No problems getting food into this kid. He loves to eat. We’re now up to 3 meals a day, plus bottles in between. Meals are a 4 oz jar of baby food plus a small handful of cheerios or chunk of rice cake. He usually eats the whole jar. Occasionally he’ll get a biter biscuit, but only if we’re planning a bath immediately afterwards (you get the picture).

Here’s what he currently likes to eat:

• sweet potatoes
• carrots
• apples
• apple/apricot and apple/blueberry blends
• bananas
• banana/oat/peach, banana/apple/raspberry, and banana/oat/plum blends
• pears
• sweet potato/pumpkin/squash/pear blend

Dislikes

• rice cereal
• oatmeal
• peas (we’re talking INTENSE dislike)
• avocados
• banana/rice/peach blend and squash – will eat a little, but unenthusiastically
• fresh bananas and softened/canned peaches/pears/apples – tried giving him little bite size nibbles – he just gags the second they hit his tongue

We’re holding off on the wheat products due to early signs of allergy.

Ashton spent his first Christmas with his Grandma and Grandpa Smith, and cousin Elen who came to stay with us over the holidays. We all slept in and did presents in the early afternoon followed by a sit-down Christmas dinner around 5:30pm. I suspect this is the last time we’ll ever get to sleep in on Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, Daniel, Ashton and I visited Great Grandma Thomas and visited with some of Sara’s cousins and an aunt and uncle. Ashton charmed them all.

Enid dug out all of Daniel’s old wooden blocks and duplo/legos and did an amazing packing job to bring them here to give to Ashton. She also created an album of Daniel’s baby photos for us and gave us an art print of Ashton’s windmill suitable for framing.

Grandma Anderson got Ashton a ride-on Tonka truck which Ashton loves, though he still requires assistance since he can’t get on or off by himself. The Anderson clan came over on Boxing Day for Brunch. Daniel and I got him some more board books, a small wooden train set, and a garage with cars/helicopters that Ashton mistakes for a climbing structure – hence the garage looks like King Kong came through town. He got money from both great grandmas which will be deposited in a bank account we’re starting for him.

Yep, this kid’s spoiled 🙂

our little guy seems to be getting stuck a lot lately:

• leaning forward in the bouncy seat, got his head stuck under the arch
• found him trying to sit up under the lowest shelf on the ladder shelf in his bedroom – its only about half the height of his waist to top of his head, so needless to say, his head got stuck
• got a slinky stuck in his mouth – just a mini plastic one, but he pushed it in and out like an accordion as he tried to get it out
• getting tangled up in his clothes regularly – I’ve found him armless on more than one occasion when he got an arm completely out of its sleeve, but still inside his shirt. And he’s managed to get out of his pants several times.

Three at once! A top one appeared last week and now another top and a bottom as well. Ashton’s been a little cranky, but coping remarkably well with this triple whammy.

and sideways, up and down, and all around – Ashton is super mobile! Within the past few weeks, he has mastered forward crawling, crawl-to-sit, sit-to-crawl, and roll-to-crawl. He’s all over the place, but fortunately rarely in a hurry (so I can still keep up). Ashton’s also mastered pulling himself up on just about anything – furniture, people, even bare walls… and thankfully figured out to gracefully get back down (well at least to not topple over – it was rather precarious for a while).

skeleton pajamas and a santa hat – do we have a junior Jack Skellington here? This is the only time Ashton allowed the santa hat to stay on his head.

Ashton has figured out how to get up on his knees and crawl backwards and round in circles. Not the most efficient means, but he can get across a room… just not to the side of the room he wants to go. Poor guy finds himself getting further away from a toy he’s chasing rather than closer. And he gets feet stuck under the couch.

It was already determined that Ashton loves swings. He’d been on the big kids swing sitting on mommy or daddy’s lap, and also in the swing on our porch at home. So, it was no surprise that he loved the baby swings at the Jade Street Park. He still doesn’t quite fit in them, but he fixed that leaning forward so he didn’t flop around.

With the help of one of Daddy’s coolest flashlights, Ashton sported his Yoda costume for Halloween. Ashton thought the light saber was for eating though rather than fending off bad guys. He wore his costume to the grocery store where he got lots of attention and flirted with some customers. Then grandma took him and Kaylin to see some of her friends later in the day.