Blessed Beyond Measure: Toddler Tales Week 18: Sweets to the Sweet

This week was all about Sweets...

Recently, Eric and I started watching a new show called the Goldbergs. It is based off of videos a guy (then a kid) took of his family in the 80s. For anyone with a quirky family (and who can honestly say their's isn't?) it is pretty funny. For those of us that have a quirky family AND are children of the 80's, it is especially funny, as you reminisce on the cool clothes, movies, toys, etc. One episode that we've watched stood out to me more than others. (Watch the video entitled "I'll Never Snug You Again" here). In this episode, the mom is realizing that her three kids are growing up quickly and her youngest (now in middle school) is no longer interested in "snugging" (aka snuggling) his mom. He ends up going to see Poltergeist behind his mother's back. That evening, he is afraid to sleep on his own and fakes a tummy ache so that he can sleep in bed with his mom. The next day, she finds the movie stub and realizes that her snugs the previous night had nothing to do with a tummy ache, but everything to do with her son's fears after watching the movie. Then, she realizes that she can continue to get the snugs that she desires as long as her son continues to be afraid to sleep alone, so she resorts to scaring him by moving a creepy toy clown around the house among other things.

You're probably wondering what this has to do with me (or sweets for that matter). Well, the show's episode resonated with me, because I've already realized that my cuddles with Asher are few and far between. He is always on the go and rarely willing to sit still to cuddle (or snug) with his mom. Although I would not resort to scaring him so that I can get the snugs that I desire, I will resort to television, and on this Sunday morning, that is exactly what I did.

I have shared in the past that Asher now likes books and one of his favorites is Peek-a-boo Baby and Animals. One of the animals in this book is a penguin (for which I always say, "waddle, waddle, waddle" because I have no idea how to replicate a penguin sound). This is one of Asher's favorite parts of the book. Since he obviously enjoys the penguin, I thought there was no better movie to try to get him to snuggle with me than Happy Feet. It worked! Asher and I enjoyed a sweet snuggle for a good 45 minutes, cuddled up on the couch. It was heavenly!

On Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed some sweet family time, carving pumpkins together. Asher wasn't able to really do anything, but we did set him up at the table with us so that he could watch. He was very interested in the pumpkin goo and was also not very happy that we wouldn't let him eat the pumpkins.

Asher giving my pumpkin a drink from his sippy cup.

Our finished pumpkins. Mine is on the left. Eric carved the rest: Asher's (Little Blue Truck), Eric's, and finally Emma's

Not sure what this 80's look is about. Asher did this for the 2nd time this day. Earlier I got him from his nap like this as well??

Asher grabbed Eric's phone and I found him "talking" on it! I know pretty much every kid since the invention of the phone has probably done this, but that doesn't make it any less cute!

Video: Asher learns to suck up noodles

Video: Asher "Helping" Mommy with the Dishes

On Monday, we enjoyed a sweet deal. It was "Dress Like Genghis Khan, Get a Free Grill Meal" Day at HuHot. So, we dressed up our family and headed to the restaurant with some friends to enjoy some free food.

The Schmitt kids, all dressed up.

Us & Our Friends in our G.Khan gear (Asher & I had hats, but they wouldn't stay on)

On Wednesday, Asher and I made some sweet memories, playing at home together on our Wednesday off. In an effort to fully enjoy our time together, I pulled the cushion off the futon to jump and tumble on and made a teepee of cardboard tubes and a blanket...I am not as cool as daddy though, so Asher really couldn't have cared less.

On Wednesday evening, Asher turned Sweet Sixteen...sixteen months that is. At 16 months old, he still has 12 teeth, although I believe he may be working on his canines. He is starting to love story time and is frequently caught paging through (or chewing on) books. He knows that the cows says "moo", the crow says "caw", the cat says "meow" (aka mow, rhyming with bow as in I bow to you), the lion says "rar" and the hyena says "hehe".

At Sweet 16, Asher also has his first crush. They say that a boy's first love is his mommy. While that is probably true for Asher, his first crush is a girl named Katelyn. One would guess that Katelyn is most-likely a year or so old, but in fact, she is actually 12. That's right, Katelyn (our middle-school going, daycare lady's daughter) is the girl of Asher's 16 month old dreams and in proportional-terms, a "cougar". :) Asher adores her and honestly she is great with him as well. No, I will not be encouraging a marriage in 20-some years, but I might encourage her to babysit in a few years.

Asher telling me that the photo shoot needs to end (putting the lens cap on the camera)

Thursday was a Sweet Night, as it was Halloween. When I picked Asher up from daycare that evening, his caretaker said, "he didn't have that many sweets today...he just had one cookie, one small candy bar and some M&M's." Not that many???!!! Although I figured Asher would be sugared upon that day (since I know they celebrate the holidays with fun and out-of-the-ordinary foods), I did tell her that was probably more sugary foods than he has had from us combined since we began to give him sweets. Oh well. It was Halloween, and that is what one does on Halloween, right?

When Eric, Asher and I got home, we got him dressed in his Clark Kent costume again and then headed out into our neighborhood to part-take in Asher's first experience trick-or-treating. We didn't go far. We hit up the houses on our street that were participating, and then continued around the block to the street behind us and back up to our house. This was probably only about 10-15 houses, but since some of our neighbors thought that Asher (being the only little guy that lives on our street...at least that the neighbors know) needed a large quantity of sweets, he made out like a bandit and filled up his little Yoda basket. One of those neighbors was our sweet neighbor, Margie, who insisted that we come in to visit for a bit. She is in her 80s and still mows her own lawn and shovels her driveway! She is also very observant and always knows what is going on on the street. She has a great-grandson who is about Asher's age and for this reason, she also had a little basketball hoop toy to play with. Asher loved it, immediately trying to hoard all of the balls, and decided that Marge deserved payment for it, offering her some of his loot! ;)