Army Crawl

Just after Ashton turned seven months old, he started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking like he was going to crawl. I kept dangling toys for him, hoping to entice him to do it. The funny thing is that instead of crawling, he would get on his hands and knees and then dive forward on his stomache, then get up and dive again. It was so funny. Here's a little video of it:

A few days later, he figured out the army crawl, just scooting around on his stomache. He even discovered that he could go from laying down to sitting up all by himself!

After he figured all of that out, he started getting very daring. He would go really fast, like some kind of crazy bug scurrying across the floor. It's so funny, though, because he still wouldn't get on his hands and knees, and his head kept weighing him down. It's like it was still too heavy for him to hold up!

Ha ha ha! He'll get it sooner or later. :)

Randomness

I have a bunch of pictures that I haven't posted of Ashton, but I think they're cute. Mostly cell phone pictures and such, so they aren't very good quality, but I like them anyway. I'm going to post some of them because, let's face it, I'm his mother and I'm obsessed with pictures of my child. :)

Ewww!!!

And here is a little video of Ashton. One night Tyler came home and was talking about something at work. He was imitating something his boss had said, using his hands to gesture, and for some reason Ashton found it hysterical! So here is Ashton busting a gut at Tyler's acting skills.

Seven Months Old!!!

Wow, it seems like we just dressed up and took six month old pictures. Could December have gone by that quickly??? It has, and now Ashton is seven months old! I haven't tried to weigh him or anything, but he is just over 28 inches tall now, so I know he's bigger! Not to mention my arm feels like it's going to fall off every time I carry him... This time I was extra excited to have my nice camera for the pictures, so I dressed him up and got started right away. Unfortunately, he wasn't in a very cooperative mood, so most of the pictures don't have a smile. But at least they have his beautiful baby blues!

More interested in looking at his toys than in taking pictures for mommy. :)

Getting better...

He wouldn't smile, but of course he had an abundance of funny faces.

Finally, after many attempts to make him smile, he did!

And now, the black and white series.

And as quickly as the smile came, it left, and he was DONE.

I know, I'm a terrible mother to take pictures of her child when he's crying. But I only took two. :)

Almost a word...

Just after Christmas, while we were still in Montana, Ashton suddenly started repeating a few syllables, all in a row. He's always made sounds and babbled to himself, but now it's like he realized, "I can make an M sound whenever I want to," and so he does it more on purpose. Here's a little video of my favorite sound he makes. :)

Now, a month after this video, he says "Mama," "Dada," and "Baba" (for "bottle") all the time, and definitely on purpose. I don't know if he's really connecting what they mean yet, but I'm hoping he will soon. I wanted his first word to be "Mama," of course, but I think "Baba" might win out. A few times now, when I ask him if he wants his baba, he reaches for the bottle and says, "Baba!" So I guess we'll have to wait and see on that one!

Baby Food!

Ashton is now old enough that he's started eating baby food! Like most babies, his first real baby food was rice cereal. We were excited to see if he would like it or not. And, of course, I documented the whole thing.

Here is his our first attempt with the rice cereal:

I guess it wasn't love at first bite.

Here's attempt #2:

Still didn't know quite what to think. And then on the third try...

He spit it out.

It took him quite a few bites before he learned to like it, and then he ate it all up. Now he loves rice cereal, and he gets excited when he sees that I'm making it. He hasn't tried too many other things, but he has tried carrots and sweet potatos, which he likes, and he LOVES applesauce. The only thing he still thinks he doesn't like much? Squash.

What a crazy, messy boy!