Aston's 31 Month Milestone Minutes

Aston Turned 31 months today...and I am finally doing an update on the actual day I'm supposed to!

A Few New Aston Phrases and Funnies:

• Lately, when Jeff and I have grown-up talk in front of Aston, he will pipe up and say "What you guys talking about" (expressive hand gestures and all). We will tell him a little bit and he will come back and say "oh...otay otay" as if he comprehends...
• I will say "bless you baby" after he sneezes and he will say "not bless you baby...bless you big boy mommy...know dat?" "Know dat" is his way of trying to convince us he is right and we are wrong...says this many times daily
• Aston was watching the Super Bowl (Colts vs Saints) and he saw the first down marker held by the ref. He said "why dat man holding a Target sign?"
• Many many of the "Aston-isms" come from Backyardigans (his all time favorite TV show)...he often twists and turns lines from the show to make them his own. For instance, he will stand on his chair in the middle of the room and shout "Ahoy There...Ahoy There...it's Aston...Ahoy There" (from the Castaways episode btw).
• I often watch him on his potty in his room on the monitor after nap. This is his known "poop time" too. Often he reads or just cuddles with "puppy" as he sits there. The other day Jeff heard him calling for me and ran up to see what was the matter. Aston said "I went poop poop, yoook Daddy it's a worman" (in case you aren't a Backyardigans fan, wormans are these big yellow worm/snake things that show up in many of the episodes). Jeff insisted on a visual hence the photo of the wormans in his book, so gross.
• His little whipper snapper sayings these days are things like..."Sure thing", "Sure will", "That sure is", "Seriously?", "Better believe it!"
• We were in the car going to Tin Tin (our favorite family buffet...ha!...better believe it!) and I was telling Pop Pop the story of how our car was damaged by the car wash. Apparently I was taking too long to get the story out or at least the punch line so Aston says in a low tone bored sounding voice "Mommy...so what happened..." ha! good one boo
• The very last thing that happens after our lengthy routine of putting Aston to sleep is Aston will ask "Mommy where you going?" as I am closing the door. I will start to say "I'm...." and he will yell "OK DOWNSTAIRS"...since that's what I tell him every time. He finds this very funny...and laughs at himself all proud like.
• Lately I've been lying in bed with him "talking" as part of the tucking in process. 2 nights ago he randomly said "Mommy, I loved you the first time I ever sawed you"...oh geez...

Rascal Traits:

• He is still way in to the whole "No, Mommy do it" or "Daddy do it" when other people try to help him with something. I no longer think this is to assert his independence but rather to push buttons...mine that is
• Going through the normal 2 year old terribles I guess but I tell ya...I am at my wits end. He pushes everything...the limits, his sister, his friends at school, random kids and of course my buttons. We are most distressed about the pushing at school and random kids he doesn't even know. He has been getting lots of reports from his teachers (if I'm lucky enough to get either of them at pick up) that he (along with others...but of course I'm focused on the "he") has been pushing and hitting many of his classmates. It is no longer isolated to Kate Kate. Today I took Backyardigans viewing privileges away temporarily and told him every time he gets a timeout at school I will take his Backyardigans away. I have been ignoring him/the issue/his stories about the incidents but that's not seeming to work. At a complete loss. Here is the note home from today:

Other Notables this Month:

• We finally reversed the locks on his bedroom so he can't escape. It was the night I peeked at Mei's monitor at 12:30am and saw a hand patting her on her back because she was crying that we decided it was a must, I mean, it took me a minute to recognize it was him and not an intruder! That same night an hour later he wandered down to our room and sat quietly at the foot of our bed and then started playing with one of Mei's toys with light and music. We were beyond freaked. The locks were reversed as soon as dawn broke:)
• Poor A-man developed a fever that reached at least 105.6 degrees at the height of it. I called his doctor's office and they said go to the emergency room asap (apparently they have to say that after 105 because it can start to affect the brain...wonderful). We stayed home anyway to see if the Motrin would bring it down to acceptable levels and it did but we monitored him all night. The next night was more of the same but he had been fine all morning. We did go see doctor Richter and she said it is just some weird virus where she is seeing. She is seeing kids spike a ginormus fever at night and then they report being fine during the day...he was tested for the flu and it came back negative.
• Last week we were in our horsing around stage of the going to bed process when Aston gave me a big, fat, ugly, bloody split lip. I am actually surprised that I've managed to escaped this injury for so long...just so glad it didn't happen to any of his buddies. So what had happened was...I was lying on his bed and he did his flip back archy head slam move he does where he whips his head back and his body follows. This time around my mouth ended up being the landing strip for this move. He felt remorseful I think. I looked funny for about a week and it's just about healed.
• Aston is done with diapers at nap. He goes before bed and after in his potty in his room. In the last 2 weeks or so he's only had 1 wet diaper in the morning too. That 1 wet diaper woke him up and he insisted I change him at 5am.

NOTE: This is the first post I included some edited photos using the Beta Version of Lightroom 3...I am sure you can easily pick out the 2 guinea pig photos...keep you posted on my thoughts. I used a trial of Lightroom 2 last year and liked it but didn't want to pay for it...may have to break down when Lightroom 3 officially comes out.

Aston, Babs and Daddy attended their 2nd annual boys night out to the Monster Truck Jam at Bobcats arena last Saturday. Jeff snapped a shot of Grave Digger. He had his toy version clenched in his hands the whole time and wanted to play with all the big kids. He's been awaiting this day since last years event so he could wear his cool Monster Truck headphones once again. (notice the hearts on the crushed cars...it was the day before Valentines Day...how sweet at an otherwise not-so-sweet event)

Pop Pop and Holly stopped in for a quick visit this week...Holly is always a crowd pleaser. Here's Aston going in for the big smoocheroo...and Mei in the background all like "eww! big brothers are so gross"

We had another snow storm last weekend and got a good 4-5 inches of powdery snow...it slowed up the sledding some but the boys didn't care.

LEFT: Aston even got to make his first snow man...he couldn't resist taking a bite out of one of "frosty's" eyes (sugar free chocolate covered walnut) RIGHT: Still working on scootering...brought it in the house the other day and he seems to be getting the hang of it

For the past couple weeks Aston has used his class picture from last year creatively as a ramp for his cars...here's the line-up from today. He methodically drives the end car up the ramp, the car does a little jump off the end without leaving his hand, lands back on the couch and drives to the end of the line to wait for it's next turn:)