Our First Family Christmas

We went to Mom's on Christmas Eve, just in time to make it to the fabulous Logansport Mall to visit Santa Claus. Asher didn't throw a fit, but was definitely very wary of the WORST LOOKING SANTA EVER. I didn't blame him. Santa was nice, but he was a bit on the creepy-looking side. That evening, we found a big sack hanging outside the house that Mrs. Santa Claus had left for Asher. There was a Christmas book, a teddy bear, some bath toys, a Thomas the Tank robe, and a pair of Brobee pajamas inside. Asher was less than thrilled; I think he was onto Mrs. Claus' game of trying to get little kids in bed so her husband could get to work and be home at a decent time.

Christmas Day began around 9:30 when Asher awoke. He hardly seemed to notice the moutain of gifts around the tree. Opening his gifts ended up being an all-day affair. As everyone had forewarned, Asher was not very interested in his gifts. He instead wanted to play with the cat toys, the bottles of lotion and bath stuff I received, the wrapping paper, and the tree. Now that we are home, however, he is fully aware of all his new toys and seems to really enjoy them. Some of his favorite gifts included a Radio Flyer car, a 2-sided activity table, an alphabet train sit-to-stand toy, a caterpillar rocker, a MegaBloks tow truck, a helicopter toy, toy cars, a toy train, and a Plex Buggy. He's also enjoying having his new books read to him. He got a mountain of clothes - due mostly to good timing because he has outgrown many of his current 12-month clothes - but, like most boys, he paid zero attention to them.

It was great getting to spend Christmas with Mom and Bob, especially since this might be the last year we travel, because we would like to start Christmas traditions for Asher at home. What made the day even more special was that Adam came over and spent the day with us. Asher may not have been mature enough to enjoy his first Christmas, but we certainly did. Even if I did snap at Stephen a few times for not being attentive enough.

Here are some pictures!

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Baby Loves Tacky

My mother-in-law knows how much I love nutcrackers and that they're one of the few things I collect, so every year she finds one or two for me. Last year, she bought me an enormous nutcracker that's probably as tall as Asher is. This year, she gave me the nutcracker on the counter in the above photo. It lights up and plays music - really, really shrill music. While the cats scampered away with bleeding ears, Asher stood and gazed up at it, completely mesmerized. Then he began bouncing and clapping to it, all with a huge, cheesy grin on his face. The nutcracker isn't tacky - it isn't plush and doesn't dance around - but it does illustrate Asher's love of all that is obnoxious. And, I finally understand why those darn animated toys actually sell. KIDS LOVE THEM. I always wondered who the hell in their right mind would buy a Big Mouth Billy Bass, but now I know: parents. And I also now know that parents aren't in their right minds. For some crazy reason, we love to see our kids happy and entertained. And if that means buying them stupid plush turkeys that gobble, walk, and sing "Turkey in the Straw," so be it. I'm a little ashamed to say it, but if I find any singing reindeer or dancing Santas on clearance after Christmas, I will probably reluctantly buy them. I never, EVER would have thought I'd actually own such monstrosities, but...the things we do for our children.

And, Maryann, I do love my new nutcracker, don't get me wrong. I just love it the most when it's turned off. Unfortunately, Asher looks awfully cute shaking his poofy diapered butt to the screeching music it plays, so I'm sure we'll be replacing the batteries in it constantly, as it will definitely get a ton of use. Thank you!

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Marmie's Christmas Tree Hat

Asher is an awfully lucky little boy to have Marmie in his life to make such painfully cute hats for him. The pumpkin hat was so awesome that it broke my heart to pack it away, but what could I do? Harvest season is over! Thankfully, Marmie came to the rescue and made him another hat, this one for Christmas. As you can see, it's a Christmas tree hat, complete with a yellow "star" at the top, button ornaments, and button toys "under" the tree. Unfortunately, it was just completed a couple of days ago, so we don't have much time before Christmas to show it off. But, I'm thinking it's so darling that it can stay out until we put the real Christmas tree away. And knowing me, that'll be mid-March.

Thank you so much, Maryann! I'm already looking forward to your next creation.

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Could He Be Developing an Attention Span?

Today, Asher has been a very busy boy. He played with his counting turtle, his musical popping ball train, his cars, and even did a little rearranging of his kitchen junk drawer.

In other words, he entertained himself.

No, I'm not kidding - he played, pretty much by himself, all morning and afternoon. He let me eat breakfast, he let me eat lunch, he let me watch a tiny bit of television, he let me feed the cats, he let me make his meals, he let me vacuum - all without fussing and being underfoot or begging to be picked up. And, he played with toys. For more than two minutes! He pushed around his turtle for a good twenty minutes, and when he was done with that, he played with his choo choo for another twenty minutes. Toys! Playing with them! Crazy!

So see? Asher does need toys for Christmas, Stephen.

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Look, Everyone - No Hands!

I was finally able to capture on camera the awesome new skill Asher is working on - standing without support. It's all a matter of being at the right place at the right time, but having a toy (or, in this case, a telephone) in hand with which to bribe your child to do what you want helps, too. He's been standing like this a lot today. And, notice there isn't anything around for him to hold onto - he got into a standing position without having to climb up anything. He took another itty-bitty step, too. He's trying! I'm thinking maybe he wants to walk for Christmas. That would definitely be a fun gift for Mommy and Daddy, too.

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Buggy Obsession

Some kids have teddies, some kids have blankies. I, myself, had a "silkie," which was my mom's pink satin robe that I used to like to snuggle while sucking my thumb. My son? He has buggies, which, as you probably know, is our term for pacifiers.

Yes, he sucks on them, but his love for them is deeper than mere oral gratification. Over the past couple of months, he started doing this thing when he goes to sleep where he plays with his spare buggies. He's got a good handful of them in his crib. When we lay him down at night when he's almost asleep, he rolls over, stretches his little fingers out, and grasps one or two buggies. Then he clanks them together and moves them around in his hands until he falls asleep. When we go in his room after he awakes, he's always standing at the side of the crib with a buggy in his mouth and one in each hand. He'll carry them around with him. A new thing he's started doing is organizing his buggies. I put five or six on the floor the other day when changing the sheets in his crib, and he started putting them in a row and changing the order of them. It's both the cutest and the strangest thing I've seen him do.

I've always put him to bed with his little stuffed Classic Pooh from Sloan, the froggie blankie from Aunt Jamie, the super soft blankie from Uncle Adam, and the fluffy puppy from NeeNee, but does he even notice any of those things? Nope. I guess you really can't choose what your kid becomes attached to. I'll need to remember this when Asher starts dating.

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Busy, Busy, Busy

It seems like each of us have been preoccupied with our own things over the past week. I've come down with a rare case of motivation and have started about fifty tasks, from laundry to Asher's birthday invitations to decorating for Christmas to wrapping presents to completing Christmas cards to working on party decorations, to name just a few. I was really proud of myself; I actually finished a project yesterday when I addressed the last invitation to Asher's birthday party. Of course, I forgot to take them to work with me today to mail out...Argh. Stephen has picked up quite a few more hours' worth of work for the next month; in fact, it's almost 10:00 right now and he's out working. Asher is just his usual busy little self, which keeps Stephen and I plenty busy just keeping an eye out for him. Seriously, you turn your back for two seconds to gather his dirty clothes, and when you turn around he's got a piece of his own poop in his mouth. Yeah, POOP. In his MOUTH. And there isn't a hint of a look of disgust on his face. (For those wondering, he'd had some tiny, cocoa-puff-sized poopies in his diaper yesterday and one of those "puffs" apparently fell out of the diaper when I wrapped it up and, of course, he found it. Did I mention it was with his mouth?) On a less disgusting note, one new thing Asher is busying himself with is trying to walk. Last night he took an itsy-bitsy step in the bathroom. I'd hardly classify it as walking, but it's definite progress. Today I've noticed he's been holding onto things less and standing on his own more, so I think he's motivated to get the ball rolling. I don't know whether to be excited or petrified.

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Eleven Months Old

Well, here we are. The last month before Asher turns a year old. All this time, I've been complaining about how quickly the time has flown, but suddenly, within the past couple of weeks, it's felt as if time has slowed up a bit. I find myself feeling like, you mean, it hasn't been a year, yet? Surely, it's been at least three? I don't know why the sudden change of perception. Maybe it's due to the fact that Asher is now all over the place and into everything constantly and we're so tired and worn out from it that the days feel like they're 48 hours long. Maybe it's because our days have become so much less monotonous and redundant as Asher matures. I have actually been able to differentiate between days lately, it's amazing! Whatever the reason, I'm thankful for it. It's horrible to feel like you're being robbed of time. I'm sure that feeling will come back soon enough, but for now, it's nice to feel like it's completely possible that Asher is, in fact, eleven months old.

Nothing new and exciting has happened over the past month. No walking, yet; though, he has begun to briefly let go of things while standing to practice his balancing skills. They aren't very good right now, but I have a feeling that pretty soon he'll be able to stand on his own two feet without support like a pro. He's starting to "dance" a lot lately, bopping his head and bouncing up and down. His language skills are increasing, too; no "real" first words, yet, but he's getting there. He's catching onto the meaning of words. If I say, "Look, there's Sammy Cat," he will typically turn to look and find the kitty. He's beginning to appropriately refer to us by mama and dada...sort of. Usually, when he's upset and crying, he'll cry out "mamamamama." The rest of his day, he'll spend jibber-jabbering all about dadadadadada. He also is starting to refer to his bottle as "ba-da;" I've caught him saying this a few times either when taking him upstairs with his bottle to drink it, or when I've asked him if he's ready for a bottle. There was also something else the other day he was referring to repeatedly by saying "ba-ga" - I think it was his buggy (pacifier), but can't really recall for certain. Anyway, he's becoming very vocal, including ways other than his cute gabbing. He's apparently into SHRIEKING like a banshee, SQUEALING like a little girl, and SCREAMING like four cats fighting when he wants to let us (and everyone within a mile radius from us) know that he is NOT happy. Luckily, it's been brief so far, but we've had glimpses of being "those" people - the people you don't want to be seated next to at a restaurant, the ones who look like they've had every ounce of their dignity beaten out of them while their rugrat screeches bloody murder.

We've started introducing Asher to whole milk this month. The doctor recommended that we not put him on milk "full-time" until after his first birthday, but that it was alright to give it to him every now and then. We're trying, trying, to keep him on formula, but most of the time these days he wants nothing to do with the stuff. When he's only drinking about 12 ounces of formula a day, I figure he needs something else. So, milk it is. And speaking of drinking, he has mastered drinking from a straw this month. He drinks from a straw better than he drinks from a sippy cup. This doesn't surprise me, though; I've tried using those sippy cups, and they're hard to use! I don't think even the suction of our Dyson vacuum could get more than a few droplets out of those darn things.

Asher's first Thanksgiving was very nice, which makes me even more excited about his first Christmas in just a few weeks. I've been buying and wrapping presents like crazy. I know I'm driving Stephen nuts, dragging him through the toy aisles every place we go. But that's okay because he drives me nuts with his rants about how much he hates toys, and how he's ALWAYS hated toys, even when he was a kid, and how they're a waste of money. Can we say bah humbug much? I haven't decided whether or not to put up the Christmas tree...I really, really want to, but with all of the packing and cleaning I've been trying to do in preparation of moving, and with the certainty that it will be nearly impossible to keep Asher out of the tree, I'm not sure it's a good idea. I can just see him swallowing an ornament hook or crushing a fallen glass ornament in his hands.

As crazy as it sounds, in just one month I'll be posting his one year post. I guess I should probably get my butt in gear and get his party planned, along with getting my Christmas cards out, the Christmas shopping completed, his birthday shopping completed, presents wrapped...What the hell was I thinking, again, arranging to have his birth be just a week after Christmas? I could have birthed a ten-pounder...at least that would have only been a one-time pain in the ass, instead of an annual one.

Here are Asher's November pictures.

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New Template

Stephen thinks I need to address the fact that I changed the template of the blog. So...

I decided to change the template of the blog. I was tired of looking at the polka dots; they were making me dizzy.

I hope you like the facelift. It's a little cutesy, but I thought in a good way. The little bird makes me feel cheery, and it's rare that I find something that doesn't cost over $100 that makes me feel cheery.

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The New Playroom

Screw toys...it's all about getting into Mommy's and Daddy's things lately. Ever since I gave him free reign to explore my bathroom, he's developed a thirst for discovering where everything in the house is kept. And then he wants to completely trash it. Occasionally, he'll be good and try to put things away, but this often results in things like teddy bears in the dryer, or deodorant in my hair products container. AND WE JUST CAN'T HAVE THAT. Oh, the chaos.

Over the past week, his new fascination lies in the kitchen. We were smart and put baby locks on the cabinets under the sink, but we didn't think about the cabinet with the cat food...and the cat food dishes. WHICH ARE GLASS, I might add. And, yes, he's broken one already. Luckily, there were no ouchies this time, but we definitely need to do a thorough re-organization, or just a simple lockdown, of certain spaces. He does have a "safe" drawer, which is overflowing with measuring cups, ice cream scoops, tongs, and whisks, and he seems to thoroughly enjoy carefully taking each item out, cautiously examining it, and then THROWING it down on the floor as hard as he can. This weekend, he also discovered the lazy susan in which the pots and pans reside. Let's just say he has a little too much fun clanking these around. I have a bruised toe to prove it.

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