Life

Life has been happening around here...go figure!  I am enjoying the ride!  Eli has been riding without training wheels (which is always an adventure) and we have been spending a lot of time walking and enjoying the cooler weather.  One day, while outside pulling vines off the house I came across a praying mantis.  We LOVED keeping these as pets as kids, so I snatched it for the kids!  The kids loved it and decided to name it Barney Louks Judson.  For the past couple of weeks we have fed it flies and watched it shed its skin.  Yesterday,we let it go back in our garden.  It was a fun experience for the kids.  This is our last week of Summer.  Eli starts school next week.  I am having a hard time with the idea of him being gone three mornings out of the week.  I think Cora will be lost without him.  He plans all of their games and activities.  It should be an adjustment for sure.  Last night was "Meet the Teacher" night.  I could tell Eli was a little nervous (even though he's had this teacher as a sub last year).  As soon as we got to the school and he saw that he was in the same classroom he was SO excited!  He went and played with toys and told me he was so "GLAD to be in the same classroom because I LOVE this classroom."  I am praying for a great year!   

3 Months

My little happy buddy is 3 months old today!  I couldn't be more thankful for him!  I love him so much and it is very obvious he feels the same way about me.  We have gotten past the newborn phase (which I surprisingly LOVED this time around) and are getting into my favorite time.  Every day we get to discover and watch Asher's personality develop.  It is fascinating.  He changes on a daily basis and I don't want a moment to slip by me.  At 3 months:
1.  He is laughing!  It doesn't happen very often yet, but the first time he ever laughed was when I tickled him under his armpits.  He sometimes laughs in his sleep...wouldn't you just love to know what these babies are dreaming about? 
2.  He is ticklish.  He is pretty much ticklish all over, but especially under his armpits.  He will just squirm and smile when we play.
3.  He is awake for longer periods, which makes it harder to get things done, but at the same time we all get to spend more time with his joyful self.
4.  He wakes up 2-3 times in the night to eat.  For a couple of weeks he only was getting up at 1 and 4, but he's recently switched back to an earlier feeding as well.  It doesn't bother me at all.  I really don't have much selfishness left in me after three kids!
5.  Asher can sleep through anything.  If you know Eli, you know he is a VERY loud person.  He always has been.  He talks super loud, yells, cries, etc. very loudly.  It doesn't phase Asher in the least.  He sleeps through it all.  It blows my mind! 
6.  He knows my parents now.  We have spent a lot of time with them in the past couple of months and it is very obvious that he knows them and is happy to see them.
7.  He moves his arms and leg constantly, but at the same time is a very chill and content baby.  He goes with the flow and is involved in everything we do. 
8.  He loves baths with Cora and Eli or taking a shower with me. 
9.  He definitely thinks he's playing with the older kids and you can tell he wants to be doing what they are doing so badly.  If they are running, he starts kicking and trying to be a part of it.  Eli and Cora love him and try to involve him the best they can.  They smother him with love all day and unfortunately share a lot of germs with their kisses.  (P.S.-Happy 3 months Asher your brother and sister gave you a sweet gift...a cold). 
10.  Asher is grabbing for toys and loves batting and grabbing the toys on his bouncy seat or play mat.  He also will focus in on the strap of my shirt or my necklace and focus really hard to grab it. 
11.  His new favorite play item...his hands!  He discovered his hands a few weeks ago and now they are his constant chew toy.  He spends all day sucking or gnawing on his hands and fingers.  If he finds that thumb, it is over my friends!  He still uses a pacifier at night and naps and I hope to keep it that way.  At least I can take that away someday!
12.  Just like our other kids, he is losing his gorgeous dark hair :-(  He is losing it from the front to the back just like the older kids.  We like to call this their "skullet".  I'm curious to see if he'll go completely bald like Cora or still have fuzz and get hair back quickly like Eli.  We shall see!
13.  He is built somewhere between Eli's body and Cora's.  Eli was a skinny baby and Cora was a super chunky baby and Asher is somewhere in between them.  He has some rolls, but not quite as much as Cora did.  It will be fun to see what happens in the next few months! 

Reading

We had a "Reading Party" last night as Eli finished his 12th book and the final book in the first Bob book series.  His reading is really improving (we read one book a day during Cora's nap) and now I don't have to do a separate "speech" time because he gets so much practice reading aloud!  He absolutely loves it and has gained a lot of confidence this summer.  He loves getting out his little pack of books and reading them aloud on his own...he will come ask for help if he gets stuck on a word.  Cora thinks she can read too and repeats the words Eli is saying :-).  I am super proud of him and hope to continue to foster a love of reading.  I was a book addict before I had kids (no time in this season of life) and would stay up late into the night reading as a kid.  In other news, Eli got a new bed!  My brother gave him his bunk bed set, which has a full bed on bottom and a twin on top.  Both kids absolutely love it.  Eli was jumping up and down when he found out he got to have it.  They love to play on it.  It was quite an interesting experience getting it up our narrow stairs, but we were super heroes!  Eli is now a part of a group of boys in our neighborhood that I like to call the "Riverside Gang".  It is adorable!  Living on a farm was an incredible experience, but I never got to experience just walking to the neighbor's house to play.  It is wonderful to just hear a little knock on my door from one of the boys on our block wanting to play with Eli or inviting him down to play tag or hide and seek.  There is a boy, Jaxon, that is Eli's age and a 10 yr old, Braden, that Eli especially plays with.  Although Cora is a wonderful playmate for Eli (and they get along great), it is important for him to hang with the guys.  I can tell Cora has a crush on Braden (absolutely adorable).  She shyly went up and gave him a hug the other day when he left.  Summer is coming to a close!  Eli has less than 2 weeks before school starts.  He will be going to pre-k Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.  He had a wonderful year last year, so I'm praying for the same this year!  I'm going to miss that little booger while he's gone.  I know Cora will especially! 

Farm living!

When we saw the weather was going to be beautiful, on a whim, we decided to head to the farm for the weekend.  We had a little bit of a hilarious start up.  Picture our mini van with a blown tire (which we originally thought was Cora kicking the side of the car) and all of our junk sitting on the side of the road while Brandon changed it!  Eli overheard me talking about "donuts and spare tires" to my mom and yelled out the door to Brandon, "Dad is it a peanut or a regular tire?"  Never a dull moment!  We stopped in McPherson to get a new tire and headed to the farm.  Although we got a rough start, it was a GLORIOUS weekend.  Cool weather, no bugs, and a lot of fun!  We went to the Minneapolis park a few times and it was beautiful and the kids loved it!  The kids spent a lot of time in the "secret garden" that my mom created in her lilacs playing hide and seek, riding the four wheeler, throwing rocks in the pond, climbing into the hay loft, swinging on the tire swing, and running around the yard!  We spent time with my parents and my brother and it was great.  Brandon and Will got some time away and got to go see a movie and eat.  The farm always feels like a special stress relieving retreat for us and we are so thankful to have it!