The Asher Chronicles: January 2014

Dear Asher,

Your are THREE! We have been really hyping up this birthday thing so when you opened up your gorgeous little eyes and said, “Mama I three now”, I had no choice but to tell you that you were right. You are so aware about so many things and you totally understand that you are no longer two in all ways that one can grasp that he or she is another year older. Per our conversations, you took your bottle and threw it in the garbage and said, “No more baba Mama. I three now”. When we brought your sister to school, you started to take off your boots because “I three now Mama. I go to school.” After convincing you to wait a little longer on the school front, once in the car, I reminded you that THREE would bring you pooing in the potty, but you gave me the usual evasive answer “Let’s talk about it later”. So yeah…we’re still working on that one. As of tonight, Dad can officially put you to sleep no problem which is awesomely great and a little (okay a lot) sad at the same time. That was the last “I NEED Mama” thing and I’m working on processing that without tears. Mine not yours.

Every year, it is harder and harder for me to describe the little human that you are right now. You are so EVERYTHING that is just hard to describe you without feeling like I’m failing at the description. Let’s get your freakishly large vocabulary out of the way first. You talk like you are five. You speak in full sentences using the proper pronoun for yourself. You get who and what mixed up and a few other things that I can’t remember at the moment. But other than that, I have full blown conversations with you all day long and you NEVER stop talking. You pick up phrases (like “Let’s talk about it later” and recently “That’s not cool dude”) and use them exactly how they should be used. You ask TONS of questions. At least 50 questions a day. You want to know the who, what, where, why, and sometimes how of EVERYTHING. It is amazing really. Add your tallness to the equation, and NO ONE believes me when I tell them you are only three.

You have an amazing imagination and you just pretend all day long. Whether it is acting out long scenarios with your little guys or pretending with your sister, the level of detail to your games is fascinating to watch and be a part of. You are currently pretty obsessed with Eagle Talon Castle (and your birthday addition of Wizard’s Castle), Lego Starwars, swords, blasters, and anything dragon or knight.

You love anything with a screen (not as much as your sister though. You can’t stay still as long as she can) and equally love books as much. I’m very fortunate to have two kids that will sit down and let me read 10-15 books at a time to them. Aria has started to read books to you and it is the cutest thing ever.

That brings me to Aria. And it gets a little harder to write without tears. There is nothing in my life that brings me more joy then watching you and your sister play and laugh. You two ask for each other as soon as you get up and you just love her so much. You want to be wherever she is and doing whatever she is doing (which leads to a decent amount of fighting I assure you). Every day, we wait out in the hallway at school for her to come out and as soon as you see her, you run to her and hug her. She smiles and squeezes you back. It is one of my favorite moments of the day. As soon as we get in the car, the laughter starts. You make Aria laugh more than me and Dad combined and you do it effortlessly. Trust me, we have to work at it. You are legit such a funny kid. One out of a million examples: I was running the bath water and made you go pee. After going pee, you jumped down and ran into the other room screaming, “ARIA!” Once you found her, you said, “Aria, look at my baby butt!” shaking your little butt her direction and she thought that was HILARIOUS. Like couldn’t breathe funny. You bring out this silliness in Aria that no one else can and it is one of my favorite things about you. And she loves you just as much…although you are kind of her minion right now playing what she wants to play and such.

Other than being gorgeous and funny, you are so snuggly and huggy and just sweet. You tell people that you love them without any prompting and are always asking about Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Jacob and Aunt Colleen. Whatever “the lesson” is that day, you always ask about them. If we are doing colors and I ask you your favorite color, you tell me and then proceed to ask EVERYONE’s favorite color. You are very aware that you have a family that extends beyond the three people you see every day and I love that. There are so many times a day where you randomly run towards me and SQUEEZE me (saying SQUEEZE the whole time in your adorable baby voice) and say “I love a you” and I just melt every single time. You want “huggys” all the time still and have to sit ON me playing with my hair whenever we are watching a movie.

You are just JOY. You are so happy and silly and just plain ridiculous all the time. You randomly dance and sing in stores. And say Hi to strangers. You know all the words to Jingle Bells and made up a whole Star Wars song. You are so intelligent and know things that no three year old I’ve ever watched before knows. You play games on the tablet that are for 5 year olds and were totally pee potty trained months ago.

AND all of that doesn't even begin to describe how special and perfect you are. I love you so much that it physically hurts when I think about it and so much of the joy in my life is because of you. You are the person that lightens the mood when you walk into a room and everyone is always happy to see.

I Love you more than words could ever describe. I can’t wait to see what you do at THREE! Big things are coming this year!

Mama

Hey buddy aka little dude:

It's difficult to believe you're already three year old but, in some way, it's not hard at all. Our family (mom, grandma, grandpa, and the rest) will go on and on about how well you speak and act like a kid who is much older than his age. While I do find all of this wonderful and fascinating - your ability sing songs and entertain everyone (especially your sister), pick out your favorite characters and play hundreds of different games with them (we now play "Lego" Star Wars where we ARE the Lego guys), and most of all the fact that your favorite thing to do is smile and laugh - it is what I see in your days to come that truly makes me happy.

The first thing that I've started seeing you do will probably end up being a bit of a double-edged sword (you do like swords, so you get bonus points for that in my book). You're already starting to outsmart people and find loopholes in the rules. Your mother and I have been trying to get you potty trained with one more hurdle in the way. We've offered you ever kind of incentive known to human kind: action figures, sweets, I think mom even offered up my PS3. For now, you're just content looking at the prizes (Star Wars guys...mint in box) rather than actually getting them. So, we had to remove the prize of you gazing longingly at the prize until you cross this hurdle. And did you do it? Nope. I came home from work one day and your grandmother tells me: "Asher told me he could look at his prize if he sat on the potty. He didn't do anything. He just sat there looking at the toy, happy as can be". You just did an end-runaround your mother and me and got the prize from grandma. If that wasn't enough, you approached your mother and me asking for chocolate candy. We said no and made some excuse about needing to eat your dinner first. You said, "I'm hungry. I want chips." And as diligent parents, ones who won't let their son starve while dinner is cooking, we reached for said chips. And, hand in mid air, you thinking you have the green light to get what you want, you say, "Yeah...chocolate chips!" And then you just ran away giggling.

Its stories like this that make me confident you'll be able to overcome the obstacles that are inevitably coming your way. You're not going to be the type of person that get handed lemons and is able to make lemonade. Instead, you are going to return the lemons, get your money back, and use it to buy the action figure we won't give you. I know it will eventually be my job as your dad to teach you that "with great power come great responsibility" and all they jazz. But, for now, I just want to see you happy with what you have and the power you have over the rest of us. Besides, I'm sure Yoda, Gandolf, Superman, and Optimus Prime can teach you everything you need to know about leading a noble life. Win Win for dad!

The only other thing I want you to do, that I've seen you start doing already, is be the best friend and little brother to your big sister. These days, the two of your can be inseparable. You follow Aria around, willing to obey her cleverly hidden little orders, play games with her, and be the comic relief of your duo. She loves to (try to) keep you out of trouble and, in return, you give her one of the greatest gifts of all: laughter. I can walk into the room, even after you've been playing Aria's games for a while, and she is laughing to the point where she cannot stand any more. It makes me happy that you two are growing this bond and finding your roles in each other's lives at such a young age. I don't ever want to see you stop being Aria's funny little brother.

So, with two year old Asher behind us, and many new and wonderful new Ashers yet to come: Happy Birthday.

Love Dad!