it's a pirate, {baby}

Each year for Christmas, my sisters and I make our Dad a photo calendar for his office.  He never changes the photos in the frame on his desk - there's one in it of his 4 girls that we had taken at Sears when I was 8 {no joke} - so we make him a calendar of recent photos to hang on the wall. 

When July rolled around he flipped the calendar and saw this photo of Asher from last year's beach vacation.

Dad really thought he looked like a baby pirate - and I tend to agree.

For fun I did some tweaking in Picnik and Photoshop to really complete the look.

Shiver me timbers - thar's a baby on this beach!

This post is for you, PopPop.  :-)

apple eating...

isn't for the faint of heart.

Sometimes you have to put your whole self into a task. 

Asher is good at that.

Stay cool in this CRAZY heat!  Happy Friday!

be still my heart

I took this photo today and just had to post it right away.

Sometimes he is TOO cute for my heart to handle! 

peek-a-boo: toddler edition

I don't know if you've noticed, but Asher has become quite mature recently.

A few weeks back he decided that the traditional quick surprise! peek-a-boo was for babies. 

He's graduated to the much more grown-up, stealth approach to peek-a-boo.

Love it!

tow away zone

My house has a small kitchen.  Don't get me wrong, it's totally functional and {with the addition of an awesome Ikea butcher block} I can cook for the masses just fine.  However, it is small.  There's not a lot of room to maneuver and because of this I keep the clutter to a minimum.

Asher doesn't seem to understand my definition of clutter and is constantly getting tools out.

Often for a good reason - like figuring out how to make water come out of the refrigerator. 

But still.  I'm always tripping over something or other.

Because of this problem I put a baby gate up in the entryway from the living room into the kitchen and declared the kitchen a "wheeled toy" free zone.  That includes anything Asher pushes and cars/trucks/tractors.

Including YOU, zebra.

Seriously, Asher, no zebras in the kitchen.  Mommy can't get through.

Just because you park your zebra to get a snack doesn't make it ok.

Guess I should be grateful that Asher tried to stow him out of the way.  Don't we have a stable for this kind of thing??

a full, fun day

On Sunday our little family had a full day of fun.  The first adventure was totally unexpected.  When we signed Asher into the nursery at church the volunteer informed us that he had graduated to the toddler class.  My baby isn't in the nursery anymore - once again I'm torn between pride and sadness.  I try to focus on the excitement of it all!

When we dropped him off in the toddler room there was some major crying - but that's to be expected.  Asher has been having quite a bit of separation anxiety recently, so he always melts down when we leave him.  I knew it would only be a few minutes until he calmed down, so Drew and I waited out of sight until the cries subsided.  His teacher showed him some balls and books and we were immediately forgotten. 

After service we went to pick him up and he was seated in a tiny chair at an itty bitty table enjoying some pretzels.  It was so adorable I teared up a little.  When did my baby get so big??  Love it!

After church we hit the highway and headed north to meet our newest friend, Luke!  Our college friends, Erin and Andrew welcomed their baby boy 5 weeks ago and this was our first time to meet him.  Asher was less than enthused about his mommy holding another baby, but he did really well overall.  There weren't any major meltdowns, just some curiosity. 

The funniest part was when I was holding Luke and Asher kept pointing at him and signing "all done."  I'm not sure whether he meant that Luke was "all done" being held, so I should put him down or if he meant that Asher was "all done" with me holding the baby.  Either way the point seemed to be - put down that baby, Mommy!

Of course, I had to bring Luke a special taggie blanket.

I'm making another one for Drew's co-worker who just had a baby so I promise the tutorial will come with that one.  I was rushing to finish this one for Luke, so the step-by-step photos just didn't happen.

After getting home we put the Women's World Cup on the DVR and slowly watched things fall apart.  Sad.

I can't watch!

To raise our spirits back up Daddy and Asher had a tickle fight.

I think Daddy won.  :-)

Hope you all had fun over the weekend too! 

coloring with joy

Now that Asher is a full-fledged toddler we have been having more fun with art projects!  He is starting to love coloring with crayons.

At first I gave him some old crayons I had around the house to draw with, but they were the traditional skinny kind and he just couldn't get the color dark enough with his light touch.  He got frustrated by the lack of color and didn't find the whole process very satisfying - can't say that I blame him.

Saddened by the thought of a little guy who doesn't like to color, I splurged at Target and got him a brand spankin' new 8 pack of LARGE crayons for little hands.  Perfecto!

Now he loves coloring!

We often draw in the afternoons and/or as a distraction while Mom gets lunch ready.

The project that we made was inspired by one of my favorite tv families - the Duggars!  Do you know the Duggars?  They're the family with 19 kids who have a reality show on TLC.  They definitely have some philosophies about life that don't jive with me {no birth control? um, no thanks!}  However, if you can look past some of those things I find a few of their parenting ideologies to be really inspiring.

One thing I've heard them say is that they try to encourage their children 10x more often than they correct them.  That's really hard to do!  I've tried to do this with Asher and it's amazing to see how much he lights up when I get excited about something good that he does.  Praise is so powerful!  It's even more powerful when you can do it in front of others.  Children soak up their parent's love and praise - let's shower them with it!

Another saying the Duggars repeat often is about keeping JOY as their family priority.

Drew and I would love for our family to embrace this idea!  All too often we're selfish people, only thinking of ourselves.  By keeping Jesus first, then thinking about others needs before we do what we want, we can love each other better.

Sure, we won't always do this perfectly, but I'm hoping that by having a reminder right there on the fridge our chances might be a little better.  We'll see!

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:  “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’     Matthew 22:35-39

chick-fil-a made his day

Last week Asher and I met up with some friends at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  CFA is always a good time, but this particular visit was over. the. top.

First, the excitement for mommy:

Asher ate 2/3 of a kid's meal!  This boy usually hates meat, but he ate 3 chicken nuggets, then most of his fruit cup.  Woo hoo!

Then, Asher got the biggest thrill of his little life.  The Chick-Fil-A cow came out to say hello!

A couldn't believe his eyes.

He kept looking at me, saying "moo moo" then looking back at the cow. 

Asher was reaching out for him from his highchair, but apparently it was a "I'll love you from over here" kind of reach because when the cow came to say hello Ash got a little terrified.

For about a second.

Then we had to get down and run after him.  Asher kept grabbing his tail while the cow chatted with kids brave enough to see him face-to-face.
 
Wait.  Mommy, I need you.

After following him around the entire restaurant, the cow sat down for a break and Asher kept darting close, waving and yelling "moo" then racing back to me when the cow showed any signs of life.

Honestly, I can't really blame him.  The cow was pretty big and, as far as Asher was concerned a story book figure come to life.

I think Asher entertained the other diners more than anything else.  I got so many comments about how funny and cute he was - ha ha! - so true!

This was one of those times that was unexpected, but totally made my day.  I still smile thinking about it.  Asher is so sweet and innocent.  Who knew that a random lunch could make him oh-so-happy.  His joy was completely sincere and contagious.  These are the days that do a mommy's heart good.

Who needs Disney World?  We're going to Chick-Fil-A!