Happy Easter!

This was a weekend full of eggs and family, which is to say it was a great Easter.  The festivities started out in Fort Worth on Saturday with an Easter egg hunt.  Mom got her ready, and then off Ashlyn went to collect the eggs.  She did pretty good too, considering she really didn’t “get” it.

Afterwards, it was time for a game of “hit daddy on the head with a confetti egg” and then some fun with bubbles.  Ashlyn loves bubbles.

 

On Sunday morning, Grandpa Flinn came over and we had yet another Easter egg hunt.  The difficulty was raised this time because we put her in an Easter dress, but she managed to figure it out.

She gathered up eggs filled with animal crackers and popcorn, but got bored and decided to play in the water instead.  She even used an open egg as a cup to drink water out of her play pool.

 

Later on Sunday, it was time for a final Easter egg hunt.  We weren’t sure if she would still be into it the third time, but she gathered up a few eggs before heading to the sandbox.

Inside, after Easter dinner, she played with Grandpa Wolfe.  When I saw the look on her face in these pictures, I knew I had to post them.

Thanks everyone for a great Easter weekend.

And finally, a happy Birthday to Aunt Sisa and Uncle Brian!  I made this picture for Lisa to add to her birthday card, and I thought it came out pretty well.  This is by no means Photoshopped in any way, Ashlyn had a birthday hat on her head at the Arts fair last weekend and the camera can pick up thoughts.

Words of the week:

• Egg
• Pop

Art and swings…

This was a busy weekend!  Ashlyn had her 18 month appointment on Friday, and as a celebration for her being healthy (50% weight, 60% height, 90% head) we packed some snacks, drinks, and loaded the kiddo up in the wagon for a trip to the park.

We get to the park and Ashlyn heads straight to the swings.  So a swinging we go.  This was enjoyable for about 5 minutes, which is actually a long time for an 18 month old.

 

After a little time on the swings, it was time to swing with daddy.  I apologize for the cheesy graphics, it was Heather’s idea.

Once we got back to the house it was time to take off the shoes and relax a bit.

(If you caught the fact that she’s wearing a different shirt in the before/after shots than the one she’s wearing at the park, that’s because I’m combining two separate adventures into one because it makes a better story.  If you didn’t catch the magical shirt, then ignore this note.)

On Sunday, instead of going to the park again we went to the Southlake arts festival, and it was doubly fun because Nana and Aunt Sisa joined us.  We had a really good time, and spent some of Ashlyn’s college money on some art.  Thanks Ashlyn!

Words of the week:

• Blanket
• Bug
• Cup
• Bee
• Kangaroo
• "Hi Daddy" <—Ashlyn was upstairs looking through the bars down to the bottom floor, and when she saw me she waved and said “hi daddy”.  This was neat to hear, but it’s also a good indication that our babbling little toddler is going to be babbling less and speaking more.  I kinda like the babbling.

A Happy Birthday to mommy...

Today is mommy's birthday, and both Ashlyn and dad are very thankful for this day because life wouldn't be this good if the day hadn't happened.  Ashlyn was so thankful this morning that she put on a birthday hat on her own, which is saying something because Ashlyn's typical response is to yank things right off her head.

So from both the kids in the house, Happy Birthday mommy!  We love you!

A zooing we will go…

Today marked our second trip to the zoo for Ashlyn, and this time we were joined by a few Grandparents.  The first place we went was the bird area, to see if we could repeat the excitement we saw last time.

Not so much.  She was interested in the birds, and would feed them, but she didn’t seem inclined to touch them like she did during her previous visit. 

 

She still seemed to enjoy it though, and she traveled the zoo in style.  Ashlyn pointed out monkeys, cats (very large cats that went “meow” even though their paws were as large as her head), elephants, and zebras.  We saw more of course, but those are the ones she called out by name.

 

The picture below doesn’t have a great story around it, I just liked it because she’s looking at a giraffe while holding a giraffe binky.  Ashlyn didn’t notice.

We also spent Saturday evening at the Wolfe’s and got to play around on the trampoline.  Don’t let the first picture below fool you, she gets quite a kick out of the trampoline and I believe our yard will be graced by one soon.

Words of the week:

• Mess
• Water
• Lotion
• Peaches
• Rusty
• Zebra

You can’t outsmart a toddler…

This weekend was the first time that Mommy spent a night away from Ashlyn.  She (Heather) had a girl's night in Houston, and I think it was well deserved.  I wish I could say that it was a fun filled weekend with Daddy, but work kept me at home while Grandma and Grandpa Wolf picked Ashlyn up and took her to a cousin’s birthday party.  The party was held at a kid's gym, and from what I'm told Ashlyn had a great time on the tumble track.  Do we have a gymnast in our future?
  


Mommy has already started training.



Earlier this week, when the weather wasn't quite as temperate as this weekend, Ashlyn wanted to go outside.  Since it was cold, we were more inclined to stay indoors.  "It's cold outside" we said.  Ashlyn, not one to let a challenge go unanswered, walked to the closet, reached inside, and brought out a jacket that she handed to us.  “Jacket”, she said.  Point Ashlyn, and outside we went.  I don’t have a picture for this, so here’s some pictures of Mommy putting Ashlyn to work licking monopoly stamps from the store.



Ashlyn is obviously getting smarter about getting outside, and once outside she's becoming equally adept at staying there.  On Wednesday we were outside playing, and Heather and I decided it was time to go back inside.  "Time to go inside!" we said, thinking this would be enough to convince Ashlyn to follow us.  "Bye bye!" she said in response, and she waved.

  

In iPod news, Ashlyn is getting much more adept at finding the game she's interested in.  There's one game in particular that gets played a lot, where you have to tap the correct part of the face when asked (eyes, nose, hair, etc).  In order to start the game, you have to follow a series of steps:

Click on the button to turn on the iPod
Move the slider to unlock it
Drag the screen to the left to get to the right page
Click on the game (this is one of 20 or so icons on the page)
Click on the "No Thanks" button when the ad pops up
Click on "Learn" to get to the menu of games in the app
Click on the face icon to start the game

If she can learn all that, you'd think she could learn to change her own diaper. But you'd be wrong.

Words of the week:

• More juice/crackers (she’s starting to use small 2 to 3 word sentences)
• No no <insert animal here>!
• Color
• Cup
• Yogurt
• Pig