Catchup

Asa has been so busy since we last updated (updates to be more frequent - yes, we mean it)

He's inherited his brothers balance bike and goes along on it very well. He doesn't look too happy in this picture - possibly because we wouldn't let him ride out into the road:

Click to enlarge.

Sorry about that - you'll just have to wait there with your brothers while we take this picture.

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Asa is 2

It's kind of hard finding presents for a boy who has 2 older brothers. It seems like we have (at least) one of pretty much every toy there is going. While we are generally advocates of money/vouchers/book tokens etc for birthdays (good for saving up or spending on bigger toys we wouldn't otherwise get) sometimes you just need a great big present to open. Like when you're turning 2 for example!!

So I decided to get a little kitchen. The plan is to eventually have it out in the playhouse once we've done the flooring and a few other bits and pieces out there, but right now it's sitting in the front room and getting played with more than any other toy we own I think (possibly with the exception of the wooden railway).

Turning 2 seems to have heralded a new, far more grown-up little boy. He keeps getting taller, he talks more; trying to copy everything we say, he can climb out of his cot (another thread on that later!), he wants to join in with EVERYTHING his big brothers do, he will sit and read books without tearing/eating them and he just looks like a little boy now instead of a baby. It's great to see how the family dynamic changes as he gets older and more able to play with Linus and Gabriel. Being close in age him and Gabriel play together a lot, mainly throwing themselves onto and off of things, tearing around the house or garden, lobbing sand or water about and a million other destructive and boisterous things they can think of. All, of course, accompanied by peals of laughter. I am left a quivering wreck, held together only by the promise I make myself of tea and cake once they're all in bed.

Birthday morning, a rare opportunity to open something without the enthusiastic "help" of 2 older brothers...

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Bad baby!

Asa is getting so grown up now. It's lovely to see him playing with his big brothers, and being able to sit and watch them play when we go to the beach and stuff, without having to hover over him lest he fall into the sea/off a wall/into the road. Of course he is still a little bit unpredictable, he's not even 2 yet, but he's definitely growing up fast!

He's learning more new words and reliably tells us when he sees a "car" or a "babbit" (which refers to any animal) or a "ish". He can woof like a dog, moo like a cow and kind of miaow like a cat. His newest word (learned this very evening) is "marmer" or farmer to you and me- very useful I'm sure!

The downside to his getting more grown up is that he increasingly wants to do exactly what his brothers are doing, and he is getting big enough to do it! The fence around the front garden for example, planned heightwise when Linus was around the same age, is not going to keep him in much longer. Having seen Gabriel climb over it it was not long before I glanced out to spot Asa straddling it, completely naked!! He climbs anything and everything and my constant refrain these days seems to be "but your brothers NEVER did this!" But hey, it'd be pretty boring if they were all the same, and of course he has the best to learn from.

The other day it was bath night, one of Asa's favourite things. He'd had a good old splash about, and I'd got him out and dried him, put the top half of his pyjamas on and gone to find a nappy. I come back to find that he was not where I'd left him... how odd... wherever could he be...

And this may well be what prompted the bath in the first place. Of course food isn't really fun unless you really spread it around! But look at that lovely smile, and those dimples!

Update 2011

There is a reason why the poor third child hardly ever has his website updated. It isn't because he is unphotogenic, far from it! It isn't because we can't be bothered (well, maybe just a little bit of that), and it isn't just because he's the third child... It is mostly because of Asa.

Yep, just Asa. It's his fault.

I think people (yes Grandma, that means you) had underestimated just how very, very naughty Asa really is. Well Grandma knows now. Sadly for us that probably means she will never offer to have all 3 children while we go to parents' evening ever again. Still, we got one in and gained a sympathetic relative along the way.

Asa is a 20 month old whirlwind. His favourite activity is being a bit naughty, and touching stuff he shouldn't be touching.

Let me elaborate. His day goes something like this:

Get up. Get into bathroom and undo toothpaste. Eat as much as possible before Mummy get there. Go downstairs.

Get back upstairs and return to bathroom. Find steps and turn taps on. Throw soap/toothpaste into the running water.

Get taken back downstairs by parent.

Wail for milk/food at the kitchen gate. Throw all the shoes from the shoe-rack over the gate into the kitchen. If someone puts them back just repeat.

Go into downstairs toilet. Lift toilet lid. Throw any loose objects down toilet. Open cupboard under sink and remove all toilet paper.

Get put in highchair with breakfast. Throw bowl across table. Cry for bowl. Throw bowl. Cry for bowl. Throw...cry...throw...

Get dressed. Pull toy boxes out. Tip boxes over and stomp (no, not walk, STOMP) through the ensuing mess. Help Mummy put toys away.

Pull toys out again and stomp through mess. Get a chair and stick hand in fishtank. Get chair back from Mummy and press buttons on DVD player..

I am exhausted now and we're only up to about 9am. This carries on all day. It's a lot of fun when you're 20 months old. It isn't much fun when you're 30, although perhaps it would be more fun if I joined in?

Asa is totally banned from the kitchen now after our latest episode of "let's turn on the hob" which ended with my mobile phone being ever so slightly melted onto it. Other favourite kitchen activities include turning the dishwasher off, turning the washing machine off (only if it's mid-cycle though), turning the washing machine on (if it's empty), putting hands in the bin, opening the china cupboard....

So please don't ask me why we don't update the sites much. By the time the children are in bed we're hitting the drink (if Asa hasn't hidden it somewhere)

Oh Mummy, someone seems to have turned that thing on again!

The result of stopping the above activity

Why we haven't sold him yet. No, really, he is so cute isn't he???

August

Asa - he delights in getting everything that he's not supposed to have (then putting it in his great big mouth) and being everywhere he's not supposed to be.

While waiting for something new I thought you may like this grainy picture from my phone:

We were both unusually happy for half-past seven in the morning.