baby and we miss him a ton! Then there's the PINCHING. Seriously, I'm completely shocked that Stephen and I don't have bruises and scratches covering the backs of our arms, necks, and faces. Of course he's not doing it intentionally - I don't know if he just likes the texture of FLESH squishing in his hands, or what - but it's still incredibly painful and I would love to be able to break this behavior. I've tried saying NO! or OW! in a really stern tone with a stern look on my face, but Asher apparently finds this funny. I've started trying to smack his hands when he does it - but, come on, he's a baby, so my smacks are more like taps and he just sort of looks at me like OOOH, is this a GAME?! Usually, I try combining the stern NO! while removing his hands, and this usually results in a giant cheesy grin on his face followed by another sharp pinch two seconds later. He's still a big hair puller, too, as illustrated above. It wouldn't bother me so much if he didn't have a hold stronger than vice grips coated with superglue. Not to mention, do you notice from the picture how he pushes me away with his feet while pulling my hair towards him? Ugh. I guess these are just things we have to learn to live with for now, while we keep making our unsuccessful attempts at scolding him and teaching him this is not good behavior. Let's hope he catches on before we become scarred and bald.

Another thing I've noticed this month is how much Asher's appearance is changing. He's looking more and more boyish, as opposed to just babyish. And hair! He's getting HAIR! SLOW DOWN, Asher Bug. There's plenty of time to get your handsome on; stay baby-cute a bit longer for Mommy, OK?

This has been a wonderful month. I know it sounds completely corny, but having Asher has made me appreciate life so much more. Not just my life, but life in general. How incredible is it that just a year ago my belly was just barely starting to look pregnant, and look at him now! How incredible is it that I grew something inside of me that can sit up, scoot around the floor, yank my hair and squeal in delight when I yelp in pain? I really don't think I'll ever be able to fully grasp the fact that I'm a mom. It's just too amazing to be true.

And no, I'm not on Prozac.

JULY PICTURES

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