Asher hits the big 0-3

That's right, my blond little guy turned three, and boy was he excited for his birthday. He started to really notice birthdays on Bridger's last, which was in November. Then he had to wait through Daddy's, Mommy's and Eilidh's before it was finally his turn.
Asher is in many ways still the baby of the family, or at least he would like to think he is. In classic middle child fashion, he plays big when he wants to and throws in the little card when it suits his agenda. I know that I've coddled him more than Bridger, and he also enjoys the coddling so it is a hard habit to break. The other day he walked all the way over from the neighbor's raspberry patch with his pants around his ankles because he had peed in the bushes and then claimed he didn't know how to pull his underwear back up. He nearly caused an accident by the hysterics that were induced from the drivers-by. He knows how to pull up his pants, he just wants someone else to do it. Of course, there are things he truly can't do by himself (like lace up his hiking boots) that he will vehemently fight to do independently--I guess he's a typical preschooler.He's the joker of the family and has Eilidh in stitches in no time flat. He's also the biggest cuddler of them all--you can always count on Asher for a great snuggle.

We celebrated with a dinosaur cake and many friends at a nearby park with a screamin' splash deck. I love summer birthdays.

I don't think I fully realized when we bought this house how much random maintenance there would be. I mean, it took me a good year to figure out how to routinely clean, not to mention pick up clutter and take care of the yard (and various plants and gardens I put in every year). And we have a small house--with only two small bathrooms (my least favorite area to clean)! Last month alone we had the chimney sweeped, the plumbing flushed, the trees trimmed and the carpets cleaned. Granted, most of those items will last us several years, but geez it was an expensive month!

I really find myself hoping that we can make this small house work for the long haul. Most of the time I think we can, but this weekend when Asher crying during naptime threatened to wake everyone in the house while we were recovering from the stomach flu, I start to wonder if we couldn't use a little more space. Occasional inconveniences aside, we love our house. I love that the boys share a small room--they're never scared and they have to learn how to share space. Every time we redo a room or plant a perennial bed I put a little piece of me here (literally--at least a broken fingernail) and I always get the twinge of feeling like we're going to get it just how we like it and then have to move--either because we're called elsewhere or we just plain outgrow the house.

I suppose we could learn to love another house, but please not one with too many bathrooms.

The mom with the yellow hat

This is how these things happen. We're having a party, it's 11pm and we're trying to wrangle the remaining kids into bed. Asher and two little girls were attempting to go to sleep along in a bed with a toddler in a portacrib beneath them. Needless to say, not much settling down was occurring. Soon we heard some coughing and screaming and Asher seemed to be gagging. I assumed he had too many doritos and we headed to the bathroom. He stopped coughing quickly and then explained that he had swallowed a hair thing. We looked around because I assumed it was a rubber band, but we found both of those. Only one of the 2-inch barrettes was missing.


It took me awhile to figure out what to do. I mean, there are many factors at play here--maybe he's making up a story, after all it is 11:30pm and getting any info out of 2-3 year-olds usually results in nonesense. Let me say that again, it's 11:30 at night--what kind of mother am I to have my kid up that late and apparently so hungry he resorted to eating sparkly metal? There was also the copious amount of margaritas (for me, not Asher: I'm not that bad of a mother). Eventually after some phone calls, I decided to bring him to the ER (it's about 1am by now). Sure enough--the barrette's in his belly (pic 1). The next day, it's in his intestine (pic 2). Good news because it passed all the really small parts and now just has to weave its way through the bowel and on out--"but let us know if he vomits blood or his belly becomes distended and he'll be rushed to surgery." Great.


Thankfully, he ate, drank and pooped to his little heart's content and, though we were diligently searching for its passing, the barrette remained illusive. Today's x-rays confirm that it is gone, though, so I don't care where it went. We also went to the bookstore and bought "Curious George goes to the Hospital" because I remembered an image from when I was a kid of George's x-ray with a puzzle piece inside his stomach. Asher got a kick out of this comraderie. In fact, he's enjoyed all the attention. Hopefully the surgery threats and prune juice will be enough to deter him from doing it again.


After Ryan's kidney stones last month, I have really spent enough time in the ER this year and don't even talk to me about our deductibles.

It is a good story, though--even worthy of Curious George.

Weekly goals

After several woeful attempts at homeschool preschool this year, I finally settled on something that works for us. My failed attempt this fall was to set up a little schedule with small amounts of time loosely devoted to different things I wanted to teach the kids. I put together six weeks worth of prep sheets, but after all my those were done, I could never find time to do more. Keep in mind--I need prep sheets. I don't do well just throwing things together and my kids can sense my fluster a mile away. If I'm not sure what activity we're doing, things are bound to denegrate into fits followed by Scooby-Doo episodes. (Bridger told me he can learn about mythological creatures by watching Scooby-doo--see what I'm up against?).

I can't be too hard on myself because I took a full-time stint back at my Philly job (from home, obviously) September through February and have been taking other freelance work since. This is also why I finally caved and started the boys in preschool in March. But back to my original premise--something that's working.

Instead of having daily work that I can't really quantify, I started thinking of two or three weekly goals for both the boys. They vary from Bridger learning to tie his shoes and Asher learning to put on his clothes to Bridger counting by 5's and Asher learning to spell his name. We work on mainly those goals each day of the week--sometimes they are really difficult (I admit the tying shoes one is still ongoing) and sometimes they are mastered within a day. Once they feel confident with their knowledge, they complete their goal for Ryan. If he is satisfied, the boys recieve "kid cash" for each of their accomplishments which they can use to buy an extra dessert or tv show.

I'm really excited about this because I feel like it could be something I continue through school to enrich their education. After many hours of thought and prayer, we will be sending Bridger to public FULL day kindergarten next year. Academics isn't the only thing I'm concerned about, but I hope this tradition can continue. Mostly it depends on me continuing to think up interesting goals--and the kids caring enough about Scooby-doo episodes to save up their kid cash.

What's up?

So my blogging has taken a bit of a hiatus lately. I apologize to anyone who actually checks this anymore and doesn't opt to follow me on twitter (who am I kidding, I don't have time for twitter). It seems that the blog has become more of a place for ruminations, while Facebook and Snapfish take care of the family's need for constant photos. And, though I've had a few random thoughts lately on what might make a good post, I've had absolutely no time to percolate. However, I'm feeling a bit inspired tonight so maybe I'll get something in the hopper. Here's a photo of the kids on Easter for those of you who are still interested...

Eilidh's first year

It's such a cliche, but this first year of Eilidh's life has gone so fast. Maybe it's also because it's been the last year of my 20's! Eilidh and I are hitting milestones today--1 year and 30 years respectively. Here's a look back at her year in pictures.



Some comments the boys have had about their sister lately:

[Bridger] "Eilidh's so beautiful I wish I could marry her"
[Asher] "I love Eilidh the mostest"

What they had to say about Eilidh's demolishment of her chocolate cake:

[Asher] "Eilidh looks like a bear...or maybe a werewolf"
[Bridger] "She looks half chocolate, half human"

Family Pets

The Sutherlands have officially taken in our first family pets. Wait for it.....that's right....an ant farm! The grandparents purchased the 9 x 5 inch habitat for Christmas, the ants cost $2 and came in the mail right to our door. These are my kind of pets---low maintenance--scratch that: no maintenance. Well, actually the little dudes do tip over their water thimble and I have to refill that at least once a week. Now, you're probably all saying--you live in Missoula, Montana--doesn't a dog come with the house? Yes, actually we are some of the only people we know without a large mammal in their backyard. And we're open to the idea of a dog (not a cat, never a cat) sometime in the future, just not now. I clean up way too much poop already to add someone else to the mix. I mean, it's not like the kids have been asking for a pet, in fact, they are a bit obsessed with insects--catching them, looking at them under the microscope...squishing them. They love big animals, but Bridger had a nasty reaction to a cat recently and we have plenty of friends with dogs and even goats and chickens for us to enjoy.

And even if they do want a larger pet down the line, the kids need to learn responsibility with something small. Couple more years of this and they can work themselves up to a Betafish.