Asher Update

Well, I turned 30 last week. It didn't end up being as big a deal as I thought it would be. But this post isn't about me. I promise I'll get that post written someday. I just don't feel like it right now.

Asher, on the other hand, needs a quick update. This kid... boy, he has a ton of stuff going on. If you remember, he started scooting across the floor at the tender age of five and a half months. Early.

Well, here we are, two months later, so here's what's happened, especially in the last two weeks:

Crawling

Asher's scooting quickly developed into an army crawl which he got really, really good and fast at. About four weeks ago, he started getting up on all four, but he wouldn't move forward, just rock back and forth. In the last three or four days, he has really started moving on all four, but just slowly and only a couple steps, for lack of a better word, at a time. Yesterday and today, he's been practicing a lot and only gets down for his army crawl when he wants to get somewhere quickly or if he gets really excited about something.

Making friends with... himself

Sitting

For as fast and far as Asher's been able to move around the house, the kid has had very little interest in staying put. If we sat him down, he would immediately lunge forward towards an object of desire. Recently, I've caught him crawling and stopping and then sitting, so that he can look around, then going back to crawling. The kid does not want to sit still. He is always on the move. Is this going to be a problem later on? Anyway, the boy can sit. He just doesn't want to.

Crawled on top of the box so he could play with the plant.

Pulling and Standing

Yes, seven and a half months old and already pulling himself up to stand against objects. And already on his way to cruising. I'll call it pre-cruising. If we had a staircase in our house, I'm sure he would be practicing going up them all the time. Favorite places to pull and climb: the fireplace and the DVD shelf. I smell trouble...

Talking

Asher's not terribly vocal, but he is loud. I can't tell you what his favorite thing to say is because his vocalizations are all over the place. The other day, however, he did say, "Mmmbop," and then I had that stinkin' Hanson song stuck in my head all day.

Teeth

Well, I went to Utah with Asher and Moses at the beginning of the month, which there ought to be a post about, but I took hardly any pictures, and it was not much more than visiting family and wedding planning and shopping. I got very little sleep, and of course the trip threw off the sleep schedules of the boys as well. So, a few days after we got back, Asher's not very scheduled sleep schedule was more or less back on track... for a few short nights, anyway.

Then, our happy little Asher turned into a grumpy, needy little gremlin with a gloriously wet nose and mouth. This is the first time I've dealt with a teether like this one. With Akiko and Moses, you hardly knew they were teething until about a day or two before their teeth came. Asher is a different story, but of course, he's also a different child than his siblings.

Sleepless nights. Hungry baby, but doesn't want to eat anything. Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. Clingy beyond belief. Loads of facial moisture oozing out constantly. Yeah, it's been tons of fun! =P

There is an end in sight, though. Hallelujah! I can see his first tooth is a day or two from erupting and the other one is close behind! I hope his teething pattern is like it was with his siblings: 2-2-4-4-8. Yeah, that was eight molars all at the same time. But then they were done by 18 months.

It had been a long night for both of them.

Eczema

I know you're all dying to know, because I've had several people ask me how it's going.

Well, back in mid-November I outlined a regimen that we'd been using to try and control his terrible eczema. It ended up not working. At his six month checkup, we decided to try something stronger. I knew that if we could somehow could control what was itching poor Asher, his sores would become more manageable. Our doctor concurred. Lucky for me, she has another little patient, just older than Asher, who is going through the exact same thing, so she put Asher on the same medication as this other little girl.

Asher gets an oral antihistamine a couple times a day and topical steroids for his patches. It's not totally gone, but it's better and I feel like it's more under control. His face patch is touchy though. If we're not persistent with the cream, it'll flare up bad. So, for now, it's okay. I'm really hoping he'll start to grow out of it soon, but at least he's not actively trying to scratch himself all over anymore.


So, there you have it. That's all I can think of. I'll let you know when the teeth finally come through. You'll probably know because I'll start posting more regularly again.