Making All things New: September 2014

He gives lots of kisses. He loves kisses. At first he was pursing his lips and giving them but his desire to eat everything kind of took over and now he opens his mouth and licks you and/or gently closes his teeth on you. He's never bitten when kissing, but he likes to use his teeth to discover your face and your kisses. My sweet, little boy likes to come up to me and offer kisses for no reason at all.

He waves goodbye and adiós with a little flicking and twisting of his wrist.

He likes to stand alone A LOT and does it in response to praise--especially that of his sister. While on vacation it became customary for him to stand on the bed near the lamp and dance a little while she exuberantly narrated everything he was doing for me. He now stands all the time and is quite comfortable doing so.

He has had 2 or more weeks of waking up during the night from the end of January through the first week and a half of July. We think that part of it is teething, and part is the way his schedule and routine was altered from the vacation.

He's still at one or two tiny unassisted steps between pieces of furniture. No real walking until the middle/end of the month.

He yells at Noelle so he can get his way. Sometimes he just needs help and sometimes he's just complaining for no good reason. He's learned that when she meddles with him and he yells, I rescue him so now he's manipulating that and yelling when he wants something she has, or for some other more selfless/less needy reason.

He makes noises in stairwells to hear his echo. Every time. "AH! AH! AH!"

He repeats words a lot--but in his timing. Case in point, this conversation:
Asher: Da da!
Me: Daddy's pooping.
Asher: Boop!

He's added "WOW!" to his list of words. I think it's because we say it all the time in reference to his milestones or things we think he'd like to observe. He also says book ("bah").

He climbs everything he can--the blue chair, the school table, the fireplace. He's currently working on getting up on top of the couches but they're still too high for him to be successful for a while. If he can't climb something the traditional way, he'll keep working at it until he figures it out.

He also likes sitting in his sister's little purple chair as well as her princess chair and now his Cars chair. He dragged her purple chair--it's wooden--up with him onto our blue lounge chair the other day and sat there contentedly for a minute or two, admiring the hard work he'd just accomplished.

He likes putting things inside other things (still). At our hotel room he was placing his toys in the garbage because it was a container that was there and that he could reach. I had to put it out of his reach so he would stop.

His gibberish sounds more and more like real words.

He got hand, foot, and mouth at Roxbury which hit him mildly, and in stages. He had a fever, then he was just irritable, and finally I noticed a couple pox on his palms and a good 5-10 on each heel.

He climbs everything he can--the blue chair, the school table... He's currently working on getting up to the couches. That might be awhile because they're somewhat high for him.

He has officially taken his first steps but at the beginning/middle of the month he still preferred to crawl. Over the course of the month, he started walking more and more each day. At the beginning his walking is more of a trick than a maneuvering tactic (8/13 or 14) We make a big deal every time he does it--especially his big sister.

He likes to show his belly button. He likes the reaction he gets. He really likes to play with it too. And with mine when he's nursing.

He imitates the word poop and book. He seems to recognize both of those words as well as others.

He brushes his hair with his sister's doll brushes and with real brushes.

He loves dogs and always shows us his doggy flash card proudly. He loves his new set of large, tactile flash cards.

One day he figured out that the snot in his noses made him whistle while he breathed so he started dancing happily and breathing hard so he could hear it.

He loves to give his food to people and has real joy when they take it.

He's finding the purpose of objects and using them correctly--brooms, brushes, and cars.

If you ask him if he pooped, he'll point to his diaper.

He's repeating lots of words--the ones he's capable of making. The dog and the ball flash cards are his favorite.

Often when his sister is singing (which she almost always is), he lifts his little head and joins her in earnest with a robust "Aaaaaahhhhh!" Sometimes he does it in church during the music too. The boy loves music.

He was singing, dancing, and playing an instrument of his own invention and then his sister started using a walkie talkie like a phone and suddenly he's using his toy like a phone too. Precious! He's got so much intelligence in there just waiting to manifest itself with vocabulary.

Speaking of instruments, he loves them, as evidenced by his eagerness to play this djembe every time we were near it. He loves guitars, xylophones, any other instrument you can name as well.

He decided to sweep my floor all on his own! His awareness is reaching beyond just putting things in his mouth. He's actually beginning to seek the purposes of things and use them accordingly.

He's super independent yet also needy for mom. He has more free reign of the house than his sister did at this age and he loves to explore.

As of 8/26, he's walking more than crawling. It's so cute to see him toddling around.

He's still taking two naps a day. I'm praying this lasts all year long.

So, he loves to be on the phone and thus gets very possessive of any and all FaceTime calls. He's only experienced a handful at this point in his life but he completely understands what's going on and is a total wreck if he is not the one in control of the phone when they happen. This makes things very difficult for one little girl who's become quite accustomed to controlling almost all FaceTime calls herself.
He talks to "Da" on the phone when I'm with him. HE talked to "Mom" when he was at Jenny's house.

He loves sunglasses and headbands.

He makes the sign for more, but only when he feels in DIRE need of something more to eat.

He waves hi and bye on his own at appropriate times and is less likely to do so when asked.

He only crawls %5-%10 of the time at the close of the month.

He started grabbing my skirts and clothing when I went back to school. He does it if he's desperate to be held by me which, unfortunately, happens less often now that I'm working more than I have before. I haven't quite adjusted to teaching again, or the extra hours.

He could walk at this point but wouldn't do it on demand. Here, I was trying to get him to show his steps to us and he gave up and just sat on the floor instead of doing it.

He's a very messy eater and often requires more than one bath a day (and I'm the kind of mom who prefers not to bathe my kids more than once a week to preserve their sensitive skin). He likes eating and he likes baths so it's a win-win for him, though.

He's my little water boy and loves anything to do with water--baths, cups, rain, especially rain.

He likes rain the most because he loves being outside. He LOVES being outside and begs and cries for it often. Poor baby has a mommy who isn't a big fan of the outdoors.

Grammy came to visit and brought him a toy for his birthday present: a wagon with some blocks.

Here are some lovely shots from Uncle David's wedding where Baby Bear was the "ring bearer" and his sister was the flower girl. He hadn't started walking then, so she pulled him in a wagon.

Such a handsome fellow!

Playing with his buddy. They're six months apart. Next year they'll be on more even footing.

On the swings with his sister.

He hated being in the nursery--or at least that's the face he gave me. He cried and hollered and looked so pitiful anytime he saw me but I'd peek in on him here and there and he was always happily playing as long as he didn't realize I was there.

Saying hi to his Great-Grandpa

Above are some pictures from our annual holiness camp week. We always have so much fun. Baby Bear's sister looks forward to it all year every year and I suppose that Bear will do that one day as well (when he's old enough to remember it).

The best days are the ones when Daddy is home.

Getting his chiropractic adjustment.

His favorite hiding place in his room.

Really, REALLY excited about the corn silk.

Talking a walk. He LOVES walks.

He still nurses 4-6 times a day. He's quite a little wiggle worm when he does.

When I went back to school, I was so exhausted for the first couple of days that I just let him nap on me instead of in the crib. I needed it more than he did, I think.

Crazy boy with his headbands and brushes...

He's got great dexterity! He was actually able to put some of the pieces in the potato head and was very good at storing things in the butt.

Trying to use a fork like the big people.

With his sister at the pet shop.

He always does this at diaper changes if he can--especially if he's naked. I try to stop him, but it's his favorite thing in the world to do! At least we know our neighbors are nice...

His first time eating a grapefruit was hilarious. This is only one of the pictures of the hilarious faces he made in response to the taste of it!

I let his sister take him down the slide and he was NOT okay with it. He must have held his breath the whole ride down because as soon as they stopped he started freaking out. Poor little guy! I thought he would like it!