Asher Turns 7!

 On August 5th, my little boy turned 7!  He always gets so excited for his birthday, so I did my best to make sure it was a good day!  We went to my parents house to go swimming with cousins, and then had cake and ice cream and presents at home.  I asked Asher what kind of cake he wanted and he made a very specific request.  He said he wanted a chocolate rectangle cake with half blue and half orange frosting and candy flowers and on the cake he wanted it to say "Happy Birthday Asher!"  I couldn't find candy flowers, but I was able to do the rest!  I was actually a little worried he was going to be disappointed when he saw the cake because I'm no professional, but he thought it was great!  I made him another cake for when we had a party with my family and he requested a strip of green at the top of the cake.  Even though he really did like both cakes, he didn't have a single bite of either.  He really doesn't like cake.  I think from now on we'll do donuts instead of cakes because he likes those a lot better.  

A few days after his birthday, we had a get-together with my family to celebrate Asher's and Milan's birthday.  My sister in law Keny (Milan's mom) made 2 different pinata's and they were both awesome!  She made one for every birthday this summer.  She's basically amazing.  So we had a BBQ and pinatas and presents and cake and it was just a fun time!

 

Some things about Asher:

•  Very social!  He had a really hard time when the school got canceled and church was canceled and he couldn't see any of his friends.  But school has started again (for now) and he is much happier!  He also loved being able to hang out with cousins all summer!
• Favorites right now include Pokemon, Minecraft, Ben 10, Beyblades, riding his bike, antagonizing his sisters....you know, all the typical 7 year old things.
• He is an excellent brother.  When he wants to be.  He also likes to push buttons.  But most of the time he is very helpful and is willing to do what I ask him.  He loves helping to put the girls to bed and takes it a little personal when they want me to read them a book at night instead of him.  The girls love him and get upset when we drop him off at school and get very excited when we pick him up in the afternoon!  
• He loves to ask questions and I do my best to answer him.  He asks me questions all the time that really make me think about things in a different way.  When I tell him I don't know the answer to something he makes me look it up on Google.  He wants to know everything and will keep trying to figure things out until it all makes sense!
• Feels all the feelings.  This is good and bad.  He gets ecstatic when he is happy and completely distraught when things don't go his way.  He is devoted and passionate and also gets frustrated and angry.  We've been working a lot on controlling our emotions and he's really been working hard at it!  
• Loves to explain things!  He is very detail oriented and likes to explain things in a step-by-step manner.  I try not to get frustrated at this when I'm tired and not really in the mood for a 10 minute story about putting his shoes on, but I love that he pays attention to things in such great detail!  Well, things that he wants to pay attention to...
• Great student.  All his teachers say he's a great student who does fabulous in class.  He is also an excellent reader.  When we read scriptures he'll usually take a verse or two and does pretty well!  He doesn't love reading on his own, but does love reading with someone else there (that social-ness of him kicking in). 
• I think he's just pretty dang cool! 

He sure loves that Pikachu!

Us making up how to play Pokemon cards.  Someday we'll learn the real rules.

He loves a good cuddle!

He thought this was the coolest thing!

He always wants me to take pictures of things so he can always remember them.  I actually think it's pretty adorable. ;)

Sleeps with his "plushies".  This picture was at the height of his hoard.  Right now he's down to 2 - Pikachu and "Woofless" (a little stuffed dog he got from his new teacher, named after the manner of the dragon in How To Train Your Dragon)

Loves having his buddies!

He gets really excited when people make things for him!  He wanted to add googly eyes to the hat, but I never got around to it.  He's a funny kid with very creative ideas!

He had been working on climbing higher and higher up this thing.  Every time he reached a higher spot he would want me to take a picture of him!  He's not naturally adventurous and really tries to push himself to do new things.

Swimming is probably his favorite thing in the world.

What a cutie!

 When Asher was a baby, things did not go super smooth...  He hated sleep (still does, if I'm being honest) and if he was awake, he was crying.  I would take him on walks in the stroller around the neighborhood and he would be crying the entire time (I was doing what I could to survive).  I got many strange looks from people passing me.  This went on for a good 4 months.  I know most people love the newborn stage, but with all my kids it was hard to really enjoy them the first 6 months of their lives because of problems with colic and food sensitivities and difficulty sleeping.  During those first few months he would get up at 5am and want to be awake for awhile.  David was still going to school and working, so I would get up with Asher and take him out to the living room and watch TV until he was ready to go back to sleep.  This was the only time of day he would be awake without crying and actually seemed a little content.We lived in a tiny 700 square foot apartment and had about 5 channels we could watch, one of which was MTV (don't ask me why).  Most of what is on MTV is reality shows, but at 5am they actually did show music videos.  They would show the same ones every morning so I got to know those songs pretty well.  I would sing along with the songs while holding Asher in front of me.  He would just watch me quietly and it was honestly the best part of my day.  To this day, whenever I hear "Cups" by Anna Kendrick, I am brought back to that matchbox-sized apartment in the wee morning hours singing along and enjoying my little baby boy.