27 August 2013

A Beautiful Wedding

A couple weekends ago on August 16th, two very dear friends of ours got married. The groom (Jason Lomberg aka "Berg") has been Jason's best friend since freshman year of college. Berg and Karen met at the same restaurant that Jason and I did way back when so we have all been friends for a very long time. The wedding was held at the Hyatt Harborside which has an absolutely stunning view of Boston across the harbor. It was a gorgeous evening - their ceremony was right on the water and officiated by another very good friend, Mr. Bob Kollar. Jason was the best man and A New Nill's own Ashton Christopher made his debut as the ringbearer extraordinaire. He was adorable in his little charcoal gray suit and hot pink bowtie, clutching his tractor for dear life:


 But his performance was nearly flawless. I say nearly because his boutonniere didn't last until the ceremony  (the flower on his jacket was just too interesting to let be) and he offered the pillow to the first guy he saw.


But then I knelt down, pointed to Jason at the other end and said, "Bring the pillow to Daddy!" and he was confused for a minute but then ambled off down the aisle. He held the pillow straight out the whole way. Honestly I was so proud watching him that I nearly cried, he was so cute.
At this point, I passed Ashton off to his "handlers" (GG and Grandpa Pat) and the rest of the ceremony was just perfect.
After a couple of pictures post-ceremony, GG and Grandpa Pat took Ashton home and Jason and I stayed and had a wonderful night! We slept at the hotel which marked the second night I had ever been away from Ashton in his whole life. And boy was I fine with it.

Here are some fabulous detail shots as well as some of my other favorites. Jason's whole family was there (Berg has been a friend for so long he is an honorary family member) and tons of my friends and we had a great time. Karen, you looked totally and absolutely gorgeous and I want to thank both you and Berg for letting us all share in a beautiful night of love and laughter. Congratulations!! :) xoxox

Like could NOT stop taking pictures of the view and the sunset. Gorgeous!

p.s. This is the link to a video of the processional (Ashton comes in around the 1 min 40 second mark) and this is the link to Karen and her dad walking down the aisle :)

19 August 2013

Age Two: Part Two

OMG! It's been nearly two weeks since I posted. Whoops. Where did I leave off? Oh, the remaining "twoisms" that I should document at this milestone age.

Stats: 
Height: somewhere between 36.5 and 38 inches (Jason's wall measurement and the pediatrician's, respectively - roughly 99th percentile)
Weight: 32.2 pounds (95th percentile)
Shoe size: 7.5
Clothes size: 2T across the board but 3T in pajamas
Teeth: All in but his two year molars
Diapers: still a 5, 6 for overnights
Favorite things: Trains and anything even remotely related to construction vehicles. Dump trucks, bulldozers, cherry pickers, backhoes, excavators, and cement rollers all live in our house. In their toy form, of course.

I guess it's appropriate to begin with his favorite phrase: "TOO too!" Usually while holding something up, this is Ashton's most commonly used sentence. No one has any idea what it means but he says it ALL the time. He is not saying "choo-choo" because he can make the "ch" sound and we just know it doesn't mean train. Up until now I've treated it as a catch-all for "look at this!" but now that he is TWO I'm pretending he's announcing his age :)

He is showing improvement every week with his speech. He probably says about 20-25 words (still a low count for his age) and he maxes out at three in a row. Most popular right now: "One more....CRACKER!" He says this regardless of whether there are actually crackers around. He has also started to repeat the last sound he hears in a sentence. So if I tell him, "Just a minute please" he'll immediately echo "Pees". On Block Island a couple weeks ago, I said, "No, that's Daddy's beer" and he followed with "bee-er." I do recognize new sounds almost daily but pronunciation is still not great and there is a lot of frustration when he can't communicate what he wants. So we are still in Early Intervention every Wednesday but we are starting to get some cute "little kid moments" that show just how differently they actually see the world. For example, yesterday at the park (where there were previously lots of bees), there were almost none except for a few dead ones (you know, the giant fuzzy kind). We were over in that area and Ashton started pointing excitedly at the ground, "Bee! Bee, help! Help, bee, help!" and it took me a second and then I realized, "Ashton, are you saying the bee needs help because he isn't moving? Does he need to fly?" and he looked right at me and solemnly nodded. Well I had no idea how to handle that one. Add to the list, "Read up on how to tell your children about death." So I told him the bee was sleeping and that it would want us to go on the swings until it woke up. :-/ Another example was when we were at the beach and we were standing at the water's edge with our toes in. I said, "Wow Ashton, do you see the waves?" He looked up at me and then back at the ocean and then reached his little arm out and started waving. I nearly died laughing, I mean of course he doesn't know that one word can mean two things yet. But it was an unexpected response haha. He has also started to sing - he will repeat exactly if I sing "La la la la" and also has freestyled a couple times although no discernible words or melodies, just as he plays by himself. Like a background soundtrack.

It's also time for "school": Ashton's first day at daycare is today. With Jason's full schedule and me going back to work on Fridays for the year, we needed a set schedule. So, Chera will have him three days and he will go to "school" (which is a home daycare nearby) the other two. I think he is ready to learn some additional independence and how to handle himself in larger groups of children. I found a place I love and actually can't wait to see how he does with the experience. A year from now he will be trotting off to preschool so I am doing my part to get prepared haha. This is not to say I wasn't immensely grateful that Jason did the drop off this morning. I don't think I could have done it and am anxious to see how he is when I pick him up.

We are nowhere near potty training or transitioning from his crib. We are also nowhere near allergy therapy, so for now still avoid eggs, sesame, peanuts and tree nuts.

Also at this stage I'd like to report that the terrible two's are a myth. Alas, they are not. But Ashton's actually pretty good and the only real tantrums I get are when I won't give him a cracker. (I don't know if it's that he truly LOVES crackers, or if it's one of his few real words that gets a response and that's why he uses it all the time, but if I say no, boy, look out. I taped a solid 60 second movie of him crying and stomping at the cabinet where they are kept after I said "We aren't going to have any crackers right now". When I stopped recording he ran over to me, cried "No! No! Nooooo!" and pushed me! I would have given anything to get that on video. I tried not to laugh :-/ ) He is also super particular about food being whole. If I break off a piece of bagel rather than give him the whole half, or give him a piece of a cookie instead of the entire thing, it doesn't end well.

Other than that, we still spend most of our free time playing, walking around the block, and generally being outside. Both knees are still in various stages of scabs and when I put him in the tub, I don't know where the dirt ends and the bruises begin, but he's a happy little boy :)

06 August 2013

2 years old!

We've come a long way since age 1. Last year's birthday was such a blow out it took three whole posts to document it all. This year, due to said blow out, I planned a party for me, Jason and Ashton. That's it. Because Jason had to work on Saturday, Ashton's actual birthday, we celebrated it on Sunday. Besides eating breakfast in front of some cartoons and walking around with no pants on, Saturday was nothing crazy.

But SUNDAY was! Woo! We had a few different present opening sessions (in the morning: new trains from Chera!):


And in the afternoon, we took a drive out to Honey Pot Hill Farms in Stow, MA. It was the most darling little farm ever. We got lemonade slushies, went to see the animals...
And then headed out to pick some blueberries. This proved to be difficult in the beginning. The first patch did not have very many ripe ones and Ashton was eating them about as fast as we could pick.
But we got the hang of it and after walking a little further out, filled up our quart in no time.

The best part is that when we got home, I used the berries to decorate the from-scratch egg-free cake that I had made. It wasn't the prettiest, a little sunken and lopsided on the top, but I know it tasted great because I made it in a 9x13, then cut and stacked it, and had a few sample bits left over ;) Also, the density was perfect ifidosaysomyself. (Ifidontsaysomyself?)
Well we ran into a small problem. Ashton wanted absolutely nothing to do with this cake. I mean, ran the other direction when I brought it out. Jason and I were completely perplexed! I cut him some small cubes, I gave him his fork, I tried to get him to put his fingers in the frosting...no freaking way. ?!?!? The only thing I can think of is that he is currently obsessed with hot things. He requests "Hot toast!" for breakfast (uh, and lunch, and dinner- he gets so excited about toast):


and when we read stories that have pictures of fireplaces or birthday candles he holds his hands over the page and says "Hah-hah" for "hot hot!". He's also famous for what I like to call "the flamingo". This is when I plop him in the bathtub and he immediately lifts one leg all the way up, says "hah-hah" and then stands there balancing until I say "It's ok, it's not hot." Then he will put his other foot down and we can go on with the show.

So who knows, maybe he saw the real candle flames and was afraid? And it's actually my fault because I always say when things are hot in pictures and that we don't touch? I also have told him that we stay away from bees because they are very busy smelling flowers and can hurt us if we make them mad. I didn't count on him generalizing and now he thinks every small buzzing insect is a bee. He started panicking the other day when there was a fly in the house and ran around saying "Bee! Bee!" So I need to figure that out. But I have no idea if he is allergic to bee stings and really don't want to find out.

Anyway, back to the birthday. We facetimed with Grandma and Grandpa while we sang and opened a couple cards and books, and then it was time for the present de resistance. Two big construction trucks. He would sleep with these things if he could - he loves anything that is in the dump truck, backhoe, bulldozer or tractor family and makes all the corresponding whirring sounds when he plays.
And that was about it! Oh, and then he fell asleep like this.


Have you guys had it yet? I'll save the rest for Two: Part Two. I guess I had more to say than I thought!

p.s. I am not one of those people that looks good without mascara. I'm just not. Anyway, wanted you to know that I know. I've been lazy lately :-/