HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIA!!!!

Here is your present from me.

I love you and miss you!!!

Mike

Guess Who

Yeah! Our little Asa turned one last week. We celebrated his birthday with mud/dirt dessert which he was delighted with and insisted on sharing with each of us.

Annabelle was a good sport, but wasn't about to let that slobbery worm into her mouth! After trying to shovel as much goodness into his mouth Asa discovered the worm and sucked on it for the next 15 minutes.

Asa has developed a funny little personality. Asa says "dada", "annya", "Ahh dun" (all done), "hi" and "hiya". His best form of communication is sign language. His favorite thing in the world is dogs. He stands at the window a few times a day and pants and barks hoping to see a dog even when he is looking in our own dog-less backyard.

Above is the barking face, the bark comes out "Whoo, whooo". Below is the more predominant dog sign, panting. Which is Asa's official name/sign for dogs.

Besides dogs he also loves to to watch for birds and indicates birds by flapping his arms. Earlier this week there was a fat gutter cat in our yard, which has peaked his interest in cats, which he signs by trying to trace whiskers on his face. Other favorite signs are smacking his lips for fish, 'ball', 'more' and 'all done'.

Mike found these little sandals. Asa has been trying to walk for about a month now, when he does walk he gets this big huge excited look on his face. The most steps I have seen consecutively was 23, but he still prefers to crawl most of the time.

His favorite foods are blackberries, yogurt, scrambled eggs, potatoes in any form and almost any snack food. He is 20 1/2 lbs and 31 inches tall. He gives wet kisses with his mouth wide open. When we are in public he waves at people and waits for them to wave back, even if they aren't looking at him. He blows raspberries on my belly. He likes to wrestle and tease. He still loves to pull Annabelle's hair, although he has gotten gentler lately. He'll bite me if he is really excited. He has eight teeth. A few times a day we find him in the pantry which is now called 'The Baby Man Cave" as he likes to bang things around, admire the vacuum and empty the recycling on the the floor. Oh yeah, he loves the vacuum, garbage truck and blender. He still loves to snuggle and often will lay on my chest like a newborn to fall asleep.

New toys are fun!

We love Asa and can't get enough of his silliness. He is a real rascal and fun to be around.

Happy Birthday Asa!

March in a Minute

Yes, I realize that it is, uh, May. But for my sake I'd like to do a little catching up. It seems to be the theme for my blogging thus far this year. March is one of the most beautiful months in Arizona. I love the sunny warm (or as many here refer to it as, cool) weather. Great for hiking, play dates at the park, visiting the zoo and all of that.

Needless to say we spent a lot of time outside. The citrus fruit is also in season, which means many friends are looking to dump their excess fruit. I love making homemade lemonade and I think we perfected it this year and added puree strawberries.

In March Asa sped up his crawling and mastered going up the stairs. I have a gate at the top of the stairs but can't bring myself to get one for the bottom . . . seriously, can you imagine, having a baby on one hip, an armful of something else and trying to negotiate a gate, climb the stairs, negotiate another gate and then have to do it all again on the way down? Safety First? How about 2nd? I do put an ottoman at the bottom of the stairs to block him when I can't keep and eye on him. Teething, drooling and waving made up most of Asa's month. Take a look at those teeth in there, this kid's smile cracks me up!

Annabelle enjoyed her first field trip in April. Her preschool class went to a fire station. She talked about it for weeks and initially didn't want me to go with her, but a few days before said it would be alright if I came along after all. I might have embarrassed her with all the picture taking . . . she survived. Since the field trip and Safety Week at school, she has been more focused on safety. She asks WHEN our house will burn down, she notices wether or not bike riders are wearing their helmets, if firemen will come to our house, if girls can be firemen, when she'll be old enough to bathe Asa without me . . . I'm glad she has taken over as safety officer for me. I have to admit issues of safety don't cross my mind as often as they do Anna's.

A highlight for us in March is celebrating Mike's birthday. I had to steal this picture off of our friend Tacy's blog as she managed to remember to take a picture! Tacy and Mike share a birthday, exactly. Well I don't know what time they were born, but I love them both and so we got together and celebrated. Oh, and they both love cheesecake, so it works out perfectly. Later in the week they packed up and moved to Utah. It was a fun night, but a bitter sweet farewell as we'll miss them, but I know they'll enjoy being closer to family.

Mike got a new macro lens for his birthday and has been a mad man macro photographer ever since. He usually shares his favorite shots with his fellow Sherwood photographers on the family photography site, if you want to see what Mike's world looks like in macro take a peek through the archives.

Other March happenings deserve a post all of their own. I think the time is up on 'March in a Minute' but I couldn't help but post this last picture of Asa - - with all the crawling and disinterest in eating as of late he doesn't have quite this much chub anymore. Oh yeah, and I think this is evidence that he'll get some curl to his hair.

Birthday Bliss

I feel like "The Birthday" this year was as exciting as any major holiday. We had soo much fun! In the morning we went to tumbling and play group. Both are a fairly new part of our schedule, Annabelle refers to her tumbling class as "my school, Annabelle's school" and further clarifies "not daddy's school". She loves it and I love that she is learning to follow structured play, turn taking, following directions, waiting in line and all of that.

Later our friend Sara took us out to lunch at the MOA cafe, it was so delicious. We couldn't park too close so Annabelle and Sara's son Benny had to walk quite a bit before we got there. For a while they were holding hands and Annabelle kept telling Benny (who has been 2 for 5 months now) "Benny I'm 2, I turned 2 Benny! Benny you're 2, you're 2 too!" She was so excited she just kept holding his hand and repeating herself. Benny didn't really seem to care, as soon as they reached the side walk he dropped her hand and announced "ALL DONE!"

Mike came home early from school and took the night off of work. After opening presents we went to the mall to play on "the big playground" and out to eat. We swung by to see some friends before having cake with Adam & Trudy.




It was so fun to spoil Annabelle a bit and to spend THE WHOLE evening with Mike! By the time cake was done Anna needed a bath - while she was playing with her toys in the tub she looked up and me and said "Mom, let's be friends". I have no idea where she learned the phrase but it was so sweet and funny. I laughed so hard. I think she was trying to ask me to play with her.

"The Birthday" was wonderful and I feel like we get to celebrate all over again next week with my Mom when my family comes out!

Happy Birthday Grandma