Baby Life Week 27: Ringing in the New Year

Even though Christmas was over, this week (December 29-January 4) was still full of exciting events.  

On Saturday morning, Mom drove down here by herself to enjoy the weekend with the family, since Micah's birthday was coming up and Dad had already come down on Wednesday to spend some time at Aaron and Erika's.  Although she was also going to stay at their house in Crystal Lake, she first came to Kenosha to babysit Asher for us while Eric and I got to enjoy a little date.  We went to the 11:50am showing of The Hobbit.  It seems a bit strange to go to a movie so early in the day, but it was pretty nice.  We only had to pay $5.25 each for our tickets and I didn't have to struggle to stay awake to see the show (although I shouldn't have to the other times we see movies since we RARELY see a movie after 6pm anymore, but I am becoming a geezer, and I do).  I thought that the theater would be empty, but apparently other people know how nice a morning show can be too, because it was almost full!  We actually had kind of a difficult time finding two seats together in an area that we wanted to sit (does anyone ever choose to sit in the front at the theater?).  

When The Hobbit was over, we headed back home to relieve Mom of her duties and enjoy the rest of the day with our little man.  Then, a little later in the afternoon, Eric headed to Menards to start our newest project.  For Christmas, Mom and Dad gave us some money to do something fun or get something special for our family.  After ruling out a new TV (which was Eric's first thought for the money) we decided to spend the money on our basement.  It isn't enough money to do everything that we would like to do, but it is enough to get the project started.  Since we bought the house five and a half years ago, we have always said that we would one day finish the basement off right (it is already "finished", but is very dated and has lots of water spots/damage, etc.)  For years, we pushed the project aside as something for the future, but now that we have Asher, we have decided that "the future" is here.  With kids toys exploding around the house, we would like to get the basement finished off to provide a playroom/family room for Asher to play in.  Ideally, we will have it done by the summer, so that Asher can use it once he starts to walk, but since we've already learned that projects take A LOT more time with a baby in the house, we will have to wait and see when it actually gets finished.  Anyway, to make a long story short, Eric went to Menards, so I got to entertain Asher alone for a few hours.  Since he was a little cranky, we decided to talk to Mirror Baby for a bit...Asher decided that he deserved some kisses. :)

Video:

On Sunday, Asher turned 6 months old!!!  I am not sure where the past half a year went, but it is already in the past and our little guy is running (not literally...yet) toward the future.  I keep telling myself that I need to take moments out of our busy life to savor my infant, because soon I will be telling him to pick his clothes up off the floor, put his dishes in the dishwasher and take the dog for a walk!  Anyway, we "celebrated" his 6 month birthday by enjoying a typical lazy Sunday...church, then lazy family time at home with a (not so) small 6 month photo shoot mixed in.

Asher with a few of his IBC buddies (Jaxson 4-1/2 months, Asher 6 months, AJ almost 6 months)

During Asher's 6 month shoot, I realized that the next six monthly photo shoots may be very difficult.  Now that Asher is a pro at rolling around and sitting, he is becoming Trouble.  :)  He gets into everything, and is making me think that we need to stock up in baby-proofing supplies.  Basically anything that isn't meant for children is pretty much the most interesting thing in the world lately.  Thus, it is no longer ok to just lay/roll/sit/droll on the calendar, now we have to try to rip it apart and/or eat it.

Seriously though, could you ever get mad at a face like this?

Wild man.

Yum!

GQ pose?

I am not sure if this was an accident, or Asher letting me know that he was ready for the photo shoot to be over.

Monday, was New Year's Eve.  It was also Micah Klingenmaier's birthday!  Just as it is hard to believe that Asher is already 6 months old, it is also hard to believe that 3 years have already passed since Micah was born!  Thus, after enjoying some time at home (neither of us had to work), we headed over to Aaron & Erika's house to celebrate Micah's birthday.

Asher needed a little rest during the party...I love when he does this with his lips.  :)

The birthday boy with Grandma & Grandpa K.

The birthday boy with the rest of his family.

Asher dressed for the party's construction theme.

While at the party, Asher got to meet Micah's cousin Eliza, who is about 2-1/2 months older than him.

The birthday boy with his present from us...a play construction worker belt, tools & googles (there is a hard hat with flashlight somewhere too).

Even thought it was New Year's Eve, we had no plans to stay up late.  Once the boys were ready for bed and the party had died down, we headed home fully hoping to get into bed soon too.  However, when we got home one of us wasn't exactly ready for bed...take a guess which one...  :)

The next day was New Year's and we started off 2013 right by sleeping in and watching Michigan football (minus the poor outcome of the game).

On Wednesday, Eric had to head back to work (after 11 days off), but Asher's daycare was still closed for one more day.  Thus, I enjoyed my typical Wednesday at home alone with him.  Because of Christmas, it had been a couple of weeks since I had had a day alone with him, and I am pretty sure that he was not nearly as mobile back then as he is now.  I spent basically the entire day trying to keep him away from things.  With the Christmas tree still up, our living room floor area was quite small allowing Asher to easily roll himself under it.  A few times in the past month I've found him pulling on branches, but on this day I found that he had actually found an ornament that he was able to pull off the tree and give it a taste test.  Then a little while later I found him chewing on one of the wrapped gifts that was under the tree for Eric's sister.  Later that day, I put him on a blanket in the middle of the office floor so that I could get some things done on my computer.  Next thing I know, he is under my office chair playing with the adjustable height lever.  After putting him back in the middle of the room on the blanket, I turn around moments later to find him UNDER the very same blanket!  Finally, as I worked on making dinner that evening, I found him laying on top of one of Emma's toys chewing on it.  I fear that the next few months (or 18 years) may be difficult! :)

The week ended by everyone getting back to our old schedules.  Eric & I headed back to work while Asher headed back to daycare.  The nice thing was that although our holiday break was over, we only had 2 days until the weekend came!