Year: 2013

OMG! It’s been nearly two weeks since I posted. Whoops. Where did I leave off? Oh, the remaining “twoisms” that I should document at this milestone age.

Stats: 
Height: somewhere between 36.5 and 38 inches (Jason’s wall measurement and the pediatrician’s, respectively – roughly 99th percentile)
Weight: 32.2 pounds (95th percentile)
Shoe size: 7.5
Clothes size: 2T across the board but 3T in pajamas
Teeth: All in but his two year molars
Diapers: still a 5, 6 for overnights
Favorite things: Trains and anything even remotely related to construction vehicles. Dump trucks, bulldozers, cherry pickers, backhoes, excavators, and cement rollers all live in our house. In their toy form, of course.

I guess it’s appropriate to begin with his favorite phrase: “TOO too!” Usually while holding something up, this is Ashton’s most commonly used sentence. No one has any idea what it means but he says it ALL the time. He is not saying “choo-choo” because he can make the “ch” sound and we just know it doesn’t mean train. Up until now I’ve treated it as a catch-all for “look at this!” but now that he is TWO I’m pretending he’s announcing his age 🙂

He is showing improvement every week with his speech. He probably says about 20-25 words (still a low count for his age) and he maxes out at three in a row. Most popular right now: “One more….CRACKER!” He says this regardless of whether there are actually crackers around. He has also started to repeat the last sound he hears in a sentence. So if I tell him, “Just a minute please” he’ll immediately echo “Pees”. On Block Island a couple weeks ago, I said, “No, that’s Daddy’s beer” and he followed with “bee-er.” I do recognize new sounds almost daily but pronunciation is still not great and there is a lot of frustration when he can’t communicate what he wants. So we are still in Early Intervention every Wednesday but we are starting to get some cute “little kid moments” that show just how differently they actually see the world. For example, yesterday at the park (where there were previously lots of bees), there were almost none except for a few dead ones (you know, the giant fuzzy kind). We were over in that area and Ashton started pointing excitedly at the ground, “Bee! Bee, help! Help, bee, help!” and it took me a second and then I realized, “Ashton, are you saying the bee needs help because he isn’t moving? Does he need to fly?” and he looked right at me and solemnly nodded. Well I had no idea how to handle that one. Add to the list, “Read up on how to tell your children about death.” So I told him the bee was sleeping and that it would want us to go on the swings until it woke up. Another example was when we were at the beach and we were standing at the water’s edge with our toes in. I said, “Wow Ashton, do you see the waves?” He looked up at me and then back at the ocean and then reached his little arm out and started waving. I nearly died laughing, I mean of course he doesn’t know that one word can mean two things yet. But it was an unexpected response haha. He has also started to sing – he will repeat exactly if I sing “La la la la” and also has freestyled a couple times although no discernible words or melodies, just as he plays by himself. Like a background soundtrack.

It’s also time for “school”: Ashton’s first day at daycare is today. With Jason’s full schedule and me going back to work on Fridays for the year, we needed a set schedule. So, Chera will have him three days and he will go to “school” (which is a home daycare nearby) the other two. I think he is ready to learn some additional independence and how to handle himself in larger groups of children. I found a place I love and actually can’t wait to see how he does with the experience. A year from now he will be trotting off to preschool so I am doing my part to get prepared haha. This is not to say I wasn’t immensely grateful that Jason did the drop off this morning. I don’t think I could have done it and am anxious to see how he is when I pick him up.

We are nowhere near potty training or transitioning from his crib. We are also nowhere near allergy therapy, so for now still avoid eggs, sesame, peanuts and tree nuts.

Also at this stage I’d like to report that the terrible two’s are a myth. Alas, they are not. But Ashton’s actually pretty good and the only real tantrums I get are when I won’t give him a cracker. (I don’t know if it’s that he truly LOVES crackers, or if it’s one of his few real words that gets a response and that’s why he uses it all the time, but if I say no, boy, look out. I taped a solid 60 second movie of him crying and stomping at the cabinet where they are kept after I said “We aren’t going to have any crackers right now”. When I stopped recording he ran over to me, cried “No! No! Nooooo!” and pushed me! I would have given anything to get that on video. I tried not to laugh ) He is also super particular about food being whole. If I break off a piece of bagel rather than give him the whole half, or give him a piece of a cookie instead of the entire thing, it doesn’t end well.

Other than that, we still spend most of our free time playing, walking around the block, and generally being outside. Both knees are still in various stages of scabs and when I put him in the tub, I don’t know where the dirt ends and the bruises begin, but he’s a happy little boy 🙂

We’ve come a long way since age 1. Last year’s birthday was such a blow out it took three whole posts to document it all. This year, due to said blow out, I planned a party for me, Jason and Ashton. That’s it. Because Jason had to work on Saturday, Ashton’s actual birthday, we celebrated it on Sunday. Besides eating breakfast in front of some cartoons and walking around with no pants on, Saturday was nothing crazy.

But SUNDAY was! Woo! We had a few different present opening sessions (in the morning: new trains from Chera!):

And in the afternoon, we took a drive out to Honey Pot Hill Farms in Stow, MA. It was the most darling little farm ever. We got lemonade slushies, went to see the animals…

But we got the hang of it and after walking a little further out, filled up our quart in no time.

The best part is that when we got home, I used the berries to decorate the from-scratch egg-free cake that I had made. It wasn’t the prettiest, a little sunken and lopsided on the top, but I know it tasted great because I made it in a 9×13, then cut and stacked it, and had a few sample bits left over 😉 Also, the density was perfect ifidosaysomyself. (Ifidontsaysomyself?)

Well we ran into a small problem. Ashton wanted absolutely nothing to do with this cake. I mean, ran the other direction when I brought it out. Jason and I were completely perplexed! I cut him some small cubes, I gave him his fork, I tried to get him to put his fingers in the frosting…no freaking way. ?!?!? The only thing I can think of is that he is currently obsessed with hot things. He requests “Hot toast!” for breakfast (uh, and lunch, and dinner- he gets so excited about toast):

and when we read stories that have pictures of fireplaces or birthday candles he holds his hands over the page and says “Hah-hah” for “hot hot!”. He’s also famous for what I like to call “the flamingo”. This is when I plop him in the bathtub and he immediately lifts one leg all the way up, says “hah-hah” and then stands there balancing until I say “It’s ok, it’s not hot.” Then he will put his other foot down and we can go on with the show.

So who knows, maybe he saw the real candle flames and was afraid? And it’s actually my fault because I always say when things are hot in pictures and that we don’t touch? I also have told him that we stay away from bees because they are very busy smelling flowers and can hurt us if we make them mad. I didn’t count on him generalizing and now he thinks every small buzzing insect is a bee. He started panicking the other day when there was a fly in the house and ran around saying “Bee! Bee!” So I need to figure that out. But I have no idea if he is allergic to bee stings and really don’t want to find out.

Anyway, back to the birthday. We facetimed with Grandma and Grandpa while we sang and opened a couple cards and books, and then it was time for the present de resistance. Two big construction trucks. He would sleep with these things if he could – he loves anything that is in the dump truck, backhoe, bulldozer or tractor family and makes all the corresponding whirring sounds when he plays.

Have you guys had it yet? I’ll save the rest for Two: Part Two. I guess I had more to say than I thought!

p.s. I am not one of those people that looks good without mascara. I’m just not. Anyway, wanted you to know that I know. I’ve been lazy lately

I like to think of Block Island as our annual summer vacation. Mmmm, except we haven’t done it since 2010. Oh well who’s counting. Onward!

We rented a house last week with the usual cast of characters: Jason’s parents, brother Chris, sister Liz and nephew Owen, and of course Uncle Berg. Ashton was a little star on the beach and here are a few snaps of our many adventures.

Setting sail…

It’s about 55 minutes across, and once you get over there, Jason and I always get such a thrill that you can see the big tent where we had our wedding reception from the ferry 🙂

Right on the other side of the hill is a huge bay with tons of sailboats, so when you are standing in the tent there is water on both sides. Here’s the view from the bay:

We are coming up on 4 years in September – crazy!

So where was I. Oh, beach adventures! I think the highlight was the hermit crab Jason pulled out of the ocean one day. Ashton was not letting this treasure out of his sight.

Action video footage taken at the scene is available here.

Aunt Lizzie brought stuff to have Ashton’s 2nd birthday party a little early. We all got festive! Because of Ashton’s egg allergy, we improvised and had oven-toasted smores. Opened some presents, did a little bowling…

Ashton’s actual 2nd birthday is next Saturday, 8/3. I can’t even.

Our heavenly beach time…

The boys went fishing at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am one morning, but came back with some gorgeous striped bass which was AMAZING.

Other random items of note. There was no bathtub so every morning we filled the kiddie pool on the deck so the water was nice and warm when we got home for the boys 🙂

And Ashton got a monster splinter. I had my Neosporin and Clifford the Big Red Dog Band-aids (and well let’s be honest, I basically brought my entire medicine cabinet) so I was quite satisfied when this happened. Don’t you love being prepared?? He cried when we took it out but otherwise, good as new.

Hanging with Grandma and Grandpa…

Family picture at Yellow Kittens, the site of our wedding after-party:

Jason and Ashton out flying a kite

And of course, cocktails.

With the relentless hot weather, we have been outside a lot in the kiddie pool and playing with the hose. Yesterday I decided to let Ashton help me with the watering. It turns out he was such a great helper! Mostly. He started out by pointing the spray at their appropriate targets, like the hydrangea, hanging plant (sad though it may be), and irises.

Then he just went crazy. He watered his trucks…

the driveway

His sippy

The fence

And even himself.

I don’t know what he is wearing either. I thought, Eh, what’s the point of the bathing suit? Just another thing to strip off him and wash when this is all over, and we ARE in the privacy of our own home…so my little green thumb was half dressed but overall, quite effective. I’d hire him again.

We are off to Vermont tonight for the 4th – will post on the flip side with lots of red, white and blue pics! Have a safe holiday xoxo

MY Papa and GG! As in, my mom’s parents. As in, Ashton’s great grandparents! Papa and GG live in Southern California and we had so much fun visiting them growing up. Their pool, the beach, our cousins…and then as we got older, lots of good shopping and relaxation from our busy lives.

The last time I was out there I was about 6 months pregnant with Ashton. So it has been a little over two years since I’ve seen them. Life has been a bit hectic and there has been no good time to visit so luckily for me, this past weekend they came HERE! And Ashton got to meet his great grandparents, it was so wonderful. We saw them three days in a row and I don’t think anyone will argue with me that Ashton and Papa were two peas in a pod almost immediately! The first night Ashton sat on his lap and they played this little game, stacking magnets on top of a wine cap. It went on for at least 45 minutes, I’m not even kidding.

Naturally, we cheered when he stacked them all 🙂

Then they watched some planes in the sky:

And then Ashton moved on to some playdough with GG:

Then we tried to get the perfect Papa-GG-Ashton shot and out of honestly 20 attempts these are the best ones!

Over the next couple days we did some walking, some splash-parking and lots of beautiful outside deck time just hanging out and being together. It looked a lot like this a lot of the time:

One of my favorite pictures (for the meaning, NOT how I look) was this one. One bench, four generations!

Anyway, it was just a perfect visit. Papa and GG- I love you so much! Thank you for coming.  And I will send you some prints. XOXO!

I need to do a post about Ashton meeting his great grandparents last week! It was such a great visit and I have adorable pictures 🙂 But first, I’d like to say something about a little 2 year old boy named Tripp Halstead who lives near Atlanta. Last fall, he was playing outside at his daycare and was struck in the head by a huge, heavy falling tree branch. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and since then, there have been numerous surgeries, a lot of ups and downs for his parents (he is their only child) and plenty of uncertainties about his long term prognosis.

His mom, Stacy, started a Facebook page for family and friends to learn about his condition, updates, etc. She posted several times per day, and with such honesty, hope, despair, and love that today she has over 750,000 followers. I am one of them and I feel like I know her. Her son is my son. There is not a single parent that can read her story and look at her pictures without their hearts breaking. The last time I cried so many times for children I had never met was the Newtown shootings. I can physically feel the pain.

Following her posts (which often receive 30,000+ likes in a matter of hours) is an example of how far faith and prayers go to bring together total strangers, and a reminder to cherish what we have every day, something many people (including myself) often need. Tripp was a joyful, energetic toddler on the morning of October 29, 2012 and by that evening, it was a question of whether he would survive. It was a freak accident with no one to blame.

Today Tripp is in a special wheelchair, taking lots of meds, being fed through a tube and Stacy takes him to all kinds of doctor and therapy appointments. Although he has difficulty with movement and expression, she knows he understands her and can comprehend what is going on around him. Every little thing he does is a victory and gives her hope and it’s palpable in her writing. She is beyond dedicated and it is the type of courage that inspires others. I root for Tripp with all of my being.

Which brings me to the next part. One of Stacy’s many followers is the wife of seven-time Ironman Dave Nazaroff, who also co-founded the Toga Multisport triathalon club in Nyack, NY. In March, she began to brainstorm how to raise money for this family and ultimately, they decided that Dave would ride from Nyack to Atlanta, over 900 miles in 5 days, and present the Halsteads with a check for all the money they had raised in the first ever RIDE to GIVE. For every $35,000 raised, Stacy could stay home another year with Tripp and be by his side through his long recovery. The check Dave is bringing them is over $125,000, and he left today.

If you like their page on Facebook, you can get live GPS updates. As of 45 minutes ago, he was in Califon, NJ:

I think anyone with small children feels how close to home this hits. GO DAVE GO!

So here is where I say: if this had happened to Ashton, and Stacy was me, would you consider donating even the smallest amount of money? I don’t know how many people read this blog, but if everyone gave $5, it would add up. So please, let’s do it! I’d be forever grateful – this little boy is in my heart.

Click here for more about Tripp.
Click here to follow Dave and his ride.
Click here for the gray donation button and what I assure you will be the best $5 you’ll ever give.

Sorry this got long – just gives you a sense as to how this affects me! I want to help in some way and I figured sending as much love through this blog as I could would make a difference. Love to all, and thank you!!

Jason works a lot. Umm, a lot. His new job has been going extremely well and he is pouring his heart and soul into it. I am 100% supportive but as a result, Ashton and I often find ourselves to be a two-man circus (I’m sure you can guess who is the ringleader and who is the act). By the time we woke up today, Jason was long gone and we had nothing but a long beautiful day ahead of us. It was one of those clear-blue-sky, almost-hot-in-the-sun-but-not-quite, slight-breeze kind of days. Gorgeous.

We got a late start, so late in fact that I packed his breakfast to go and fed him in the car on the way over to Somerville for a playdate. The playground has a great splash park but I didn’t even think about the water being on and I forgot to pack any kind of aquatic clothing. So I sent him in with his jeans on. Pretty sure he didn’t know the difference.

We played for an hour, came home, and went for a walk around the block. Ashton found some mud in no time.

Just sat right in it. Great. We turned around, hosed off, and it was time to eat.

Sorry for the blurry picture. The point is, he ate almost his entire meal with his head resting on his left hand. Apparently lunch was boring.

While Ashton was taking his nap after that, I gave some love to this little patch of irises we have in our backyard. They originally lived in the front, scattered here and there, and when we landscaped it and dug them out we decided to plant them in a group at the end of our driveway, just to see if they grew. Because why not. And they have done beautifully, grown tall and strong since the transplant, but not necessarily many flowers. The little bed they live in has been so invaded by weeds that during my free naptime hours, I decided to clean it all out and mulch it. There is no before picture because it is simply too embarrassing, but imagine it looked like this:

No discernible species whatsoever. And now it looks like this:

Ta-dah! Ignore the, um, otherpatchygrass. Isn’t it lovely? I opened the garage and got out the mulch and everything! All by myself! Dear readers, this is no small feat. The maximum amount of yard work I’ve ever done is to watch Jason mow the lawn.

Anyway, I felt productive about that. I haphazardly picked at other weeds around the house until Ashton woke up and it was all systems go. Are you ready for splash park #2? I said, ARE YOU READY for SPLASH PARK #2?!

We were no lightweights this time. In color-coordinated lycra, sugaring up with a frozen yogurt and taking in the scene:

And then we stormed it!

For that last picture where Ashton is pointing, I thought about doing a caption contest. Like, “YES this is my shovel! Don’t mess!”

(Lol. Sorry, I get carried away sometimes. In real life it was nothing like that.)

After our splash, we went to the Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont Center in an attempt to get a cool six-pack for Jason for Father’s Day, because isn’t that the equivalent of flowers for men?. A) It was beyond crowded and B) Ashton was WILD. Wouldn’t let me hold him and ran around laughing maniacally. We left empty-handed. Sorry Dad.

Got home, ate dinner and then had some nice crayons al fresco.

I can’t even explain how beautiful it was outside. A perfect 10. We watched some airplanes in the sky, some birds flit between branches, and then it was time for bed. In NEW pajamas, isn’t that the best? (A note: I bought the PJs on clearance at Old Navy. I thought, hmmm. Size 18-24 months. These will be a bit short, but they are $2.49…eh, he can squeeze.) Turns out they are perfect. Who doesn’t want capri-length in the summer anyway?

Ashton’s bedtime process begins around 7:15 pm and takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes depending on whether there is a bath involved. We had such a great day today that when I was singing him his goodnight song, I found myself wishing he could stay up longer. He was so good, I love him so much that I am sometimes afraid of squeezing him like, too hard. I think every mom knows what I’m talking about! Hope you all had equally wonderful Saturdays 🙂

I know I talk a lot about Ashton’s shenanigans. It is never a good idea to take your eyes off him, sometimes even for a second. If you do, you might get lucky and the result of your carelessness is fairly benign: he’ll hide his milk sippy on you (and finding that two days later is not a sweet surprise), a heavy pot will be dragged out of the cabinet and clang loudly on the floor (perhaps a small tile chip on that one), or your diaper bag is yanked off the counter in a manner so violent that even the stuff in the zippered pockets spills out.

Other times you won’t get lucky (like last week) and you’ll have a very bruised, very tearful little boy on your hands.

Most often, though, he gets caught in the act. Like, mid-disaster. I’ll leave him doing one thing, go to pick something up or put something away, turn back around and:

No real harm done, but the potential, oh the potential. He’s standing on top of the coffee table, about to dive bomb off the couch, or trying to feed his cheerios to an electrical outlet.

For whatever reason, we woke up this morning and our cable wasn’t working. Not a big deal on most days but Ashton was super cranky and I knew the only thing that would help was a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. So I did what any mom would do and improvised. I got out the laptop, found an episode on YouTube, tilted the screen just so, and set him up with his chair and a snack in the kitchen.

Oh he was into it. He sat for awhile smacking his grapes (grapes that, 15 minutes ago when he was in his highchair for breakfast, were nowhere near good enough to eat, but that’s neither here nor there). All was peaceful, so I (wrongly) assumed it was safe to turn around to do the dishes. I guess between the water running and Mickey et al making such a racket I didn’t hear him get up and do THIS:

Refer to cartoon above.

He dragged his chair about five feet, flipped it and climbed right up. I mean, $&*#@%t!  He could have thrown the computer on the floor and broken it! 😉

Anyway, just thought I’d let you know what I’m dealing with around here. Perhaps I should call the circus? What do acrobats get paid these days?

Despite the fact that I’ve lived in the Boston area for the last 10 years (?! gasp!) when I go up to Vermont I always say I am “going home”. Now that I am on my summer schedule (Fridays off, woo!), and Jason was going to be at work all weekend, Ashton and I decided to head home last Friday. As an added bonus, Kari and Ben were there visiting from Boulder and John and Patricia were up from DC so we had peeps to see.

Expected total napping minutes on the 3.5 hour car ride up: 60.
Actual total napping minutes on the 3.5 hour car ride up: 0. It was a long one.

But our first stop was Poppy and Mema in Colchester, we arrived around 5 pm and hopped right into the motorboat for a little bay cruise: