Asa's First Birthday, part II

Okay, time for the actual birthday recap!

On Asa's actual birthday, he woke up shortly before we were headed for bed.  He's been having some restless sleep (I think it's due to either being smack in the middle of prime wonder week territory or this new point/label language explosion--even though his labeling is gibberish), so about once a week he wakes up enough that he won't go back to sleep but won't stay asleep in your arms either.  All that to say, he was momentarily asleep in my arms at midnight, so I got to sing him happy birthday (oh so quietly) before tucking him back into bed for the night.

I greeted him in the morning with another round of "Happy birthday!"  He had pancakes for the very FIRST time for breakfast and ate a whole pancake!  YUM!!  He and I played all morning, playing with toys, reading stories, just relaxing and doing whatever Asa wanted to do.  During his nap I finished his first birthday onesie.  I am very pleased with how it turned out, and Asa seemed to like it too once he woke up and got dressed. :)

We played with bubbles for the FIRST time (other than the bubbles the nurse blew at the specialist's office while she took Asa's blood prsesure) after Asa woke up. :)  Then I decided we need some sort of celebratory lunch, so we headed out and ate at Red Robin, just the two of us.  But FIRST we waited for the clock to read 12:39 so I could officially, officially sing him happy birthday!

I decided we needed to go out for a celebratory lunch, so we went to Red Robin just the two of us. :)  I planned to walk through Petsmart with him to let him look at the animals, bu our leisurely lunch ended closer to nap time than I anticipated.  Instead we took the long way home and played a little before nap time.

During Asa's afternoon nap I worked on getting his birthday cake ready.  He played some more after his nap while I finished things up.  We got to video chat with G-Ma so she could see the birthday boy on his big day. :)  Daddy came home early (yea!) and played with Asa while I took care of all my last minute details.

Asa had a yummy dinner of his usual favorites (peaches + butternut squash and green beans).  He wasn't particularly hungry though--he must have known the party was about to start. ;)  After dinner he got to wear his birthday hat (we had hats too, of course) and then we brought out the cake!

It was a birds nest cake, similar to the unbirthday cupcakes I made.  Asa mostly enjoyed digging into it with his hands.  He had no real interest in eating any of it.  He ended up trying a bite on his own, but that was it.  He's just not a big cake guy yet! :)

After making a sufficient mess of the cake, we cleaned him up and opened cards and gifts.

It was fun to see that he truly liked every gift!  We had thought through the types of things he enjoys when people asked us for gift suggestions, and EVERY gift was a hit!  He would leave my lap to go back to the gift he just opened when I would set a new one in front of him!  Asa received several books (books with sparkly pages and lift-the-flap books are his favorites right now), a splash mat to cool off with in the back yard (we tried it this weekend and he loves it), a sand & water table, a puzzle, a great set of cars, musical instruments, his very own remote control, and a play wallet (he LOVES our wallets), among other things.  This weekend Poppy & Nana visited and brought him some clothes, a wooden train, and Matt's old rocking chair!  So fun to see Asa in it now. :)

 After presents we had one tired little puppy!  It was upstairs for jammies and tucking into bed to close the evening.

I am amazed that he is 1.  I think that didn't really sink in until today.  One.  Not 4 months or 6 months or 10 months, but 1.  That is a BIG number in my book!  It doesn't seem possible!  I am so thankful for every second of the past year--I have loved each one with an overflowing heart.  Asa has brought us so much joy.  It is such a blessing and privilege to be his mom.  I can't even put into words how much it means to me.

We LOVE you, Asa.  Watching you grow and learn the past year, watching your personality shine, exploring with you, playing with you, laughing with you, sometimes crying with you. :)  I wouldn't trade a single thing.  How we pray for you to bring joy to others as much as you do to us, but especially for your life to bring JOY to our Lord!  We pray you come to know Him and love and serve him at an early age and for all the days of your life.  We pray the same to be said of you as is said of King Asa, "Asa's heart was wholly devoted to the Lord all his days" and "Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord."  We pray for you to be hard-working, gentle and strong, caring for your family, and finishing well like your grandpa whom you were named after.  We pray you reflect God's heart and that you know and share His grace.  We pray God's best for you, Asa, and we stand amazed at all He has already done.  In the past year, you went from a twinkle in my eye to 18.5 lbs. of LIFE.  You have weight and form and substance.  You have likes and dislikes.  You are your own little person, and we love who God is making that person to be.  We are so glad you are in OUR family and that we get to love and raise you.  You are one of the BEST gifts we could ever be given.  Thank you, Lord!  And we LOOOOOVE you, Asa!

Pictures!

Here are two "real" pictures, and you can see several more on our photo site. We also have a link to the photo side on the sidebar. There are more to come (these are just from Mom's camera so far), but we are SO excited to go ahead and begin sharing!

Asa is doing great. Mom took the "first shift" last night and walked and held him while we slept in between feedings. Dad took the second shift. Matt slept a lot, which is great. He sweetly felt bad for me getting up so much, but I have reassured him his job right now is to take care of us and he can do that best during the day by getting sleep at night! He did a wonderful job of quieting Asa down at the end of dinner tonight and keeping him comfy and cozy until the next feeding. :)

Asa is feeding great! He has the baby bird thing down completely--mouth wide open, straining for the grub. :)

Tomorrow we have his first check-up with Dr. G. I'm curious how much he weighs and what she has to say. We sure are smitten! :)

Thank you for all your excitement, love, and especially PRAYER during labor, delivery, and now in these early days. :)

Asa's Arrival

Asa is here! He was born June 23 at 12:39 PM weighing 8 lbs. 3 oz. and measuring 22 inches long (p.s. that is EXACTLY what I guessed!!). He has long legs, long fingers and toes, and long, dark hair! :) More to come, but here are 2 pics from Matt's phone to whet your appetite. :)

The countdown

The final countdown to Asa's due date is definitely on. We are under TEN DAYS!!! Now, most of us are thinking he'll be a smidge late, but it's quite surreal that we are SO close. :)

We think he's dropped some, but that's the only real physical sign we've had that it's getting closer. It did have a burst of energy today that seems like the "nesting" many people associate with labor drawing very near. I still took a good 1-1.5 hour nap, because I've read to be sure not to exhaust yourself if the nesting energy kicks in--you need to save that energy because labor could be just around the corner. But I got a ton done today, some if it quite accidentally at first.

• Something spilled on the kitchen floor, and as I cleaned it up with my Clorox Green Works cleaner, I noticed the tile grout cleaned up quite nicely near the spill. That turned into me sitting on the floor for about 30 minutes spraying and scrubbing the grout. It was not a "big" major elbow grease kind of clean, but the grout definitely looks lighter. And there's no Bar Keeper's Friend powdery residue (as much as I love that stuff) to try to rinse away. :)
• Matt cleaned our shower yesterday, as in, removed the doors from the track and scrubbed everything down. He did an AMAZING job, but he was slightly disappointed that the doors still had some soap scum film. So I read up on home remedies for soap scum and came across a suggestion for Shout laundry stain remover. I use that all the time, so I went to try it, and it worked beautifully! We now have sparkling shower doors in the master bathroom! :) I also read a suggestion to then give the doors a rain-x treatment to help the sparkle last. I'll have to run that one by Matt, because he doesn't want me around strong chemicals right now. :)
• Matt rinsed said shower doors off outside, and he was concerned some of the cleaner and run off from rinsing them may have come in contact with some of the kumquats that have fallen to the ground. Sammy is a big fan of the kumquats. So I raked up all the kumquats and bagged the ones that were near his "cleaning station." We didn't think she really needed to ingest overripe, Tilex-tainted kumquats. ;)
  
• I gathered together a final group of checks from students for the last 2 Scholastic book orders I turned in.
• I made a list of people to send birth announcements to, so I could know how many stamps to buy.
• I went to the post office to buy stamps and mail the Scholastic payment and some thank yous.
• I put together Asa's swing. We ordered one, but the swing part knocked into the side supports. We were not impressed. ;) We returned it and picked a different one--the one that had highest marks across several sites for travel swing ratings. It actually matches his crib mobile. :) It works GREAT!
• I completed an embroidery order (word is getting out, at church in particular that I can embroider names and monograms). I am done with the "orders" I had waiting right now.
• I cleaned out/organized the pantry. It was a mess. It is back as it should be now (happy sigh).
• I cleaned off (mostly) the desk in the guest room. It became piled high with craft stuff when the guest room closet shelf broke and dumped everything on the floor. :)
• I designed Asa's birth announcement. I've been playing around with designs for about a week, and I think we've settled on one. :) I've REALLY enjoyed learning more about Photoshop.
• I began addressing birth announcement envelopes so they will be ready to roll out. :)

WHEW! Tomorrow I plan to take it much easier. But I have to report that Matt's dad just called and said on his evening walk he got a feeling that I will go into labor before sunrise tomorrow. EEEEK! We had to update you so credit can be given where credit is due if he's right!

Alright, off to spend some sweet time with my hubby before bed. :)

Love,
Us

Place Your Bets

... Matt has been asking me when I think Asa will come, so we decided to start collecting guesses! Please feel free to leave a comment with your guess for the date, weight, and length of our sweet baby boy's arrival!

Matt: June 13, 8 lbs. 8 oz., 22.75"
Becca: June 20, 8 lbs. 3 oz., 22"
Next: YOUR GUESS! :)

**I added a little list on the left side-bar that I'll update with guesses... So far my mom is the only taker!**