Asher turns 11 months old!

Only 1 month left until Asher's 1st birthday. We're still crossing our fingers that he will take his first steps before he turns 1. He's doing much better standing up and cruising. He is using the push toys as well, but he doesn't like to walk. He cries and bends at the knee. He is perfectly content crawling around.

As we predicted by the drooling, Asher got another tooth this month and there is another one about to break through. The teething no longer affects Asher's sleeping as it has done in past months. Although he doesn't sleep in, he certainly sleeps well. He just wakes up around 6:30am or 7am the latest.

This month was heavily focused on activities leading up to Halloween like visiting a pumpkin patch, going to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween, and visiting Michael's to help Logan decorate a pumpkin. We also went to My Gym for some free play.

Asher continues to add new sounds to his vocabulary, though it's not clear what language he is speaking. Sometimes Spanish, other times Portuguese, and other times English. He can definitely say "mama" and "daddy". He can also sing "EIEIO". He's using the sign for "more" every once and a while in addition to the occasional sign for "milk".

Asher is doing well in the eating department. He doesn't eat everything, but he sure eats a lot. We stopped the baby food in jars and are counting down the days until we can swap out formula for milk. He is doing much better using the sippy cup and will even drink water out of a straw at a restaurant.

Although he continues to grow, he's still in the 6-12 month clothing. His hair also continues to grow and has been mistaken for a girl here and there because of his long hair and thick eye lashes. He's outgrowing his car seat so he must be getting longer as well.

Click here for some pictures from this month and be sure to visit the blog next month to hear about Halloween, the Huggies Casting Call, and Asher's first birthday.

Asher turns 10 months old!

It was an exciting month for Asher starting with his first airplane flight. We went to Ohio over Labor Day where we visited the Norris family. Asher got to go to a petting farm and to King's Island. He had a great time with Emma, Addison, and Hallie. Later in the month, he went to Elise Morhack's birthday party and the next day got to see Disney on Ice. He absolutely loved Disney on Ice. He clapped and smiled the entire time.

No new teeth this month, but some drool suggests that he might be teething again. His sleep patterns have remained pretty constant. He had some hiccups while in Ohio because he wasn't used to sleeping in a pack-n-play. He's back to normal now - screaming at a high pitch at the top of his lungs at 6am until someone throws him a bottle. He's doing much better with the bottle. Now he can feed himself sitting up.

Asher has been doing great in the eating category in general. There seems to be nothing he won't eat including trying the occasional cat or dog food when no one is looking. He does great chewing his food and always finishes everything on his tray. He does make quite a mess, though. The eating has all paid off as Asher is now 19lbs, up from 17lbs at the beginning of the month.

Developmentally, you will be able to see from the pictures that Asher can now pull himself up to a standing position. He is pretty far from walking, but at least he can get into a standing position. Thanks to everyone's comments on facebook, we lowered the crib to make sure he couldn't get out. He also knows where to find his head. He touches it with both hands when we sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes".

Make sure to stop by next month for more pictures and updates.

Asher turns 9 months old!

This was a monumental month for Asher. It not only represented the end of summer and the return to daycare, but he also managed to overcome all of his obstacles from previous months. For one, he started crawling the first week in August and hasn't stopped since. He also started holding his own bottle and feeding himself. Talking about feeding, Asher started eating table food from pizza to pancakes.

Last month, Asher had only 2 teeth and this month 2 more came in, but the issues with sleeping are pretty much over. Asher hasn't woken up in the middle of the night for weeks. He still gets up around 6am, but nothing as bad as last month. His vocabulary has increased to include all sorts of patterns like hiya, dada, mama, yaya, etc. We even think he really says "hi" as a form of hello, says "mahw" for more, and knows the difference between "mama" and "dada".

He's learned a couple more tricks this month like clapping, standing by holding on to the table, and getting out of the car seat after we open the seat belt. Asher also had his 9 month check-up. He weighed 17 pounds 2.5 ounces and measured 28 inches long. Stay tuned next month for Asher's first airplane flight.

For pictures from this month, click here.

Asher and Logan go to Max's and Carnot's B-day!

We're almost a month behind on this post. The weekend before Logan's birthday party, the whole Orlando-based Levine family (including Todd, Monica, and Jared) were invited to Lake Toho in Kissimmee to celebrate Max's and Carnot's birthday. Max was turning 1 and Carnot was turning 4. The highlight for Asher was the attention he received. The highlights for Logan were the splash park, pizza, cake, and balloons. As you can see from the pictures (click here), everyone was having a good time and the covered pavillions kept us nice and cool in the summer heat.

Un-Professional Photo Shoot

Well, the pictures came out great, but the only thing professional about them is the high caliber of cameras used. Brian, Stefanie, Todd, and Monica took these pictures of Logan, Asher, and Jared (our nephew) before Max and Carnot's birthday parties at a lakeside park in Kissimmee. They came out pretty good for amateurs. Todd and Monica tried to print a couple of theirs at Walmart and they asked to see the copyright information. Here are a few of the pictures.

Asher turns 8 months old!

Asher's 8th month started with his trip to Boston followed by his brother's 2nd birthday. Along the way, Asher started really growing up. He now has his two bottom teeth after weeks of a teething process that woke him up 2-3 times a night. He also started speaking. We'll use that term loosely. He likes to mimic sounds like kissing, clicking, and raspberry which he learned last month. He also started saying words like "ma-ma".

We feel like he is going to crawl any day now. He can go from a laying down position to a sitting up position at the snap of a finger. He get's on all 4's. He can even move backwards a bit. He seems to be eating much better. Last month, he wouldn't finish his bottles, but he has been drinking more lately. He still doesn't hold his own bottle, though we are working hard on this and hope to have him feeding himself by next month. He is feeding himself teething biscuits, bagels, and pizza crust, though.

It's been a pretty bad month for sleeping. While he was teething, he would wake up a couple times throughout the night which required us to put orajel on his gums. It appeared as if things got better until he figured out how to sit up. Now, he wakes up, sits up and cries until someone puts him back into the sleeping position.

He has become a fan of Gold's Gym and they love him there. That should make it easy to migrate back to daycare when the summer is over. Asher also has retired the swing in favor of the jumper, though he hasn't figured out how to jump yet. He really loves Logan. His face lights up and he gets so happy when Logan walks in the room.

Asher had a pretty good time at Logan's birthday party. He got to go to Monkey Joe's and even went on a couple rides. Most of all, he got a lot of attention from friends and family. We also took Asher to Animal Kingdom for the first time. He loved the Nemo show and the Safari. For pictures of all Asher's adventures this month, click here.

Make sure to check back next month for Asher's return to daycare and hopefully to hear that he has started crawling.

Boston Trip

Asher's Trip to Boston:

On July 26th, we went on a family trip Boston via Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA. The full details of the trip are on Logan's blog, but Asher had some notable events on this trip. When Logan was around 8 months old, he made his first trip to Boston for Beckie's wedding. It was Boston where Logan got his first tooth, vomiited because of it, ate a bagel, and started to get in the crawling position. Asher almost followed in his brother's footsteps.

We were going to Boston this time for Andy and Lani's wedding. We drove instead of flying. He vomited once on the way up to Boston. He started teething as well and kept us up all night. He would wake up an average 3-4 times a night. We had to wake up and put oragel on his gums, but the teeth finally started poking through. He also ate a bagel. He only fell short in the crawling position.

During the trip, we went to Sesame Place, Boston Children's Museum, Boston Duck Tours, Patriot's Place, Andy and Lani's rehearsal dinner, and got to see several friends and family.

Click here to view these pictures larger