Words, Words, and More Words

Well, the doctor was right. Ashlyn is entering a language EXPLOSION! She is talking like crazy! Everyday she says at least a dozen new words. She is such a smart girl. Her favorite thing to say is "that hot". All food is hot to her. She points to all food and says "that hot". It is pretty cute.

She also said "Uncle" for the first time this week. Both of her Uncle Steven and Bryan were happy to hear that. We are hoping she says it for her Uncle Adam when he is in town this week. Ashlyn also knows all of her body parts. She can point to everything from her knee to her chin. She can also say most of them. We are working on colors. She knows yellow really well. She was just sitting next to me and out of nowhere pointed to her yellow pajama pants and said "yellow". She then pointed to Joey's yellow shirt and said "yellow". I only have 2 days of school left. I am so excited to get to spend all day everyday with Ashlyn. We are really going to work on colors, counting, etc.

Ashlyn is also really good at saying "please" and "thank you". Anytime you give her something she says "thank you". She understands everything you tell her. I am still getting used to the notion that she can comprehend what I am saying to her. For so long she never was able to respond and now she does. She follows directions really well when she wants to.

We are truly having an amazing time watching Ashlyn learn new things each and everyday. We feel so lucky and blessed to have such an amazing little girl.

This weekend we are heading up to Denver for a wedding. Ashlyn is going to be the flower girl. I am hoping that she can make it through most of the rehearsal and dinner on Friday night. Saturday is the big wedding. I hope she does okay. I am not worried about how she will do walking down the aisle, I am worried that she won't sit quietly during the ceremony. We will see. I will take lots of pictures. I have been really bad about it. We just seem to forget to take out the camera. Here are a few I took this week.

18 Month Checkup

Ashlyn had her 18 month checkup on Friday. It went very well. She now weighs 21.3 pounds and is in the 10% for her weight. I did not catch her exact height, but she is now in the 60% for her height. So, she remains very skinny and is now getting a little taller for her age. He said she looks like a 2 year old despite how skinny she is. He said she is definitely precocious as a 2 year old.

The doctor said she looked great. He said her teeth looked great and that she was getting more molars. I asked him about how she never sits still. He said that is perfectly normal. He said if she was doing this in 1st grade, it would be a problem. He said that in his experience, the kids that never sit still are the smartest since they just want to explore and learn. I don't know if there is any truth to that or not:) If there is, Ashlyn will be a genius since she NEVER sits still!!!

He was pretty impressed with the fact that she crawled out of her crib and over the baby gate. He said he could tell there was never a dull moment with her. He said her intelligence is going to continue to keep us on our toes! I think it will too! He also said to expect a huge language explosion in the next month or two. I am excited for more words!

She did have to get one shot. They gave her a little dog and that distracted her. When they did the shot, she cried for 2 seconds and was fine. She is my brave girl! She was happy as a clam with her dog and she also got a sticker!

It was a great visit as usual. We won't be going back for 6 months. I hope our girl continues to grow happy and healthy!!!!

MS Walk and Mother's Day

On Saturday, we did the walk for MS. All week the weather report was not favorable for Saturday. They were predicting drizzle and cold. I was concerned about taking Ashlyn. Last year, we left her at home because the weather was supposed to be bad. Once we got there, the weather was nice. We decided to brave it this year with Ashlyn. We woke up on Saturday, and it was sunny and there was no rain! The weather could have been warmer, but it turned out to be a decent day. We had a great time! We walked and enjoyed each other's company. Ashlyn had a great time on what will be the first of many, many MS walks that she will be part of. We had about 10 people walking with us. We raised over $1500!!! Thank you again for all of you that donated and walked for such a great cause. As everyone knows, this is a cause that is very near and dear to our family. Words cannot express our gratitude to those that contributed to our walk! Thank you!!!!!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. I couldn't have asked for a better day. We started the day by going to breakfast with my mom and grandma. After breakfast, I spent the rest of the day doing whatever I felt like. It was great! Joey and Ashlyn got me exactly what I wanted for Mother's Day. I just feel so blessed to be a mother of such a beautiful and amazing little girl. The day always makes me feel so blessed and lucky. I hope all the mothers had a wonderful day as well!

To update on the crib issue, Ashlyn is doing wonderful in her bed. There were a couple of rough nights at first, but she is doing great. We put a gate up in front of her door so we could see her without having to open her door and risk waking her. Well, last night she climbed over the gate! That girl is seriously a daredevil monkey!!!! She wants to climb everything. We have resorted to just shutting her door. We usually hear her playing up there for a few minutes, but when she is tired she puts herself in bed and goes to sleep. So, this far it has not been as bad as we first thought. We are going to Texas in June to see Adam and Jane. When we are there, we are stopping by at IKEA to get Ashlyn a real big girl bed. I can't wait!

I only have 11 more days of school left! I am hoping they go by quickly and smoothly. While it will be bittersweet, I am just grateful to have made it through this year and this teaching experience. I am more than ready to move on to a class that is less challenging! I can honestly say that I am now ready for anything!!!!! The other big event this month is a wedding the last weekend of May. A friend of Joey's is getting married. Joey is actually marrying the couple and Ashlyn is a flower girl. Should be an interesting day!


I had to post pictures of our tulip garden. Joey's Mom's favorite flower was the tulip. When we bought this house, he planted a tulip garden in her memory. This is the first year we have gotten to see them. They have just been beautiful! We have truly enjoyed looking at them each day. I will be sad when they are gone!

Aren't they just gorgeous? I will try to get some better pictures tomorrow.

A group picture before the MS walk started.

Ashlyn sitting in front of Grandma's garden.

Ashlyn pretending a toy was a phone. She is obsessed with phones!!!

She was having a great time!

Riding on her "ATV".

Doing a "trick". This girl is SUCH a daredevil. She has NO fear!

Ashlyn and Mommy on Mother's Day.

I am truly the luckiest mom in the whole world!!!!

18 Months and on the move!!!

I will add some pictures in the next day or two. Joey and I have been kind of lazy about taking pictures this week. We have not done much exciting to take pictures of!

Ashlyn turned 18 months old yesterday. As I say every time, I can't believe she is 18 months old! She is halfway to 2! She has been acting more like she is two lately. Like she has since birth, Ashlyn knows exactly what she wants. If she does not get that, we are starting to see some tantrums. We are working on some ways to handle this. It's hard being a first time mom and not knowing what works. I guess we will learn just like any other first time parents: through trial and error!

The big news for Ashlyn this week at 18 months is that she finally learned how to crawl out of her crib! Joey and I were waiting for this day, and were really hoping it would come later than now. She first did this weekend when we were over at my parents. We put her upstairs in her crib over there to take a nap. We were downstairs, and before we knew it we saw Ashlyn walking around upstairs. We thought it was a fluke since the crib at my parents is older and isn't as low as hers. Well, two days later, Joey had the day off. He put her down for a nap and heard some noise upstairs. He went up there and she was standing in her room. She did it again that night. We looked on the internet and found this contraption http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=6372421

We were both a little unsure if A) it would work and B) if it was even safe. $70.00 is a lot to spend on something that we won't be using for too long. If she had done this at 9 months old, I would have bought it in a heartbeat. We ultimately decided on turning her crib into a bed. We bought a little side rail to go on so she can't roll out. She wasn't very happy to have to sleep in it. I am a fan of Super Nanny, and decided to try her trick. We put her to bed and told her she needed to go to sleep. Every time she got up, we placed her back in bed. It lasted about an hour, but she finally fell asleep in her bed. We are going to do this every night until she goes right to sleep. I know that it will work. She did the same thing when we first moved her into her crib. It just takes some adjusting!

At 18 months Ashlyn is a wild and crazy toddler! She loves to dance and is constantly on the move. She just loves exploring and moving! She continues to use new words everyday. She also continues to put words together.

I thought I would list some of her favorites:

Food- This is a hard one. One day she will eat something, and totally love it. The next day, she will eat it and hate it! She loves yogurt and is a big cheese fan like her Mom!
Book- She loves any book, but really likes "Cat" that Auntie got her.
Show- Ashlyn has very little interest in t.v. She would rather dance to music. She watches less than an hour of t.v. a week. She does watch Elmo every morning when she is eating breakfast.
Toy- She loves her play kitchen. She also likes her lego/block/little people set. She also likes the ATV her uncle got her.
Thing to Do: anything with Mom and Dad and DANCE!!!!
Favorite Pet: her Alli!