The Summer Is Almost Over

This summer has been going by so fast!  There's just been so much fun stuff going on and we haven't had to get ready for any moving, so we just got to enjoy the sunshine!  This Friday is Asher's 3rd birthday, so my next post will be a blubbery, sappy post all about that.  So there's something to look forward to!

This is the Lehi outdoor pool.  It reminded me so much of going to the Porter Park pool growing up!

Earlier this month my sister Joni had her baby, a beautiful baby boy named Cache!  That weekend, Asher Millie and I all went to Rexburg to help out with her other kids after her husband went to work.  It was a very busy weekend but it was so fun to spend time with everyone!

Baby Cache

My mom has this pool set up in her backyard.  Asher thoroughly enjoyed it!

I may have dumped Millie in the pool.  She just looked so hot!

Joni said Ledger was being even more crazy after the baby was born.  She was right!  After swimming he had a bath and that shirt was the only pajamas Joni could find.

I watched Wall-E about 10 times during my visit.

These two were fighting so much.  But after we left, they both kept asking for each other! 

Andy was "helping" me babysit.  But the kids all enjoyed it when he brought home pizza!

Wall-E and juice and crackers.  And mauling Millie.

This walk lasted about 5 minutes, but this is one of my favorite pictures of this bunch!

Since my dad is a city employee, all his family can ride the carousel for free!  It brought back a lot of memories of growing up and working there when I was in High School.  Asher rode it many many times!

 

Asher's birthday present from my mom (which was really more of a present for me) was to get his pictures taken!  The morning light was perfect, Asher was in a great mood, and I think the pictures will turn out great!  I'll post more when I get the CD.

David was very glad when we got back.  He was bored and didn't have a car all weekend, so he was ready for us to get home.  He was even nice and made me breakfast 2 days in a row!

Family time in the morning.  It was probably about 6 in the morning  so we were letting Asher watch his show while we woke up.

It doesn't matter how much I take care of Asher and play with him, nobody will ever be as fun as Dad!

I have hated the colors of the walls and ceiling ever since we moved in, but we could never find the time or money to repaint.  We finally took care of Asher's walls this weekend.  All the rooms and ceilings except for the living room is the gross orange/brownish color.  The picture actually makes it look better than it is.  

Before

Asher was really excited to help paint!  But when he helped it got very messy.  Paint on his clothes, in his hair, and when he got paint on the carpet we had to stop him which he was VERY unhappy about.  Since his room was all taken apart we had him sleep in our bed for naps and for a few hours at night until the paint was all dried.  He thought that was really exciting!

After!  We still have to paint the ceiling white, but I think it looks so much better.  The room doesn't look so gloomy and David said it felt bigger.  Now on to the rest of the house!

My Baby Isn't A Baby

July has been very exciting!  For the Fourth, Asher and I decided last minute to go to the Provo parade.  We were 30 minutes late, but I thought since we were at the very end of the route it would be ok.  We got to see most of it, but they changed the route from previous years and so where we were there were a bunch of power lines so we couldn't see some of the bigger floats.  But we still had fun!

This was my favorite thing of the whole parade!  A stagecoach being pulled by little ponies!

Our annual parade selfie!

I only wanted to haul one chair around, so Asher and I took turns sitting down.  He had a lot of fun looking at the horses and pointing out all the instruments in the marching bands!

Weekend of the fourth, David and I spent lots of time painting Ashers bed.  David and I built it (mostly David...) and it was such a long process because of school and vacations so we couldn't work on it very consistently.  But it finally got done!

I would really love a garage so we don't have to paint in our living room. 

The mattress!  I love how they package it up nice and small so we could fit it in our little car.  Asher was super excited!

Rolling out the mattress, making sure it fit right.

Asher loves helping David!  I was a little emotional and may have shed a few tears during this process.  Asher's crib was about the last thing from his baby-hood and it made me very sad that those days are over!

His bed has a little space under the mattress that is just perfect for food storage!

 This is the video David took for his mom.  Asher was so excited for his new bed!  He sleeps on it pretty good and for a few days was very possessive and didn't want anyone else on it.  He likes it, he doesn't look so cramped like he did when he was in his crib, and I like it because he entertains himself for a little while in the morning before coming out of his room so I get to sleep in a little bit longer!  Overall, it's good that it happened but it still makes me sad that he's growing up.  Next month he turns 3 so I'll probably be doing another post all about how much he's grown!

Summer Fun

Our summer has been pretty busy so far!  Normally we don't do much and just hang out a lot.  I have lots of pictures from June that I hope you'll enjoy!

One day they left the ambulance sitting outside the fire station.  Asher made us walk over and we sat here for 10 minutes just looking at it.

Sometimes Millie doesn't want to get up early with Asher and me so she goes back to bed.

My visiting teacher invited Asher and I to go to a little farm in Lehi with her and her daughter.  I was worried Asher would be scared, but he thought the horses were so fun!

Morning walk

 The first weekend in June, my family had our annual get-together!  We rented a cabin in Soda Springs, Idaho and had lots of fun having family time and going to swim at Lava Hot Springs!

Asher was only a little bit excited to go to Idaho. ;)

Ledger and Asher

London had just about the cutest swim suit I've ever seen!

Isaac playing with the big kids.

My mom made a makeshift slip n slide and all the grandkids loved it!

Grandma had to police the sprinkler so certain children didn't pick it up and spray everyone...and this also features Joni's 8 month pregnant belly!

I have about 100 pictures of these two having bath time together...blackmail for when they're older!

London and her piggies

Sorren, Ledger, and Asher - these boys kept everyone pretty busy!

Chade doing the seesaw with Nathan and Sorren

We all went back to Rexburg before heading home.  Sorren and Asher had a lot of fun playing outside in the dirt.  Sorry for digging up some of your plants Grandma!

Asher's speech therapist, Brooklynn, is in the blue shirt on the right.  This was at the library for their Music and Movement class.  Asher sat right up from and just stared at Brooklynn for most of the time and didn't really participate, but I think he'll have more fun the more often we go!

The weekend after our trip to Idaho, Asher got sick.  He always looks so pathetic when he's sick!

Playing at the elementary school playground!

Millie has no fear in climbing up to the top of the playground, but I can't get her to go down the slides!

David's parents came to visit, so one night we went out to dinner with them.  Before they left, Joy and Judy kept fighting over who got to hug and cuddle with Asher.  I don't blame them!

Joy didn't want to give Asher up, he really liked snuggling her!

The day before Joy left for Bolivia.  It took awhile for Asher to warm up to Joy, but now he loves her!

My mom saw how hot it was getting here, so she sent us a little pool to keep on our patio!  Asher always begs for me to get the "water" out and we even had one of our neighbor boys join us one afternoon!  Now if it will just stop raining so we can use it more.  Thank you Grandma!

Thinking With My Heart

It has been so fun to watch Asher continue to grow and develop, especially with his speech!  I think he's still a little behind with that and his comprehension, but he leaps and bounds ahead of where he was 6 months ago.  The thing I've been trying a lot harder to do is get him used to playing with other kids.  With him being an only child and not going to daycare and I don't know a ton of people in this area, it's been slow going to find other kids.  But visiting teaching has helped because one girl I visit has twins his age and one of the girls that visits me has a little girl, so he does get that interaction.  And he absolutely loves going to nursery!  It took a few months for him to warm up to the idea, but now he tries to leave Sacrament Meeting early so he can go play.  But the most interaction he gets with other kids is when we go to the park, which we go almost every day.

Asher loves it when other kids are at the park!  He is so fascinated by them and follows the other kids around and tries so hard to be included.  I love that he wants to find new friends, but this is also where my motherly heart interferes with what I know in my brain.

Most of the kids that we see at the park are between 5 and 10 years old.  To Asher, this makes no difference at all and he wants to do whatever they are doing!  But kids don't like having a tag-along that talks gibberish at them and doesn't understand when they tell him things.  From my perspective, Asher is being so nice and friendly and is trying to talk to them, but doesn't have the words quite yet.  And when the kids talk back to him, he doesn't understand that they don't want him to touch their toys, he just thinks it's great having someone to have a conversation with and gets confused when they get mad.

There's been a few instances this past month where I've seen Asher get excluded from playing with other kids, and it kills me every time.  Asher doesn't really seem to notice yet, but I'm afraid he'll start  understanding what's going on and get upset about it.  I want these kids to see what I see!  I want them to see how nice he's being and how he just wants to be included in their play!

But this is where my brain tries to tell my heart what's going on.  It tells me that Asher is 2 years old, and 8 year olds don't want a "baby" messing up their games.  I'm sure I was the same way when I was that age, just like everyone else.  It tells me that Asher doesn't understand, but when he gets to be their age and does understand things a little better, he'll be old enough that they will want to play with him.  It tells me that it's hard for these kids to play with Asher because it's harder for him to communicate.  That he doesn't understand their games or most of what they say to him.  It tells me that when he's around kids his age, he looks like a giant compared to them, but that they're much closer developmentally and he actually really gets along with kids his age.

David doesn't understand why I get upset when Asher can't keep up with the big kids, and tells me all the same things I already know.  I tell him that I know these things in my brain, but my mommy heart just doesn't want my son to know any pain.  I know other people go through much worse things than this, but for some reason this has been a really hard lesson for me to learn.  I just keep telling myself that I can't control what other people do, but I can let Asher know that I'll always be there for him.  I won't leave him behind, and I'll always be his friend!