Baby’s got some new skills! He’s crawling, as I’ve mentioned before. Now he can get into every nook and cranny in our house. He makes a sort of back-and-forth, round-and-round tour of the house every day; he makes it into every room at least 4 times, sometimes completely independently. He doesn’t even wave bye-bye, just creeps along. Sometimes I find him at the back sliding glass door peering out into the backyard. Saying “I find him” probably sounds like I lose him occasionally—which I have done. A few nights ago, by some miracle of miracles, Lucas left me alone for a little while. Ian was cooking dinner in the kitchen and I dozed off. I wasn’t asleep long—just long enough to have some weird dreams. When I woke up, I looked around. No Asher. I went to the kitchen, thinking I’d find him attempting to trip Ian by being underfoot. Nope. Not there. “Where’s Asher?” I asked. “I thought he was with you,” Ian replied. Then we started calling Lucas. “Where’s Asher?” He didn’t know. We searched and finally found Asher playing in Lucas’s bedroom behind a closed door, happy as could be.
Recently we found Asher trying to crawl between an end table and the couch. He got stuck halfway. Took us a few moments to figure out where the whining was coming from. That probably sounds like we’re not paying attention to his well-being.
Two days ago, after exiting the shower with Asher, he initiated a game of peekaboo by putting the towel over his head and then pulling it off expectantly and the repeating it again and again. We both laughed. That was the first time. Later that night he did it again with Ian. I heard, “Sara, Sara! Come see what Asher’s doing!” It was pretty cool.
Asher likes the blocks a lot. He bangs them together, bangs them on the floor, and has started trying to stack them. Yesterday he stacked two blocks and tried to get a third to balance on top, but he was too clumsy and they all fell. Still, it was pretty exciting to see as that’s a skill usually found in older babies. Naturally, I think he is a genius. He will start piano lessons next week 🙂
Let’s see … Asher still has only one tooth. We think the next one will come from the top because we see a bulge there. He enjoys picking up bits of cereal flakes and eating them, but we can’t really give him many types of finger foods yet because he’s lacking the teeth to chew them. I’ve seen him squish up a couple of beans and a piece of tofu once or twice. All in good time, I suppose. He has come to tolerate more vegetable purees, but draws the line at broccoli and beets. The pureed “mac and cheese” concoction I bought in the jar did not go over well at all and frankly, I don’t blame him. It was awful. Sometimes we can separate a portion of our dinner and blend it up for him to eat. That worked really well with the minestrone soup I made before Ian and I went on our diet.
Asher now follows Lucas around the house and wants to play with his brother. When the B kids were over recently, Asher was right there in the thick of things, doing his best to play along. He was very fascinated by T and bestowed all his best smiles and giggles on her. I think he was flirting. We have seen him respond with great excitement when a pretty girl or woman goes by or stops to talk with him. He is more cautious around men, and slower to smile at them. Everywhere we go, we are told how beautiful he is and how magnificent his cheeks are, which are both true.
He gives great hugs. He occasionally bites me. He like to bonk heads gently; I think he expresses affection this way. He says “DaDa,” but not always in reference to Ian. He is starting to say “Mam” and other approximations of “Mama,” but so far this is rare and also, not always clearly in reference to me.
Asher is signing “more” now, with some prompting. We are actively working on teaching him signs for “mama milk,” “eat,” “potty,” “up,” “help,” and “water.” When he starts really signing back, we will all have a glorious time. It was such a miracle when baby Lucas started signing—one of the most exciting things I’ve ever experienced.
Asher’s photo will appear in Sacramento magazine in a story I wrote in January.
