The Ashlan show: October 2012

Wow, this blog is gonna be long! I type things into my phone as they happen and I ended up with a ton of Ashlan stories this time. It also seems we’ve done so much in these last two weeks. I’ve been making/buying decorations for Ashlan’s party, we went to the zoo on Tuesday, had some playdates, and I’m finally getting over being sick…though I still have a lingering cough.

A few days ago I got up to feed Caesar and put my phone down, which was unlocked. Ashlan somehow managed to call Daddy all by herself! Dan answered and heard, “Hi daddy” in a soft voice. I thought she was just talking to herself until she kept talking and I noticed she had my phone up to her ear. She will sometimes grab it anyway and try to talk on it, but I head Dan’s small voice on the other end and realized she actually had Dan on the line, haha. He is on speed dial, but it was really weird how she just happened to hit the phone icon and then his number, but I’m glad she didn’t call anyone else. He loved that though. Today, Dan called us while he was at work and Ashlan wanted to talk to him. She only said, “Hi daddy” without prompting, and then Dan started asking her about her day and whatnot. At the end he said “I love you” to her and I knew she wouldn’t say anything to that so I asked her to tell daddy you love him and she said, “I love you too, Daddy.” He told me that melted his heart. : )

Ashlan and I met a neighborhood mom and her two kids a couple of days ago at the park. All the girls had fun playing together. Ashlan climbed up a slide after seeing the five year old child do it and said, “I did it”! Then she followed that child down the big slide and scared the heck out of me. Monkey see, monkey do. Mommy wasn't fast enough for that one. But as she was going down it, she loudly said "whee". Lol.

Every day I have to let her pick out her outfit (within reason, I give her two choices), shoes, hair bows, etc. Now we even have to go to the store together to buy shoes because she refuses to wear some I bought her. After wasting two perfectly good pair of shoes that she didn't like for some reason (they were both silver, coincidence?), I now make sure she goes with me when I buy them and give her a choice. It’s much easier on all of us and this way she will wear what I buy her. She has actually turned into quite the shopaholic, lol. She wanted to go shopping the other day. She went to the door, jingled the doorknob and said, "Shopping". I said "You want to go shopping?" And she said, "yeah". Lol. Luckily, we had to go shopping anyway, so I just got us ready and headed out the door. Another day when I asked her if she wanted to go shopping with me (like I’d leave her home by herself, haha), she said yes and the whole car ride was giggling and kept yelling, “Shopping!” Haha. This could be even going grocery shopping. She sits pretty still in the cart, as long as I don’t linger too long looking at something. If I put her down, she is everywhere and into everything and who wants to deal with that?

So what makes me prouder? I ask her if she wants to go shopping and she says yes and follows me around until we go...or her pulling a Steeler jersey out if her drawer when I asked her what she wanted to wear and she said "Steeler". Lol! Daddy is proud too. : )

So after grocery shopping a few days ago, Ashlan knocked over a bag with eggs. I just said, “aww, Ashlan”, in a disappointed voice. She immediately, and without any prompting, said, “I sorwy mommy”. As I knelt down to pick up the broken eggs, she leans in and gives me a hug, and puts her arms around my back! That was just too sweet. Then she helps me put the groceries away by handing each item to me one by one saying, “here mommy”. She has helped me put groceries away before like this, so that’s not unusual. She will hand me an item out of a bag and bring it to me, and then I put it away. I can’t believe how much she wants to help me. She also “helps” me with laundry…she can carry her own basket to the laundry room if I ask her and also pushes the clothes into the dryer after I put them on the lid from the washer. She likes to “dust” also…I give her a Swiffer and let her go to town, haha.

Dan has been kicking balls in her boxes when they're laid in their side and I guess we must have said 'score' when he would make a goal. He ended up making a 'goal' the other night and without missing a beat, Ashlan raises her hands in a touchdown way and yelled, "Score!" Too funny. And Ashlan now knows what a booboo is, lol. I hurt myself the other day and had a bandaid on. She asked me what it was so I told her I had a booboo and she said, “ouch”. So now every time she sees someone with a bandaid on, she points to it and says, “booboo”.

Funny enough, she has started singing to us. It comes out as mainly gibberish but it’s definitely not her talking. We were all sitting down coloring the other day and she started singing. Dan and I looked at each other and we asked her if she was singing for us and she said yes. Lol. And today she took her stuffed horse and ran into the kitchen. I wondered what she was doing so I went to investigate and she had her horses’ nose in Caesar’s water dish. LOL. I got a big laugh out of that one.

Last Tuesday we went to the zoo. When we asked her if she wanted to go to the zoo she said “yes!” and ran towards the door. So I said to her, “We're gonna see zebras, giraffes...” and she says, “Snakes?!” Lol. She loves snakes. She was absolutely hilarious at the zoo. She went up to a cage at the zoo and asked some animals, "Hey, are you stuck?" Lol! While pointing to a snake, she said, "Oh cool", and then said, "I get you, snake!" Haha. No, I don’t think you will, Ashlan.

So while there, we passed by some fish and she said, "Hi, fishie" while waving to them. Then we saw a snapping turtle and she got really close to the glass. I jokingly told her not to kiss him and she pulled Dan's hand, led him up to the turtle, and said, "Come on, daddy, kiss!" Lol! At the end, I asked her if she was tired and wanted to go home and of course she said no. :) She loves, loves, loves animals. She has a Pooh encyclopedia of animals and can name probably around 75% of the animals in that book and can tell you what sound it makes. She may not know how to count to 10, her colors, or her ABC’s yet, but let me tell you, girl knows her animals. And really, she’s only 22 months so I’m not too concerned with those yet, haha. I might be the daughter of two teachers but I’m not a Nazi.

When we were at the zoo with Dan, I think she said her longest sentence to date. She said to me when I was handing her crackers one by one, "Can I have a fishie, Mommy"? Now, she didn’t say please so I didn’t give her one. Just kidding, haha. Of course I gave her one, but I said, “What do you say?” and of course she said “Pease?” Too cute.

So last night (Thurs) the room was dark as I was in the rocking chair with her just putting her socks on for bed, before I put her into her crib. She leans into me and says, “Mommy, I scared.” I thought I heard her wrong so I asked her to repeat it and sure enough, she said it again. I asked her why and told her she had nothing to be scared of and that I would always be there to protect her. Maybe that’s why she has been waking up at night hysterical for the past couple weeks. She always wants us there when she falls asleep at the beginning of the night. We don’t ever have to rock her, she just wants someone there. So then she started waking up in the middle of the night and we’d have to do it then too. She just wants us in the room until she falls asleep again. I have NO idea how she even knows what scared means but I felt so bad for her right then. I suppose it’s just one of the many moments I’ll experience in parenting, where you wish you could be with your child to shelter her from whatever is upsetting her. I don’t even know if she really knew what she was saying but it sure seemed like she did. Poor Ashlan. Definitely don’t like getting up that often during the night but if she needs us there to feel safe, how could we refuse?

Insisted on wearing her new shoes.

My big girl! So long!

She put Minnie and Mickey in her high chair. Maybe they were hungry. :)

First Happy Meal!

Chicken nuggets were ok...a few bites.

Did better on the fries. What kid doesn't like fries?

Wrestling with Daddy.

Here daddy, put on these two hats and stand in the box, haha!

Good afternoon! After a nap.

At bedtime, she wanted to read on the floor instead of her chair. She said, "Come on mommy" and led me down to the floor and then brought her book to me.

Zoo day!

Rhinos

Zebras.

Leopard.

She LOVED feeding the giraffes! Squealed and smiled so big!

Anteater.

Nice face, Ashlan. LOL

Finally got a real smile!

Turtle.

First ride on the carousel (well, at this zoo, she probably doesn't remember when we went to Disney when she was 18 months old). She was pretty happy when it started.