One more cold down…

If you’re wondering why the blog has been silent the past week or so, it’s because of another baby cold.  Baby colds aren’t like big people colds.  Baby colds mean you wake up and cry at least 7 times each night.  In comparison, when I have a cold I only get up and cry once, twice tops.

It’s been a tiring week, but luckily we’re past that now and Ashlyn is back to her happy self.  I’m also happy to report that Ashlyn has passed yet another baby milestone, and is now officially a clapper.  Apparently that’s a big thing, clapping, and she seems to enjoy it.  She’s also graduating to sitting in the tub instead of laying in the baby tub.  This means that splashing is now a nightly routine, which is great because mom and dad get to join her in getting wet.  It also means we can give her fun hairdoos.

Other than that, as you can see from the picture with the baby puffs, we have to keep a close eye on her or things start flying.  We consider it being rebellious and destructive, but the baby books call it “exploring”.  Either way, we just can’t seem to get mad at her for it, so we we laugh and take pictures instead.

Mobility has its drawbacks…

If you’re a regular reader of this blog you may recall that Ashlyn has not always been the most eager of babies to learn how to get moving.  She didn’t like being on her stomach, so it took her awhile to learn that being face down wasn’t as bad as she first thought.  We’ve kept at it, and it looks like crawling is right around the corner.  So far she can do the army crawl, and she’s learned to scoot around on her butt.  While it’s fun to watch, it also means that we can’t sit her down and not keep a close eye on her.

She’s very interested in the stereo equipment.  If you put her down in the living room and walk away for more than a few minutes, you’re going to come back to find CDs and stereo cables dragged out onto the floor.  I’m going to assume this is her first sign of showing interest in electronics.  That’s my girl!

And in things that make you go “awww..”, Ashlyn’s day care put some bands in her hair.  I walked into a pizza party for Amy, one of our nieces, to see Ashlyn grinning with those little pigtails.  That was a good way to end the day.

A weekend of firsts and family…

Ashlyn had a busy weekend.  Friday started off with my favorite restaurant, Joe T. Garcia's, where we went to celebrate GJ’s (Granny Jack, aka my mom’s) birthday.  Ashlyn got rained on, but was passed around the table and seemed to have a good time with it all.  Here’s a picture of grandpa Rick feeding something to Ashlyn that probably isn’t “baby approved”, but she liked it anyway.  Happy birthday mom!

On Saturday Ashlyn got to experience her first fruit salad, which Heather made out of bananas, pears, and cantaloupe.  On Sunday we saw Ashlyn go from a sitting position to her stomach for the first time, and she also had her first of 1,204,549 Cheerios.  It ended with a visit from the Wolfe's, where once again Ashlyn was passed around and had a good time.

All in all, it really tired Ashlyn out.  When I put her to sleep on Sunday, she drank her milk and was out as soon as I put her on my shoulder.  I got to rock her while she slept for a few minutes, and that was a great end to an eventful weekend.

Happy 4th of July!

Today we commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, mainly by grilling burgers and blowing things up in the sky.  We also celebrate by trying to get daughters to pose with an American flag so dads have something to put on a blog.  It doesn’t always work, this is the best we could do, which is pretty good considering she may be cutting her third tooth. Ashlyn is a little young for fireworks, the only explosions that happen around here mean it’s time to change the diaper.  So instead of fireworks we thought she’d enjoy a trip to the Dallas World Aquarium this weekend.  She may have enjoyed it, it’s hard to tell with a 9 month old.  She seemed more interested in the other kids running around than at the actual fish and animals. 

Have a happy and safe 4th of July everyone!