Rosh Chodesh

Thursday is Softa's Day with Asher. She took him to a special event in which several women in our congregation Temple Beth El participated in.

Here is the caption that goes with this photo that will be posted in the Charlotte Jewish Newspaper this coming month.

Beth El women (and baby Asher Schreibman) gather in tallitot for a solidarity worship service on the morning of December 17th to celebrate Rosh Chodesh (the new moon of) Tevet. They were part of a North American effort to offer prayers in solidarity with Nofrat Frenkel, an Israeli woman, who was arrested for wearing a tallit at the Western Wall.

You can read about the story here.

You can view a live webcam of the Western Wall (The Kotel) here.

The Festival of Lights

Asher is in awe of the lights on a nightly basis.

Sometimes he stares but often he smiles at the lights while we fill the air with Hanukkah songs and rejoice over the miracle of Hanukkah...

The Bank Robber

Asher - the Bank Robber!

Too funny

No we are not trying to suffocate our child...

This is not harmful I promise as the photo was taken at a medical facility...

by my dad on his cell phone.

...details to follow on this funny photo in the coming weeks!

The First Night of Hanukkah

Friday was the first night of Hanukkah.

We spent 6 hours in the car driving to and from Chapel Hill with Asher on Friday starting at 6am.

Asher is NOT the best car baby and doesnt like his day being disrupted by car rides and feedings cramped in a car. I have to agree with his feeling on this.

By the time we got home Friday night it was 6:30pm....12 hours after we left that morning.

My parents ran over to light the Hanukkah candles with us before Asher went down for bed.

I quickly got Asher undressed and into his Hanukkah t-shirt I bought before he was even conceived! I decided to snap a few photos of him before they came over and he got even more cranky.

He was completely exhausted and worn out from the days events but it made for a priceless memory....the bottom lip curled out and he started hysterical crying in the middle of the prayers.

Hanukkah is one of my favorite holidays because I have so many fun kid friendly decorations I have collected over the years. We have 14 menorah's and over 20 dreidels (its a growing collection. 2 of the menorah's are electric and 1 is the menorah I made as a child, 1 Philip gave me for Hanukkah last year, 1 we got the Year we got married, several are part of Philips childhood collection, some random gifts and 3 are Asher's. Our entire house is decked out and we play Hanukkah music all day long. As of today our house smells like frying oil from making potato latkes! Asher has 2 plush toy dreidels and one that sings the dreidel song and Hanukkah finger puppets.

Two of our Many Menorahs

The front door has Hanukkah spirit too..

This Hanukkah tea light house was given to us by our parents with the house deposit for our lot 3 years ago. It is one of my favorite Hanukkah pieces!

All these packages were for Asher!?

I think this little boy has no clue how spoiled he is this Hanukkah...

it's a good thing we didnt buy him much because everyone else did!

Friday night is the last night of Hanukkah we will celebrate with our parents. It will be a night of many firsts including feeding Asher his first meal of homemade baby food carrots.

Back on the charts!

We are still trying to figure out where the past 6 months have gone!?

How has our little one who was once 6 lbs, grown to be a busting at the seams 20+ lb boy.

Yup, our child weighs as much as most 1-2 year olds.

Thanks to good ole fashioned breast milk.

With 6 months we celebrate many milestones....

6 months of continued growth - LOTS of GROWTH

6 months of breast feeding and still loving it

6 months of kisses, hugs, drool, laughs, spit up and getting peed on

5 months of sleeping through the night - golden child

5 months of rolling from stomach to back

4 months of babbling

3 months of pulling hair and pinching

2 months of sitting up

1 month of "standing"

6 months and our lives have been changed forever...

Asher's 6 month Stats make him a LARGE WELL ROUNDED BABY

This was the 2nd time they miss-measured his head circumference.

I made the Dr check it behind the nurse. She was 3 INCHES OFF!? She put him OFF the charts... when he really is the 60th percentile....

Weight 20 lbs - 90th percentile (finally back on the charts!)

Height 27 inches - 75th percentile

Head 17 1/2 inches - 50th percentile

I had a LIST of questions...Dr Matt was so patient and answered them all!

We are officially starting foods. Dr. Matt was quite impressed I waited so patiently til 6 months. I wasnt too eager to start because Im so attached to breastfeeding him and I know our feedings will slowly start to decresae. Selfish I confess. We will be making Asher's baby food and starting with Carrots this week, Squash next week. Attempting to feed him around 10a and 2p. We are going to skip cereal for now since he is quite large and sleeping through the night. He doesnt need a filler, but he does need to learn how to swallow a different texture than breast milk. Lots of photos of this mess to come later...but for now enjoy this clean cut cute photo...

We started putting Asher in the real bath. He loves it when we fill up the water half way up his body (on his back) as he is laying down in the tub. He kicks his feet like he is swimming, splashing the water everywhere. We are going to start using a different soap because his skin has been real dry from the Earth's Best Body wash (we bathe him every other day) and we will lube him up with Aquafor each day. They suggested bathing him every 3 days but I think that is gross!

I like to think Asher is a momma's boy BUT he LOVES to play hard with his daddy. Philip can make Asher laugh more than anyone else. He not only thinks Philip is funny he laughs at him constantly. Hearing his laugh makes you want to laugh out loud with him. It is the most wonderful feeling inside watching my two boys connect. He relies on mommy for comfort and cuddles and his daddy for play and silly time.

This video is kind of long but iMovie wont let me edit footage from my cell phone. Enjoy!

...and another short one...

Asher has discovered that his arms can do a lot of things. This video captures the true essence of his new found "wings". He loves to flap them and fling them all over the place. He also loves to start at his right foot while laying on his back. He points and flexes his toes and can stare at them for several minutes in awe. Being naked brings out all of the silly things in Asher. He talks and laughs ten times more when undressed....go figure!?

Lots of updates in the works...I am well overdue.

The Caffeine Devil

When I moved to Charlotte I went through major withdrawl.

My former employer brewed Starbucks Medium and Bold coffee daily - all day.

I had at least one cup a day.

Moved and no more daily coffee. The headaches hit me hard.

Caffeine withdrawl. I decided to stop trying caffineated coffee all together since I was trying to get pregnant and got used to either no coffee or decaf.

After Asher was born Philip and I would find ourselves migrating towards Starbux. They ran this promotion that sucked us right back in. $1.95 for a Grande Iced Coffee. We typically would spurge on the weekend.

At one of Asher's millions of doctors appointments last week I found out a very disturbing fact.

Starbux has THREE TIMES MORE CAFFEINE than ANY OTHER coffee that is distributed. It has THREE TIMES MORE CAFFEINE than REDBUL!! Starbux decalf has as much caffeine as a Dunkin Doughnuts regular coffee! I dont know what they pump into their coffee at Starbux but that is ridiculous. No wonder why so many people are addicted and cracked out on caffeine.

Needless to say I have been asked to stop drinking caffeine all together for Asher's sake.

More to follow at a later date when I actually have time to catch up on the last few weeks of life.

Thankfully I dont drink soda EVER so it wont be too large of a sacrifice.

Caffeine is the Devil....at least in Asher's case :)

This is making me really question Starbux.

If only a Dunkin D was in every Target, Harris Teeter or corner!?!

Sneak Peak

When we were in Raleigh a few weeks back a friend from high school Courtney (Berryman) Gray took photos of our new family at Duke Gardens...Courtney just went out on her own after working for our wedding photographer for the past few years.

Asher was not in the best of moods, but you can not even tell from the photos. She did a great job capturing our family dynamic.

It was quite an eventful weekend for Asher with very few naps and lots of action...so we had to work hard to get smiles and laughs out of him...such a serious baby!

Sneak peek...more to come...

Lots of black and white!

Where did Thanksgiving go?

Thanksgiving in Montgomery, Alabama.

This years Thanksgiving had many firsts.

Asher FIRST Thanksgiving

My FIRST Thanksgiving away from my family for the very first time in my life.

Our FIRST Thanksgiving at the Lake.

Our FIRST Thanksgiving away from Charlotte since we first started dating.

We flew out Wednesday morning, direct from CLT to MGM.

Softa and Papu left Tuesday with all of our stuff so we only had to carry on limited items and the stroller. THIS WAS A HUGE HELP! I honestly dont know how we wouldve made this trip without all of the stuff they brought for us.

These photos are all out of order....and they are a week late.

Better late than never, right? Its been quite a stressful week so I am just happy to be able to post even if its mainly photos.

Asher with Gigi (his great grandmother)

Grandma Pearl & Cousin Paige who goes to USC

Philip and Papu went fishing behind Aunt JanJan and Uncle Craig's house...

They caught lots of Bass

We stayed at Gigi's house and Asher settled in quickly

Ellie her dog was not to excited about a little person invading her house. It was quite funny to see how Asher responded to her batting his eye lashes...

It was quite chilly at the Lake. Asher snuggled up with Softa.

Asher in his jammies hanging in the bumbo...

Silly time with daddy in the morning...

Aunt JanJan teaching Asher how to walk...

Seeing double?

Meal time in our family is quite a big deal. We ate like Kings and Queens while we were in Alabama. This was the last nights dinner when we ate Cornish Hens... yum!

The last day we were there we decided to finally get out to the park right up the street from GiGi's house. Asher LOVED the swing, especially the baby swing. We will definitely be taking him back to the park very soon!

We had a wonderful time visiting with family, catching up, eating and relaxing.

Thanks for letting us visit, we cant wait to see you again soon!!

Where has the time gone?

Asher will be 6 months on Wednesday and Hanukkah starts FRIDAY!?!?