About a month ago, Sean brought out a little bag of m&m's. Of course Asher was intrigued and wanted some. Instead of simply giving them to Asher, Sean had him try out the few "tricks" he has acquired :)
(Every time our friend Tom comes over, Asher does the crazy laugh, because Tom was the main teacher of that one :) Even at church when we see Tom, Asher will do his crazy laugh...we need to work on that one, hahaha)
After getting him do do the basic things, Sean started on animal sounds. And he knew them, much to our surprise! The only sound he had made up to his point was a dog barking. Who knew he knew so many other sounds and that a little chocolate could bring them out! It was great! Stick it everyone who says you shouldn't bribe your children!
He could make the sounds for these animals:
Dog, Cat, Cow, Sheep, Tiger, Bear, Lion.
And our favorite that he does, the horse. He sounds like the real thing! Amazing! Proud mama here ;)
He tries the pig sound - he knows it involves snorting, but the first time he really tried to snort, he said "ouch" afterwards. He hasn't tried that often to perfect it - but he will always point to the pig in books when he's reading with daddy. When daddy does the pig he does this weird warthog rooting thing where he holds Asher down and snorts and nibbles him - Asher loves it :)
For the alligator, we use our hands to chomp on his belly, and he mimics that. Pretty cute. He also tries to do the elephant and the monkey, but is still working on it.
Since that day with the m&m's he now has down the snake "ssss", the lizard - sticks out tongue, and another of our favorites, the seal. He does a really good seal - It's awesome!
Along with animal sounds, his actual vocabulary has increased sooo much. At 20 months, it all started happening, and now at 21 months, this is what he has:
All Done, Hot, Hi, Dada, Trash (Apparently, we like to keep things clean here, I don't get it ;)). Then on Mother's day, Asher and Sean brought me breakfast in bed. When Sean went to sit down on the bed, Asher turned to him, put out his arm to stop him and said very clearly, "No!" And that was the first time he said no. Happy Mother's Day to me! :) He will occasionally say Mama, usually when he's crying or whining, but we will take it!
Another surprise phrase was when Sean was playing with him and rough housing a bit. All of a sudden, Asher says with a very serious face, "Don't Bite" hahaha. You tell him, Asher!!
Also, a very clear word he says all the time now is "Buh Bye". Very cute.
Since then, here are some other words that he says:
Rock (he's a little obsessed with them now and living in a developing country gives him ample opportunity to use his vocabulary), Moon (one day he looked up in the sky, saw the moon and said, "Moon". I didn't even know we went over that one a lot), Cheese, Ball, Shoes, Eyes, Bite
Up, Ouch, Bath, Boat, Bubble.
And of course, since we are in the Balkans, he knows and says all the time, "Hopa!" I love it!
His newest favorite is "Bee." Every bug, or dot on the wall is "Bee." And yesterday he stepped on and was stung by one of those stupid bees (a real one, not an ant or a spot on the wall or something) :( Fortunately, we now know he is not allergic to bees. Phew!
Other than talking, Asher's just been enjoying the summer. He loves pushing big play cars around and playing with his collection of trucks and cars. He hums the ABCs/Twinkle Twinkle all the time. One of my favorite things that he does is that he will go sit in the rocking chair in his room and hum little songs, like his mommy does with him. Very sweet, very cute.
A special moment happened the other day. Our friends returned to Albania last week after having a baby. I was holding the baby out in front of their house and Asher was running around and playing with the other kids. He all of a sudden stopped, looked over at my holding the baby, and then ran into their house. Coming out of the house with a stuffed Kung Fu panda animal, he sat down next to me and held the panda like a baby and started patting him and rocking him a bit. It was so sweet, and definitely caused my eyes to water. What a loving little boy we have :)
He is great at the puzzles we have and he just loves running around. He loves "playing" with the big kids, and does so well with them. We are trying to teach him about sharing... he's a great sharer of other people's food, but not a good sharer of toys :) Most of the kids he takes things from are pretty chill about it, but when they try to do the same to him or if they are playing with a toy he wants, bring on the tantrum! We are working on it :)
Last week he was sick with what we believe was the Hand, Foot and Mouth virus. This is the first time he's ever really been sick and it had us first-time parents rather nervous. I can just sense all of you old hands smirking out there... It was very sad, and we had a couple of very long nights. But now he's back to his happy self. Yay!
Now time to play catch up. I have some pictures and videos of Asher over the last few months that I've been wanting to post, but never got around to it. So here they are:
Sweet Little Asher
He likes his hats!
Learning from Mommy :)
I heard Asher talking in the kitchen. When I walked in, this is what I found :)
Just getting some calls made, Mom!
Here's Asher doing what he sees, and is helping vacuum :)
Asher in Funny Positions...
I couldn't find Asher, and then I heard something coming from the laundry room :)
He was so proud of himself!!
Looking good, Monkey!
Here's a video of Asher's sweet dance moves :)
Asher and his Daddy
Awwww, so sweet.
Funny Faces
Happy Faces :)
My Boys!
He loves the outdoors! Especially rocks :)
Quit taking pictures mom!
I love him so much!
Playing with his friends
Love his blue eyes, though they are starting to change colors a little.
Let the temper tantrums begin! He doesn't have too many temper tantrums anymore, but when we were outside on this day, and I had the camera, I couldn't resist catching the moment!
He loves jumping, so of course he LOVES the trampoline! And he is insanely coordinated on it - he gets some serious air.
Asher loves to play the flying game with his mommy.
Getting into trouble with his birthday buddy :)
There is a "Chuck E Cheese" type place that we go to on rainy days. He really enjoys playing in the ball pit.
Asher playing with a "new" toy (we pulled it out of the garage, we had tried it out a year ago, but it didn't hold that much interest at the time)
And ten minutes later, the toy broke :)
Our sweet little boys. So cute!
One day, Asher wanted to swing in the baby swing. Unfortunately for him, and us, it was already occupied, and Asher was not happy. So this was our solution :)
It worked out pretty well!
Enjoying the playground.
And some silly shots to end this post :) We love you little man. You bring so much joy and happiness into our lives!
