Asher is 19 months!

Happy 19 months to our first born/sweet baby boy (about a week late but as always, better late than never!).

It's crazy because he is definitely NOT a baby anymore. He's a full-blown, running, dancing, talking (half babbling), "what's this?"-asking, strong willed and opinionated toddler.

 

Asher has been learning and growing so much. He is 19 months now (*sob* where has the time gone?) and is changing so much from week to week. Day to day.  He is learning so many new words, prefers puzzles and toys over books recently (still likes to read here and there!) and is obsessed with "the wheels on the bus" song. He knows so many more words now, it's crazy how much he absorbs! Sometimes he surprises us with a word -- "who taught him that word?!" Like how he randomly will point and say "boat", "bed", "oval". His favorite words as of late: bus (duh!), press (like "I wanna press the button"), schm- (which stands for smoothie), and yesssssss (with a stretched out "s" sound). Of course his most often spoken word is "nnnnnoooooo~" and he just recently starting saying "no, no, no" and "no dis" (read:not this)  It's been a challenge trying to keep him preoccupied in this stage of my pregnancy (hello, fatigue/insomnia and hip/back pain!) but thankfully he doesn't think me rude when I play with him while lying on my back haha. He babbles at us and probably asks me "what's this?" 1,000 times per day and I truly never tire of it. It is my favorite thing ever.  

 

In terms of eating - he has good and bad days. Overall, he is definitely a great eater and not terribly picky - but he definitely has days when he barely eats a thing and is growing to have his own specific palate! Babyled weaning has helped me to not stress out too much about what or how much he eats. For a while, I was worried he wasn't eating enough vegetables in a day but my pediatrician actually told me to just evaluate how/what he eats by week and not day-by-day so it's helped me not to stress out about it.  He definitely loves his carbs: rice, noodles and breads. He currently loves breakfast sausages (so much sodium, I know!) and can never eat enough fruit. One time he ate so much fruit that he burped and fruit came out of his mouth (LOL!) He likes to drink soup straight of the bowl but is definitely improving in his utensil using skills. I'm hoping I can have him start chopsticks in the next year or so! Follow his foodie adventures on instagram! (@eatandplaywithasher)

 

 

Another random thing about Asher at this age - he does NOT like when I rip/cut food for him in little pieces. Once something starts getting too small, he looks for another big piece to start on. Last week when Eugene took him out for breakfast, he pretty much finished his entire breakfast wrap and then wanted to "trade" with Eugene's only-half-eaten sandwich. Haha, I like his style.

We went through a few tough weeks of the 18 month sleep regression last month (read: 5am wake ups and 20-30 min nap a day --- le sigh) but it seems like the worst is over for now. Hooooooray. 2 year sleep regression, we ready for you but we will have an infant in tow so please be kind. 

He is a goofy little guy. He can laugh and smile on company and loves to say hi and bye (just recently started saying "hello" -read: heyyyohh and it is KILLER...Ugh!) He loves to dance and asks me to sing songs all throughout the day.  Im pretty sure Ive said this for every stage but this is definitely my favorite stage. I just love how curious and silly he is and how much joy he finds in every little thing. He makes me laugh all day long and melts my heart so - especially because he is 80% playing hard to get so he works me. I get so mushy when he gives me affection, it's almost pathetic hehe. It's so fun to see how much awe and wonder he has as he discovers new things each day. It's such an amazing thing go be able to experience life anew through the eyes of toddler. It truly is a tremendous blessing from the Lord.  

He is full of personality and is definitely becoming much more temperamental week by week (which makes things so much more fun but also provides me so many more opportunities to discipline...) It's crazy to see how true it is that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Even my not-yet-2-year old son. It has been a sobering reminder for me how desperately we are all in need of a Savior to redeem us. As frustrating and (sometimes) "inconveneient" it is to have to repeatedly discipline and teach/instruct asher on a day to day basis - I see the depth of the love of my Heavenly Father who delights to patiently teach and discipline me and it really strengthens me to pursue to be faithful in this every day. What an honor and privilege to be his mama and to be entrusted this great task. 

Thankful for His grace that provides for my every need as I strive to do the best I can, for renewed strength daily to try again even when I fall short and for new mercies that empower me to give thanks for all things big/small, easy/difficult, fun/tiresome as I trust in His sovereign hand over every detail of our every day. 

Cheers to toddlerhood chaos! 

 

life lately - as told by my camera roll

I feel like it has been forever since I've last posted and life has been zooming by. Summer has been in full swing and there have been so many different transitions as of late - it's been hard to keep up! I actually don't remember what exactly I've shared/not shared yet on this blog so as a way to catch myself up to speed, I thought I'd use my handy camera roll to do a quick update on life lately.  So here is a random compilation of what life has looked like these days:

 

We celebrated our second Father's Day with a low-key breakfast this year. I worked a night shift the night before, so all I could manage was a quick Dunkin Donut run with some of Eugene/Asher's favorites: Sausage, egg and cheese croissant sandwich with a large iced coffee for daddy and a sausage breakfast wrap with hashbrowns (minus the egg - boo, allergies!) for baby. Of course Asher ended up taking most of Eugene's sausage as he always does - and in the loving father-like fashion, Eugene joyfully obliged. I handmade a ghetto-fab card during my shift and was able to give him a handprint keychain that I made for him!

I didn't manage to get a good photo for the one I made for Eugene but had made one for my dad + father in law as well. Do you guys remember shrinky-dinks from elementary school? It was SO much fun making these little keychains and I was able to host a little mommy-and-me craft day so that some of Asher's buddies could make these for their daddies too! I want to shrinky dink everything in my life.

 

 

Asher and I have been going on a lot of casual dates recently because it's slowly starting to hit me that his only child days will soon come to an end. Our "dates" usually just consist of me running errands and Asher inevitably having to tag along but we always reward ourselves with a treat some way or another. I'm really trying to be mindful of enjoying every single thing that I get to do with my little guy while it's just the two of us: every grocery run, Target trip, Starbucks date, park play date -- I'm just so thankful for any time I get to spend with him. I've been feeling nervous about our upcoming transition - but more on that later!

 

 

We officially moved out of our old place and have slowly been settling into our new apartment. I managed to unpack 80% of our things the first few days of moving in and haven't made any progress since then (lol). Baby's room has been the official storage room of boxes and bins that I can't manage to get myself to unpack. Why is the last 10-20% of packing/unpacking so hard? I'm gonna try my best to make a schedule/checklist of some sort so that I can get it done somehow in the next month before baby comes! Here is a pic of Asher playing while waiting for our moving company to bring all our stuff.

Since the end of residency, Eugene has had a lot more free time than usual. It has almost officially been a full month since this new transition and we have been loving it! Asher has been so, so happy having daddy at home more and it has definitely been so helpful for me now that the both of us can tagteam and take care of Asher + keep him preoccupied during the day. One of my favorite things to do is to go out for breakfast or coffee in the mornings.

 

For the last month or so, Asher and I have been able to attend a biweekly mommy and me and it has been so much fun! Asher has so much fun playing with different toys (particularly the rubber duck collection - kinda strange, and the play food toys) and has been learning so many songs! I'm praying that God will open up opportunities for me to meet fellow mamas!

Because Eugene works at sorta "off" hours,  I've also been trying to maximize those times to meet and hang out with people before baby girl arrives. It's been such a blessing being able to invite people over to our bigger space and my current obsession has been home-made matcha lattes (thanks, Joan for the inspiration!) Hope we can schedule in a few more hangouts in this next month before things get too crazy!

 

As of recently, Asher has been wanting to be more and more independent and he has been trying to "help" me around the house. I've also been trying to do more of my chores during the day while he's awake so that I can (hopefully) peak his interest and get him to help me once he's a little older! Although it's been a little bit inconvenient at this specific age (i.e. folding laundry takes 4x as long because he keeps unfolding everything), he has been increasingly more helpful and the best part is -- he thinks its fun! (har har, such trickery).

 

  His current favorite tasks include: putting the clothes in the wash/dryer (and pushing the buttons afterwards), helping me in the kitchen (i.e. taking things out of bags/putting them in ziplock bags, arranging things on plates, etc) and throwing his diaper away. Although I would really love for him to be able to help me once baby comes - my hope and prayer is that this will cultivate in him a servant-heart character and that he would grow to find joy in helping and serving others.

A few weeks ago, we attended one of the most fun birthday parties ever! Our friend C turned 1 and we had a blast celebrating her at MyGym! Asher was so happy! Esp because daddy was able to come!

 

This past week, Asher got his first haircut!

His hair is really, really thin but was becoming kinda long and a little bit cray. I wanted to cut it myself but was so scared so we decided to take him in - at least for his first cut! Overall he did really well. The kid before us cried like crazy and traumatized him a little bit - but overall he did great!

 

With summer in full swing, we have been enjoying fun days with friends! We have been doing a lot of pool time, water play with water tables, park days and just being outdoors to run around! Though I would totally prefer to just stay inside with the AC on full blast (being preggo during the summer time is not the cutest..), having an active, stir-crazy toddler with me all the time forces me outdoors almost every day. Even though it is sometimes kinda-miserably hot and sweaty  - it brings me so much joy seeing him have so much fun in the sun with his buddies. So thankful for friends and for summer!

I have a few posts in the works: Asher at 19 months, a letter to baby girl and some related to this pregnancy (I've literally written nothing about it so far - oops!) so hoping to get it out sometime soon. Until then...

 

xoxo