So, first, here’s Asher wearing a costume our friends handed down to him to play with.  He was throwing his arms up flying around the house, it was really cute and fun while it lasted!  Asher does sweat a lot though, so you can imagine how you would start to feel wearing something like this, ha!  I think the absolute best part about this memory is that Jeremy said he wasn’t sure how to attach the wings to his costume, so his solution was to wrap the strings around his neck, ha!  And, I took pictures and rolled on the floor laughing.  I swear people, we’re not capable of raising children, ha!

And, second, here’s Asher wearing his Labor Day creation.  We started working with glue, and he’s quite great at it!  This is his lamb mask.  Whenever we put it on he lets out this billowing “baaaaaahhhh!”

We had a huge TV, but that broke.  So, in a major effort (out of necessity!) to not buy anything new, we moved our TV from our bedroom to our living room.  Asher has been a little dramatic about how much smaller the TV is, ha!

Auntie Dana was staying with us for awhile, and in that time Asher fell in love even more with his Auntie.  He was pretty much her little side-kick.  It was really cute to watch them together.  They played music together, wrestled lots, chased each other around, and just had some good quality time together.  Your little buddy is missing you, Dana :).

Would anyone like to climb some stairs with me?!  This challenge is put on by our friends who have a son with Cystic Fibrosis, and all proceeds are going to the Foundation.  This is the first year we’ve been a part of this event, but it sounds like a blast!  The event is on Saturday, September 26th.

Registration starts at 8:00a, and the stair climb starts at 9:00a.  We’ll be walking up the Arizona Center, which is 35 floors.  I spoke with one of the directors yesterday and he said it takes about 20 mins to do this, and typically people walk it twice because it’s not that hard.  Clearly this guy is in shape, because I’m sure I will be ready to collapse after the 35!  After the stair climb there is the Firefighter Challenge starting at 9:30a.  About 200 Firefighters will be competing to see who is the fastest and fittest as they do common fire fighting tasks.   They’ve really made this morning into a family event with free food, music, a rock wall, massages, fire trucks and fire mascots.  Lots to do and watch if you would like to come as a family.  It’s all taking place in the courtyard of the Arizona Center.

Jeremy is going to stay home with Asher, so right now teamASHER is a team of one, ha!  If you’d like to join me leave a comment here, send me an email, or you can register online with teamASHER (the first link below).  It doesn’t cost anything to be a part of the stair climb, but a $25.00 donation is recommended, which can be collected the day of the event.  I thought I was going to have to pay a fee to setup a team, but didn’t need to, so I’ll donate the $25.00 to the first person who says they can go with me :).  Can I pay you to be my friend, ha!

http://www.azstairclimb.org/eventinfo/index.html

http://azstairclimb.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=308667&lis=1&kntae308667=70272459C32A49A982A63D15E7D76E9F&supId=0&team=3515504&cj=Y

Asher and I went to this toddler gym class.  He wanted to give you some ideas on how to train for the stair climb…trampoline bouncing, tunnel crawling, parachute swooshing, and scooter riding…all just ideas :).

We received a big box of enzymes a few weeks ago, and the reality of the pill consumption around here kinda hit us.  We got 6 honkin’ sized bottles (2500 pills), which will only last him for 3 months.  He’s not even 2 years old yet.  It’s a lot of pills, but gosh we are so thankful for these blue and red pills.  We wouldn’t have our little Asher today if not for these pills.  His pancreas functions at less than 1%, which means its pretty much just sitting there being a sluggard!  Enzymes help him digest food by replacing digestive enzymes that are normally released by the pancreas, and help him to absorb fats and proteins in food.  We didn’t have these pills for the first month of Asher’s life, and it was absolutely horrible for him…and us.  So, every day we are so thankful for these little pills called enzymes.

Asher is getting so big!  He does so many things that Jeremy and I just sit and laugh about when he’s in bed.  He makes us laugh.  Just a few cute things he’s doing now…

-Several times a day he’ll jump up on the couch, cuddle up with the “comfy blanket” (just a white blanket we have on our couch, of no value whatsoever, ha!) and says, “Pooh” and points at the TV.  He loves My Friends Tigger and Pooh.  He would watch that and Imagination Movers all day long if we let him!

-He says, “no” in the most definitive way about everything and every question you ask him, like he’s disappointed that you would even suggest something to him.  Whether it’s, “put your clothes in your hamper” or “would you like some grapes” or “let’s color” 99% of the time we get a big, fat, very confident, “no”.  It’s like he’s the parent in the situation and really pained by our requests.  It’s such a crack-up!  Of course the real task is not letting him know we’re dying lauging!

-Very rarely does he call an animal by it’s name, he usually makes their sound.  Elephants, they are his favorites!  He says, “phhfffssstttt” and waves his arm around for the elephant nose.

-He loves to give us this look that has him glaring at us out of the very corner of his eyes.  It’s a total “What you talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” look.  I don’t even know how he does it.  It hurts my eyes when I try to do it back.  Ha!

-When he picks up a phone he says, “hi”, then flings his head back and laughs like Count Dracula, and then says, “bye, bye”.  This whole “phone call” takes 2 seconds.

We love you, Asher!  Thanks for making life so fun!

Here he is at the Science Center giving high 5’s to the lego dragon, and “asking” some random kid to go down the slide with him by holding his hand.

Well, once again I’m behind on what’s been going on!  It’s mostly not my fault :).  My laptop died and I couldn’t get my pictures off my camera.  So now, I have a million pictures to go through, because we’ve been busy keeping busy over here :).

Grandma and Grandpa Olimb came down for a visit, and we took a little vacation to the Legacy Golf Resort in Phoenix.  We made lots of fun memories, and enjoyed our time together.  They have a great pool area there so we went swimming every day, and practically had the pool to ourselves.  They had little classes throughout the week for people to do, and the one Grandma Olimb and I took Asher to was called, “paint a car”.  He looked so cute in his smock!  We went out to eat a lot, took a family trip to the Science Museum, Jeremy and Grandpa Olimb went jet skiing at Canyon Lake for the day, Asher loved playing with his Auntie Dana, Jeremy and I got a couple of nights at the resort alone…oh, and Asher and I danced in the rain together.  Thanks for coming to visit Grandma and Grandpa Olimb!

On a medical note…we still haven’t made a decision about the Hypertonic Saline study.  It’s such a hard decision.  I can’t wait until we can sit and talk to Asher about this kind of stuff and ask him how he’s feeling physically and emotionally.  Lord, help us.

Jeremy and I have a big decision in front of us.  We’ve been praying about this for a couple of weeks now, and still don’t have a clue what we’re going to do.  Two of Asher’s doctors have asked us to consider having Asher go through a clinical study on Hypertonic Saline for one year.   People with CF lack water and salt in their mucus which makes their mucus thick.  This thick mucus in the airways of their lungs builds up and leads to chronic cough and lung infections.  Hypertonic Saline is an extra salty saline in nebulizer form.  And, the hope is that it essentially hydrates the mucus and makes it easier to couch to get the mucus out, which helps lung infections from colonizing.  This is all good stuff!  And, the research they’ve been receiving from adults with CF on this new med is pretty great.  The problem is, they don’t have a lot (hardly any at all) data on children under the age of 6 years.

So, we have a decision.  Putting Asher on this new med would add about 30-40 mins to his daily regiment, which is already so long.  But, the result could be healthier lungs.  Again not a lot of data to research here (and you know Jeremy loves the data!), just the hope.  There are no major side effects since it’s basically salt water, the time is just a big deal.  Asher is going to have to go through so much in his life, and we’re just not sure if we want to put him through more now…but we’ve always said we’re going to hit this disease head on and at full force…so, we keep going back and forth, and back and forth.

If you think of it please pray we’ll make the right decision for him.  Here’s a picture of Asher with his friend Reagan, he’s getting some counsel too :).

Asher’s piggy bank was jam-packed, so we figured it was time for the little man to have his own savings account.  He got his own savings account register, calculator, stickers with a calendar so he remembers to make a deposit every month, and a cute midfirst stuffed toy.  Auntie Dana was in town, so it was a family event!  No one was in the bank so Asher roamed making friends with all the checkout ladies, carrying my purse around, dancing, and acting way too big.  He’s now on his way to saving for his first bike :).