Random video compilation of Asher

Here is a little bit of everything... a day with a toddler is always interesting!

Random photos of the week

Asher's first haircut, by Aunt Gail ("Dale!")

Dave and Asher examine a crawdad at Raby Park. Dave notices it it a girl and has parasites.

New tire swing! We had to convince Asher to get in but once he was in he was happy. Note that it is about 6 inches off of the ground.

Asher loves to help me by pushing the button on my chopper. After I took the blades out I gave him the little bits of almond that was left. He ate some, then all was quiet. I found him loading his train with he almond meal.

Reasons my two year old is having a tantrum

Following along the theme of the popular Reasons my son is crying blog and the post 46 reasons why my three year old might be freaking out we introduce... Reasons my two year old is having a tantrum*...

(*Asher really is a mellow child. His tantrums involve a peaceful protest laying on the floor, or a screech, a cry or knocking over something in annoyance. It is more that his tantrums are caused by the unexpected and unexplained things. All this didn't happen in one day, by the way, this list covered nearly a month!)

Reasons My Two Year Old is Having a Tantrum

- he has a booger up his nose
- there is a hair on his toy
- mommy is singing
- there is something in between the slices of bread in his sandwich
- we won't let him continually flush the toilet
- he doesn't want his train turned on
- Mommy came to get him when he woke up
- Grandma wanted cuddles
- his sock has scrunched up in his shoe
- the sprayed himself with water
- he woke up
- he couldn't take his plane to bed
- he had to put shoes on to go outside
- Auntie Mimi isn't here RIGHT NOW!
- we wouldn't let him go in the car with Auntie Mimi
- he wasn't allowed to hang off the side of the shopping cart
- Daddy is asleep
- we stopped him from pulling everything off of a shelf in the grocery store
- he couldn't splash in the puddles in the middle of the road
- he had a hair in his mouth
- he missed getting the ball in the hoop
- Daddy put his shoes on and Asher didn't see him do it
- we wouldn't turn a corner in the car (as we were driving on a straight stretch of road)
- we didn't have popsicles

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Dave's arrival

After three months, Dave finally arrived in the US! Asher and I arrived in Arlington at the same time Dave's flight landed. It took him about two hours to get through customs and immigration, and get to the KOA where we were staying.

(We chose to stay at a KOA instead of a hotel because-

• the deluxe cabin was cheaper than a hotel room
• the cabin had a compact kitchen and a seperate room for Asher
• KOA's have playgrounds and other amenities hotels do not
• the KOA was central to where we wanted to visit)

I didn't tell Asher that Daddy was coming until just before he arrived. We talk about Daddy all the time, but then I let Asher to get all excited yelling "Da! Da!" So he was really excited as Dave arrived, and then wouldn't let him out of his sight, and kept asking, "Dada, byebye?"

We visited the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. According to the website, the exhibits were suitable for children ages 0-8. Really, not so much. More like 4 years and up. Asher was overwhelmed by all the schoolkids on field trips, and there really wasn't much he could do.

He did enjoy a few exhibits...

The trains captured his attention immediately.

There was an outdoor area to play with water.

 We also ate out at a restaurant called Abuelo's, which is rated one of the US's top Mexican places to eat. Asher loved the nachos and Chile con Queso. He does really well at restaurants, for a two year old. They gave him milk in a cup with a lid and straw, which was great.

You can't tell by his face, but he was having fun!

How to play football like a 2 year old

This is how to play football like a 2 year old...

First you get Grandpa to throw the ball...

And then you try to throw it back.

In any way possible...

Using both hands if necessary...

And sometimes in the wrong direction.

And you have to have just the right magic moves...

 And if that doesn't work try levitating the ball with the power of your mind.

And it always helps to wear two different shoes.

Easter Egg Hunt March 23

Eggies!

Today was the community wide Easter Egg hunt- Asher's first Easter egg hunt ever. Yesterday we let him practice in the backyard so he'd at least have an idea of what to do. (He picked them up and threw them at me like balls yesterday).

They divided up the field into ages, with eggs spread in each, and a line dividing the sections. The 0-2 group's eggs were closer to the fence, and each subsequent age group's eggs were spread further out, with the oldest group's eggs hidden throughout trees.

 All the groups started at the same time. Asher really enjoyed finding eggs and putting them in the basket.

 And then he discovered that there were things inside the eggs! And then he had to shake and open each egg and examine its' contents. So the egg hunting progressed a bit more slowly then.

 And he enjoyed it. When we got home we opened all the eggs, I let him have some chocolate and then I hid the rest of the chocolate from him. So far he seems to have forgotten about it, thankfully. I don't know if I am stricter than usual in terms of food, but he doesn't get chocolate to eat. Or candy or lollipops. Or whatever. TV is the thing I let slide, as a stay-at-home and temporarily single mom, it is the one thing that gives me a break when I am with Asher all day every day. But that's another story!

I haven't been to any Easter Egg hunts as an adult or a mom, so I have no basis of comparison, but I found this one to be well organized. There were lots of eggs, more than enough for each child (though I heard some moms, with kids' baskets overflowing, disagree). Asher didn't care at all for the 'Easter Bunny' so no photos of that. We were able to find a parking spot facing the field so Mom didn't have to leave the car on that cold and wet morning to watch.

Did you notice the liner for the basket? I whipped that up in about 20 minutes, and if you don't look too closely it looks fantastic! I wanted to brighten up his Easter basket. Filling it up with eggs covers all the flaws!

Happy Easter!

Blinking, hiccups, and eating sprinkles: video

This video requires a bit of explanation... Asher had finished his dinner and was eating yogurt with sprinkles (balls) on top. He calls eating "um" (from when we were trying to get him to eat, we'd exaggerate eating, and taking bites, "um!").

He didn't want his yogurt so I was eating it, dipping sliced strawberries in it. He was telling me to "um more balls" (eat more sprinkles). When he said um he would blink deliberately. We all found that funny, and he got the giggles...

Cooking: Whole Wheat Cheddar Crackers

Today Asher and I made whole wheat cheddar crackers. They were easy! For Asher, it was like playing with play doh.

Here is the recipe we used, but I edited the recipe (at end of post):
http://weelicious.com/2012/01/10/whole-wheat-cheddar-crackers/

We treated the dough like playdoh and a rolling pin and cookie cutters (we have a box of 100+, so I chose a circle, star and car.

Baking soda and vinegar- play

Vinegar in food coloring in a glass, in a tray.
Spoon.
Baking soda in spice shaker.
Fun!

Video: Asher gets the giggles when I say itty bitty plane

A video of Asher trying to roll down a hill

King's Park, Perth

Wordless Wednesday- 20th February

Asherisms

I have been working on getting Asher to say his name. He does, Asher style.
Me: "What is your name?"
Asher "Asher... yay Asher!" while holding his finger on his chin.
The finger-chin thing is from me trying to show Asher how to pronounce "f." And what do you say when Asher says his name correctly? You say "yay Asher!" So, that's how Asher became "Asher... yay Asher!" with his finger on his chin.
When you ask him how old he is, he proudly says "three!" (He's two). If you ask him to say two, he sometimes will. Last time I corrected his age (two not three) he said, "No... three!"

...

Asher found some dandelions in the yard few days ago . Later that afternoon they started closing up, and I told him they were going to sleep. So he helped them close up, then laid them flat on the ground, told them to go to sleep (he made snoring noises), and stretched out on the grass beside them and pretended to sleep!

...

When I tell him, "I love you" he just giggles.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Boy did Asher wake up cranky today, and early too! But we went back into the bedroom, had a cuddle, and tried again. And he had a happy morning!

We made cookies for Valentine's Day. Asher stirred (he likes stirring) and smushed spoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheet. (Look at Asher's serious face.)
'

The Fountains at Kings Park

This was taken at Kings Park in Perth before Asher and I returned to the USA.

A Day in the Park

Asherisms

 He's a bit anatomically challenged!

.

• Asher has started beeping when he backs up. 
• He kisses things he likes, including waffles and his toy plane.
• Today's toddler-invented game involved me sitting hidden around the corner, and Asher comes around the corner, and I say "boo," Asher falls over, I fall over, Asher leaps onto me, and says "more boo! more boo!" And we begin again.
• Asher has discovered mailboxes (living in Exmouth, we never had a mailbox he could check, only a PO box). Dad leaves the junk mail in it for him and he loves to open it!
• He has worked out the difference between a sneeze (achoo) and a burp (bup!) but thinks a cough is a burp.
• We can have complete conversations without me knowing what he is saying.
• If he wants me to go somewhere, he grabs my hand and says "walk!"
• If he is pushing something, he says, "the push!"
• He asks for his Daddy continuously, all day. Dada? (Dada's not here.) Door? (Yes, Dada went out the door.) Car? (Yes, Dada's in a car.) And most recently, plane? (Dada's not in a plane, yet).
• He likes to feed the dog acorn and pecans. The dog will chew on them, too!

CARES harness and the flight

In retrospect, Asher did well on the flights. It felt like forever when he was crying or upset, but generally he was quite content and slept for a good portion of the flight. Something different we did this time was to book his own seat (technically, he is two weeks shy of being a 2 year old and needing his own seat, but I didn't want to hold him for a 15 hour flight!! We also bought a cares harness, attaches to the airplane seat to create a harness.

He has a scrape on his nose.

A big benefit is that the harness lets him sleep in the seat without slumping too much to the side. And there is the safety aspect and all that. He didn't like it when he was awake, though! You can read more about it here: http://kidsflysafe.com/

Things that we did on this flight that worked well:

• portable DVD player for flight from Perth to Sydney (they didn't have personal screens)
• CARES harness
• Asher had his own seat
• Asher had his own carryon that was full of toys that had multiple uses- paper for coloring, drawing, and sticking stickers on, travel 'magna doodle,' etc
• homemade sticker book (laminated paper) and lots of stickers
• lift the flap books
• books about planes, coloring pages about planes, toy plane
• lots of grapes, animal crackers (that was all he'd eat!)
• putting a disposable diaper disposal bag with 2 wet wipes in each diaper to streamline the process
• pull-up diapers to make diaper changing in the little bathroom easier

Things that didn't work so well:

• toy car- he loves them, but the passenger behind us had to keep fetching them!
• walking up and down the aisle... he wanted to be carried!
• the plane food. He just didn't care for it, despite having a toddler/child meal

We've always received compliments from the flight attendants on his behaviour, and this flight was no exception. I think it helps to be extra prepared and to expect not to enjoy yourself but to spend the flight keeping your child sane, content, quiet and distracted!

Dada, dada, dada?

 

Dave and Asher at Kings Park before Asher and I flew to Texas.

Throughout the day Asher looks hopefully at me and asks "Dada?" I tell him that Dada isn't here. He asks, "Door?' Yes, Dada went out the door. "Car?" Yes, Dada is in the car. And he's satisfied. Dada's going to be in the car for a while yet!

Asher still can't say bottom

I guess the problem with introducing the concept of potty training to a toddler is that they learn a whole new vocabulary, all of which evoke a response when yelled at random times.

In addition to finding, discussing and saying poo, Asher loves to get to the bottom of things. Literally.