Day Care Buddies

On Tuesday, Asher had his first day at Appletree day care. Eli has been going there for about a year and a half and loves his friends in his classroom. Both boys will continue to go one day a week. Asher was a champ his first day and mom did okay, too.

Notice the shoes on Asher in this picture. They are from his Great Aunt Marsha, who also made some for Eli when he was little. Asher's are still a bit big, but they were just too cute with this outfit to pass up.

Asher had his 2 month check up yesterday with Dr. Staublin. He's doing great - 10 lb, 12 oz, and 23 inches long. The Dr. told us that, because babies are obviously not exposed to light before they are born, the pigments in their skin can take several weeks to really show up. Because of this, birth marks often start appearing around 8 weeks. Earlier this week I noticed a small brown spot on Asher's knee that wasn't there before. In fact, when he was born, we couldn't find any marks on him. Since we don't have him on his tummy and naked very much (as in never - it's cold!), we noticed a more prominent birth mark at his check up. It's actually sort of a reverse birth mark. On his back, just above his right hip, Asher has a large spot that's WHITE!

Vacation to Grandma and Grandpa T's

Late Monday night, we returned home from a wonderful week at Grandma and Grandpa Traxler's house. The boy's both seemed to have a great time and Jeff and I both got some good rest. Thanks for the extra sleep, Grandma and Grandpa!

We visited the Crayola Factory and the fish hatchery, where Eli got to feed the fish. Eli checked out Grandpa's fly tying table (a fisherman in the making?) and got to take his baths in the big jacuzzi tub - once even with lots of bubbles. We had a great time. Thanks for everything!

Get-away

This past weekend, we took some time to get away. We spent one night with Jeff's parents in Shelby and on night in a hotel in Ludington. I have to give a shout out to the kidsuits at Holiday Inn Express in Ludington. They have one queen bed and a partitioned off section with bunk beds! Eli loved sleeping on the top bunk (which had a raillling).



We also loved that there were kids life jackets in the pool. We had a great time.


And, by the way, Asher's smile is the greatest thing in the world this week.

Bigger already

I suppose that when one person is so little to begin with, it's pretty easy to notice when he's even just a little bit bigger. Asher's alert much more during the day now (and sometimes during he night) and I've even gotten a few smiles out of him, though I'm sure they're completely random. He had a bath in the kitchen sink last week with help from big brother Eli, but our sink isn't quite big enough. He didn't enjoy it very much. Last night we used the baby tub inside of the big tub instead - that was much more pleasant. Eli got to introduce Asher to some of his friends at school on Tuesday - he's so proud to be a big brother.

The Petersen's version 4.0

In the last week and a half, we have become a family of four with a new (to us) station wagon - we're feeling very Parent-ish these days. After some drama at the hospital and a few extra days stay, Asher is doing great (as is Mom and everyone else, too) and we're happily settling into being a little bit larger family. Eli is a great big brother and is very eager to share and help out with Asher. Enjoy the pictures.

As soon as we got home with Asher on Wednesday evening, Eli started piling his trains on Asher - beginning with the brand new Sodor Fire Engine set that he got as a big brother present. For the previous four days they had gone everywhere with him and no one was allowed to touch them. But he wanted to share them with Asher. I think I ended up with about fifteen train engines piled on top of me before he was done.
We talked with Eli about how we always have to have one hand supporting Asher's head. This is his version of that. He's a great big brother.

Busy Holidays

We kept ourselves pretty busy over the holidays - a few days in Shelby, a few days at Pretty Lake, a few days at home, then back to Pretty Lake for my Dad's birthday on New Years. It was a great couple of weeks, and it's also been nice to settle back home for a bit.

Other progress to report - the quilt is all pieced together and I'm almost a quarter of the way through quilting it. It probably won't be done by the time baby Pete arrives, but I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made on it. At my last Dr's appointment, there was some progress towards labor, but nothing that would give any indication when this baby may arrive. So, it's back to the Dr once a week until he makes his appearance. Everything's looking good so far.

Here's some pictures from Christmas and following. Enjoy.

The snow slide in it's glory before all the rain.

Jeff did this to Eli on Christmas Day at his parents house. I think Ellie finally rescued him.
The snow banks were tall enough in Shelby that Jeff could get to the steps on the power line pole. He took this family photo from up there - which Eli really wanted to climb, too.

Eli ate a chocolate on Grandpa's birthday. This was the result.

Eli reading the new baby is coming book with Grandma Traxler - giving me a nice rest on the couch in the mean time.