Asher Turned 3!

How is this baby three already?!

We had our best trip yet, celebrating Ash’s 3rd birthday at the new trampoline park at Meadowbrook Mall. This was all of our first time visiting one and we will definitely go again! I’ll give you the lowdown and tips for making your visit more enjoyable, should you decide to go. 

1. That place is huge. There are so many things to do aside from just the trampolines—a climbing wall, two bouncy houses, one for kids ages 2-5, and an adult friendly one, ninja climbing courses for littles, an enclosed dodgeball court, slam dunk basketball hoops, a small 1v1 volleyball pen, a free fall area, a balance battle beam, and many tumble tracks for jumping and flipping. There is also an arcade, which we didn’t do. With that being said, plan your duration accordingly. We did 90 minutes, but Quinn could’ve lasted for two hours. However, Ash was struggling by the end of our time, so we felt like 90 minutes was perfect for us. 
2. Parents, don’t skip this. Since we had never been, we didn’t realize there would be observation areas for non participants. I pre-booked and paid online, so we were surprised to find this out. We’re big kids at heart and wanted to do it anyway. Philip and I had just as much fun as the boys did 😊. 
3. Go early. Due to the drive time, I booked us in at 12:30, which wasn’t an overly busy time, but as time went on, it got more and more packed. Next time I think we’ll shoot for getting there closer to opening time. Even for as busy as it was, we still had plenty of room to play, but I always prefer to be around less people 😅. 
4. Bring a hair tie for anyone this applies to 🙄. 
5. Make sure everyone has on a short sleeve shirt 🫠. Ashy got so hot in his sweatshirt and he didn’t have anything underneath of it.
6. Prepare to either leave your stuff in a cubby or pay $8-$12 to rent a locker. The locker fee was really the only downside to the entire place. 
7. If you’re going during a busy time—like a Saturday on the first of the month during tax season 🙃—I would recommend booking your session ahead of time online. I’m not sure what max capacity is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a wait later on that day. 

So much fun! 🤩 

Ash had been looking forward to his birthday for weeks. He would wake me up in the mornings and ask me to sing happy birthday to him 😂. I finally decided to make a countdown so he could see how many days were left until it got here. Of course, big brother struggled with sharing the attention with the little, and I had to remind him most days that the countdown was for Ash and to let him remove the ring 🤦🏻‍♀️. Good thing Ash is an easygoing kid for the most part. Or, at least he was, before he turned three 😅. Three year olds are the freakin worst. I sincerely hope Ash is a less fussy three year old than his brother was 🫠. Quinn’s fussy phase lasted from about 2 months before his third birthday until about 5 1/2. He just hit 5 1/2 two months ago, so it’s been a long ride 😵‍💫. He still has his moments, but he seems to be calmer for the most part. 

🥷 🐢 

I’ve always planned birthday parties for the boys and invited all of our family and friends, which requires finding a venue to hold it. Ash’s birthday must be at peak party season because it was a struggle last year booking somewhere for the day and time I wanted. I didn’t want to deal with that this year, so we decided to use the money we would’ve spent on that to do something fun with the boys instead. I wasn’t going to have a party at all, but Quinn guilted me into it 😑. I told them we could have cake and ice cream with just a few friends at our house, so that’s what we did. I liked the simplicity of that option, as well as not getting the onslaught of birthday gifts that having a big party results in. Not that I’m ungrateful, it just creates a lot of stress for me. Not to mention, we have more than enough toys and crap in this house. He still got gifts, of course, it was just less. 

He told me he wanted a ninja turtle party, but then changed it to just ninja at the last minute 🫠. Good thing I refused to make a piñata, like Quinn expected 🙄.

I cut the front of the box into puzzle pieces, put them into ninja eggs, and hid them for the kids to find. They had to work together to make the picture, and then I gave them the ninja kids fruit snacks 

Purchasing 100 nerf bullets for shooting “ninjas” was a terrible idea 😅. 

Ash and Luka sporting their matching beanies ❤️ 

3️⃣ 🎂 🎁 🎈

Anyway, it’s hard to believe our baby is three. I had a fleeting moment where I was sad that I’ll never have another two year old because I think that is a fun stage. I’ll never have another baby to snuggle either. I don’t really miss that phase though. Life is easier with older littles. I hated being pregnant (and can’t be anymore anyway), breastfeeding was exhausting and overwhelming at times, and I like sleeping, more than the average person, I think 😅. My kids are still plenty attached to me, and Ash can’t walk anywhere without eventually wanting, “Uppa,” 🙄, so we’re only leaving behind the parts that weren’t my favorite 😄.

I mean, that’s not to say that there won’t be more of my less than favorite parts. Like, for example, when Ash chooses to talk about penises at the bus stop while we’re waiting to get the big kids, and the only other adults waiting to get their kids are a dad and a grandpa 🤦🏻‍♀️. One day Ash asked me, “Do you have a penis?” I said, “No,” with nothing more, hoping to stifle the conversation. No such luck. He said, “You have a ‘gina?” I said, “Uh huh,” while looking around, trying to find something to mention to derail his train of thought. He asked, “Do dad have a penis?” I answered, “Yes, but no more talking about penises right now.” 

He’s very interested in other’s genitalia at the moment (maybe he should run for the WV legislature 🤪). He has asked about nearly everyone we know whether they have a penis or not. He also categorizes people as either “Yes, mam,” or “Yes, sir” 😅. He’ll be like, “Sophie is yes, mam,” or “Lincoln is yes, sir.” He still sometimes tells me I’m a nice boy, but I think he has it mostly figured out. 

I’ve been watching Iris once a week for my friends, Mollie and John. She is also three, so she’s a good playmate for Ash. I warned Mollie that I cannot be held responsible for the things that my children teach their innocent daughter 😂. I intervened during a penis conversation facilitated by Ash during Iris’ second week here 🤦🏻‍♀️. They’ve had lots of other interesting conversations.

Ash: “Iris, do you have any cats?” 

Iris: “Yeah, one. One eye.” 

Me: “Oh, that’s right. What’s its name?” 

Iris: “Lefty.” 

Me: “I remember that now.”

Ash: “Why does it only have one eye?”

Iris: “The doctor had to work on it.” 

Ash: “Why?” 

Iris: shrug

Me: “He got hurt and his eye didn’t work anymore, so the doctor had to take it out.” 

Ash: “Did the doctor throw the eyeball in the trash?”

Me: “…umm, yeah, something like that.” 

Ash: “Is it still there? Can we go see it?” 

Me: 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

🥹🥹🥹

Iris cracks me up because she repeats what I say to Ash whenever he’s being silly. He gets “Asher Cole”—ed all day long, so she picked that up. She kept calling him Asher Cole, so he started calling her Iris Cole 😂. That brought a big round of giggles from them both. 

One thing I love about Iris is that she doesn’t talk nonstop like my kids do 🤣. She and Ash have been getting along great, it’s nothing like when Quinn is home, and I have to constantly remind people to stop touching each other 🙄. Ash tried wrestling Iris one time and she looked at him like he’d lost his mind. I talked to him and told him she didn’t like it, and I don’t think he has tried it since. She’s getting more comfortable here, though, and if this arrangement continues throughout the summer, I won’t be surprised if she starts tackling people 😅. 

We’ve been having lots of fun together!

Taking walks,

Checking out the new swing at the park, 

And seeing how high they can go on the old ones. 

Iris loves painting, 

But she realllllllly loves our trampoline 😄

😄

I love the free labor they volunteer for 😆. We got that mud rain washed off of my car, finally. 

I also got my office walls finished 🙌🏻. I’ll show you those in a few 😉. 

I was working on removing a shrub that was in my future garden space, and Iris stole my rake to help 😆. 

We’ve been to story time at the library every week 📚. Thing 2 was less than cooperative about wearing the headband they decorated for Dr. Seuss week 😑. 

Speaking of Dr. Seuss week,

I made a Cat in the Hat themed sensory bin for the first week of March. 

Ashy wore his own version 😅. He was very proud of himself for thinking this up. 

The week before, I created a birthday themed sensory bin for Ash. I have a whole collection of birthday candles, which I learned last year shouldn’t be stored in the attic that gets over 100° in the summer 🫠. More than half of them were all wonky from the heat, so I didn’t care to sacrifice them for the cause. I was surprised when they all made it out still intact, so there was no need to worry. 

Both of these bins were posted to my new YouTube channel, which you can watch here: 

And here: 

Make sure you like and subscribe 😃😃

Another activity we did was for a lesson on teeth brushing. I created a mouth with teeth using the bottoms of sparking water bottles. I scribbled on them with dry erase markers to represent food, and Quinn used an old toothbrush to clean them off. I put hunks of playdoh between them to teach him about flossing. I felt like we had a good conversation and he learned something. 

I created this cutting activity for Ash because he needs some work on his scissor skills. We did this while Quinn was at school, but he later saw these photos and wanted me to make this for him 😆. He always liked doing this, too. 

I didn’t get to do too many activities because I was busy working on finishing scraping the wallpaper and then painting the walls of my office. It was the last room on the main floor that still had wallpaper, and I’m so excited to be finished with it! 🙌🏻 

The color is supposed to be gray, but depending on the light, it looks blue. Either way, I really like it! Almost anything is better than what was there 😅. Now, I have our bedroom and the bathroom upstairs left to do, and then our entire house will belong in this century 😆. 

February 2025 Part II

After two months of torture (mostly for me 😅), Quinn is finally going to get his hearing issue fixed. We met with an audiologist three weeks ago, where Quinn had a hearing test that he failed miserably. Well, his ears work, there’s nothing wrong with the nerves, but they’re filled with fluid and the doctor said he is experiencing significant hearing loss from it. I didn’t need a test to tell me that, but it was good to have confirmation of the source. We met with Dr. Tiu the next week and he recommended removing Quinn’s adenoids and putting tubes in his ears. He’ll be having surgery in a couple of weeks. Dr. Tiu told me to research symptoms of adenoid enlargement, and Quinn has many, like snoring, mouth breathing, and constant congestion and nasal drainage. There was one symptom he didn’t have, which is difficulty pronouncing the M sound. He says, “Mama,” and “Mom” 10,000 times a day 🙄. 

Quinn hates long car rides, so two visits to Wheeling in less than a week was not his idea of a good time. He told me that it wasn’t worth it to drive up there because he didn’t get to do anything fun 😂. For the first appointment, Philip was able to take time off work to hang out with Ash so he didn’t have to go, but Quinn made up for his absence. By the time we got to Moundsville, there had been zero moments of silence and even he realized how much he had been talking. Quinn asked me, “Can I ever stop talking?,” and I said, “It hasn’t happened yet,” 🙃. He just laughed and said, “I always talk. The only time I don’t talk is when I’m sleeping.” I interjected, “And sometimes even then,” before he launched into his next tirade about a show he watched recently. On the way back, I turned on the radio, hoping to discourage some of the chatter, but then I had one of those moments that most parents can probably relate to. A song came on that had very mature lyrics (Rihanna’s Rude Boy), and whenever I tried to change the station, he told me to turn it back because he liked that song 🤦🏻‍♀️. To be fair, he probably couldn’t even hear the words, so there’s that, but still. 

When we drove up for the visit with Dr. Tiu, Ash and Quinn took the opportunity to argue and fuss for the entire 50 minutes. Quinn really can’t hear well, so at one point, they were arguing over something Quinn thought Asher said, and he kept going, doubling down on his sassiness, even after I intervened. I finally told them it was time to pause the conversation and no one was allowed to talk for a while. We have never given our kids electronics in the car (aside from our roadtrip to the beach, which ended with vomit), so they don’t have much to entertain themselves. I don’t even usually listen to music because it’s too overstimulating. Quinn loved music when he was a young toddler, but since Ash arrived, we try to minimize added noise. They provide enough of it. They do love the song Abracadabra by Steve Miller band, though. I like watching them dance to it, Quinn has some pretty sweet moves 😂. 

I think Quinn’s ear issues have just evolved into an automatic response of “What?,” any time he’s spoken to, whether he hears it or not. I tried testing him one day, asking him, “What do you think I said?” He said, “I don’t know!” I said, “No clue?,” and he replied, “No glue? 🤨.” I would accuse him of trying to be funny except he doesn’t understand rhymes 😆. At all. 

Find the Matching Rhyming Word. This was the hardest game ever for him to play 😂

Ash has caught onto Quinn frequently asking, “What?,’ and now he does it. I don’t find it the least bit amusing. He already asks the same question a million times, which drives me insane. Instances like:

Ash: “Can I get in?” (The bathtub)

Me: “Yes.”

Ash: “Can I get in now?”

Me: “Yes.”

Ash: “Can I get in?” 

Me: “YES, GET IN, ASHER!”

Ash: “Okay.”

He used to get upset whenever anyone raised their voice or corrected him, and he would cry, reminding me of myself as a child. However, I think he may be on the cusp of his threenager era, and I couldn’t be more sad 😔. He has gotten surprisingly better at controlling his emotions, which would be good, except it may be due to his attitude of “I don’t care,” which he has begun telling me often 😠. I can just hope that his season of sass and defiance doesn’t last nearly as long as his brother’s. Quinn morphed into a whiny mess about 2 months before his third birthday, and he’s just now starting to calm his ass down. I like to think that Ash’s disposition will lend in shortening his wild phase, but only time will tell. He is naturally a calmer kid than Quinn, and of course, he has had Quinn to show him the ropes, so maybe he won’t need nearly as much taming as Quinn did 🤞🏻. 

We’d been sick on and off for almost a month, which contributed to some of the bickering and fussing, for sure. They didn’t have symptoms at the same time, of course, so just when one started to feel better, the one would be down. It always sucks when kids are sick, but the biggest annoyance has been their lost ability to do absolutely anything for themselves. Quinn will ask me to get him literally anything. He gets mad when I say, “No,” but I refuse to hand him his cup that’s within arm’s reach, RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM 🤬. No. Just no. 

One good thing to come of it is Ash adopted an important courtesy, reminding Quinn, “Cover your mouth, please,” every time Quinn coughed or sneezed, whether or not he already had 😆. He himself doesn’t do it 100%, but I will say, he is definitely better at it than Quinn was at his age. Quinn used to get mad at me because I wouldn’t do it for him. I specifically remember him arguing with me in Walmart one time because he kept trying to put my hand over his mouth when he wanted to cough 🙄. He doesn’t do that anymore, at least. 

Quinn does have good manners when it comes to thanking me for things, and sometimes it surprises me how happy little things make him. He is always appreciative whenever I make his bed for him. He likes his room being tidy. He thanks me when I get him snacks he doesn’t get to eat often. It’s easy to win his Best Mom Ever award, all I have to do is buy him ranch Doritos 😂. 

Candy and other junk food is an ongoing battle in this house, but we do finally have some well established rules. On the regular, they’re allowed to have something sweet after they’ve eaten healthy food (or at least something with protein, because chicken nuggets don’t qualify as healthy in my book, but it is what it is) in the afternoon or evening. Ash doesn’t quite grasp the time restriction and often gets mad at me for not allowing him candy once he eats breakfast 🙄. We don’t have candy for breakfast, hard rule. However, holidays are a free for all. Any holiday that grants them candy—Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas—means they can eat however much they want all day long. I hope we won’t always have to police their eating habits, but if left to their own devices at this stage, they’d survive solely on sugar 🙄. Not to mention, society revolves around eating. We have to keep it in check at home, because everywhere else we go is infected with sweets—snack at story time, concession stands at ball games, etc. and I want us to be able to do those fun things elsewhere. 

Like get cookies at the mall…

And have cupcakes and ice cream to celebrate with our friends and family ❤️…

And make chocolate dipped treats just because…

And have ice cream at Discovery World, made with their schmancy cold snap machine. They claim to have the only one in WV. You buy the can of liquid concentrate, which looks like a tall can of beer 😅, and put it into the machine, which freezes it into ice cream in about 3 minutes. It’s got nothing on Cold Stone, or even Stalder’s for that matter, but it was good. 

They even provided some sprinkles and color changing spoons. Quinn liked watching it change from pink to purple as it got cold, and then back again as he warmed it with his breath.  😯💨   

We hadn’t been to Discovery World in a while, but Mimi gifted us admission passes, so we took a spontaneous trip. The boys had a ton of fun 🙂. 

I mean, how could you not? 🤪

We had our first candy holiday of the year—Valentine’s Day. Quinn wanted to make a Venom box to take to school for his party 🙄. Ash didn’t need a box, of course, but he made one anyway. His was Miles Morales, Spiderman. I printed the pics, and they painted, Quinn cut, and they both glued. 

The Center for Children and Families held a Valentine’s box decorating event for families. The deadline for Quinn to take his box in to school passed before the event, so his was already done, but Lincoln needed one and most of his family was struggling with the flu, so we took him to get his done. He wanted to do a basketball court, and I made his nets. He and his friends were impressed 😂. I think I need more practice. 

They were pretty excited to wake up on Valentine’s Day and have a breakfast made of complete crap 😅 🍭 🍫. 

We got to visit with their bonus cousins, Lilly and Luka, at the Burger King indoor playground. I can’t wait to make them recreate this in 10 years 🤣. 

Our learning adventure 

Megablok Letters: Quinn practiced putting the letters of our last name in the right order, and then flipped over the printout to see if he was right. Ash matched the letters of his name in order. 

Since Ash and I have been working on learning letters, I got out a matching game that I made for Quinn a few years ago. It had pictures of familiar people and objects with the corresponding scrabble tile letter. I had to update it to include more people because Ash didn’t even exist when I made it 😅. He is able to match a letter with every picture. 

Quinn told me they have a puzzle in his classroom that is similar to one we have, which sparked his interest in playing with it again. He put it together by himself, and I told him to lay down beside it so we could measure which was bigger, him or the puzzle. The puzzle beat him by about 2 inches 😄. 

Sophie pupdate 🐾 

I loveeeeee taking pics of her sleeping. She’s so damn cute 🥰. 

She even uses pillows appropriately. Well, whenever she doesn’t purposely knock them on the floor 🙄. 

I always think it’s funny whenever she sleeps with her ear flipped out above her, but I get it now. I don’t like sleeping with my hair around my neck either 🤷🏻‍♀️. 

She’s still being 💯 percent extra most of the time 🙄. 

🙄🙄🙄 

She’s clingy, but she sure is cute ☺️