A Few Firsts

Over the past couple of weeks we have had a few new developments in Asher's life that we wanted to share.

With regards to baby food, I had made the decision that I would wait until Asher was closer to six months to give it a try.  I was in no rush, and I heard that if you start them later, there's less of a possibility of them developing allergies.  Whether this is true or not, I don't know for sure, but like I said, we were in no rush.  Fast forward to month four and half - Sean's parents were in town and it was mentioned that starting baby food could possibly help babies sleep better and longer.  After hearing this, Sean and I reconsidered and decided we should give it a try.... 

Ok, let's be honest here, there was no reconsideration; the moment I heard about this glorious possibility, I shot to my feet, and darted into the kitchen to mix up a bowl of baby rice cereal, hahaha.  This is how a sleep-deprived mother's mind works. :)



Happy Asher!  He doesn't know what's about to happen :)




Hmmm, what is this new taste sensation?



Wait a minute - I don't know how I feel about this...



Blah



Yeah, I don't know about this whole food thing.



But the spoon is good!



What??? You are trying to give me more???


 

No thank you!!!

After a few days of him really not enjoying the food, and to my dismay, no change in his sleeping habits, we tried oatmeal.  We think he likes it a little better, but it's still not his favorite.

The next first wasn't exactly an official first, but it was the first time he went out and "enjoyed" the experience.  Snow!




When we first went out, Asher didn't really know what was going on,
other than the fact that he was in a big puffy red suit.
Andelyne, on the other hand, was done with the snow.




The cold must have hit him, and Andelyne just sat back and enjoyed the role reversal.




I attempted to console him, which was hard considering it was nap time.




But then he calmed down and gave us this wonderful, sweet, adorable shot :)



We decided to give the picture thing one more go,
but Asher let us know in no uncertain terms that he was done :)
Sean's translation of this picture was "I can't believe you people, if I could crawl, walk, or run I would be on my feet and out of here so quickly... so back off you guys."

 So he was only outside for about five minutes, but it was worth it for that one shot!

The final first is something I had heard of, but never seen.  It was like Nessie or Big Foot, we had heard of sightings, but never before witnessed it ourselves. It had never happened to Asher, because he would always put up a stink if he was not content with something.  On Saturday, we had the two families over who will be joining us in Albania.  All together, we had about 10 adults, 7 kids, and 3 infants all making lots and lots of noise while talking, playing, and baby babbling.  Asher was in his doorway jumper and was just jumping away, completely content, which is a rarity for our little one.  I was cooking and getting food out, and everyone was just enjoying themselves.  That was when Sean turned around to check on Asher and found this precious sight:

He just fell asleep after jumping away - happy as can be!  I couldn't stop looking at him, he was so adorable!!  Thank you little toy monkey for giving our baby boy a pillow :)

When he woke up about 30 minutes later, he just continued jumping like nothing had happened, except for those telltale red marks all over his cheek.

He's gotten to be so much happier over the past few days, and we are thrilled.  Last night he slept from 10:30 pm to 6:30 am, then 7:30 am to 9:30 am!!  Yay!!  Mom was soooo happy!  Thanks little man!

Baby Blessing

Today was Asher's baby blessing.  Sean did a great job, and Asher was actually quiet for the blessing, unlike yesterday, haha :)  Oh the little miracles in life!  Having all our family there was wonderful.  It was also Papa T's birthday so that made the day doubly special.  Happy Birthday Tim!!

Thank you everyone for making this weekend so special.  We are so appreciative for all the love and happiness you sent our way.  Here are some pictures from the day - enjoy!

      

Sealing Day

Today, Asher accompanied us to the temple so that we could be sealed together as a family.  It was a chilly day in Washington, but that didn't damper the experience at all.  We were so blessed to have the support of aunts, uncles, and both sets of grandparents - who actually participated in the ceremony.  In a serendipitous turn of events, he was sealed to us by President Tippets, who married Sean and myself 7 years ago.  It's a small world.

Asher took a little nap afterwards, but following a few minutes in the cold air he started to perk up a bit:

Here's the cute little outfit that Asher wore in the temple. 

Thanks Chantell for letting us borrow it!

A day in the life...

I decided I needed to get some pictures up here to show how cute Asher is :) 

Here's a little bit about what's been going on in our lives:

There has been the ongoing challenge of getting Asher to lay on his stomach and like it :)  Over the past few months I have tried and tried, but every time I put him on his tummy, he screams bloody murder and then becomes inconsolable for quite some time.  At the time, it wasn't worth the two minutes of tummy time that would be followed by an hour of trying to get him to calm down.  Recently, I decided it was time to revisit this whole tummy time thing and see where he is at.  For about 3-5 minutes he's... well, he does okay...

  



He starts out a little unsure...

   

     

We try to entertain him with toys, and

this works for a little bit...



But then he realizes he is on his tummy, and
remembers that he loathes being face down,
either that or he hates that stupid frog...

This is the result:

We will persevere!  He will like tummy time!!! ...Though maybe not until he is 2 years old :)

Here are some other things Asher has been up to...

 

Watching football with dad, decked out in blue and orange.
Go Gators!



 

Making new friends of all varieties, we don't discriminate :)

Congrats Sara on the upcoming addition, you better get used to this, 9 months go by quickly!!

And of course we have been making sure he's keeping up on his intellectual pursuits...





Our little poindexter!!!



 Overall he has just been relaxing and showing off his adorable little smile.



"You like me.  You really like me!"

Now I have been promising some people that I would put up some videos of Asher.  Recently, he's been loving the door jumper, so here are some videos of him jumping.  Enjoy!

 

Grandpa was the only one who could make Asher laugh on command :)

He's a Whalen!

We had a momentous day today!  This morning we drove up to the Frederick court house to finalize our adoption of Asher.   Yay!!  We are sooo excited that Asher is now officially our son.  For better or for worse, Asher is an indispensable part of the crazy Whalen family.  We love you little man, and could not be happier!

I’ve never been in a real court room before.  We were a little nervous about it all, but when Asher flashed a smile to the judge, we knew the decision was clinched :)   Sean and I had to be sworn in to testify on our own behalf – we raised our right arm, took the stand, and let the judge know that we were going to be good parents.  It was awesome! 

Merry Christmas!

We have had a great holiday season this year.  Everything is better when you have someone new with whom to enjoy it.  We've had a few fun events we participated in at the end of 2010... One was our church Christmas party in which Sean played Santa for the kids.  He did a great job - all the parents thought he was a very good Santa, and how often do you get a Santa that can talk to the kids in English, Spanish, and Albanian.  Asher didn't even know it was his dad!! :) We also went to the Festival of Lights at the temple and saw the Hand Bell Choir perform.  They did pretty well!

Asher’s first Christmas was great!  After making the 7 hour trip to Albany, NY, we joined Sean’s family for Christmas.  I was dreading the drive with Asher, but surprisingly enough, he did rather well.  He slept most of the way with only a couple episodes of crying, easily remedied by a bottle, and the trip was otherwise uneventful. Thank goodness!!

Asher’s aunties, Shannon, Mei Lin, and Kaia, were able to meet him for the first time, as was Sean’s dad, Papa T :)  Unfortunately, due to the disruption of his routine by the car ride, Asher wasn’t at his best for the visit.  We thought he just wanted his Grammy to remember him, so he resorted to the way he was the last time she came to visit us within those first 6 weeks of his life :)  haha.  After a couple of days, he seemed to calm down, and his smiling, happy personality came back for all to see. 



I believe Shannon's words as we took this picture were: "Mine, He's All Mine!!!"



Happy picture with Aunties Kaia & Mei Lin, and then...



"Ewww gross!  Take him away!!"



While he didn’t quite get the whole Christmas concept, we all had fun opening his fun presents and enjoying the day of relaxing, football, and eating lots of good food. 

One little kink in our trip was the impending blizzard that was moving up the east coast.  We had to postpone our departure date.  Though, it was really nice to have one more day with Sean’s family before we leave the country! 

*Side note* We enjoyed Christmas afternoon with a family who had recently moved to NY from Texas.  This was their first time seeing snow, and it was so much fun to see their excitement!  By the way, I have decided I love Texans.  While I’ve had my doubts with all the Texan pride I encountered in college, I have definitely changed my mind and would even consider living there one day if we had to!  So friendly, so nice :)  Thank you Texas for producing such good people!

We had our first Christmas in NY, but the day we drove home, we celebrated a second Christmas in Maryland.  It was another fun day filled with food, family, presents and good times.  Asher slept through the opening of most of his presents, but we got some good pictures while he was awake :)

"What is it? What is it?  I'm so excited!  I just can't wait to see what's inside!"

 



Christmas just wore him out :)



 Merry Christmas Everyone!!