Riding Bikes

 

We had wanted a bike trailer for a while in order to ride around with Asher, but he was too small last year to really do it.  We had been gifted some money for one from Grandma and Grandpa Anderson last year, and finally got the opportunity to use it.  We didn't waste any time getting that thing hooked up and out for a ride!  It was a fun time, and we got some great pictures.

 

Asher providing quality control while I hitched up the trailer

 

Asher getting his test drive

 

 

 

 

Also, this year Grandma and Grandpa Dobbs got Asher his very own bike, a Strider that he can walk with at first, and coast with later.  He was a bit unsure in the beginning, but he's getting used to it and having some fun!

 



 

A high-five for a job well done!

 

 Asher is tons of fun right now, and we're really glad it is summer because we can do so many things outside.  Asher loves it and burns off plenty of energy, which is always helpful around bed time :)

 

#Eric

Animals!

This was from about a month ago, or so, it was a rare moment of willing participation and performance. :)   He usually will only do one or two animal noises and then start acting silly.   Also  for whatever reason, no matter how much we practiced dog, cat, cow, the first ones he learned were the ones I made up: fish, bunny, squirrel, etc. :)  Kind of a goof ball.  :)  He knows more now, but this adorable video couldn't be recreated if we wanted it to.  Hope you enjoy! 

       (Be sure to catch the elephant!) 

 

 

19 months (the other day!)

Well we're now a month closer to age two than we are to one.   I think I say it every month, but how fast time flies! :)   Our sweet little boy is sooo much fun these days!

We've been riding bikes, getting our first hair cut, taking swimming lessons, having a blast of a summer so far!   His imagination is growing so much, and it's fun watching him play!  

Camera and video dump in the next day or two, but since we're already two days past due on this post, I'll leave it short and sweet.   

Costa Rica

We had the opportunity to travel as a family to Costa Rica in April for 10 days.  (And I'm finally making the time to get some pictures posted!)  After graduating from college 8 years ago (wow, time flies!), I spent a year and a half teaching English/learning Spanish/living with a host family there.  It was an incredible experience, and since returning to the states in 2006, I've been anxious to get back!  I've wanted to re-connect with my host family, I've wanted to go immerse myself in Spanish again, but mostly, I've wanted to take Eric back to see where I lived and let him see for himself the beauty of the country that is Costa Rica. 

Sooo, after five years of nagging, errr... convincing Eric, we finally got there!  I couldn't bear to leave our baby for 10 days at only 17 months old, so we invited my parents to come with us -  to help us out and join our adventure!  We all had a great time!

It was so good visiting my host families who I'd lived with for over a year and then not seen for 6 years, and it was so fun introducing them to Eric and Asher and catching up.   The few days we had just weren't anywhere near enough!  

We also rented a car and traveled around the country, visiting Arenal Volcano National Park, Monteverde cloud forest (briefly!), and Manuel Antonio National Park (with it's rainforest running alongside pristine beach coves).  It is such a beautiful country!  It was so fun sharing it with Eric and watching Asher experience it - the beach, the jungle, the monkeys, the tropical fruit, etc, etc, etc!   It hurts my heart not knowing if  or when we'll ever get back.  My home away from home, so to speak.  Hope you enjoy a few of our pics!

Airport with Asher and arriving in San Jose! 



This kind man made our lay over go much quicker for Asher by offering him a ride on his cart!

Our first morning in Costa Rica!  Enjoying the tropical flora and fauna of the hotel garden!

All the travel tuckered poor Asher out!  He zonked on the bench at the restarant we ate at for lunch our first day! 

Reconnecting with Friends!  I really wish we lived closer to one another! 

 

Arenal Volcano National Park (Check out our hotel room view below!)

Grandma and Asher in front of our hotel!

 

Hiking around the National Park

First Monkey Sighting!
 

Where's Waldo... err, the toucan, I mean!

Asher having a complete BLAST on the wagon ride back to our hotel!

 Our brief stop at the beautiful Monteverde Cloud Forest!

 

View on our drive there (It was the end of the dry season. Usually is more green, but still beautiful!)



Hiking the Hanging Bridge through the forest

Such dense tropical rainforest!

 

Manuel Antonio National Park! (and area surrounding)

 

About 30 alligators under the bridge in the Tarcoles River on our drive down to the beach

 

 

The beautiful, open air lobby in our hotel near the beach

 

 

We made finally made it to the beach!!! :)



Asher's 1st time in the ocean!



 

 

Picnic lunch at the beach!



Ready to hike back to our hotel after a fun day at the beach.  Little did we know yet just how burnt we were!  Oh the sun in the tropics... at least we weren't horrible parents... Asher managed to stay burn free!



Enjoying dinner at an open air brick oven pizza place when...



...we spotted this sloth hanging out over our heads with her baby (not pictured)!





 


Back to the national park for a guided wildlife hike the next day

We saw SO many monkeys!!! Plus several more sloths, tree frogs, bats, etc!



It was an awesome trip and I feel like I've just dipped my toes into the collection of pictures we have. So many beautiful places, cultural experiences, fun times reconnecting with friends, and being with family.... I just hope we make it back again someday!   Like I said, a home away from home. 

#Meagan

 

 

 

 

 

17 and 18 months... oops!

So we were in Costa Rica over Asher's 17 month date so unfortunately we never got that one posted.  However, I did take the pics, and then I'll just let you know what he's been up to for the past TWO months! 

Here he was a month ago...

And here he is today! 




Believe it or not, I wrote this post last night, so I wouldn't forget to do it today, and then I go and forget to take the picture until it was almost bedtime, drool-covered, crazy hair, bizarre expression and completely undesiring to sit still.   You're welcome for the chuckle. :) That was the ONLY pic I could get of him looking at me! This is what the rest looked like...

And I've just convinced myself 100% that it's beyond time for his 1st hair cut!

 

 Anyway, happy 1/2 birthday, buddy!  18 months today! :) 

After mommy and daddy, Asher's top three loves include:

1. Anything to do with dogs. 

He expresses strong preferences for dog books, toys, stuffed animals, watching the neighbor dogs out the window, etc, but he has absolutely NO desire to get close enough to touch them. 
        
     2. Music, especially guitars.

He still loves to dance, pretends anything and everything is a guitar, strums his belly and random objects often, toots on his hand like a trumpet, loves playing our piano, adores watching daddy play guitar, gets a huge smile on his face when he hears music.  What else to say... it's just a fave. 
 
     3.  Balls, and throwing things.

Asher will easily spend half the day playing with balls.  Rolling, throwing, kicking, dropping off the back of the couch, throwing out the door, dropping them on my face when I accidently fall asleep on the floor next to him playing (it was a real baseball, and hurt pretty badly, in fact.)  But throwing all things are a big favorite right now.  Throwing things down the stairs, off his highchair, across the room... maybe he'll be a pitcher someday... that is if he's not a musician. ;)

Rising quickly in his interests also include cars, being outside, and there's the old standby - bath time!  But what kid doesn't like bathtime and being outside??? :) 

Our little guy is always on the go.  Walking has turned to running (but after seeing our two year old neighbor running the other day, Asher's still very much toddling... just faster than he used to.)  He's into everything and loves to explore, but his little personality is coming out more and more.    He does not like touching the grass, he will not touch playdough or clay, he's fairly timid and often will take some time to warm up to new people and places (there are of course exceptions that make no sense to me, but as a general rule, he's a slow warmer upper),  he likes his hands clean, he took a long while to warm up to stickers--- goopy, scratchy, itchy, slimy textures just don't interest him at this point in his little life.   But that's Eric for you too.  :)   Eric's mom says he would come in from playing as a little boy several times to wash his hands.  I've always thought he was a bit of a germaphobe... but must just be a different personality than my own. :)  Eric still won't walk barefoot in the grass or sand if he can help it and would much prefer socks and shoes over sandals, whereas I'm barefoot most of the summer.   It seems our little boy is taking after his daddy in more than looks alone.  It'll be interesting to see how he takes after me as he grows, because we don't see a whole lot at present. :) 

Anyway, it's getting late and I'm drawing a blank, so that'll have to do for now. 

We sure love him! :)  

#Meagan
   
  

Easter - a long overdue post

We had a blast visiting my parents a few, er several, weekends ago for Easter.  Asher LOVES their dog, and had a lot of fun playing with his cousins and enjoying time outside for a rare weekend of warmth in the middle of a very cold Spring.

 

Asher's first experience dying Easter eggs...

 

Grandma bought him and his cousin, Anthony, matching Easter suits. :) They were pretty adorable. Though Asher didn't care much for being still for pictures.  Poor grandpa was trying so hard to get a good picture of them together! :) 

 

All the grandkids!

 

 

Easter Egg hunting was another story of it's own.  We'd gotten out some eggs at home, and I hid them the week before to see what he'd do.  He ran around the room picking them up and putting them in his basket, so I thought he'd do great keep up with all his older cousins.  But unfortunately he didn't even care. :)  ALL he wanted to do was walk the dog around the yard.  :)  A little disappointing for us first time parents wanting a few "first" pics of him picking up Easter eggs, but cute all the same. :)   

 

Anyway, just thought I'd share a few pics from the weekend, and yes, way overdue.  Post #1 in playing catch up from this past month, I guess!   Sorry it's so late!

 

 

 

 

Life is not always as one plans.

Well, I didn't think we'd find ourselves in the hospital again so soon.  Poor little Asher has another respitory infection.  You may remember we spent five days in the hosital last March when he had RSV, then there was an unrelated surgery in July, another minor surgery in January, and now our poor little guy has pnemonia.   All being unrelated I know we're blessed he's not facing some chronic illness, but we sure haven't expected this path God's taken us down in learning to trust our son's health and well-being completely to HIS care.  There's nothing quite like seeing your otherwise healthy three month old put on oxygen, your 8 month old be taken screaming from your arms back to the operating room and watch him come out of anesthesia, or holding down your squirmy 17 month old while they dig around in his tiny arm to find an vein for an IV while he's screaming and sweating a fever over 103 degrees.  It's challenged us as parents, but we are blessed God holds his hand, and ours each and every day.  (And we are thankful for modern medicine!)

I've got a whole slew of posts on the back burner, half written, but as my title of today's posts so aptly declares, "Life is not always as one plans."  We've been living an absolute whirlwind since Easter, it seems.  I'll do my best to at least get the post of him in his adorable little Easter suit, egg dying and hunting (and all that cuteness) up on here later today.  :)

Since Easter, we've planned and celebrated Eric's 29th Birthday, planned and unfortunately had to postpone (on account of Asher in the hospital) a family baby shower for my little sister's first (due in a couple weeks!), finished planning for, laundering for, packing for, AND taking a ten day vacation WITH Asher and my parents to Costa Rica (where I lived and worked for a year and a half in my single days), spent one day back at home trying to do laundry and buy the basics at the grocery store while also comforting a sick little boy (who I didn't realize was quite as sick as he was!), and now are on day three here at the hospital.  Fun times.  It really has been up until this last week!

Anyway, the little guy is stirring, so I'd better go.  Here's a few teasers for putting up with my prolific writing above without a single photo, and our month and a half long drought on the posting front. 

To come:

Easter... 



















Asher's 17 Month post...
  (oops, sorry, guess those pics are still on the camera at home!)

Costa Rica...  gorgeous country, gorgeous weather, wonderful time!

And maybe we'll post a couple pics of him being such a trooper in the hospital.  :)  Sorry, I don't have any pics of that now, all of those are on the phone which is deader than a doornail at the moment, and I'm without a charger here until Eric can relieve me for a trip home.      

We continue to appreciate your prayers as Asher continues to heal!   (We were admitted Wednesday afternoon sometime shortly after our 1:30 doctor's appointment, and he's been on the mend rapidly since!  We have hope we'll be able to go home sometime this afternoon.  The doctor will be in sometime over lunch to check his progess!)  Anyway, thanks again for your prayers!

Meagan