Update on Asher: He’s 2!

Just a quick update about our precious little boy: 

Asher is 2 big years old! He went to what seemed like his last “well baby” type of checkup last week. The doctor said that they sometimes do 3-year-old checkups too, but since Asher has already reached certain developmental milestones that he would check for at age 3 (language development, ability to identify colors, motor skills, etc.), that unless Asher gets sick or we have a concern, he’ll see us again when Asher turns 4! Amazing, right?! 

2 year old stats: 

Weight: 11.05 kilograms (24.4 pounds, 25%)
Height: 84 centimeters (33 inches, 25%)
Head circumference: 49.5 centimeters (19.5 inches, 50%)

So he has gained nearly 3 kilograms and grown a total of 10 centimeters since his 1 year check-up! He’s still small for his age, but growing at a perfect rate. His head has always been pretty big compared to his body, but his body seems to be catching up to his head size… for now. 🙂 

In addition to his size, the doctor asked about Asher’s language development. He said that by 2 kids should have a decent-sized vocabulary and should be able to string a few words together here and there, though they are not expected to have mastered all of the sounds of language. Asher very much has the adorable toddler way of saying things (i.e. He calls his pal Scout “Sowk,” and a peanut butter sandwich “Peedow buddow sevish”), but his vocabulary is enormous and he is stringing as many as 6-7 words together sometimes. He is expressing emotion and mood to us, which is interesting. When he cries about something he’ll say, “I’m sad.” or “Asher upset.” He’s starting to pretend more and more by making scratchy man voices when he plays with his cars and “guys.” He also stalks us and jumps out and roars randomly these days, telling us that he is a tiger or lion or whatever. 

Asher is very interested in learning and wants to know about everything. He can identify circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and stars. He knows the colors red, blue, green, black, white, brown, orange, yellow, purple, and pink (some of these he says in German if it is appropriate to the conversation: Rot, blau, grün, gelb) Asher knows the entire alphabet (though he can’t say it alone from start to finish, he can fill in pauses or blanks with correct letters and can most certainly identify every single letter). He also can identify numbers 1-10 and can count in English at least to 15 and in German to 10. He knows the different names for worker trucks and likes to shout out what he sees when we’re out: “Tanker truck!” “Container truck!” “Forklift!” “Mixer truck!” He looooooves loves loves LOVES busses and tractors. We bought him a garage with ramps that make his cars drive fast. He likes to play with it, but his favorite thing right now is still a silly tunnel (“tuddow”) made from Duplo Legos that he will drive his cars through all day every day. He is going through a phase where he doesn’t want to sit and play by himself, but when we sit to play with him, he often turns his back to us or gets mad if we try to take a turn driving his cars through the tunnel. He will drive every single one of his cars through his tunnel (he has a lot of cars), then say “sit by Mama/Dada” and drive them all back the other way… and then get mad if we end up standing up to go do something else. 

Asher still loves music and dancing. He is able to recognize even quiet humming of small parts of songs from very random things and ask to hear the specific song. For example: Phil or I will unconsciously hum a song from a TV he has seen, and he’ll say what the TV show is and then say “pweez watch it!” He doesn’t really sing much, but he’s kind of starting to try. Outdoor festivals are a big thing here, and he’s definitely a fan of live music. He actually gets upset when the music stops either just between songs, or at the end of a set. He will say “Pweez, meeseek!” 

Ash has been using the toilet now for about 5 weeks and is doing GREAT. The first several days were, of course, pretty rough. He seemed to go through the 5 stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) in the first 5 days of being without diapers. It’s difficult suddenly to have to pay attention to when your body is about to expel something, then to have to learn to hold it, then to have to learn to release it, and everything in between. Overall, though, he did very, very well and we are very proud and very relieved to have had a fairly easy and quick transition away from diapers. We were especially nervous about our trip to Rome after only 4 weeks in underwear, but he did really well! We were not accident free, but 2 very minor and understandable accidents were perfectly fine. Overall he did really well telling us when he needed to go and then doing his business quickly and neatly when it was time. 

As for eating: Asher seems to be a pretty typical toddler when it comes to eating. Well, a toddler snake, I guess, since he will eat non-stop some days and other times go 2-3 days without eating a substantial meal. To us he seems very picky. He eats pasta (no sauce), bratwurst, all fruits, most veggies, bread, peanut butter, crackers, raisins, yogurt, and some other random things, but those are his staples right now. Oh, and eggs. He lives for eggs. 

He is kind of obsessed with the tv, iPod, iPad, and his MobiGo game system right now. Certainly we know that screen-time isn’t the best for a kid his age, but we go with it when we need or want to. 

Asher loves playing outside. He loves playgrounds and kind of likes swimming (though he doesn’t like to swim where it’s crowded). He loves to jump and run and climb… all things that he does exponentially better now that he can see, but those things still make me really nervous. He has a few friends that he really seems to enjoy playing with. His friend Nellie just turned 3 and the two of them will follow each other around, pass toys back and forth, and even talk to one another some while they play (she does most of the talking). They fight too, but they play well together. Another friend he plays well with is named Naomi. She is about 3 months younger than him and we haven’t known her and her family for long, but Asher and Naomi very legitimately seem to enjoy each other’s company. It’s fun to see him playing with other kids! He also has a friend named Maximillion, who is also 3 months younger than Asher, that he seems to enjoy being around. Sometimes he still just plays on his own around other kids too, but those three and a few others he seems to really like. 

Asher likes to cuddle. When he is tired or sad or scared (“say-ewd”), he says “Need hug! Need hug! Sit me! (His way of repeating how we ask “do you want to sit with me?”). He will bring me a blanket and go-go and his Bear and say “Cuddle bug” when he is tired, which means he wants me to wrap him up tightly in a blanket and rock him for a bit. He smiles and laughs and gets excited when he’s going to get “cuddle bugged,” but then he gets very serious and just melts into me (or Phil) when I hold him tight like that. Precious! I hope he lets me do cuddle bug to him until he’s 30, because I can’t imagine myself being ready to stop before then. He still loves his Bear. He had 2 Bears, you know. We bought one as a back-up in case we needed it, but he found it and has wanted “TWO BEAWS!” or “Both Beaws!” ever since. Sadly, we lost one Bear in Rome. We know exactly when he last had it, and Phil went looking for it the night we lost it, but it’s long gone. 😥 I think we all wanted to cry when we realized that one of his Bears was lost. I am very hopeful that a little child found it and will love it like it was/is loved by Asher. I looked online for another one, but the few I could find were being sold on eBay for around $80! I guess we will just try to be very, very careful with Bear from now on. I don’t think our hearts could stand losing our now-only Bear. 

Asher still has his go-go. We’re not really working on it, but we will soon, I assume. 

I could go on and on about my precious baby, but I guess I will stop for now. I’ll try to get back to updating more frequently so I don’t feel so inclined to write so much in my next posts. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed a lengthy update about our 2 year old boy! We are so proud of Asher and wish we could share every wonderful moment of his life with our family and friends! If you’re reading this, especially if you made it all the way to the end, I assume that means you love Asher too. Thank you for loving him!