The water slide...

I am always worrying about killing Ash's sense of adventure and willingness to be daring. I want him to try things... I don't want him to get hurt... it's a vicious circle. Dr. Shakula told me once "don't follow him around saying no, but try to avoid the major injuries."

Our gym has a pool and we've been meeting there on Fridays after Tom gets off work. Ash is slowly getting used to it. Each time he gets a little more daring. They have a little playground in the shallow area and its constantly squirting water in every direction. Ash likes the water... hates to be splashed.


The pool also has a full size water slide. Last week I saw a guy take his little 9-10 month old daughter down the big water slide. I thought about it all week. At first I thought "that guy is just crazy" but it grew and grew on me. So yesterday Tom says "I'm gonna take Ash down the slide" and I am all for it. YES!!! Take him on the slide. I wait at the bottom in front of the long chute that ends at the pool. I see ash come around the bend, expecting him to be crying, and he's... grinning from ear to ear. They land in the water (only like 4 feet deep) and Ash yells "MO" (meaning more). I take him so Tom can see the crazy grin as we come around the bend. Over and over... "mo" every time.

Sense of adventure... check.
Love of the thrill... check.
Excited mommy who didn't say "no"... check.

Facebook dork...

I am officially falling behind in the web gadgets. I have a facebook account, but only so I could look at my bro's pics. My great friend Nicole left me a message on my wall, and it took me a minute to figure out what I was supposed to do with that. Suck. I'm getting old.

Except my dad has facebook. And I'm pretty sure he's got it all figured out. Maybe I'm just getting dumber?

AND I don't even twitter, digg, myspace, or any of those other crazy words. At least I've got this cute little blog to make me feel connected.

Tom likes to say "facebook" with his hand in your face... kind of like "talk to the hand" (only less lame). I asked him once if he even knew what facebook was and he had no idea. At least I'm not the only one...

We have tantrums...

Bring on the temper tantrums... Ash is getting his last four teeth (the fangs, which apparently are the worst?). As the first one broke through he was moody and had a few fits. I think he liked the attention and now he throws them a few times a day. If he doesn't get his way on something he will fall down on the floor and cry and scream. It is NOT pretty. I thought this started at terrible twos?

We were trying to ignore him when he does it... thinking that would curb them. Last night he got a "time out" in his crib while he threw one. After a minute or two I got him out and asked if he was done with time out. He said yes and immediately stopped crying. Crap. Hopefully that will work. I hate the tantrums...

Things to remember...

Asher still hates to get his hair cut (which makes me happy to continue growing it out). He got it trimmed today and cried the entire time. He no longer just cries though... he also says "ouch" repeatedly as if the poor girl who is trying to cut while he squirms is hurting him. I even tried to bribe him with m&m's... didn't work.

He also loves dogs more than anything in the whole world (which made me just think... I should find a way to bring a dog to the hair place next time!). There is a bead store by our house I go to that has two dogs that wander around inside. Asher just follows them around pointing and screaming "puppy". Any dog... anywhere... they are all subject to his love. He will pet them gently and lay his head on their back.

The biggest laugh...

Every night Tom tries some new way to get Asher to laugh at him. It usually works and they spend the night giggling together. He finally got a belly laugh out of him though. And it was as simple as throwing cereal into the air and catching it in his mouth. This is how it looked:

Christmas in pictures...

Here is how our christmas went:

On Christmas eve, Ash and I went to work for half a day. He loves to play there and found a new friend in Ashley (who looks a lot like his favorite 'sta' [christa])


We went to Aunt Barbara's party (oops... no pics).
We went to Grandma Noralyn's and hung out with the cousins.


Asher got new presents... like a music set from Aunt Heather.


On Christmas morning Asher woke up to find a new work bench with tools, which he LOVES.


He also got some new shoes from daddy, which mommy doesn't understand but still thinks are awesome (basketball shoes are kind of weird).


Ash loved having his daddy home and they played with all their toys for a minute.


We got to keep Lisa's new puppy for a night so she was surprised on xmas morning. Asher and he got along so well I thought we might have to just pretend it ran away and keep it for him.


We drove to Rory's (to give them the puppy after all) and then to Grandma Mary and Grandpa Rick's... (oops... again no pictures... send me some dad so I can get them up here.) We opened presents with everyone... then Asher finally learned to share with little miss Ellee by giving her an empty box. (he has a hard time with sharing with her for some reason... she is cute and mellow it makes no sense). Then it was back to Grandma Noralyn's.


At Grandma Noralyn's house Rory gave Ash a HUGE dinosaur... which he was really afraid of...


And then he kind of warmed up to it...


And then he promptly went back to his new best friend the puppy (Beck I think is his final name) who also came to visit.


Asher also fed Marley the kangaroo. He tried to run with the bottle to see if Marley would follow him, and when he didn't Ash got bored and dropped the bottle and left.


We finished the night with our new tradition of hot chocolate, lots and lots of treats and a movie. It was a great Christmas!

New boots...

Asher got a new snow coat and boots so he could go play at Aunt Tiffany's house. I tried them out before I sent him over and he loved the boots! He had to "stomp" the snow. His little cheeks got all red, but he didn't want to go inside. He is such a boy.