The Ashlan show: 15 week pics and update

Within the last two weeks Ashlan has started laughing. We have seen her laugh a few times in her sleep since she was a few weeks old but never as a response to us. It is so cute to have her laugh at us when we make funny faces at her! I just love this age! Dan and I will try to tape it this weekend to put the clip online so family can see. But it won’t be long now since we’ll see family again and we’re very excited for her to meet family members she’s never met before! We’re a little nervous about the flights but hopefully she’ll do ok. I’m more worried about lugging baby things around (and forgetting something) than I am about her behaving though! She always (usually) puts on a good show for strangers!

She was totally hamming it up at church on Sunday. We went early Sunday morning, which we used to go to this mass all the time before we had Ashlan but haven’t been to that one since (because when you have a newborn, sleep and feedings run your life especially when they nurse because they feed so much more often). Anyway, since she was up at 6am (which is her usual wake up time now), we figured we’d go to that one. We had a whole bunch of people come up to us after mass to see her and tell us how precious she is (always nice to hear)! This one particular lady in the row behind us was certainly enjoying herself with Ashlan! She kept waving at Ashlan and Ashlan kept smiling at her the whole time and even laughed at her a few times as well! We were all trying to not laugh because it was so funny to see her smile and laugh at this lady. After mass, another lady that was sitting two rows in front of us came over and said she had no idea we had a baby back there because she was so good. People still look so shocked when we say how old she is and say she looks bigger than that. I’ve also been told I look great too, which I LOVE hearing (who wouldn't?), even though I still have a few pounds to go! But that makes me feel like all the running I'm doing is worth it!

Speaking of running, Ashlan has not been falling asleep so easily on the runs anymore. Since I am pretty much back down to my 8 ½ minute miles, I’ve started to run 4 miles now and eventually hope to get back to 5 or 6. So even though I’m running longer, she is only falling asleep with 5 minutes or so left in my run, whereas before she used to get a good 20 minute nap in. This means she’s either crankier when I get out of the shower until she gets her nap, or she is fussier all day until she gets her 2-3 hour nap in. She still seems to be in good spirits on the run; she never cries and is always looking around.

This weekend will be busy! Friday night we’re going to our church’s fish fry. Because of Dan working and us being in PA, this will be the last one this year that we can make unfortunately. Then on Saturday, we have plans to hang out with friends and on Sunday we’re hanging out by the pool with another friend we haven’t seen in awhile. Our pool is only 72 degrees though right now so I don’t think I’ll be going in! I can’t believe bathing suit season is here already, I need more time!!!

Bottle feedings are going pretty well now that we figured out that our little diva likes her milk a certain temperature. She’s pretty particular though…if it’s off a little bit either way we’ll hear about it! But at least she’s taking the bottle still. I mainly nurse her though, so daddy only gets to feed her when he’s off, of course, and that's the only time we bottle feed because it's so much harder. She’s getting harder and harder to maneuver around though when nursing since she is a little piglet! I’m guessing she’s around 15 pounds? Her 4 month checkup and shots are in a week so we’ll find out then what she weighs.

I love her little dimples! And this is a 6-9 month onesie and she's only 15 weeks here! A tad big but not much!