Twelve Months

Asher is twelve months old! He is walking everywhere and getting into everything. He can eat almost anything, although often he refuses everything except for Cheerios and grapes. Over the past month he has mastered his sippy cup and gets a big kick out of carrying it around and drinking water. Sometime soon I am going to let him try real milk and over the next month or so I am hoping to get him drinking only real milk from his sippy cup. Asher is starting to talk more, he can say mama, dada, bye bye, hi and quack.

I can't believe how fast this first year has gone! Asher continues to grow and change so much everyday. He is so much fun now, he loves to play ball and to hit things. He is all boy.

Asher in Virginia - Week 9

These are pictures from our last four days in Virginia. We survived our second round of FPO and are getting everything ready to leave the country. I finished my project and have 60 pictures of Asher, one a day from the time we left Kentucky until we returned.

I'm still trying to decide if I should try to do a picture a day while we are in Vancouver. We will be there for 16 weeks and I can't decide if that might be a bit much. Any ideas?

Sunday was, of course, Asher's first birthday. Our friend Candy Nights* took some great pictures for us during the party, this one is my favorite.

*name changed to protect the secure

Monday Asher had to miss school because he was sick. We stayed in the quad all day long playing and starting to pack. As you can see Asher was ready to get home to Mimi's house.

Tuesday night after Asher's bath we got out the camera to mess around with the new lens and got some wonderful shots of his little toes. He may be getting big, but he still has sweet baby feet.

Wednesday morning we dropped off Asher at school for the last time. I was pretty sad that it was his last day, we have really loved his school. He walked right into his room and went straight to the toys.

Well, that's all of Asher's time in Virginia. We celebrated Asher's birthday for the second time today, this time with our families in Kentucky. I am working on a post with more birthday pictures and we still need to take Asher's last monthly photo. While you are waiting for that go check out Asher's favorite girlfriend, Maddie, and her sweet birthday message to Asher.

Asher's School

For the past 8.5 weeks Asher has been in daycare. At first we hated it, he hated it and there was a lot of crying every morning.

But after a few days that all changed. Asher no longer cried when we dropped him off and in the afternoons he didn't even seem to eager to come home with us. He learned to crawl at daycare and to say bye-bye. We are pretty sure that he also learned to blow kisses, quack like a duck and hold up his finger when he hears "This Little Light of Mine" while he was at daycare. Overall it has been a great experience for all us, but I am looking forward to having Asher back at home with me.

These are Asher's teachers. They are very patient and have a very tough job, every 3 months they get in a fresh set of babies to work with. Most of the babies they take care of have never been in daycare, but they do a wonderful job playing and loving on all of them.

Everyday at school all of the babies load up in a big 6 baby stroller and go for a walk. After that is nap time, and from what I have heard Asher is usually the reason everybody else wakes up early. He talks so much he can't go to sleep and then he is so excited to get back to playing he wakes up early to talk some more. In the afternoons they play outside and take another nap before it's time to go home.

We are definitely going to miss Ms. Ealier, Mrs. Carolyn and everything about CERC when we leave!

Asher in Virginia - Week 8

This is a recap of our last full week in Virginia. This week we will be heading back to Kentucky to spend some time with our families before heading off to our Canadian Winter Time Adventure.

Oops! Sunday I completely forgot to take a picture of Asher, so I went into his room after he went to sleep and snapped a quick photo. He is wearing his Christmas monkey pajamas and holding on tight to his froggy blanket.

Monday we spent the day in Washington, DC with all 400 of our buddies that are here for training. As you can see Asher was not too impressed with all of the historical sights.

Tuesday afternoon we noticed that Asher's one, solitary curl was looking particularly cute, so we took a picture of it.

Oops, again! Wednesday I forgot again to take a picture of Asher, so I had to go into his room again after he was asleep. This time he is sporting his striped car pajamas and I'm not sure where his froggy blanket is.

Thursday Asher got a package in the mail from Mimi. I opened the envelope for him and he pulled out some new clothes. He spent the rest of the night carrying around the envelope trying to give it to everybody that he saw.

Roger got a new lens for his camera and on Friday we tested it out on our favorite subject. I think Asher's eyes look amazing in this shot without any editing.

Saturday afternoon we went to the playground behind Asher's school to let him swing and play with all of the toys. He had fun going down the slide, but soon discovered that it was even more fun to climb up it!

Don't worry, more birthday pictures are coming soon.

Asher's First Birthday

Here's a sneak peek of Asher's First Birthday. We celebrated with our friends here in Virginia, ate some cake, drank some Capri Suns and played with some balloons.

One Year Later

Ten thousand miles and twelve months ago these three kiddos met for the first time.

Now, a year later and on this side of the planet they met back up for some more fun.

Asher's Prayer Card

This Day in History

One year ago today we were in the midst of Asher Watch, in fact we were on Day 7. Click here to step back in time and read about what life was like before Asher made his (really, really late) appearance.

Two years ago around this time we were in the midst of life before baby. Click here to step even farther back in time.

Asher in Virginia - Week 7

Another post full of pictures, just what the Mimi and Granny ordered.

Sunday night was Cultural Worship night just like always. This week was Korean worship and we were asked to wear our Sunday best. Since we are attending a House Church these days we don't get to dress Asher up too often (my Momma friend Brittney wrote about the same thing on her blog recently). We took full advantage of the dress up occasion and had Asher dressed to impress. This was also the first night he walked in his new shoes, we thought they would slow him down, but he was still walking like a champ.

Monday night was free sandwich at Chic-fil-a night. All we had to do was wear a team shirt and we could get a free sandwich. Roger was wearing a Louisville Cardinals shirt, I was wearing an Indonesia soccer shirt and Asher borrowed a Notre Dame football shirt. Just in case you were wondering, Asher did get a free sandwich and he did eat most of the chicken.

Tuesday night at bedtime Asher escaped while we were trying to get his pajamas on him and spent a few minutes walking around without his clothes (or diaper) on.

Wednesday night Roger and I went out for a date night and Asher spent some time with the Powell boys. He had a lot of fun playing with them and listening to Jackson play guitar. We heard that Jackson even wrote a song about Asher.

Thursday night Asher and I went out to the football/soccer/frisbee field to watch Roger play Ultimate frisbee. We went after Asher had a bath and was in his pajamas.

Friday was a little chilly and Asher's jacket was dirty so I had him wear his button down shirt to keep him warm. His teachers at school told him he looked like a rock star (we definitely agree).

Saturday afternoon we were walking through campus when we ran into Asher's girlfriend, Eden. We decided it was the perfect time to get some pictures of the little lovebirds. Aren't they cute together?

Asher in Virginia - Week 6

Asher's week in photos is late this week, but definitely worth the wait.

Sunday afternoon Asher was helping us with laundry, he loves to get into the laundry basket (and the drier and the toilet and anything else he can reach).

Monday morning Asher found a handsome boy looking at him in the mirror...and he decided to give that boy a big kiss! Every morning Asher spends a good amount of time checking himself out in the mirror, making sure he looks good before school.

Tuesday we picked Asher up early from school and went to the playground. Usually Asher just hangs out in the swings, but today we let him loose on the big kid playground. He showed off by climbing up to the very top to play with the wheel.

Wednesday afternoon after school Asher was showing off his walking skills in the quad. He got tired of walking, so he went back to crawling and soon ended up under a chair.

Thursday night Asher needed a bath and after we got him all clean we wrapped him up and took some pictures of that super cute baby in the mirror.

Friday evening Roger and I had to go out for a few hours and these wonderful friends watched Asher for us. Although he looks unhappy in the picture they told us he had a good time.

After a long, tiring week at school Asher was ready to get some sleep on Saturday afternoon. He took some good long naps this weekend and got himself ready for another busy week.

Asher Against Global Warming

On our most recent Saturday Adventure we packed up the car and headed to our nation's capital. While Roger and I were just there to see the sights, Asher went with a clear objective: to protest global warming on the national stage. Roger made sure to document his protests.

Asher headed to Capital Hill to launch his protest and get his message out there.

Warm is not Cool!

Later in the day he headed over to the White House to try and meet Barack Obama and communicate his message to the highest power in the land.

No luck on getting into the White House, but that did not deter Asher.

He took his protest to the street in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

After a nap and some Cheerio's our little protester finally ran into his fellow Anak Indonesia, Barack Obama. Asher's a little blurry in the picture because he kept trying to walk away, Mr. and Mrs. President were a little scary in person.

Now all of you tree-hugging Environmentalists can sleep a little better tonight because Asher is Against Global Warming and thanks to Baby Gap he was able to take his message to the top!