21 Months

Asher is turning into a little boy! His language has finally started exploding and it seems like he learns a few new words everyday.  One of his favorite words is "Go"- he likes to say it while he is pushing cars and trucks around on the floor and also when he's telling me about his desire to be outside or go somewhere in the car. My favorite word that he says in "Yafe", which is probably the word he says most often. He can't quite pronounce the "L" in Leif, so we end up with "Yafe" instead. Its so cute :) Asher loves the word "key" and says it almost as often as "Yafe". He has noticed that keys are involved in lots of fun transitions like going outside and going somewhere in the car. He always wants to carry my keys around and I let him even though I'm paranoid he is going to lose them somewhere. He found that the computer desk has a set of keys which is usually just left in the lock, so he has started playing with those. Today he put the keys in his back pocket and walked off (I keep my keys in my back pocket when I'm not carrying a diaper bag, so he must have seen me do this before.) Another adorable word that he says is "coo-kie"which he learned since I make them almost every Sunday. He perfected it when he got to help make cookies with his cousins last week.

He has an intense interest in things with wheels still and has become particularly interested in bikes and trikes. His almost-obsessive interest with the vacuum has started to wane, although he does still peek behind the laundry room door every now and then just to see what his old friend is doing. His new interest is in light switches and faucets. He loves to get his stool out and turn lights on and off himself or tell me to do it over and over again. He has to have me turn the water on for him, but he loves to stand and play in it and demands that it be "on" as soon as we go into the bathroom.

Asher has started engaging in imaginary play and playing games that hold his attention span longer and longer. I've noticed that he really likes to squish himself into tight corners and sit and play with toys for quite a long time. A few weeks ago we were all sitting around the table waiting for dinner to come out of the oven and Asher started "eating" off the empty plates sitting on the table. Austin and I pretended to eat with him until dinner really was ready.

In one way I've seen Asher regress. We got out one of his old toys for Leif to sit in and play with and Asher got pretty jealous- the first time I've seen jealousy from him. When Austin first set up the toy and we put Leif in it, Asher laid on the ground and had a tantrum. We let him sit in it (even though he is way too big and really just ends up standing in it) thinking that he would get bored and decide that he hated it, but he liked it and seemed extremely pleased with himself as he played with all the baby toys. Since then, he has had mixed reactions to Leif sitting in it. Sometimes he doesn't care at all and other times he has actually hit Leif and tried to pull him out of it. We've managed it pretty well by convincing him that he needs to show Leif how the toys work instead of trying to get him out, but the sibling rivalry has already begun. Some days he still wants to sit in it so I let him take turns with Leif- its got to wear off eventually, right?

Here are some pictures from a typical morning with Asher running all over the place. He wanted to blow bubbles, but it was too cold for that, so I built him a fort to play in instead. That lasted for awhile until he decided to climb up on the chair and get the keys.

Helping Leif play with the toys

Asking to play with bubbles

Overjoyed that I took the bubbles because he thinks we are going outside. I left out the many pictures I also got of him throwing a tantrum when he realized we weren't going outside and I was just using the bubbles to get him to look at me and smile (what a mean mom ;)

Playing in his fort

Playing with the keys

Having a turn in his old toy