A Little Update

Well, we've made it half way through student teaching!  I am very ready to be done.  David's grandpa has been extremely nice to let us stay here, but I am ready for our own place where I can control the temperature, open the windows, see the sunlight, and have a little bit more privacy. (they really try to give us as much privacy as they can, but they're food storage is downstairs and they use it a lot)  Not much has changed for us, but I just wanted to give a little update on Asher!  Here are a few things I want to remember about this age:

• He is such a happy boy!  Most of the time, that is. I always have people comment on how happy he is.  Unless he's tired, he usually has a huge grin and is jabbering up a storm.  It's adorable!  I get to see those dimples of his all the time!
• Speaking of jabbering, he always has to talk himself to sleep.  And it's not just talking, it's making squawking noises, blowing bubbles, jumping on his mattress, the works.  It actually makes me laugh when I hear him in his crib doing that, even though I know he should be sleeping.  We had some men from the ward over the other night while Asher was doing that and one of them couldn't stop laughing because he thought it was so funny!
• He is so active!  I know most parents of toddlers say that, but this boy is so busy all the time!  In the morning, I'll usually sit on the couch and he'll walk around the living room for about and hour and a half, usually dragging something behind him.  He hardly even stops to play with his toys!  He just likes to be moving all the time.  My mom says that if I need to get some exercise, all I have to do is follow him around for a few days! 
• His favorite movie is Toy Story.  Usually if I turn a movie on, he'll glance at it once in awhile but mostly ignore it.  But if I turn on Toy Story, he'll sit there and watch it almost all the way through!  We only have the first one, so I don't know if it's the same for the other two.  I don't turn the tv on very much, but that is a nice thing to have on those days when I really need a break!
• He's still very friendly and loves to be around people.  When we go to the park, if there are other kids there he'll just follow them around and not even really play on the toys.  I think it makes some of the kids feel weird because he's kind of a creeper when he does it and just stands there and stares at them, but he just wants to be apart of the fun!
• Bath time is still the favorite time of day and he still makes a big huge mess because he loves splashing around!  I wish we had money to go to a pool because he would love it if we went more often!
• He does not like landlines!  We were upstairs because I was doing laundry.  They have a ton of phones all around their house (I actually disconnected all the ones down here...)  While we were upstairs they got a call and about 4 phones all started ringing.  I forgot that Asher had probably never heard a real ring on a phone (both of our cell phones have little tunes instead of a ring), and it was so loud and sudden that he immediately started crying!  That's something that I guess my kids will never really know because most everyone now just uses cell phones!
• He has a new fascination with climbing into things.  For example:

And here are some more pictures for your viewing pleasure!  That's all I have for now, but I'm sure more will be posted soon!

I put the oven mitt on him because he was so interested in what I was making.  He then spent about 2 days like this, with the mitt up to his elbow!

I brought his booster seat in to adjust the straps.  He spent a long time just sitting in it!  Oh, and he usually has some sort of cooking utensil.  That's one of the drawers I don't mind if he gets in to.

This was the first time he got to step on crunchy leaves and he loved it!  He was so messy after and had leaves in his shoes, shirt, and diaper, but he had such fun that it didn't matter!

 

Weekend in Rexburg

Warning: This is a very long post!!!

Last week, David had Parent-Teacher Conference on Wednesday and Thursday.  It made for a very long two days for both of us because he was at school from 7:30am-8:30pm and I was in charge of Asher all day by myself.  We both managed pretty well, but were very glad when David had Friday off!  The school wanted to give the teachers a break after PTC so they had a 3 day weekend.  We decided it would be fun if we drove up to Rexburg to see my family, if nothing else than just for a little break from our routine.  

Friday morning hit, and David was exhausted.  So I managed to get all the packing done so he could sleep in a little and we headed out around 10:30.  I was hoping that Asher would sleep most of the time because that's when his morning nap is and it's usually pretty long.  We needed gas before we left, and when we stopped, David found out his card didn't work at the station.  So he had to call our bank and see if there was a problem with our account, and luckily it was just that his card is old and the magnetic strip wasn't working that great.  So off we headed (again)!  Asher slept about half way, and I did my best to entertain him the rest of the time.  Needless to say we were all glad when we pulled into Grandma's house!  Asher was so excited to be somewhere new, that he played and played all day long, completely skipping his afternoon nap.  Later that night, David and I wanted to go see a movie.  My brother works at the theater, so we get his discount, which is super amazing!  We saw the Maze Runner, which we both really liked.  And we got 2 tickets, 2 pops, and a giant popcorn for $3.50!  My family all wants Andy to work there forever....

When we got back, I was so tired I went right to bed.  David stayed up a little later.  We were sharing a room with Asher, which I thought would be fine because we've done it before with no problems, but not this time!  At 4am, Asher woke up crying.  And since we were in the room and he could hear us, he kept crying until I picked him up.  He was so upset that it took an hour for him to calm down enough to go back to sleep.  

He woke up the next morning at about 8 (his usual time) and it was so hard to get up with him!  But my mom was also up so she helped me stay awake enough to take care of him.  At 10, he started acting tired, so I tried putting him down for a nap.  When Asher started fussing before falling asleep, David (who was in the room asleep) thought Asher was waking up for the day and got him out and brought him to me.  I was not exactly thrilled about that, but it was an honest mistake.  So Asher got to skip his morning nap!  We tried watching Conference, but with a toddler in a new house with lots of toys, it wasn't easy!  I'm going to have to watch all the sessions again because I think I only heard about 3 talks out of the 2 days it was on.

We wanted to go to the park with my sister and her little boy after the first session, so after it was over we all packed up and headed over!  Asher loves the park, and he also loves playing with his cousin!  They're 10 months apart and love to get into trouble.  We stayed at the park for about an hour and then Asher was acting very tired so I was hoping he would take his afternoon nap.  We got home, and about 10 minutes later, David's friend told him to come over for a bit.  David went out to the car, turned the key...and nothing happened.  Our car had died in the 10 minutes we were in the house.  He tried cleaning the cables, checking the wires, and we even tried jump starting it but nothing worked.  We tried calling all sorts of repair shops, but at 2pm on a saturday, we weren't having much luck.  I finally found a place that said they would at least be able to find out what was wrong, if not fix it by the time they closed that night.  So we called my dad, he came home, and we towed the car over.  In case you didn't know....I HATE TOWING CARS!!!!!!  I've done it many times and it almost makes me sick how stressful it is.  So I was glad when my dad told me to take my brothers car and just follow them over.  While David and I were driving back, we did hear Elder Holland's talk about looking after the poor.  It seemed fitting.

So all we could do at this point was wait.  David borrowed my mom's car to go see his friend, and I stayed home and watched Asher not take his afternoon nap.  At about 5:30, Asher was so tired that I knew I'd have to put him down for a late nap (which I hate doing), or try to distract him until bedtime.  I chose distraction!  I thought a walk would be good because Asher LOVES going on walks.  My mom has a stroller at her house, so my mom, dad, Oscar (their dog), and I went on a walk.  Asher lasted about 5 minutes before he fell asleep in the stroller.  I wasn't even afraid of that happening because he never falls asleep in the stroller!  Oh well.  

While we were on the walk, I realized it was getting close to 6, which is when the shop was closing that had our car.  I had David call them, but when he did, he found out that they had all left already.  So our car was in the shop and we were stuck.  My family was very happy about that because it meant we were staying longer!  My dad knew one of the guys that worked at the shop, so he texted him and asked if he knew anything.  They hadn't even looked at our car.  So we would have to wait till at least Monday before we could leave.  That schlumped both of us because David had school and we both knew it would probably cost us a lot of money to fix.  We needed something to distract us!  My mom again agreed to listen for Asher while we went to another movie.  I was so tired from being up the night before and all the stress of the car and watching my little boy terrorize my parents house that I'm surprised I didn't fall asleep!  But it was a good movie (Edge of Tomorrow), and it was nice to relax.  That night we slept in a different room from Asher and we all slept better.

On Sunday, Asher decided he wanted to wake up at 6:30.  I was not excited about that.  But he went down for a nap (YAY!!!  first one since we got there) at 8, so we both went back to bed till 10.  I again tried to listen to Conference, but again, I know I missed a lot of the messages.  Yay for the internet where I can listen to them later!  That afternoon, my sister brought her family over and Asher had his partner in crime again!  At one point during the weekend, David found them playing in my parents wood stove.  Ledger had crawled inside and Asher was opening and closing the door.  They were having tons of fun and got very dirty!  We'll have to block that off next time....

David, on a whim, asked his brother if he would come pick him up.  I was very surprised when he said yes!  But he would like it if we could meet him half way.  I ended up taking David to Malad, where Brian picked him up.  My mom put Asher to bed while we were gone.  One thing I miss about Rexburg is I had an awesome babysitter pool!  So I drove back to Rexburg and David went to Orem.  

The next day was pretty quiet.  My mom, dad, and Andy all went to school (my mom works at the college and my dad teaches 7th grade), and Asher and I stayed home.  When I put Asher down for a nap, David called and said he got a call from the mechanic.  It was the starter.  And a cable that needed to be replaced.  And we had a brake light out.  Almost $400 to fix.  I've really been trying not to think about it.  When you don't have any income, that's a big deal.  But we'll make it work.  We have to.  It's a good thing we have so many people who are incredibly generous to us!  I honestly feel like we are never going to be able to pay any of these people back.  

I had to wait until my brother got out of class to get my car, so in the mean time, we went to play with Ledger some more!  Asher is going to be so bored with just me at home!  Those two are thick as thieves!  But we got the car, and at 6pm, we started the drive home.  I was worried about the drive because I was exhausted from the weekend and I've never driven that far with Asher before.  And I knew if he woke up, it would be hard for me to drive and entertain him.  But it actually went really well.  I had an audiobook to listen to (I love audiobooks!) and Asher fell asleep about an hour and a half into the drive and slept the rest of the way.  It was very hard getting up this morning and I took a nap when Asher took his morning one.  But all seems to be back to normal now!  Thank you family for helping us this weekend!  Whether it was feeding us or letting us borrow your car or having a fun conversation (that might have been my favorite part) or entertaining my child!  I'm so grateful for all of you!  I can't wait till we can get together again, but hopefully with a little less drama.

My mom found this toy.  It took awhile for Asher to figure it out, but when he did it turned into one of his favorites!  Besides chasing the animals around.

I wish I would've gotten more pictures of these two!  This is the best I could get with the few I did take.  Those two were always on the move!

Grandpa reading with Asher.  I love this picture.