Time Zone

It's 1:45 am. Asher has been asleep since 4pm yesterday (with feeding breaks of course). Turns out he does eventually fall asleep if he gets tired enough! I'm trying to convince him that it's time for more sleep, even though it's 6:45 in the morning in England and we're often up by then.

I don't mind too much because I went to bed shortly after 6 myself. But it would be nice if I don't have to do that every night of our visit!

Asher is really enjoying meeting his American relatives. Turns out Auntie Danielle is just as good at playing "whoosh" as Daddy. And she even changes his nappy *and* helps him put his toes in his mouth whilst she's at it.

Here's a blurry photo of Ash with his Nana on his first trip to Moe's (Mummy's favourite Mexican fast food restaurant) - we didn't get a photo at Taco Bell (Daddy's favourite Mexican fast food restaurant) but somehow I have a feeling we'll be going there again quite soon...

Kate's on a Plane!

Or rather, I will be in a few hours. More to the point, so will this little charmer. If the other passengers find him half as cute as I do, we might be ok.

(For ten hours. In a confined space. With a baby who gets grumpy when he needs a nap but refuses to go to sleep unless a pram or a rocking chair is involved.)

My aspiration for the flight is to remain as calm as possible. And to thank God for the chance to go and visit our far-away family. Regardless of how Asher feels about air travel.

I'll let you know how well Reality Kate lives up to Aspiration Kate's intentions!

Extreme Pramming

OK, maybe "extreme" is a bit of an exaggeration. But now that the weather is sufficiently un-freezing to make normal people want to come out of their houses, we've been able to take Asher for a couple of fun strolls. With the pram we have...

... climbed huge mountains!

... edged along terrifying precipices!

... tackled fearsomely steep cliffs!

... squeezed through impossibly tight spaces!

... and played football in ornamental gardens.

It was fun.

Also...

I climbed a tree! For the first time since Asher was born.

Hooray for being outside!

NB I'm wearing Noah's gloves in that photo... I don't actually have gorilla hands!

"Aw, Mum...

... What did you make me wear a hat like that for?"

(I would totally wear this hat myself, if only my head were small enough...)

Three Months (and a day)

What do we want to remember about Asher at three months?

His totally adorable smile, and the cute "oooh!" and "rrrr!" noises he makes when he is happy. He chats to us of course, but also loves talking to (and swiping at and sometimes chewing on) his favourite dangly toy, Lionel.

How he is just starting to discover his feet. He knows they exist when he's in the bath but I'm not sure if he's realised he has them the rest of the time too. He does know about both his hands now though!

How he's starting to grab hold of things. His favourite thing to hold (and stuff in his mouth) is a muslin. He can manage that. He's also very good at grabbing tight hold of my hair. If I put other objects in his hand he usually opens his mouth and puts his fist in his eye...

He is rapidly outgrowing his clothes. Asher is now wearing items I remember receiving and thinking it impossible that he would ever be big enough. At the same time, it's already hard to remember him being small enough to tuck under one arm for feeding. I'm sure he only used to take up half the space in his Moses basket but now his head and feet are touching the ends and we need to move him to his cot.

Ash is very keen to sit up. He hates being held in a lying-back position and will strain forward with his (quite impressive) tummy muscles. He also likes being held in a standing position; he takes his weight on his feet and stamps with his left one but keeps the right one still. His head control is really very good now - a bit jerky, but no more accidental leaning right back or right forwards.

Asher's favourite song is the Hokey Cokey - particularly the last part (woah, the Hokey Cokey!) When I lift his arms up and swoop in close to him. Similarly he likes playing Touch Noses (a fairly self-explanatory game!) and he happily watches me sing other action songs. If he's in the mood he likes to have his arms and legs moved to do the actions. Stories are fun too - he likes Go Baby Go! by Marilyn Janovicz. But his favourite activity is, of course, drinking milk.

And what about the things it might be better to forget? Like how he's decided not to sleep for longer than two hours before waking up and needing to be fed, rocked or cuddled for the rest of the night? He gets really upset because he's so tired and it's a lot of work to get him to sleep in the daytime too. We'd love him to go back to doing 5 or even 4 hours a night!

And the sick. Oh, the copious quantities of sick! Warm and wet and plentiful, Asher is keen to share this bounty with everyone and everything he encounters. Is it because he enjoys his baths so much that he wants to recreate the sensation every day? Or maybe it's a sign that he likes something... It must be: he's always being sick on me!

So. Asher at three months. Tiring, challenging... and a bundle of fun!

Family

Last weekend Asher got to meet his Great Grandparents. That was pretty special!

My Grandad is in hospital and we didn't know whether we'd be able to take Ash in, but the nurses kindly said we could and even let us all squeeze into the tiny day room on the ward. Asher was pretty cheerful and didn't cry at all, and Grandad felt well enough to hold him. Here they are together:

Asher also met his Uncle Luke for the first time. Uncle Luke isn't really interested in babies but he had a little go.

Who do you think looks more nervous?

When we got back to Grandma and Grandad's house my Mum suggested a four-generational photo... Grandma hates having her photo taken, but she agreed.

We didn't colour-coordinate on purpose...

It was pretty special to be there with Asher, in the house where my Mum was born and grew up and where I have so many happy childhood memories. Because my family has moved around the country so much, Grandma's house is the only place which really holds those early memories for me. It's a place that's been familiar all my life; it not only looks but also feels and smells familiar.

I can't believe we missed the chance to get a photo of Asher with my Auntie Ann - his Great Auntie I suppose, but it feels weird to call her that! They got on really well and Ann got plenty of Asher smiles. She was behind the camera for that last photo, so that will have to do.

Cheeky

Here's the smiley little fellow who decided that 1am was a good time to get up this morning and has been using me as a mattress all day. All those people who told us it gets easier after twelve weeks were clearly misinformed!

But Ash always makes up for such behaviour by doing something cute or amazing. Like this evening, in the bath, he was bunching his legs right up and I thought he had really bad wind until I noticed that he was staring intently at his toes. He kept trying to grab hold of them. Then he started doing little experimental kicks and splashes. This boy is literally finding his feet!