Can't Wait to Take Ashton to See This! Care to join us?

Just a Little Off the Top Please!

Why oh why did I choose the morning of school picture day to attempt my 1st home haircut on Ashton? Maybe it was exhaustion taking the wheel for the little hour between getting them to school and going back to sleep...who knows? Sadly, it was Ashton's bangs that paid the hefty price of an attempt at saving some dough. (See photo)

I will say that I think the short bangs makes him look like photos I've seen of my mother at a young age.

The good of the disastrous attempt at saving money is during the emergency trip to Supercuts where Kate was able to get her 1st hair cut! She is a born "girl", trying out all the products while we waited, sitting very still during the cut, being into the whole experience! While not much did come off, her style is a bit evened out now and most of the flips are gone (can't quite call them curls, as they really didn't make it past the first bend).

It's a good thing that we immediately when on to get their photos snapped at school, as when we returned home the first thing Kate did after getting out of the car is fall flat on her face, giving herself a really horrible looking scrape/bump about a golfball size. The tough part was that today she took her class picture and will forever be immortalized as the rough and tumble girl of Room 1.

Also, Ashton has developed a GREAT friendship with Richard, our 4-year-old rough and tumble neighbor. Yesterday Ashton headed off to Richard's backyard to play while I made dinner and through the opened window I heard two bumpy sounding "Woah woah woah woah woah -- HAHAHAH!"s. When I walked quickly over to see what was going on, I witnessed the naked happiness that riding a big wheels down a bumpy hill only a 3 year old could share with his best bud.

Ashton further cemented their BFF status by insisting I buy for him not the blue croc-like shoes I thought would match most of his clothes, but the fire-engine red Lighting McQueen shoes that Richard also was the proud owner of. (See photo below)

I am so happy Richard and his family moved on to our street, they are going to have such a great summer together! Now...if only a little girl would move in!

Pigs & Poultry

Kate's bath times are turning out to be much calmer and more of a learning environment now that we have started bathing her apart from Ashton. In the bathtub there lives a green duck and a pink duck. (Ashton has christened the pink duck "Uncle Scotty" and the green duck "Ashton".) Tonight Kate got great joy out of sending the two ducks down the slope of the back of the bathtub saying "Weady, Set, WHEEEEEEEEE!" before gently pushing them down the slide. I hope this gives her courage to send herself carefully down our own little orange slide on her own, as her cautious side has prevented her from sliding down face first.

She also is learning to role play with the ducks, while I show her the ducks can hug, kiss each other and say "Ello Governor!" back and forth. I wonder if I am confusing her by using an English accent during the role play...oh well! As long as she gets the fact nice and gentle are the way of the world vs. hitting and biting everything.

Kate is also becoming very good at letting me know her preferences, saying "No drink!" and "No bed!" and "No socks!". She is verging on the edge of the Terrible Two's, but I'm beginning to wonder if the only reason it is so terrible is because I am loosing all my parental control over her. While it is easy to have a life free of argument and full of compliance, how boring it would be. So, while in the throws of tantrums and back talk, I must try to remember I am raising a person, not a robot, and will be proud of her opinionated defiance as I am putting her in timeout!

Ashton has been a messy human being since I can remember. He's a messy eater, messy dresser, messy painter, messy drinker, messy messy messy! He has never cared if his hair is out of place or if he has chocolate on his hands, but tonight I think we have had a break through! We have been reading "Pigsty" by Mark Teague and it may have made something click in that little brain of his!

The story is about a little boy that refuses to clean up his room to the point where his mother tells him "Fine, if you wish to live in a pigsty, then fine!" Shortly thereafter a pig moves in, followed by another and another and another. The boy is happy at first to be able to leave his room messy and play with Monopoly late in to the night with his new roommates, never picking up the pieces. But over time, the room begins to smell and the pigs are making the mess worse, so the boy calls a local farm, has the pigs hauled away and proceeds to clean up his room. Ashton seemed very interested in this story, so after walking across books to reach his PJs for the 5th day in a row, I told him "That's it. The pigs will be moving into this pigsty soon since it's so dirty." This really got his attention. He immediately dropped to the floor and started cleaning up his books, instructing me to help him "so the pigs don't come Mommy!".

Now I have begged, pleaded, bribed and threatened him in order to produce a clean room. So, after all that, I must admit I was dumbfounded to see him actually begin to pick up when I hadn't really done that much to start it. His room is now clean as a whistle and he even got mad at me for leaving the story I read him on his chair, getting quickly out of bed with a "Tisk tisk" and putting the book on the shelf. My love of books has grown 3 times as much today and I hope that Paul reads this and sees why reading is so important!

{Ok, I would like to add 2 days after writing this, as I wrote this previously then saved it in draft, Ashton wakes up each night 2-3 times crying. We've regrettably come to find out it is because he fears the "pigs" are coming in his room to get him. GREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT. Now what? :p}

An Imaginations's First Flight

Tonight, while putting Ashton to bed, we read the appropriately titled book "I'm Not Sleepy". The tale is a story within a story, beginning with a little boy, Alex, being put to bed by his father with a bedtime story. In the tale Alex walks through a jungle, (Alex in the real world walks to the bathroom to get a drink of water), drinks from a lake (Alex in the real world uses the potty), then is chased by a "Thingamajig". The Thingamajig chases Alex up a tree, where he escapes by grabbing on to the moon. It is only on a breeze that Alex floats back to his house landing in his bed and falling asleep. I've read "I'm Not Sleepy" to Ashton only a few times, as we just got it from the library last week and Ashton was VERY concerned by the pictures in the book. He's had a great misunderstanding that Alex is falling through the air.
After explaining to him tonight that Alex is not falling, but FLYING, Ashton showed me a wonderful side of his imagination. Without a word he got out of bed, solemnly raised his hands parallel to the ground and began to flap them up and down, explaining to me HE too was going to fly. I kept a watchful look as he scrunched his face up and flapped even harder, with a jump or two thrown in with hopes of lifting off. But, alas, no luck.
With the gloomiest of looks Ashton fell face forward on the bed in defeat. Ready to console him, I reached forward to rub his back, but my hand was quickly thrown off when he jumped up in the air with an "Ah-Ha!" look and said "Mommy, turn on the wind! Mommy, turn on the wind!", pointing to the switch on the wall behind me. Reaching up, I turned on the fan, to the highest of settings, and whirled around to see a quickly returned look of hope on his face with arms again flapping. After a minute or two, defeat slipped back on his face and his shoulders slumped once again.
My mind began to spin, wondering how to explain to my three-year-old the fine line between flying and floating, when he solved the problem for me. He let out a long sigh followed by a simple explanation, as if he were consoling me, "Mommy, I cannot fly. There are no wings on my back." and laid his head on his pillow to sleep.
I am so happy for him! While his body did not move an inch, his imagination soared tonight, high above any cloud and over the moon. Good night my darling.

Ashton and His "Moon"

Peter Pan Amongst Us?

Today as Ashton finished his breakfast, he noticed the early morning sun peaking through our window that sent a ray of light upon our wall. While passing into the ray, he noticed an interesting phenomenon appeared. He asked me what that was, and after trying my best to explain the blurry duplicate before him, he waved at the shadow. Of course, the shadow waved back, bringing a fit of astonished giggles from Ashton. Then there was the mutual jumping up and down - giggles, the dual reaching up high - more giggles and the touching the shadow's head - even more giggles.
But the giggles stopped when Ashton told the dark image "Come on Shadow! Let's go!", but alas, the shadow could not follow into the darkened stairway. Ashton came back, checked on the shadow's well being, then again tried to bring Shadow upstairs again to play. He tried to yell at it, force it, even muscle it where he wanted to go, but that stubborn ol' Shadow just would not listen.
Ah...Shadow turned out not only to be a physical replica of Ashton's shape, but also of the very things that define him, inside and out!
Lately Ashton's been having some nighttime fears, so tonight I plan to give him a flashlight to use in making more shadows to play with tonight. Since he appears to be up anyways, at least he'll be up playing with and not fearing the darkness.

They're Baaaaaaaack...

Ashton and Kate arrived safe and, well, not really sound home last night. Well, I take that back. They arrived with their sound turned all the way up! Man, they can whine and dine with the best of them after a fun-filled weekend of excitement. They were excited about the new garage space (see video and photo below) and were waaaaaaaaay too amp'd up to make it to bed on time. But honestly, as much as I miss sleeping-in, I wouldn't trade a dream for a single smile or hug from them.

Ashton is also doing well with potty-training, he is at the point where he well just get up and go when the urge hits him. Woohooooooooooooooooooooo! In acheiving this progress, I do think Grandma fanned the flames of what I thought was his dying chocolate addiction - giving 1 candy each time a sucessful bathroom trip was made. I thought I had it all worked out, 1 sticker on a chart every time he went, giving him a candy or toy when he had amassed 5 stickers. I will happily give up this battle to win the war on dirty diapers, along with acknowldting it is a grandparent's right to spoil their grandchildren. (Also, BTW, according to Grandma Ashton's favorite book is - Click Clack, Moo by Doreen Corwin, Illustrated by Betsy Corwin.)

I was very excited to go visit with baby Gavin yesterday. Teresa semmed to be feeling better after the complications from the C-section and Scotty was busy mowing the grass when I arrived. I got to visit very briefly with Teresa's mother, who sadly leaves today.

The little blue-eyed Angel is a GREAT baby, not a cry uttered during any part of my visit! He is looking more like a handsome version of his father every day, but has his mommy's mouth. He is turning out to be quite the strong man, holding his head up when propped on my chest. Also, he tried very hard to push me away upon the great realization I had no milk to give. (Smart little booger he is!) Teresa gave me a great photo of Kate practicing her mothering skills with him and I just know they will bond together in the years to come, being the two youngest around here. I plan to put the photo of Kate & Gavin in Kate's bedroom and the photo of Gavin in Ashton's. I am so glad the kids have cousins around to grow-up with!

Ashton Learns to Park His Car

MOVIE! MOVIE! DOUBLE CLICK TO PLAY!

Gone Too Long, Back Too Soon

Last night I drove the kids up to my mom's house where they very happily are spending the weekend. I've been told that due to their busy schedules of hide and go seek games with Angelique, Ashton going pee-pee on the potty all by himself, and the help they are giving to Papa Freddy with building the swing set he and Grandma bought for the grand kids, they have no time to talk with me on the phone!
While Paul and I are grateful for the much needed break from Ashton & Kate, I find myself not enjoying the time alone like I thought I would. It's peaceful, but a little boring to say the least. Well, at least it's been productive!

In between the umpteenth phone calls to check on them, tell them I missed them, say their prayers, monitoring Ashton's potty-training progress and Kate's growing vocabulary, Paul and I managed to clean out the garage and do some major spring cleaning in the house. My plan, though not necessarily Paul's plan for the garage, was to clear as much room out for the kids to play in there as possible.
Now that Ashton has a best friend - Richard - who lives across the street he loves to play with and Kate has a boy near her age, Juan Sebastian, up the way, the garage is more accessible for the neighborhood kids to come and play in. Also, the deck is a great place for playtime, but during the hot summer months, the poor little ones can bake like a cake out there in the afternoons, due to the horrible lack of shade trees.

I am ready for the kids to come home, yet want just ONE MORE DAY without them. Motherhood, the conundrums that occur are seemingly endless!

See in the below photos the hard work Paul and I are VERY PROUD OF! :) Everything has a place and a home. I am so excited for the little ones to see a new space to play.

*Notice the peg board with hooks and etc., the tool holders on the wall we installed on both sides of the garage, and the workout equipment stowed away.

So Long Ago -- Just Yesterday

Click to enlarge for a great truth about our family at this time in our lives. (I love this comic strip!)

Color, Color, Color!

Since the kids are on Spring Break from preschool this week, I am trying to keep their days structured as much as I can by coming up with themes. In honor of Angelique, today was Color Color Color day! (She always says that when she uses crayons.) Check out our snack of Fruity Cheerios (which we separated into groups and took turns feeding each other) and the science of Gatorade!

Also, Ashton's found a new way to amuse himself while we run errands, he looks for colors all around him. Oh, to be a child again, finding wonder in everyday things - "Look Mommy, that door is BLUE!" or "Here comes a RED car!" (We even dyed Ashton's oatmeal and bath water GREEN with food coloring!)

I hope that Kate begins to take interest and decides now is a good time to learn to express herself in ways that don't involve tantrums or hitting. Actually, I think it's working! She's starting to understand communication is great! Tonight when I read her bedtime stories, she said the word "Door" many times and pointed to the doors in the pictures. I am so proud of what a good big brother Ashton has become recently and how nice they are becoming with each other! One minute he's teaching her to say door, the next minute he's demanding we give Kate a lollipop after removing a sliver from her foot, never asking for one himself. And Kate, she minds him and takes care of him just as well, always picking up his belongings and bringing him sippy cups.

MOVIE! MOVIE! DOUBLE CLICK TO PLAY!

Not Perfect, But Wonderful All the Same

After waking to a dreary rain-filled morning following a late night of Tornado look out duty( http://www.charlotte.com/breaking_news/story/567061.html ) (Ashton & I took the job of monitoring all weather channels until at 10pm), I expected to have a TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD VERY BAD DAY. (Read the full short text of the story here: http://www.fromtheheartpostcards.com/ICQ/alexander.html )

I was instead surprised to find a clean house with happy diaper-changed children running around with the sweet, buttery smell of something baking in the air. (Did I mention half the laundry was done too!) I wandered past the five or six "Hi Mama!"'s from Kate and the "Mommy! You're awake!!!" from Ashton to find my darling husband had made breakfast! After rubbing my eyes to make sure I was indeed awake and seeing clearly, I looked closer to see that the rolls had surly come from Paul, as evidenced by the photo below. (Click to enlarge). Now Paul would say I was complaining the rolls were not the perfect moon shaped they were supposed to be, then hastily explaining the expanding can had not expanded, but had opened only after scissors and maybe a knife had gotten involved - justifying the final designs of his baked goods.

I would like to say that I did not notice the imperfections in the oblongs and mismatched sizes to be mean or judgemental. I noticed the uniqueness in the hard to duplicate shapes that would not be let anywhere near a bakery, but are perfectly welcome in homemade goods. These red-headed stepchildren of the Pilsbury doughboy could only come from the heart, not the store. I noticed that these were made, not bought, for me and that there had to be at least 12-14 minutes of premeditated thought to produce them and at our house, this is VERY advanced thought. I noticed they were not perfect, but were wonderful all the same! :)

Thank you Paul for a wonderful morning, especially considering this was your first day off in 10 days!

T.G.I...Pajama Day?

While the weather is gloomy and cool today, you wouldn't have noticed had you come to drop the kids off at preschool this morning! Today at St. Mike's was Pajama Day! (Click on photos to enlarge.)

All the boys and girls at school were running around excited to see their peers and teachers wearing PJs, Ashton & Kate included. To top it off, snack time today consisted of pancakes with syrup and o.j. to continue the theme. I am so lucky to live near such a great school!
Also, Kate's teacher, Ms. Beth's mother comes in to be around the kids and always raves about the beautiful color of Kate's golden locks. She was so excited to show me today that she love's the color of Kate's hair so much she dyed hers to match! What do you think?

I Pretend With You?

In honor of a wonderful moment this afternoon, I am starting a blog on behalf of Ashton & Kate, wishing to keep family & friends apart of our world.

Ashton named the blog with a simple conversation he started, beginning very carefully, "Here Mommy, here's some candy.", quickly searching my face for a response. I must have looked very confused when I saw his empty hand, as he then repeated his words adding in a voice that could only emerge from a 3-year-old - a special mixing of both an invitation to share in his magic as well as cautious self discovery --"I pretend with you?".

For those of you who know our family, we struggle day-to-day with Ashton and his extreme eccentricities, often wondering if he is "normal", having previously been diagnosed with SID. Hearing him say such an ordinary thing in such an ordinary way was really extraordinary, so much in fact a tear came to my eye.

Out of all the things I wish for my children, happiness and a true sense of self with confidence are really my greatest hope. Through this simple interaction today it seems Ashton is on his own path to that destination, blazing a trail for Katherine to navigate her own way by. I am proud of them and find these simple times both trying and rewarding, each day as much a surprise in its ups as well as it's downs.

I invite you to join us on our journey through Kate's terrible and terrific two's as her personality takes shape, Ashton's newly found "big boy world" and struggle for independence, my own search for self and where my life is heading and to watch Paul as he tries to both help everyone and stay clear of us - all at the same time.

Feel free to comment or email me and enjoy checking up on us from time to time. I make no vow of how often I will update this, but promise to blog as much as I can. Thank you for reading!