Beat the toaster

I've never been one for rituals or traditions, but Ashton and I have a little tradition this year that I have really enjoyed!  Most days when we drive to school between 7:30-8:00, on the radio station 91.9 WTGS, a call in game called Beat the Toaster comes on.  The objective is to name 5 things of the topic in 10 seconds (or before the toaster dings).  Usually the topics are things such as things you put on a Christmas tree, types of cars etc...We love playing this game together in the car!!!  Ashton is always asking put on 91.9 mom!

Love this boy!

Love this little guy!  Sometimes I wish I could keep him small forever!  Even though he can be moody, he is a love bug at heart.  He looks for any excuse to sleep with us at least several times a week.  He is so creative.  He can take any type of material and turn into something.  He loves to run, jump, climb, flip, and hang.  He loves to do his own version of Parkour, hang on the money bars, jump from tables to furniture, and even climb the walls!  Today we had an usual fall snow!  We enjoyed playing outside for a short time!

November 15, 2018

My monkey boy

Fall Fun

We had a fun filled October.  Lot's of fun camping trips with friends, pumpkin patch, and Halloween fun.

Pumpkin Patch with Garrett, Arianna, Michael, and Chloe

Beginning the disection

The finished product

Halloween with Ms. Hancock's 2nd grade class

Trick or Treating with our friends, Keagan, Garrett, and Michael

Steve from Minecraft

Always climbing the walls both literally and figuratively!

A first time for everything

First, let me say that Ashton has improved greatly since the summer.  He still has his moments, but they seems to have decreased in frequency.  We believe it has to do with a new medication we added to his ADHD repertoire called Intuiv, which can't be crushed up, but swallowed whole.  Ashton embraced swallowing a pill with little drama.  It took him a few tries, but he finally got it.  Hopefully this will make managing his ADHD in the future a little easier.  Of course I also pray that he will not use his newly learned skill for bad things either as he grows up!

His teacher reports that overall he is doing well in school and she enjoys having him in her class.  He seems quite happy, which makes a mama's heart happy too!

Ashton will be starting Parkour classes next week.  He's been asking for months!  I hope he likes it!

2nd grade!

Today was Ashton's first day of 2nd grade at Lisbon Elementary!  I think I was more anxious than he was considering that he was going to ride a bus to school for the first time from our daycare providers house (Ms. Ord-White), and I wouldn't be at Lisbon all the time like I was last year.  He appeared to have a good day!  Which makes a mama's heart very happy!

Ready for the 1st day!

Waiting for the bus with Ms. Ord-White

 

 

 

 

Away he goes!

More half-siblings

Ethan (age 6 months) Aiden (age 2)

We recently received communication from Ashton's biological father's family.  They are interested in perhaps building some sort of relationship with him in the future.  We learned that Ashton has two more half-siblings, Ethan and Aiden.  Mr. Rick recently married their mom Ms. Tiana.  Ms. Tiana sent us some photographs of Rick as well.  Ashton favors him in looks greatly.

We have yet to tell Ashton Ms. Taylor is pregnant again too.  Assuming all goes well with Ms. Taylor's pregnancy that will give Ashton 6 half-siblings as of this year!  If you include Lily, Stian and Fredrik, Ashton has 9 siblings!  WOW!

Challenging July

July has been filled with some great summer fun, but I think the lack of routine has been a real challenge to Ashton, hence a big challenge to the family as well.

To start Ashton had an absolutely lovely time with my niece Lindsey's son Collin.  Ashton was so happy to have a playmate for several days in a row!

Video gaming buddies

Enjoying Crabs with the family

Ashton continues to enjoy playground camp with all his little buddies!

Twins at the Walkersville Carnival

Mid July we went to Bethany Beach with Ariana's family and Ms. Jessica's family.  Genetics was strong on this trip!  Ashton and Ariana where a force to be reckoned with.  They definitely feed off each other and unfortunately NOT in a good way!  The good thing is they really got along VERY well and seemed to enjoy each other's company greatly!!!!

Trouble!!!!

Beach fun!

Ashton said the highlights of the beach trip for him were flying a kite and sand surfing!  I must say I was super proud of him for trying to stand up on the boogie board, I didn't think he would do it, but he did!

"Look mom, I did it!"

Sand Surfer!

Lastly, this summer Ashton begged me to put up our "redneck" pool.  While it was a pain, I am glad I did.  He has spent many happy hours in it!  Plus with a little creativity he and daddy created a "redneck waterpark".  LOL

Redneck waterpark

I usually don't write the tough stuff down in these blogs, but July has really been a whammy.  While at the beach at night, Ashton and Ariana ran away.  Needless to say it was terrifying.  Thankfully they were found at home safe and sound, but for a while there it was pretty scary.  Apparently, they destroyed someone's sand castle on the beach and someone saw them and was going to tell on them, so they ran.

Also Ashton has been threatening to kill himself on numerous occasions.  Some of it of course is just for attention when he doesn't get his way, but one day I actually had to talk him out of jumping from his bedroom window.  That really shook me up!  Needless to say he is back in counseling again!  I hope and pray that learns how to manage his emotions more effectively before the hormones kick in and that he will develop some impulse controls so he is less reactive and slows down to think about the consequences of things.

I am headed to Thailand for two weeks in August so hopefully Ashton does okay with the Nannies and daddy.  It will be the longest I have ever been away from him.