Double digits y'all. Ashton is TEN and well, whoa. Read on for all the details about him and how we spent August 3, 2021. If it's even possible I love him more every day.
This boy weighs 79.6 pounds, is 4 feet 10 inches tall, has size 4.5 feet and wears clothes bordering on size L and 10/12. His haircut is shaved on one side and he keeps the top long, it's a very enviable blond in the summer time. We have a large collection of headbands and sweatbands he wears to keep it back and basically he looks like a teenager. Eats like one too - no amount of food makes him full. Oh and he is also starting to smell like one. I make him wear deodorant and after hockey and football practice, oooof.
Ashton is largely uncomplicated and I love this about him. Agreeable and mild-mannered, he does not have a manipulative bone in his body. If he gets frustrated, he walks away. If he is overwhelmed, he cries. And he still loves to be hugged and kissed all the time. Ashton knows right from wrong, follows the rules, and has a hard time around boys that tease, are rude, or are unsportsmanlike. It is perplexing to him when people are mean. If he hears a story or is telling me about something that happened at school, he will put his hands out with wide eyes and say "Can you believe it?" or "Why would they do that?" And shake his head.
Ashton is also very humble. He's tall, handsome and sweet, and naturally quite athletic. He's a great teammate, easy to coach, and has received the Bobby Orr award in hockey (basically for being an outstanding, fair, solid player) for the past two years in a row. But he has no idea about it. If he gets a compliment, he looks down, smiles genuinely and says thank you. Sometimes if it feels particularly good he will do a little hop. He also jumps when he is excited or thrilled by a game or competition. This is him on exactly his tenth birthday, in an arcade, playing skee ball. He's done this kind of thing since he was little.
We've taught both our boys that it's important to wear nice clothes to school, that it's a sign of pride. Off they go every day, in their collared shirts and clean sneakers. Not only do they not fight it, they defend it. Ashton gets some flack for it from his classmates. "Ashton, you know you don't have to dress like that for school." "Ashton, why do you always wear fancy clothes?" The other day he was again telling me about the negative attention he gets and I think he must have gotten fed up. He responded "Because it's a sign of respect." The kid was like "That's dumb." And Ashton said "No it's not. You don't see teachers wearing messy clothes do you?" That's probably the edgiest Ashton has ever been. He wasn't mean about it, but it shut that kid right up. You should hear what he comes home telling me what other kids do and say, it's so upsetting. As far as I can tell, he rises above it and he knows how proud I am of him.
What else about Ashton. He is obsessed with fantasy football and loves sports. He is currently playing football on the 4th grade team for the Natick Redhawks:
and Squirt A on the Natick Comets for hockey. Ashton likes challenges in general, both physical and mental. He saw a video on YouTube about how a guy used magnets to separate iron from soil/sand and made a version of this toy. Not only did Ashton go dig out a bunch of magnets, he raced down to the pond and by the end of the morning had an entire container of iron (and about 6 kids that were so into what he was doing, they had run home to get their own magnets and try it themselves). He's curious and basically loves to experiment with things. Like this video in which they spent hours taping boxes to make a basketball arcade game (Alex is inside LOL) and our house in general is perpetually contests of coin spinning, arm wrestling, tower building, how fast someone can do X, Y or Z, slow-motion recordings or toy car or bike jumps, marble races, and on and on.
So I think that paints a pretty good picture. If any of my readers have any comments please leave them! Considering Ashton is 10 I want this to be a very thorough documentation and I think we all agree I've achieved that lol.
So for birthdays in our house, we like to have a family outing. We chose Kimball Farms in Westford which is a general fun spot with mini golf, zip line, batting cages, bumper boats, etc. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day. His friends came over in the morning to watch him open his new Strife (this was widely anticipated in the neighborhood), we had salmon for dinner and some presents and Ashton loved it all. And we LOVE him. Wait until his Nerf party!
