October Moments

As it happens, I don't tend to carry my camera very often when I'm just out and about with Asher. (I'm too busy carrying the baby, plus the bag full of nappies, waterproofs, water bottle, emergency change of clothes and whatever books and toys are deemed necessary for that day's entertainment). But I can take photos with my phone. They're not going to win any photography awards, but I love these snaps because they capture day to day life with my baby. Here's what's been happening over the past few weeks:

Bedtime story with Daddy. Asher insists on turning all the pages himself.

Sleepy face in the morning sunshine

Undaunted by the impressive slices of tomato in the salad at Ikea

Banging on windows. A favourite occupation.

Playing with a ball and a big box

... I actually have no idea what was going on here...

Sleeping in the sling

Exploring... and getting slightly stuck!

Playing with ALL of the tupperware boxes whilst Mummy cooks tea

Wait a second... that's not a swing!!

Looking adorable (as always)

Spotting Mummy in the mirror

Ash-man to the rescue!

Enjoying his first experience of soft play

Riding on Mummy's back and looking over her shoulder. Saw lots of dogs. Win.
(Yes. Mummy is terrible at selfies.)

Loving the touch and feel version of Dear Zoo from the library.
(Very curious here about the lion's mouth/hole in page)

And today: a first ever taste of chocolate cake in Thornton's cafe.

How tight is too tight?

It's all happening over at the sewing blog this week. It's "Kids' Clothes Week" and I've been making things for Asher.

Also pictured are his first ever shoes (I didn't make those... wish I had!)

The question really is... can boys wear leggings? I made him these tight stretchy trousers (which I think just look cute) and they did a great job of staying on for his first ever soft play session (which he loved!) and a trip to the playground. So definitely practical. But I can tell Noah doesn't like them... he keeps asking things like "So, you like the tight trousers look?"

So what do you think? Should I make more pairs?

Baby Skills

Asher is definitely crawling rather than wriggling these days. He's getting quicker and quicker too! But even better than crawling is holding a friendly adult's hands and walking and walking and walking. He has a very cute way of holding up one hand to grab mine, pulling up, then standing absolutely still with his other hand up until I take hold of that one too. Then he's off! He can pull up on the furniture or his baby walker but he doesn't like to move around by clinging on to inanimate objects. Mummy's fingers are best!

His standing up skillset is developing too. He is now able to bend down from standing to pick something up from the floor. He usually manages to land on his bottom or all fours if he's standing up and wants to get down (although a bit of grown-up help is still appreciated). He still hasn't figured out how to get from lying down to sitting up, though. In fact I don't even know how babies manage that!

Other current skills include turning the pages and lifting the flaps when we read to him. He's starting to recognise his favourite pages too. In case you're wondering, these are the lion page in Dear Zoo, and the page in Hairy Maclary which was always my least favourite: Scarface Claw doing his big "Eeeeeeeowfftz" thing. Hmm, quite a cat theme there...

He can open drawers (so effectively that I have now removed the contents of the coffee table drawers and replaced them with things Asher is allowed to play with, like plastic boxes, bits of fabric and my star shaped silicone cupcake cases, which actually make fantastic baby toys).

And towers. Asher is fantastic at knocking down towers. Every now and then I give him a block or cup and encourage him to put it on top of the structure I'm working on. But he's not going to be fooled by that. Oh no. Towers are for knocking down, Mummy!

Oh, he can high five. When he feels like it. I have to hold my hand up and give a verbal cue, then he hits his little hand on mine. It's so cute! He was high fiving a stranger on the train the other day... I think that brightened up everyone's journey.

Letting go. He's really getting into letting go of stuff. That makes mealtimes interesting! But it helps him to play a bit more effectively. Sometimes we play "catch" - I throw his ball to him, he picks it up, gives it a chew, waves it around a bit and lets go. Quite often it flies in my direction. Excellent entertainment.

He's still a real social baby. Some of his happiest times are when we go to meet Noah at work for lunch. The whole team will sit and eat together, and Asher loves all the attention they give him. Most days he favours them with his trademark Asher smile. Here it is!

Outside

Asher loves to go outside at the moment.

He enjoys investigating the world. He wants to touch as many different things as he can, and if possible he'd like to put them in his mouth. When we go out with the sling he likes to have his arms free. He stretches them out as if he's doing an aeroplane impression, reaching out for everything we walk past. One of his favourite games is for me to stop as we go along so that he can touch things. It doesn't matter what. Lamp posts, telegraph poles, tree trunks, hedges, fences, walls... he just has a huge happy grin when we stop so he can feel things with his fingers. Of course, if he can, he'll try and taste things too. He doesn't normally get chance in the sling, but if he's on the ground he sometimes sneaks something into his mouth before I can stop him.

Like this leaf at the playground the other week.

Sorry the picture is blurry. I really struggle to get sharp pictures of this little fellow because he moves so fast! He's never still, except when he's asleep (and not always then).

Even when he's inside he still likes looking at the wide world out there.

The weather is getting colder (and warmer again... and colder again... and warmer again... but you get the picture!) - I need to get some proper outdoor gear for the little fellow so that his exploration won't be too restricted by the winter.

In fact I think he's going to love the wind, rain, mud, snow and hail that may be in store over the next few months.

I wonder how I'm going to stop him eating it.

Bath Time!

Here's Ash in the bath this evening. Noah was pouring water slowly from a cup at standing height and Asher kept trying to grab hold of the resulting cascade. He was having so much fun :)

Creamy Goodness

I thought it was about time I tried some messy play with Asher. One idea I'd seen was to whip up some cream, add different colours of food colouring and let the baby 'paint' with it. I though that painting and different colours might be a bit beyond where Ash is at the moment, so I decided we'd start just with simple whipped cream and take it from there.

I whipped up the cream in front of him and he was trying to get his hands in there before I'd even finished. I showed him what I was doing then put the bowl down on the tuff spot as soon as it was whipped. Asher got his hands in the bowl straight away...

... and they were into his mouth before I'd even put the whisk down. He obviously liked the cream because he spent a couple of minutes just eating it.

Although I hadn't exactly intended for him just to eat a lot of cream, I was very interested to see that he was quite capable of dipping his hands in and sucking it off his fingers. This isn't a technique I've ever seen him use at mealtimes. Maybe that's because I don't usually trust him with a bowl in his high chair (too easy to fling!)

As you can see, I spread some cream out on the tray, patted it, and used my finger and the whisk to draw lines and shapes. Asher maybe patted it a couple of times but he was a lot more interested initially in eating the cream, and subsequently in trying the utensils in his mouth.

I also tried splatting handfuls of cream down on the tray. But again he wasn't really interested. I guess he really is still all about putting things into his mouth. (Although I think he might be teething too - maybe the cold cream was soothing on his gums).

Does this mean he's too little for this kind of play? I'm not sure. At the end he crawled to me and tried to grab my hands to stand up, but we were both so creamy that it felt dangerously slippy. He did get to his feet - but immediately slipped over again in the pile of cream! So not a fantastic conclusion to the activity. Having said that, after we'd got him all clean and changed we came back downstairs and it looked like he wanted to have another go in his cream pit.

Maybe we'll try again next week and see how it goes.

What Asher would say if he could?

Just a few grainy, blurry phone snaps which give an idea of what day to day life is like for young master Ash.

"Yay! Look at all the things I could grab while I'm in here!"

"Oooh, she left the door open. Maybe I can escape!"

"I'm the size-changing wonder baby. MASSIVE when Grandma wears me in the sling...

... and tiny when it's Daddy!"

"Hmmm. I wonder if I could pull these down? Then I could chew on them!"

"Where are we, Mummy?"

"I must not let go of my car seat handle."

"Hmmm. I wonder if I could pull these down? Then I could chew on them too!"

"OOOOH! CDs! If I pull them out, I can chew on them AS WELL!"

"Oh yeah! Something to CHEW on!"

"I wonder why Daddy has collapsed in a heap on the floor. Oh well, might as well climb on him."

"Why does Mum keep putting things on my head? I won't tolerate it when I wake up, you know." 

"The cat! The cat! THE CAT!!!!"

"Wheeeee! I love nap time!!"

"Swings might be my absolute favourite invention ever."

"Hey, look everybody - I can chew on this!!!"

"I know this drawer has scissors inside. Why do you think I'm opening it?" *

"Right, time to chew on this ch- wait! Is that the cat?"

"Everybody say awwww"

"!"

"Every day should involve a swing."

"What do you mean I'm supposed to stack them? Clearly these clever magnetic bugs are for chewing on."

*Don't worry, I have since removed the scissors. In fact I took everything out of all the drawers and replaced the contents with baby safe objects from around the house. Since then Asher has shown considerably less interest in opening them...