Another Christmas in the books…

If you recall the last Christmas, you may remember that Ashlyn spent most of the night in the hospital.  So after that, this Christmas by comparison had no choice but to be good.  And it didn’t disappoint.  Ashlyn still doesn’t get what Christmas is all about of course, but her birthday in October was a good warm-up to the paper tearing extravaganza that would follow a few days ago.



And if presents weren’t enough, she also got to meet the new addition to Aunt Sisa’s family, but Ashlyn wasn’t too sure about Baxter the bear cub.  Aunt Sisa and Uncle Jeff swear that it’s a Golden retriever.  But as you can see below, I think they were lied to by the breeder.  See if you can pick out the animal that looks least like the other two.

 

And while this isn’t Christmas related, we think Ashlyn may have an interest in modeling.  She’s already mastered “Blue Steel”.  And for those who don’t get it, go watch Zoolander and you may find the joke funny.

 

So this Christmas was a good one.  Breakfast with the Flinn’s, Lunch with the Wolf’s, and Dinner with the Wolfe’s.  Ashlyn was so tired at the end of the day that she slept in late the next morning and didn’t make a peep.  I’m thinking we need to do Christmas more often.

Thanks everyone for making this a wonderful Christmas for Ashlyn.



Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas is right around the corner..

With 2 days left until Christmas I’m happy to report that our Christmas shopping is finally over.  Ashlyn looks to have a good Christmas ahead of her, based on the amount of wrapping paper that she’ll get to play with all day.  Eventually we’re hoping that she’ll play with the toys underneath the wrapping paper, but I don’t want to get greedy.

I was thinking of something to post this time around, and Ashlyn was kind enough to give me some material last night.  But before I go into that, here’s a few pictures showing words that Ashlyn has learned.  The first is “sock”.  She’ll say this word when she sees a sock.  These are fun because she knows that mommy and daddy want her to wear them, which of course means that she takes them off minutes after having them put on.  She’ll try to put them on every now and then, but she’s not quite coordinated enough yet.

See that look on her face? That's the "I know you don't want me to take this sock off but I'm too cute for you to stop me" face.



Another word she knows is “ipod”.  Yes, I know this is a little sad and proves how much of a geek her parents are.  But in our defense, there’s toddler apps on there that show animals and the noises they make, and other little games.  Heather can ask “Can you bring me your ipod?” and Ashlyn will find it, bring it over, and then sit on her lap so that Heather can bring up one of the games.  There’s an app for pretty much everything, but I haven’t found one that will change her diaper for us.



She also knows “book”, and will bring one to you if you ask, but I didn’t have a good picture for it.

And now on to the material I referenced earlier. Ashlyn has an interesting reaction to changes in her environment. She doesn't cry, or hide, she gets very quiet and watches. Eventually she'll warm up to the new situation and will start playing, but never like she does when it's just Heather and I. Last night Ashlyn started jabbering and playing fetch with the dog, and as a dad my first reaction is to reach for the camera. This is the result. I don't know what Ashlyn is saying, but she sure seems passionate about it. I particularly like the pose around 45 seconds into the video.



Okay, so I realize this video is probably one that her parents get a kick out of while everyone else scratches their chin saying "what's the big deal?". But this is a blog about Ashlyn, and I haven't posted a video since the first few weeks and I wanted to give everyone a taste of what she's like when she's not in observation mode.

Have a great and Merry Christmas, and if you're lucky enough to have a tradition like my family does, we'll see you at Joe T. Garcias on Christmas Eve. Nothing says Christmas like church and margaritas!

A busy weekend!

Some weekends are quiet, the word “quiet” being a relative term with a 14 month old, but this weekend was a busy one.  It started off with some playtime on Friday in the loft, which was converted last weekend into an official play area for Ashlyn, complete with table, easel, and shelves for toys. 

We also had fun with the wheelie popper thing that Grandma bought her for Christmas.  She never seemed interested with it downstairs, probably because it wouldn’t pop very well on the hardwood.  Pop pop pop.  Thanks Grandma.

Saturday took us to downtown Ft. Worth, where we took Ashlyn to see some trees lit in every color currently available in LED lighting.  It was pretty cold, but she had a good time with it.  As with most babies, lights are fascinating things to Ashlyn.

I don’t have any pictures of Sunday, but it was spent Christmas shopping and having dinner for Uncle Bruce and cousin Heidi’s birthday.  Since I don’t have any pictures of that, here’s one of Ashlyn stealing a coke.  Close enough, right?