Ashton

It's almost time for vacation.  We have all been counting down the days, especially Ashton with his calendar fixation.  In his room he crosses off the day every night.  He likes to know what the next day brings and mentions Hawaii often.  He even told us last week that he was going to be sick on March 25th.   He was a few days off. His cold started around the 22nd, but it was really cute how he is trying to understand the concept of days.  He knows that preschool is every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  He knows that his swim class is every Monday and Wednesday; sport camp falls on Thursdays and Fridays change every week. We all love Saturday and Sunday because Daddy doesn't have to work! We have come to realize that we need to put some sort of flexibility into his schedule.  He seems to not understand that if something else comes up it is ok and that change happens. I think we are hoping he will not become as rigid as mommy when it comes to schedules.  (but I know he watches me too closely......)

Last week Ashton's preschool had a "Daddy and Me bowling" night. It was loads of fun! 5 of his friends from school were there and they all bowled with their dad.  I had to come to take pictures since He hadn't really bowled before, but stayed in the background.

At first daddy was helping him get the ball to the lane, but eventually Ashton did it on his own. I believe they were 6 lb. balls. 

Love the little bowling shoes the kids had!

They had bumpers up all night.  It was so cute to see the kids drop the bowling ball and it went so slowly down the lane.  There were quite a few times that the people that worked there had to shove their balls all the way down. It got a bit better as the night went on.  Mark started to take advantage of the bumpers and try crazy things to have the ball go back and forth and bounce of the bumpers. 

Goofy Ash......and one of Ashton's best buddies! They sure loved bowling with their dad!

Ashton is enjoying his sports camp on Thursdays!  Grandma and Grandpa took him last Thursday and he loved it!  The coach is trying to teach 4 boys the fundamentals of some sports. Last week was soccer. I didn't get to see it, but I heard he had a blast!

Coach Dan and Ashton

We noticed that he is able to listen to the coach and do what he is told, that we are thinking about putting him into the tennis camps on the weekends. They are for 4 year olds, but Ashton can hit the tennis ball well and we now know that he will be fine in a group setting. We think he might be ready so we will try it next month.

Yesterday we took him to the movies.  We were all excited to go see "The Lorax".  We didn't really know what it was about, but it was a Dr. Seuss movie, and a few of my friends took their 3 year old to see it.  We got there, found our seats, ate our treats and the movie began.  Unfortunately it had a few dark scenes and eventually Ashton had a melt down.  In one scene two huge burly men knocked a kid off of his motor bike.  Ashton started crying loudly and said he wanted to go.  It was really sad.  We had no clue he would react this way. He was pretty loud that we left so we wouldn't disturb the other families in there any longer. When we thought more about it later, we realized that most of his movies at home are cheerful or about animals and trains. It must have hit closer to home when the show is about a kid and then he sees the kid not treated nicely.  We didn't get a refund for leaving, but we were able to get 3 tickets to come back sometime.  He is excited to see Madagascar and Ice Age, so perhaps we will try again in the summer.

Less then a week left and we are off on our vacation!