2 year old Soccer

 I put Asher in a soccer class last month. I thought it would be fun. For me, for him, who knows? Lets be honest, 2 is kind of young for a sports class. It was...chaos. But cute chaos, no? There were 5 kids in the class, 4 boys and 1 girl. The girl was really good at listening and following directions. The boys had their own agenda. It was a good opportunity to take lots of pictures. Maybe he'll be more ready next year. By day 3 of the class, he wanted to watch/play baseball. He is his father's son. Please follow along the excessive amount of pictures for the play by play of class that week.

 

 He improved his kicking skills!

 He found throwing the ball was a much more consistent way to make a goal.

 He sat a lot. They all did.

 

 He played with the cones. They all did.

 He needed his mom!

 He was cute!

 Lots of parental involvement. I was exhausted after every class. I think every parent was.

 He learned coordination in kicking over the cone with the ball (it was an exercise they practiced a lot).

 

 Bill made it to one class to see Asher play! Consequently, Asher was very distracted.

 He did some ball kissing? I like Bill's look on his face "what?".

He was tired of soccer, needed to be held.

All and all, it was a fun and exhausting week. We both napped well. Not to mention it was so humid the whole time. Ug, DC in the summer, it's the worst! Anyway, I love the bazillion pictures we got from it so I guess it was a success. And Asher does have some mad soccer skillz.

Washington Visit

While we were in Washington, we didn't do the usual touristy stuff. We stayed away from Powell's bookstore, we didn't go shopping, and we didn't go to the zoo. We had our own fun just hanging around the house as a family and enjoyed all the animals in the area. And there was a lot more animal interaction there than at any zoo I've been to.

Asher working hard on the farm.

We visited some neighbors who have 2 mini horses, cows, a deer, and breed Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

Cow

You can see 4 puppies in the fence, I think they had 7 there at the time. Click on the picture for a better look.

Jumping mini horses, this little horse was a fireball and showed us how it is done. I think my parents have a picture of me that is very similar to this horse - jumping with my long mane of hair flying behind me.

Bill's parents have bird feeders w/ seed and humming bird feeders in their backyard and the birds were plentiful.

Bill with his dog sister, Emma. They love each other. Emma loves to sit in the recliner on your lap, all 60 lbs of her.

One of the new cats at the Weaver farm. Chester was so patients with Asher and he loved to sleep on whoever was around.

Asher loved all the animals (and he clearly loves his dad- he is giving a big squeeze). Not pictured were the regular sized horses next door or the bunnies scampering around the yard, and though Emma made the blog, the other golden retriever, Cashew, didn't. Please forgive my negligence in picture taking during this trip.

Happy Birthday, Asher

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy, Asher. Can you believe he is one? I know I can't. We got to celebrate his birthday twice. Once with Bill's parents in Washington, and we had a little party here on his actual birthday with my sister and her family. And with two parties came two different desserts: a cupcake and a giant whoopie pie. Both were delicious and loved by Asher.

Here is the giant whoopie pie. It wasn't as aesthetically pleasing as I had hoped it would be. It spread a lot while it was cooking, thus it is kind of blob like.

Check out these cowboy boots. Don't be jealous, they only make them in baby sizes.
All in all, he had a great birthday. He has made us one very happy little family.

11 Months Old

I thought I would do a little post on the babe. He is eleven months old, so I'll post 11 things about him.
1. He loves to scream....out of joy. At Church, at the store, at home, whenever he is happy and there are people near, he will scream for fun. I'm sure all the people around us love it.
2. The entertainment center provides hours of entertainment. Were these pieces of furniture created for small children, I think so.
3. He has 5 little razor teeth.
4. He will eat just about anything. In fact, I can't think of anything right now that he won't eat. But he loves whatever Bill or I are eating the most.
5. He doesn't walk yet, but he does cruise around the room with the aid of furniture.
6. He has had 3 haircuts in his short life. How do you tame the untameable, we are still trying to figure that one out.
7. He loves to talk. He says mom, dad, and nana (banana).
8. He is a great help when it comes to laundry. He is great at gathering up all the socks, tasting them, and maybe crawling around with them in his mouth until he decides to try another sock.
9. Along with screaming, he loves to wave at people. He has no concept of stranger danger.
10. He loves the cat. The cat hates him.
11. He is excited for nursery, and so are we.

So regarding the last post about couponing. I feel like the pressure is on and you all will be sorely disappointed. Let me just say this, first, we have no storage and so buying multiples really isn't an option for us, second, couponing is a lot of work (and I'm lazy), and third, why doesn't anyone ever have coupons for the stuff I buy the most--produce? My method of saving money is to have a little black book with a page devoted to the various stores in the area that I frequent. Each page I have listed the price of items that I buy frequently, ie. pasta, milk, meats, fruits and vegetables etc. That way I know if something really is a good deal or not, because I could never remember otherwise. I read the adds, and print out coupons when I see things that I need or plan meals around things on sale. So, though I'm not a hard core couponer, I'm working at being thrifty.

Enough of that. On to life. We really haven't done much. While our car was in the shop for 2 weeks, we stayed in most of the time, or went on walks to nearby places. But the weather was great, and it also helped me to be frugal. I do have a testimony of food storage, I managed to scrape together meals with what we had.
Anyway, being trapped at home, Bill pulled out the baseball gloves and baseballs. Like Father, like son, Asher loves baseball. That is fine by me. Like mother, like son, he loves water, bath time is great and pool time this summer will be even better.

Like I said, we've been walking a lot of places. My babe thinks the bar for his car seat is a perfect footrest. Even though it was lovely outside, I put a jacket on him so that he wouldn't get too cold while I was running fast. Just kidding, a light jacket was nice to have.
We went on a lot of runs together. He is generally a good sport, especially when we don't have to have the weather cover on the stroller.
And here is mischief. He was crawling around and got into my bag. He discovered my licorice and dumped it out and then helped himself. He thoroughly enjoyed.
On a final note, I've been reading the Hunger Games series. I need the 3rd book. I'm number 16 on the wait-list at the library for the book. Does anyone in the DC area of the last book I could borrow for a day or 2? Please?

Best you can be

My baby helps me to be the best that I can be.

He prevents slothfulness:

• Apparently 6:15 AM is wake up time. Sleeping past 7 is a waste of a day. Doesn't he realize that the Today show doesn't even come on until 7?

He helped Bill with child proofing duties (see picture above):

• We have one kitchen entrance gated, but not the other. He discovered the other entrance, and he also discovered cat food.

He helps me keep a tidy house:

• He grabbed my little bag of Doritos while I was checking fb. Of course half the bag was crumbs (thanks Cass for lounging on all the chips), and so he picked up the bag and swung it with all his might. Bright orange crumbs everywhere. I vacuumed the rug, the couch and swept. Family room cleaned, check.

He helps me stay strong:

• He helps me stay strong by climbing all over me while doing pilates. Nothing helps your core on a plank hold like 19 extra pounds on your back.

He helps me to be productive:

• Leaving the computer open on the couch for Asher is like a moth to a light. He can't resist it, he will pound on it. So we stay busy doing other things.

He prevents gluttony:

• He likes food. He likes to try new food...that we're eating. He gets grumpy in the evening, and doesn't like peace and quiet during dinner. He likes to be involved, and yes, he will have a bite of your mashed potatoes.

I just might be able to keep all of my new years resolutions.

Update on life

We've got trouble on our hands. This little munchkin is pulling himself up on things. He has left behind (for the most part) his army crawl and is doing a real crawl, he said "dadda" a lot today, not just throwing consonants and vowels together, he says "dadda" on purpose. Oy, why does my baby have to grow up so fast. This picture was taken today when we went in to get him after a nap. Yeah, he was a little angry it took us so long to come in and get him. Bad parenting, but the look on his face is priceless.
It was a father son day on Friday. They both wore their matching University of Chicago Law School shirts. We've been sitting on that little shirt for 3 years now and we finally got to use it. While wearing their matching shirts, they had a lively law conversation going when Asher yelled at Bill "moot". There you have it, the conversation was over. Asher won. Like father like son.
My parents were out the week between Christmas and New Years to babysit our nephew and visit with family. While they were here, we decided to head up to Lancaster, to the Amish community. This picture of a covered bridge is the only picture I took on our visit. And I have to say, I was a little bit disappointed. I expected Amish country to be a little less commercialized. Maybe we just visited the wrong places? Comments?? Anyone who has been agree, or disagree? We went to Intercourse and Bird in Hand. Yeah, those are both names of towns in Lancaster county. Those Amish are wily ones.

Merry Christmas

I know, Christmas has come and gone, but I've got some pictures I want to post. Anyway, we had a very merry Christmas here in DC. We started off the holiday by going up to the DC temple with my sister and her family. And wouldn't you know, all of DC was there that day too. The grounds were beautiful and they had a room full of nativities from around the world.My sister was nice enough to bring snow suits for the babies to wear since it was a cold week (of 30 F - so pleasant compared to the temperatures we experienced in Chicago). I put Asher in one, he looks slightly embarrassed in this picture. I think Asher starfish is funny, no?
On to Christmas eve with my sister's family. As you can see, I didn't do a very good job of documenting the holidays. I'll do better next year. But we did get pictures with the boys in their matching Christmas pajamas (thanks Vicki).
And then we got a million pictures of Asher opening presents on the big day. I'll spare you. But I have to say, this is the first time I've really looked forward to Christmas in a really long time. Though that little stinker didn't care about Christmas, it was probably the best Christmas our little family has ever had.
Hope you all had a very merry Christmas too!