asher the crasher

i know it's been about a year since i last blogged. i'd like to say it's because i haven't been home much...that i've been running, and going, and doing...busy with summer and family activities, church responsibilities, working out, service endeavours, date nights, social events, play dates, etc, etc, etc. truth is, these things have occupied my time, but certainly have not sucked away my every last spare minute. i used to consider myself one of the world's best bloggers...ensuring that i posted something new at least 4 or 5 times a week - sometimes even multiple times per day. the things is, i've always been a busy person. i've always been on the go. i've always had a full calendar of events; and yet, i've always made time to blog. so what's the difference now? why do i allow a lapse of weeks (sometimes even months) between blog posts? i'll tell you what the difference is - i've never before had a (nearly) two year old asher. believe me when i say, that boy is giving me a run for my money. in fact, if asked to describe my son in 5 words, here is what i would say: asher is a crasher, trasher, basher, splasher, gasher, dasher, and smasher...in no particular order. oops, was that more than five? my bad. seriously, he's the reason i can't blog anymore. if i were to attempt to sit down and work on a post during his waking moments, i'm convinced he'd find a way to burn the house down. that boy climbs up on everything, he jumps off of everything, he gets into everything, he breaks everything. whatever i do, he undoes. whatever i straighten, he messes up. if i put it away, he gets it out. he tears, he rips, he shreds. he scribbles upon, throws away, and flushes down (yes the toilet) anything and everything he can get his hands upon. since he figured out how to climb out of his crib, the piece of furniture was deemed useless, and we opted to take it down. it was wonderful in the beginning, as it created a nice open space in the kids' room. the cons of that decision, however, began to far outweigh the pros, as it gave our little ash man more freedom to do what he does best - which is to crash, smash, and trash. the other day, only moments after putting him down for his nap (he now sleeps in a trundle that pulls out from under ruby's bed), i heard a loud crash. i burst in the room, and discovered that he had attempted to climb his curtains...which resulted in pulling the entire curtain rod from the wall, and leaving two ghastly holes in the sheet-rock. a couple of days later, i again heard a startling crash -this time followed by a piercing scream. i again burst through the door, only to find that he had managed to pull his entire dresser on top of himself. i have no doubt this was the result of his attempting to scale it. looks like we'll now be bolting that piece of furniture (and many others) to the wall, as i'm fairly confident he will repeat the offence. that's one thing about my little asher, he does not give up until he accomplishes the task at hand, until he comes out conquering.

*note: this room was in pristine order prior to putting him down for his nap. notice the curtain hanging from the bed post. yeah, this was the day he decided to test his upper and core body strength by climbing the drapes. oh asher.

i have gone into his room after a nap (on more than one occasion), only to discover it in a complete upheaval - diapers and wipes scattered all over the floor, the contents of the trash can strewn throughout the room, dresser drawers emptied out, changing table bins and canisters devoid of their substance. ughhh...just writing about it wears me out. so during the day, while he sleeps, i'm usually dealing with the aftermath of his waking annihilation. and at night, after he goes to bed, i'm too tired to even think about recording the events of the day. so believe it or not, asher is the culprit...he's the one to blame for my blogging hiatus. i promise as soon as i can get a handle on this, i will be back...and let's just hope - for the sake of preserving my sanity - it's sooner rather than later.

* note: these pictures are evidence that he does have a sweet side, which i promise to write more about in a subsequent post. trust me, i'm crazy about my son...he just enjoys keeping me on my toes is all.