milestones

(UPDATED WITH BONUS PICTURES IN HOPES OF ILLICITING MORE COMMENTS).

I am so tired I have no business posting anything, but I'm doing it anyway.

As Asher is barrelling toward his first birthday, people keep asking about milestones. Things like dropping bottles, drinking milk - stuff 80% of you do not care to read. But there are a few milestones that I think will interest all of you, or at least both the moms and the band family, so I'm going to list them here.

1. Music - Brian and I agree that Asher gets to decide what his interests are. People keep asking us what instrument we want him to play, and this seems like the silliest question to me. Who's to say he'll want to play an instrument? We have no preconceived notion of raising the Partridge family. Even so - Asher LOVES the guitar. LOVES IT. The first time he ever crawled across the room, he was motivated by Brian playing the guitar. This morning we walked into church, and he immediately saw his dad picking up a guitar (keep in mind Brian was probably fifty yards away from us, in a crowded room with lots of stimulation) and started pointing at him and squealing. All during the music this morning, he kept pointing at Brian and making the sound that I interpret as "Look!" But Asher's first true musical milestone was a few weeks ago. His Granny (Brian's grandmother) gave him a child-sized guitar recently. When I pulled it out to see what Asher would do, he crawled over to where I was and strummed. I would hold down a couple of strings (simulating a chord, because I certainly don't know any real ones), but he didn't like that. He would stop strumming until I let go, then start again. He played until his fingers bled. I KID YOU NOT. He would have kept playing, too, if I had not interrupted him. Even with bleeding fingers, when I put it away, he started to cry. He loves the guitar.

2. Walking - Not yet. He's been pulling up forever, but hasn't been interested in taking any steps until this week. Thursday night he pushed his toy across the room like he'd been doing it all of his life. He's getting more and more proficient; he'll let go, stand alone for a second, then fall toward me. But the little guy doesn't always know what will support him. His worst injuries so far have occurred by pulling up on a dog that wouldn't stay still.


3. Affection - My mother-in-law has been trying to get Asher to blow kisses. He laughs at the game, but he hasn't done it on his own yet. But I think he's found his own way of showing affection. When Asher gets tired or grumpy, I have a habit of rubbing his cheek or forehead (which makes me such a mom, but I'm okay with that). Over the weekend, Asher started pulling up to me, grabbing my hands, and putting them on his cheeks. Then he rests his head on my leg. It really is the sweetest thing ever.

4. Talking - I want to be able to roll my eyes at the cliche about girls talking sooner than boys, but every little girl baby around me seems determined to prove it true. My friend's little girl - who is only a few weeks older than Asher - says 4-5 words and babbles constantly. Asher babbles some - enough to count on a developmental test - but more often, he points and says "Aah!" which is interpreted in our house as "Look!" I'm ambivalent about sign language with babies, but we are using the sign for "eat" to try to curb the impatient grunt that he uses between every single bite to say, "feed me!" Yeah, that grunt is cute once. After that it's like nails on a chalkboard. He recognizes so many words, though - dog, eat, play, pat-a-cake, ready, night-night ... I could keep going. I feel like he understands a good portion of what I say to him, especially if I'm talking about everyday activities.

5. Sheer brilliance - like I said, Asher understands a ton of words. I love to watch him learn. Today we were playing with the light switch in the hallway - light on, light off. After he flipped the switch once or twice, he pointed to the light fixture, looked at me, and made the "look!" noise. Genius. He's just so curious about the world. He's an observer, especially in a crowd, and seems to notice everything. I wish I could think of better examples (my brain is so so ready for bed), but maybe they'll come to me in the morning. Curiosity is exhausting for me, though. Asher is definitely not a child that can be left alone to play with toys. The same little girl who is talking so much has bookshelves in her living room with actual big-people-not-for-a-baby stuff on the bottom shelves. "She doesn't mess with that?" I asked my friend. "No, so far she hasn't noticed." Asher definitely notices - the fireplace, the DVD buttons, the toilet paper dispenser, the computer, the dog's eyeballs ..... he notices everything. (NOTE: Let it be known it was not my idea to take a picture of the baby playing in the toilet. My idea was to get the baby out of the toilet as quickly as possible - Brian and I made the mistake of trying to have a conversation yesterday morning, and when we realized Asher had gotten quiet, this is what we found.)

Good night all. Happy growing, everyone.