Tooth!!

Asher's first tooth is here! Now he's only half as miserable. I cannot wait till #2 pokes through. Hopefully it'll be within the week. You may or may not be ambivalent about this news. I haven't complained much about it online. Home, on the other hand, is a different story. I'm so excited to get my happy baby back soon!

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.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day, but not because Joseph and I celebrate our love. We do that every day with the little things we do for each other. I love it because it's my birthday eve! But more on that in a later post.

Since I've had kids, especially since I had my Akiko, Valentine's Day has become more special and fun to celebrate. For the last couple years, we've made our own cards for Akiko's dance and preschool classes. This year was no different except now we had twice as many to make now that Moses is in preschool. So the cards were kept simple.

Here is Akiko's end product:

This is what most cards looked like on front and back.

This is the first card she did. It was taking her a long time, so I had her simplify the next 19 cards and we designated this one for her teacher.

Akiko did most of her own stamping, but she got tired about halfway through. I finished stamping them for her, according to her instructions. She signed them all herself though and drew little pictures inside them, too. Hearts and stars and the like.

Moses' cards I did all the stamping because 1) He's not quite old enough for me to trust him with them and 2) he wasn't interested in stamping anyway. He was, however, excited to sign his name in them. Here are how his turned out:

The front - simple

The inside - Notice Moses' mostly legible name :)

Well, Moses did a great job signing and drawing in his cards, but he lost steam after half of them. Akiko asked us if she could finish Moses' cards for him. Personally, I wanted Moses' touch, but Moses gave her the go ahead. Here is what I found, in order:

A swirl inside a star inside a heart. Cute.

A simple heart

Two boys playing

Two girls playing

This is where it starts to get fun... and funny!

A girl named "Sarea" and Moses showing off their snowman pictures.

"Wer playeg hapskach" --> We're playing hopscotch. Hmm. Hopscotch. Okay!

"Wer at the bech" --> We're at the beach. The beach? In February? Sounds cold.

Not exactly sure what this is. A race? But please notice the sun's long, beautiful hair.

 And last, but certainly not least:

"Wer takeg a sawr" --> We're taking a shower.

 Wait! What? Let's take a closer look at that one:

Yes. That's a little boy and a little girl in the shower together. I have no idea how this relates to Valentine's Day. Well, maybe... but still. This one will not be going to school with Moses tomorrow. It's going in our personal archives.

Not to exclude Asher from the festivities...

Chelsie sent the kids some darling valentines with some almond Kisses in the box. My wonderful older children left the Kisses on the living room floor where the baby found them. Here's what toothless Asher did to a couple of them:

Thankfully, since they were still in their wrappers, there wasn't a huge chocolate mess to clean up. 

He doesn't look like he loved them, but he did.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

 

Hey, I've Had Practice

This morning I had the pleasure to watch my nephews, Noah and Daniel. They are four-and-a-half and three, respectively. We saw them for a little bit in November, when grandma was dying, but I really haven't seen them since we moved to California over a year ago. We had a blast. I love those boys!

Well, Noah, at his tender young age, has become quite an avid "gamer." His term, not mine. He got pretty excited when I told him I'd play Super Mario Bros. with him.

So, he set us up a two-player game: he as Mario, I as Luigi. Well, he almost got to the end of level 1-2 when he lost his life down a shaft, then it was my turn. I kept hearing, "Wow!" and "You're really good!" until I passed the point where Mario had fallen. Then silence.

I thought nothing of it. I was having fun. I didn't think I'd make it very far at all since it had been many years since I played the game. Then I heard Noah whimpering about level 2-3. I turned to look at him and found a frown on his otherwise smiley face. I kept playing for a bit. More whimpering.

Finally, I asked him what was wrong. No response, just more whimpering, but it was sounding closer to crying. Finally, I got to level 3-1. Noah was not a happy gamer, so I turned to him and asked, "Are you upset that I keep playing?"

I received a glare in response.

"Would you like to play Luigi for me?"

"Okay!" And so I relinquished my controller to him.

After he had exhausted all the lives of both Mario and Luigi, he turned to me and said, "I think I just like playing one player when you're here." And then he commented on how surprisingly good my Super Mario skills were. 

I told him that I had played the game a lot when I was younger. It was then that I noticed the copyright date on the title screen: 1985.

"Hey Noah, guess what?" I stated, "This game was brand new when I was your age. This came out when I was four years old. It's given me a lot of time to practice." 

Noah's eyes went huge with awe as he said with reverence, "Wow. This game must be really old."

Thanks Noah!! For the record, I never have beaten the game. You'll have one up on me in no time.

12 Years to Go

This afternoon, while Akiko was working on her homework, she admitted to me that she doesn't really like going to school. I was a little confused because she seems to really enjoy it. She adores her teacher. She's got lots of friends and she is usually very enthusiastic when she tells me about her day (unless it's a day where they learned something she already knew).

So, I asked her to explain why she didn't like going to school. She said, "Well, all we do all day is art projects, or playing, or recess, or snacks."

More confusion. "Really?" I reply, "I thought you liked doing all that stuff."

"Well, I do, but that's all we do."

"Okay... Well, is there anything that you do like at school?"

"I like the sound of scissors as they cut paper."

"Yeah, it does make a cool sound. What is it about school that you really don't like the most?"

"Well, I don't like that I have to be away from you all day for so long."

Oh, Akiko!! You little sweetheart!! You have no idea how much I miss you while you're away at school, too.

The home-school idea was toyed with at one point, but I don't have either the energy nor the time it would take for me to research how to do that. Besides, Akiko is like me when someone close to her tries to teach her something. She feels overwhelmed almost immediately. I tend to jump ahead or over-think things when I teach, especially when it comes to Akiko. We felt public school was the best option for all of us. Private school is, financially, out of the question (more than out-of-state tuition at the U).

Perhaps today was an exception. Her teacher has been out of the country for a couple weeks and was supposed to return today. She was out sick, however. I don't think Akiko liked the substitute today (it wasn't the same one that had taken over while her teacher was gone).

I guess her announcement today kind of shocked me because it seemed to me, like I said before, that she really loved going to school. Maybe this was just a one-time thing. I know Akiko was expecting to see her teacher today and was really excited about it. She made her a card last night that said, "I messd you so much."

So, while I expect that she'll still go to school for the next 12.5 years, if it really isn't working for her, then we'll definitely look into other options. I do think it's really sweet that the biggest reason is that she just misses me. We really do have a special bond.

Scripture Bag

So, I feel bad. I didn't document Moses' graduation from Nursery to Sunbeams. One reason is that I'm not particularly sure when it happened. A lot of people in our ward, kids and teachers, were out of town for the holidays, so the class transition didn't happen the first Sunday in January. Then there was news that the Primary presidency was getting switched, and then, at least for me, things got really confusing because I wasn't sure where I was supposed to be either.

But I'm pretty sure that Moses is officially a Sunbeam now. I'm also certain where my place in Primary is, too.

Well, despite all the confusion for me about Primary, it did give me an extra couple weeks to get one of my projects done that kept getting pushed back because other projects kept coming up that were a little more urgent. Please, don't ask me how or why I give my craft projects priority, but it just happens.

Well, with Moses' promotion into Primary he received from me a personalized handmade crocheted scripture bag, complete with his very own copy of The Book of Mormon and a Children's Songbook.

He proudly carried it to and around church yesterday. During sacrament, he would take out his songbook and sing along during the hymns. He was super excited to have one all his own with his name on it and everything.

The scripture bag is something that I started when Akiko went into Sunbeams.

As you can see, Akiko's bag is starting to look a little tattered and frayed, but she has lovingly and faithfully carried it to church every week for the last two years. She'll get a new one, and a new set of scriptures, in a couple years when she gets baptized.

So, while the kids can't read, though that's less true for Akiko nowadays, there's a great source of pride for them to have their very own Book of Mormon. At night time, when it's time for scriptures and prayer, if we're not having them recite one that they've memorized, they'll ask "Can we read out of MY Book of Mormon tonight?"

Having the kids get to know the scriptures and be excited for them is something that is really important to us. It's also good incentive for me to get into a better habit of regularly reading mine, so that I can be a good example to my kids. That's why I make scripture bags for my kids.

And in case you were wondering what is on the other side of Moses' bag... Well, I really wanted to do something church related, but Moses really wanted...

 

... a train. Moses and those big brown eyes got to me and I gave him what he wanted. I'm a sucker. No, it's not Thomas, he has too many details, but the number 1 and the three wheels are an homage to him.

Third Tooth

Akiko lost her third tooth tonight! She's got three more that will be falling out really soon, but they aren't quite loose yet. I guess the Tooth Fairy needs to track down some change now.