Living with a tornado!

Our little tornado at Great Falls

Living with Ashton is like living with a tornado.  He is full blast energy and movement from the moment he wakes up until his head crashes on the pillow when he falls asleep.  If he is not sitting still (which is very rare) he is biking throughout the house on his plasma car, jumping on his special jumping mattress, or tearing something else up in the house!  Not only is he a ball of energy but he is in to everything!  There are no boundaries for this kid!  If he wants to get into the cabinets, he climbs up and helps himself, if he wants to wrap presents, he locates the wrapping paper and uses it until it's all gone.  If he wants food, he helps himself!  We went through a phase recently where he was really being difficult, very developmental self centered, but he seems to have turned a corner.  Hoping and praying it continues!

He continues to appear to do well in school.  His reports that he consistently chooses difficult tasks to engage in.  He is beginning to write letters, including his own name.  He also loves to do crafts.  Tape, paper, stickers and scissors are some of his favorite things!  I can't keep enough scotch tape in the house, because Ashton is constantly using it for EVERYTHING!

One of my favorite things is Ashton's artwork!  I simply adore his pictures of people!

 

Me and Daddy in our bed, Lily and Ashton in their beds, we are all in our house!

The thing I notice the most about his Montessori Pre-K is his independence in the kitchen.  He wants to make his own sandwiches, spreading the peanut butter and jelly himself.  He likes pour his own drinks.  One of the highlights of school for him last week was getting to peel carrots with a carrot peeler!

Ashton also just finished up a session of basketball that he did with a local Methodist church.  He loved to sit on the bench and drink Gatorade.  When he did play the only thing he would do would be pass the ball in from the sidelines.  The funny thing is at home he loves to dribble the ball, but I guess being in that group situation was a little overwhelming for him.

Lastly Ashton has had two funny's that just have to be written down!  We went hiking in the boyscout camping area/Walkersville watershed on Saturday with Eirik.  We hiked to the lean-to shelters.  Ashton knowledgeable that we would have to hike into the woods to go camping there asked, "how will we get our kindles here!"  LOL

Also today we went to Chuck E. Cheeses.  There was sign of a gun with a red stripe through it similar to the one below.  Ashton say's to Eirik, "that means we can't play shoot guns here."  BOYS!

Snowzilla

We are in the midst of recovering from a record breaking snow storm that dropped nearly 36 inches of snow in Frederick!  The kids have been off from school since Friday and I will be surprised if they go back at all this week!  Ashton finally loves the snow and has been enjoying sledding a lot!

Photo bombing daddy!

Also last weekend we went to a roller skating party for our dear friend's the Henry's and Ashton actually tried roller skating.  I couldn't believe it!  He fell down at first and cried and we thought had had given up skating for good.  We even returned his skates.  But after a break of cake and ice cream, he decided to give it a go again!  He did great!  They had these awesome pvc pipes with wheels that helped them keep their balance.

A new year begins!

Happy New Year!  I had tried to post right after Christmas, but my computer and internet were acting funky!

Anyway we had a delightful Christmas season!  Ashton was so cute!  Under the tree where two large gifts for him.  One from Pop-Pop and us and one from Grandpa Bob!  He saw the large one from Pop-Pop and Us and exclaimed, "I knew I was on Santa's good list!".  So cute!  The remote control Monster Truck was definitely the hit of Christmas!

So excited for his Monster Truck

The day after Christmas we went to our friends house to ride real ATV's. Ashton was a little reluctant at first (even though all he ever asks for is real ATV), but the smiles on his and Lily's face were priceless!  So awesome!

We rang in the new year with our friends Patsy and Mark, Katie and Dan, and Hope and Andy.  The kids had a great time playing together!  Ashton fell asleep in the car immediately upon pulling away!

Ashton the entertainer!

Ashton at 2015 CCM Primary Program

Today was Ashton's pre-school holiday program at school.  In traditional Ashton fashion he was contrary to what was expected of him and  did not sing.  He pretended to yawn muliple times covering up his mouth, coughed and sneezed multiple times into his elbow, took off his snowman hat, sat and laid down on ground.  Truly the entertainer!  He had forewarned me that he would not be singing, so I knew not to get my hopes up!  But he was delighted we were there!  When his class first walked in, he was the only kid to run out of line into the audience to hug his daddy!

He also is picking up a few choice words...today I swore I heard him say Damn it!  When I asked him to repeat himself he said he said, Bam it!  Also he has been using "What the heck?"  Time to clean up our language usage!

We got our new camper today!  And boy oh boy is Ashton excited!!!!

Pre-meditated nightmares

Ashton loves to sleep in our bed and in our room.  We've tried very hard to break him of this habit, including rewards to Chucky Cheese for so many successful sleeps in his room.  Last night took the cake.  He told me he was going to wake up in the middle of the night and come into our room because he WOULD be having a nightmare!  Furthermore, while we were still putting him to bed and he was still awake, he was complaining that he was having an active nightmare as we spoke!  That boy will try anything to get his way sometimes!

Another cute thing he did recently was go to whisper in my ear something so that his sister Lily wouldn't hear it.  Just to be sure, he asked, "Mommy if I whisper something in your ear, will Lily not be able to hear it on the other side (ear)?  LOL!

November news

Magical Fall Hike

Ashton seems to be doing well in his new school.  He no longer gets up in cries and hides in the morning  His teacher reports that he has adjusted extremely well.  The only thing she mentioned that she is working with him on is choosing friends for work time vs. play time.  He went through a phase where he kept saying he was having "nightmares" so he could sleep in our room.  We recently did a reward system to get him to sleep in his room and that seemed to work.  Although last night he woke up in middle of the night and wanted Daddy to stay in his room and cuddle him back to sleep.  He also has really cut back on his naps....bummer...I really miss those especially on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  He continues to love anything with wheels and constantly talking about saving up his money for a tractor or four-wheeler.  I am hoping to get him a ride on a four-wheeler over the Christmas Holiday break.  We've been on lots of little hikes this fall and he really enjoys it! He and Lily are so creative in their thought and play as they wonder the woods together.

Fall Fun

Well we have definitely had a fun filled October!  Tonight we have the grand finale of Halloween trick-or-treating in Pop's neighborhood.  Ashton originally wanted to be a black cat for Halloween.  He's not a big costume guy so I didn't want to spend to much time and energy on a costume I knew he probably wouldn't ever wear!  So we took at black beanie cap and I let him paint a cat face on it.  I think he wore it once for the recreation and parks trick-or-treat!  The last few days of dressing up he has been wearing his fireman jacket and hat (an old standby).

Also Ashton started his new school.  He appears to like it overall.  Every once in a while he complains that he "hates" school, but I think overall this was a good change for him!  I really hope he begins to "love" school otherwise it's going to be a long road!!!!

Lastly, his love affair with basketball was short lived.  He really enjoyed the first few classes, but after a while he lost interest.  We will try again in the winter with some friends with a new venue/instructor.