How to elicit squeals of parental delight

It's been quite a tricky week. I think Asher must be having some kind of growth spurt, because he's spent a LOT of time feeding and, when not feeding, rather more time than usual crying. Hard work for me!

Having said that, he has spent at least a few minutes each day being charming. During these periods he has exhibited his latest skill...

That's right! Asher can SMILE!!! This is of course ridiculously adorable and all that his besotted parents can do is watch him lovingly, responding to his smiles with high pitched squeals of delight as we go weak at the knees.

Has he grown?

We took Asher to be weighed this morning. Noah and I had a little bet on how heavy he would be. Noah won (which meant he got to choose tonight's dinner) but I was happy because our little chap is putting on weight at an acceptable rate. Hardly surprising, considering how often he wants milk!

Anyway, I thought I'd have a competition. Here's Ash this morning, looking all cute in his tiger suit:

How heavy do you think he is? Answer in the comments, and whoever's closest will get... kudos. Lots of kudos. And a cuddle with Asher at the next opportunity.

Noah, you may not enter. You've already benefitted once from this weighing!

Happy Boy

Here's what Ash had to say as I got dressed this morning:

This boy knows how to make up for giving us a sleepless night!

Bathing Baby

It is so much easier looking after a tiny baby when there's another adult around! It's been lovely having my mum to stay this week. She's been there to hold Asher so I could do things like having a bath (or even getting some sewing done!) and has been wonderful at cooking us delicious healthy meals and tidying up afterwards. Thanks, Mum!

Meanwhile, Asher has been eating (a lot), sleeping (a bit), crying (more today than usual; I wish I knew why!) and being sick (frequently, on everybody, especially if they're wearing something clean).

We've got a new bedtime routine in place for Ash, which involves him having a bath every evening. He does seem to enjoy being in the water and it really calms him down - although being taken out and dressed frequently negates the effect... After his bath we put him in his sleeping bag and I feed him in our bed, where he stays until he's settled. On a couple of occasions he has slept for 3-4 hours after this treatment!

How Asher sleeps these days

Anyway, I'm a bit nervous because I'm about to attempt baby bathing all on my own for the first time (except for the baby, obviously). Wish me luck!

One Month

Asher is one month old today!

He is already so big compared to when he was born. (Though still seems tiny compared to the three-month-old babies I know). He is starting to be able to do more things as well. He can follow an object with his eyes and sometimes even turns his head to watch something he's interested in (usually a black and white picture or his hungry caterpillar rattle).

When he's on his tummy he pushes up and sometimes lifts his head a bit. And he's starting to turn his head to look in the direction of an interesting sound (again usually his hungry caterpillar rattle - that was a good present!)

He still likes to feed every 1-3 hours, for anything from 20 minutes to (some evenings) four or five hours! And he still prefers to sleep in someone's arms. Although two nights ago we tried a new trick: I put his mattress on our bed and fed him lying down, with him on his own mattress, then when he was sound asleep Noah lifted mattress, baby and all into the Moses basket. It actually worked - he stayed asleep for two or three hours. Hooray!

Oh, he loves bath time - at least, he seems very content in the warm water, which is probably the closest we can get at the moment. He loves to look at anything bright - windows in the daytime and lights in the night. He has one particular favourite light - the one over the sofa in the living room - which he turns his head to look at whenever he can. For some reason he prefers the one by the wall to the apparently identical one in the middle of the room. Maybe it's really the reflections in the photo frames he likes to look at?

And he hates his arms to be enclosed. He always fights them out of the blankets, and he pushes against me if he's awake in the sling. He seems to like to arch his back and tilt his head as far back as it will go; his favourite sleeping position is with his head tilted back and sideways. It looks really uncomfortable. Crazy baby!

Some fun photos from this week:

Asher's first all-you-can-eat buffet
(Only joking... I'm his first all-you-can-eat buffet!)

The Speckled Hen

We went out for lunch yesterday at a local pub.

Here's Asher, looking somewhat worse for wear...

Posing with Daddy's cider

At this point I want to make it absolutely clear that we did not give any cider to our baby. Noah was holding him, decided to lie him on the table (at which point the waitress came in and asked, "You're not going to eat that baby, are you?") - before we knew it there was a HPO*. What can I say? We're going for a picture every day, after all, and we have to find some way to stop them all being straight up face photos.

Everyone taking photos of Asher

Anyway, we all enjoyed our lunch, and Asher did actually lie quite happily in his pram for about half the duration of the meal. Not asleep though.

Whilst amusing, the above photo doesn't really do justice to his cuteness. So here's one from today: Ash hanging out with Daddy, wearing the trousers I finished making just before he was born. They are from another Made By Rae pattern and took months to make because my old sewing machine broke before they were finished. I'm rather pleased because I finally got chance this afternoon to cut out the pieces for the next pair. It's nice having grandparents around!

I need to work out how to make t-shirts too

*Hilarious Photo Opportunity

Rocking

Asher had his first ever go on his rocking horse today (with a little help from Daddy).

This baby rocks!

He seemed perfectly happy (and looked very cute). He may be too small to actually appreciate such things, but he does generally enjoy a rocking motion, so who knows? Noah tried to fit his feet in the stirrups but of course his legs - despite the speed with which they are outgrowing his various newborn babygrows - were far too short.

This is the same rocking horse I mentioned at Christmas - the one that used to belong to my brother Thom 20 years ago, and which I had no idea was still rocking out in a distant relative's attic, having been enjoyed by various cousins. Quite the family heirloom!

In other news, Asher's receding hairline is making him look more and more old-mannish, especially when he wrinkles his forehead and pulls one of his comically grumpy faces. His head control is getting slightly better, although he would not reproduce the quite excellent push-up he managed to execute yesterday when the camera was nowhere in sight.

Tummy Time

And me? I had half an hour this afternoon when Ash was sleeping on Noah during which I managed to clear my sewing table. Whether I'll get chance to actually use it in the near future remains to be seen...

Bonus cute photo