Asher Boy

Asher, Asher, Asher. He's a handful these days. He can be so sweet and so funny and he can be, well, a two year old. Two year olds seem to be quite dramatic.

He is potty-trained I suppose. I guess I should say that my definition of potty-trained is wearing underwear when he is awake. I have absolutely no interest in dealing with pee while he is asleep. After dreading the whole potty thing for a long time we finally took the plunge and it was pretty easy. I put him in underwear, gave him lots to drink and then he yelled POTTY! We went to the bathroom, he went potty and that was that. There were also M&M's and a stuffed bear in underwear involved in the process.

There have been a few accidents here and there. There have definitely been some fits about not wanting to actually have to go to the bathroom, but we are dealing with it. Most of the accidents happen at school and I'm not sure if that's because Asher is busy and doesn't remember or because Asher yells POTTY at a teacher that doesn't speak English.

At this point I really don't care if he sleeps in diapers until he goes to middle school or at least until it's not rainy season and I have a chance of getting sheets to dry quickly. We are really proud of him for catching on to the whole thing so quickly and we are constantly amazed at just how long he can hold it when he really needs to finish playing cars/watching a movie/eating/riding his bike.

Way to go Asher Boy!

Fridays

Fridays are Thai outfit day at Asher's school. The first week Asher didn't have an outfit, but some friends from church took care of us and made sure he had what he needed.

He wasn't too happy about the new outfit when he first put it on. He's finally gotten used to all of his other school clothes and didn't appreciate having another new thing forced on him.

Of course, he forgot about it soon enough and was just excited about going to school.

And finally, some Photoshop fun.

5 Months

Here's a rambling update and lots of pictures of Baby Jack at 5 months old.

Baby Jack is getting so big and chunky that his legs keep getting stuck in the Bumbo chair. I'm not sure how much he weighs now, but it's definitely more than he did a month ago.

He drools and likes to have something to chew on all the time. His hands are preferred, but he will sometimes chew on his toys if he can get them into his mouth.

We spend our afternoons studying Thai with Jay. She loves Jack and Jack seems to like her quite a bit, too. The rest of the day is spent playing and occasionally making the journey to pick up Asher from school. Wednesday's have become our special play date day with Baby Daniel. Jack and Daniel love to look at each other and giggle.

This month we started using cloth diapers at night. I didn't think they could last the whole night, but they actually do better than the disposables. During the day I try to use the cloth as much as I can. I think I need a few more diapers so that I can not run out of clean diapers while washing the dirty ones.

Jack can roll over when he really wants to get something and he is getting closer to being able to sit up on his own. He is pushing up higher and higher when he's on his belly and he tries to grab and bat at everything near him.

Still no teeth and no solid food, but I'm really not in a hurry for either. I'm pretty satisfied with Jack staying little and low maintenance for a while longer.

He is sleeping better than he was a few weeks ago. At night he always sleeps good and he usually will take at least one long nap and a few shorter naps each day. I keep trying to get him on a schedule, but things are always changing and it's been hard to be consistent with his nap times. I did try to take him out of the swaddle blanket recently. After a few nights of him waking up a lot we decided he wasn't quite ready to sleep with his arms free.

Jack's favorite things are getting tickled by Daddy and being near Asher. He is always giggling when he is around those two.

School Days

The new term started last week and we sent Asher off to school again. He was so excited to get to go back and see his teachers.

The first day of school he wore his regular school uniform.

The second day of school was a sports day, so he wore his sports uniform.

His school logo is picture of Jesus with some children, so Asher refers to his sports shirt as his Jay-sus shirt and his backpack as his Jay-sus packpack. He has somehow picked up this strange accent, it's like he's an old southern preacher/rapper. Throw in the tonal sounds of Thai and he has some pretty unique ways of saying words.

Asher says....paints. Asher means...pants.

Asher says...heeer. Asher means...hair.

Asher says...Jay-sus. Asher means...Jesus.

Asher says...turn it on. Asher means...Tylenol.

Asher says...buur. Asher means...bear.

Asher says...hainds. Asher means...hands.

Anyway, he's doing good at school. When Roger picked him up he pointed out some of his friends and told us he ate noodles and chocolate. Actually he tells us that everyday, but I don't really believe him. I think they eat rice, too.

On the potty training front, Asher has been doing pretty good while ate school. I think he's only had one accident at school and I'm not sure if it was a language problem or just an accident. I tried to teach him some Thai words about going to the bathroom, but he made it pretty clear that I was not allowed to try and speak Thai with him.

Because we're brothers. And we sorta like each other.

It's fun to watch Asher and Jack start to act more like brothers. Jack smiles and giggles every time he sees Asher. Asher must know where Jack is and what he is doing every second of the day. Of course, the other side of being brothers is the fighting over toys. Anytime Jack can get close enough he grabs whatever Asher is playing with and sticks it in his mouth. This, of course, irritates Asher to no end.

I guess Asher finally got tired of Jack taking cars from him and decided that Jack just needed to start playing. He asked me to put Jack on the bed and he went and got two trucks and started telling Jack exactly what to do.

Asher drive big truck and Baby Gack drive dis truck.

No Gack, no drive dat way. Drive dis way.

Jack already thinks Asher is the greatest thing ever. Asher also thinks Asher is the greatest thing ever.

The other night we stuck Jack in bed with Asher after bath time. Asher was afraid Jack was going to snatch his blanket and dog. He had good reason to be worried, Jack grabs that stuff anytime it's near him.

Little Brother

It seems like the Little Brother is starting to get a little bigger.

January

May

Fun at a Park and Other News

Last Saturday night we went to a new park on the other side of the city. After a train ride and a long, hot walk we finally found it. Jack rode in the baby carrier and Asher rode in the stroller. When we got to the park I took Jack out of the carrier and had to walk around with a sweaty imprint of him on my shirt. If you look carefully you can see it in the picture.

The reason we went all the way to this park was to rent a bicycle. Roger and Asher got a bike and had a blast riding around. I think in the picture Asher was yelling "Go Daddy go!" in a not so patient voice.

While they were enjoying their bike ride Jack and I strolled around, ate some fruit and sat on a bench by the pond.

In other news, school starts next week. Asher finished up his summer school term and has been enjoying a nice break at home with me and Baby Gack. Asher loves his school, loves his teacher and loves eating.

We now have Asher's uniforms (with his name sewn on the front) and we have his black school shoes, still need to get white shoes for sports day and socks. Next Wednesday Asher will join millions of other Thai school children on the first day of Term 1, Year 2554 (Thailand even has it's own years).

In even more news, Asher is potty trained. He's such a perfectionist. He refused and refused and refused the past few months and then all the sudden he was like, okay, got it. And that was that. It was very typically Asher.

And in Jack news, well, nothing new to report. He's still chunky and sweet and he has really big eyes.

Show Us Your Life - Favorite Vacation Spots

This week's Show Us Your Life topic at Kelly's Korner is favorite vacation spots. We love vacation and we love Bali, I thought it was the perfect time to reminisce about some of our past trips.

We have taken several trips to our favorite vacation spot, Bali! We used to live a short (30 minute) flight from there. Here are some the links that tell about our trips.

Our first trip to Bali was to attend some work meetings and celebrate our 2nd anniversary. We stayed in a hotel in Nusa Dua.

Part 1

Part 2

Vacation

Our second trip was a long anticipated vacation that took place the day after we found out we were expecting our first child. We stayed in a villa in Seminyak.

Family Trip

Our third trip to Bali was when my mom and brother were visiting and I was about 27 weeks pregnant. We stayed in a different villa in Seminyak.

And our last trip was when our baby boy was just 6 weeks old. We went with some friends and stayed in a villa in Seminyak.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Now that we live in Bangkok we are a little further from Bali, but we are hoping to take a nice family vacation there sometime in the next year.

Easter Pictures

Easter pictures! And only a week late!

Asher and Jack before church in their Easter outfits. Thanks Mimi!

The annual family Easter picture. This year's actually turned out pretty good compared to some from the past (see 2010, 2009, 2008).

Later that afternoon the boys all sat down together for a picture. Thanks to Photoshop I was able to put together two different pictures so it appears that Asher and Roger were both smiling at the same time. Baby Jack was just in his own little world.

Asher was being sweet to Baby Jack.

We finally got Jack to look at the camera. Actually, I think I finally moved the camera to where Jack was looking.

Daddy and Asher after a rather intense round of Run and Kick the Ball.