Monday, May 19, 2014

Asher the Six-Year-Old

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Asher's sixth birthday.  He wanted Lucky Charms for breakfast and spaghetti with meatballs for dinner.  While he was eating his magically delicious breakfast, he got to open Legos, oil pastels and art paper, and a scooter from us, and more Legos and a Lego shirt from my mom.  Our little artist/builder was suitably thrilled.

This is what Ivy looks like when she realizes that this time all of the presents are for somebody else.

In honor of Asher turning six, I hosted my very first real birthday party.  I happened to have an OB appointment the day before and my doctor asked what I was doing that weekend.  When I told him we were throwing a birthday party, he said, "good luck!" and asked me what the "theme" was.  It had not occurred to me until that moment that a little kid's birthday party should have any theme other than the child in question.  It turned out that I was right and that we didn't need any of my doctor's luck.  We had a handful of Asher's friends come over, they all played whatever games they made up on the spot, there were presents, and an ice cream cake (as per Asher's request), and a piñata, and then the friends went home.  And despite the fact that this simple party required very little planning on my part, I heard Asher yelling up from the basement, "This is the best party ever!"

Asher loves to create things.  He could spend a whole day building, drawing, painting and molding.  He probably wouldn't even notice if he missed lunch.  He is even pretty good at cleaning up when he's finished.  He also loves to read.  His kindergarten teacher sends home chapter books from which he is supposed to read one chapter per night, and he often "accidentally" reads the whole book in one sitting.  He loves to have his own space (particularly away from Simon), to find things that match, and to eat blueberries.  He tells me he loves me with some frequency.  One day when we were in the car recently, I started to drive before he had buckled his seatbelt.  He told me that I needed to stop because if we got into an accident, the one who loved me would die.  He loves to give gifts to people, and a couple of weeks ago he managed to find a whole robin's egg that had found its way onto the school playground, so he picked it up and put it in his pocket so that he could give it to me.  Unfortunately, though perhaps predictably, the egg got smashed in his pocket.  When he related this tale to me, he reassured me that I didn't need to worry because one of the teachers had helped him clean out his pocket.  Asher is thoughtful, self-motivated, creative, and extremely energetic.  I think we'll keep him around another year.



1 comment:

Erin said...

Love the photos! Happy late birthday to Asher. We are looking forward to playing together at the beach:)