I cry but I'm an Overcomer.

Part 1
Part 2

Again- the overwhelming support and love I have felt is tremendous Thank you all. I wrote all of these almost a month ago so they are all full of a lot of emotion. I am doing great. God has totally wrapped me up in his arms and comforted me. Granted, I still have my moments but I am doing great. God is using this to teach me so much and for that I am thankful. Anyways- here is what I wrote 2 days after the miscarriage. 

I Cry.

 I cry about little things like our new house- I picked a nursery and had plans already in my mind.

 I cry blaming myself because my progesterone was low.

 I cry because Thursday that baby was growing, had arms and a tail, had a head and eye sockets and most importantly a heartbeat and sometime between Thursday afternoon and Saturday evening that heart stopped beating. (this one causes a lot of tears)

I cry because people chose to have abortions at weeks much farther than this and my baby is gone.

I cry because I feel lost and devastated.

I cry because I don’t know what else to do.

I cry because Justin was so excited about this baby- more so than me sometimes. I was so happy to watch him be giddy about our family growing.

I cry because we picked a dishwasher with bottle washers

I cry because I will always have a niece/nephew that will be born days before or after my baby was supposed to be born

I cry because I can’t believe this is happening.

         I cry just because I'm sad. 

I will never understand why this is happening or maybe I will. I will just hold onto the many promises God has given us. Just like Laura Story says in her song, Blessings… “as if every promise from your word was not enough.”

 On my way to get blood taken to check and make sure my HCG levels are decreasing I heard Mandisa’s song, Overcomer and I have decided that just like Isaiah 46:4 was Baby Knight’s life verse (however short that little life was) Overcomer is now my theme song. I will overcome. He will make me stronger and he will get all the glory through this all. The song says,

Whatever it is you may be going through

I know he’s not gonna let it get the best of you

You’re an overcomer

Stay in the fight till the final round

You’re not going under

‘Cause God is holding you right now

You might be down for a moment

Feeling like its hopeless

That’s when he reminds you

That you’re an overcomer

The same Man, the Great I am

The one who overcame death

Is living inside of you

So just hold tight, fix your eyes

On the one who holds your life

There’s nothing he can’t do

He’s telling you.

It will never be easy and I may cry for years to come but God doesn't promise that we will never grieve, he just promises that his joy will come in the morning and that our grief will turn to joy. (John 16:20) I love the song Jeremy Camp wrote after his wife miscarried, There Will Be a Day. It says, 

“Troubled soul don’t lose your heart 

cause joy and peace he brings 

and the beauty that’s in store 

outweighs the hurt of lifes sting.”

As I sit in our study writing this I look up to my art worship I have hanging on the wall and it is a random writing of lyrics, prayers, hopes, dreams and the only verse I can see over the computer screen is Psalms 61 so I looked it up.

    
 Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
     For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.
     For you, God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name….Then I will ever sing in praise of your name and fulfill my vows day after day.

        So though it may have been the worst day of my life, the Lord is doing something. Though I may not see it and though I will cry Lord only knows how many more times- he is working and I pray I can give him the glory. 

Grieving Silently

Part I Here.

It’s funny to see how I wrote before I lost the baby (yesterdays post) and then after. Everything in yesterdays post was written while I was still pregnant. Everything today was written after I miscarried.  Also, it isn't very pretty. This is real and raw. I have tried to keep it readable but bear with me that this is really what happened.

...They said to rest and they would see me Thursday for an ultrasound. I did nothing all day Wednesday and Thursday my apt time came. I was a nervous wreck. I just knew I would go in and get my ultrasound & there would be no heartbeat. I also double nervous cause I was alone.

I had decided Monday night there was reason God chose that verse for this baby. I told myself I am not carrying this baby- the Lord is. If he chooses to carry this baby for a week, a month, 9 months- I would find rest in him alone and just like Isaiah says, he will sustain and rescue me. As difficult as that was to swallow, I held tight and kept repeating myself (maybe to convince myself I’d be ok if something happened) Having a baby is a gift. A gift I don’t deserve. God allows me to be a carrier of HIS child. I just held tight that regardless of the outcome I would be okay because he made me, he will carry me, sustain and rescue me.

                I go in to the office and have to wait. I am looking through Instragram and see one of my friends has posted a handwritten note of Psalms 37:4

Delight yourselves in the Lord

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

I sat in the waiting room and thought Oh Lord, I delight myself in you—you have yet to fail me - you will give me the desires of my heart. Oh I held onto that verse and prayed that when I was called back and the ultrasound began that I would see a baby and heart beating away. We started ultrasound and there the baby is…bigger than Monday and its heart is beating away. That sounds like a happily ever after right? I was so happy. My stress melted away. He told me we aren’t out of water yet but baby is growing and heart is still beating. Go downstairs and get more blood checked and see what your progesterone levels are now (after 5 doses of progesterone).

Well Monday I was a 7, Thursday I was a 9.9- still extremely low but getting better. Hope was still there. The baby now had arms and a little head along with eye holes, all visible on the ultrasound. I knew we weren’t out of water and I was still bleeding but oh I had hope again. Even my doctor said we don’t give up on babies that easily around here.  I started to get giddy and be happy. And praise Jesus- he had given us the desires of our heart. We would see the doctor again on the 21^st.

We drove to Kingwood because Friday we had apt with design center for our new house. Mom put the ultrasound photos on a painting I painted a few years ago of a lighthouse with psalms 71:14- I will always have hope. Friday was super busy and I was bleeding more. We got home Friday evening and decided Saturday we would do nothing and I would relax with my feet up. I went to bed full of hope and excited because my bleeding seemed to really have slowed down since resting.

Well Saturday came…I woke up worse than I had been yet. I messaged my nurse and told her I know doc said not to worry about bleeding, but when should I worry about bleeding?  She told me she would check with him and see what he wanted me to do. My nurse is amazing. We chatted back and forth and she told me not to give up and that God only gives the strong people tests. ( I mean really, who can talk with their baby doctor nurse on Saturday like they are just old friends chatting- I am so so thankful for her) Doctor told her to tell me that if it looks more like tissue instead of clots, I should worry. The rest of the day I would check every time I passed a clot.  As Saturday continued my bleeding got worse. My cramps got worse- like BAD. I took two showers—it was the only time my stomach felt semi-ok. I was losing hope and fast. Around 4:30 my cramps were awful. I would go lay in bed and oh the pain. I realized after an hour of misery—it wasn’t cramps. It was contractions. I knew the end was coming whether I was ready or not. I messaged my nurse again and told her this couldn’t be right I was in such pain. I felt like I was in labor. I told Justin that contractions with a baby at the end are much more bearable. Contractions to lose a baby are the worst thing I have ever experienced & I’ve had a central line and catheter put in with NO medicine.

At 7:30, I got ready for bed because I was miserable and lay in the bed, crying I was in such pain. I even told Justin- I’m not even crying because of the baby, I am crying because of how bad it hurts. At 7:45 I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom and stood up and felt it. I ran to the toilet saying Oh my gosh oh my gosh! I knew it was over. I just sat on the toilet and cried and cried. I messaged Kristi again and said Am I having a miscarriage? She said to be honest it sounds like but she would pray she was wrong. I boo-hooed the rest of the night…like ugly, scream cried. Justin went and got me a heating bad to help but as soon as the miscarriage happened my cramps slowly subdued. It was awful. I wrapped myself up in the heating pad anyways. Sunday I called the on call doctor and he confirmed that it sounded like I had a complete miscarriage.

I have been walking around numb ever since. I don’t think I have ever cried so much in my life. It is like I am perfectly fine then I am a mess. Little things set me off. Like this…I am writing this and thinking why? Everything about Ascher I write is for him to read. And as I write this I think, who will even read this? No baby will ever grow up to want to read the story of the hard road that led them to where they are today.

And maybe that is why I feel like I need to share my story and though my baby will never read the story and I’ll never get to watch that baby grow up it will always be my baby. My 2^nd baby. My little t-rex (as we called it after seeing it on Thursday before mc). And I need to acknowledge that this child existed. It had a purpose. 

So why do I feel the need to share with all of the internet? Because I feel like having a miscarriage is taboo yet so many women experience it and have suffered through one, two, three or more. Why do we wait to share our news at 12 weeks? Because its past the "scary time" or the "high risk"? Really…the second I found out something was not 100% ok with this baby I told all the people I knew would pray. I wanted heavens gates to be stormed with prayers not hidden away because I was scared. (I realized all people are different. Talking about a miscarriage may be awkward for you. You may think its personal and I shouldn’t share. That’s fine- we are all welcome to our opinions) However, I don’t do anything silently and grieving silently isn’t gonna happen for me.

I don’t think it’s right no one talks about miscarriages. They are real. They are common and they hurt. I was talking to my sister-in-law one night and she said something so true…we start caring for our babies the second we see two lines on a pregnancy test, not at 12 weeks when they are “safe.”  We never stop worrying. Why do we rejoice with women when they announce they are pregnant but leave them to grieve alone & silently when they lose a child? 

One night when I was writing two nights after the mc I wrote a list about why I cry. Little things would trigger the flood gates. Something else was a song that has made me have joy again. I’ll post it tomorrow. 

His Child. Not My Own.

I have really contemplated on posting this anywhere. And why share now? I share now because I would have been 12 weeks this week. I wrote it over time but really feel like maybe God put this in our lives so that I can share. Back in September we found out we were expecting. Due May 29, 2014. I wrote the typical excitement journal entry and was so excited. This baby was in no way planned. I got off birth control in September and got pregnant in September. With Ascher, I got off in January and got pregnant in July so we were not expecting this at all. Anything in red was written a while ago—black is my commentary today.

We have no idea what we are in for but we are excited that God has blessed us once again with a pregnancy. It is such a miracle. As I was putting Ascher to bed tonight, (We have this new thing where we go in our room and watch TV in bed for  a few minutes then he snuggles up next to me and goes to sleep) I texted Justin and said there are three of us in here. He said that’s weird. I responded, no its not. It’s a miracle, our greatest accomplishments.

I continued to write about little stuff…ya know stuff I wanted to remember…like my symptoms, things that were happening in our world (like house being on market, etc) And then Sunday night three weeks later I was on pinterest and I kept coming across this verse…Isaiah 46:4. I just knew in my gut that this should be Baby #2 life verse. (Mine is Psalms 91, Justin is Proverbs 3:5-6, and Ascher is John 15:9-16) The verse says… I have made you and I carry you. I will sustain you and I will rescue you. I don’t know but I just knew in my gut that this needed to be this babies verse. I clung to that verse so tightly over the upcoming weeks. So Monday came around and this is what I wrote following our doctors apt. 

Well little did I know how much it would ring true. (Reference to the verse) Monday we went to the doctor. I was so excited and anxious. I just couldn't wait to have my second ultrasound and see little baby. (I had been to doc once already but it was too early to see anything other than a sac forming). Well we get in there and the little heart is beating away. It really is the most beautiful sound that there ever was. It is unbelievable to me that a baby's heart is beating away at 105 beats per minute inside me. Well I asked how far along I was and he said it looked like 5 weeks. Well according to my last period I am supposed to be 6 weeks 5 days. So he says he is going to put me on progesterone to help. And then asks me have you ever had a miscarriage? I am holding it together as best as can. I am so lost. WHAT!? A miscarriage?  I came into this appointment so happy and anxious and just knew I would see two babies (haha)…not one who may or may not be growing properly. Well Monday night I start spotting. Tuesday morning I go to bible study and I can’t get it out of my mind. Im so hormonal. (Good sign, I guess. Haha) Well I call them at 11 and she tells me my progesterone is at 7. It’s supposed to be at 15 so he wants me to start taking my progesterone 2x a day instead of one and see me next Friday instead of 2 weeks…My spotting is increasing and so they want to see me on Thursday instead of next Friday.

I rested the next few days trying to do everything in my power to just take it easy and not worry. At this point, I really was just thinking I needed to rest—that’s it. (How naive) I wrote this on Wednesday night…

Tomorrow morning I have MOPS then it will be almost time for the apt. I am very nervous. Justin is in Houston and Mom is sick. So I am going alone. I know God has a plan just like I said. Isaiah is this baby's life verse. And if the Lord chooses to let me carry HIS child for a week, an hour, or preferably 9 months HE is the one who is carrying me and the baby. This baby is on loan.  He will rescue & sustain me regardless of the outcome.

In writing this I just realized that is the last thing I wrote in that entry about the baby. Im gonna be honest…this is hard. That’s enough for now. Tomorrow I’ll write about the worst day of my life. The day the Lord chose to take his baby home. 

September: Ava's birthday party

3 years ago a little girl was welcomed into the world and I had the privilege of spending the first night home from the hospital with her at their apartment. One Sunday in September, that little girl, Ava turned 3. I drove to Katy for the party and Ascher had a blast. He played with the crowns & jewels (it was a princess party), he especially loved the play kitchen- he wasn't a huge fan of the jump house though. 

After eating, playing and jumping it was time for cupcakes. Well they had planned for Shellie or Pamela to wear the "princess costume" and surprise all the little girls with a princess appearance...however, due to some sizing issues I was called upon and low and behold...it zipped so Lauren, Ascher's mom, became Lauren, Princess of Enchanchia. I had so much fun. The little girls were in awe like I was a real princess. It made my day to see all of the girls so happy.

Ascher's face in the background breaks my heart. 

And of course Princess Lauren couldn't forget her favorite little prince...

Happy 3rd Birthday Ava!! Glad we got to celebrate with you!

September: Carla & Kason Gender Reveal

Kason & Carla (my brother in law & sister in law) are expecting and I am so excited to be welcoming another...NEPHEW!!! We drove to Tomball one night for the big gender reveal. They worked really hard on finding a creative way to share the wonderful news with us all and it turned out so cute! 

I am so excited for another Knight boy!! I can't wait to hug and love on the little man!!

September: Benjamin's 2nd birthday

The first weekend in September we headed to Lake Conroe for a sweet little boy's 2nd birthday! Benjamin's birthday party was so much fun. We played in the pool and around the house. We ate lots of food and all hung out. 

Kim and I have become close friends through bible study and I am so blessed and thankful for our friendship. 

As we were leaving I made Kim take a photo with me so we could remember how cute we were when our babies were 1.5 and 2! HAHA! 

Fallen

So it may seem like I have fallen off the face of the blogging world...have no fear I am back. (hopefully- for now). We have had a whirlwind couple of months. So last time I blogged...

  I was sitting in my study in our house
    which wasn't on the market yet.
  We had just found out we were moving.

 However, today I sit in a computer niche in our apartment because...
   our house has sold,
   we have purchased a new house,
   it isn't finished being built
   so we are living in an apartment until it is finished.

A lot of other stuff has happened as well but that will surface in due time. We have been crazy. SOO thankful Justin's company hired packers and movers or I would have been a crazy person. It all happened so fast. We sold our house in 12 days. I was so sad to leave our little town. I had lived there since 2005. It was definitely bittersweet. The first day we were in Houston- I cried and thought I want to go back home. It is so overwhelming and scary. I have no friends, no HEB down the street, no bible study, no MOPS. However, by the second day here I had a much better attitude.The second day here Dad stopped by for lunch because he was in the area (that never happened in CS) and by the third day Ascher and I were already at Toddler Time at the library down the road. Today we went to a free Kindermusix event in the town center which was loads of fun. There is so much to do around here- I think we will like it. So thats my update for now...I'm going to try and organize everything we have done so I can play catch up on some major events but for now..here is our little family the morning we moved out of our first home. Sad, but so exciting.

First MOPS meeting

Back on September 12  we had our first MOPS meeting. I LOVE being a part of MOPS. This year I am a table leader and I love all the girls at my table. We did our random draw and I pulled all veteran mommas! Our first meeting is always nerve wracking because you hope that your table all get along and that personalities mix well. Well let me tell you--- I hit the jackpot. Last year our table wasn't very talketive-- this year we all were talking over each other and having 8 different conversations between 6 people. It was so refreshing and made me so happy. (and sad that I am leaving).

Here is my table

Meredith, Megan, Katie, Sally, Brandy, Laura, Susan, Me, & Jennifer

I also convinced one of my long time friends, Pamela to join too. She was skeptical at first but I think she will enjoy it!! (I hope)

Our first meeting is always the logistics...introducing everyone, talking with your table, getting to know each other. Everyone made shirts as our craft (table leaders, encouragers and steering already made theirs) and ate lots of food- I think it was a great first meeting and I am looking forward to as many as I get to go to before we move! 

Mondays with Mom: Beautiful Stranger

Last week was crazy and Mondays with Mom had to be put on the back burner. Mom came to College Station to help me get the house ready. Ready for what you ask? We are MOVING!!! More to come on our latest adventure but for now, here is Mom with Mondays with Mom. (I absolutely LOVE this story- making mom write has been so much fun because I am learning and hearing all sorts of things I never knew)

Complete stranger:
Danger or God’s leading???

When I was a child, my parents said we didn't need a dog. Sometimes, however, if I got lucky, someone would drop a puppy off to fend for itself, and it would wander to our neighborhood.  I would quickly give the sweet little innocent, flea infested puppy a bath, get an old used leash, and announce to my family that I had found a stray, and couldn't we keep him???

That’s how I've lived my entire life. The first day of school desegregation, I couldn't wait to invite my new friend that I had never seen before to my house;  that also included boys I met at the beach, strangers that I met at the movies; God must have really been watching out for me.

When I was getting my Master’s Degree, I had to take a class in interpersonal relationships. We watched some scenarios where people were sincere, and others were using people. I could never tell the difference, since I always saw the good in people, and kept saying, “I see what you’re saying, but couldn't you see that person was reaching out???”

Mark took a job transfer to the wonderful state of California, and being adventurous, I was all for the move that we must  make. I was eight months pregnant and with a three year old; but felt sure God would deliver this second baby wherever we moved. (I was wrong about that..but that’s a different blog!)

When Lauren was just a few months old, I took both the girls to the one and only grocery store in the new area (so new that we still had no phone service). I am always people watching, and noticed a young mother shopping with her infant also. She asked me if I knew where she could find the ice cream, and I told her. She had a quiet smile, a small voice, and she seemed needy-I remembered thinking. As I thought about it, I thought that she should have known she would find that in frozen food, but, whatever.

About two aisles later, there she was again, with a second question and some small talk about babies. We ended up standing in the frozen food aisle for a long time, just making small talk. We properly introduced ourselves, where we lived, churches attended, ages of children, and who knows what else. She indicated that she had just moved (hadn't we all in this new area), and was lonely. Of course you know what I did. I invited her to my house that afternoon!!!!! I didn't know her from Adam (or Eve), but I did.  I remember thinking as I unloaded my groceries that I may not have been very smart in doing so, but hadn't I felt I was supposed to do that, reach out. I felt that God was nudging…or was that me just bringing home strays again, seeing only the good??

Beth and her newborn came over, and the afternoon went wonderfully. I can pretty much talk to the wall, so that was easy. Jess was little mama babysitting our two little infants. I invited her family to dinner on Friday night, and so a friendship began.

About a month after befriending Beth, we were at her home for a play date when she told me she had a confession to make.  After we got comfy, Beth related that her life had been really sad lately, she had fallen in to a depression pit that she could not get out, and had decided to take her life…

THAT was the day she loaded up her infant child and came to the grocery store!  …I cry again, just thinking about her, and how God led me to act upon my intuition that day…

                          And as I tell my girls all the time, Look for God’s gifts around you.

17 months 8-29-13

Ascher

17 months

8-29-13

Lost Pines

weight: 22 lbs
diaper: size 4 Target brand, size 4 Huggies Overnights
teeth: 7 teeth- 4 on top, 3 on bottom (one on the bottom is about to break through)

*thinks SUPER BABY is hilarious- I spin him around and say super baby over and over and he laughs and laughs

*Obsessed with:

• shoes (his and ours)
• trucks/cars
• his puppy & his food and water bowl (Likes to take dog food out one piece at a time and give it to Pip- Ascher will yank on his ears while he is eating and Pip doesn't mind- good doggy)

• chicken nuggets from Chickfila
• his cousins

• running fast until he falls over
• being outside 

• playing/eating in ice

• going to get the mail (we started spelling it so he wouldn't know we were talking about it)
• sad to say: Coke. I still water down his juice but he figured out how to drink out of a straw and was so proud of himself that he would always want to drink out of our drinks. Well now anything to him that has a straw is a Coke. He sees a straw cup...coke coke coke!! He gets a sip (doesn't come up for air, downs it) Judge away. I know its not good for him and its not like I order him a coke---he just gets a sip of mine
• loves to pretend to "drive the car" 

*went on first vacation to Lost Pines

*went to his Great Grandma's funeral

*was a crazy busy month- our life completely changed this month. Woke up one morning and the world would never be the same...Grandma died and Justin got a job offer to move to Houston. The Lord gives and takes away. But we will say...blessed be your name. 

Mondays with Mom: Sisters

I hope yall have been enjoying Mondays with Mom. I know I am loving listening to the stories and waiting to see what Mom will come up with for the next week. I love that I have made her write again. : ) 

This week she shares about her sisters. I have a vivid memory of this exact day. I had made a "family newspaper" and had spent all day working on it for when everyone came over. (Random memory- I know). I also remember this fight happening...yet I don't remember the silence that came after...I only remember the laughter that followed. 

Sisters……

Girls God put in your Life

Circa 2004 (I think)
Mom, Ruby, Janice & Jenny (Granny in front)

Mark loves the movie, Christmas Vacation, with Chevy Chase. You know the one…Chevy goes to the attic, watches old home movies, and cries for the good ole days. He’s watching our home movies now, the VHS edition. I watched for an hour earlier, but decided it was time to quit…I missed my young parenting days.  I do always love watching the dynamics of our girls being sisters; love Jessica being “little mama,” love watching Lauren emulate her big sissy, even love their arguments; always with the prissy little hands on the hips!

All that sisterly love made me think back to my childhood; being the third of four girls--Jenny, then Ruby (4 and 5 years older than me), and Janice (4 years younger).  I wrote once that the third child in the family wasn’t important out of four. When you’re the middle child, it’s a problem we have (although it is NOT true, you that are third born).

When you are sisters, there are always pivotal moments in your relationships. I’m about to share our biggest : )

After our dad passed away, my two older sisters helped my mom keep her independence by doing practically everything for her at her house. They really were unbelievable.  Every time they came to mom’s they had work to do. A few years ago, my family went home to visit; and as always, when there were lots of us, we all gathered on the back patio for a huge picnic.(We all loved this family tradition - you know the type of day; everybody cooks their specialty, and we all eat until we’re stuffed!)

Just as we were getting ready to serve dinner, Jenny came up the stairs and announced that she would be right back, but she had washed my clothes (to surprise me) and was going to hang them out on the line. If you know Jenny, you know she adores fresh smelling clothes. ……I objected. Jen, you can’t hang my undies on the line right where the men are all sitting! Jen laughed and headed out the door. She was being such a great sister, but all I could think of was my big ole underwear being hung outside for all to see! I took the basket out of her arms, and zipped through the house with it!

As I returned, my sister Ruby was getting ready to empty the garbage can. Again, what a great sister because in doing so we would have space for new trash. But it smelled, and we were getting ready to eat. I said, “No, it stinks.”  She laughed and continued to work (as they always did). I took the trash can and threw it down the basement stairs, so as to get rid of the smell. I can remember my mom, sitting in her wheelchair, saying, “Oh Lord, what has happened to my girls?”

I can never remember arguing with my sisters like that. We ate in silence. All of us kept exchanging glances at each other, as if to say, are we alright? Later that day, we all had a great time laughing at all of us, about how silly the entire situation looked. The next day, I remember, my girls said they understood my sisters completely, working at our mom’s was what they always did, and they were doing what they always did...Made perfect sense.

I will go to my death remembering that day as one of the funniest memories with my sisters. I love knowing that no matter how we act, no matter if we are wrong or right…."Love keeps no record of wrong doing…” and at the end of the day, there are no people that I want to get along with or not get along with...more than my sisters!! 

My World. Matching.

This past weekend was the first Texas A&M football game. Justin went to the game with Daniel. Ascher and I didn't go to campus- we were taking maternity photos. However, I still put Ascher in his Aggie gear of course. So when Justin came home I made them take matching photos. Adorable. I mean seriously!? Ascher is such a mini Justin!!

and just for fun a few of my favorites from maternity photos...

16 months 7-29-13

Ascher

16 months

July 29, 2013

So I am terrible once again…tomorrow he turns 17 months old and here I am writing his 16 month post. Granted, I keep track of everything on my phone so I guess I’m not too behind…I’m only behind in documenting it on the blog.

·         Still a flat 22 lbs.

·         Size 4 diapers, still 12 mon or 18 month clothes (Polo shorts size 9month hang off him and he can fit into most 9month Polo shirts as well)

·         Still has seven teeth- four on top, three on the bottom

·         Chews on every elephant trunk we have

·         Puts sunglasses on the right way & is able to put his hat on

·         Loves water again- not so much being IN it as much as he loves to play WITH it

·         TALKS ALL THE TIME

·         Still takes two naps a day (between 10-11 and then again between 1-2:45)

·         Would live outside if he could

·         Bread is his favorite food

·         Plays peek-a-boo all the time. You say, “Where’s Ascher?” and he hides his face

·         Waves at everything & everyone

·         Loves to be chased- thinks its hilarious

·         Carries stuffed animals around and gives them hugs & gives Pip hugs too

·         Loves to dance to all kinds of music (Cutest video of him dancing on Sunday morning before church- hilarious)

·         Obsessed with his cousins

·         Climbs on everything