A boat and a tree…

We had more firsts in the life of Ashlyn this weekend, all of which were good.  Mom had a girls weekend, which was very much deserved, so I took took the little one to the lake.  Papa and Nina were off at the store when we got there, so we took the time to play Ashlyn’s first game of croquet.  Since she made up the rules, she managed to win.

After a little relaxing in the house and some time playing with water (I just needed something to explain the two pictures below)…

… Ashlyn climbed her first tree.  What you don’t see in this picture is the ground, which this tree limb was resting on.  So yeah, Ashlyn’s tree climb was only three feet in the air, but she still climbed it and we’re counting it as a first.

The highlight of the weekend was Ashlyn’s first boat ride.  To be honest, we weren’t sure how the event would go.  Fortunately, she wasn’t scared of the motor at all.  In fact, she spent most of the time squealing in delight and flinging her arms into the air.  The picture below that Papa took must have been from the one moment she wasn’t laughing.  She really did love it, and I’m looking forward to taking her back on the water.

We haven’t posted a video in awhile, so here you go.  This is Ashlyn at Gymnastics.  She was the only kid in her class jumping off and grabbing the bar, and we thought it was funny the way she did it.  Maybe you will to.  Enjoy! 

And yes, “chunky” is her nickname at Gymnastics.

Morning hair and birthdays…

I’m a Parent.  According to the dictionary I was technically a parent right when Ashlyn was born,  but I think there’s a difference between “parent” and “Parent” with a capital P.  This realization came to me fairly recently based on an event that occurred the week leading up to Easter.   It started by mixing up the day of Ashlyn’s Easter Egg hunt at daycare; I showed up on Wednesday with no basket and no eggs.  So I dropped her off, drove across the street to Kroger’s and left a few minutes later with a basket, a bag of fake purple grass, two bags of plastic eggs colored in tie dye patterns, and a bag of individually wrapped Starburst candies.  I had to stop at the only stoplight between Kroger’s and her daycare and not wanting to waste any time I quickly filled up her basket with the grass, stuffed Starburst in a dozen plastic eggs, and just finished the last candy when the light turned green.  Needless to say, Ashlyn was not left out on the Easter Egg hunt.

At this point in the story you may be wondering what any of this has to do with being a Parent with a capital P.  The kicker is that it took me two weeks to consider the strangeness of what occurred at the stoplight and the fact that a candy stuffing, Easter egg filling adventure at 7:30 in the morning didn’t even come across as being out of place.  There was no questioning that it was going to make me late to work, it’s just something I had to do to make sure our child had a basket for an Easter Egg hunt that she’ll never remember.  It’s just one example of the many things that mom and I do for Ashlyn that we would have considered crazy before we had a kid.  And that’s why I use the term “Parent”.

That’s enough cheesy sentiments for one day, so let’s move on to some weekly pictures in the life of Ashlyn.  As she gets older, she’s been getting more and more interested in what we’re doing around the house.  And as she gets older, she’s able to do more and more.  For instance, she’s starting to make her own breakfast.  And yes, that’s what her hair looks like in the morning.

She’s also learned a fun game from Grandpa Wolfe which she played multiple times over the weekend.  Here are two examples of Ashlyn’s exceptional aim in the straw shooting game.  Thanks Grandpa.

And finally, Ashlyn would also like to wish a big Happy Birthday to Aunt Sisa and Uncle Brian.  Happy Birthday!!

Attitudes and pizza…

“The truth is that parents are not really interested in justice. They just want quiet.”
-Bill Cosby

Our little darling Ashlyn has not yet shown many outward signs of going through the Terrible Twos, but we’ve seen a few glimpses of what it could be like.  It’s difficult to catch these hints of attitude on camera so when I do happen to snap one rest assured that it will show up on this blog.  How else, years from now, will we be able to put guilt trips on her when we want help with something.  This week’s entry really didn’t capture the full essence of it, but it’s close.  This is “the look” that Ashlyn was giving mom because she (Ashlyn) was asked to turn her iPod’s volume down.

If you’re are wondering if the volume was turned down, it was.  Although at some point I think she tried to send mom to a time out, which didn’t work out well for Ashlyn.  Most of the things new in Ashlyn’s world are good though.  One new game involves our pantry, where Ashlyn will hide out until an unsuspecting parent walks by, at which point she’ll jump out and charge you.  Luckily for the one being charged, her laughter gives her away and you can prepare for the rushing hug.

Mom’s birthday was this week (Happy Birthday!), but it was mostly a quiet one as all three of us got sick.  Mom was feeling better this weekend so she took Ashlyn over to Grandma and Grandpa Wolfe’s for a birthday dinner.  Cousin Amy and Heidi were there as well, which meant Ashlyn came home worn out and happy.

Sunday night was Flinn Family Pizza Night™, which is always fun.  This was the first time Ashlyn was able and interested in participating, so she loaded up a pizza with cheese and mushrooms and then stuffed the finished project into her mouth.  What can I say, the girl likes pizza.

In baby news, Heather is officially in her 3rd trimester!  He’s about the size of Chinese Cabbage which I’m sure will clear things up for all of you out there wondering how big he is.  He can hear and see, and will triple in size (Mommy says “yay!”) over the next three months as he gets ready to say hi to his new family.

Ashlyn’s 3rd Easter…

As far as Easters go, this one was a busy one for our little Ashlyn.  She had a total of 5 Easter Egg hunts this past week.  One at Daycare, one at the Bedford Boy’s Ranch, one at the lake, one at the Wolfe’s, and one at our house.  I think Ashlyn has eaten more candy over the past two days than she’s had in her entire life combined.  Now we’re crossing our fingers that she’ll fight through the sugar high and get some sleep.

You saw pictures from the Bedford Boy’s Ranch last week so this week I’ll put pictures of 3 of the other 4 Easter Egg Hunts (we did not get pictures from Daycare).

The Lake

This was Ashlyn’s second trip out to Granbury lake, except except the weather was great and we could get out on the water.  She loved the canoe and took several trips with mom and me, plus one with Nina and me.  Notice a pattern here?  My shoulders do.

The geese were also out, and she had a good time throwing dog food to them.  Not pictured are the dogs that were not happy about their food being given to birds.

No Easter would be complete without an Easter Egg Hunt, and as always Ashlyn managed to find all the eggs that were careful hidden out in plain sight.  More candy!

Our house

When we got home from the lake Ashlyn was greeted with an Easter basket full of toys and a house laden with yet more eggs.  Once again Ashlyn used her honed detective skills to ferret out all the eggs cleverly hidden in places such as: 

• On the floor in the middle of the carpet
• On the floor at the edge of the carpet

Afterwards, Ashlyn spent a good 10 minutes decorating herself with stickers.

The Wolfe’s

To change things up a bit, we went over to the Wolfe’s for..  well, another Easter Egg Hunt.  This time it was with her cousins Amy and Heidi, which was a good change of pace.  The Eggs were hidden a little better on this particular hunt, but Grandpa was there to give her hints and Ashlyn managed to fill her basket with more candy.

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Hopefully we can keep Ashlyn from bouncing off too many walls so we can be ready for next year.

Eggs and paint, but not together…

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to
have your heart go walking around outside your body.”
-Elizabeth Stone

Easter quickly approaches and Ashlyn is excited.  She has literally been talking about “Mr. Bunny” most of the weekend, so it was fortunate for us that Bedford held their annual Easter Egg Hunt and Thousands of Crazy Children Extravaganza this weekend at the Bedford Boy’s Ranch.  Ashlyn came prepared with a basket and a determination to get as many eggs as she could in it.  And she did, filling up her basket during the toddler Egg Hunt despite how well they hid them.

The best part of the day happened after the Egg Hunt was over.  We were in line to see “Mr. Bunny” and get our picture taken when a little boy in front of us showed interest in Ashlyn’s Eggs.  Ashlyn reached in her basket, took out an egg, and handed it to him.  It’s little things like a small act of sharing that make me realize we’re not completely screwing her up after all.

So +1 to us for teaching sharing but we failed somehow in the area of holiday animals and people (the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause are prime examples).  She really wanted to see the Bunny, and even gave him one of her eggs (more sharing!), but that was as close as she wanted to get.  We tried to get her to take a picture, but she wouldn’t have it.

After she finished crying, we went off to let her play in the sand at the volleyball courts.  Ashlyn stomped off and started walking.  And kept walking, and kept walking until she was on the far side.  Then she held out her hand and made the “come here” gesture.  Apparently the sand box was just a shortcut to the playground, which we spent the next hour or so in.  That was the furthest that Ashlyn has ever walked away from us before stopping.

After nap it was time for round 2 of painting except this time it was Ashlyn’s room.  Ashlyn contributed approximately 1.5 minutes of actual wall painting before she became bored and started painting herself and putting hand prints on the wall.  After she was washed up, she sat on her bed and watched us paint.  Soon we’ll bring her furniture in, and the majority of our house preparations will be complete.  Bring on kid #2!

This next picture has nothing to do with anything, but I wanted to show everyone Ashlyn’s “I did something, but you don’t know what it is yet” look.

We still haven’t found what she did yet, and that’s a scary thought.