Two Weeks Notice

On Wednesday I gave my two weeks notice! Yay! That means that August 10 will be my last day. I haven't set a start date for my next job, but Melanie and I plan on taking at least two weeks between jobs to relax and enjoy each other (and Asher) and visit some of her family.

It's been kind of a slow process, I started looking seriously about 6 months ago. But it's a job that I really think I'll like. I'll be doing the same general thing (patents), but at a bigger firm with more career potential and varied work opportunities. We're excited. We even bought an ice cream cake to celebrate :)



Asher really wanted some of the ice cream cake, but being the responsible father I am, I wouldn't let him have any. Instead, I fed him some yummy rice cereal! Here he is after an enjoyable feeding session with dad.

Play Zone

Now that Asher scoots around everywhere we have worked on creating a play zone for him.
Here's the process:

One blanket worked okay for a while but then he would move his way off the blanket. And since blankets are easier to wash his spit and spit-up off of, this was the next course of action:

Blankets everywhere:) But I had to continually fix the blankets because he would grab them and move them. Also, even with this many blankets he would somehow spit-up in the cracks and still get the carpet.

So we ordered this:

It was delivered Saturday, so over the weekend we were able to set up Asher's new play zone.

Or as Daddy likes to call it- "the fun cage!"

Asher loves it. It's bright, colorful, and easy to clean, Yay!

Of course, who needs an actual play pen when you can play in the box it came in?

I really do think this was Asher's favorite, and Dad's too!

Here's a video of Asher playing in his "fun cage."


BONUS PICTURE:

I just had to add this picture, it's another of my favorites.

Happenings

This coming weekend is a heat advisory, again. It's suppose to get to 115! But last week we had a great thunderstorm with lots of bright lightning.

Here's the downfall from our balcony.

However, I don't think that Asher enjoyed the thunder:)

The rain of course just makes it more humid here. Welcome to Virginia in July!

Last weekend Ryan played in a basketball tournament.

They didn't win, but Ryan did really well and scored quite a few points.

After the game, Ryan and I went to the theater. We tried to watch Harry Potter, but I think the roaring dragon scared Asher, so we had to leave. Instead we watched a more family-friendly movie, The ZooKeeper. It was pretty entertaining. (We went to Harry Potter later after we got Tayzlie to babysit for us)

After the movie we had lunch at an old-fashioned burger and shake joint. Yummy! Especially the apple pie shake.

Next we went to the bike shop to buy Asher a bike trailer and a helmet.

Asher so cute in his new helmet.


Asher's new ride!


He loves it!


Asher fell asleep. He is super cute. He does need to grow a little bit for a better fit, but it still works.

Last Thursday I went to Relief Society Enrichment Night.

It was a barbeque and a 'feet treat'. We had to 'walk in someone else's shoes.' Really, we had to bring a shoe of our own that describes us or represents a particularly memorable moment in our life. Of course, my shoe was my cowgirl boot:)

Eating dinner.

Here's my treats that I brought.

Chocolate dipped fruit with homemade whip cream and whoopie pies.

The group photo.

5 month Old

Asher is now 5 months old! He is growing up so quickly. He is getting to be a lot more active. I can't imagine how it's going to be when he starts crawling, I'm already having a hard enough time with him scooting everywhere. But he is a lot of fun and it's awesome being able to see him develop and learn new skills.

First of all, Asher is a great sleeper. He is sleeping 9-10 hours every night, and he takes 2-3 naps everyday that are 1-2 hours each. This gives him plenty of time to move around his crib and get in ridiculous positions.

He loves to sleep on his side. When we put him in his crib most times he will automatically roll on his side. Usually he is on his stomach by morning, and either falling between the mattress and bars or has his head in the corner. He is a happy boy right away, unless he hasn't gotten enough sleep then he will fuss and we give him his pacifier and he falls back to sleep until he is ready to wake up happy.

Like I said earlier, Asher is scooting around everywhere. See videos in the post below for the live action:)

He is getting much more coordinated and can now stay up on his hands and knees. He hasn't figured out the crawling but it's just a matter of time. He gets up like this and rocks back and forth and will throw himself forward onto his chest to move. Of course sometime this results in face-planting it.

He is ticklish now, except he doesn't laugh. He wiggles around and sort of does this little giggle, then buries his head and tries to get away. I can't blame him, I don't like being tickled either.

He squeals and talks all the time now. Sometimes I think he surprises himself still when he gets a particularly loud scream in.

We have started feeding him rice cereal now. We tried a month ago, but he didn't show much interest. He would eat it, but would never finish and would get frustrated because he just wanted his bottle.

He does much better now and eats amazingly well. He eats everything and doesn't miss a drop. So far he isn't too messy, I hope it stays that way. He is such a smart little boy- he gets so excited when I make him a bottle. If I am holding him while I make his bottle, he will sit there contently until I pull out the formula. We use Enfamil in the big yellow tub and when I pull that out of the cupboard he gets so excited. He starts grabbing for it and talking. I've tried to trick him with other things but nothing works. He knows what his food looks like! He is such a big boy and keeps growing so fast, it's going to be hard keeping up with his appetite:)

(Okay, so the above picture was taken a month ago, while the below picture I just took recently. Just look at how much he has grown in a month!)

He does like to put everything in his mouth now just like any baby.

We have these numbers and letters that he loves to chew on. They make this cute little squeaking sound against his gums, it's so funny.

He has started to suck on his lower lip, or bite it. I'm not sure which but he always has such a funny face because he has his lower lip in his mouth. He now knows how to spit and blows raspberries all the time. His favorite thing to suck on is still his hands or a blanket, but he does give his toys their fair turn.

I feel like this last month he has really taken an interest in actually playing with his toys. Before he just grabbed at them and moved on. Now he grabs at them and holds on.

He is definitely growing up. It is fun to see what features are going to be dominant and to see more and more what he will look like.

Though some of his faces are just too cute, they make me laugh:)

Because he is getting so active it is hard to keep him entertained.

He entertains himself a lot of the time, but he likes to switch things up. I am constantly changing him from his rocker, to his highchair, to his blanket, to his crib, to his stroller. Whew!

I did have fun making him some new toys. I'm glad that he seems to like them.

He is so much fun and I'm so glad I get to be his mom. The one thing I wish I could do is show him off to all my family. I guess the blog will have to do until we move closer;)

Asher's Got Moves!

Here are some fun videos of Asher moving around!

His method of scooting is great. He can really move. In the video he has an object in sight so he takes him time but there are moments when he can really move.

I love this video from above. It shows his little legs pumping.

Good-bye Harry Potter!

I must admit that my favorite books are the Harry Potter books. I still remember getting Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It was on my birthday, my dad gave it to me for a birthday present. He knew how much I liked to read and had heard that Harry Potter was this new book that was really good and becoming popular so he got it for me. At the time, I was in high school and I remember thinking I was too cool for little kid books. But that weekend was General Conference weekend so I started to read it since I was home all day- and I didn't put it down. I am so not to old for kid books (and will never be)!
I have read all 7 books multiple times. And I have now seen all 8 movies. I do like the movies. Of course there just isn't the time to go onto all the details that are in the books, but most the movies do an excellent job of telling the story. I also think they did an excellent job casting the movies. I love that the actors stayed the same through the whole series and they so fit their descriptions. I mean, come on, Luna Lovegood was better than my imagination!
Yesterday, Ryan and I went and saw Harry Potter 7, part 2. Though details from the book were missing (as expected) I really enjoyed the movie and felt it was a good end to the greatness. But at the same time I'm kind of sad because there is no more Harry Potter to look forward to. It truly is at an end.

Small side rant: I suppose it only stays so great because it does end. I really hate those 'serial writers' that just keep writing they end up killing a good thing. Some of those stories have great beginnings and I look forward to the next installment but after a while, stop dragging it out and give me some closure! Or there are very few authors who can take a great story that has concluded but then bring in other characters and tell a new story using the old story's foundation. (Rick Riordan is one of the few, everyone just shouldn't try. You'll ruin a good thing!)

Babysitting- Take 2!

I babysat Reed this time. He also lives in our building and is only 4 weeks older than Asher. This babysitting job was less stressful, but that might be because it was only about a half hour and Reed is kind of just chill.

Here are the boys.

A big smile from Reed. I guess I pass as babysitter:)
Asher was the one that was moving around this time and getting in Reed's space.

I hung their toys up from our coffee table and it worked great as a little play area for them.

Reed had on a 0nesie that Asher also owns, so I just had to change Asher so they matched!

They are both "handsome like Daddy"

But I think I started a 'my daddy is better than your daddy competition.'

Eyeing each other. Gotta size up the competition.


Asher making his statement. "Wipe those words off your shirt, my dad's the best."

Overall, we had fun hanging out with Reed even if Asher is a bit competitive (like mom). And since Reed's grandparents live in Morgan just like Asher's, we hope they get to stay friends even if we aren't always neighbors:)

Sleeping All Night!

Asher has been growing so fast, I can hardly believe it. But the best think about it is that he now sleeps through the night! Just the other day we put him to bed at 7:15 and he slept all the way until 6:00 the next morning. It is becoming normal to put him down around 8 or 9, and he will sleep until 6 or 7. How I love a good night's sleep!

Babysitting

This week I babysat for our neighbors, the King's. Their little girl, Laneia, is 6 weeks older than Asher. It was an impromptu job because Poppy had an accident at work and had to get stitches so Adam dropped Laneia off with me.

Now I'm sure every parent feels this way but I appreciate/like Asher much better:) Maybe it's just that having 2 infants to care for at the same time, or maybe Laneia needed her own parents to be there, but it was pretty stressful at times. Lots of crying and wanting to be held by both, which Asher usually doesn't cry very often but I think whenever Laneia would cry, he just joined in.

Other times, I think he just wasn't sure what to think;)

I was nervous because I had to drive Ryan into DC and was worried that they would cry the whole time. But they were actually great. Laneia fell asleep and Asher just sat contently. Of course when we got home, they both needed a diaper change!
This is how Laneia helped me change Asher's diaper. The poor kid!

What did one baby say to the other baby? ...nothing.

They were good at the same time for a little bit. They played with the blocks I made and I took a bunch of pictures. They were pretty cute.

The cutest picture of Asher.

Laneia playing rough.

Laneia can crawl around, whereas Asher can only roll over and scoot in circles. So Laneia would crawl over to Asher and sit on him or grab hold of him and there wasn't much he could do.

Still playing rough! Asher just got in her way. (though he can't really move)

Poor Asher needs to toughen up!

Play time!

It was funny because they don't know how to play together, but they would grab at each other and get in each others way. It was fun having them 'play' together, but I'm glad it's back to just Asher and me. I just love my boy and being able to spoil him with all my attention.