Father’s Day and 6 weeks old!

Sunday we celebrated Chris’ first Father’s Day! We went to church, out for lunch, and then hurried home for an afternoon of napping and watching golf. It was a great day! :)

Here is Asher reading the Sunday paper with daddy before church!

Asher was SO excited to give Chris his Father’s Day card! He is sleeping here, but can you see his cute little smile?! :)

Home from church and watching golf with daddy!

Chris with both babies… :)

Happy Father’s Day, Chris! Thanks for being an awesome dad! Asher and I love that you’re home with us this summer and we’re already dreading the fall when you have to go back to work. we love you!! :)

O-H-I-O, GO BUCKEYES!!!

Monday marked Asher turning 6 weeks old. I think six weeks old is the definite departure from being a newborn . This makes me a little sad, even though I love watching Asher get bigger and do new things I wish I could hold on to the tiny baby stage a little longer. I can already see how fast he is growing up and there are moments I wish I could just hit the pause button.

Asher is alert all the time now! He is always looking around and straining his head to see things. He bats at the animals on his playmat and follows the fish mobile on his swing with his eyes. The swing used to be a guarantee for putting him to sleep and now it keeps him so interested that he doesn’t always fall asleep in it anymore. Speaking of sleeping, Asher doesn’t have nap patterns during the day yet. We TRY to do: Eat, Activity/Awake Time, Sleep… but he doesn’t sleep each rotation. He takes his longer naps in the morning and mid-afternoon. He is WIDE awake all evening. :) At night he sleeps from about 11 pm-3am and then 3:45 am-6 or 7 am. Sometimes he falls back asleep one more time until 9, but not always. Considering there were (and still might be) nights when he used to cry for several hours we are thankful for the hours he sleeps at night. Now if we could just make them stretch a little bit longer… :)

During the day his favorite things to do for “Activity” time are: the play mat, tummy time, his swing, his bouncy chair, and he LOVES to lay in his crib and watch his aquarium… sometimes it calms him down to sleep, but mostly he just lays there and coos at the fish, the music, and the lights.

I can’t believe how long he looks in this picture!! When I weighed him at church on Sunday (they have an infant scale in the nursery area) he was over 11 lbs!! He is definitely getting bigger and longer!

I think Asher must be going through a growth spurt right now because he used to eat every 3-4 hours and now it’s every 2 or 2.5 hours. I read that 6 weeks is a typical time for growth spurts so hopefully we’ll get back into a routine of 3-4 hours again in a week or two. In the meantime it just means that he and I get LOTS of time together (which is fine with me!) :)

My favorite part of Asher turning 6 weeks old has to be the fact that he smiles at us now. He grins back at us when we talk to him, make silly sounds, and kiss his cheeks. We’ve been WAITING for the smiles and they make us melt each time! Tuesday was his first official smiling day.

Bathtime now occurs each night before bed… he LOVES bathtime and so do we.

We had to document how long his hair is in the back! I’m SO tempted to give it a little trim… Asher, good thing daddy is keeping an eye on you. He says, “No way Jose!” to me cutting your hair…

Check back soon for videos we took of Asher this week! :)

Like father like son…

Asher and Daddy just hanging out.

Grandma and Grandpa Atkinson brought Asher the outfit that his Daddy wore when he was baptized. I was looking at it the other day and realized it might not fit Asher too much longer so I decided we needed to at least take some pictures of Asher wearing it. Prepare yourself for total cuteness in these pictures…

Our 1st Road Trip & 1 Month Old!

We headed to Michigan for a quick visit with Nana and Papa Jasper and my sister Erica (who flew from Texas) with her boys Jasper and Benjamin and my sister Brittany (who came from Minnesota) with her husband Adam and daughters Linnea and Karin. We were only missing Uncle Drew on the Jasper side of the family. :( (But we’ll get to see him in July!!)

Everyone came all that way to meet AJ!! It was a really fun time and we are so thankful that everyone would travel so far to meet our little guy. He had lots of fun being passed from person to person. Everyone thought he was as great as we think he is!!! We took Asher to Lake Michigan so he could experience the beach… sadly it was about 60 degrees and windy. We promised to take him back when it was warm and sunny!!

Karin and Linnea are AWESOME cousins… they love all the little boys and are big helpers!

Guess who else loved the extra attention?!

He might be a daddy now, but he’s still Uncle Chris!!

All the cousins oldest to youngest (ages: 6, almost 5, 2, 7 mos., and 1 mo.)

A chilly day at the beach!

We made the most of a cold day at the beach with lunch at our favorite restaurant! (Clementine’s!!)

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A sleeping Asher with a sleepy mom and dad…

Asleep on Auntie Britta’s shoulder while the big kids enjoyed the slip and slide!!

Nana and Papa with all their grandkids!

Papa with the two “little” boys!

Asher turned one month old on Thursday which is VERY hard to believe!! Here are some of his one month stats!

• He is getting REALLY good at holding his head up when we hold him and during tummy time.
• He tracks his eyes on his play mat, on toys, and on our faces.
• AJ loves the bath! He is very content to be in the warm water. He makes his little “bird” face with his round mouth and big eyes as he looks all around.

• He likes his swing and bouncy seat and riding in the car!
• At night he has been sleeping in the napper part of his pack n play, but just outgrew it this past week so now he is in the basinet part of the pack n play.
• Asher likes his paci, but we try not to let him use it at night while he’s sleeping otherwise he wakes up and cries every time it falls out of his mouth (which can make for a long night!) :)
• He is now 10 lbs, 6 oz and 23 inches long. (Which is the 75th percentile for both height an weight.)
• We just moved him up to size 1 diapers, and he has outgrown several of his “newborn” clothes… (which makes me a little bit sad!)
• He is a sweet boy and easy-going (most of the time), if he’s fussy it is in the evening or at night.
• Some nights he only wakes us up every 3-4 hours!! Other nights are a different story…

We love him so much and are in awe of what a true gift he is every single day. We thank our Heavenly Father for our one-month-old boy!

Such a lucky boy!

Asher loves his Nana and Papa Jasper and Grandma and Grandpa Atkinson and they sure love him too! What a lucky boy!

… and we’re pretty crazy about him too!

Three Weeks Old!

Guess who is three weeks old today?

Now that Asher’s umbilical cord has finally fallen off we have started tummy time. :) He mostly just lays there, but every now and then he starts to lift his head up… not sure how much he enjoys it, but he doesn’t hate it (yet).

This past week AJ had his first bath. Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures, we needed all four of our hands to hold on to and wash his slippery body. He liked his first bath and just laid there and looked all around with his big eyes.

I love this picture because he does look like a “Super Baby” reaching his arms in the air.

We are SO excited because Asher gets to meet his cousins, Aunties Erica and Brittany, and Uncle Adam this week when we all converge on mom and dad’s house in Kalamazoo. We’ll see what kinds of adventures are waiting for us in Michigan!

We are SO thankful for this little boy and praise Jesus for our healthy and precious son! It’s hard to believe how fast each day (and each week) is flying by. I am especially happy to have Chris home this summer so he can be a part of all of Asher’s little moments these first few weeks of life.