Word Wall

I remember when I lived in Guatemala our roommate Erin recorded her daughter's vocabulary words until she no longer could keep up. So I want to try!

Mama
Dada
Uh-Oh
Ta-Da
Outside
Hot
Da (doggy)
Ashton
eat eat

Strong Sense of Self

Could I be any cuter?

Well Ashton has officially departed the infant stage and has entered into the toddler stage!  He has a strong sense of self with both a mind and a will of his own.  Interrupt his plans...and you get huge temper tantruns, including throwing himself down the ground and crying!

I guess the good thing about this is that developmental the last weeks he has had a developmental jump.  At his 15 month Dr. appt. the pediatrician recommended we contact infant and toddlers to have Ashton evaluated since he still was verbalizing language.  She was concerned that he was using his motor skills to compinsate for not using language.  Well fast forward 2 to 3 weeks and all of sudden he started doing all the things the pediatrician thought he should be doing.  In fact, the infant and toddlers teacher's said he was about 18 months on psychomotor and about 14 months on his social/verbal.  He now says mamma, dadda, uh oh, ta da, hot and he tries to mimic other words like outside.  He knows Lily and puppy...and gets very excited when we say those words.  He alss loves to wave to everyone.

Ashton has gotten really comfortable in the water as well.  He has very little fear.  He wades out very far not wanting anyone to hold onto him.  When you ask him if he wants to swim, he lies on his belly and kicks his legs and his little arms are in a superman pose.


Lastly this summer Ashton has the opportunity to paint two times...needless to say the photographs are quite fun!

Jibber Jabbering Monkey boy

Caught in the act!

TA-DA!

                                                                    

So excited!

Got caught!

4th of July fun at the Baker Park Creek

Who me?

Ashton is so cute nowdays.  He is jibber jabbering all the time!  I wish you could capture it in a photograph!  Who knows what he is saying, but he goes on and on!  So cute!  Physically he is absolutely fearless!  You turn around for one second and he has climbed on a chair or table.  Give him another few days and he will have mastered both the sofa and the bed. At the playground he loves to climb up and down stairs and try to climb up the slide.  He also goes down the twirly slide at Baker Park all by himself.   He continues to love the water!  Any chance he can find just the slightest drop of water, he will indulge!  Puddles....creeks....dog bowl....etc.  Olav says he even understands the word bath and get all excited and goes to the bathtub trying to turn it on!

Nearly 14 months!

Wow hard to believe 14 months have flown by!  Ashton is one adorable and busy dude!  He is totally our outdoor boy!  If he is outside he is happy.  If he is brought inside....so no happy!  We ended up tying baby gates to both the front and side door so he can go outside on the porches safely if we are inside.  He has spent many happy hours playing on his chair on the front porch!

He is also really beginning to communicate.   When he wants to eat sometimes he will point his finger into his mouth.  Sometimes he will do the sign for more when he wants more.  Sometimes when he wants something he'll come up to you with his hand like he wants you to take it and then walk with you to what he wants.

When he doesn't get what he wants or something is taken away from him, he let's you know in no uncertain circumstances that he is mad!  Oh the will of a toddler!

Also next Friday we celebrate Ashton's Heir Day!  The day Ashton officially became a Gjerde!  What a blessing he is to us!

Rock eater, Toilet, Bathtub and Dog water bowl swimmer, Poop explorer

Well Ashton is officially into EVERYTHING!  Absolutely nothing is safe or sacred!  He CANNOT be trusted ALONE ever!  If it's too quiet...something is definitely up!

So first there are the rocks/pebbles...he loves to eat them by the handfuls...no matter how many times we tell him no and take them out of his mouth, he finds a way to get them back in his mouth....yuck!  And it doesn't matter what size the rock is....if he finds little ones great....bigger ones...even better!

Then there is the water temptation.  It comes from every location.  The dogs' water bowl in the kitchen.  The toilet and the bathtub.  Today he decided to throw blue (his blue teddy bear lovey) into the bathtub.  While reaching for it, he slipped forward and dove head first into the bathtub with Lily fully clothed and shoed.  Thank goodness I was there to pull him out.  I think he was a little shook up, but then a few minutes later he went to do it again!

Olav reports one of the grossest adventures...the diaper genie.  Apparently Olav left a dirty diaper on top of the diaper genie (instead of flipping it down into the trash bag inside).  Ashton got ahold of the dirty diaper.  Well you can imagine what he did with that dirty diaper as he smeared poop everywhere on his little self and the area around him!  Gross!  Glad I missed that one!

Easter fun!

Ashton had his first "try" at the easter egg hunt! He found 1 camaflouge egg with the help of his supportive fans. He enjoyed shaking it and hearing the sounds inside!

1 year old!

Hard to believe tommorow Ashton will be one year old! Time really flew! What a joy he is! He walks all over the place. Loves to be outside. Is very mommy and daddy centric! We had professional photos taken of him recently and I will post them when I receive them! We had a family birthday party for him this weekend! Not 100% sure what he thought of the cake...He took a bite, but really just wanted the frosting off his hands!