Asher's World

Is it possibly? Can he really be TWO already? Hard to believe, but the year has flown by and here we are celebrating once again another year of life. God has been so faithful to us! I haven't had time to blog in a long while (can you tell Asher is a toddler?), but I'm so happy to share what's going on with us. This post might be long so if you just want to see the fun pics, they are at the bottom! :)

A few things about 2 year old Asher.

He has always been in the 90th percentile and although I haven't taken him to the doctor for his 2 year appt, I'm sure he's still there. He weighs 33 pounds which is why my back was thrown out this year! He can say more words and phrases than I could ever mention. He says 4 and 5 word sentences at this time. Just today we were at a store and he yelled to me, "Mom! I'm talking to you!" when I wouldn't do what he wanted me to do right away. HA! I couldn't help but laugh right out loud.

He's developed a very funny personality. The other night we were laying in his room and Drew and I were asking him what his name is. He knows it's Asher Smith but he kept saying, "Asher McCullough!" and laughing so hard. He thought that was pretty funny. He was saying something the other day to Laura and we couldn't figure out what he was saying. Then all of a sudden Laura said, "Are you saying, 'I adorable?'". Asher said, "Yeah!", and we all burst into laughter.

Asher's favorite things to do, besides baseball of course, are playing flashcards on mama's phone, watching a "show" which can range from Octonauts, Oso, Pee-Wee Herman and (GULP) Barney. But he's on a limited Barney watching schedule. ;) Asher loves to go to the park, play in his pretend kitchen and 'make burgers' and read books. He really likes a lot of things! He can count to thirteen and tries to get to 20. He can recognize most of his letters and likes to call people on the phone.

His favorite foods are avocado, any fruit, dates, noodles and of course, cake. Basically if I call something a snack he will eat it. He's a great eater!

I love that he is laughing at random things lately. He will be riding in the car and think of something and just start laughing. He cracks me up!

Asher has been walking since the week before his 1st birthday. Now he is running. "I RUNNING!" is what he always says. He doesn't like to sit in carts when we go to stores, he would much rather walk. We've had to work with him about listening and stopping when we say stop etc. He's very excited to be a "big kid". "I two!"

He had swimming lessons this year and LOVED the water. He even just to "jump" off the diving board. (The instructor basically dropped him into drew's arms. Uh - no I didn't do it) The week after his second birthday we let him have arm floats. It was then that he learned the phrase "By Myself!". Once he realized he was floating he just wanted to "swim" without us holding him. Yes, this gave me a heart attack. Dad was very close by.

Asher wants to climb in his own chair now, with no help from mom and dad. He actually doesn't want to sit in a high chair anymore. He says, "Asher's chair on my knees" and climbs up on a chair sitting on his knees so he can reach. Lord help us. We do thank God that he isn't climbing yet though. He is still in his crib and is a great sleeper. We are enjoying this while it lasts!

He loves daycare and goes 2 mornings a week. He has lots of friends there and is learning a ton like how to share, have fun with others but most important, love God. It's such a great place for him to be. He also loves hanging with Aunt Molly 2 mornings a week. I'm not sure who has more fun when they are together. They take many adventures together and we are so blessed that she is in our lives.

We took many trips to Papa and Lala's house this summer, and even a few to Nana and Pop's house! We've been very busy as Asher grows and wants to experience new things. He's changing so much it's hard to keep up.

Asher loves people and everyone he meets, even in stores, enjoys his smile and personality. He tells them his name is Asher Smith and then Happy. (That's what his name means) He tries to tell them about baseball and some even understand what he's talking about!

The spring and summer brought lots of traveling and several fun baseball games with Asher's cousin Ethan. Asher could hardly contain himself when we were at Ethan's games. He wanted to go out on the field so badly. He wanted to swing every bat, touch every glove and play with all the baseballs. It has become his new favorite thing to do, even at home. We got a call one day asking if we wanted to go to a Tigers game that night and we decided to go. I'm so glad we did. Asher was in heaven. We all smiled the entire time as he yelled, "Go Tigers!" unprompted by us. He has learned how to hold the bat and swing at the ball, run the bases and the most important part..SLIDE! He got a "baseball poster" (Tiger's schedule) at the Tigers game that is hanging up in his room. He says, "Night night baseball poster" every night. And "My baseball poster wake up!" most mornings. He sleeps with his bat when we allow it. The first thing he wants to do is hit the ball in the morning, and everything shaped like a baseball bat, is a baseball bat.

So, when I was trying to decide what Asher's theme for his second birthday could be I was dreaming of all kinds of super cool, awesome, boy outdoorsy stuff. But Drew looked at me and said, "How can we not do baseball?" UGH! He's only TWO! We have plenty of years for baseball parties! But, yeah, he was right. So baseball party it was.

He was SUPER excited about his birthday this year. He couldn't wait. He told us a few weeks before that he wanted a cake (he's pretty obsessed with cake) and a party hat. Then he told us he wanted to invite our friend Ricardo. Out of the blue, he wanted someone he met MAYBE twice to be at his party. So we invited Ricardo. And little did Asher know but it was Ricardo's birthday too. So what a joy it was to share a day with him.

Asher's party was the day before his actual birthday, so we had his party and then on his birthday we went to the Midland Loons Minor league baseball game. We also had lots of family and friends come in from out of town. I think that's the best part. I love our little community of family that gathers for celebrations.

The day of Asher's party there was a 55% chance of rain. The day looked gloom as that percentage moved to 66%. UGH. We were planning on having an outdoor party at Pete and Janine's house (our cousins). Lou woke up and said, "It's not going to rain." I was like, "HA! Yeah right". But, she was right. It didn't rain! PRAISE GOD! It was an AMAZING day full of fun! We were so thankful for everyone who was able to celebrate with us. Here are a few pics from the birthday weekend and here's to another year of fun in Asher's World!