Eight Months

Leif is turning into quite the delightful little guy. Well, he has always been good tempered, he is just getting to be more interactive and more fun to play with. One of the things I love about Leif at this age is when he looks at me so cute and reaches for me because he wants me to pick him up. He loves to grab people's faces and does this to me a lot while I'm nursing him, which is cute, but also kind of annoying. Leif loves balls and is entertained by them for long stretches of time. He has also found a good toy in balloons. He loved having all the balloons around the house from Asher's party and watched or played with them quite a bit. Leif also loves to swim, which for him actually just means me holding him out in front of me while he bobs along in the water, splashes, and sometimes kicks a bunch.
 Leif hit an amazing milestone this month: He slept through the night!!! That is about 4 months earlier than Asher did. I couldn't get him to go to sleep until about 9 pm but he slept all the way until 6 am. I didn't get to sleep until about 11 that night, but that was 7 hours of undisturbed sleep, which hasn't happened in years.
I think we are still a few months away from crawling, but Leif is great at being set down one place and traveling to another place when my back is turned for a few minutes.He rolls sometimes, but usually gets around on his back by arching his head back and pushing along with his feet.
 Leif does this funny thing when we feed him solid foods of sticking his lower lip out. He does it especially when the spoon is just coming out of his mouth, but also does it while he is "chewing" the food. We caught a few shots of this, although it is much funnier to watch in real life. Below that are pictures Austin took to mark Leif's 8 months.

Birthday Party

It was the event of the season! -at least in my mind. I'll admit that I'm pretty sure I had more fun thinking about, planning, preparing, and executing Asher's birthday party than the kids had attending it. I loved throwing Asher's party in our new house.

For snacks we had veggies and chips with a couple different dips, grapes, and cinnamon bears (because Asher loves these). I served the snacks in Asher's trucks to make them more exciting to the kids.

I decorated with the same birthday banners I made for last year's party. I plan on using the birthday banner for all of our kids' parties. The balloons hanging on the ceiling were part of a game for Asher, Amanda, and Leif to pull them down then Paul and Ben to pop. Some of them had dollar bills inside for the kids to find. Unfortunately for Leif, he fell asleep just before the party started and slept through this game.

The game that I have been planning the longest was Punch Out. The kids got to spin a spinner, answer a question, then punch out a circle to get a prize. The cardboard grid I put inside the box to hold the prizes wasn't as well constructed as it should have been and we ended up with a few circles without prizes behind them, but everything worked out in the end. I think the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

Asher got spoiled for his birthday! He opened some of his presents the day before the party on his actual birthday so that he wouldn't be overwhelmed and opened a bunch at the party. He got lots of cars and trucks, markers, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, a paint book, snacks, a Legos set, a new water bottle and the most exciting present which was saved for the end of the party. Asher was a little confused about why he kept opening new toys but couldn't play with them and had to keep opening more new toys.

After presents we had cake and ice cream. I made a simple yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. I decorated it with a toy tractor, Oreo crumbs for dirt, and gummy worms coming out of the cake.

As you can see by the look of delight on Asher's face, the big present saved for the end was a new bike. My dad gave us money to put toward a bike and Austin's brother and sister-in-law pitched in the rest of the money to get it. Asher loves seeing other kids ride their bikes and was thrilled to get his own. It has a little bell on it, which he loves to ring and say "noise".

We ended the party by riding around outside (Asher's cousins brought their bikes too). He isn't quite big enough to get the pedals all the way round, but he loved his new bike! We look forward to exploring with our new bike for the rest of the summer.

TWO!

When did we get a two-year-old? I know I say it all the time, but time goes by so fast. Asher is getting so big and truly turning into a little boy. He is the life of our family most of the time (when he isn't having tantrums :) and we love him so much.

Asher understands almost anything you say to him and says a whole lot too, although some of it isn't understandable to most people. I have provided a table of common words translated from Asher-ese to English:
Nook- Milk
Hone-Water
Shiwwy- Silly
Yafe- Leif
Gamp- Grandpa
Gam- Grandma
Doctor- either doctor or tractor
Ope- Open
Boinken- Broken
Sometimes Asher will get a word down perfectly, then he will mutate it to something else that is not understandable. For example, once upon a time, Asher said "milk" pretty clearly. Then he started saying "no" then "nook". He used to say "Abbey" very clearly, but lately he has been saying "Ibbey". One word that is as clear as can be and that I'm getting a little tired of hearing is "Mine". But I guess that just comes along with being two. 

Asher is a man of routine. Once you get a routine formed for him, he will stick to it! He hated hats, but we found one with bikes on it and convinced him that he needs to wear it outside. Most the time I completely forget about it, especially if we are just running a quick errand, but the minute we step out the door, Asher will say "hat" and insist that we go find it. He is really into his bedtime routine too and that helped so much in his transition into a big kid bed in a new house. He transitioned over better than I ever could have hoped. The first night he was a little unsure about a big bed in a new house, but by keeping his bedtime routine, he was adjusted by the second night. What a relief! The only little problem is that Asher doesn't really sleep in his big boy bed. There is a book shelf built into the wall right next to his bed and the bottom shelf is at the exact same level as his bed, so once his story and prayers are over, Asher shoves his pillow into the shelf, grabs his stuffed bunny, and snuggles into the shelf for a nice sleep. I'm not sure if he likes it so much because it feels more secure in a small space or if he just thinks its fun. I have found his legs hanging out onto the mattress occasionally, but he usually stays on the shelf. Its hilarious.

Asher is obsessed with trains and bikes. Grandma Kate gave him a train calendar which was our bedtime story until I found a book to replace it with. We had to "read" the calendar before every nap and bedtime, sometimes more than once, which was getting a little old, so I found "The Little Engine That Could" and we have been reading that now too. One of the highlights of my day is to read the part that says "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" and have Asher look back and grin at me like I'm the silliest mommy he knows.

Asher is becoming more and more interested in dressing himself. If I try to put something on him that he didn't either choose or approve, he will throw a fit and try to get it off. We only have 3 pairs of socks with trains, but he insists on wearing them everyday. A few times when all three pairs were dirty, Austin or I had to convince him that dinosaurs or spaceships say "choo choo" so that he would wear his socks. We should just get him sandals and do away with the socks all together since its so hot, but since he loves his routines so much, socks are a necessary part of getting dressed.

One of our favorite things about Asher is when he eats something he likes, watches someone else eat something he likes, or does something he is pleased with, he will nod his head. Another fun thing he does is push and pull people around if they don't do what he wants fast enough. He is very insistent that you do what he asks and if you don't he will try to force you to do it. 

For Asher's birthday we started a new birthday tradition- Chocolate waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast. He loved them! and we did too :) Asher's Nonna, Aunt Abbey, and Uncle Travis came to visit in the afternoon, so we all went swimming and hung out. Asher had a very exciting and fun birthday to be followed the next day by a birthday party . . . which will be the next post.

We love Asher so much and can't believe he is now two. Its a delight to watch him grow and learn each day. He is a great big brother and a busy little man. With all the excitement, here are the only descent photos I got of his birthday.