Happy Valentines Day!

Wha' sho name?


My name is Asher Rives, but as you can see by this bib I'm wearing...


I'm taken!


Sorry, ladies.


Update: I'm reconsidering after checking out this vision of loveliness.

birthday pictures taken with a good camera

Bethany came through in a big way! Her pictures are so good. You can go HERE if you would like to browse through them.

The Par-tay

On Saturday, we threw Asher a little birthday party. It was a very fun day and I am so thankful that Asher has so many people in his life who love him and came out to celebrate with us!

The day started out not so fun though. I went out that morning to run a few last minute errands. In very un-Jamie like fashion, everything was taken care of with the exception of picking up the cake and some drinks from HEB and the balloons from the party store. I went to HEB first. I was so excited to see the cake. I brought them one of the invitations so they could refer to it because the "1" design on that was what I wanted on the cake.

The lady at the counter went and got my cake and lifted the box lid so I could see it. It was awful! My first thought was "retirement party cake" The lettering was in this really small script and the "1" was not at all what I requested. I was not pleased. So what so you do when you are 16 weeks pregnant and you think the cake you ordered for your baby's first birthday is ugly? Correct--you cry.

Right there at the HEB Bakery. In front of the cake decorator and the manager who has come over to see what is wrong. Through tears, I try to explain what I want and why I left an invitation in the first place. I also try to explain why I am crying. They just look at me like I have lost it--which I have.

The manager tells me that they will re-decorate it and that he will make it look more "kid-like" and less "80th birthday like." So I pull myself together and thank them for their willingness to help me out. I come back 30 minutes later and they have sort of fixed it.



It was much better, but still not what I had envisioned. I need to quit envisioning things. That never turns out well for me.

But cake drama aside, the party was great. The absolute highlight was watching Asher eat his cake. It was priceless! That boy gorged himself. He was shoveling cake into his mouth like no one I have ever seen. Here was the progression...

I think Bethany got some better pictures with her camera so I will post some of those when I get them. What did people do before digital cameras? I can't remember either.

Just for reference, here is the before...



and here is the after...




So after the bath, it was time to open presents! Let me just tell you--he got some good stuff!










We even had a special present-opening assistant named Kaitlyn. I highly recommend using one at your next birthday party.

After everyone left, Asher played in the Wonderland of toys for a while and then took a "coming off the sugar high" nap. It was much needed!

So HEB cake issues aside, this was the perfect first birthday and I am so grateful for that little boy whom we came together to celebrate!

Sweet Little One Year Old

I love these pictures! Look at those sweet little chubby hands! And you can't tell in this shot, but he is wearing the most adorable first birthday outfit, on loan to us by Hilary (thanks again, Hil!) It has a little cupcake on it with one candle. So precious! I need to dress him in outfits like this more. (Kris would beg to differ.)

Happy Birthday Asher Owen!

Our baby turns one today! If he would have come when we expected him to, he would be 10 1/2 months now. But God is the one who ordains what day we will be born and for Asher, He planned February 7, 2007, much to our surprise.

I will never forget this day. At this time last year, I had just settled into a hospital bed after being told that he would be delivered by c-section some time in the afternoon. He was born at 2:05 pm and weighed 4 lb. 13 oz. and was 16 1/2 inches long. This is the one time in life when a 20 lb. weight gain in one year is a good thing!

Here is a trip down Memory Lane. It's been a really, really good year.

Newborn


One Month


Two Months


Three Months


Four Months


Five Months


Six Months


Seven Months


Eight Months


Nine Months


Ten Months


Eleven Months


One Year!

He likes to eat!

Asher enjoys the tortillas from Lupe's! And the chicken. So he pretty much ate fajitas for lunch and we could not be more proud!




We also make sure he gets his 5 servings a day of fruit and veggies (or at least close to that.) Here he demonstrates how strawberries are both tasty and fascinating. Of course we are at Jason's Deli. One of the managers there even knows Asher by name.


Calcium is really important, too. So he got to try a little ice cream. He was a fan.



I didn't get a picture of this, but last night we were at some friends house for a Super Bowl Party and Asher encountered their cat. He has never seen a cat before so I thought he'd be a little freaked out. Nope. He crawled right over to it and started petting it. Thankfully, it is a tolerant cat. Then he started barking at it. We think he thought is was a dog. We've been trying to teach him what the kitty-cat says for a while now, but only the dog sound has appealed to him.

Also, we have reached another milestone. We bid a fond farewell to bottles and formula as of this morning. Asher had no problem relinquishing that disgusting-smelling formula in favor of organic whole milk. I gave it to him in a sippy cup yesterday just to see how it would go. He loved it! So this morning, I decided we are done with bottles and he seems to be fine with that. What is funny is that he just started to say "ba-ba"(bottle) when he woke up in the mornings. Oh well. BTW, he is also saying "cracker" and "go-guh" (yogurt) pretty well now. Since I totally dropped the ball on baby-signing, it is good he is learning to talk.

I think the fact that he is leaving behind so many "baby" traits would be much harder if I wasn't about to do it all over again in a few months. Everytime I start to get a little nostalgic about all the things he used to do and now doesn't, I remind myself to enjoy the break because it's about to be deja vu all over again.

Teething Trauma

Asher has been a phenomenal teether. The first 8 came in with very little fanfare. The most that ever happened was that he would wake up once during the night, we would give him some Teething Tablets and some water and he would fall right back to sleep.

And then it happened. Incisors.

Those little teeth have kicked all of our butts. Asher ran a fever (his first one ever) and was whiny and clingy and wouldn't eat. When the child made by a Rives and a Bobbitt won't eat, something is terribly wrong.

He is usually such a happy, easy baby that I was really worried about the way he was acting, not to mention the 103 degree fever. At first, I thought he picked up something at the doctor's office the other day. But then my mom mentioned how cutting the canine teeth is really hard on babies. I checked his mouth and I could see the teeth just below the gums. I hated that he was hurting so much, but I was relieved that it wasn't a virus or something.

He is much better today. He woke up twice last night. The first time I gave him some Tylenol, but the second time, he fussed for a few minutes and then got himself back to sleep. He woke up happy and ate a good breakfast so I think we are on the road to recovery. Of course, the teeth aren't all the way through yet, so this may have just been Round 1. Thank the Lord for Infant Tylenol!

Happy Birthday Kris!

This little sailor is 33 years old today! With the exception of the dark, curly hair, I see a LOT of resemblance between him an another soon-to-be birthday boy that I love. I am living in a house full of cute and I can hardly stand it!

One Year Check-Up

We just got back from the doctor so before I forget, here are his stats...

weight: 23 lbs. 9 oz. (75th percentile) (He started out in the 5th!)
height: 29 inches (25th percentile)

I don't remember head circumference but who cares about that one anyway.

The doctor said he is doing great! She even said that he seemed to be advanced because he is already so verbal and is mimicking. It was so funny because she asked me "Is he babbling very much?" and right on cue, Asher started up his "talking." Talking is one area he has no problem in. He may not walk until he's four, but he can carry on a conversation with the best of them.

We are so thankful for our healthy, talkative baby...I mean big boy.

Interesting Facts That I Would Like To Share (OK, maybe not that interesting)

--I have to look at the Baby Ticker in my sidebar to figure out what week I am because I can never remember.

--Strawberry and banana applesauce has 23g of sugar in it. But I didn't read the label until after Asher ate some. Major sugar high followed by major sugar crash.

--Kris will be 33 tomorrow!!!

--I should be cleaning the kitchen right now.

--I was talking with Laura today and we have the exact same "chicken-texture" issues. I am so picky about chicken that I must remove every bit of of anything white on the chicken breast and then I have to pound it out until it is really thin, because I hate thick chicken. And if I get a bite of anything with a questionable texture, the meal is over for me. I was so relieved to find out I'm not alone.

--The Gap used to be my favorite store ever and now I am severely disappointed every time I go in there. Whoever their buyers are need to be fired.

--If you go to HEB at 9:00 pm, you will miss all of the crowds but the deli will be closed and they will be out of everything.

--You should always pay a little more and go to a hair stylist that will do a really good job. If you go to someone because they are cheap, they will jack your hair up and then you will have to go to the more expensive person for damage control anyway. So save yourself some time and heartache.

--People in my neighborhood treat their garages as some sort of bonus room. They decorate them with assorted sports paraphernalia and install a television. We park our cars in ours. Are we the weird ones?


--This was me exactly one year ago at 7 months pregnant. Asher was born 2 weeks later. I shudder to think what size my face and hands would have been had I reached full term.





That's all for now. If I can think of some more things that you should know, I will post them promptly.

The Sweetest Little Laugh

I love Asher's laugh! My guys were playing a hilarious game where the say what the puppy dog says to each other. You should try it some time. It's a big hit over here.



You also get to see him give "eskimo kisses" which is a trick his Mamaw taught him. They are much less slobbery than his other kisses.

A Video to Back Up a Few of My Claims

The video is cute, but you have to hold your head sideways to fully appreciate it. I didn't realize that I was holding the camera on it's side. Kinda frustrating, but still entertaining. At least I think so.

The Asher O. Report

For some reason, blogging about the little man has been somewhat sparse lately. How sad that I only have one that requires actual care right now and I still neglect to post about how he is spending his time these days.

He will be one in just a few weeks (Feb. 7) so I am in the process of birthday preparations. We will have family and friends over for a very low-key (i.e no ponies, clowns, or d.j.'s) celebration. I want it to be memorable, but not anything I get stressed out over.

So what had he been up to lately? Here ya go...

--he is a master crawler who loves to pull up on everything. He will walk along the edge of furniture but has no desire to let go and try it on his own.

--he can tell you what the puppy dog says (ruh-ruh-ruh) and what Asher says (guhta-guhta-guhta.) Seriously, that is a sound he makes a lot, so when we ask him what Asher says, that is his response. So cute!

--he can tell you where his tongue is and sometimes where his nose is. That one is hit or miss.

--he loves to read! When he wants his Dr. Suess ABC book he says "a, a, a!" (short vowel sound) because the first line of the book is "Big A, little a, what begins with A? Aunt Annies' alligators. A, A, A!" When he wants the animal book, he makes the puppy dog sound. And as we read him one of his Baby Einstein books, he says, "bub-bub" when we get to his favorite page that says "bubbles blowing, bursting, pop!" On the "pop!" we "pop" him up in our lap--big fun!

--he is a fan of most foods with the notable exception of sphaghetti from Jason's Deli. He will eat the Gerber sphaghetti crap from the jar, but not the good stuff. He gets very excited when the Yo Baby yogurt comes out of the fridge or the Nilla wafers come out of the pantry.

--he is teething now. He just got his 7th tooth--a back molar. He is a teething champ with a fairly high pain tolerance. He wokes up one night crying, but went right back to sleep after we gave him a few Teething Tablets. His nose has been running and he is gnawing on his finger a lot so I'm sure we are in for more before too long.

--he gives the best kisses ever! He grabs our faces and pulls them to him and plants a big ol' slobbery kiss right on our cheeks. I have to rub them in because they are so sweet!

--he waves anytime he hears the word "hi" or "bye" or any word that sounds like those words. The other day, I asked Kris how high something was and Asher started waving. We haven't covered homophones with him yet.

--he is still an avid drummer. My mom pointed out that we could probably take away every toy except the drumsticks and his books and he would be fine. He found the cabinet with the mixing bowls in it the other day and turned all the bowls over and started playing them, with a look on his face like "Why am I just now finding out about our cabinet full of drums?"

--he is now front-facing in his carseat. We turned him around a few weeks early, but since he way exceeds the weight requirement, we went ahead and switched him. His poor little legs were out of room. It took a few rides, but now he really enjoys his new perspective.

Needless to say, he keeps us busy, but quite happy :)

Sad, but oh so true.

Catching Up

When you have incredibly busy and thrilling lives, missing a few days of blogging equates to pages and pages of catching up to do. But thankfully, we don't, so getting you up to speed should be fairly easy.

I will let you know about what has been going on as they surface in my mind, not in the order in which they occurred.



We went to the zoo yesterday with some friends from bible study. It was a lot of fun! In this picture, Asher, Madi, Jackson, and Alex are enjoying the aquarium. I love that Madi was so appropriately dressed for the zoo!

He likes the fish the best. We also saw baby cheetahs, sea lions, and various repitles, but he was not very impressed. He was just mad he couldn't get down and crawl around.



The guys came over and played last week. We now have 13, 11, and 9 month old boys! It is so fun to see how they interact with each other now.



The cabinet doors on the armoir are the most fun thing to play with, of course.

Asher has started to take his diaper off.



Just one side though. And yes, he was eating those Cheerios off of the floor. Some hills are not worth dying on.

As for the numerical data, I am 13 weeks along. Asher turns one in about 3 weeks. Kris turns 33 on Jan. 30. I think that's it for now!

Sara's Wedding

Our good friend, Sara, was married this past Saturday to Roger. Sara has lived in England for several years working with youth at a church over there. She met Roger, a "Brit" as they say. They will make their home in England but were kind enough to get married in Texas. It was a great wedding and we enjoyed meeting Roger and the other Brits that came over for the occasion.

Kris should win some kind of prize for most jobs performed at a wedding. He sang, he read a scripture, he ushered, and he stood at the front as a pseudo-groomsman. Roger didn't have enough guys here to accomodate all of Sara's attendants, so the ushers were honored to do double-duty.

Asher was a trooper, especially considering he was holding it together after only having a 45 minute nap on the way to the wedding. At one point, he did have to crawl under the table to get away from it all for a moment.



Then I gave him cake and everything was better.

We tried to get a decent family picture, but even with just the 3 of us, the chances of everybody smiling, eyes open, looking the same direction are not good. So here is what we got.


This was at the end of the day and, as you can tell, Asher was spent.






We're thinking about getting jobs as the people that are already in the picture frames when you buy them. I think we'd have a lot of success there.



I love that boy who is 11 months old today!

an open letter to the person who googled "how to sew bumpers" and found himself or herself here

Ugh! Upon re-reading this post title, I found an ugly pronoun-antecedent agreement error. This unfortunate grammar mistake has been corrected. You have to point these things out to me, guys!

Dear Above-Mentioned Friend,

As I was perusing my site meter information, I noticed that you googled "how to sew a bumper" and found yourself at this happy little blog. I can only imagine your disappointment.

But I did want to address you on the off chance that you may attempt to sew a bumper the way I did. I am a total hack who probably shouldn't be allowed to own a sewing machine. I broke every rule in the book and if you were to examine my handiwork closely, you would probably send me a check to buy my child a decent bumper.

I hope you were able to find a helpful link and complete your project sucessfully. This site is many things...a sewing tutorial, sadly, is not one of them. But thanks for stopping by anyway.

All the best,
Jamie


Ok, now I'm really on a blog break.

My Blah-g

Dear My Blog,

You're kind of on my nerves right now. I need a break. It's not you, it's me. No wait, it's you.

So I'm stepping away for an undetermined amount of time, and when I like you again, I'll be back.

Warmest regards,
Jamie Matisse Rives