Thursday, April 19, 2012

Playdates, playdates, and more playdates!!

Just captions today...

We went to the Splash Park at the zoo with a few other moms and kids, where I think Ashlan was the youngest walking one there.  Dan had off and decided to join us and I'm glad he did.  He ended up watching her so I could chat, lol!  The splash park said a rule was no running, which is why Dan was following her around everywhere.  Yeah, try telling that rule to a 16 month old!  Ha!

She was having so much fun.

Poor Dan, and my friend, Lisa, had to keep chasing after the kids when they were running or climbing on things they weren't supposed to.  

Like this, they weren't supposed to climb on the whale.  Dan had to chase Ashlan around everywhere.


This thing was slippery...Ashlan almost wiped out a few times.




With some of the other moms...I think she thought they were her own personal cheering section.  :)

Ashlan's new tricycle.  She can reach the pedals but doesn't know how to pedal yet.



Pushing it herself.  And this thing comes off, to look like a regular tricycle.

She gets so proud of herself when she climbs on it.

Clapping her hands at herself.

Love this pic!  <3

Lol, she used this as a seat while watching a show.

Ashlan and Tyler.

Poor Amy was bombarded by little ones because she had cheerios.

Even Caesar wanted in on it.  :)

Love this pic.  Two big smiles!  

Apparently Audrey was done smiling for the camera.  :)

Ashlan must have been tired, haha!  So many playdates lately.  We've been having so much fun!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

The Ashlan Escapades

We have had a busy week!  Ashlan is starting to get over her cold, we think.  She has been on antibiotics for   eight days or so and doesn't have a runny nose or cough anymore.  However, she just started to sound congested again in the last day or so.  We're wondering if that's just from her teeth.  Yesterday at the gym she threw up (poor daycare workers!) so we left the gym early and she fell asleep in the car on the way home.  We were thinking teeth (because she's been doing this for months now and then a tooth magically appears), but who knows?  I can see the white part of the tooth just above the gum line, so I know it will be here soon.  I've been seeing it for at least a week now though, so I wish it would hurry up!  

We have a busy week this week.  Tomorrow we have a zoo playdate in the morning (and we just had another zoo playdate on Friday morning- good thing we have season passes!) and then Mommy is taking an exercise class at night.  Tuesday morning is going to be spent looking at tricycles since we *think* Ashlan may be tall enough for one.  Then we'll probably go play at the park or go swimming since our pool water is up to 76 degrees now and then I will go to the gym again in the evening.  On Wednesday, we have a playdate at the beach and then I will be trying to get to another class at the gym.  Thursday is up in the air (probably going to the park again and/or swimming in our pool) except for my exercise classes, and Friday I have a Scentsy party to go to, and that's also a playdate.  Dan has off this weekend, so if the weather is nice (which is supposed to be gorgeous), I think we'll be spending a lot of time at the pool and park.  We try to go to the park every other day because Ashlan loves it and she's getting really good going down the slide and climbing the steps all by herself.  Just when I am worried that she's going to hurt herself, she surprises me and is able to control her movements.  She is just growing up so fast!


Ashlan has formed an intense attachment to this doll.  You will see it in a ton of the pictures now.  Of course, this is probably the only doll we don't have at least two of!

We had some friends come over for Easter and had a great time!  It worked out perfectly since no family could make it down.  This is our friend Edisa's 23 month old, Emedin, and Ashlan, 16 months old.

For some reason she wanted to lay down in the box.  

Our friend Laura and her husband, and daughter, Audrey, also came over.  Audrey is about 18 1/2 months.

The two girls playing.

There is never a dull moment when we have three kids under 2 years old in the house.  :)

Lol, at least they were sharing.  :)

Ashlan is holding her doll here, if you look close.

A rolled up frozen wash cloth was hitting the spot.

Trying to put her own socks on.

I don't know what's worse now, her attachment to the binky or her attachment to the doll.

Frozen peas are good too.  And notice the doll behind her.  :)

Another picture of Ashlan with her doll.  She will not let us take that thing away from her!

Putting blocks on top of one another.

Look at how skinny her belly is now!

"Reading" the book of animals by herself.  She got quiet and when I went to go check on her, she had pulled herself and the book on the couch and was looking at the animals.  


Friday, April 6, 2012

16 months old!!

So Ashlan still has a little something.  We thought she was just teething, and she still could be, but she usually doesn’t get a runny nose as a symptom, and that’s what she has.  We actually went to the Ped for it, and they gave us an antibiotic, but after many tearful episodes of trying to force medication down her throat, we gave up.  We’ll just let her try to fight it off on her own first.  We tried so hard to give her that antibiotic, and tried everything!  We had it flavored, tried to get her to take it on a spoon first, then syringe, mixed it in yogurt (to which she now won’t eat yogurt at all, and she loved yogurt!), etc.  Finally, I just got down on the floor with her, put her on my lap, wrapped my legs around her to hold her arms down, and tried to put the liquid in her mouth.  She spit all but a few ml out, so we have no idea how much she got, and it clearly wasn’t worth the trauma we were putting her (and us!) through for those two times a day, not to mention, how fed up each of us got when she would shake her head as we were trying to steady it, then spit it out all over her and us, and try to wriggle away from us, screaming.  And on the times that we actually got some in her, she’d just gag herself and throw up afterwards, so she didn’t get any anyway.  It was a nightmare and everyone was unhappy.  So we hope she can fight this off herself or else we’re back to square one.  We called the Ped again to see if there was another way to administer them, and they said no.  The antibiotic she was on wasn’t offered in a shot, but it is offered in a capsule, but not at her correct dose.  If she doesn’t get better, we are going to see if they can give us the capsule anyway and we can adjust the dose (we do have a pharmacist on staff ;) ), and then we’ll crush it up and hope it doesn’t taste bad in her food.  I’m not sure why she didn’t like the sugary liquid antibiotic, but she doesn’t even like any kind of juice or flavored milk, so maybe that’s why.  That’s also the reason we couldn’t mix it up in juice.  Whoever heard of a child not liking juice and chocolate or strawberry milk?!  What a weirdo!  Haha!  Her mood has already improved though since we stopped forcing it on her, so hopefully she can just fight this off by herself.  She doesn’t cough much anymore, and it rarely wakes her up enough to the point where she is coughing so much that she’s throwing up, so that’s good at least.  We’re just watching her runny nose to see if it gets worse.  Her 10th tooth hasn’t come in yet, though we can still see how puffy and red her gums are, but I’m sure we’ll know she’s teething when she starts throwing up again, haha. 

Daddy started back to work on Wednesday and it was sad to see him go back.  We enjoyed having him around even if we couldn’t do much.  And it turns out that the spleen they removed from his intestines was his only spleen!  Originally, they thought it was either part of his spleen that had broken off, or a second spleen that he was born with.  So, now he is spleen-less.  Not sure exactly what that means, but we do know it means he is more prone to infections.  The doctor is supposed to call him on Monday/Tuesday, so we’ll know more then.  However, it just figures that he is in the health-care field, where he has to deal with sick people on a daily basis.

Ashlan's 16th month birthday was on April 3rd.  Hard to believe how fast this year has gone.  She is a little girl now, no more baby!  Unbelievable!

This past Sunday we had an Easter Egg Hunt with a mom group that I’m in down here, and Ashlan didn’t get one egg (not even one, lol!), despite the fact that every child was supposed to get at least 12 eggs (because that’s what most parents brought).  She was not very concerned at all though, and managed to fill her Easter basket with a few twigs she picked up that she liked better.  She was also lumped together with the 3 and under crowd, so there were a lot of kids older than her running around, and I think she was the youngest walking one there anyway.  We had a good time though!  There was also food and desserts galore and after we ate, we played at the park while the eggs were hidden.  We had to leave early though because Dan was starting to feel some pain, but it was a long enough outing because he hadn’t been outside the house for that long in awhile.  We’ll definitely be back next year.  


At the Easter Egg hunt...this is what she preferred to do.  :)

Going on a walk with Daddy.

Leading Daddy around.

Now pulling Daddy.  Apparently he wasn't going fast enough!




She did NOT want to hold his hand.  Miss Independent.

What Ashlan collected at the Egg Hunt.


Hair is getting long!

Her new feat is climbing up on this recliner and rocking herself.



Definitely a big girl, sitting by herself!

Just hanging out.