First holiday at grandma's (except grandma wasn't there)

The weekend away at mums was just wonderful. I was absolutely dreading the trip up - four hours in a car with a baby who cries in the carseat is enough to make even the most enthusiastic holiday-er a little grim. Sanjay did manage to finish work at lunchtime and came home and we got away at about 2:30pm. Asher was amazing in the car and slept for almost the entire journey. We stopped at a rest stop near Coolongolook and I fed him sitting near a playground which made me happy because I really love feeding him outside when there are trees and plants around, even when it's relatively close to the highway. We arrived to find E and her two boys had cooked a delicious roast chook and we talked and ate and drank champagne and it was all really pleasant and easy.

Pleasant and easy turned out to be the theme of the weekend. E's boys were lovely and apart from a tick and a bit of early adolescent flatness they seemed to have a pretty good time. It was nice for Sanjay and I to have another adult around to help with Asher-wrangling (and the two boys were SO cute with him!) and I think E enjoyed having the adult company. All in all it was a surprisingly relaxing weekend, Sanjay and I even managed a swim with the boys while E stayed back at the house with Asher and tried to mark assignments. All of us decided that the kid swapping experiment worked. E got to reminisce and we got a little window into a possible future.

I think that after Asher's incredibly long sleep on Friday both in the morning and then later in the car precipitated a developmental leap.
On Saturday he woke up and seemed to want to talk. His vocalisation had increased and changed significantly. He gazes intently at our mouths when we talk to him and works his lips and tongue exactly like any adult trying to learn a difficult new word. He also like taking turns with vocalising, oohing, ahing, mming and occasionally blowing little raspberries and then falling silent, looking at us, while we talk back to him. I have been trying to encourage him to say mum-mum-mum-mum. It is a very rewarding for both of us to get such easy and enthusiastic interaction with the little guy and I really feel like this is the start of a new kind of relationship with this little person.