Christmas 2009

With Asher along for the ride this year, Christmas was definitely different for us. But we made our traditional trek to Hyder to spend time with Enoch's family. All told 8 of his 12 siblings were there at various times, so there was a good crowd and never a dull moment. My mother-in-law worked tirelessly to keep everyone fed and provided for.

In the above picture, Asher is with his cousins Jaxon and Carson who live up in Portland. They have been very generous with sharing their hand-me-downs, so we have appreciated those two for months. It was good to get to see them. Carson was especially cute with Asher. He just loved his little cousin as you can tell. ;)

Asher did pretty well with adjustment to new place and sleeping in the pack-in-play. He was grateful for the gifts and thoughtfulness of friends and family. He managed to nap through our late morning opening of presents, but he has enjoyed and will continue to enjoy his gifts I assure you. Below he is with little sooth and glow seahorse, Thanks, uncles Mark!

Enoch got to enjoy some shooting and blowing stuff up as the Norton boys like to do out there. I happily stayed back taking care of Asher and chatting with the family. Enoch and I did take some time to go out on some kind of "limo" of an off-road vehicle that seated 9 people. I'm not one for quads really, but I did okay with Enoch and with knowing I was belted in.

We headed back Monday—our second anniversary. Neither of us even thought about the anniversary until late in the day.I know. I know. Pretty sad. I'm afraid it will always be overshadowed by Christmas. We're going to lunch tomorrow though, to celebrate. We've discussed creating an honorary anniversary (like June 28) so that we can celebrate a little bit better.

52 Saturdays #50: A step up from camping

Hyder is always an experience. Once the Christmas wrappings and festivities had settled, we found ourselves doing an outside cookout complete with smores on Saturday afternoon. I know people do have firepits in their backyards, but really, when we go to Hyder we are staying in cabin-type conditions, so the smore cooking fits right in. Asher was asleep during the initial festivities, but he awoke later to enjoy some of that lovely campfire.

Here nephew Hayden, Enoch, brother-in-law Steven, and sister-in-law Lynette cook away! The smore I had was GOOD! In fact, a couple of the marshmallows you see over that fire are mine. :)

4 month stats

After a visit to the doctor and four shots, Asher is doing well. He's growing and developing just as he should. :)

Weight: 13 lbs. 4 oz.
height: 24 1/4 inches
head: 16 inches

He's at about the 25th percentile in all areas, so he's more on the small side, but the doctor says he is following his growth curve well for the size he started.

This last weekend, he began talking like crazy—all kinds of new vocalizations. It happened literally overnight. It makes me wonder about how many amazing things are happening in their brains as they sleep.

52 Saturdays #49: Just cute

Yes, his shirt says, "Not too little to giggle." We're glad he does plenty of that!

**Suddenly I am seeing that my 52 Saturdays may only be 50. What happened? I have always been challenged with math, but I thought I could at least count one week at a time?!?!

52 Saturdays #48: Since we were having guacamole...

We decided to try avocado as a first food with our four month old. Who would have thought of it as a baby's first food? Not me, but in doing some reading on introducing solids, I found people who spoke highly of it. It's got good nutrients, texture, and taste. He actually did pretty well with it. Of course, with as much guacamole as I ate during my pregnancy, he should have.

We will raise a guacamole lover if I have anything to say about it!

4 for 4 months

We love him, love him, love him, love him! (In case you couldn't tell...)

52 Saturdays #47: Partying with the ward

Our church had its party last Saturday night, so we headed over for the festivities. Santa came to give out candy canes, but we elected to take photos with Frosty instead. The line of kids was too long, and I have fears that our little guy might just scream in fright to be placed on Santa's lap. He's a bit of a timid soul—much like his mother, I'm afraid. Frosty was non-threatening and there was no wait.

No worries. We'll try to get the photo with Santa at Enoch's work party next weekend. There will be no wait then, and Santa will give him a gift, so stay tuned.

Still smiling

Sunday night we noticed that Asher seemed to be coming down with the First Ever Cold in his Life. He was stuffy, had lovely boogers, and seemed to be sneezing a lot. Oh boy! Who knew what we would be in for with the First Ever Cold. By Monday, his sneezing was constant and he had a little cough to go along with it, but he was still smiling cute as ever as evidenced by this photo.

As of today (Friday), he is more congested in the nose, but not sneezing or coughing much. But the boy is not quite sleeping as well as he'd like. Gone are the two hour naps for ones of a 45 minute variety, but he's a trooper. We just nap more often and try to keep those smiles coming as well as we can. We can't complain too much. Really the First Ever Cold has been quite mild. We feel pretty blessed.

52 Saturdays #46: Thanksgiving weekend

So I cheated here...this is actually a photo from Thursday's Thanksgiving festivities when we had the Marks, Jill and her family, my dad, and Megan over for dinner. This was the first day Megan got to meet her the new nephew, so here they are playing while Elaine shares her dog with her cousin.

On Saturday we went up to Jill's and spent more time with them and Megan. It was a pretty low key weekend really, but we enjoyed getting together, eating well, and having time as a family. :)

We also "ran" the Turkey Trot again this Thanksgiving. Running would be a far reach. We strolled more like it with stroller in tow, but it was a gorgeous day. And as an outtake shot, here's a funny. The kid was trying to pull his pants up all the time, but his dad was oblivious that anything was amiss. Please let this never be our kid!

The boy and his dad

I am eternally grateful to have a husband who absolutely adores his little boy. Enoch is so helpful and so involved as a parent, and it makes my life easier. For that, I am especially grateful. He changes diapers, he cuddles him, he calms him. He'd feed him far more often if I weren't breastfeeding. It really paid off for me to be single all those years so that I could meet him. We are truly blessed around here to have such a fantastic husband and dad!

Mommy's workstation (complete with the boy and his dog)

So I've gone back to work—in a way. I've been hoping for quite some time that I could get hired by some outfit that would allow me to do online teaching so that I could use my education and experience to work from home. Finally, after a number of months of looking and sending resumes, I got a contact from the University of Phoenix, and I am now officially in training. It's a four week long stint of about 20 hours a week during the training time, and none of it's paid, which is a bummer; but I am hopeful that in the long run, I will get a position and be able to work from home and add to our family income. :)

Sometimes I work in our office, and sometimes I work at the kitchen table. Usually Asher isn't with me because it is easier for me to work while he sleeps. Suddenly, life has gotten even busier—and just in time for the holidays. Joy! :)

52 Saturdays #45: Just Chillin'

What a great face! We Wilkinsons tend to make some great faces, and Asher surely carries on the tradition. hee hee.

We spent the day hanging out. I went to the grocery store, worked on some assignments (more info forthcoming), and at the end of the day we did a family date to Barnes and Noble and Ocean Blue for some frozen yogurt. Good times!

52 Saturdays #44: Bedtime Stories

I think there is another Saturday picture similar to this from sometime in September, but boy has Asher changed. Enoch was reading him a few Billy Collins' verses, which is always a wonderful thing. Asher loves the voice, and someday he will come to love the pictures and ideas more, too.

Then we put him down for the night. He's a good night sleeper, although I am still getting up with him a couple of times for feeding because he takes his last meal of the day around 7 PM. He's not inclined to wake at 10 to feed again, so we're up about 1 AM and then up about 4:30 AM. It's not the thrill of my life, but someday both of those feedings will drop—that's the hope anyway. Lucky for me, he goes right back to sleep after feeding, and so do I.

3 wishes for 3 months

For our little Asher-man,

If we had the magic lamp of a genie, we would definitely do some rubbing and wishing for you. Perhaps these may be a bit cliche, but they get used so often because they are so true. They are very much what most parents would wish for their children.

1. Happiness. As I watch you smile big, close your eyes, and kick your head back in your giggles, I can't help but hope you will do much of this throughout your life. Don't be inclined to take things too seriously. Instead, smile, laugh, and fill your life with happiness. Hopefully, we can help you find the bright side when things look not so happy. Be joyful and spread that joy around.

2. Health. Amidst all this talk of H1N1 flu and vaccinating, I do hope you will stay a pretty healthy kid. Your dad and I were both fortunate to grow up with few doctor visits and few issues. We wish the same for you. In that spirit, we've had our shots, we'll immunize you many times in the next few years (even though you hate it), and I'll head off to wash my hands once again once I finish typing this post.

3. Good friends. As they say, you can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends. Sorry. You're stuck with us. ;) But hopefully your life will be filled with good friends who support you, build you up, and make life full of fun and adventure. This is one of our biggest prayers for you. May we know how to guide you in this way, and may we bring you up to be that good friend to others.

We love you!
mom and dad

Tummy Time

A has always liked his tummy. Perhaps it helps with his gassiness. Whatever the reason, we sure do like to see his head pop up and stay up for quite a few seconds these days. It's yet another reminder of how he's developing. Next, I'll try to get him to do more smiling while holding himself up. Right now I think it takes about all of his energy just to get there. But with how quickly he changes, it won't be long...

52 Saturdays #43: This and That

I spent some time Saturday going through drawers and clothes to make room for the 3-6 month variety of clothes. Our little guy has reached the edge of being able to squeeze into the 0-3 month size. There was still room to grow width wise, but in length, it was getting harder and harder to snap the bottoms together. The time had come, and I had a whole slug of the next size to take the place of the smaller things thanks to friends, gifts, and hand me downs. We are very grateful around here to feel like buying clothes is not necessary. In fact, there is little room for anymore. We are blessed.

As I went through clothes, I thought about the times they had been worn and how A has grown and changed so dramatically.

How did that?









Become this?

2 months (or only 9 days from 3 months)

The Stats:
weight: 11 lbs. 11 oz.
height: 24 inches
head: 15 1/2 inches

This is a little guy who...

loves to watch anything intently. He can win just about anyone in a stare down.
enjoys a lullaby and Primary songs.
sleeps for 5-6 hours at a stretch at night before waking for feeding again.
likes to laugh at his puppy as we sing "How Much Is that Doggie in the Window?"
does the beat box with his dad.
didn't enjoy getting 5 immunizations yesterday, but is close to recovered today.
loves to coo and chat it up after eating.
grabs onto things that come within reach of his hands.
stands and bears weight on his legs.
still tires pretty easily after being awake for more than an hour to an hour and a half.
is growing way too fast!

The Blessing

Enoch blessed Asher at church yesterday. It was a sweet and fairly short blessing about the love of the Savior and how Asher should carry that through his life to bless others. It was fitting for our little guy. I'm happy to report that he slept the whole time and then some--for several hours afterward actually.

We took a few family photos. I wish I liked them more. I need to get back to working out, and Enoch would say the same thing for himself as well. But here we are. I also wish that we were standing closer together. I should have done some looking at the pictures after they were taken I suppose. humph...

Thanks to Jill and her family, Lori and her family, Grandma Norton, David and his family, Steven and his wife, and Trevor, for representing the family. And thanks to our dear friends Arlene, Chaz, Brandi, and Raquel for coming too. We had some great baked ziti to celebrate afterward. It was a wonderful Sunday to honor little Asher!

52 Saturdays #42: Happy Halloween

from us and our little punkin. :) Hope everyone had a great day!

52 Saturdays #41: At the end of the day...

Nothing beats being wrapped up in a towel after having a bath. Bed awaits. This was a busy day. We took A to Hyder for the first time. He did pretty well on the car rides. All told he spent four hours in the car that day, and only the last hour was tough in terms of keeping him happy.

Once we got back to town we headed over to a chili cook off in our old neighborhood to visit with some of our friends. Once again, A was a trooper even though he was tired. Once we got home, we bathed, fed, and he was out. Blissful...

52 Saturdays #40: Beat Box Masters

Enoch loves to do his own beat box sounds and moves with A. And A loves the different sounds, his dad's funny faces, and all of the movement. He smiles, he giggles, and eventually he tires. But in the moment, it is so fun!

Birthday Celebrations

Another birthday has come and gone for me, and it was pretty sweet and low key. It started Sunday evening when we went to my sister Jill's for dinner and cake. Elaine and I celebrated together since her birthday is the 13th and mine is the 12th. We blew out the candles together.



Then on Monday Enoch took the day off, and Matt and Jess were in town so we met for lunch at Chick Fil A and then did some more garden shopping at Walmart and the Home Depot. Enoch made me a birthday cake for that evening, so more good eating!

Enoch's gift to me was a sheet of coupons that I can redeem at any time. He had asked me what I wanted and I said that I wanted a full night of sleep more than anything. So on the coupon sheet were two coupons for 8 hours of sleep among other things like a massage, dinner and a movie, etc. It was pretty sweet and more than thoughtful. I'm wondering what chocolate day is, but he says I'll have to cash it in to find out. hmmmm....

52 Saturdays #39: Enoch plants a garden

Enoch's been itching and planning for our backyard ever since we bought our home. Now that the weather has cooled and things have become a bit more routine with the baby, he has been hard at work. Saturday was the first day of official planting. He put in a ruby red grapefruit and a lemon tree. Within 2-3 years they should bear fruit and after 4 years, they should be fully mature. I never thought I'd live in a place where we could grow citrus, but here we are.

He also worked on Saturday with a couple of his brothers to get the dirt in our garden plot ready for planting since it still had a few too many rocks in the topsoil. Then yesterday we planted tomatoes and a lime tree. There will be more to come.

It will be a process of trial and error to see how our garden grows. Enoch has big plans and dreams since he is far more the green thumb than I am, but we are excited.

Starting him early...

I took Asher to the library this morning for Baby Lapsit. It's basically a half hour of reading, song and playtime geared toward kids birth to 24 months. I was proud of him for being awake and calm the whole time. I think he was in a bit of stimulation overload with all of the different people, sounds, and other kids roaming about. He was definitely the youngest in the room. 80% of the kids were over age 1 and walking around. But I figure there's no time like the present to get him started. Eventually we can also use the time afterwards to pick out books for reading. I appreciate that our library here keeps a good collection of board books that they know get used in a pretty hard fashion by babies who love to chew, and so they replace and restock often.

I know he probably got little from the reading at this point, but it was fun to have him in a different space, and hopefully we can make it a habit that overtime he will come to really enjoy.

52 Saturdays #38: Pumpkin patch

We decided to head out to see Mother Nature's Farm here in Gilbert on Saturday as a little field trip out of the house. I had heard about it on a blog called iheartmesa. It seemed like an interesting and inexpensive option. It really is more for older kids, however. Their big thing is pumpkin decoration, a hayride, play areas, etc. We ended up not staying very long, but we did pick ourselves up a pumpkin in the process.

And of course, our little punkin came along and promptly fell asleep. But notice our attempts at festivity: the cat hat and, if it were more visible, a onesie with a pumpkin on it.

Hope you are enjoying these first days of October! We are. The weather has finally cooled to more beautiful temperatures, and the light in the early evenings is fantastic!

52 Saturdays #38: All smiles

We are all about photographing our little guy these days—especially when he is flashing that killer smile of his. Sometimes I think he may be on the verge of giggling as well. I'm really starting to see his dad in him for sure. What do you think?

Point taken

My friend alerted me to something her friend had posted this morning here. (It's under Sept. 23 in case you are checking on a different day.) Otherwise, the text of what Elizabeth Dillow says is here:

"Apologies to those who are here today expecting to see some new layouts about all things school-related. After some internal debate, I decided to switch gears today, because yesterday morning I received the most devastating of news: a member of the Air Force community that I currently belong to—a mother (my age!) with two small children—died suddenly in her sleep on Monday night.

The details of this tragedy do not belong here in this forum we share. After a great deal of soul-searching yesterday, I decided the reminder does. It is too important to ignore—for me, and for you. The reminder, of course, begins with that message we all hear from time to time: what we do as scrapbookers is valuable. It is not frivolous or silly to spend time documenting the stories of our lives, and the documentation we create—digital, paper, on a blog or in a journal—is a priceless gift to ourselves and our loved ones.

That isn't all, though. Scrapbookers spend a lot of time behind the camera. The pictures we take are priceless, but is time to stop ignoring our own absence in photographs. It is not OK to look through nine months of photographs as I did yesterday and find less then ten of me pictured with one or more of my children. It is not OK to find less than three of me pictured with my own parents. It is not OK for me, and it is not OK for them. We all know that photographs are magic, and sometimes, suddenly, that magic can be a connection a thousand times—no, a million times—more important than it was the day before.

Are you familiar with Aleida's Challenge? If not, you can read about it by clicking here. Even if you don't join the challenge group at Flickr, I'd love for each of us here to take up the challenge today on our own and include ourselves in a photo with our children, our nieces, our nephews, our grandchildren. Hand over the camera to someone else, set it on the kitchen counter and use the self-timer feature, use your computer's camera, hold it up at arms-length—it doesn't matter. Offer to take a picture for a friend or co-worker, or the stranger fumbling with her camera at the zoo. The act of clicking that shutter will serve as a reminder that our presence in the photograph with our loved ones is more than important, it's imperative.

I'll be back with my regularly scheduled program on Friday after tomorrow's giveaway. Thank you for reading today."

And so I post a picture of myself with Asher. I truly do have remarkably few of me with him from these first few weeks partly because I am behind the camera all too often, but also because I don't especially like pictures of myself. Right now, my hair is in dire need to a cut and color, I have a huge zit on my chin, and I really have no muscle definition. But there will always be the excuses. In the end, Asher needs to see me with him. Our family needs those memories. Thanks for the reminder, Elizabeth (one of the most gifted scrapbookers I have ever known).

52 Saturdays #37: Can you see it?

I wish this photo were dead on, so it would be more readily apparent that he is smiling rather than just having his mouth wide open, but such is the way of things when you are trying to capture the smile of one who has just recently started the practice and is still working on getting good at it. He smiles a little more each day, and he is becoming more consistent, but for now we'll take what we can get.

Trust me, he's smiling. Can't you see it in his eyes? :)

Faces

A few more shots from Saturday's photo shoot.




I'm working to capture the latest and most exciting expression to date--his little smile! :) He doesn't do it all that often or consistently yet, but he will definitely respond to certain stimulus with a wide mouth grin when we catch him in the right mood.

52 Saturdays #36: The Thinker

Just because it's so cute! More of his many faces tomorrow...

One Month

It's hard to believe sometimes that one month has gone by since Asher's birth. In some ways it seems like forever ago, and in other ways I wonder where the time has gone. I also have to stop and think about how much has happened in terms of my own recovery in that time. I'm moving well, taking Asher for daily walks around the neighborhood now that the temperatures aren't so scorching, and letting fade into more distant memory all the things I didn't so much like about having a c-section.

Asher is growing, growing, growing. His pediatrician doesn't do a one month appointment, so we will see him again at 2 months. But we weighed Asher the other day just for kicks, and he is now over 8 pounds. It still seems small, but when I stop to think that means he's gained a good 2.5 pounds from his lowest weight, 8 pounds seems quite large. He sleeps pretty well, but can be fussy in the evenings. He's definitely more of a night owl and not much of a morning person. He loves to sleep then. He definitely takes after both of his parents in that regard. I'm learning to sleep where I can in an attempt to keep myself sane.

As he becomes more alert, it is fun to watch his eyes as they gaze and track things. He has a pretty strong neck so he loves to switch the sides he is looking at. When he's in tummy time, he mostly likes to chill out and look at one side, but when he gets energized he lifts his head to switch sides. It's fun to watch his development. I look forward to the day when he begins smiling. I catch glimpses of what his smile may look like when he does a reflex thing in his sleep, but what fun when he can do it for real!

We love you, little man!

52 Saturdays #35: Cousins

On the Norton side, Asher has three other cousins born before him, but who will be in the same grade as he is in school-two girls and one boy. Casey is his one boy cousin his age, and he was over this Saturday for a visit. He was born in January, so they are quite different in size now, but someday these two could be making great mischief together. Hopefully they will be good friends. Casey loves to come and investigate his cousin. We have to tell him be gentle and careful. Asher doesn't really know what to make of the whole thing yet.

52 Saturdays #34: Recreational Reading

This is actually from last Saturday. I'm a bit slow to posting these days and I am not exactly sure why. But after taking a family field trip to the library last Saturday, we found ourselves doing some reading with little Asher. We find it can be a great way to calm him and even get him to sleep. Enoch had already been working his way through All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren. The lilting sounds of his word choice put Asher to sleep on more than one evening.

I picked up A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and read that to Asher as well. Perhaps it is more the sound of my voice than anything that is calming, but he likes it pretty well--no matter what the book. He should get plenty of reading time in his life. After all, his parents are bookish enough people that they met at a book club. ;)

Symmetry

I couldn't help but take this photo when I came upon the scene the other day. Like father, like son...

Cousins come to visit

My sister came by with her two girls the other day so that they could meet their new cousin. Elaine thought he was "so cute!" and Charlotte was also quite in awe of the little guy. In fact Jill was quite surprised at how interested Charlotte was in Asher. Both girls got to hold him, but Charlotte loved holding him best of all. She would get a big smile on her face, and more than once she said to her mom, "I want one."

Jill had to tell her that they wouldn't be able to have one, but they could come and visit us or we could visit them and then she could have one while we were there. It was too cute. She was so genuine in her desire. No worries, Charlotte. We'll come for a visit soon!

52 Saturdays #33: Bath time!

Asher's cord fell off today, so to celebrate, we took a bath! Asher quite liked it--up until the point where he had to get out of the water and move to the towel. That was cold. But we quickly wrapped him up in his crocodile towel, and Enoch actually carried him outside where the air is warmer, and Asher was content as could be.