Spring Fun Update!

We have been chugging along here in lovely Minnesota, experiencing a rather cold and wet spring. Aside from a day here and there with decent weather, things have really only warmed up the last couple of days! Ah well, the boys have continued to grow and blossom even in spite of the chill.

We enjoyed a trip to the Children's Museum at the end of March with a friend. Gregory really had so much fun and even Asher was entertained in the baby room. He was just starting to really crawl and pull up on things at that point. Now he is really fast and cruising around the furniture too.

Asher has been ramping up on eating solid foods in the last 6 weeks or so. He really kinda took off with it and is now eating a lot of most things that we eat. He hasn't really met a food he doesn't like yet! He gets an adorable pathetic look on his face when we are eating and he doesn't have any. Then he yells at me until I give him some, or at least something that he can have! He is pretty efficient, especially considering he only has 3 teeth! He finally cut the first one at the beginning of April, and it was the top one, which is unusual. He is pretty cute with those little pearly whites, though!

The boys had a pretty laid back Easter this year since we had all suffered with the stomach flu for the previous week. But we did manage to pull together some baskets and do a little egg hunting.

Grandpa Mike and Grandma Coralie were in town for Mother's Day and we went to a nice brunch. However, the weather was dreary, and the boys were rowdy, so it was rather humorous to attempt taking any nice family pictures...

I try to get the camera out sometimes when cute things are going on, but both Asher and Gregory get weird and distracted by it, so I am not usually lucky enough to catch the best moments. Here are some of my attempts though!

One more thing and then we are pretty much caught up for now. Last Saturday, Gregory had his first dance performance! It was an informal class showing for his Creative Movement class, but it was at the U of M Dance Center, with lots of people there, so it was pretty neat. He had such a fantastic time this past year in Dance Class and we are really thankful to Miss Denise for her wonderful teaching!

Spring!

Spring has definitely been creeping in over the last few days. We had over 80 inches of snow this winter, and it is all but gone from the ground. Today it is raining. Soon the buds will start swelling on the tree branches and tiny leaves will sprout. The sunlight is stronger and longer each day - its hard to believe we are at the vernal equinox already! All I have to say about all this is 'Bout Time! I am ready to start hanging out at the park! Or maybe digging around in a garden box at our new HOUSE!

That's right, we bought a house! We will be closing in May, doing a little work, then moving in June. We absolutely CANNOT wait, we are so thrilled! The new house is on a cul-de-sac street in a lovely quiet neighborhood in a first ring suburb, so its minutes from all the things we like to do in the city. We will have a lovely guest room, so come visit us!

The boys have both been doing a lot of growing over the winter. Gregory is around 37 inches tall now, which means he is big enough to go in the IKEA ball pit play area, something he has been dying to do for the last couple of years! He's coming up on the 30 lbs mark too! Another milestone was his first emergency room visit for an injury. Twice in two weeks, actually. First a finger smashed in the hinge of a huge door, then a split lip from a fall on the concrete. Thankfully, neither required medical treatment and he has recovered nicely. We're pretty sure those won't be the last times we have to take a boy to the ER, but hopefully we can keep it to a minimum!

Recently Greg has had a lot of cognitive development too. He is a pro at complex puzzles, patterns, and block building. He can write all his letters and draws fairly identifiable pictures with lots of different colors. He can sound out basic 3 and 4 letter words and reads the first level of the Bob Books at preschool. He has been asking how to spell things all the time. He started asking a lot of questions about outer space and physics, so we have been explaining how the rotation of the Earth on its axis causes night and day, etc. He has a lot of imagination about outer space - its pretty funny! His balance and coordination have also been growing, especially through his Saturday dance class, which he loves. This summer he will do a sports class and swimming, and maybe gymnastics too, through community ed.


Asher turned 9 months old yesterday, and is slowly becoming mobile. He rolls all over the place now, and scoots backwards. He will surely be crawling forwards within a week or two. We can tell that he is quite pleased with himself! He is a cuddly little guy, with a pretty cheerful and laid back personality. He really loves playing with Gregory, who is a fantastic big brother! I think they really truly like each other, which is, of course, one of my greatest hopes as their mom!



Despite lacking any teeth, Asher has been trying out eating some foods. We follow the child-led approach, which means we don't use pureed baby food, and we look for the baby's individual signs of readiness. Basically, we let them tell us when they are ready to eat. Asher really enjoys playing with and tasting foods, but so far, he still has a fairly strong tongue-thrust reflex, so the bits that go into his mouth often pop right back out again. He does manage to swallow a little, though, and we see food as just for fun at this point anyway. So far he has tried bananas, butternut squash, apples, pears, green beans, broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, cauliflower, rice, quinoa, and egg yolk. He seems to like squash really well - maybe its the mushiness?


Well that's pretty much the update from us for now. The next couple of months will be really busy with the new house and moving preparations, and I'm sure especially Asher will just be changing so quickly this summer too. We'll try to keep up!

Christmas! Why not, its only the middle of February?

OK folks, I have finally managed to put together all the stuff from the Christmas 2010 trip.

Just before we left, we opened the presents from the Fix and Hogan grandparents. Gregory had so much fun ripping open all the packages! Thanks for all the wonderful gifts, Grandmas and Grandpas!


This trip was the first time we got to meet my niece, Ariana. She is about 4 months older than Asher, and she took her first steps while we were visiting! What a smart little sweetie! She had fun watching Gregory running all around the house! We also enjoyed spending time with friends of the Aunties, especially Erick, who entertained us with a lot of great music!


We had a great big party at Aunt Vicky and Uncle Brian's house for Christmas Eve, which was wonderful as always. Two more babies in the family this year made it extra fun!



Christmas morning at my parent's house we all opened stockings and lots more presents! Oh my goodness, there was so much! That evening Uncle Ben and Tita Liz brought over their Foosball table and we had an epic tournament!


The day after Christmas we enjoyed the Orange County swapmeet, where Gregory found several opportunities to cut a rug...



We had a very fun day at the Santa Ana Zoo on Grandma Mary's birthday!


We also visited the Discovery Science Center in Orange, and the Griffith Observatory in LA.


This year instead of Disneyland, we went to Knott's Berry Farm. I haven't been there since high school, and a lot of changes have been made since then. Gregory got to know who the Snoopy is, and Dan and I got to ride some big roller coasters. There was kind of a lot of waiting in line, but we had a great time anyway, and rounded out the day with a proper Chicken Dinner.


We did so much more that we didn't get pictures of! We had a wonderful visit as always. And there will be a couple of weddings in the coming year, so we are looking forward to going again sooner than next December! OK, so now that the Christmas stuff is finally up, we can start taking pics again!

Getting Ready for Christmas

We went out to Bismarck/Mandan for Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with Dan's side of the family. It was a long drive, but it didn't seem so bad! We have figured out to give the baby a bottle so we don't have to stop for feedings all the time, but its kinda funny since he is not too used to them. He doesn't object but it is a novelty. We had a lovely time visiting with all the relatives, especially the Hogan clan, with all the little cousins! Lucy made the trip out with us, but she will be staying with Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Rod until January, since we will be out of town for a lot of December. Boy we miss her at home though!





We brought the boys for check-ups at the doctor last week. Gregory has gained over a pound and grown an inch since June! He also is no longer slightly anemic (yay!) Asher weighed just shy of 15 lbs and was 68th percentile for height! Unfortunately, it appears that he may have caught something while we were there and now he's feeling under the weather. I sure hope he recovers before our big trip!

We've put up a few decorations around here and done various holiday crafts and activities. Gregory is really getting into it all this year. He has a cloth finger puppet Nativity set, and has been playing with it quite a bit. Its funny, he acts out the whole scene of Mary giving birth, with sounds and all - guess what made a big impression on him this year!?!





We got a huge snow storm last weekend - it was the 5th most snowfall in recorded history here. The temperatures have also been downright frigid. We've been staying in, except for Dan, who did a whole lot of shoveling! I have to say we are looking forward to escaping to California on Saturday!

From 2010 12 12

From 2010 12 12

Asher is Five Months!

It can't be! How can it have happened? My newborn is already five months old! He loves to grab and chew on toys, fingers, sleeves, blankets, and anything else he can reach. He loves to stand up and hold up his own weight. He is rolling from tummy to back reliably, and even with clothes on! He blows bubbles and coos and laughs. He gets mad when you have to take a toy away from him. He pees on the potty!

That's right, he pees on the potty. Its called Elimination Communication (EC) and its really not as strange as it sounds! Basically, whenever you have the inclination, you just set your baby on a potty of some sort, or hold him over a sink or toilet (we mostly use a soft silicone kitchen bowl). Occasionally the baby will actually go pee or poo, and you can associate a sound with it (we use "psssss"). Pretty soon your baby kinda gets the idea to go when you sit them on the potty, and therefore, you end up with fewer soiled diapers. Think of it as just another way to take care of a baby's pee and poop needs, like a diaper alternative.

Its certainly not an all or nothing kind of thing - we sit Asher on the potty a couple of times a day, sometimes more, sometimes not at all. It just depends on whether I think about it. But he seems to really like it and lately I have been surprised to find he will stay dry for 3 or 4 hours in a diaper, as if he is holding it for the next chance to go on the potty. I am frankly amazed, considering how little we really do it. I am serious, we did it a little bit pretty early on, then really not at all for many weeks, then here and there maybe once every few days, and lately I've been trying to do it a bit more, but still often miss a day or two here or there. The most would be maybe 5 or 6 times in a day if we are at home and not doing much else and I am thinking about it. Then I just offer a "potty-tunity" at diaper changes. Its truly not stressful at all, and is actually pretty fun!

The point is not really to potty train them early, although that is a common result. My friend's daughter was recently out of diapers during the day at the age of 14 months, and another friend's son I believe was 17 months - these are people I know in real life! Anyway, the actual goals are a) to maybe use fewer diapers, which is good for the wallet and the environment, but more importantly, b) to increase the connection and communication between you and your baby, and c) to help your baby learn about and be aware of his body functions, which does set him up for easier potty training later on.

Let me go back to b) for a moment. At first, catching pees and poos is sort of just luck. But babies are way smarter than we give them credit for and they usually associate the action of using the potty and the cueing sound with their bodily functions pretty quickly. Contrary to popular belief, they actually can and do develop control over their functions. So then you are communicating with them and they are responding to you, and you having a real back and forth interaction. And pretty soon, you get in tune with your baby's expressions and you might even just start thinking, "I bet you need to go pee" and you find out you were right. You are in tune with the baby on a whole 'nother level! Its a little like knowing your baby's different cries for hungry, tired, bored, etc. You just know them better and you can just tell. I think this might be the most fun part - its rewarding for the baby because you are responding appropriately to his attempts to communicate with you, and its rewarding for you to know that you know your baby and his needs so very well. Its just a fun, no-stress, casual thing to do, and I hope you try it with your baby sometime!

Anyway, enjoy a few sweet pics of Asher at 5 months old! (I keep trying to get videos but they are not turning out...)


And one of him on the potty way back when he was only about 6 weeks old!

From 2010 07 31potty

The last warm day... or, the first cold day

Well once I posted on the blog that it was 70 degrees, nature decided to change it up. We had our first snow over the weekend! Gregory was finally big enough to go out and really play in it this year. He made his first snowman, with Daddy's help, and then had fun throwing snowballs at trees. We are talking about getting a sled, or as he suggests, a toboggan. There is a HUGE sledding hill a few blocks away at the park, but it would be much too big for him. I suppose we could just go partway up, but I have a feeling he would be very tempted to want to try it from the top. I think its too steep even for grown-ups!



Also enjoy Asher's verbal stylings...

Well its not winter here...yet!

So the last three days we have had about 70 degree weather, beautiful, sunny, a little breeze, and tonight we even had a little thunderstorm. Yes, it is November 10th. Yes, this is Minnesota. Chalk it up to global warming, but hey, I'll take it! We have been outside enjoying the blissful weather because we *know* it can't last forever!

Anyway, for Halloween, Gregory dressed up as a Superhero. I made his costume, which was a success except for the mask, which was uncomfortable for him if we tied it tight enough to make it stay on his head. Oh well! We went trick-or-treating with some friends and had a fabulous time! Last year, it was very cold and Greg didn't really get what was going on. He tried to run inside at the first house. This year, he was totally on the ball and kept up with the other kids, and even said "Trick-or-Treat!" and "thank you!" We didn't let him eat much candy, but he didn't even ask for it the next day and didn't seem to feel deprived at all. I am sure we won't be able to keep it from him in the future but its nice to have been able to get away with that this year! Asher rode around in my orange wrap, and I pinned on some eyes and a mouth that made it look like a jack-o-lantern, and I wrapped some green fabric around his hat to look like a stem. It was pretty cute considering the minimal effort!


Otherwise, we are just having fun around here and doing our thing. We have a pretty great routine with playgroups and preschool. Gregory is figuring out how to make Asher laugh, and I am sure it is the highlight of his day when Asher wakes up and he gets to "be sweet to him," which is exactly what it sounds like. Asher has been having plenty of naked time lately, in an effort to help him develop his body awareness and maybe start rolling over one of these days. He sometimes makes it from front to back, but I think its mostly still accidental, and he really has no clue how to go from back to front, though he did actually do it in his sleep this morning, oddly enough. I am sure its only a matter of time, and while I want to make sure he is developing as best he can, I have to admit, I want him to stay tiny and immobile because he's just so stinkin' adorable!