Aston has a door fetish

Another favourite book

Is Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Probably because I've sung the song so many times while he screamed away in the back of the car. Thanks again Brian, he's turning into a regular little book worm.

Note, we have been leaving his legs free in the past few weeks as often as possible to help him get traction on our shinny floor boards and practice his crawling, with pants on his legs just slide out from under him each time and it looks frustrating to me so am sure he appreciates the chance to get a grip on the floor as well.

What you looking at Willis?

His favourite book

Of all the toys he has littered on his playmat the one thing we notice he goes for time and again is the Nursery Rhymes book which Grandad Brian gave him. He LOVES this book and can turn the pages, often repetitively taking time to have a chew on the ends of each one. My favourite Rhyme is still Yankee Doodle came to town, he likes the Three Little Pigs.

Playing with his new toys

Aston tells us he needs more than just stuff he can lick, bite and suck on so we thought we should invest in a few more interactive toys to hold his attention and interest. Maxine has kindly lent us the blow up ball that rattles as it rolls, and we picked up the bongo drums which flash lights and make music, along with the rings thing. All three of these toys he currently really loves and his attention span has been increased dramatically (by at least 5 minutes) when playing with his new gear.

The 3 minute shower routine

Now that Aston has become a very proficent commando crawler he's hard to keep up with and is into everything. He's also getting stronger each day at the real crawl and today managed nine consecutive crawl steps. We're so proud of our wonderful little achiever.

What it means though is I have no choice but to put him in the play pen for my 3 minute shower in the mornings. I'd like a longer shower but as you can see from the above sequence his patience won't last much more than the generous 3 minutes he allows me to shower, brush teeth, get dressed.

The bumbo is of no use now either given he's worked out how to get out of that as well. We have ordered a high chair and are waiting for it to be delivered so stay tuned for more photo's of Aston screaming in yet another aparatus he has to be strapped into.

The perfect prince of the bumblebee

Busted

More funny pics from during the week

It's a bit cold in the mornings so when we take his sleeping bag off we often put him in this sleeveless hoody which Mae had got for him for Christmas. It's part of a full outfit but also works well as an extra layer in the morning when its a bit cold but not super cold.

What's going on in the world of Aston

Well it's been a LONG 3 day weekend here in Aston world. The poor little man is getting not one not two but THREE friggin teeth all cutting through at the same time. His top two teeth and the one to the right when looking at him. While we know he's well advanced and oh so alert and active, three teeth at the same time (6 weeks earlier than when they are due) is a bit much for him, and for us.

He also has a cold, which he's given to me this time and we are trying desperately not to let Rob catch it as you all know how terribly crippling man flu can be and with me being sick, I won't have the energy to look after them both.

Anyway no cute photo's of Aston this weekend as he's spent most of it screaming, crying, grizzling both morning and night so here's a few I'd taken last week and didn't get a chance to blog.

In other more exciting news he has also taken a few proper crawl steps here and there but then drops down to his tummy because he's way more efficient on the ground commando style. Though I'm sure once he's more confident with his crawl steps, this will change.

Sleepin through the night - chapter 102

After sleeping through the night on the 18th and 19th OF DECEMBER, 2007 Aston has sleep soundly from 6.30pm until 5am two nights ago. Of course I still didn't sleep through the night, waking at 2am in a panic and having to go and check on him, then at 3am and then 4am and then 5am for the eventual feed. And I had to keep going back and back ... for a boy who's been waking 2 or 3 times in the night for the past couple of months, I couldn't quite believe it.

Yep so far it's been just that one carrot dangled in front of our faces as last night he woke several times as per his usual routine. But we know he can do it which is the important thing.

My master plan is finally evolving, he's now taking two feeds a day from the bottle with no fuss at all, in fact thinks he's a bit of an expert now and tries to hold it himself most times. Those top two teeth are threatening to come through, and my milk appears to be on it's way out so BEFORE he gets the top set of munchers we can hopefully have him taking all feeds from the bottle. Then I can replace the contents of the middle of the night feed from formula to water and see what he does.

Yep door hinges secure and door is levelled.

Taking the bottle - chapter 32

While the above bib, bought for Aston by gorgeous Christina really says it all



And it looks like we've relocated to a chinese laundry



Aston has taken TWO BOTTLES IN TWO DAYS. Can you believe it. 120mls each time. Not a full feed which is supposed to be 240mls, but a huge amount of milk from a non boobie source. Praise be to Allah I am seeing bottles in our future. Though we don't want to jump up and down with the Halleluja's too quickly, we're quietly confident.

Standing like a big boy

Sitting up

While it looks like we're leaving him sitting up on his own, we're not, someone still needs to be pretty close by with a hand to stop the head bashing on the floor when he flops side to side, but he is starting to use a hand on the ground to balance himself and is getting stronger he's not officially sitting all on his own yet!