18 month old for sale!

Talan will be on the curb ready for pickup! 

Strike 1--Yesterday he woke me up by throwing a soccer ball directly on my face. 

Strike 2--While I was showering he unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper all over the bathroom floor. When I saw his mess he looked at me as if he was saying, "was I not supposed to do that?"

Strike 3--I nearly had a heart attack when Tal decided he wanted to eat down in the basement which meant he had to push his booster seat down the steps. Not only did his booster seat come down the stairs, but also the kitchen chair it is strapped to. Talan was at the top of the steps pointing at the chair and saying "dat?"

He is crazy!

Iraqi skies....

It is a sad day. Yesterday after putting gel in Tal's hair and having it stretch to the tip of his nose I realized he needed a haircut. I've always cut his hair so i just grabbed some scissors and went at it. To say the least, I felt the need to cover his head with this hat:

Not only because of the freezing winds inhabiting Kansas, but because of the horrible mullet-like haircut I gave my child. 

There was no way to salvage and today I had to do this:

It will grow....I hope.

Living life in the fast lane...

You know you have the best brother in the world when:

1. He wears underwear on his head just because you think its funny. 

2. You put yourself in time out so he doesn't have to sit alone.
3. He waits at the top of the slide and blocks all the big kids so you can get to the bottom safely. 
4. He sees you crying and comes to give you a hug. 
5.  He lets you bang on the keys even though he is playing his song. 

"dis?"

The sad part is that aside from the straps being too long it fits. 

Wrestling tournament #2

Over the weekend I saw bloody noses, a dislocated shoulder, crying kids throwing their headgear after a loss, coaches and parents chewing out the wrestlers because they didn't win. That is who I do not want to be like. There are only two rules I hold my six year old up to when wrestling:

1. You don't cry. Wrestling hurts sometimes, and sometimes you loose, but you never cry about it because there is always something to learn from it. 

2. You try your best and fight your hardest all the time wether you are winning or not. 

This week Ashton moved up to the 52 pound weight class. The kids were bigger, stronger, and faster. I think wrestling makes me more nervous than Ashton. He held his own though, almost getting a couple pins, and not getting pinned himself, and he has some pretty awesome battle wounds to show for it. Mainly around his neck from head-lock boy/match 3.  Head-lock boy nearly made Ashton break rule number one when he knocked Ashton's headgear down into his eyes and then swung from his neck WWE style.  Instead of crying he did something that gramps has been trying to get him to do all along. He channeled all his pain, and frustration into giving head-lock boy a taste of his own medicine. Although this was all too late to gain enough points to pull ahead, we are very proud of him. 

Even after having the crap beat out of him today, he still says he loves wrestling and it is fun. That's what counts right?

The videos are too big to load on blogger, so you can see his matches on youtube with these links:

(ashton is in the light blue)

Match #1

Match #2

Match #3

He knows what he wants...

A banana with the peel on:

and crocodile slippers on his feet:

My wrestler

Ashton just had his first wrestling tournament. It was an interesting experience for me as much as him. Its very different and more stressful going to your own childs tournament versus someone elses. It lasts all day so there are snacks, nap time stuff for Tal, things to do in between matches, lunch, and worst of all, waking up way too early. 

At 7:00 am Ashton weighed in at 50.4 pounds. They wrote his age group and weight class on his arm and his day of tournamenting started. He did excellent! He never allowed any of his opponents to pin him, which was good. The first match and the third match he lost by points, however, the second match he pinned the other kid in less than a minute. We are super proud of him because he was one of the 3 kids in his wrestling club that had a pin in the tournament. 

Checking in before his match...

This video is of the match where he pinned the kid. Brad was videoing and was watching Ashton so he goes of screen for a bit, and I was watching him as well and forgot to take pictures. 

Brad let Ashton use the video camera in between matches. I thought this one was funny and captures the essence of Ashton. 

Happy Birthday Kansas!

Since yesterday was Brad's last day to hang out with us for a while we decided to let Ashton ditch school, and we had a very fun family day. It just so happened that it was also Kansas' birthday. Happy 148th Kansas! The Kansas History Museum opened it's doors for free to the public to celebrate the birthday's of both Kansas and Abraham Lincoln. 

We started our family day there. They had tons of hands on activities which were geared towards kids. Ashton did basket weaving, sewing, knitting, voting, coloring, gluing, birthday card making, and of course, picture taking. 

Abraham Lincoln brought to life!

After we had done all there was to do at the museum we asked Ashton if he wanted to pick somewhere to have lunch. As always, he picked McDonalds. Mostly because he had recently seen a commercial for a double cheeseburger value meal. I think he's about to have a growth spurt. He inhaled his double cheeseburger, fries and chocolate shake then took his brother on the play gym. This was the first time Talan was really big enough to play on the big kid stuff. Ashton watched him very closely, and Talan was so nervous he went backwards through all the tubes, but the first time he went down the slide he was hooked. When he reached the bottom of the slide he started screaming. I didn't know if he was scared or hurt. I pulled him out of the slide the rest of the way and he took off running as fast as his legs would go. Running and screaming. He ran around the tables to the other side of the play place, stopped and ran back. Turns out he was looking for the stairs to get back to the tubes and slides. 
After McDonald's the 2 big boys got haircuts, followed by Talan's first movie. We saw Madagascar 2 because if Talan didn't like it I was only out $2. He loved it so much he fell asleep, but not until he was done eating popcorn.