Asher is 8 months old, and he’s still the sweetest, little big baby I know. He’s quick to smile and laugh, and he makes it seem like you looking at him is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him.
It occured to me recently that I don’t feel like a new parent anymore. You may be thinking, “Duh, you have three children.” And you’re right, but for a lot of the last three and a half years I’ve felt like I have no idea what I’m doing. I don’t know when that changed, but I realized recently that I don’t really feel like that anymore (or at least not ALL the time).
There’s a lot of pressure to be a good parent. Some of it is from other people, but most of it is just our desire to not ruin our children’s lives. We try to do our best to be consistent and loving and apologize when we need to, but we also realize that we can’t be perfect and there are areas where we’ll fail our kids. I just earnestly pray for God’s grace in the gaps of our parenting!
This month’s updates:
Eating: Asher has taken off with eating table food. He eats most of what we eat at each meal and does great with it. He especially loves fruit and can somehow chew up and devour whole slices of it. He nurses 4 to 5 times a day still and we’ll probably continue with that until we (or he) starts to wean from breastfeeding.
Sleeping: Asher now consistently sleeps every night from 7 or 8 until 5 or 6. I feed him and then he’ll normally go back to sleep until about 7 or 8. I could probably work on getting him to sleep all the way through until 7 or 8, but I kind of like that first morning wake up when it’s peaceful (read: the other kids aren’t awake).
Asher takes two naps a day, usually for 45 minutes to an hour in the morning and 2-3 hours in the afternoon. He usually looks at me like I’ve commited an act of ultimate betrayal when I put him in the crib and then he cries for a little while and goes to sleep.
Other developments: Little man has two little toofies (teeth, for those unfamiliar with ridiculous mom-speak) on the bottom. It seems like more might be coming soon. He has also started crawling!
Weight: 24.4 lbs
Clothes: 12 or 18 months, size 4 diapers
Likes: Eating, chewing on everything, emptying the train table bins, talking, anything Eli and Mercy do
Dislikes: Mama taking away “toys” he shouldn’t be playing with, waking up after sleeping in the car, the ergo (it’s getting a little snug in there), having his face wiped
I love his expressions