Not all Halloweens are Happy, but you make the best of it.

This weekend started off great, but had a sad ending.  More on that at the end.
The weather this weekend was amazing, and Heather thought it would be a good idea to take Ashlyn to a local pumpkin patch for some pictures.  So off we went.  The pictures did not start out as well as we had hoped.  As soon as we set her down, she’d start crying.  Ashlyn, not Heather.



When we realized it was the straw poking her, we wizened up and put her in more comfortable accommodations.



We got some some pretty good pictures, and I think Ashlyn enjoyed all the colors.
Then came Halloween.  Here is Ashlyn’s first pumpkin.  I think we were the only family in our neighborhood that had a pumpkin complete with fleeing villagers.



I tried to come up with a good way to describe her costume, so I came up with this handy graphic.



She was a Pink bunny.  I capitalize the word Pink for a reason.  It was as if a Hostess Sno-ball the size of a Volvo landed on a rabbit, which then turned into a costume.  She was too young for candy, but we got a lot of “awww”s as we walked around with cousin Heidi trick-or-treating.

In random development news, Ashlyn is walking a lot now.  On Saturday she walked her way right into her first busted lip from falling over.  It will be the first of many I’m guessing.  She’s talking more, and has learned to say “Yee-haw!” and a muffled form of “Gig ‘em”.  It’s good that we’re teaching her the important things.

And for some sad news, Ashlyn’s Great-Grandmother passed away this morning.  While I’m saddened by this, I’m glad that Ashlyn got to meet her and I’m happy to know that Grandmother is in a better place.  I have a lot of fond memories spending time at Grandma’s in the summer watching wrestling videos and eating Little Piper’s pizza with my cousin Gregg.  Watch over Ashlyn for us Grandmother, we love you!

Baby steps…

The past two weeks have just flown by, and I felt that another blog post was in order.  So what’s new in Ashlyn’s world?

First, she’s starting to walk.  So far the most we’ve counted is nine steps, but she’s adding more every day.  Where she used to stand up and take a few steps towards us, now she’s starting to stand up in the middle of the room and walk to toys, pets, furniture, or whatever else is interesting nearby.  They aren’t large steps yet, but I suppose they’re called baby steps for a reason. 

With her new mobility comes other fun activities, like pushing anything that will move across the floor.  She especially likes pushing her wagon across the floor.

She’s also signing more.  Signs are hard to take pictures of, because some require motion of the hands.  Here’s a couple of her signing “eat”.  This is her new favorite sign.  She’s completely on solids now, and it seems like she’s constantly hungry.

 

When she’s done eating, we can ask her if she’s done and she’ll make the sign for “finished”, which is basically putting your hands out to the side and moving them around.  She doesn’t so much move her hands as clasp and unclasp them.  This is also her sign for “I want”, “hello”, and “bye bye”.  But if you take it in context, you know what she means.

 

Other than that, we found two more top teeth today, one is already pushed through and the other will be out in a day or two.  These have gone MUCH easier than the first four, which is to be expected.  It’s just a short break though, because the molars are right around the corner.

A special weekend…

This weekend was a blast.  Why?  Because Aunt Lisa (my sister) got married!

Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, which was held out at the Ft. Worth Zoo.  Ashlyn didn’t attend that particular function, instead she spent the evening with Grandma and Grandpa Wolfe.  The dinner was great, they even brought out animals.  Here’s a picture of the bride, groom, and a 5 year old alligator that was really happy to be there.

 

The wedding itself was on Saturday.  The service was perfect and the bride was beautiful.  And I got to play two parts:  the proud brother of the bride, and the proud father of a cute little baby girl.  Hey, this is a blog about Ashlyn, so I have to include at least one picture of her.  Check her out.. if that doesn’t make you say “awww”, something is terribly wrong with you.

 

She didn’t get to stay at the reception too long, but I did get the chance to spin her around the dance floor.  She had a great time of it, and spent most of the song clapping (I’m not sure if it was for the band or my dancing ability, but my money is on the band).

The highlight of the night of course was watching my sister marry Jeff.  She couldn’t have found a nicer guy, and Heather and I both are incredibly happy for them.  

Have fun in Anguilla Mr. and Mrs. Early!


Before I end this post, I'd be remiss if I didn't say that the look on my parent's faces as Lisa took her first steps with her "Mrs." title is making me nervous because I know that someday (a long, long time from now) I'll watch Ashlyn take those same steps.  I'm sure I'll share the same emotions that they did.. joy at seeing their daughter find someone that will make her happy for the rest of her life, and sadness in knowing that the bulk of their daughter's heart belongs to someone else.  I know I can't keep Ashlyn forever, but I'm happy that I have her for awhile.

A minute can last a lifetime…

Every day we go about our lives, and every day the world as we know it shifts a little bit.  Some days bring small innocent changes, barely noticeable amongst the twists and turns, and others affect us in more substantial ways.  A year ago today, our lives were turned upside down.  I can’t help but think back to that evening, one full of nervousness and excitement.  Normally those times are a blur, but I still vividly remember seeing our daughter for the first time, hearing her cry, and seeing those big blue eyes look out at the world.

And now she’s a year old, no longer the baby we took home from the hospital.  In the past year we’ve seen her smile, laugh, crawl, stand, speak and sign.  We watched her sleep, and stayed up with her through the morning hours.  We watched her take her first step, and held her when she fell only to watch her stand back up again.  We learned to be parents, and she learned… well, to be Ashlyn.

We wanted to do something special for her, so we took some vacation time and made a trip out to the zoo.

She went on her first carousel ride.  I'd like to say she laughed with joy the entire time, but mostly she had a look on her face that said "Why am I going up and down?".

Some things made her angry, and others made her think.
 

Some things fascinated Ashlyn…


...while some things were fascinated by Ashlyn.


Afterwards, we came home and opened up a few more presents.  Being the caring child that she is, she wanted to share one of her presents with mom.


After that, she fell sleep.  And she turned 1, officially, 11 minutes prior to this posting.  Happy birthday crab, it's been a crazy ride this past year, thanks for letting us take it.

It’s my birthday, I’ll throw cake if I want to…

Ashlyn turns 1 this week, but we decided to celebrate today so that the family could come out to wish her a happy birthday.  Grandma Wolfe came out the night before to help decorate some desserts, and Heather helped by making icing “balloons” on the cupcakes and chocolate cake.

After some grub, we got down the business of opening gifts.  Cousin Heidi helped Ashlyn open the gifts, while Ashlyn entertained the crowd by clapping, sitting on her presents, and stopping the show to bang on a musical toy.

After the presents came the cake.  You never know how a baby will react to her first cake.  Will she poke at it, not like the stickiness of it, and then leave it alone?  Or will she dive into it head first?  We got a little of both, she started off a little timid, but next thing you know she’s slapping the cake and flinging icing all over the breakfast area.  She even licked the cake at one point, which was strange, but I guess she liked the slapping better because she only did it once.

After everyone left, we took advantage of the perfect weather by giving her new wagon a spin around the neighborhood.  We walked and Ashlyn cruised around like a rock star eating Graham Crackers.

Thanks everyone who came out and made this a special day for the birthday girl, and to Great-Grandma Russell who sent along a gift even though she couldn't be here.  Ashlyn won’t remember any of this, but we have plenty of pictures to blackmail, I mean reminder her, when she gets older.

Happy birthday Crab!

I stand, therefore I am.

This is not going to be a long update, but today marked the first day that Ashlyn stood up on her own, and I felt it was worth sharing some of those first moments.  As you can see from the pictures below, she’s a bit wobbly, but she seems excited by it.

If you’re wondering why Heather is holding a camera while I’m taking the pictures, it’s because Ashlyn kept crawling over to grab MY camera, and it’s hard to take pictures with a baby’s hand on the camera lens.

Also, and I can’t provide proof of this so you’ll have to trust me, Ashlyn snuck two more teeth in on us.  She now has all four front teeth poking out, two on top and two on bottom.  These went MUCH easier than the first two.  In fact, we thought the first one was just a cold and the second went by without her even being bothered by it.  Here’s hoping that the rest are that easy.

Uh-Oh!

Today marked the first of what I can only expect to be many small injuries to parents caused by Ashlyn.  She’s decided that the best way to let us know she’s done drinking water out of her sippy cup is to toss it on the floor.  We’ve learned to be watchful of this, but we strayed a bit this evening and a full sippy cup was tossed directly onto Heather’s previously injured toe.  I laughed, Heather would have laughed if she wasn’t in pain, and Ashlyn ate a piece of cheese.  Good times.

And now on to better things..

With curiosity comes mobility and with mobility comes the desire to stand and explore.  She’s all over the house now, standing on anything with a ledge.  It’s fun to watch.  Walking is right around the corner.

And in interesting news, Ashlyn signed for the first time today.  Two different signs!  She asked for food, and asked for more.  Below is her signing for more cheese.  She likes cheese.  Now we need to work on a sign for “I’m done with my sippy cup” other than using projectiles.

She’s also starting to shake her head to say no, and will wave at you if you wave at her.  All this is still a little sporadic of course, but she’s doing it and it’s awesome to see her learning to communicate more.

And this is just a random pictures of Ashlyn hamming it up for the camera.  I can’t remember if I posted this before, but I don’t care.  It’s worth posting again.  That hair is awesome.

Aren’t daughters great?

Today’s excuse:  Life has once again made regular posting a difficult thing.  This time it’s for good reasons, but I still need to keep this thing updated.  If not for you, the reader, then for Ashlyn, the true audience.

This week has been rough, with very little sleep and my head constantly filled with pesky work thoughts.  But I have a secret weapon for stress:

I’ll tell you truthfully, I love being a father.  It’s hard to imagine a time when I wasn’t a father.  Today I got home, watched Heather hold Ashlyn’s hands while she (Ashlyn) walked across the kitchen floor.  And that simple thing, those few steps instantly made the entire week and all the worry about work fade to background noise.  I threw on some shorts, picked her up, and we walked around the lake in our neighborhood.  Well, I walked while she held on and stared at the fountain in the middle of the lake.  The girl just loves water, we took her to Uncle Bruce’s house this past weekend and she was kicking around in the pool like a frog.  Only 12 years and 1 month until we go scuba diving!

So once again I say thank you little one, for showing us that simple things in life can be amazing adventures.

Mommy and Daddy love you.

What I learned this weekend…

First, I want to apologize for the lack of blog posts over the past few weeks.  Work has kept me incredibly busy.  I won’t go into details, mainly because you didn’t come to this blog to read about me,  you came to read about an 11 month old little girl named Ashlyn.  And I don’t blame you.

To start out, Ashlyn learned how to stand about a week ago.  One minute she was working at it, holding on to ledges and window sills, and the next thing you know she’s standing up on two legs banging on the glass.  And once she figured it out, she decided to practice.  She caught us by surprise this weekend by exploring around the entry way, and before we knew it she was up on the first step of the stairs and working on the second one.  It was a big “uh-oh” moment which resulted in a dash to Target for a baby gate.

I also learned that Ashlyn has crazy hair.  She has a lot of it for her age, and it goes everywhere.  Interestingly, once it’s in place it likes to stay that way.  The picture on the left (below) is her hair several hours after taking off the little bands that were holding up some pigtails.  The other two pictures are just random pictures showing her varying hair styles.

And lastly, a very happy birthday to Great Grandma Russell!

I be crawlin’

These last few days have seen quite a bit of activity from Ashlyn, with some pretty big milestones being achieved.

On Saturday afternoon, while visiting Grandma and Grandpa Wolfe, we put Ashlyn up on the table so she could play with a remote control.  Instead of flopping on her stomach as she used to do, she got up on her knees.  One step, two steps, and off she went across the table. 

Now I don’t feel like I’m cheating when I buy things for Ashlyn with the “crawler” symbol on it. 

Take that Gerber!

Since then, she’s started to crawl more and more.  She still gets tired pretty quickly and goes back to the army crawl, but she’s trying, and I have a feeling she’ll be crawling more and more every day.  Time to baby proof.

She’s also sitting up from a stomach position, and today was the first day she’s pulled up to her feet on her own.  She did it three times today in fact.  Unfortunately, we had to learn that one from daycare and we haven’t been able to reproduce it at the house.  So instead of a picture of her pulling herself up, here’s a picture of her with a bubble Mohawk.

To Uncle Scott, from Ashlyn

This is a story from Ashlyn…

(editors note:  Ashlyn does not have a very large vocabulary.  Most of her typing was along the lines of “kkkkkkkkkkkkkkad#AD”, so we had to take some liberties in the translation.  Enjoy.)

When I learned that I wasn’t going to see Uncle Scott on his birthday, I got pretty upset.  My mom and dad told me that I was going to see him in a few months.  A few months!  That’s practically forever.  (editor’s note:  This may not seem like a long time to most of us, but keep in mind that 2 months is 20% of her entire lifetime).

So I put on my birthday hat and took a plane to the desert.  My dad is cheap, so I had to fly coach.

When I got there I took a ride on this thing to see if I could find Uncle Scott.  If you aren’t sure who is who in the picture below, I’m the one in the pink.  The hat was only a disguise, I’m not really in the Army.

Uncle Scott must have been wearing camo, because I never saw him.  So instead, I came back home and typed up a blog post.

Happy birthday Uncle Scott!

10 months…

Today marks Ashlyn’s 10 month birthday, which we celebrated by knocking down block towers, making a mess of bananas, and splashing around in a bath.  For this post, I thought I’d highlight some of Ashlyn’s favorite things, and some recent firsts.
Ashlyn’s #1 favorite thing to do is knock down block towers.  If she sees a tower, she will find a way to get to it and destroy it.  As you can see below, the mere sight of a block tower sends her into a frenzy of destructive baby fury, which can only be satiated by demolition. 

Unfortunately, Ashlyn did more than knock down a few block towers.  I think we paid around $3.00 for this thing, which I believe is a spoon holder, so Ashlyn is already in the red.

In other games, she also enjoys whatever this game this is called.  It’s tiring for the adult, but Ashlyn seems to get a kick out of it.  We’re hoping it will help with the whole crawling thing.  She’s getting better every day, but still hasn’t made that final adjustment to push her body fully off the floor.

She’s developed a few new things of note over this past month.  First, her hair is filling in, which is giving her an interesting hair-do, especially after baths.  Sorry for the blurry photo, the camera decided to focus on the wrong thing.  She’s also learned a very strange sleeping position, which she seems to prefer over most.  She’s actually sleeping in the picture below, I turned the lights on to get the picture and she didn’t budge. Strange baby.

And finally, although I don’t have any pictures to back this up, she’s started to learn how to put rings and blocks INTO her little toy bucket, instead of randomly throwing the contents OUT of the bucket onto the floor.  As GJ (grandma Wolf) would say, “she’s a genius!”.  Happy 10 month birthday little one, only two months to go to the big 1!