31 Weeks: The Great Pumpkin

Dear Asher,

This past week was filled with more Autumn fun. We've had a gorgeous, sunny, unSeattle like fall and have been trying to enjoy it outside as much as possible. This week we went to a local pumpkin patch. You weren't overly excited and actually got quite angry with us when we wouldn't let you roll around on the ground with the pumpkins. You wanted to grab them all and put them in your mouth. This is a common occurrence around our house as of late. You want to grab everything and put it in your mouth and get extremely angry when this wish is not fulfilled.

You've been a bit cranky this past week as you were cutting two teeth at the same time. They aren't totally in, but they've broken through your gums and as soon as that happened you were back to your happy self. Thankfully this teething has not effected your sleep. Having a good night's sleep has made it a lot easier to deal with day time crankiness. You are also in a stage where you want Mommy to hold you constantly and bring your everywhere. It is pretty exhausting. You are are doing your absolute best to learn to crawl and find yourself frustrated when you can't quite make all of your limbs work together. You have the arms down and you have the legs down, but you don't have them down at the same time.

Even cranky you are so much fun to be around (at least I think so!) and you are definitely a fan of your Mommy and Daddy. When we are around everyone else is just an annoying hindrance. You are a fan of your grandmas and small children as well, but everyone else you can do without.

Your latest accomplishment- toes in mouth!

Practicing your crawling moves

Enjoying your new book from Peter and Maria

Playing with your new dancing puppy

With Mommy and Daddy at the Pumpkin Patch

With Mommy at the Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin head

Asher & Daddy Pumpkin heads!

A not so scary scarecrow!

 Doing your best Charlie Brown impression

30 Weeks: Big Boy on the Go!

Dear Asher,

You are well on your way into your first Autumn. It's flying by! 30 Weeks was filled with lots of running around. You are so much fun to go on errands with. In fact you even make bad things more fun. This past week, Mommy got a speeding ticket. You were in the back seat giggling and laughing away as the police officer gave me the ticket. As I drove off I couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that as much as I was annoyed I got a ticket, it wasn't so bad because I had my little guy in the back seat to add some perspective to it all.

At 30 weeks you are such a social little guy.  You love seeing your grandparents and the neighbor kids. You especially like their four year old daughter and love to talk to her. You are such a happy boy. We've started to take you out to eat at restaurants more now that you can sit in the high chair. You love being at the table with the grown ups and do such a great job being patient at the table while we eat. You are also obsessed with bath time. You love being in the water more than any other activity and sometimes you even cry when it's time to get out. My favorite part of seeing you playing in the water is when you stick your turtle toy in your mouth so the turtle's shell is hanging out of your mouth and put your fishy toy under your arm, and then hold your other turtle toy in your hands. It looks hilarious. You can't decide which toy to play with so you play with all of them at the same time.

Another funny thing you do is unsnap your pajamas. A few weeks ago we thought that maybe your grandparents didn't put them on your properly when we saw on the baby monitor that you weren't wearing pants, but then this week I put your down for you a nap and when I went to get you up you were laying there with your pants unsnapped. Hilarious!

We love you so much sweet boy. You are the best!

Playing in the bathtub

Laughing in the bathtub

 Sitting with the grownups at the table

 Unsnapping those pajamas

Baby Stuff Blunders: Enfamil Tri Vi Sol Vitamins with Iron aka The One Where I Worry I'm Preventing My Kid From Being a Genius/Billionaire Philanthropist

"We are Flintstones kids- 10 million strong and growing..." (BTW- how freaking cute are those 1980s kids in that commercial? I wonder where they are now...)

Sigh.

Remember the good old days? When there was only one brand of kids vitamins- Flintstones Kids Vitamins. I'm pretty sure they were actually candy and not vitamins, but anyway. Nobody used to worry if babies got enough Vitamin D or iron, but like many "advances" in science- there is another one out there to ruin our fun and carefree lives. Apparently babies need more Vitamin D than they get from the sun now that we have realized that putting your baby out to sun bathe (it's just a base tan!) is a no no! Oh and apparently breastfed babies might not get enough iron? But from what I have read on that/heard from two different doctors at our pediatrician's office, the jury is still out on that one. Great, another place where research is making my head spin- should I worry about Asher's iron levels or not? Should I force feed him spinach? Should I give him baby vitamins with iron? If I don't do these things will his brain stop growing and then he won't grow up to be a genius who goes to Harvard for undergrad and then gets his Ph'D at MIT and then goes on to be the inventor of the next iPhone/discoverer of the cure for cancer/CEO of Costco/billionaire philanthropist and it will be all my fault?!!!!!!! Long sigh... Dramatic Pause... Guys, what do I do?!!!!

Anyway, so I decided to listen to the doctor at Asher's pediatrician's office who said he probably doesn't need the iron supplement as long as he eats enough food with iron. This advice was seconded by the person at Kellymom who has apparently become an internet authority on such matters. Just who exactly is this Kellymom and why are we giving her so much power over our lives, but I digress. And then I started panicking, because Asher doesn't like his iron fortified HappyBellies Brown Rice Cereal as much as he did initially and one can only force feed a baby so much spinach. So I impulse bought some Enfamil Poly Vi Sol  (whatever the heck that means) with iron while at Target the other day.  Supposedly these vitamin drops have what is called a "fruit" flavor, however just exactly what fruit isn't specified. I now know why no specific fruit is listed, because there is no fruit known as DISGUSTING IODINE CHEMICALLY SMELL. No friends, there is no such fruit and as far as I'm concerned the folks at Enfamil have some explaining to do. You know it's not going to be pretty when mom is gagging as she twists off the top to the vitamins. I literally gagged. I told myself that I was being dramatic (that would be a first...) and just to give Asher the dropper of vitamins. The poor little guy immediately gagged and looked at me with his classic "I trusted you and you just screwed me, thanks for nothing Mom"™ face. I felt badly, but not to be dissuaded (you'll thank me one day later, Asher) I decided I'd try again the next day. This time taking the manufacturer's advice to disguise it with the baby's meal in the case that for some reason didn't like the vitamins on their own. Brilliant, Enfamil. Just brilliant- you've obviously never encountered a child with a rat like nose. Picture me wearing sweet potatoes on my face after my little poison detecting baby gagged and spit sweet potatoes all over me the second the vitamin laced spoon touched his little tongue. What fun. So yeah, I will not be using these drops again or at least not until I wake up in the middle of the night panicking that my future cancer cure finding scientist isn't getting enough iron in his diet. Which means he'll probably get them again tomorrow. Any other less crazy mom's out there have a solution to this MAJOR PARENTING DILEMMA™?

Stuff Your Baby Doesn't Know He Wants: The Ultimate Snotsucker!

Are you invited to a baby shower for a Mother to Be that already has enough baby blankets, swaddle paraphernalia, and bottles? Need a really really weird, but incredibly useful gift that the Mother to Be will never forget you gave them when they finally get desperate enough to use it and are then forever grateful to you for this gift? If so, then look no further than the NoseFrida!

There is a reason this bad boy has a 4.5 star average on Amazon.com.bomb with over 550 reviews! It's disgusting in concept, but honestly it's the single most effective way to help your little ones breathe when they have a cold. I have some friends that will remain unnamed for their protection that have even claimed to find it addicting! I think it's similar to popping a zit- gross I know, but it has the potential to be a very rewarding experience. Again, gross I know. Besides, how sad is my life that I'm using the term "very rewarding experience to describe popping a zit or sucking snot from my child's nose? Sigh. Anyway, I can't emphasize this enough- YOU NEVER ACTUALLY SUCK SNOT INTO YOUR MOUTH.  It's not possible- there is a filter on the end of the collector tube that keeps anything from entering the sucking tube. I promise YOU WILL NEVER ACTUALLY SUCK SNOT INTO YOUR MOUTH. I watched about a million YouTube videos of moms using this before I was willing to try it. That said, once Asher got his first cold, I would have sucked snot out of his poor little stuffy nose with my bare mouth if it would have made him feel better. If you don't feel that way when your little one is sick, then maybe you aren't as good of a mother as me. I'm kidding, but not really. No, I'm kidding, but not really. Anyway, order this bad boy, before cold season arrives!

Twenty Nine Weeks: Swimming in the Water!

Dear Asher,

Twenty Nine Weeks has come and gone so quickly! You are such a fun baby! We can't get enough of your laughter and smiles. You have a lot of dear family and friends who love you so much and are always stopping by to see you. You love to talk with people and smile at them, but sometimes if they try to hold you and Mommy is nearby you get pretty upset. You definitely know and love your parents and want to be sure of where we are when strangers are holding you. The other night your Grandma Jane and Grandpa Jerry came to baby-sit you while Mommy and Daddy celebrated the eight year anniversary of their first date. You were getting tired and we almost ready for bed when they arrived to baby-sit you. You figured out immediately that we were leaving you behind and you didn't like it one bit. It broke my heart to hear you cry like that. We almost didn't make it out the door, but we reminded you that your Grandma Jane and Grandpa Jerry love you so much and that we would be back soon. I left with tears in my eyes and we prayed you would stop crying as we were pulling the car out of the driveway. Even just thinking about it now makes me so sad! Thankfully you woke up the next day your happy self!

This week brought one of the most exciting moments of being your mommy for me- you put your face underwater while were swimming! It was so exciting to me that I took you swimming three times last week! You put your face underwater three times the first time we tried it and then four times the second time we tried it and then six times the third time we tried it. I took you swimming just the two of us the first two times and I worked up the courage to try putting you underwater- I had to remind myself that you would be ok and not scarred for life if you didn't like it.  The first few times you looked kind of surprised and startled, but by the time we went swimming with Daddy to show him how amazing you are at it you didn't seem surprised by going underwater at all. Daddy was so excited to see you do it in person and was so proud of you! We still sing your favorite song to you to the tune of Frere Jacques- "Where is Asher? Where is Asher? Here I am! Here I am! Swimming in the water, Swimming in the water, up and down, up and down."

We also went to your Uncle Greg's wedding to Auntie Sue. You slept through most of it and were able to enjoy some time with your family- you especially love your cousin Kiley. You also were able to meet your cousin Cody who just finished his time in the Air Force and was in Iraq. We are grateful you got to meet him!

You continue to sleep so well at night and at nap time and you are a great eater as well.  We are so grateful for every moment with you, Asher!

Trying on your Halloween costume!

Mommy & Daddy See Seinfeld Again Eight Years Later

Swinging in the Park

Meeting your Cousin Cody