His first year was like most babies-poopin', eatin', not sleepin'. The kid didn't start sleeping until he was 5 months old. And he had "mild colic" which means that he couldn't digest milk, so it was no dairy for mama. I was fine with most soy products, but the soy ice cream was unbearable. Ashton loved to look at his hands. He was amazed by them. He also loved books and was alw
ays very gentle with them. He always had a book with him and was content to sit at his bookcase for long stretches of time. He seems to really love language and I swear to you that he loved listening to me read Chaucer to him. His first word was mama. The theme for his first birthday was Books because it was his favorite activity during his first year.
His second year started out well, with a few bumps along the way. Ashton was a big hitter and pretty much abused me everyday. It was a very hard habit to break him from. He also decided that he absolutely would not sit in a cart, so we started what I called "cart training." There is a local store where it typically has screaming children and mothers, and at 7 am we would go, Ashton and I, to work on his issue. I would strap him into the cart, hold him down with one arm, and proceed to "shop." We never bought anything, but he learned real quick that he wasn't getting out of the cart because of some (embarrassing) screaming. Although he still wasn't walking, his language was developing rapidly. This helped us a lot when he was diagnosed with diabetes at 19 months old. 
He doesn't know it, but him being able to communicate to us what he wanted and needed while in the hospital was a great help. But this is not what I want to write about. So, Ashton started walking at 14 1/2 months old. Don't ask Chadd, he will tell you the wrong time, but who really asks Chadd much of anything of real importance? And after the walking came the immediate love of sports ('Ball' was his second word). Football was the theme for his second birthday.I'll try to sum u
p a little bit: He is now a very smart and sassy 3 year old. We had a "Cars" theme because that was the first movie he saw at what he called "the movieater." He loves all sports but seems to be particularly interested in football (anyone guess why?). He loves dinosaurs and has a dinosaur room. The Children's Museum in Seattle and the Museum of Natural History in New York were awesome for him because of all the dinosaur exhibits. If you ask him his name he will respond, "Ashton the Big Brother." He loves his sister, but he loves her even more when she doesn't touch his stuff. He is a sweet and sensitive boy and not a day goes by w
here he will at least once just say, "mom, I love you." He will be starting preschool within the next week or so and he is excited, but he is pretty perturbed that he will not be riding a bus. He tells anyone that will listen that "I'll be 4 on my next birthday." He thinks that he wants to have a puzzle theme for his next party.
