Not all Halloweens are Happy, but you make the best of it.

This weekend started off great, but had a sad ending.  More on that at the end.
The weather this weekend was amazing, and Heather thought it would be a good idea to take Ashlyn to a local pumpkin patch for some pictures.  So off we went.  The pictures did not start out as well as we had hoped.  As soon as we set her down, she’d start crying.  Ashlyn, not Heather.



When we realized it was the straw poking her, we wizened up and put her in more comfortable accommodations.



We got some some pretty good pictures, and I think Ashlyn enjoyed all the colors.
Then came Halloween.  Here is Ashlyn’s first pumpkin.  I think we were the only family in our neighborhood that had a pumpkin complete with fleeing villagers.



I tried to come up with a good way to describe her costume, so I came up with this handy graphic.



She was a Pink bunny.  I capitalize the word Pink for a reason.  It was as if a Hostess Sno-ball the size of a Volvo landed on a rabbit, which then turned into a costume.  She was too young for candy, but we got a lot of “awww”s as we walked around with cousin Heidi trick-or-treating.

In random development news, Ashlyn is walking a lot now.  On Saturday she walked her way right into her first busted lip from falling over.  It will be the first of many I’m guessing.  She’s talking more, and has learned to say “Yee-haw!” and a muffled form of “Gig ‘em”.  It’s good that we’re teaching her the important things.

And for some sad news, Ashlyn’s Great-Grandmother passed away this morning.  While I’m saddened by this, I’m glad that Ashlyn got to meet her and I’m happy to know that Grandmother is in a better place.  I have a lot of fond memories spending time at Grandma’s in the summer watching wrestling videos and eating Little Piper’s pizza with my cousin Gregg.  Watch over Ashlyn for us Grandmother, we love you!

Baby steps…

The past two weeks have just flown by, and I felt that another blog post was in order.  So what’s new in Ashlyn’s world?

First, she’s starting to walk.  So far the most we’ve counted is nine steps, but she’s adding more every day.  Where she used to stand up and take a few steps towards us, now she’s starting to stand up in the middle of the room and walk to toys, pets, furniture, or whatever else is interesting nearby.  They aren’t large steps yet, but I suppose they’re called baby steps for a reason. 

With her new mobility comes other fun activities, like pushing anything that will move across the floor.  She especially likes pushing her wagon across the floor.

She’s also signing more.  Signs are hard to take pictures of, because some require motion of the hands.  Here’s a couple of her signing “eat”.  This is her new favorite sign.  She’s completely on solids now, and it seems like she’s constantly hungry.

 

When she’s done eating, we can ask her if she’s done and she’ll make the sign for “finished”, which is basically putting your hands out to the side and moving them around.  She doesn’t so much move her hands as clasp and unclasp them.  This is also her sign for “I want”, “hello”, and “bye bye”.  But if you take it in context, you know what she means.

 

Other than that, we found two more top teeth today, one is already pushed through and the other will be out in a day or two.  These have gone MUCH easier than the first four, which is to be expected.  It’s just a short break though, because the molars are right around the corner.

A special weekend…

This weekend was a blast.  Why?  Because Aunt Lisa (my sister) got married!

Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, which was held out at the Ft. Worth Zoo.  Ashlyn didn’t attend that particular function, instead she spent the evening with Grandma and Grandpa Wolfe.  The dinner was great, they even brought out animals.  Here’s a picture of the bride, groom, and a 5 year old alligator that was really happy to be there.

 

The wedding itself was on Saturday.  The service was perfect and the bride was beautiful.  And I got to play two parts:  the proud brother of the bride, and the proud father of a cute little baby girl.  Hey, this is a blog about Ashlyn, so I have to include at least one picture of her.  Check her out.. if that doesn’t make you say “awww”, something is terribly wrong with you.

 

She didn’t get to stay at the reception too long, but I did get the chance to spin her around the dance floor.  She had a great time of it, and spent most of the song clapping (I’m not sure if it was for the band or my dancing ability, but my money is on the band).

The highlight of the night of course was watching my sister marry Jeff.  She couldn’t have found a nicer guy, and Heather and I both are incredibly happy for them.  

Have fun in Anguilla Mr. and Mrs. Early!


Before I end this post, I'd be remiss if I didn't say that the look on my parent's faces as Lisa took her first steps with her "Mrs." title is making me nervous because I know that someday (a long, long time from now) I'll watch Ashlyn take those same steps.  I'm sure I'll share the same emotions that they did.. joy at seeing their daughter find someone that will make her happy for the rest of her life, and sadness in knowing that the bulk of their daughter's heart belongs to someone else.  I know I can't keep Ashlyn forever, but I'm happy that I have her for awhile.

A minute can last a lifetime…

Every day we go about our lives, and every day the world as we know it shifts a little bit.  Some days bring small innocent changes, barely noticeable amongst the twists and turns, and others affect us in more substantial ways.  A year ago today, our lives were turned upside down.  I can’t help but think back to that evening, one full of nervousness and excitement.  Normally those times are a blur, but I still vividly remember seeing our daughter for the first time, hearing her cry, and seeing those big blue eyes look out at the world.

And now she’s a year old, no longer the baby we took home from the hospital.  In the past year we’ve seen her smile, laugh, crawl, stand, speak and sign.  We watched her sleep, and stayed up with her through the morning hours.  We watched her take her first step, and held her when she fell only to watch her stand back up again.  We learned to be parents, and she learned… well, to be Ashlyn.

We wanted to do something special for her, so we took some vacation time and made a trip out to the zoo.

She went on her first carousel ride.  I'd like to say she laughed with joy the entire time, but mostly she had a look on her face that said "Why am I going up and down?".

Some things made her angry, and others made her think.
 

Some things fascinated Ashlyn…


...while some things were fascinated by Ashlyn.


Afterwards, we came home and opened up a few more presents.  Being the caring child that she is, she wanted to share one of her presents with mom.


After that, she fell sleep.  And she turned 1, officially, 11 minutes prior to this posting.  Happy birthday crab, it's been a crazy ride this past year, thanks for letting us take it.

It’s my birthday, I’ll throw cake if I want to…

Ashlyn turns 1 this week, but we decided to celebrate today so that the family could come out to wish her a happy birthday.  Grandma Wolfe came out the night before to help decorate some desserts, and Heather helped by making icing “balloons” on the cupcakes and chocolate cake.

After some grub, we got down the business of opening gifts.  Cousin Heidi helped Ashlyn open the gifts, while Ashlyn entertained the crowd by clapping, sitting on her presents, and stopping the show to bang on a musical toy.

After the presents came the cake.  You never know how a baby will react to her first cake.  Will she poke at it, not like the stickiness of it, and then leave it alone?  Or will she dive into it head first?  We got a little of both, she started off a little timid, but next thing you know she’s slapping the cake and flinging icing all over the breakfast area.  She even licked the cake at one point, which was strange, but I guess she liked the slapping better because she only did it once.

After everyone left, we took advantage of the perfect weather by giving her new wagon a spin around the neighborhood.  We walked and Ashlyn cruised around like a rock star eating Graham Crackers.

Thanks everyone who came out and made this a special day for the birthday girl, and to Great-Grandma Russell who sent along a gift even though she couldn't be here.  Ashlyn won’t remember any of this, but we have plenty of pictures to blackmail, I mean reminder her, when she gets older.

Happy birthday Crab!