Videos for the grandparents

Ashlan was babbling up a storm while running around the house right before getting ready for bed tonight.  I'm eager to communicate with her when she learns how to talk but I'm really going to miss this stage.  The gibberish is just so cute!  

We took Ashlan to Nana's and Papa's today and she played in the ocean for awhile.  We were just going to take her to the water's edge but she loved it so much that we just let her have at it.  Even though the temperature was around 71 degrees and the water was in the 60s, she didn't want to leave.  

After a while, her diaper got so wet that it was just hanging off of her, lol!  Good thing she had a onesie on or else she might have lost it!  

The Adventures of Ashlan



Well, believe it or not, I haven’t taken many pictures this week!  Only eight!  Not much else has changed with Ashlan, except she has her 3^rd tooth now.  It’s also on the bottom.  We’re expecting a 4^th soon since they come in pairs.  But all in all, we really can’t complain.  She isn’t cranky, and only once and awhile she gets upset.  However, with that she can go from 0 to 60 in 10 seconds and when I don’t respond immediately, she throws up.  Yep, guess that is one of her signs of teething...pretty much the only one actually.  Well, maybe restless sleep too!  But I think I’d rather have crankiness than throwing up!  But, at least she gets that over with, and she’s happy right afterwards, so we're glad it doesn’t last long, maybe a minute or two.  We also knew she was getting a tooth because she was pretty restless with her sleep.  She just kept tossing and turning.  Thankfully, she didn’t need us at night (didn’t cry out once), but we felt so bad for her.  As long as we give her some ibuprofen at night when she's teething, she sleeps pretty well, so no complaints there.  She is still sleeping through the night now but still gets up early.  She must have her daddy’s internal clock.  :)

Mommy and Ashlan hanging out.

Her new car seat. 

She was enjoying playing in it before we installed it into the car.

And one of her favorite dollies was joining her.

Here's her old car seat.  She still fits the measurements allowable, but it seems way too small for her now.  We had bought a seat with extended weight and height requirements than normal infant seats.

Here's the box that her car seat came in.

She likes it, but not as much as the littler boxes.

The Adventures of Ashlan

Ashlan is beginning to answer ‘no’ to us when we ask her something. She doesn’t have the ‘yes’ part down yet, but she shakes her head and says ‘no’ when she doesn’t want something. I thought it was a fluke the other day when she said 'no' to me for something I asked, but she did it today in front of my parents too. I’m glad she’s trying to communicate because it makes it a lot easier than just guessing what she wants! Yesterday when Dan went to work she very clearly said, “Bye Dad”.  I’m not sure why she didn’t say “dada” or “daddy” but that ‘Dad’ was as clear as day.

Also, Ashlan has been copying us. We saw her taking one of her burp cloths and wiping the carpet the other day. We do that when she spills her milk on the carpet! She has done it more than a few times so it has to be just from watching us do it. We’ve also seen her wipe the couch (which she also gets her milk on somehow!) and the sliding glass door. She’s just too funny!

And other news (and don’t worry, it revolves around Ashlan, as everything in our life does)…we booked a trip to London in May! It will be Ashlan’s first trip overseas at the ripe old age of 17 months! Though she’s been in a plane a few times, this is the longest she has ever been confined to one space, uh oh! :) We’re hoping the flight there won’t be bad because it’s overnight, but the way home is going to be during the day and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t worried about that one. Well, either way, this will be a trip to remember, lol! Hopefully, we can do an overseas trip every year but we’ll see. Right now she likes her stroller, and naps in it frequently, so hopefully this trip will be ok, as long as we play it by ear (her ear!). We are staying close to downtown London; from our rental we can see the Eye of London and Big Ben. We figured since we’d be spending a lot of evenings there (seeing Ashlan’s early bedtime), that we would at least have a view! We decided to get a rental because we needed an extra room for Ashlan since no one sleeps when we’re all in the same room together, and because it was cheaper than getting a hotel with an extra room. It’s not cheap but at least this way we can all get some rest, we hope. The times we have stayed with her in the same room has been disastrous for all three of us! Anyway, we are super excited and can’t wait to go! You can check out the place we’re staying at  here: http://www.boutiquelondonlets.com/london-serviced-apartments/thames-view-apartments-vauxhall   The pictures are on the right of the website.

Ashlan was sitting nice with me until Dan wanted to take a picture, of course. 

Ashlan just loves her dolly from Nana and Papa.  My goodness, she got attached to that thing fast!

Sitting with Daddy for breakfast before he goes to work.

At first, she was ok with the tutu being on.

Here she was like, "Get this OFF of me!!"  Lol!

I found Mr. Potato Head like this one afternoon...she loves to put things where they don't belong. 

Getting ready for momma's run...it was cold out that morning!

At Nana's and Papa's today, waving to people on the beach.

Papa showing Ashlan everyone on the beach.  Quite a few surfers out today, despite how cold the water is!

This was a present from mommy's godmother, Aunt Joan (and Uncle Rich) that we received today.  Ashlan immediately put the bottle to the baby's lips when we opened it.  What a little smartie!

I had to hold the doll, but when I told her to feed her baby, she did!

The Ashlan Adventures

This past Tuesday we went to the Alligator Farm and Zoological Park with my parents in St. Augustine. I really, really liked it, and I think Ashlan did too. It seems she got a lot more out of it than the zoo, but I’m guessing it’s because you can get closer to the animals there. We were feeding all sorts of animals and Ashlan was just watching all of them, and sometimes was squealing with delight. All in all, she did very well that day, despite only getting two naps of a half hour each. That is completely out of the ordinary for her, she is usually an 80 minute on-the-dot napper, but when you’re on the go, you’ll take what you can get!

Speaking of sleep, it has been going very well for us again, thankfully! With the exception of the two month hiatus (of her getting sick, teething, and then getting so upset that she would throw up), it seems we are now back to setting her down fully awake for nighttime and she puts herself to sleep without a peep. Her bedtime is also getting more predictable…usually she goes down around 7/7:30 and wakes up anywhere from 5:45-6:30. She may be an early riser, but at least we’re all getting solid sleep again. It’s so nice to have that again, and even our evenings back so Dan and I can spend time together. She is going through a clingy stage with me, but sometimes it’s nice to be wanted again! She is so independent usually, that it’s nice to get hugs, kisses, and snuggle time in! I’ll be milking it for now.  :)

We have a very busy weekend planned…Friday and Saturday we’re getting together with friends, and then Sunday, we hope to see my parents again and my aunt and uncle, who are coming down from NJ. They have never met Ashlan before and also, it will be nice to see them again since visits with them are few and far between.

She loves to 'ride' on our legs...this is my mother's fault!  :)

Watching the game with Daddy.

Dan's watching the game and Ashlan appears to be chilling out, lol!

At the Alligator Farm.

Watching the crocs.

I was feeding the crocs because hey, it was fun, and I was getting a kick out of Ashlan watch them crawl all over each other to get to the food. 

This bird (macaw, I think) was certainly noisy!  We could hear him squawking from across the park!

Pointing at something...

Me and sleeping beauty...who really could have used more rest!  :)

The Ashlan Adventures

Just in the past few days it seems Ashlan has picked up a few words here and there. She repeats me a lot and now clearly says hi and bye and waves for both. We were in the grocery store yesterday and I swear every cart that we passed (especially with kids in it), she would scream out a little high pitched “hi” to them and then wave. We got quite a few smiles from that! She will also put her cell phone to her ear and say hi. (Unfortunately, she dropped it in the tub yesterday when it was filling with water, so I’m hoping after sitting in rice and getting new batteries, it will work again. At least she can still use it like a phone though, even if the buttons don’t work. I only paid $0.50 for it so at least we didn’t spend a lot of money on it!)

After my mother was going over eyes, teeth, ears, and head with her when they were here last week, Ashlan can now initiate pointing to your eye and then she’ll say ‘eye’. When asked, she also can point to teeth and head, though I’ve been working on head with her for a month or two now.

And very clearly today she said the word, “carrots”. I always tell her what food I put in front of her to eat and last night she had chicken and carrots for dinner. I only put a few on her tray at a time of each and when she was done with the carrots, she pointed to the plate with more carrots on it and clearly said carrots! That was a shocker, but I am positive I heard that right. Then when I clapped my hands and said, “yay!” she looked at me like I was crazy, lol! It’s amazing how much she has learned lately!

Caesar is eyeing her fishies.

This is when he loves her!  :)

Papa and Ashlan playing with her new toy.

Ashlan showing Nana her favorite animals in her favorite book. 

Nana was sitting outside and we went with her, but then Ashlan was obsessed with putting her hands in the freezing water!  She was upset when we wouldn't let her do it anymore!

We wanted to take a family picture after dinner out one night but Ashlan was having none of it!  :)  Guess we should have done it before, lol!

Talking on her cell phone.

She loves that thing!  I hope it works after it has time to get dry!

My little piggy...has a whole handful of homemade mac'n'cheese in one hand and eating the other handful!

At the zoo with Nana and Papa, pointing and looking at the animals.  She loved it!

Ashlan loves her books.  Check out Caesar.

Got them both to smile.  :)

Sitting in the sun, dialing her BFF on her cell phone. 

Playing in her box.

A little smirk while she walks towards me.

Other kids are jealous of Ashlan's toys.  HAHA!  :)

Being silly.

Loves her marinated grilled chicken!  Daddy makes it good!

She has started to do this when she's done with her food.  Too funny!