It’s the start of birthday and holiday season, and we kicked it off with Riley’s fourth birthday party. It was beautiful outside and Dad had just raked a huge pile of crisp, golden leaves in the backyard. Along with our friend Mei Lia from next door, we spent the entire morning jumping in and running through the leaves. After the party, Mom said that we had enough leaves on the floor inside to make out own tree. We had blue monster cupcakes and Riley got a ton of great presents. Wonderful.
Asher was a big hit at the party and it seemed like people were fighting over him. He’s smiling a ton. That toothless, wide-mouthed, tongue sticking out smile. And when you hold him up so he can kind of weightbear on his feet, he dances. He’s also a little ticklish on his ribs, just under his armpits. You put those last two together, get him standing up and tickle him, and he’s a dancing machine. His go-to move is an arm strut and a little head flick. When Emmett did it, we called it Pig-Foo. (Like Kung Foo, but for Pigs.)
This week, at his four month visit, Asher weighted in a almost twelve-and-a-half-pounds. On the chart, adjusted for his premie-ness, he’s solidly in the 50th percentile. So, yay! We might need to cut his hair, though. He’s got quite the ‘fro. The rest of us didn’t get our first haircut until after our first birthday. (With the exception of Tessa, who got a trim around 8 months to save her from the ignominy of a mullet.) But Asher’s hair is incredible. It’s soft like puppy fur, and so curly. Right after a bath, the curls are tighter, but when it’s been a bit since washing, his ‘fro makes his head look huge. Like Riley-head huge. But we are holding off, for now…
Since we are at home now, and not in school anymore, we spend most of our days exploring outside. We’ve also been doing a lot of art projects. With Hanukkah and Thanksgiving coinciding this year, we made Thanksgiving menorahs. We made our handprints into turkeys and then turned their feathers into candles, complete with yellow flames. We also made hanging Stars of David with popsicle sticks and blue tissue paper. We call them David’s Stars.
Since Daddy will be out of town for all of January, February, and March (he’s training to do psych work with soldiers in the Army), he’s taking the entire month of December off to be with us. We’ve done so much with him, it’s great. We’ve gone to the park a ton and we’ve gone hiking and we’ve gone to the indoor amusement parks. Right now, it’s eight below zero outside, so not too much outside time. But when it’s warm, we are trying to spend as much time outside as we can because in April we are moving to Washington state. A big change for us all! But we are looking forward to it.
We’ve been enjoying our Hanukkah presents. We loved playing with the big kids on their slack line at the park so much that Mom and Dad got us our own slack line for the basement. They also got us a Swingball set. Think tetherball with a tennis ball and rackets. So far, just a few black eyes and bruises have resulted. But we’ve learned. Don’t get close to the person holding the hitter. (That’s what Emmett calls the rackets.) The Lego zoo, firetruck set and race track have also been hits.
Next week is Emmett’s birthday. He’s talking about it–a lot. We are all excited, and we hope that it warms up a bit for the party. But if it doesn’t we can play inside practicing on the slack line and playing with the Swingball. Also, this weekend we are going to Disney on Ice. Mom and Dad think we are going to love it, but it’s the first time we’ve gone to something like that so we’ll see. We’ll let you know how it all goes.
Check back soon,
The Pigs