I stand, therefore I am.

This is not going to be a long update, but today marked the first day that Ashlyn stood up on her own, and I felt it was worth sharing some of those first moments.  As you can see from the pictures below, she’s a bit wobbly, but she seems excited by it.

If you’re wondering why Heather is holding a camera while I’m taking the pictures, it’s because Ashlyn kept crawling over to grab MY camera, and it’s hard to take pictures with a baby’s hand on the camera lens.

Also, and I can’t provide proof of this so you’ll have to trust me, Ashlyn snuck two more teeth in on us.  She now has all four front teeth poking out, two on top and two on bottom.  These went MUCH easier than the first two.  In fact, we thought the first one was just a cold and the second went by without her even being bothered by it.  Here’s hoping that the rest are that easy.

Uh-Oh!

Today marked the first of what I can only expect to be many small injuries to parents caused by Ashlyn.  She’s decided that the best way to let us know she’s done drinking water out of her sippy cup is to toss it on the floor.  We’ve learned to be watchful of this, but we strayed a bit this evening and a full sippy cup was tossed directly onto Heather’s previously injured toe.  I laughed, Heather would have laughed if she wasn’t in pain, and Ashlyn ate a piece of cheese.  Good times.

And now on to better things..

With curiosity comes mobility and with mobility comes the desire to stand and explore.  She’s all over the house now, standing on anything with a ledge.  It’s fun to watch.  Walking is right around the corner.

And in interesting news, Ashlyn signed for the first time today.  Two different signs!  She asked for food, and asked for more.  Below is her signing for more cheese.  She likes cheese.  Now we need to work on a sign for “I’m done with my sippy cup” other than using projectiles.

She’s also starting to shake her head to say no, and will wave at you if you wave at her.  All this is still a little sporadic of course, but she’s doing it and it’s awesome to see her learning to communicate more.

And this is just a random pictures of Ashlyn hamming it up for the camera.  I can’t remember if I posted this before, but I don’t care.  It’s worth posting again.  That hair is awesome.

Aren’t daughters great?

Today’s excuse:  Life has once again made regular posting a difficult thing.  This time it’s for good reasons, but I still need to keep this thing updated.  If not for you, the reader, then for Ashlyn, the true audience.

This week has been rough, with very little sleep and my head constantly filled with pesky work thoughts.  But I have a secret weapon for stress:

I’ll tell you truthfully, I love being a father.  It’s hard to imagine a time when I wasn’t a father.  Today I got home, watched Heather hold Ashlyn’s hands while she (Ashlyn) walked across the kitchen floor.  And that simple thing, those few steps instantly made the entire week and all the worry about work fade to background noise.  I threw on some shorts, picked her up, and we walked around the lake in our neighborhood.  Well, I walked while she held on and stared at the fountain in the middle of the lake.  The girl just loves water, we took her to Uncle Bruce’s house this past weekend and she was kicking around in the pool like a frog.  Only 12 years and 1 month until we go scuba diving!

So once again I say thank you little one, for showing us that simple things in life can be amazing adventures.

Mommy and Daddy love you.