Monkey see, monkey do

The hinge on our oven door broke, and due to the timing of the holidays and a miscommunication with getting the part ordered, this has been our solution to keeping the oven door shut.


Clearly, this has gone on too long. The other morning we noticed the newest addition to Asher's kitchen.


And to add to our holiday cheer, our dishwasher also broke. At least it had the good grace to wait until AFTER our holiday guests had departed.

I hate to admit it, but right now we kind of miss apartment living.

First Movie Night

Observations on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

1) It is a lot longer than I remembered

2) If you are 2, there are some scary parts

We didn't get through the whole thing, only the first hour and a half, and then it was time for bed. I'm starting to wonder if the second part will be too scary for him. He was pretty alarmed when the car went over the cliff (not helped by the fact that it then cuts to a black "intermission" screen).

Snow Day

All is calm...

Don’t they look precious?

Unfortunately we spent the 5 minutes they were actually sitting peacefully at the table to take pictures to commemorate the moment. By the time we sat down to eat, they were up and running circles. Ah well, at least we have proof of those 5 minutes.

Christmas, A Very Confusing Holiday

As a one-year old, Asher loved this ornament that my mom gave us. He kept pushing the button over and over to hear the song, "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas".

This year, as a two year old, he has an even a deeper fascination.

First there is trying to figure out what is going on visually.

"What she doing?" (everyone is a she, he hasn't figured out male pronouns yet)

And then there's figuring out the words to the song.

"She no want a doll? Want a hippopotamus?"

I think we spent well over an hour discussing it when I first brought it out.

And then he would just sprinkle references to it randomly throughout the day.

"She no want a doll. She want a hippopotamus." "Hippopotamus TOO BIG! No fit."

Apparently Christmas can inspire some pretty deep questioning.

Santa's Lawnmower

If I had known we were going to see Santa I would have dressed Asher in a nicer outfit. Oh well.

When we got home Asher knowledgably told his dad that Santa was sitting on a lawnmower.

He was also adamant that he did smile for the photo when Deenesh asked.

Away in the Manger

Our manger has a new addition.

A blanket.

Asher insisted that the baby needed a blanket. It might not be as fancy as Asher's blue blanket, it seemed to appease Asher.

In placing the blanket, Asher was very insistent that the blanket should not cover the baby's face.

Which makes tonights sleeping Asher picture all the more humorous.

I'm not sure why, but I also find it amusing that it is 2 of the wise men charged with the task of looking over baby Jesus, while Mary confers with another wise man in the background, and Joseph lurks in the stable. I have already started coming up with stories to explain the arrangement...

A special announcement for our loyal blog readers

Since September we’ve been asking Asher if he wants a brother or a sister.

He’s been remarkably consistent. He has always said sister. More recently he will sometimes say, “sister” pause “brother” pause “both!”

But he is very consistent about the sister.

Of course, he doesn’t know yet the difference between a boy and a girl, or a brother and a sister. And if you ask him if he wants to be a brother or a sister, he will say sister.

But he must know something, because we found out today.

It's a girl.

Another bedtime story

Writing the last post about sleep reminded me of another story I never got around to telling...

When we moved back to the Red House, Asher loved the house,

(Asher's first look at the house)

but he did NOT like his room.

When we first showed it to him and said "Asher's room!" he took one look and simply said "no."

Needless to say this did not lead to peaceful bedtimes or nap times.

As a result, we would cave, and let him sleep on the couch.

Or the floor.

Or the floor after he rolled off the couch.

(Please note the two pillows and blankets that had been considerately placed on the floor just in case he fell off the couch)

Or the boat at Jamestown Settlement.

(Just kidding)

And yes, even the closet.

(Not kidding)

Really, we aren't bad parents for putting him in the closet. We were trying to convince him to go take a nap when he wanted to play hide-and-seek in the closet.

Out of desperation Deenesh asked him, "do you want to just sleep in the closet?"

And well, he did.

PS Since I'm a stickler for details I feel obliged to confess that Asher didn't do well sleeping in these alternate locations and these photos were the exceptions. Generally he just had to tough it out in his room. But the point is we were desperate enough to try.

PPS Except the closet. He did actually sleep pretty well in the closet.

Asleep in his bed

Is there anything more peaceful than a sleeping child?

I think it is the contrast between the tornado of activity that characterizes them when they are awake that makes their sleeping time seem so remarkabley peaceful.

Not that Asher is all that peaceful of a sleeper. As you can probably tell, Asher has inherited his father's tendency to move a lot when he sleeps. We'll frequently hear a loud bang in the middle night that is Asher crashing against the side of his bed as he changes position. Fortunately his new bed manages to contain him pretty well.

I also recently discovered that I can take photos of Asher after he falls asleep and the flash doesn't wake him up. Needless to say, I've been taking a lot more sleeping Asher photos lately.

Hmm...I just realized I've written on this topic before.

Where's the money?

Asher's friend Stella had her birthday party on Sunday, and Asher got to go and mingle with the older crowd (that's right, 5 and 6 year olds!)

There was a magician who transfixed the crowd of kids with amazing tricks with appearing and disappearing doves and rabbits, rope tricks, scarf tricks, card tricks - the whole shebang. He even made the birthday girl float! It was pretty great. Asher got called up and he found all sorts of money in Asher - in his ears, his hair, his sweater. He even helped Asher make money appear out of thin air!

Once we got home Deenesh turned Asher upside down and shook him to see if there was any more money hidden in there.

Stella was very sweet. At the end of the party when Asher went looking for her to say goodbye, she was hiding in the closet with 3 of her friends and dozens of others running around. Despite being in the midst of a game when Asher boldly approached the closet to declare "I need a hug!", Stella stepped right out and gave him a big hug.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Tonight, Asher helped me assemble our Manger.

He decided to put the baby Jesus at the very back of the Manger because the baby would "sleep better" there.

If you look closely, you'll notice all the people are gathered around the cow instead. Perhaps his Hindu ancestry is asserting itself.

I also considered titling this post "nobody puts baby in the corner"

Turning Point

Well, it only took 3 months, and I hesitate to mention it for fear of jinxing it, BUT it appears that Asher has finally started to adjust to his new daycare.

Really, who can blame him for having such a hard time? His daycare environment went from a warm loving home, with two adults and 2 other kids (with lots of other family members around on a regular basis), to a room with 2 teachers and 15 or more other kids.

Still, I didn't see it coming. Based on our visit where he played on the playground with the rest of the class while we finished the tour, and he marched in line when they came in, and showed no distress at all, and given his general laid back attitude and abundance of confidence, I just did not anticipate 3 months of sobbing every time we dropped him off. Or every morning him asking us "no go to school today?" and then the dread that would accompany an affirmative response.

Deenesh and I have always really liked his daycare. They do yoga, and learn Spanish and sign language. They have great facilities, and happy, positive, caring teachers. So it's a relief that Asher seems to be starting to agree with us.

We tried a lot of different tactics to help him adjust. We made up a special song about going to school. We would load up his special teddy bear with mommy and daddy kisses so he could get them whenever he wanted throughout the day. We spent time talking about how fun school is, and the fun things you do at school, and the people you get to spend time with. We gave him special school-only snacks for lunchtime (like go-gurt!)

Of course, the goat on the slide probably helped.

And I think the pony ride didn't hurt either.*

And I'm not going to question the fact that the big turning point seemed to happen the week that I was at a conference in San Francisco, because the fact of the matter is, I am just so relieved that for the last 3 weeks, we haven't left a sobbing toddler at daycare, but have left something like this instead.

*No, the school does not normally have goats are ponies in the playground. They had a special fall festival with animals and special crafts in each room, and I will admit that that seemed to be the start of him revising his opinion about school. But the real breakthrough did come when I was in San Francisco.

Fishie pajamas

It's funny what will stick in a 2-year old's head.

The other evening when it was time to get into his pajamas, Asher declared that he wanted to wear the fishie pajamas. That is, mommy's fishie pajamas.

So we pulled them out. And rolled them up, and up, and up. And cinched them as tight as possible.

Despite our best efforts, they proved to be too cumbersome and he decided to trade them in for the more practical helicopter pajamas.

Happy Hanukkah

When he saw the candles for the menorah Asher started singing Happy Birthday.

Which wasn’t too bad since it is also his cousin Alex’s birthday.

It did take a fair bit of convincing that unlike birthday candles you do not blow out the candles on the menorah.

And he wasn’t all that in to wishing people a “Happy Hanukkah”. He settled instead of “Happy Birthday for Hanukkah”.

Nana came over for the lighting of the candles and also gave Asher some very cool stackable people that his mom and dad loved playing with and that he loved knocking down. We also skyped with Bubbe, Ravi, Alex and Jordan; and Asher belted out his rendition of "Dreidel" - which is mainly just repeating the word over and over again. Asher drank apple cider “with” Bubbe and they “cheered” through the computer. We all got to sing Happy Birthday to Alex and Asher had a great time helping her blow out her re-lighting candles.

“It’s a new bed!” – Asher exploring his Hanukkah present – wrapped up in a blanket.

Not to worry, he got it figured out.

Links to Hanukkah past

2009 1 and 2

2008

Hair Donation

Ten inches of hair for donation!
After looking into different organizations I chose to donate to Pantene Beautiful lengths because their wigs are made for cancer patients, as opposed to hair loss due to other ailments.

And I'm loving my new hairdo! Particularly how quick it is to take care of it.