He gives kisses all day. If you're down on the floor playing with him, watch out, he will head over to you at some point and smack a big one on your cheek. He goes back and forth between proper pursed-lip smacks and clucking his tongue off the roof of his mouth to make the noise. Mercifully, the kisses are now quite dry :) He LOVES to kiss Owen, usually when Owen is in a nasty mood. He just reaches his arms up higher, higher to try to get to Owen's cheek and often Owen is trying to push him away. So sad! When the stars are aligned and Owen is happy to accept, it is sweetness incarnate. If you want a kiss, just say, 'Asher, can I have a kissy?'
Walking, RUNNING, jumping on beds, climbing, falling a thousand times a day not because he's so wobbly anymore, but because he is moving so fast he gets ahead of himself.
S.M.A.R.T. Owen was no dummy, but there's something about a younger sibling...they are on the fast track because they've got a pint-sized teacher all the time. Asher is SO communicative with very few words, and we pretty much always know what he's after, or upset about these days. Along with that, he wants and gets upset about things with fiery resolve!! Watch out if you abort his mission. It is so cute to decipher him. Examples...when he wants something in the kitchen while we're getting food ready, he walks over to the counter, reaches up toward it and then points his index finger in his mouth (translate: put some of THAT in MY pie hole!) When he's messed a diaper, he gets a look in his eye until I verbalize what has happened for him, and then he reaches down and points to his diaper to confirm the news.
Toy boy: unlike older brother, Asher really likes to play with toys. This is a relief. He is more self-entertaining and exploratory than Owen was. On the other hand, I used to leave Owen outside playing around in the front yard for 5-10 mins at a time at around 18 months or so, and felt perfectly safe doing so. I already know I will NEVER be able to do that with Asher...he could be halfway down the block in that time, and probably would be.
Social animal...Asher flirts with people he doesn't know. He is fascinated with other kids and babies, he is generally gentle (except with family members sometimes) and fits in with a crowd. He is all smiles, jibber-jabber and cuddles to other people. As I consider it, though I always say how remarkably similar Owen and Asher are...wow, they couldn't be more different in this regard!!
Now, the last thing I want to do is paint a picture of Owen=bad or difficult, Asher=only wonderful. They are each their own person and each have some stellar qualities and challenging features :) Here are Asher's not-so-stellar things that Owen never did. Throwing food, throwing toys, hitting my face, pterodactyl-screeching every time his will is thwarted (Owen cried, but it was more frustrated/upset rather than intentionally angry), refusing to sit down in a bathtub for more than 5 seconds, diaper change tantrums, climbing out of his highchair, emptying drawers, not liking many veggies, and so on. He is a little rascal!!
The big 2 to 1 nap transition has just begun. I have been engaged in a crazy-making process of giving 2 naps on some days, 1 nap on others, and a whole lot of attempts of naps that aren't happening, so he's spending too much time awake in his crib, bored. Yikes. Even though I know that it will hurt on the occasions where he really does still need a morning nap here and there, I am going to begin only 1 nap a day, and let things fall where they may. So far, 1 nap days have led to some nightwaking and short naps, so I know it's making him a bit overtired to make the switch. But hopefully it won't be as rough as it was with Owen, since I started the process with Owen closer to 13 months, and Asher's already 15, and hopefully a bit more ready for it.
Made his first joke: It is so funny to watch this...a few days ago Asher and Owen and I were 'hanging out' and the two of them were in a silly mood (such a rarity...ha!). Well, Asher pretended to knock his head on the wall, then he fake-fuss/cried. Then he turned his crying off immediately and started laughing at his joke. Owen and I laughed after we figured out what he'd been doing, and then he had an audience and kept doing it over and over. I was pretty impressed with his little sense of humor.
Words--kind of slow progress on actual words, but man, he jibber-jabbers constantly all day. So I hope the words are around the corner. I have been realizing that he gets a lot less clear, repetitive, consistent speech from me during the day, because so much of what he hears is rapid-fire exchange between Owen and I. When it was just Owen and I, there was so much time spent in the 'Where are Owen's eyes?' and 'Let's put you in your carseat' and describing the events of the day, etc. Now I just forget to do that simple sort of talking because Owen's filling up my ears pretty much constantly!! I need to read more to Asher too. Poor 2nd children, they really do get the short straw vs. the first. But they seem in some ways so much healthier for it!! In any case, his words of the moment are 'eyes, hi, bye, yum-yum (mum-mum), woof, moo, meow' and that's about it. He's had a lot of other words over the past few months, but he's dropped them.
Eczema...Asher has had a pretty bad eczema ring around his chin/under his lower lip since a little after he turned 1 year. It started as a polka dot rash almost immediately after his 12 month appointment at the pediatrician. At the time I remember I had the crazy notion it was caused by his vaccinations (just because of the timing). Of course, it also started just a couple of weeks after his first drinking of cow's milk. Later, as time went by and it would clear up for a while, but then come back, I imagined it was a drooling rash, since he often sleeps in a puddle of drool. Now that the weather's cooled off, that rash can really pop up angry red sometimes. If I keep it well aquaphor-soaked, it can almost seem gone for a while. But then one day it will go from practically invisible to bright red, and it seems like it transitions quite quickly between those two states. I wonder if it's a food sensitivity. Embarrassingly, I keep forgetting to mention it when we've been to the Dr. for a flu shot for Owen, etc., and have just been waiting til his next checkup since it's not always terrible. I'm going to try to journal what he's eating so I can see if there's any connection on those days when it just pops up bright red. It never seems to bother him.
My cutie!!
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