Happy guy

If at any time over the past few months I spoke with you via video chat, the phone, or corresponded through email, you probably know that Phil and I were dealing with “the terrible two’s” at our house. While I am sure our precious little one will still be his dramatic and emotional little self here and there (though Phil and I would both deny that we are also these things in person, we’re both aware that Asher comes by this honestly), we have turned a huge corner!!

I feel like everything we do is an experiment with Asher. Because of this, there’s really no way to tell exactly what affects him and how various things will affect him. So, while I can’t be certain of exactly “why” he’s been back to his normal happy little self, I do have some theories:

1. We have been trying to be consistent with discipline. I have a lot to say about discipline, but since everyone has different ideas that are based on very personal decisions and beliefs, I’ll just stop with saying that we’re trying to be consistent with the decisions that we (Phil and I) have made regarding how best to raise Asher to be a happy, loving, self-confident, respectful person.

2. We cut back his TV/screen time. He was addicted to technology at 2 years old! Crazy boy. We had started letting him watch more TV when he was going through some weird things and seeming a bit sick or just out of it or whatever (more on that in #3), but it got to where that was ALL he wanted to do. If we wanted him to play with his toys one or both of us would have to sit and basically play with his toys FOR him. While we both love playing with him, this got really annoying for everyone really quickly.

3. This is the big one — His glasses!!! I talked about this before on this Blog, so I won’t go into a ton of detail, but looking back at the past few months we both see how Asher’s big behavioral issues began right around the time he went through a growth spurt shortly after turning two. We are pretty sure that his growth spurt changed his vision, which means his prescription was wrong and very quickly he was unable to see anything clearly. He was crying a lot, frustrated all the time, and needing help with EVERYTHING he did from walking to using a fork to finding toys. Looking back it makes perfect sense, but we just thought he was being stubborn (another thing he comes by honestly). The past few weeks of him having his new lenses have shown us that he is still our happy, hilarious little boy who loves to read and watch wheels on anything go ’round and ’round. Just today he sat on his own and “read” books for about half an hour before bringing me a couple books and asking me to read to him. AND, this is big, he ASKED to draw and he DID! He has never been interested in drawing, especially with pencils (I think because he doesn’t push hard enough to make the lead dark enough on paper for him to see) and he always would just get mad when I would try to draw with him. Today he sat and used all different colors of mostly markers (but a few colored pencils) while I did dishes. I sat down with him when I was done cleaning and he was SO proud of himself! He was deliberately trying to draw circles, and doing a pretty good job (all things considered), and then he’d make random marks and holler out what it must be “I MAKE A K!!” “I MAKE A 9!!!” (he also seemed to make a lot of sperm-shaped squiggles, but he apparently hasn’t learned that shape yet). I snapped a few pictures of him drawing. Enjoy the precious look of expectancy as he looked to me for a reaction, and then the excitement and pride on his beautiful tiny face:

While I strongly believe that numbers 1 & 2 are important and have made a difference, I think that the biggest difference has been made from his new glasses prescription. I remember being so sad when I found out he needed glasses in April. Now I cannot thank God enough that my sweet baby has those glasses. What an enormous blessing!

Newest installment of Asher videos

I figured it was time for another big dose of Asher videos! I have been recording him a lot lately (“lately” = his entire life), because he is hilarious, adorable, and kind of a pill. I love that he talks so much now! It’s late, so I’m going to get right to it…

First, he’s preferred to sleep with his “Saahh wight” (Star light) on at night lately, since he seems to be a little bit freaked out by the dark these days. So after we read books and turn off the light, he gets to turn his star light on and EVERY TIME he responds exactly like this. I love it!

 

Next, his obsession with playing “cahs” increases by the day. He still mostly just pushes them around, but lately he’s started wanting to make McQueen, Mater, and Finn (from Cars 2) talk with each other. Neither Phil nor I know why he started making them need help, but he is very serious about having his cars need help and then help each other. “Needing help” basically means that they get stuck in the air some how and need their friend to help them get down. It’s silly and precious!

 

We never know what we’re going to get when we go in to Asher’s room to get him after he’s been sleeping. The other day, I stumbled in (I’m not a morning person) and he was sitting up in his bed and shouted out “I NEED A CUPCAKE!” He has only tasted one or two cupcakes in his life and he did not even like them. Another time recently as soon as I opened the door after his nap he started singing “Goootsie! Gootsie! Gootsie mittahnaaan!” which is a song we sing in our music class that translates to “hello! Hello! Hello everyone!”  This morning when I went in he immediately started yelling that he needed a “suh-wack” (snack) of “Bah-duh and peedoh buddoh” (Banana and peanut butter). I was pretty out of it (again, I’m not at all a morning person), but I obliged since that’s a pretty good thing to eat first thing in the morning. As soon as I made it, though, he started SCREAMING “NOOOOO!!! NO!!! NO BAH-DUH AND PEEDOH BUDDOH!!!!” Then I’d say he didn’t have to eat it and he’s scream “NOOOO! I WANT THAT BAH-DUH AND PEEDOH BUDDOH!!! IT’S MIIINE!!!” Shoowee. I tried to calm him, but he ended up back in his bed for a few minutes to calm his little self down this morning. Regardless of what he does, though it is always hilariously surprising. Anyway, a few days ago as soon as I walked in he started doing this:

He’s not all sweet, though. We’ve been seeing glimpses of how his stubbornness and feistiness will be manifesting themselves in his little life. This is mild compared to how bad it can get, but you get the idea. Most of the time we ask him to talk nicely and most of the time he’ll correct himself and be more polite… but then there are the times when all you can do is provoke him and then laugh a little bit, amiright?

And finally, this is part of a much longer video where I was trying to get him to talk to me. I don’t remember all of what was going on here, but I was trying to get him to move to where the glasses were. The reason I’m posting this part of the video is because I LOVE the way he is propped up on his hand watching when I turn the camera around. This is a great representation of his personality: Laid back, easily charmed (and charming), happy, giggly, silly, and always demanding something. haha

That’s all for now! I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. 🙂

“Gwasses fichst!”

This is just a quick update to let everyone know that Asher is now wearing his new lenses! He and I met up with Phil in the city Wednesday evening to get his glasses “fixed.” We didn’t want to tell him he would be getting new glasses, since the frames are the same. But we also wanted to tell him that something was going to change about his glasses. We dropped off the frames, ran a quick errand, then came back and his glasses were ready! Here is when the lady put them on:

I was so excited that I started chatting away when I should have just let him look around and think on his own, but I still like the video because you can tell that he notices that he can see better! Look at his little smile and the way he’s looking at things as soon as they go on his face. He looked up at the lady that always helps us and smiled, probably thinking she is some sort of genius. 🙂

With the prescription being so much stronger, I kind of expected a bit of a problem, but he has not taken the glasses off since Wednesday (except to sleep, of course)! He has said several times randomly “Gwasses fichst (‘fixed’)!” The night we got home after picking up his new lenses Asher sat down to play with his cars and he picked up and thoroughly inspected every single one of them like it was the first time he had seen them. He would look at the front, look at the side, look at the other side, look at the back, the top, the bottom, the wheels — everything. It took a very long time for him to look through all of his cars, but Phil and I were just as interested in watching him look at the cars as he was in “seeing” them. Good stuff!

Phil and I have still noticed Ash looking out of the side of the lens a little bit, but the prescription is still very new to him  so we’re hoping that is simply a habit that he will stop soon.

He’s been a little bit better overall the last few days, but still a bit moody. He’s been tired a lot, which could be due to adjusting to his to new lenses or it could just be because he is a toddler. I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not, but he’s been waking up super early the last couple of weeks. Phil has been overloaded with work the past couple weeks and I’ve been dealing with a very precious, but very naughty and overwhelming little boy for the past few weeks, so waking up at 6 really isn’t something we’re interested in doing. I think we could all use a grandparent or two to come out here to play with and love on Asher for a while *hint* *hint*

Just as a side note — Asher busted his lip this morning while we were at our German conversation group. He was leaning on the side of a little bin of toys and leaned a little too hard I guess and flipped the bin up and into his lip. I thought it was his teeth first! Though it’s shocking to see your kid’s mouth dripping with blood, I was glad when I realized it was just his lip. Well, lipS plural if you believe in two lips, which I do. He busted the inside part of his top lip and a little bit of the outside and a little bit of the corner of his bottom lip. It’s not nearly bad enough for stitches or anything, but it did bleed a lot. This was after I had been getting frustrated with him for wallowing on my lap and refusing to leave me alone for 2 seconds to read my German, so then I felt like a terrible person for forcing him to go play with the bin of toys that injured his little mouth. Shortly after he did that, he was looking at something in his hand while running full speed ahead (never a good idea) and literally ran his face RIGHT into the corner of a table (Still at the conversation group, mind you) and made his nose bleed. Not a “nosebleed,” but his nose was bleeding. He was pitiful! Then we came home so he could try to commit suicide while sitting on the toilet and then scream at me for making him a nice lunch before completely passing out. That was three hours ago. Here’s hoping he wakes up in a better mood!

Now I’m roaming into the complaining zone, which I don’t want to do so I’ll go ahead and end for now. Phil and I are both watching Asher like a hawk with these new lenses. Hopefully things will just continue to improve, but I’m sure I’ll be posting about it either way! 🙂