Asher: 9 years old

One seriously handsome boy

Looking serious

If I'm lucky, I will finish this entry for Asher by the time he's 10.

Asher is a curious and smart boy. He can seem incredibly insightful in one moment, and totally clueless the next. We have all kinds of interesting conversations- about racism and stereotyping; about sex and relationships; about friendships- where I think he is really getting and understanding how life works. Or occasionally he will ask a question, like "Why do they have a tent in the parking lot at the shopping center?" to which I will say, "I think it's to sell fireworks for the 4th of July," and to which he will then reply, "No. I think it is to house slaves so they can work at DSW and Mad Mex."

He is the most helpful of my children. He is an excellent cleaner and organizer, and won the "most likely to be clean" award at camp this summer. He's usually willing to participate in chores and cleaning up around the house, but in part because he knows he will likely be rewarded for his help after the fact. He loves to make money, and has managed to get himself over $100- I think partly through doing chores, and partly he's skimmed off the top of his less attentive siblings (although he would be very angry at me for saying that). He has an eagle eye when it comes to details, and he is our #1 go-to when we can't find something around the house.  Sometimes we pay him for that, too.

Asher opened a checking account with all his hard-earned cash

In school, Asher seems to most enjoy math and science. He doesn't love to read, and I have to beg him to get in all of his reading time. As a result, his spelling isn't especially strong, either. We had an incident this past year in 3rd grade where Asher was found cheating on his spelling tests- he had been writing out his words in advance and hiding them under his arm so he could look at them during the test. Eric and I were extremely unhappy when we heard from his teacher. Asher said he was concerned that he wouldn't get a perfect score on his test; we told him that we would rather a lower score than cheating. Later, Asher and I practiced his words the night before the test, and he got a perfect score without cheating. While Asher is usually the best behaved of the kids, when he makes trouble, he can make it big time.

Still my best sleeper by far

Over the school year, he made some friends who he actually wants to see over the summer. It doesn't seem like the kids have split into cliques at school yet, which makes me happy. Asher has a variety of friends, and seems to really like having girls as friends, too. He told me he had a crush on a girl this year, but I promised not to tell a single person, not even Eric- I want to make sure he keeps telling me these things as he gets older!

Ready to run the 1 miler for his school

Asher likes to be active, and this spring tried flag football, after playing basketball through the winter. He is fast and I think has some natural ability, but rarely practices so isn't the top performer on his team. That is ok with me, I don't need to be sports crazy at our house! He also likes to play video games whenever he is allowed, which makes me nuts. To me it is a waste of a day to be playing a video game when the weather is perfect and they could be outside.

At his bake sale

Asher also likes to help in the kitchen, especially with baking. In the spring he held a bake sale outside our house and raised some money for the Kitty Cottage, a cat shelter near us. He likes to pick out new recipes for us to try for dinner, and when we do, he usually eats whatever we make. He is pretty adventurous when it comes to savory foods, but still keeps his distance from anything fruit-related. His diet is still 90% carbs, but he does eat meat and vegetables. His packed lunch is almost always carbs + carbs + carbs, and of course he is hungry and cranky at the end of the day. It is a struggle to get him to eat nutritious foods outside of our homemade dinners.

He also sneaks treats when we aren't paying attention. one night I went to tuck him into bed and heard the crinkle of a wrapper- he had hidden a bag of Girl Scout cookies in his bed and said he was eating one a night as his "bedtime cookies." We also find wrappers hidden around the house and in his drawers.

Still a snuggler

Asher is still a snuggler, but has definitely stopped asking for as many hugs and snuggles as he used to. I was worried sending him away to camp would put an end to things, but fortunately he still likes to be close, and will hold my hand while we walk places (how many years before I look back to read this and mourn the loss of our hand-holding? And why do I feel the need to prepare myself for sad things well before they happen?).

Asher also likes to use my phone to take pictures, and has a pretty good eye. He takes pictures when we are out at Chanticleer gardens, and recently took pictures when I took him to Eastern State Penitentiary with a friend. He also will take a series of selfies with him making an ugly face, stick one beautiful smile in the series, and finish with ugly face. What a nice surprise to find on my camera roll!

In the stocks at Williamsburg

I am sure there are a million things about Asher I haven't included here. He is generally a charming, likeable boy. He has excellent social skills, and is excellent company. He's active and energetic, and is mostly sweet, kind, and thoughtful. We never hear a bad word about him from anyone (he saves all of his misbehavior for us). I promised him I would publish this tonight, since my mom brought it up in front of him and pointed out how delayed the post is!