rock star

My little boy

is

just

too

cute!

Mornings are my favorite time of the day - and new jammies are my favorite reason to take photos.  :-)

put a fork in him

I don't know if you noticed, but Asher got some special utensils in his Easter basket.

He has shown some interest in using a spoon as I feed him so I decided to get a few spoons and forks that would be easier for little hands to hold.

Yesterday I gave Asher a spoon and let him do what he would to his yogurt.

He was very intentional about trying to get the yogurt into his mouth, but had varying degrees of success.

How cute is this creamy goatee?!  Love it!

After a few minutes, Asher decided enough was enough and handed the whole mess over to me.  I probably scooped 3 spoonfuls off of his face.  ha!

Today we decided to tackle the fork.  Ash doesn't really have much experience with forks at all since {until recently} he refused to eat foods that weren't pureed or eaten with fingers.  Because of this I wasn't sure if he'd know what to do, but never fear - some things are just natural.  He was stabbing and scooping like a champ.

More often than not the macaroni wouldn't come off of the fork so Asher would pull it off and move mac, fork, and fingers into his mouth.  Hey - you gotta do what it takes folks.

I grabbed the video camera and taped a bit of the action. 

My favorite is when Asher drops a few pieces and goes after them with the fork.  This boy cracks me up!



He's getting so big! 

a happy accident

After I got Asher dressed this morning I realized that I'd inadvertently put him in an outfit that perfectly coordinated with mine!  Oops!  

I guess it was just a bright blue and gray day in my eyes.  :-)

We had to make the most of it and pull out the self-timer on the 'ole camera.  He's even smiling a little - amazing!

celebrating easter {2011}

Just when you thought the Easter posts were behind us - here we are!

Drew, Asher and I traveled to New Jersey for the weekend to celebrate the holiday with Drew's family.  We had so much fun!

Quick peak of Asher from last Easter - so hard to believe how much he's changed!

On Saturday we all headed over to a lunch with the extended family and just had to show off Asher's Easter duds.  Is he the definition of dapper or what? 

I'm sure some day he'll hate me for dressing him in this outfit, but if not now, when?  ha!

{Of course, the one photo where Asher is smiling with me would be out of focus.  sigh.}

Asher got some really fun Easter treats while we were at the party! 

The plan was for there to be an outdoors egg hunt for the many kiddos, but it was a rainy, yucky day so everything got moved inside.  Asher loved searching for the eggs and throwing them in his bag.  Unfortunately, he got a little enthusiastic and transitioned from collecting eggs to simply cleaning up and started putting toys off the floor into his bag.  Love my little neatnik.  :-)

On Sunday we got up early and headed to church to celebrate the amazing Resurrection!  I love Easter - every year the awe of what happened all those years ago hits me afresh.  Jesus not only died for my sins {my sins!} but rose from the dead 3 days later.  Rose. from. the. grave.  That's crazy and amazing.

YAY!

After church we headed home and Asher opened his Easter basket.   

Well...he received an Easter basket.  Grandma and Grandpa have a bunch of toys that are new to Asher, so he was really distracted by those and didn't care two hoots for the basket of fun stuff that his mama lovingly put together.

Now that we're home he's been enjoying his goodies much more.  :-)

 After lunch Asher got to visit his Great-grandparents and uncle Bob.  Ash has been very stranger shy recently, so getting photos of him with new people is tough - hi Drew!  hi Emily!  We're in all the photos!

Yesterday we drove home and today I get to start the piles of laundry.  How does 3 days away create so much laundry??

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well!

two years ago

Two years ago I left work with a feeling.

A feeling that my life was about to change.

A feeling that I'd have a bunch of exciting phone calls to make!

A feeling like Drew was going to get the biggest news of his life too.

It was a good feeling.

Especially once I saw this

and realized it was all true.

April 20, 2009

April 2010 - 4 months old

April 2011 - 16 months old

How in the world has it been 2 years already?  I really have a hard time remembering what life was like before Asher came along.  These have been the most exciting, hardest, terrific, and exhausting 2 years of my life.  I am oh-so-grateful for every minute!

asher walks!

My little guy has decided that walking is for the birds.  While all of his friends {bloggy and real-life} were cruising past him, he was happy to crawl around.

Drew and I have been encouraging him to walk and Ash will usually take a few steps before diving into our arms.  I think that was his favorite part.

The boy totally CAN walk, he just doesn't want to.  Little stinker!

Anyway, over the past few days A has started walking much, much better.  He still doesn't take off on his own, but there is less diving and more controlled steps.  Asher even changed directions the other day - wow!

Tonight I got some video of his walking - just in case it never happens again.  He still looks a little, um, Frankenstein in his gait, but let's not split hairs.  Walking is walking.

{Hope you don't get too seasick watching this - sorry.  It's really hard to take video of someone who's walking towards you, plus I was trying to be ready to catch in case of a fall!}

Without further ado, my little walker!

toe lickin' good

Sometimes a busy boy needs a snack break.

And sometimes, when you're on that snack break a couple of Cheerios can fall out of the cup.

Then when reaching for one you might sometimes get a toe instead.

Toddlerhood is a risky {and exhausting} undertaking.

hail to the chief

While Drew's parents were in town we decided to take a trip into DC to see some cherry blossoms.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate with us at all - it was dreary and cool.

One good thing about the less-than-stellar weather was that the crowds were a bit smaller than they would have been otherwise.  While we were walking we went past the White House and were told that the Spring Garden Tours were happening today, so we got some tickets and went on in.  I've never seen the White House from any distance so to see it really up close and personal was amazing!

We were able to tour the entire south lawn.

The fact that Asher wasn't bouncing around the stroller in excitement over being around so many people is a true testament to just how yucky he was feeling.  He normally loves this kind of thing, but looks less than thrilled today.  Sorry, buddy.

The Marine Corp band played lots of fun band music for us to tour by.

A few cherry blossoms!

The Oval Office

Sasha and Malia's swing set - Asher really wanted to take a turn on it.

The Washington Monument is so amazing against a blue sky, but unfortunately we didn't get that shot on Saturday.  You can still see it a little bit!

{see!  It really can be lovely on a nicer day!  I took this on another visit...}

All in all this was a really special and unexpected surprise during our visit.  So fun!

With Asher's new ear infection we didn't want him out in the cold too much so we cruised around town a little bit, but then headed over to the National Aquarium.

Quite a few people had told me that the National Aquarium isn't a great deal because it's super small and you have to pay to get in {so many museums in DC are free that it's hard to pay!} but this ended up being the BEST choice for us!

The aquarium was small, but it was also completely empty so Ash was able to walk around and get right up to the glass to see the fish.  Perfect!