23 Months

When I actually type out "23 Months" and look at it it looks much older/longer than it feels. I'm not exactly sure how we got here so fast!

This month also went by without any pictures, but that will change soon as the new one is going to be here on Wednesday. Sorry Asher! He was too fast for our old point and shoot anyway and we are excited to have a much faster shutter speed. He will stop and say "cheese" now, but he's still too fast. :)

This month Asher is officially in his "Big Boy Room".  It took a week to fully adjust to overnights and the last 5 days we have been having problems again.  I think it's a combination of him banging into the wall and dreams.  He says "no" a lot in his dreams...  He did make it onto the floor once this week but wasn't that upset about it (glad we got that carpet a few months ago).  I'm not sure how he even ended up there. The way the rail is set up he has to be intentional about getting out of bed.

I have learned this month that the best way to discipline Asher is to not get mad. As in, the more frustrated I become the more his listening skills go down the drain. I read a really great blog post about not spanking and showing that Biblically, so that really bolstered my confidence about the way I was feeling about that part.  I'm not here to debate whether you should or shouldn't. In our house as the parents we just weren't comfortable with it but felt kind of isolated when so many people do. So it was a blessing to me to feel confident in that decision. However, he STILL doesn't fully understand time-outs (he will willingly put himself in time-out and be happy about it) so I just started raising my voice (ok, let's call it what it is-yell) after I would ask him to do something a couple of times. If I am calm he responds so much more willingly. I have also discovered that he is at the age where I can explain the expectations BEFORE we do something (Ex. No running in church, you can walk into the store but you have to hold my hand) and he does 100% better. That is a real blessing.

I'm sure I have doomed myself to a bad listening day and a few tantrums just typing this out!

We love talking to him. Everyday its more and more words. It's so fun to listen to him. He uses the word "um" a lot when he is trying to think something through. "Asher, what color is that balloon?" "um, um, pink!". Not sure where he learned that, but it's great. And he has started to physically show us the number 2. As in we read two books at night. When he asks about reading number two he puts both index fingers together. So funny!

Lastly, he has discovered music! He normally tells us "no singing!" when we try and I had just given up for now. He doesn't care if it's on in the car and the only time I had seen him react to it was a Talib Kweli song in Chipotle, he liked the bass (he is my kid after all). I know many kids his age can sing little songs and I just thought maybe he just wasn't going to like music or something. However, his Aunt Kate sent us some Cd's at Christmas. Remember Presidents of the Untied States of America? Well, that guy now does kid's music! And it's not terrible! In fact, daddy's favorite song all the sudden was being requested by Asher in the car. Well, demanded at first. We call it the "Blue Jay Song" and we couldn't figure out what he was asking for at first. His "Blue Jay" comes out "Due Day". Man, he was frustrated with us that day! We now listen to it at home too. Saturday he just sat in his room with us and listened. He didn't want to talk, just looked at the pictures in his books and jammed. And this last week we caught him singing to himself! So funny! The kid has pretty good tone too!

Favorite foods: Everything bagels with cream cheese. Any type of pasta with cheese. Kid's Cliff Bars (a treat only when we are out of the house).  Grapes, peas, and cookies.  Oh, and chocolate chips.  I recently made up a snack I called Monkey Treats, just sliced up a banana, a little smear of PB, and two miniature chococlate chips.  After the first few he figured out he could just suck the PB and chips right off.

Favorite toys: Cars, cars, and more cars.  And his new marble tower thing.  It's from when his daddy was little.  And we still have some Easter Eggs out that we put small plastic animals into.

Favorite books: God's Little Boy, New Baby (Berenstain Bears), Little Bear's Visit