I love to walk!!!!

Asher is definitely at the stage where he would rather walk to where he wants to go instead of crawling!! It is really fun to experience and watch him as he is doing this. Of course he falls on his knees and butt and makes us cringe a little because we know that he will have to have an infusion from time to time, but that is life with a child with hemophilia. Now, he is not walking all the time, but I would consider him walking. He is getting pretty good at walking. He will take a few steps and then stop, and take a few more steps . He has really good balance while he is walking.

One thing he absolutely loves to do now is walk towards Bailey's pillow and plop down on it. He thinks this is the best thing to do and laughs as he is doing it! He loves Bailey's pillow or anything soft to lay on. Anyway, he is having fun experiencing this stage of his live and so are we!

Splish Splash, I was taking a bath!

Asher sure does love bathtime! In fact, when we say, 'should we get a bath?' he says 'ba'! it is really cool to see and hear! After he says, ba he crawls for the gate on his wall and then after we open it, he crawls as fast as he can towards the stairs. And, of course, he is laughing and having at the same time.

Since he loves his bathtime so much, we decided to take some pics of him having fun. Julie spiked his hair and we got some pics of him with spiked hair. Also, I got some pics of him splashing and having fun! Enjoy!

No more milk bottle

Last night was the first night that we did not give Asher a bottle of milk before he goes down for bed. He could tell that something was different because it was out of his routine. We weren't sure how the night was going to go. When Julie put him down in his crib, he watched her leave his room and then started screaming, which he hardly ever does. But eventually he calmed himself down and put himself to sleep. He even slept through the night without having his milk before going to bed. We are so proud of him!! Way to go AsherMan!!!

Moooooooo

As you read earlier, Asher can do what a snake says. So a few days ago we were playing with Asher. He and I were playing with his guitar, which also makes animal noises. I made the guitar play the 'moo' sound. After I did this a few times in a row, Asher started to mimic the noise. So now we can say, what's a cow say? and he will say 'ooooo'. It is funny! We captured this video of him saying 'oooooo' and doing the snake. Enjoy!

What's a snake say?

We have been trying to teach Asher sounds by saying what does a snake say? It is absolutely hilarious what he does when we ask him that question. What Asher does is he sticks his tongue in and out fast! And he loves to do it when we ask him. It took us awhile to finally get it on video and here it is. It is not the greatest video, but you can see him doing it. Enjoy!

Droopy Drawers

Since Asher has been walking around the furniture for 6 months or so, sometimes he steps on his pants. Or in this case, a lot!! Julie snapped some pics of Asher and him having some problems keeping his pants up!

Enjoy and laugh!!

More

Asher is seriously eating us out of house!!! Every time we eat a meal together he can not get enough to eat! He just keeps eating and eating and eating! Is this normal? It sure must be. The cool thing about this is that he is learning how to sign "more". Tonight we were in Des Moines and when we were eating he would sign "more" and we would give him more french fries. It was really cool! He already knows the sign for milk, so next up might be "please".

Tortillas

The past few days we have had some extra tortillas around from various meals we have had. So we decided to give Asher some to see what he thought. Yeah, he really likes them! He eats them like they are going out of style! In fact, tonight he ate 1/2 of a large tortilla plus his fruits and vegetables. He is just like his mother!

Big boy sippy cup!

We switched Asher over to a big boy sippy cup on Monday because he was having a hard time getting the milk out of his other sippy cup. He was still on stage 1 for sippy cups and we moved him to stage 3 since he needed to and we also wanted to see if he could get more milk without choking on it.

Here are some pics of him with his big boy sippy cup.

More steps!

Asher took more steps this past weekend! Julie and I were playing with him on the floor this weekend and we kept getting farther apart so Asher would have to walk farther. I was able to capture this video of him walking to Julie. He is getting close, but we are not pushing him to walk! Someday soon enough, he will be walking/running all over the place.

Annual Clinic visit

Today, Asher had his annual hemophilia clinic visit at Iowa City. It went really well and he did really well despite not being able to take a morning nap. We traveled over there yesterday because our appointment was early this morning. Asher did not sleep well at all last night and he did not take an afternoon nap yesterday, either. So we really did not know how he was going to be today at his clinic visit. He did really well despite not being able to play on the floor and only being able to sit on the table or with us. We got some really good information, especially on prophylaxsis treatment (prophy). We think that someday Asher will be on prophy (regular treatment schedule), but not sure when.

The only hiccup for the day was when they did the blood draw. We had to wait awhile for the lab to be available and then after they did his blood draw the cap fell off the tube and went all over! So, Asher had to get another blood draw and the second time went better! The first time the blood took forever to come out and the second time it came out faster.

Julie and I really like the treatment center at Iowa City. Karla and Tammy are great! It was so nice to see them again and gain some more valuable info.

Some funny pics

Here are some funny pics of Asher in the past few weeks!

Enjoy!

New furniture

A little over a week ago, Julie and I went to Homakers in Des Moines to start to look at furniture. We decided that we wanted to get a sofa and rocker recliner to replace our furniture in the family room. Within about 10 minutes at Homakers, we found something we liked! The nice thing about our new furniture is that both pieces are La-Z-Boy furniture and they both recline.

Above, Julie and Asher in our new reclining sofa. We really like the sofa and so does Asher!



Here is our rocker, recliner. As you can see they are not in the same set, but we thought the contrast was neat and would work in our room.


And we got some end tables. We never had end tables before and thought it would be a good idea to get some along with our furniture.

Whole Milk!

Asher has been off of formula for about a week now! We officially switched him to whole milk last Tuesday. So, does he like whole milk? Lets just say that he is definitely my son!! Yes, he definitely loves his milk!!



Above is a picture of him drinking whole milk from his sippy cup. The thing with this picture is that we don't actually use this sippy cup anymore because the milk comes out to fast and gets all over him.


See what I mean?


Below is a picture of him with his sippy cup being a big boy!!

Taking Steps!!!!

Asher is starting to be more brave and more independent. And since he is becoming more brave and independent, he is wanting to take more steps. He has started doing this since Wednesday. He has gotten better every day. Today, I think he took about 5-6 steps on his own. He is getting very close to walking. At this rate, he should be walking around Easter. Although, we aren't going to push him. He will be walking when he wants to. I captured this video on Wednesday of him taking two steps. I will probably upload more videos of him walking as he continues to take more steps! Enjoy!

Asher's 1st Birthday - Family

We celebrated Asher's 1st Birthday with our families this past weekend. And we had a housefull of about 17 people! Asher had tons of fun even though he had to have factor that morning. Julie again baked the cakes and cupcakes. She is awesome! Here is a picture of the cakes/cupcakes.



Asher got tons of gifts! One of his favorite toys that he got was a musical guitar from his Uncle Brian. His new thing now is that he bobs his head up and down when he hears music! It is absolutely hillarious! He also got tons of books! Asher loves books! We are very excited that he loves books and we hope that he will continue to love books. We got him a set of 4 Sandra Boynton books! He loves her books and so do we.

Here are some more pictures of his birthday party.

Asher's 1st Birthday - Friends

We celebrated Asher's 1st Birthday on his birthday, Feb. 24, with our friends. Let's just say it was an interesting night! You know things aren't going to go well when you spray punch all over your kitchen/family room. Also, Asher was not feeling very well and was running a fever.

We only had half our friends show up as one family was sick, the other was at the hospital welcoming their new daughter! So there were only about 7 of us at the party and we had lots of food and cake! Speaking of the cake, Julie is an awesome cake baker! She baked all the cakes and she decorated the cakes! She had an awesome time doing it as well. Here are some pictures of the wonderful cakes she made.





As you can see the cakes looked awesome! Julie did such a wonderful job with the cakes. Who knows, maybe she will actually start a side business.

So we put a cupcake in front of Asher and sang him Happy Birthday! We then wanted to see what he would do with it. He didn't seem interested in eating it and eventually we found out why. After he looked at it for a few minutes, he threw up all over it and over himself. It was disgusting!

Walking Behind

Wow, it has been over a month since I have updated the blog. A lot has happened since the last time I updated anything. For example, Asher has been walking behind things for about a month. He has so much fun walking behind things, especially his truck. I have a video that Julie took of him walking behind his truck. He is having so much fun! Enjoy.

Hannah Montana, are you kidding?

Yes, you read that right. I am actually writing a blog about Asher and Hannah Montana. You are probably asking why. Or you are asking yourself, who is Hannah Montana? Well... it is Asher's favorite show. Yes, his favorite show! I can't believe I am going to write this, but we actually really like the show! Oh well.

Anyway, when Asher is playing and the Hannah Montana theme song comes on, Asher stops what he is doing, looks at the tv and starts clapping and gets excited! It is absolutely hillarious! I remember the first time he did it, Julie and I couldn't stop laughing! Well, we actually caught a video of him clapping. Enjoy and laugh!!

French Fries

Is Asher just like his mommy or what?! I came home late tonight because of a meeting after work and I really had no idea what time I would be home, so I stopped by Burger King and grabbed some food before I headed home. Of course we got a sandwich and fries! So what do you think we did? Yes, we gave a few fries to Asher! And.... He loves 'em!!! Wow does he love fries! He ate like 3 fries and wanted more! He is just like his mommy, loves french fries!!

Next week will be exiting as we will be giving him cake on his 1st Birthday!! Can't wait!!

Pancakes

Pancakes. What else is there to say other than they are the best breakfast food! (In my opinion!) That is exactly what we had for dinner tonight. I made enough pancakes for Julie and I plus one more. Julie decided to split the last pancake and tear it in little pieces for Asher. Well, he loved the pancake!! That's my boy!! He probably had about 1/8 of the pancake and loved every bite of it. I am so proud of him!

I can't wait to make him pancakes!!

Another round of Factor

Last Saturday Asher developed a rather large bruise on his upper right arm. Needless to say it looked pretty bad. We actually didn't notice it right away, Grandma Beth did. Grandpa Ron and Grandma Beth were staying with us last weekend as we were going to be gone most of the day on Saturday with getting our taxes done and a church seminar. Well, the bruise threw a wrench in our day! Julie decided to stay home while I headed to WDM to get our taxes done and then onto church.

So we called the home health care company in the DM area and they came down and infused Asher on Sat morning. We thought this might be only infusion he would need. Wrong. He actually needed two more! So as the nurses were there, they poked Asher 5 times before he got his factor! Ouch! Julie said that he did pretty good despite getting poked 5 times.

He only was poked twice on Sunday. A little better. So we now we thought he was done. But on Monday morning, the bruise didn't look that much better. I had thoughts of inhibitors, but I think it just needs more time to heal. So he had an infusion on Monday and this was his last one. The bruise does look better, but like I mentioned, it just needs more time to heal. I am hoping by this time next week, you couldn't even tell he bruised on his arm.

Dadda

Asher is starting to talk more and more as the days go along. Of course for me it is wonderful as he has been saying Dadda for awhile. He still hasn't said Mamma yet, but once he does he will probably say it all the time. Although, you would think there is a Bob that lives with us as he is saying Bob Bob Bob all the time! Go figure. Since he has been saying Dadda for awhile I was able to get a video of him saying it after he got a bath! Enjoy!

I love bathtime!!

Like most kids, Asher absolutely loves to play in the tub when he gets a bath! He could be screaming and be cranky all day, but when it comes to bathtime, he really enjoys it. It is so awesome to see him be a boy! He is all boy and I love it!

In the tub, he has quite a bit of toys to play with. He has 2 rubber ducks and a rubber cow as well as a lot of plastic cups to play with. And of course, HE LOVES TO SPLASH!!! We capture a video of him having a ball in the tub. Enjoy!

Crawling Under

Well... Asher has another thing he likes to do! He likes to crawl under things, like his musical table. He thinks it is also the neatest thing. He is at that stage where he is crawling through things and under them. It is fun to keep watching him do it again, and again, and again! Here are a few pics of him crawling under his table!

Crawling Through

Asher absolutely loves to crawl in things and through them. He thinks it is the coolest thing to crawl in and through his exersaucer! Below we snapped a few pictures of him crawling "in" and "through" the exersaucer. It was cracking us up watching him do this! He would crawl through his exersaucer and then do it again and again. Enjoy!

Asher the Climber

Since Asher has been crawling for 2 months now, he has decided that crawling is getting boring. His big thing now is to try to climb up on you. It is absolutely hilarious! If you are sitting on the floor with him, he will eventually try to climb up on you! It is so much fun to watch. You know what, he is starting to get pretty good at it. I firmly believe that if we put him at the bottom of the stairs, he would climb them all the way up to the top. Next time you see him he just might be climbing on you!

Asher the Explorer

Asher has decided to crawl around everywhere in our family room and try to get to everything, even Bailey's bed. He does not let anything get in the way, even crawling under the swing. He just pushes and shoves everything out of his way to get to what he wants to. It is very fun to watch and frustrating at the same time. Soon he will be walking all over the place and getting into more stuff!

Touchdown!

Asher has learned how to do the touchdown signal. It is really cool to see. He learned it on New Year's Day. He learned it after the Iowa game was over. He does it now every time we say, "Touchdown!" Here is a some pictures and a video of him doing Touchdown!

Cool article to read

For those sports fans, you know that Thursday is "the game" for college football as Oklahoma takes on Florida. I found an article on ESPN's website regarding Tim Tebow. Now, I really do not like the Florida Gators, but I have come to like Tim Tebow and his message. He is an amazing Godly man! I hope you enjoy reading the article. Click here to read the article.

1st Joint Bleed

Well... Asher had his first joint bleed on Wed. night/Thursday morning. His joint bleed is in his left ankle. We noticed someting wrong on Thursday morning when he would not put any weight on his left foot. We both knew what it might be. So we moved his left foot up and down, like stepping on the gas pedal. Asher was screaming and we knew that meant a joint bleed.

So, that meant we needed to head to the ER at Blank in Des Moines. This experience was actually a very good experience. The nurses and doctors were excellent! He got his factor about an hour after we got there. It took the nurses 5 tries to start an IV, compared to the 13 tries last time he had to have factor.

Yesterday we called the HTC in Iowa City and Tammy said that he would need more factor treatments even through the weekend. So instead of having to go to the ER yesterday we have setup home health care through a company in Urbandale. A nurse comes in and starts an IV and gives him the factor. It is nice because it is at home and not in the ER, so the surroundings are better for Asher.

So, we had our 1st treatment at home yesterday and it was a very, very good experience. The nurse we had was awesome! She got an IV started on the 1st try!! Praise the Lord! Asher did great through the experience.

Today, Asher will be getting more factor and might need to have more factor tomorrow. We praise God that there is medication to help him through these dificult times. We hope and pray he does not get any more joint bleeds. But if he does, we will be ready to help him out.

Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa's

Christmas was a lot of fun at Grandma & Grandpa's house! Asher had tons of fun with his Grandpa Ron! Whenever you mentioned Grandpa Ron by name, Asher smiled! Asher did pretty good sleeping there, dispite the lack of afternoon naps. We also went to Great Aunt Alice's house and had a good time there as well. Here are some pics! Enjoy!


Asher and Cousin Danny



Asher and Cousin Emmy (I really like her!)



Asher and Grandpa Ron