Asher=3

What a busy week this has been! Each week, I think that maybe there will be a little more downtime, somewhere. Each week, I find out that I am wrong. I had thoughts that when both boys started preschool this fall that there might have been a few extra moments of sanity, but instead, I seem to spend the time catching up on all the things that I can't get done any other time when they are home. Oh well, to quote Natalie Merchant, these are the days we will remember.

Asher turned 3 this past week. What a guy. Seriously. I love this kid, even though of course, I love all of my children. But still, Asher has this sweet and kind way about him that I just cherish. And his laugh--when you tickle him, he laughs this deep belly laugh that you can't help but laugh along with.I can really see how he was given a Chinese name that meant "happy" before his adoption, something we tried to carry forward by naming him Asher, since it too means happy.

We celebrated by having a small party with our little family at home and thenon Friday night, we went to my parents house for dinner, cake and ice cream. He did great; he understands now what to do with a present, and he had a wonderful time opening gifts! Actually, a few hours earlier, we had been at the doctor's office for his 3-year appointment, where he received several shots for school. So, he wasn't feeling the greatest at first and simply hung out with Russ for a while, sort of spacing out and clutching a cracker. I wondered how long this would go one, but eventually, he came out of his shell and seemed to do better with a little birthday cake and Tylenol.

This morning, Caleb and I participated in a Fun Run as a fundraiser for his school. It was a1-mile run around the neighborhood. I was pretty impressed with Caleb, as he ran practically the whole thing. I actually went into the thing assuming we would walk most of it--I guess I underestimated Caleb'senergy levels--and right up until the start when the gun went off, I had walking in mind. Except that everyone else started running, including Caleb, and then we just didn't slow down. Afterward, we celebrated with some bagels and bananas and he has already told me that he wants to do another race.

Following the run, we then went to the zoo for a free morning for Asher's school. They boys are in 2 different schools this year, plus neither one of them is in our district where we live. Last spring, Caleb was in preschool with the public school system, but since he technically turned 5 in August, he was eligible for Kindergarten. We opted to keep him out one more year, and since we were trying to movein the spring, we weren't sure where to send him for a preK program. We finally decided on the school he goes to now, since we needed to make a decision to go somewhere, lest he end up being homeschooled becausewe couldn't decide on anything at all. His school is on the north end of the city. Asher, on the other hand, was slated to begin in the same program that Caleb was in last year, but since we moved, he was unable to go to our old school. So, they chose a new school for him, which is in the other direction, south of our house. Between driving 2different directions in the mornings and keeping track of show-and-share days, library days and teacher's notes, it has been a lot of running around. Still, it's only one school year of this. But, case in point, we ended up attending 2 events on Saturday for 2 different schools.

We did have a great time at the zoo as well. Asher is prettybig into animals, and is often fearless at times. There were a lot of kids from school there, as well as some former teachers for Caleb, so he was pretty excited to see them. Well, we all were, because we actually think the program is pretty great. Between the train ride, seeing the camels and petting jumbo-sized grasshoppers, I think the boys had a great time. And then it was time to go home to get some rest!