Birthday #3

2 blog posts in one month! I'm on a roll. Lets just be honest for a second. This whole 2 kid business is hard. I never thought it was going to be easy, but it's hard for different reasons. My 3 year old is harder than my 6 week old.  That was definitely in the reverse order of expected hard. But since all our guests have gone home and Bill has returned to work, our routine has become more "normal" and he is returning to his old self, mostly. Tantrums still exist, but they seem to be part of being 3 - say all the books. Yes, I've been reading parenting books. Boo.
My house is a tornado most of the time. Asher discovered some goldfish and and juice box left by a friend and now he has pink juice all over his shirt and there is a trail of goldfish crumbs by my bed.
But with all the goldfish crumbs comes trucks, airplanes, and trains also scattered all over my apartment. There is no question who the perpetrator is.
And since he refused to nap (possibly because of the very loud hammering and mariachi music playing outside our apartment (literally, construction on the outside walls of our apartment)), and I wanted a few minutes of me time, every member of the family is here in the bedroom with me. Asher, Allyson, and Cass. Cass thinks he needs to be held whenever the littles are asleep, and he is refusing to move. So I guess that is the way it is.
It is our new normal. It's not bad, just an adjustment. It's okay that there is a toy cement truck on my side of the bed and a tractor on Bills. Its our life, and we like it.
I'm really going to like my life when the babysitter comes over for an evening!

 The above and below pictures are of the cherry blossom festival, here in DC. I do love living here. It has its cons for various reasons, but it also has a lot of things that I love. Who else gets to run around the Washington Monument? See above picture-that thing with all the scaffolding.

 Asher had a birthday, shout hurray! We tried to make it special because he was really excited about it and talked about it a lot. So we hung up streamers and put out balloons so when he came out of his room in the morning, he would be surprised and feel extra special. It backfired. He came out and looked at us and said "what are you doing?" Maybe it was a little overwhelming for first thing in the morning. Presents were under appreciated. He barely cracked a smile. But since then, he wakes up and asks for presents. You just can't win, at least with a 3 year old.

 He got a bike! I'd been really excited about this for months. I couldn't wait for his birthday. He likes it. He likes to put it on the couch and sit by it, and drag it around the apartment with him. Someday, these kind of things will be kept in a garage...

Since we had a little baby, I decided not to do a party. So we just invited friends to play at the park and eat cupcakes. He humored me and posed for a picture with me.
Did I mention that Asher is tall? He's really tall, as in the size of a 4-5 year old - he's in the 95% for height. Where did that come from? Clearly he got it from his tall parents...