10 More Days…

We had some friends over for the A&M game this weekend, and Ashlyn enjoyed herself despite the Aggies losing by 1 point.  Her enjoyment was partly due to having someone even younger than her around, but mostly I think it was because Steve came over.  Steve claims that he’s not a fan of children, but these pictures prove otherwise.

On Sunday we put Ashlyn to work washing the cars.  She didn’t have the height to reach too much of the vehicles, but we appreciated the effort.  We took a risk by letting her use a sponge that had S.O.S. bristles on side; thankfully she only used the sponge part on the cars.

She continues to want to be outside, and has developed a new gamed called “jump over the dirt line”.  We had a sprinkler system put in, and she likes to drag mom over to the dirt line and jump across it.  She’ll then ask her to turn around, at which point she jumps back.  And the cycle continues.

Only 10 more days until our little girl turns 2!

Festivals, a leotard, and pockets full of posies…

The annual Grapevine Grapefest was held this weekend, so we packed up and headed out to enjoy some fun on Main Street.  Even though the event was an almost exact copy of the Main Street festival held earlier this year (the only difference we could was the location of the entrance), we were still able to do some things this time around that we didn’t do last time.  The highlight was Ashlyn’s first solo carnival ride.  Mom buckled Ashlyn in her little blue car and around and around it went with Ashlyn turning left the entire time on the steering wheel.  She didn’t laugh much on the ride, but she broke down after it was over when she realized she wasn’t going to keep circling.

On the gymnastics front, Ashlyn has graduated from her shorts and shirt outfit to a “hot green” leotard that mom picked out.  This leotard not only lets Ashlyn realize her full potential on the gymnastics mat, but it may significantly increase her safety since no driver could possibly miss her in the parking lot.  I say “may increase her safety” because there is an equal chance of the leotard blinding the driver.

We also heard Ashlyn laugh harder than she’s ever laughed before.  Mom and Grandma taught her the “Ring around the Rosies” song, and every time it got to the “and they all fall down” part, Ashlyn would fall on her butt and scream with laughter.

Most of the readers of this blog have already heard Ashlyn show off some of our better parenting in the form of a particular two syllable word that rhymes with “blee-atch”.  It was funny at first, but she yelled it in the middle of her daycare’s lobby and then used the word to finish off the “and they all fall <insert word>” song.  To curb this trend, we decided to change the “atch” into “ouch”.  So instead of saying a word that vaugely sounds bad, now she sounds like she just got stung by a bee.

Computers and butterflies…

I’m not going to hide the fact that my wife and I are geeks.  We are, and as such I always assumed that Ashlyn would grow up with a little geek in her personality as well.  The love of the iPhone was a start, so now we’re teaching her to build computers.  So far she just pulls cables out (the opposite of building computers), but you have to start somewhere.



On Saturday we took a break from the electronics and went to see the Southlake butterfly festival.  In this case, “festival” meant a small tent under a pavilion with plants and butterflies.



Ashlyn, recognizing the ill-tempered nature of the butterfly, ran away from them when they fluttered too close.  We spent half our time in the tent trying to persuade a butterfly to stay on her head for a photo-op, but neither the butterfly nor Ashlyn would have any of it.



Fleeing from butterflies can be tiring work, so we sat on the grass outside and enjoyed some quesadillas as a reward for safely making it out of the danger zone.



At home, where fortunately there are no evil butterflies, we hung outside so Ashlyn could play with water.  Mom taught her about the meniscus, which is the convex curve over the top of the cup caused by water surface tension.  Ashlyn taught herself that it’s fun to splash water in her face.



Only two and a half more weeks until we have a two year old in the house.  Can you believe it?  I can’t.

Happy Labor Day!

Today we celebrate Labor Day, which became a national holiday in 1894 as a way to keep Unions from striking.  To honor this momentous event, we spent the weekend with friends and family.  It all started with a trip to Nana and Pa-Pa’s pool.  Ashlyn has improved even over last week when we went swimming with the cousins.  She was able to turn herself in circles a week ago, and now she’s kicking her legs.  She used this newfound skill to swim to the stairs, climb up, and then leap off the edge.  We had to be careful, because she didn’t really care whether or not we were waiting to catch her.

After we got out of the pool, we went inside where she sang with Pa-Pa and danced with Auntie Lisa.  Ashlyn got to show off her new leg warmers that Lisa bought her.  If Soviet style leggings aren’t in fashion now, they will be soon.

On Sunday we had more fun, with a visit from PePa in the morning for breakfast.  Wanting to butter him up before her upcoming brithday, Ashlyn brushed her own hair and then gave him a kiss on the cheek.

In the evening, Ashlyn got to hang out with some new friends. The girl on the left is 2 months younger than Ashlyn, so it looks like Ashlyn is getting her height from mom and not dad.  Notice the outfit: a white shirt (it’s before Labor Day still), plaid pants, and her new leggings.  Awesome.

And on Monday, to finish off a weekend full of family, friends, and the Fighting Texas Aggies destroying the mighty SMU Ponies (whoop!), Grandma and Grandpa Wolfe came over to enjoy some brisket and play time with the little one.

I’ll end this with this:

This may not seem like much of a picture, but it contains three of my favorite things in this world:  my wife, my daughter, and my Big Green Egg.  Not a bad weekend..  happy Labor Day everyone.