Our little party animal

About two weeks ago Ashton attended a birthday party/sleepover for our next door neighbor. Reports are that he stayed up the entire night! He did not sleep at all! He came home around and fell asleep playing a video game on the downstairs computer. I guess he is just prepping for college life!

A little fall fun

Covid might of slowed us down a little bit, but we still got in some Fall and Halloween fun!

This past tuesday we finally had a chance to go to Gaver Tree Farm for their annual fall festival.  Ashton had fun with his buddy Nathan.  Ashton is constantly impressing me with his ability to build and create things!   At Gaver Tree Farm they have this "life size" Lincoln logs building set.  Ashton and Nathan built the entire house by themselves.  So impressive.  I don't always understand his little brain, but I sure do love this kid's amazing brain.  He is totally going to do something awesome in this life!

"Look what I made for you mom."

How to prevent dropping my phone on my face!

Super Builders

 

For Halloween he decided he wanted to wear a "purge mask".  So that's what we did!  Trick or treating was a little different with people not really giving out candy, but leaving bowls of candy out for the kids to grab.  Needless to say, Ashton "grabbed" a little bit of candy.

 

As far a pumpkin carving, we had great ideas but little follow through.  Ashton and I carved one pumpkin purchased from Walmart, but we forgot to take a picture of the final product because I put all the "pumpkin cutting and lighting supplies" in a safe place.  LOL

A new half-sibling added to the bunch

Today Ashton's biological father Mr. Ricky, just had another boy.  They named him Jon Wilhelm.  Weighed in at just over 10 lbs!  Ashton was not interested in seeing any pictures!  So this makes Ashton officially the half- brother of 7 siblings.  Not to mention our family with Lily, Stian and Fredrik  That's one big extended family for sure!

Accident

I have heard through the years that everyone has at least one major car accident in their life.  And I am hoping that is true for Ashton but we got into a very scary one on Sept. 17th @ 6:44 p.m.  

Ashton and I were traveling on Interstate 70 Westbound to pick up Lily from soccer practice after visiting a local daycare in Mt. Airy.  We took the 53B exit ramp to route 15 N, when a car on Interstate 70 decided at the last minute to try to come onto the 15N ramp.  He lost control of his car on mild slanted hill and began flipping over into our lane.  It was like something out of a stunt car movie.  I am not 100% sure but I think we made contact with the under carriage of their car.  

Thankfully, Ashton and I were not seriously hurt.  But it definitely shook us both up.  The gentlemen in the other car appeared conscious and was taken to Meritus Hospital.  I don't know what the extent of injuries were. 

I just know that both Ashton and I are very fortunate to be alive!

Back to School-4th grade

Ashton started his homeschool program yesterday.  He had a great first day.  He even got up early and got dressed so he could have a little extra television time before the day started.

1st day of homeschool

Also last Monday we meet Ashton's biological father, Mr. Rick at Greenbrier State Park with his wife and two boys.  Mr. Rick was super nervous, but I think the visit overall went well.  We stayed there for 2 or 3 hours and then Ashton was ready to go home.

1/2 brother Ethan age 2

1/2 brother Aiden

Ashton and Mr. Rick

Ms. Tiana pregnant with baby boy #3 and Mr. Rick

Another big change ahead!

So we officially took the leap and decided to start Ashton off with a home school program this school year.  I hope I am not biting off more than I can chew, but I also find myself somewhat excited.  I am hoping to spark a love of learning in him!  I figure I can't do much worse than virtual online school and if it's a total failure, we can just enroll him in his local home school.

Summer has been a mixed bag for Ashton.  His mood over the past month or so has been really angry and irritable. He had been threatening run away and jump out of his window on numerous occasions and has had trouble with his peer relationships We recently increased his Zoloft and for the first few days he was like a different kid. So much happier.  It's just so hard to understand what is going on with his brain wiring.  I am confident that much of it is genetics, but I so wish he didn't have to struggle so much.

Even with Covid Ashton has managed to sneak in some summer fun.  Last week we went to Bethany beach with his best friend Valentina from school.  They had a great time digging holes the beach and playing in the surf with their new boogie boards.

Ashton with his friends!

This past weekend our neighbor Mr. Jimmy took Ashton and Lily fishing on the lower Potomac.  Ashton caught the largest fish weighing in at 20lbs!

My heart in one photo!

Reeling in a big one!

 

 

He didn't want to touch it, but he was pretty proud!

Pondering life!

 

Exhausted from the day!

Ashton has attended Playground camp most days, but really enjoyed going to Tree Trekkers Camp where he got to climb trees, zipline, and travel through obstacles platform to platform.  He keeps asking to go back!

June 23rd is the official day, but we are DONE!

So June 23rd is supposed to be the final day of school for HCPSS, but the Gjerde clan is officially done!  Ashton had his final "class check-in" on Friday.

Attached are some pictures from his "schooling"

School with the dog

Mom, "I've finished all my work, can I have computer time?"

 

 

 

 

"Look what I made mom!"

Pool days

 

 

Kicking off summer with his best buddies

Our new normal

So we are 8 weeks into our COVID quarantine and we are slowly settling into our new normal routine.  Ashton, for the most part, is doing his work unprompted.  Honestly, I am not terribly sure about the quality of the work, as I am having to work as well and can't oversee it properbly, but he seems to be able to complete things fairly well.  At this point, it all about survival, as I suspect this will be our new normal for a long while.  Still waiting to hear about summer camps, but I suspect it will all be canceled sadly.  Too much liability.

After 3 p.m. each day he gets his electronics, where he watches youtube videos and plays video games with his friends while chatting on kids messenger.

Here are a few pictures of Ashton being creative.

Boxcar design

Stairwell sliding board

Hairdryer Crayon Art

9 years already!!!!!

I can't believe our little dude is 9 years old already!!!!  Make it stop!!!!  Of course, being in quartine has been a little different for sure! 

9 years old!

Ashton received lots of love in the mail from so many people.  We even had a quick drive-by from Ms. Taylor, Paisley and Noelle.

Favorite gift of the day was an Unspeakable sweatshirt from Tia Lisa family and pop-pop.

Unspeakable sweatshirt

With a signed picture from Unspeakable

Lastly, earlier this week Ashton wanted to go swimming at one of our favorite local swimming holes.  It was 78 degrees outside, but he braved the chilly water!  BRRRRR!

Swimming at the Frederick Watershed! So cold!

Crazy Times

Homeschool Art with Ms. Giro

We have entered crazy and unprecedented times here in Frederick, MD and around the entire world!  Corona Virus has shut down everything around the country and the world, quarantining people at home.  And with new cases of Coronavirus increasing every day it doesn't appear as if it will cease anytime soon.  For my own sanity, I have instituted a modified homeschool schedule from 10-12.  Offering classes like music, art, technology along with math, reading, and writing.  Kids have been doing chores, having creative time, exercise time and after 3 p.m. each day assuming they have accomplished all their goals then they can have t.v. time.

Ashton 411

Ashton was selected as the MVP for his class last week and he shared the following information with his classmates

Favorite Color:  Lime Green
Favorite Number:  9
Favorite Youtuber:  Unspeakable
Favorite Animal:  Dogs (Beagle)
Favorite Subject:  Art and Math
Favorite Game:  Minecraft
Favorite Letter: A
Favorite Candy Bar: Twix
Favorite Snack:  Cheez it's 

Also, he loves to go outside and watch Peppa Pig.  When he grows up he wants to be a YouTuber.  He also wants to go to Colorado.

While he didn't share this with his MVP info currently his favorite band is Imagine Dragons

This boy has skills!

So impressed with Ashton this weekend!  Using his amazing Lego skills, he put together our new counter height bar stools.  After putting together two of them, he coached me as well!  So impressed!

Clever

Ashton cracks me up!  So today the school nurse approached me, she said, "Ashton said he had a fever of 108 degrees this morning and you gave him some Motrin and sent him to school." LOL.  The truth is he kept taking his temperature the night before, swearing that he had a fever.  At first, it was 97.1 and then it jumped to 98. something, then to 99. 1.  I told him it wasn't a fever until it was over 100 degrees.  So then he comes back later and tells me it's 108!

Also, he recently took something from his teacher's classroom that did not belong to him.  We made him write 75 times, I will not take the dice without permission.  He proudly showed us how he had completed his work, using multiple pages of printer paper and carefully numbered each line in pencil until he got to 75.  Of course, he didn't realize that the same errors he made on each page, was on each and every printer page. He copied the original page 4 times.   Got to give him credit for ingenuity.

Snowboarding!

Ashton has been wanting to go snowboarding for over a year!  Today he finally had a chance to try it.  I signed him up for a snowboard camp at Whitetail and he seemed to really like it.  He wants to go again!  He stayed on the entry levels hills today, but the instructor said once he can master one more skill whose name I can't remember he can go on the larger lifts. 

We started a new behavior plan for Ashton last week and honestly, not sure if it's effective yet.  We are trying to encourage him to be less argumentative and more yielding on basic tasks.  One thing he has been successful at is earning points for doing silly things, and then when I catch him doing silly things, I ask him to stop and he does.  So for example, in the scheme of things I never thought I would say, the other day I said to Ashton, "Take that lampshade off your head."  LOL.  He was compliant and said, "yes mom."  Hence he earned a point for compliance and not arguing!

He has been super creative with significantly less television and has played outside much more.  Even though he is exhausting, I do love that positive of the behavior mod plan.