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.

Bring on Summer and 2nd grade!

Ashton had the most fantastic school year at Lisbon Elementary!  We are so super proud of him!  His report card reflected all his hard work!

Last day of 1st grade

By the end of the school year his teacher reported that he caught up to his on grade level peers for reading!  Go Ashton!  In math he continues to soar, scoring in the high average category.  My favorite though comes from science.  One of the special education para educator sent me this little gem from science class a sound and water investigation!

Someday Ashton will find the humor in this!

Olav has been wanting a mohawk for quite some time now, so he finally got his wish!  He does look super cute!

Mohawk dude!

Lastly, all of Ashton's short life, I've always referred back to the book Ruby in her own time.  It's a book about a baby duck who eventually is able to do what all the other ducks do, but she does it on her schedule not anyone else's. This is Ashton to a t.  We've been trying to get him to learn how to swim, but he has been very resistant.  But finally this weekend, in his own time, with some help and instruction from Lily he finally learned how to swim!!!!  Yeah Ashton!  I think he is pretty proud of himself!

Busy May

Our May has been full of fun adventures and a few medical traumas for Ashton.

First, Ashton contracted Lyme's Disease from a deer tick and had to be treated with a 2 week course of antibiotics.  Fortunately he got a classic bulls-eye rash that we recognized and was able to be treated immediately!  Then following that, one night why he was helping me clean the bathroom, he accidentally sprayed Windex ammonia in his eye.  Poor thing!  Flushing out a 7 years old eyes with water is not fun!  But he was a trooper.  However he kept saying between the deer tick and the ammonia that he was "having the worst time of his life".  He even had to do a time line of his life from birth to the present for math class  and his milestones were, going to Norway at age 1, getting an Xbox 360 at age 6 and getting Lyme's and spraying ammonia in his eye age 7.

Mug shot

Bulls Eye rash

On the adventure side, we have taken 3 fun family camping trips with various friends.  Ashton of course has had a blast.  Camping is his ultimate happy place.  He loves riding his bicycle and exploring the woods!

Our first trip was with the Cagle family to Cunningham falls.  We took Ashton's buddy Nathan who had never been camping before.  Ashton and Nathan were quite adventurous climbing up Cunningham falls and throwing sticks into the water.  They also found a dead copperhead snake....ugh grossness!

Our second trip with was with our small group bible study to Gettysburg.  It was a cool damp weekend, but the kids had a blast!   The boys played in the "expanded" creek and even got in the heated pool when it was 54 degrees outside.  Even at 80 degrees they were shivering!  They rode "bikes", and Ashton and Ariana even played together!

The stream was the biggest hit even with the chilly air temperature

54 degrees outside, 80 degrees in the pool, Kids:  Crazy!

Last weekend we went to Killen's Pond with the Henry family.  Ashton and Charlotte were little adventurers, exploring all the hiking and biking trails they could!

Ready to kayak

In school Ashton continues to excel.  He really seems to have an aptitude for math.  Recently he learned how to tell time.  He is really proud of himself!  I think he even moved up reading groups!  One proud mama!

Lastly, every day Ashton's topic of conversation revolves around his next birthday celebration.  One day, he wants a party, another day he wants a big gift like a video game system, one day he wants a party, another day he wants a basketball hoop and so on...