A hair update, and some other stuff too…

“Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.”
-Sitting Bull

If you’re been a regular reader of this blog you may have recognized a recurring theme when it comes to Ashlyn’s hair.  It’s just crazy, I don’t know another word to describe it.  It’s still the number one thing that we hear comments on, usually to the tune of “Look at those curls, that hair is precious!”.  If they had only seen the other side, the side that wasn’t brushed and put up in a bow, they may not have been so cavalier with their comments.

I read a report on the Internet (which means it has to be true, right?) that says children should begin thinking about their careers at the age of 10.  Ashlyn, always the over-achiever, showed off some of her ideas this weekend.  We weren’t able to get pictures of all of them, but we were able to capture what we call “Professional pitcher”, “Karate Kid”, and “Leave me alone, I’m only 2”.

This was a weekend for grandparents, Ashlyn got to spend time with PePa on Saturday morning for breakfast.  Then on Sunday there was a visit to Papa and Nina’s house where Ashlyn spent her time hanging out with the girls, practicing her piano skills, and shoving flowers at animals.  Fun times.

Ashlyn has also found a new friend to sleep with.  Nala, our annoying Bengal cat, has taken to jumping in the crib at night to sleep.  Ashlyn doesn’t mind, we’ve even heard her on multiple occasions saying “Come here cat!” when Nala is in her room and not in the crib.

To finish this post, here are two recent exchanges between us and Ashlyn that we found funny:

Ashlyn:  "I like butter."
Mom:    "What don't you like?"
Ashlyn:  "Paper."

Ashlyn:  "No."
Mom:    "Yes."
Ashlyn:  "No."
Mom:    "Do you want to say no?"
Ashlyn:  "Yes."

Trust falls and kite hair…

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
-Shel Silverstein

The winter weather has drastically reduced the amount of outdoor time that Ashlyn enjoys.  She likes the outdoors, she likes the sandbox, she likes the trampoline and the grass.  But when she can’t have these things, she finds her own games to play indoors to fill the void.  This week it was substituting the couch for the trampoline, and not just for jumping.  Instead of simply jumping, she would fall backwards onto the cushions.  Okay, I know this is not good parenting here, and yes I know that we shouldn’t let her play on the couch like that.  But she has a lot of fun doing it, and she’s actually very careful as she she looks behind her to line up her fall.  When we were kids, we didn’t even have to buckle our seatbelt on road trips; playing on the floor or in the back window was perfectly acceptable.  And we came out ok, right?  Now that I think about it, maybe we shouldn’t let her play on the couch after all.

Before you judge us completely, here are some pictures of an activity that we’re doing right.  We’ve tried to make teeth brushing a fun activity and our efforts have paid off.  When it’s time to go to bed, Ashlyn will say “Time to brush teeth and go to bed!”.  And off to brush our teeth we go.  Next up on our list of teaching activities:  filing tax returns.  Any ideas on how to make that fun?

We went to Austin this weekend to visit some friends, and Ashlyn decided to help with the packing.  Her biggest contribution was to add all the books on the floor to the bag.  Apparently she thought there was going to be a lack of books once we left the house.

Upon our return we were greeted to very windy but pleasant weather.  The pictures below illustrate what happens to Ashlyn’s hair when you mix wind with it.  For a minute there I thought her hair was going to act like a kite and carry Ashlyn away, but she managed to stay firmly planted on the ground.  Whew!

Accolades and birthdays…

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. –Mark Twain

Ashlyn received two pieces of paper this past week that I feel are worth mentioning.  The first was Ashlyn’s daily daycare report from Monday.  On it, in what I can only describe as happy lettering, are the words “Ashlyn went potty in potty!”.  According to her daycare teachers, after she performed this achievement she jumped up and down in excitement.  As a reward for her efforts, she got a sticker and a heart drawing on her daily report.  We haven’t been able to replicate the act since then, so perhaps they should have given Ashlyn the sticker directly instead of putting it on a report that they only give to the parents.  It’s a milestone though, and it means that we can now start training in earnest.

The second piece of paper was the “Kindness Award”.  It was printed in color and laminated, which leads me to believe they don’t just give this out to anyone.  I’m fairly certain this is the Nobel Prize of daycare awards, only it doesn’t come with the million dollar grant or a flowery speech upon receiving it.  We still appreciated it though.  We’re trying to raise a kind daughter and it looks like we haven’t completely ruined her yet.

And now we’ll pause a moment to look some of the many faces of Ashlyn.  She has found a joy for posing in front of the camera, so we took the opportunity to capture a some of her looks.

A friend gave us his daughter’s old tri-cycle and we were curious to see what Ashlyn thought of it.  Unfortunately, she’s still too short to reach the pedals.  So instead of riding around, she posed for the camera and smiled instead.

My birthday was this week, and while schedules prevented us from getting together with all the family, I did get to celebrate with Heather and Ashlyn on my actual birthday and this weekend with the Wolfe’s.  Ashlyn sang a great birthday tune and even helped blow out the candles.  She loves blowing out candles now, which is a change from her last birthday when cousin Heidi had to do it for her.

Ashlyn sings Happy Birthday…

Dinner with the Wolfe’s was fun, and Ashlyn had a great time with Heidi as always.  She also enjoyed feeding daddy rolls and being fed pizza in return.  That girl loves her pizza.  Thanks everyone for a great birthday week!

From nuts to lemons…

This week was a fun one.  We started the week out with a day off on Monday.  Most of the day was spent relaxing and playing, but we took some time off to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  While there, we picked pecans and Ashlyn was happy to join in.  It takes a nut to find a nut, or so the saying goes.. or something like that anyway.

After we got home, I wanted to put together an outdoor heater for the patio that we were given for Christmas (the heater, not the patio).  As always, Ashlyn wanted to jump in and lend a hand.  Look at her form with that wrench.  She’s just past two and is already handy with tools.  That’s my girl!  I see many exciting father/daughter trips to Harbor Freight in our future.

Over the weekend I took Ashlyn to a friends house for a dinner gathering.  There were several other kids there, both boys, and they spent their time running in circles around he house.  Ashlyn was more mellow and spent most of the time walking around playing with toys and going down a slide in their backyard.

In other news, the baby on the way is now the size of a lemon and can now squint, frown, grimace, and possibly suck his or her thumb.  We probably won’t get a sonogram during the next appointment, but we’re only 5 weeks away from finding out whether Ashlyn is getting a baby brother or sister.  She still claims she wants a brother, even after being around a group of boys this weekend.  She’ll learn!

Happy New Year!

When a new year comes along I suppose it’s customary to spend a moment reflecting on the past year.  I can’t seem to do that this year because my mind is fully focused on July 3, 2012, and not because it was the day that Idado became our 43rd state.  I let a hint of this slip in the Thanksgiving post, but here’s one of the posted pictures in case you missed it.

Notice the shirt?  That’s right, Ashlyn is going to be a big sister somewhere around July 3, 2012.  Now that we’re officially out of the 1st trimester and things seem to be progressing normally, I think it’s safe to write about it.  We don’t know if it’s a boy or girl, but if you ask Ashlyn she wants a brother.  Whether it’s a boy or girl doesn’t make any difference to us, we’re just excited that our family is going to be growing this year.  And now on to your regularly scheduled post…

Following up on a busy Christmas weekend, Ashlyn may have been hoping for a quiet New Years to get some rest.  This was not in the plans however, and this week Ashlyn was whisked off to Freeport Texas to spend some time with mommy’s family.  Ashlyn tried to make the best of the trip though and was able to get a few naps in.

Once in Freeport, there was a lot of visiting and family time.  I wasn’t able to go, but Ashlyn had a great time down there from what I hear.  She saw her great-grandmother Doodle along with Great Uncle Ray and a host of other family members.  She also had her first experience with those little pop toys that you throw on the ground.  She couldn’t throw them straight down hard enough, but she quickly figured out that she could stomp on them to get the same effect.

Once back in the DFW area, Ashlyn wasted no time in going back to the pink soccer ball.  Despite it’s size, she’s getting better at throwing, kicking, and catching it.  As you can see from the 3rd photo below, she still needs a little practice.  That particular “catch” resulted in some comforting time with mommy.  But she was back at it within a minute.

On Sunday she was able to enjoy one of her favorite foods (pizza!) and more time with the pink soccer ball.  While it looks like she’s falling forward in both of the pictures below, she’s actually balancing it and pulling it between her legs.

We hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year’s, and I hope you’re looking forward to all the trouble that Ashlyn will be getting into this year.  I’m pretty sure we’re ready for it.