Asher at ONE

Weighs 22 lbs (50th percentile)
26 inches long (95th percentile)
Dr. Petelos said he is just adorable and extremely good natured.

Wears 12-18  month clothes and size 3 diapers.

• Is puling up on everything.
• Trying to walk and is cruising all over the place.
• Points.
• Books are his most favorite toy.
• Loves taking things out of something and putting them back in aka making a mess.
• Shakes his head and nods it indiscriminately.
• Loves to hand you things and then say Thank You (Tay Too) when you take it. 
• Also says, Kitty Cat (kika), Mama, Dadda and More (mohmoh). Has also said, "Here you go." and "Right there". But only once, so I wouldn't put it into his regular repertoire just yet.
• Sings and dances along to music.
• Points to my mom's dog and says "Woof! "
• Knows how to throw a fit.
• Gets upset when he can't get puzzle pieces to go in the right way.
• Tests me. On everything. For example, he knows he is not allowed to play with the outlets. Even though we have covers on them. He will crawl over to one, look at me and smile, and slowly reach toward it to see what I will do. He usually stops himself. He just wants my reaction. But when he gets in trouble he just laughs. If I smack his hand, he laughs and claps like I was giving him a high five or trying to play patty cake. The word "NO!" is the funniest word he has ever heard. He is definitely going to be my strong willed child. So far, time out is the best thing for him.
• Bites. He only bites me. I think it is an affection thing. He gets really excited, hugs me, buries his face into me and bites my shoulder. I know he isn't trying to hurt me but he needs to learn that is unacceptable.

He is still our little entertainer. He loves attention from anyone that will give it to him. The other day we were visiting a church in Tuscaloosa for Orphan Sunday and he reached for complete strangers. Not so sure how I feel about that just yet. But I do love watching him flirt with everyone around him. We make friends every where we go because people are just drawn to our little man (or girl as they usually say).

He eats like crazy. This kid has a stomach that is a bottomless pit. He eats pretty much anything and everything now a days. Especially things he can feed himself. He gets impatient when we are feeding him. He used to cry for yogurt but recently wants nothing to do it. He wants finger foods that he can pick up. That's fine with me. It's easier to let him handle that task on his own. Some of his favorite foods are cheese, animal crackers, mandarin oranges (I'm pretty sure he just swallows them whole), ravioli and beans. He made the switch from formula to milk with out issue and has dropped the bottle with out any struggle as well.

Schedule:
Wakes up at 6:30 like clock work and eats breakfast. (usually a waffle and some fruit and milk)
Snack at 10:00 (O's, animal crackers or something along those lines)
12:30 - Lunch (ham, cheese, cut up fruit or veggies and crackers)
Nap from 1:00-2:00
3:00 - another snack
5:00 - Dinner (If we are having something kid friendly, he will eat that. If not, pasta, veggies, applesauce, edamame, etc.)
6:30-Bath
7:00 - Bedtime story and milk
7:30-8:00 - Bed time.

How to be a Disciple

A good friend of mine shared this in our devo this morning and it spoke to me. I am sharing it in case it might speak to your heart as well but also so that I can have it somewhere that I can access it whenever I need to reread this. Hope it blesses you.

An excerpt from How to be a Disciple by Dallas Willard.

The description Peter gives in the first "official" presentation of the gospel to gentiles provides a sharp picture of the Master under whom we serve as apprentices. "You know," he says to Cornelius, "of Jesus, the one from Nazareth. And you know how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and curing all those under oppression by the devil, because God was with him" (Acts 10:3)

And as a disciple of Jesus I am with him, by choice and by grace, learning from him how to live in the kingdom of God. This is the crucial idea. That means how to live within the range of God's effective will, his life flowing through mine. Another important way of putting this is to say that I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live life if her were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner in which he did all that he did.

That my actual life is the focus of my apprenticeship to Jesus is crucial. Knowing this can help deliver us from the genuine craziness that the current distinction between "full-time Christian service" and "part-time Christian service" imposes on us. For a disciple of Jesus is not necessarily one devoted to doing specifically religious things as that is usually understood.

To repeat, I am learning from Jesus how to lead my life, my whole life, my real life. Note, please, I am not learning from him how to lead his life. His life on earth was a transcendentally wonderful one. But it has now been led. Neither I nor anyone else, even himself, will ever lead it again. And he is, in any case, interested in my life, that very existence that is me. There lies my need. I need to be able to lead my life as he would lead it if he were I.

So as his disciple I am not necessarily learning how to do special religious things, either as part of a "full-time Christian service" or as part of a "part-time Christian service". My discipleship to Jesus is, within, clearly definable limits, not a matter of what I do, but of how I do it. And it covers everything, religious or not.

I don't know about you, but for me this is GREAT news. I no longer need to feel the burden to do everything Jesus did. I don't even have to feel the burden to do everything my neighbor does. I am merely called to do what I do. I do not say that to let myself off the hook. But to allow myself to stop comparing my life with everyone around me. To rest peacefully in knowing that God has me where he wants me for a purpose. His purpose. And as he walks with me every second of every day as I do everything I do. From the mundane to the magnificent, he is teaching me to be a disciple and hopefully being glorified though it all. Good news. Indeed.