The Christmas song I just can't get out of my head...

Levi rolling over!

Look what my brilliant boy started doing this week! It usually takes some prompting, but he's getting it. So impressed, I am!

Levi waking up (sort of)

What made me laugh and cry today...

... because all of these things are so true!





A good friend of mine sent this link to me, and it was exactly what I needed to read today.



I thought if I could go back and tell myself something right before I had kids it would be this:

Nothing is as bad as it first seems once you have time and sleep on your side. It will get better.

Remember to have fun. It's not all about the schedule.

This will be hard on your marriage, but if you work together, it will grow in ways that weren't possible otherwise.

There can never be too much love.



Fellow mothers, what would you say? What do you wish you had known?

the train table reveal!

Asher's big birthday present from us, and most of his grandparents, was a train table. He has had a love of trains for quite some time now and it's always hard to pry him away from any of his friends train tables. We decided this was just the gift for him, and thankfully, with some help, we were able to make it happen.

Greg and I spent about 2.5 hours Thursday night putting this together and unveiled it to Asher Friday night during his family pizza birthday party. Here is a short video of him seeing it for the first time.

If you listen and hear him talking about a train on the way down the stairs, it's the train he had just opened and is in his hand as he comes down. He really had NO idea about the table; we did a good job at keeping that part a secret!

His reaction is funny to me, and maybe just what to expect from a toddler. You can definitely tell he's excited about it, but that became even more obvious over the weekend. We could NOT get Asher away from this thing. He ALWAYS wants to be "downsins" (downstairs) and usually has to bring a train with him when we leave the table. Too cute!

More pictures and details about his parties to come, but for now, enjoy the video!

A bonus on Wordless Wednesday!

Asher has been hearing this song a lot lately, so it's no wonder he sings it to himself as he's going to sleep. He'll be hearing a lot more of it very soon too because TODAY is Asher's LAST DAY as a 1-year old! I can hardly believe it! I'll have lots more to post about this in the next few days, in between birthday parties and all. How many parties does one boy need, I ask? Well my boy needs 2, I guess; one for his family and one for his friends. Should be lots of fun!

All I want for lunch...

... is to sleep. This happens probably twice a week at our house (when I'm not able to give him an early lunch due to our schedule), and I still think it is the cutest and funniest thing ever. Thankfully Asher transitions to his crib no problem. Poor guy; being 19-months old is tough stuff!

The song in my head lately...

... is this awesome and thoughtful tune from Jon Foreman (the lead singer from the band Switchfoot). Here's a youtube video of the song, which really isn't much of a video, but atleast you get to hear the song!

boots off

This is going to be an interesting winter if Asher doesn't get the hang of walking in his boots. Check it out; it's pretty cute!

Also, as you can tell, Asher is repeating words like crazy! He already has 30+ words on his own, but he repeats like this all day long. Now I really have to watch what I say in front of him. (Yikes)

I guess I really meant what I said!

Remember the last post I wrote on Thursday how I said that I thought Asher would be walking "just around the corner"? I guess I really meant it! We went to an awesome lake on Saturday where some of Greg's relatives have a home, and Asher started walking on the beach! Like officially started walking, walking! It was so cool! He has taken a few steps here and there in the past few weeks, but this weekend he took hundreds of steps in a row before stopping. He was a bit slow to warm up yesterday, but once he was ready, the walking fun continued. I think we did about 25 laps inside a local restaurant on Sunday afternoon, with hardly any falls, and no help at all. He even turns around on his own and stops and stands still (but not for too long, mind you)!

Here's a video of one of Asher's first big walks from Saturday. Enjoy!

splashing laughing baby-o

Asher and I just got back from a little 4-day road trip to visit extended family in another province and, as of tomorrow, our family will be spending a week at a beach cottage about a half an hour outside of our city. We can't wait! I hope for lots more giggles from Asher this week, like these ones I got yesterday as we played in our back yard.

We're hoping for good weather while we're away, but either way, I'm sure I'll have lots of exciting stuff to share when we get back. Bye for now!

Crawling update # 4 million

I know, another crawling update! Can you tell this is a major focus of my life right now, since it's the only thing I have blogged about over the past 3 weeks. Sigh. My life really is more exciting than it appears, I swear.

In any case, I'm very proud of my little guy who has, in the past week or so, started the traditional criss cross crawl. It is still not his primary method of moving around, but who cares! He can do it! Check it out...

Isn't that the most wonderful and glorious thing that you've ever seen in your whole life??? It is to me! God is so good and I'm so thankful that He has blessed our family and provided growth for Asher in this way.

I have a feeling walking is just around the corner. Stay tuned!

From bum scoot to frog crawl

So it's been close to 4 weeks now since we've been seeing the Pediatric Physiotherapist and Pediatric Chiropractor for Asher's gross motor/pelvis concerns, and I thought I'd share an update with you.

We see the Chiropractor once a week at this point (we had been seeing her twice a week for the first couple weeks). Asher continues to need adjustments, but he is maintaining his adjustments well and the alignment and range of motion issues are definitely improving. We've seen the Physiotherapist twice and are basically on a home program. We won't see her again until the beginning of August because he needs time to learn and develop the muscles that he hadn't been using.

In that 4 week time span Asher has made HUGE improvements. He is moving and sitting in a variety of different positions that he hadn't been using before, and he is definitely using his legs and pelvis in new ways.

- He is able to pull to standing on furniture and shelves on his own (he needed help prior) and is doing this ALL THE TIME. Our current issue is teaching him how to get back down from standing. He's beginning to get it, which is a relief because he would frequently cry in his crib because he's stuck standing up and couldn't get back down to go to sleep. That SUCKED.

- He is able to side-step as he walks holding onto furniture.

- He is able to bend down to the front and side from sitting and is beginning to squat down while holding on from standing.

- He is able to get into 4 points (the crawling position) on his own and is even beginning to try to move in different ways in that position. It's interesting to watch him try to figure it out; he knows I want him to move in the 4 points position, but he doesn't know how to do it yet. So what he does is combines the arm motion from his bum crawl with the leg position of 4 points and he looks like a frog. He is beginning to do the cross crawling motions, but doesn't quite have it yet.

- He now climbs stairs.

(Check out this video of him climbing the 2 little stairs on our main floor; you can also see his frog crawl as well)

I'm very proud of his growth and learning in just 4 weeks. He's such a smart little guy and really has learned to do a lot of different muscle movements in such a short time. Once we finishing working out the kinks in his pelvis and hips, and help the muscles to get stronger in that area, I have the utmost confidence that this little guy will be just fine.

Clapping happy, baby-o!

... and that's a line from a book we borrowed for Asher from the library last week. And then guess what? This week, look what Asher started doing for the first time.



CLAPPING! We have clapping!

(The end of the video when Asher looks down at the floor and says "uh uh uh. oh oh" that's him saying "uh oh" to tell me there's something on the floor. He is definitely my child.)

Do you think taking a book out of the library about walking would help our cause any? :)

crawling, Asher style

A lot of people have been asking me lately how Asher is doing with crawling. I guess on my little hiatus, I forgot to tell you all about his bum scoot. A day or two after Asher started doing the army crawl, he started doing a version of this bum scoot. Over the weeks he has certainly perfected it, and uses it all the time (read: the kid does not sit still!). Although he has a little trouble on carpet, I think he is a lot more content to be able to get around on his own now. I'm glad he found his own way of "crawling", and I think it's super cute. Check it out!

I think this is a start!!!

OH. MY. GOSH. Look what Asher just happened to do for the first time today while I had the camera in hand. I think he is starting to get it! I'm so proud of him right now I could cry!

the illegal walker

So here is a little video of Asher in our borrowed "illegal walker", as I like to call it. A friend of mine has one and asked if we wanted to borrow it. I'll be honest, I never ever thought I'd let my son use a walker considering as they are banned in Canada! Apparently too many children died in them going down the stairs. Yikes! However, they are not banned in the USA, and she picked up one there not too long ago. Not wanting to be rude, I said yes to borrowing it thinking I'd never actually use it.

Well lo and behold, Asher got pretty curious about this contraption, so I finally decided that I would let him try it out. Supervised, of course, and with every door in our home firmly shut. I guess I just realized that walkers in and of themselves aren't The Invention of the Devil, but rather it's how one chooses to use it that ultimately matters. So we use it daily, after I've triple checked all the doors, and I'm always right here with him.

It turns out he loves the thing! He caught on fairly quickly to how to use it, and has been on the move ever since. He is so happy to be able to get around and begin to explore, and using the walker, I find, really has helped him to learn how to "walk". He now always wants to be standing and if we hold onto his little hands, he is off and walking.

I think bumper pads should come included in the purchase of these things!

Another Christmas Surprise

Asher opened his first Christmas present this weekend; a pair of Christmas pj's! Unbeknownst to us, he had his own Christmas surprise waiting...

Yip, that's my son.

a pre-Christmas surprise

fairwell Mother Goose

Today is a sad day because it's our very last Mother Goose class. Asher and I have really come to love the rhymes and songs we've learned, so much so that we use them at home all the time! It makes my heart smile when I start to say or sing one, and Asher looks at me and smiles or kicks because he recognizes it. Here's one of his favorites; Charlie Chapman!