I have never been a believer in the terrible twos

I find one year olds to be, in general, exhausting.  Cute, but exhausting.  Two year olds, on the other hand, have their moments of pure frustration but I find to be more generally pleasant, understandable, and cute as all get out.  

And that, in a nutshell, is my now two year old Asher.  

Two year old birthday parties are awesome.  They are old enough to be excited about everything but not so old that they notice the lack of planning, decor, celebrating on their actual birthday, etc.

Asher was pleased as punch with his birthday dinner of hotdogs and happy dew (aka canteloupe, honeydew, or any melon).  He somehow managed to eat two hotdogs in buns and another cut up version.  That is some huge eating for this little guy.

Must be taking after his dad...

We potty trained Asher just a few weeks before his birthday and it went surprisingly well.  I threw him a "potty party" like I did for Scarlet and he did amazingly.  Of his six pees that day, five of them were in the potty.  I was so excited, until the next day when the ratio was more like 5 pees on the ground to one on the toilet.  The week was much longer than expected, mostly because I couldn't just stay home all day and keep working with him.  Potty training on the go is always a whole lotta crazy that inevitably ends with a kid peeing in the middle of the post office.  (p.s why is it okay that banks and post offices don't have public bathrooms?!  If you ask me they are just asking to clean up two year old pee)

He is now an underwear sporting guy and does a pretty darn good job of it.  We have our moments but they are getting fewer and farther between.  It is nice to think I will only have to buy diapers for one child this fall!

Asher received some fun toys for his birthday.  We do plan on continuing our "experiences instead of gifts" birthdays but I don't really think there are a lot of big life remembering experiences you can share with a two year old.  So he got some toys.  He got a significantly sized set of color wonder markers, finger paints and book from me.  It has truly been wonderful for my sanity, and my walls.

He also got some fun bath toys and a set of knight armor for himself and his brother.  It would be cruel to just arm Asher in a battle since he is usually the one delivering the deadly blows.  Rhode needs the shield more than anyone.

The favorite toy of the day was the new water table from Grammy Peggy.

More recently he has found the drain and he finds emptying the table almost as fun as playing with it, so keeping it water ready has been a challenge.  That and getting him not to use it as a foot spa.

 

The homemade Ding Dong cupcakes were a big hit with the family.  Sadly, none of my kids knew what a Ding Dong was.  I was really torn between proud of myself and ashamed of myself....

Then he got to open all of the cards from his aunts and uncles.  Aunt Kristy and Uncle Trevor came in a very close second this year with a transformer card and Cars stickers.  But there is nothing better to this kid right now than Power Rangers.  The pop up PR card from Brad and Jules is still being toted around the house.  He likes to bring the card to me and say, "Watch this, mom... suprise!" as he opens it and the power rangers pop out.

Asher is so funny right now.  He just talks to me all day and learns a new funny phrase every day.  He loves calling Rhode by his full name, loves sneaking any food he can reach out of the pantry, and loves doing things all by himself.  

This was one afternoon when he decided to help himself to some yogurt while lounging.

Asher has picked up a few of our radio songs lately and sings them around the house.  The most freqent are:

"Never, ever, ever!  Back togever"

and

"You are a tweasure, oh you are a tweasure"

and my favorite

"I don't care, I wuv it!"

Now that is getting close to the time where he won't be the baby of the family anymore, he just seems to be growing up at lightning speed.  He is going to be a hilarious, disastrous and amazingly sweet older brother.  I love you Asher!