IMG_4616
Originally uploaded by SarabellaE

My mother made Asher a gorgeous batik quilt. She let me choose the design and the colors/fabrics. It looks fantastic in his room next to my mural.

Frostee, Asher, and I were having lunch last Thursday (1/24) at a sushi restaurant. Asher somehow leaned over in his high chair just wrong and bonked his mouth on the marble tabletop. He cried pretty hard and I could tell he was hurt, but I didn’t see it happen, so I wasn’t sure what he hit, exactly. After a few minutes he stopped crying. We finished our lunch and went on our way. About 20 to 30 minutes later, I noticed that his front left incisor was chipped. He knocked a small chip out of his tooth when he hit the table. 

Later, I could feel the jagged edge of the tooth when nursing him. I called our dentist/uncle and made an appointment.

This morning we went in to see the dentist. He agreed it would be best to smooth out the poky part. I held poor Asher’s body and head still while the assistant held down his arms and my uncle smoothed out the tooth with what looked and sounded like a tiny power grinder. Poor baby cried and struggled and turned bright red with frustration. Fortunately, it was over very quickly. He got a plastic bath toy out of the deal, but he seemed pretty pissed off about the experience. He’s currently sleeping it off. 

Before and After photos on flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37914323@N00/2226261841/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37914323@N00/2227052454/

I still have to take a picture showing the smoothed tooth. 

This name meme is a little too repetitive.What Lucas Alexander Means

You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.
You are light hearted and accepting. You don’t get worked up easily.
Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

You are a very lucky person. Things just always seem to go your way.
And because you’re so lucky, you don’t really have a lot of worries. You just hope for the best in life.
You’re sometimes a little guilty of being greedy. Spread your luck around a little to people who need it.

You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily.
You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind.
A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable.

You are usually the best at everything … you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic “Type A” personality.

You are the total package – suave, sexy, smart, and strong.
You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.
You don’t always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don’t have as much going for them as you do.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are incredibly sexy and sensual. You have a naughty vibe that no one can ignore.
You have an unquenchable desire. And you are unrestrained in your passions.
You have a tendency to be unfaithful. Whether you fight it or give in to it is up to you.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.
You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.
People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You’re always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You’re very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you’re likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What Asher Donovan Means

You are usually the best at everything … you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic “Type A” personality.

You are the total package – suave, sexy, smart, and strong.
You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.
You don’t always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don’t have as much going for them as you do.

You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.
Success comes rather easily for you… especially in business and academia.
Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You’re a strong person.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You’re always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can’t handle you. You’re very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you’re likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.
You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.
People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.

You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life.
You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you.
At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You are very hyper. You never slow down, even when it’s killing you.
You’re the type of person who can be a workaholic during the day… and still have the energy to party all night.
Your energy is definitely a magnet for those around you. People are addicted to your vibe.

IMG_4323
Originally uploaded by SarabellaE

Messy baby photos available.

I love this one to pieces.

Asher ate stewed onions for dinner tonight. It was the weirdest thing. I put one on his plate just to touch and he picked it up, placed it in his mouth, munched it, and swallowed. He then ate tons of them and was clearly disappointed when there were no more. Then he ate half a slice of bread dipped in beef and onion gravy. 

Asher and I had our first Mommy & Baby class today.

It’s really called Parent Child class, but I suspect it will be all mommies. Only one other pair was there as the class is still forming, but Peggy and Willow seem nice. The teacher is called Teacher Marie. She is intense, warm, strong, experienced, and has a lovely singing voice. I think we are going to enjoy our Tuesday mornings in the class. The babies played. The mommies and teacher chatted. We had a snack. We sang songs. We walked to the farm and visited the sheep and the llama. On the way, we watched the 3rd and 4th graders playing on recess. Asher liked the new toys in the classroom—all wooden and beautiful, many handmade. He liked the rattles and the dollies and the wooden animals and gnomes. He really liked a surprising item: metal disks from the ends of frozen juice tubes. They made a fantastic sound when they crashed into each other. The teacher said, “Yeah. I know. Funny, eh? These are some of the most popular items in the whole classroom.” Which, I gotta tell ya, was full of thousands of dollars worth of heirloom-quality toys. Kids are weird, and yet, I understand completely why these metal disks were so interesting to him.

He really loved Willow, a six-month-old. He wanted to touch her face, especially her nose. Asher can be a bit rough because he doesn’t know better, so I spent a lot of time right next to him trying to keep him from bopping her in the head.  One of the things Asher loves to do at home is look at his books full of pictures of babies. And here was Willow—a real baby in the flesh!

One of the things that mommies do, especially when they get together, is to share tricks of the trade, and figure out where each one stands on the GREAT PARENTING SPECTRUM, which basically goes from Attachment Parenting/EC/Waldorf/Organic/Raw/No TV/Hippy/Drives-a-Horse-and-Buggy on the far left and Traditional/Authoritative/Pro-spanking/TV/Junk Food/Republican/Drives-a-Hummer on the far right. So conversation meanders gradually through all these areas of choice. “If you do organic or all organic …”; “Well, I stay home …”; “He has been using the potty since …”; “We have a family bed …”; “I try to carry my baby …”; “These cloth diapers are so nice because …”; “I really have a problem with soy …”; “Back when I was raising my kids, I nursed ….”; “My poor husband was fed solids so early ….”; “This product is so good because …”; “I sew her clothing myself …”; “My mother made …”; “We avoid plastic …”; “Isn’t silk the most vibrant, warm fabric…”; “The infant and baby woolens are best…”; “Are you aware that you can get this here?” “It’s easy to make it yourself at home…” “We grew spelt…” ect., etc. 

This exercise is tedious because it happens among all moms that I’ve ever met. In one sense, it’s a competition: Who is the Best Mommy? Who is the Best “Natural Parent”? Which is extreme bullshit. But in another sense, it’s a way of feeling each other out so that you don’t say the wrong thing to someone or hurt someone’s feelings and possibly undermine their confidence as a parent. It’s a way to learn about new things that you’ve never tried or never heard of before. It’s also a way of vetting potential friends. Weird.

If we hadn’t done this sort of thing this morning, I might not have learned that the teacher lived on The Farm in Tennessee (and a sister community in Kentucky) during the 1970s and worked as a nurse in the clinic—with Ina May Gaskin. Interesting times, indeed.

 “We’re brothers together, friends forever!”

I remembered some more stuff I want to say about Asher and who he is right now.

The pottying thing (EC) has suffered a lot since Asher learned to crawl. It is MUCH harder to guage when he needs to pee now, and he is so busy exploring the house and everything in it he doesn’t really signal that he has to go. So we have had a lot more diapers to wash since about mid November than we had for the 5 months prior to that. That nifty thing he used to do—waking me up in the night to tell me he had to pee—doesn’t happen anymore. Now he wakes up once or twice a night to complain because he has peed and he’s uncomfortable. Still, we manage to get him to the potty in time sometimes, which makes me happy because I just want him to be used to going there. It may be time to consult the book again in search of more EC tips.

Self-feeding is pretty cool! Asher got really picky over the last few days, refusing to eat even the mushy foods that he has always enjoyed. It appears that he would like to do more self-feeding, so I’m trying to figure out little, soft foods that he can pick up and eat. He doesn’t have many teeth (no molars at all), so it has to be food that he can mash. The bananas aren’t recognized as food by him, although they’re great for squishing in his hands. Other no-gos include: tofu most of the time, corn kernels, and steamed apples. The cheese tortellini cut in half and covered in pesto sauce have been a hit, though (see today's other post). At Christmas dinner, he loved the mashed potatoes. 

Asher now claps his hands when he is happy, especially if we say “Yay!” and clap about something he has done, like signing appropriately. His little chubby face lights up when he claps. It’s gorgeous. It’s clear that he understands many words that we say. 

It’s completely adorable when Asher crawls into the bathroom while Lucas is in the tub. Asher pulls himself up against the side of the bathtub to peer in and watch Lucas. So far, they get along beautifully, except when Asher knocks down Lucas’s block cities. I have to remind Lucas not to yell at his little brother. Asher laughs and laughs at Lucas’s weird antics and funny voices. Lately, Lucas has been playing chipmunks. (My parents let Lucas watch a few Chip and Dale cartoons, and ever since, he’s been fascinated with the stories.) Anyway, Lucas is Chip and Asher is Dale. Lucas talks in a thoroughly obnoxious, high, squeaky voice and Asher eats it up.

When Asher gets really excited and he’s sitting on the ground, he starts bouncing. He can actually travel forward by bouncing on his bottom! I suppose this is the natural evolution of the arm flapping that he used to do when he was younger.

Tomorrow, Asher and I start attending a Mommy and Baby class that will be held one morning a week at Lucas’s Waldorf school. It’s not because Asher needs to go to school to learn how to be a baby. And I don’t need classes on how to be a mommy (maybe I could use classes on how to be a better mommy). But it sounds like it will be fun and we’ll get to socialize with others. The teacher asked me on the phone why I want to come to the class. I told her it was because I need to learn some new songs. I’m sick to death of the songs that I know and I’d like to learn new ones to sing to my kids. I don’t sight read music all that well: I have to hear it first. She thought that was funny.

We’re finishing eating lunch. 
Asher clearly has to poop. 
He is covered in pesto sauce: oily and dotted with bits of basil leaves.
I clean him up, but just barely.
I rush him to the potty.
We’re in time.
He does his thing.
From the backyard, we hear screams of agony.
It’s Lucas and he’s hurt himself.
I leave Asher on the potty and run outside to Lucas.
He is crying and limping.
He is dressed as a cowboy.
He tripped over a garden hose and fell and hurt his knee.
I pull up his pant leg to survey the damage.
No biggie: no blood.
I tell Lucas that we’ll get the booboo bag (ice-pack thingy).
I hear another scream and crying.
I rush back to Asher.
He has crawled off the potty toward the bed.
He is wedged between my bed and his co-sleeper. 
His bare bottom is hanging down and he's grasping onto the edge of the bed.
The potty is upturned.
I pick up the baby and place him on the changing table pad.
I look over at the co-sleeper.
It has Asher poops all over it.
I clean Asher’s bottom, dress him, and put him down on the floor.
He is fine now.
I clean the co-sleeper.
I clean the potty.
I clean my hands.
I clean up lunch.
I ask Lucas how his knee is now.
He says it is all healed.
I scrub the poop off Asher’s talking teddy bear.
I clean my hands again.
I sit down at the computer to write this.
Asher is chewing on the cord.
Cowboy Lucas is being eaten by a 5-foot-long boa constrictor.
It is a perfectly normal afternoon.
The End. 

I’m really happy with my mural! In fact, it’s just getting better and better with more detail. The challenge may be figuring out when it’s actually done.

I have a tiny problem in that I would like to find a good, easy way to draw in the stems of the berries. My tiny brush won’t do the line cleanly and efficiently enough to satisfy me. I’m hoping that there exists a sort of paint pen that will do the trick.

I’ve had Lucas help me a little bit with some of the watercolors. He wants to paint with the “acrylicals” so badly, but I won’t let him just go to work (yes, I’m a control freak that way). I’ve promised him that he can help me paint the lion’s tail tuft blue, and I’m hoping that will satisfy him. The tail is the key element in the storybook. The lion’s tail keeps changing color and the little red bird is very curious about it. She finally finds out that he has been painting pictures with his tail tuft on the walls of his cave at night. In this scene, it’s blue from his painting a lake the night before. Here, he’s gathering berries to use their juice to paint the little red bird on his wall. Lucas’s favorite color is blue, and we’re going to use the “acrylicals” to do it. I may try to make the tuft the very last thing I do on the mural. That way he can help me finish it!

I’ve added a stream at the bottom and some hills in the background on the right. I’m kind of working “off book” now, as most of the fill in work is being inspired by other Kleven pictures or my imagination. My wall is bigger than the illustration I’m emulating so I’m winging it in certain areas.