My Kids Quirks

Asher is a one of a kind child, as most kids are.  But I've come to realize that with this child, I may have gotten my fair share of things that every parent dreads.  Just to name a few:

• Colic.  I think everyone can agree this is one of the hardest to endure.  Asher cried straight through the first 3 months of his life.  I loved him so much, but I also wanted to bury my face in a pillow and scream a lot.  Nothing helped.  I tried Gripe Water, Essential Oils, holding him in all sorts of positions, acid-reflux medicine, etc.  I now know about every single remedy for colic known to man.
• I have many blow-out stories.  He had a lot of gas (the reason for the colic, I think) so when he had to go, he put all his might into getting it out!  For awhile we had about one blow-out per day.
• He was up every 2 hours at night till he was 4 months old.  I cannot tell you how exhausting that was, especially with me working and David going to school.  We were surviving on about 5 hours of sleep at night.
• We did a bad thing and got him used to being rocked to sleep.  And he wouldn't sleep unless he was held.  We both spent a lot of time sleeping on the couch with him on top of us.  This was our fault and something I have learned not to do for the next one!
• This kid is a professional tantrum thrower.  I'm talking screaming, kicking, running away, throwing himself on the floor, you wouldn't believe it!  He calms down pretty quickly, but he is usually so ridiculous in his tantrums that it makes me laugh instead of makes me annoyed.  I might have to try and get a video of it someday.
• A recent development is that he likes to take his pants off.  I'm really trying to stop this one because I have heard many stories of toddlers taking off their pants and running through the store/church/etc.  I know this is going to happen to us with Asher, but I'd like to try and keep it to a minimum!  And this development has led to....
• Taking his diaper off!  Twice now I have had to clean up poop from Asher digging around in his diaper after he wakes up from a nap.  He gets it all over himself, in his hair, on the blankets, on the crib.  It's quite the detox process to clean all that up.  David had to help me once and I thought he was going to throw up from the smell, it was pretty awful.  I've tried safety pinning his clothes together, but he's figured out how to get those off.  So when I put him down to sleep I just put on tighter pants he can't really get off.  I really hope this does not continue.

So all those things have made me really feel like a veteran parent!  I know different challenges come with having multiple kids, but I feel like I've been through a lot.  I told my sister that I'm not even scared to have another kid because I have been through so much that I feel like I can handle any challenge that comes my way!  And Asher really is a good little boy.  He's been so great through all the moves and us turning his whole world upside down every few months.  And since we have to take an hour and a half trip to Page every other week to do our shopping, he's gotten so good in the car on those long trips and hardly fusses at all.  Now I'd like to name all the fun things he's started doing!  And believe me, these totally outweigh the bad!

• He is getting so much more vocal.  He loves to walk up to you and start chattering away like he's telling you something so very important.  I can't wait till he learns to talk for real so I can really start participating in these conversations!  The best is when he's talking on the phone.  He loves to talk on the phone and has figured out how to dial on my cell.  He usually calls David or my mom (my mom loves these calls, even though she can't understand a word!), but sometimes he'll call the Primary President in our ward.  That's more awkward...Every time he starts talking it makes me so happy!  It's very adorable!
• A few times a day, he'll stop whatever he's doing and point at my hand.  Sometimes he'll be across from the room and run over to me pointing at my hand.  He'll keep doing it till I hold my hand out and he'll give me a very enthusiastic high-five and continue on playing with his toys.  It makes me laugh every time!
• He's figuring out this whole life thing pretty well.  Today when I asked him if he wanted lunch, he immediately stopped playing and went over to the counter where I had a bowl, picked it up and went and sat at the table.  At night when I ask him if he wants to have a bath, he runs upstairs (no other prompting needed), runs straight into the bathtub and starts climbing in, clothes and all!  He loves bath time.  When I ask him if he wants to take a nap or go to bed, he'll start grabbing for his sippy-cup and head towards his room.  He knows how things go!
• One thing that started pretty recently is if we're both on the couch, he'll try to get his face up towards mine, mouth wide open, and give me a very wet kiss on the lips!  It's very cute!  And I've gotten him to where I can ask for a kiss and he'll do it on demand.  Very wet and makes me very happy.
• The word he's probably best at using is "bye".  He'll get his chubby little hand up and wave goodbye to anyone that's leaving, or he'll do it if we're leaving.  And he does it to everyone!  He does it to our neighbors dog when we leave, to the lady at the post office after we've picked up our packages, the checker at the grocery store, and to David when he leaves for work.  Even if that person isn't especially happy when they're helping me, Asher can always get a smile out of them by doing that!
• He loves to read!  A few times a day he'll pick up a book and find a chair and sit down and start "reading" out loud.  I hope this continues for the rest of his life!  I love to read and read a book with him at least once a day.  His favorite reading spot is the rocker that's in his room. 

Asher makes me laugh all the time and he's such a fun person to be around.  I'm pretty lucky to have such an awesome side-kick!

This boy loves to brush his teeth.

For my birthday we went to the fanciest place in town - McDonald's!  Not even joking, it really is.  They have a bunch of touch screen monitors with kids games on them.

Reading in Mom and Dad's bed.

I look gross, but I love his smile!  His Mother's Day present to me was he took a nap with me after church!