When Ashland is done with his bottle (I’ve been giving him 6 oz at a time the past 6 month now, but quite often lately he doesn’t finish it because he would rather eat real food), if I don’t take away the bottle promptly, he’ll start painting with it! I give him lots of credit for creativity but…
He does take his bottle very yummily though when he is eating (drinking?). I’ve offered him sippy cups with water in them a few times but he hasn’t really liked it at all. I haven’t offered him any other milks of any kind yet — I thought I’d wait until he sees his pediatrician for 1 year check-up. After Ashland weened himself off and went 100% formula around 6 months, he really hasn’t looked back. It’s definitely been more expensive, but admittedly it has been so much easier for me.
We’ve been feeling somewhat badly for Ashland that most of toys we have are decidedly *girlie*. It’s not that we think that girls should play with “girl” toys and boys with “boy” toys, but we thought it’s only fair that there’s variety or balance of sorts. Of course we have some gender neutral (…whatever that really means!) toys too, like a lot of wooden toys (which are sustaining serious damage due to Ashland gnawing on them) and legos (we all love legos here — we’ll definitely have to get more) but still, pink is over powering!
And we’ve looked for some toys Ashland might enjoy playing with (he obviously loves things with wheels on) at various stores but we couldn’t find anything worth buying. Seriously, all we found were really ugly and cheap looking unimaginative things! We looked at various train sets and found that one tiny little train (about 2.5 inches across, tracks sold separately!) is $21.99, and poorly made — I wouldn’t want it for $3.00! I’m guessing that most of the cost goes towards licensing this train “character” and not towards making quality product. There’s more variety of toys online, but toys are one of those things I don’t like to buy online because it’s difficult to determine quality from low resolution photos.
Then we remembered Ashland’s grandparents saying that there are toys Todd played with years ago still left in storage…and we had some of them shipped to us! And so the the vintage big red farm house, circus train with animals, and safari jeep set came to us in mail (thank you!). I’m currently washing all the toy pieces…but check this out:
Fisher-Price brand car and a man (…if you can call him that!) that are currently in stores. This car doesn’t even have steering wheels.
And here is a car and a man also by Fisher-Price from about 30 years ago:
It’s a very curious thing — I can’t help wondering what happened in 30 years.
We are at the market again this saturday…though it’s a bit hot out. Ashland doesn’t like hot weather much (compared to immi who doesn’t seem to mind it). He is looking a bit grumpy while we are getting some beautiful potatoes. Contrastingly, his sister who loves the market is being a little charmer and scoring for us some free pretty blue potatoes for us to try!
Today is Ashland’s 1st Birthday! We are celebrating it with a breakfast outing — it’s totally gorgeous out! He is having some french toast.
And then after dinner and wee bit of playtime, Ashland got his birthday cupcake.
…Which he devoured despite his HUGE dinner (he’s got serious appetite!).
…And now fast asleep tired from extra special day!
Of course a part of me can’t believe Ashland is ONE already, but then I also feel that he might as well be one because he has been more toddler like than a baby for some time now. He is walking well (he can carry stuff or kick a ball while walking!), starting to talk (he says quite many words, and he seems to understand what we are saying sometimes) and developing problem solving skills (he is obsessed with putting lids on things now). He is a sweetie who loves kitties and his sister and laughs a whole lot. He loves to eat, sleeps well, and enjoys adventures outdoors. I’m often amazed that he seems to have natural inclination towards “boy”-ish things like playing with cars (or anything with wheels on) or balls, and generally really athletic. But then again Immi has been a big influence on him too…he recognizes Hello Kitty (calls it HahKuh like immi does) and even said that it was “cute”! He also wants to walk around with immi’s purse — I’m not sure how to tell him that boys don’t usually carry purses…maybe I should get him a murse?
…And Ashland now has 4 upper teeth! Along with the 2 on the bottom.
Ashland spent last day as a 0 year old sweeping! Now he is running around the kitchen with the brush and the dustpan. He does occasionally sit to make sweeping gesture with the brush — I guess he’s been watching and learning!
We are at the PSU market and sitting at our usual spot. Ashland is leaning over to see what Immi is doing.
We walked around town for a while and now getting some cheap but yummy conveyor belt sushi. There’s lots of these sushi restaurant all around Portland and it has become our favorite dine-out solution because it’s quite healthy and both Immi and Ashland loves it. Ashland’s favorites are Tamago and Avocado rolls. He is having watermelon now.
We saw our bus leaving as we got to the bus stop and so having to wait 19 minutes for the next one. As it turns out, waiting for a bus in this part of town is completely entertaining for Ashland because there’s live music playing right across the street and lots of people to watch.
Past several days, Ashland has been needier than usual (he doesn’t want me to go out of sight — he is usually fine to be playing with immi in the play room without me) and having trouble falling a sleep at night (he sleeps fine when he does fall a sleep). We figured he’s teething with the top teeth…but as it turns out top four teeth and and 3rd and 4th teeth on the bottom (he has has 2 teeth on the bottom for some time now) are also coming out! That’s SIX teeth that are trying to come out all at once and it looks really painful!
We had sonogram appointment for Baby No.3. We came to the office by bus and got here an hour early. Ashland is crawling/walking the hall back and forth while waiting. It’s not something I’d usually encourage, but no one else is in this part of the waiting room, he isn’t in anyone’s way, and I knew that our appointment would take extra long today so…
Ashland must have gotten tired from all that exercising followed by 2 hour appointment and by the time we got to dinner, he was completely passed out!
It looks like Ashland is going to have a little brother!! Hopefully they will be best friends!
Ashland has been saying a lot more things. He says “cat!” every time he sees one (this was really his first word). He also points and says “This!!” — exactly like the way immi does it! — when he wants something. He also pointed at my knitting project bag and said “cute!” (learned it from immi no doubt). And then when I asked him if he wanted “more” of his dinner, he said “Done!”.
Ashland suddenly got much better at walking. He can also make a turn walking, and bend over to pick stuff up off the floor. He’s still a bit faster crawling though.
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