An ounce of prevention ...

After telling me his own son at around 2 years old pointed to an electrical outlet and said, "Hot!", my OBGYN told me babies are hard to kill.
I'd rather not take any chances.
For that reason, I think it's time to baby proof (Ok, Ok. It's probably PAST time to baby proof, but I've been busy). Now that Asher is mobile (he's still doing that wierd wounded soldier crawl -- as long as it's working for him, why should he actually change anything?), we're discovering there are some things we're going to have to change around the house -- especially since he naturally gravitates toward the most dangerous things he can find.
So far, he really enjoys crawling, climbing and rolling on or near:
1. The brick fireplace. Bricks are hard, cold and they have sharp edges. Why wouldn't he want to hang out there. Also, there are two very fun metal candle holders flanking each side of the fireplace. They are fun to push because they wobble. It's not so much fun, though, when they wobble so much that the candle (UNLIT OF COURSE!) falls over on top of baby's head. Ouch.

2. Anything tile, especially underneath the bench in the entry hall. I actually couldn't find him the other day. After frantically searching for about 2 minutes, there I found him hiding underneath the bench. Very crafty for an 8 month old! Under the bench is fun, because it involves two kinds of hard surfaces -- tile and wood. Under the bench is fun until baby realizes he can't move up without hitting his head on the wood, or go down without hitting it on the tile. Again, ouch.

3. Anywhere near a wall. I don't know if this is common or not, but Asher gets a kick out of banging his against the wall. He does it over and over again until his forehead is red. It makes him laugh. In fact, he'll bang his head against almost anything, including his mommy's nose. That is worse than ouch. Thank goodness it didn't bleed.

He also enjoys pulling things down (i.e. the candle holders), so I'm wondering if it's even worth the effort to put up a Christmas tree this year.

My first Thanksgiving

Asher is 8 months (or, 2/3 of a year) old!

Tomorrow is turkey day, but forget about that. Today, Asher turns 8 months old!
Eight months means:
- Two teeth: Two on the bottom and one or two more about to poke through on the top.
- Too fast: Rolling has turned into what we call "The Wounded Soldier." Asher propels himself forward with one arm while pushing off with the opposite foot. He drags the opposite leg behind him gimply like a wounded soldier. You would be surprised at how fast a baby can move this way. There will be no more leaving him in one room while I run to another. I tried that last night while I was baking cookies. I left him on the farthest side of the living room from the kitchen, ran to the kitchen and, before I knew it, there he was.
- Too cool: Not only can he move, he can shake. He loves to pull himself up and dance to music. He also loves to kiss mommy -- open mouthed and drooling, of course.

In other news, the cold from hell seems to be letting up, although Asher still has a cough. I keep telling him he better quit it or he'll end up with a N-E-B-U-L-I-Z-E-R. Ahhhhhhh! Not the nebulizer!
Anyway, he missed trick-or-treating because he was sick, but that didn't stop us from putting him in his Halloween froggie suit (see the slide show below). It worked out OK, as he can't really eat candy anyway.
Speaking of eating, Asher now is eating second foods and some regular food. He loves Macaroni and Cheese Dinner in a jar, and many other yummy strained vegetables, fruits and meats. Tomorrow, we are going to let him have his own Turkey Day plate, complete with real potatoes, real yams, real turkey and anything else real that he can mash around with only two teeth and a set of gums. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Sick and Sicker ...

Everyone warned me Asher would get sick once he started day care. For the first five months of his life he had nary a sniffle. Since he'
1. A virus that causes severe vomiting and diarrhea. He came home with this cute little bug on his second day at the esteemed Little Hands Day School. While the "Exorcist" like vomiting only stuck around for about 24 hours, the runny diapers lasted about two weeks. Gross.
2. An unidentified rash, also caused by a virus. This bug caused him to break out into tiny spots all over his body. They did not itch. They did not bother Asher. As the doctor said, "It probably hurts you worse than it hurts him." Very true. The spots sickness did not cause any fever or other symptoms. Just spots.
3. Another unidentified rash. This one happened about a week after the spots. It consisted of little raised bumps all over his back. They resembled hives. Again, no other symptoms other than the rash.
4. A sinus infection, ear infection and another unidentified virus all rolled into one. This has been the worse of them all. This bug creeped in quietly without warning. It seemed like allergies or a cold at first, just a runny nose and then a cough. Then, the cough got worse. I called the doctor's office and was advised by a nurse that a cold could last up to 10 days. They told me not to worry.
Fourteen days later, he still had the cough. At the same time, he developed a condition where his eyes oozed green mucous and were matted shut. By the time I got in to see the doctor(on a Friday) Asher had a sinus infection, ear infection and eye infection. This, of course, required the pink antibiotic along with antibiotic eye drops. All this time, mind you, Asher hadn't run a fever or really acted sick. I took him to day care on Monday since he seemed to be OK. That afternoon, I got a call that he had a 102.8 degree temperature. I left work and picked him up. I called the doctor's office and was told he must have picked up a virus on top of everything else.
By Wednesday, he still had a fever that ranged from 104 to 101, depending on how long it had been since I'd dosed him with Tylenol. The doctor finally decided the pink medicine wasn't working, so now Asher is taking a new antibiotic that turns his poop bright red. That would have been very alarming had the doctor not warned me about it beforehand.
Anyway, Asher's sickness from hades is still going on. His nose is so stopped up he can't drink a bottle. When he tries to eat solids, snot blows out of his nose in bubbles, then gets mixed in with the cereal, banana, sweet potatoes, etc. I've tried using the snot sucker on him, but I gave up when he jabbed in the right jaw. Baby's are strong.
On the bright side, his fever broke. It's very unnerving to see a baby with cold sweats and chills. On the not so bright side, I think he's passing on a little bit of what he has to me. So much for my theory that once you become a mom, you don't get sick anymore.