Summertime

The weather has been really nice this week. And we LOVE Cambridge when the sun is shining. All year long we complain about the cold, rain, and cloud, so when it’s sunny we try to take advantage of it as much as we can. To that end, we’ve been doing a few things lately that don’t happen very often.

We took Asher swimming for the first time and he loved it! I mean, he LOVED it.

We went to the pool with some friends of ours. They have a little guy called Julian about the same age as Asher, and both boys just giggled and grinned the whole time we had them in the water. After we exhausted them in the pool, we all came back to our flat for dinner. We stuck a little boy on each end of the table with the four parents gathered around the middle. It was a hectic meal with turned over plates, food on the floor and what not, but it was a fun kind of hectic. We all felt like we had accomplished something pretty grand in getting the boys to and from the pool, dinner eaten and down for bed without any meltdowns. It’s funny what seems like an accomplishment these days. :)

On Saturday we decided to get out into the sunshine by going to a National Trust site in Suffolk called Ickworth (we get in free ‘cause we’re members!).

Ickworth is an estate that looks like an Italian palace built in the middle of the English countryside. The guy who built the place was in love with Italian architecture and gardens, so that’s how he roll’d when it came to building his crib. It’s huge, and there is lots of space to walk around and check out the gardens.

After we got back to Tyndale, we took Ashie out to the garden for a swim! There’s a little kiddie pool (that used to be a sandbox I think?) in the children’s play area, so we just filled it up and left it out in the sun for awhile for it to warm up. Asher loved it! Here he is playing with Uncle Joel’s frisbee :).

There were little round indentions about the size of quarters on the rim of the pool, and Asher thought it was fun to suck the water out of them again and again…

… and again…

We had fun watching him play.

Asher’s also walking more and more every day. Which is crazy to watch. He looks like he’s going to fall over with every step, but he’s getting pretty good at staying upright.

Also, mom bought him a pink cup at the store the other day. He has a green one just like it and they didn’t have another one of those, so pink it was, but he doesn’t seem to care. It matches his shirt.

Also, Asher finally started stacking his blocks all by himself this week! I think the highest he’s gotten is four, the fifth one always brings it crumbling down, which he likes.

Also, we ordered a photo book a while back of Asher’s first year. It finally arrived and it’s awesome. We love having the pictures printed! It’s such a novel idea to print pictures :).

Life is tiring but so so good. Watching this little boy grow and learn brings such joy and we’re so thankful for him!

Asher Walking

This is great stuff. Asher has been walking between me and Candice for a few weeks now. We can sit several feet apart, stand him up, and he’ll walk from mommy to daddy and back, but he hasn’t really been interested in walking at any other time. Today we were in the kitchen, and this happened… hello toddler!

The Beach

When the weather is nice, you have to take advantage of it. We had a string of nice days last week, and since we knew it wouldn’t last we thought we should take Asher on his very first trip to the beach! It was a balmy 85 degrees in Cambridge, so we thought it would be prime beach weather. When we checked the weather for the coast, it said the high was only 65. Nonetheless, the sun was shining all day, so it was now or never.

We went north from Cambridge about an hour and a half to Hunstanton, one of the coastal towns that’s popular with the Brits (not the best beach, but one of the closest). There were about a million Brits who had the exact same idea we did, so needless to say the beach was really crowded. All the same, we found a spot and plopped Ashie down for his first play in the sand. As you can see, there were plenty of rocks around and the sand is the wet kind (of course), not the dusty dry stuff that falls off your feet and hands. Asher wasn’t quite sure what to do with the stuff!

You can see that he’s wearing a long sleeve shirt. Well, that’s because even though the sun was shining and it was 85 in Cambridge, the wind coming off the VERY chilly North Sea had a definite bite. Asher didn’t seem to mind, and we were glad we didn’t have to worry about sunburn. It just meant that swimming was out of the question :(. Candice wrapped up in a towel and there were other people there wearing winter boots! No lie.

First things first. Asher proceeded to pick up all the rocks on the beach and hand them to us. “Thank you, Ashie. That’s very sweet.” Then again, “Oh, another rock! That’s great. Thank you.” He’s very good at handing you stuff.

“Check out my beach hat, you guys! It’s so cool!”

Once we gave him the proper tools, there was no stopping him.

Walking in the sand with daddo. And yes, I am wearing shoes on the beach. You can preach all you want, but it was cold and the water was freezing. Plus, my shoes are waterproof so bring on the waves!

Yay for the ocean! Asher liked it very much.

All in all, the seaside in Britain is very disappointing. We were sad it wasn’t warmer, and we didn’t stay at the beach that long. But it was enough to make a memorable summer’s day with the family.

Shots

Dear Grandparents,

Just thought you should know a few of the dodgy things that have been going on lately. Your children asked me if I wanted to go bye-bye yesterday. They took me to a very boring building. People were sitting quietly. There were NO toys! Zero. I couldn’t believe it. To be honest, I was expecting something more exciting, like the park, or the mud. There was a water cooler, but daddy wouldn’t let me play with it. Lame-0. But wait, it gets worse. They took me into this smaller room to see some lady I had never seen before. I smiled at her because, you know, it’s nice to be nice. But, really, what’s a kid got to do to get some cheerios in this place?!

Then, that awful lady—I knew she was no good the minute I saw her—stabbed me in the leg with a huge needle! Now I’m no weenie or anything, but it hurt real bad. I screamed and tried to get away from the lady, but all three of them held me still! Even Mama, the usual pushover! Can you believe that? I calmed down real fast, thinking I might get a prize or a treat or something. At this point, I would have thought your children would have enough sense to take me to the park that very minute after putting me through such an ordeal. But they let her stick me again! And then one last time for good measure!

I’m writing to register my displeasure. I’m sure you’ll be on my side and I’m hoping you can do something to help these amateurs I’m stuck with.

Love,

Asher H. Bullard

P.S. Can you please send cookies? They won’t give me any. They’re such hypocrites. I see them eating the chocolate chip kind behind my back.