From singing to boo boo…

Before I introduce the video I mentioned last week, I must announce that Ashlyn had her first bad boo boo this afternoon.  Somehow, when trying to get into her chair to eat dinner, she slipped and hit her head on the window sill.  Fortunately, she hit the front and not the corner.  Her head hitting the sill was loud enough that I could hear it from the living room, and I had to pause to see whether or not it was a hurt toddler or just something being dropped on the floor.  The crying that ensued answered that pretty quickly.

She’s a trooper though.  After a little mommy time, complete with cold compress and a cartoon on the TV, she was back in action. 

On a less damaging subject, we went swimming yesterday at Uncle Bruce’s house.  Ashlyn is getting better at swimming every time we jump in the water.  She was kicking when Heather was moving her around the pool, and swam in circles when left by herself.  She’s learned to control her circles, and can turn on her own to the direction she wants.

And after swimming, it was time to run around the house on a stick horse.  She saw Cousin Heidi do it, and had to follow suit.

And now, without further ado, here is a video of Ashlyn’s tryout for American Idol.  Forgive me for the cheesy intro, this is what happens when I feel like being “creative” with my video editing software.

I’d like to make a few comments on this video:

1. Notice how she has to stand up each time she sings.  She’s on stage!
2. I have no idea where she learned to say “baby” like that.
3. She really likes washing things out.

If you’d like to buy the full album of Ashlyn washing various spiders, babies, and stars out, send $14.99 (plus S&H) to me.  But wait, there’s more!  Act now, and I’ll include her latest video:  “Ashlyn dumps water on the pets”.  This offer won’t last long!

Things to know, with examples by Ashlyn…

(I found the camera adaptor, but it takes awhile to render videos and I’ve decided to hold off on those until next week.)

Ashlyn is picking up her gymnastics very quickly.  In a few short classes she’s built up the confidence to start doing front rolls on her own.  A “front roll” is a fancy way of saying “summersault”, although technically I think it’s the other way around.  The word “summersault” derives from an old French word, sobresaut, which is derived from the Latin words supra (over) and saltus (jump).

Now that we all feel educated, let’s take a look at the front roll, Ashlyn style.  This is a three part process.

1.  Tall Like a Tree – This is an easy step, but often forgotten by Ashlyn.  In this step, you simply raise your hands in the air, as if you’re a tree.  In this case, a toddler-sized tree with no leaves and only two branches.

2.  Hands on the Ground – In this step, you simply put your hands on the ground and tuck your head in.  I spent 5 minutes trying to come up with some funny to add to this step, but that’s all you do.  You take your hands, and then you put them on the ground.  Yep.. that’s it.

3.  Roll! – And off she rolls.  Notice the pointed toes, the downward angle of the legs, and the diaper hanging out of her pants.  I don’t have the gymnastics background that Heather does, but I’m pretty sure we’re going to get an invitation to the London Olympics next year.  Fish and chips, here we come!

Aside from gymnastics, Ashlyn has a learned another valuable life skill:  the Brain Freeze.  This, unlike the complicated gymnastics process, is much simpler.  You put the frozen food, in this case yogurt, in your mouth.  Then you get a brain freeze.

Afterwards, because it’s very easy to forget something that happened 5.4 seconds in the past, you do it again.

I hope we all learned something in this blog post.  I know I did. 

And with that, we wish you all a good night!

Sorry, check back tomorrow!

I learned a valuable lesson this weekend: Don't order a cocktail with egg whites as an ingredient. I was out for the count all day yesterday, but should be able to get the weekly post up tonight. If I'm lucky, and I can find my camera adaptor, I may even have some movies to post of Ashlyn doing gymnastics on her own, as well as Ashlyn showing off her signing talents. No promises though, that little adaptor may be hidden somewhere.

The greatest show on Earth...

The first part of this post may not make much sense in coming years, so I’ll add some background to it.  We’re close to breaking records this summer, in fact we were one day short of having the most number of 100+ days  in a row.  The cool front (if you can call temperatures dropping to 98 degrees a cool front) brought some rain with it on Saturday, and it had been so long since water fell from the sky that Ashlyn was confused by it.  Apparently it was interesting enough that she brought her doll outside to see it too.

Later in the afternoon on Saturday, it was time once again for gymnastics.  I was able to go to help out and take a few pictures.  I know why Heather is so tired afterwards now, I swear those classes are more of a workout for the parents than the kids.  I chased, picked up, rolled, twisted, and flipped a 22 month old Ashlyn for about 45 minutes (with help from mom of course).  She did fine, and she did really well at the rope bridge.  I suppose it’s to train coordination, or prep for Army boot camp, I’m not sure which.  Either way, we had to wait a minute for the kid in front of her, but when we put Ashlyn on the bridge she crossed it incredibly fast, one foot after the other.

On Sunday we gambled a bit and tried out the Circus in Ft. Worth.  The first half of the show went well; Ashlyn sat quietly and watched the acts.  She even joined in the clapping after each act finished.  My sister (Auntie Sisa) and I went to the Circus together days before I left for college, and it was a neat experience to be back for the first time with my daughter. 

Maybe next year we’ll make it through the full show, since Ashlyn got bored around intermission and wanted to start running. The show wasn’t that great for adults, and if the kid would rather run up and down stairs than see the show, we felt it was a good time to leave and go get Sno-cones.

Ashlyn likes Sno-cones.

Water, eggs, and a dance party…

As summer continues to provide 100+ degree days, I’d like to say that Ashlyn wants to spend more time indoors where the air conditioning keeps us from melting.  I can’t say that though, because I would be lying.  Luckily, Ashlyn has gotten over her fear of the water hose, and now happily sprays water over the patio, the yard, and herself.  It keeps her cool and she has fun with it, so we don’t discourage it.

These next two pictures don’t have stories around them, I just like pictures of Ashlyn and mom together.  Most of the time Ashlyn goes to mom for comfort and dad for tackling, but sometimes she just goes to mom and giggles.  This is why I try to keep my camera nearby.

I don’t have many pictures from Saturday, mainly because Pe-Pa and I spent most of the day building a table for my Big Green Egg™.  It came out well, and Ashlyn approves.

Nana and Papa came over on Sunday, and with them came a set of toddler cleaning supplies.  They thought it would be a fun toy, but I plan on putting her to work now that she has a broom and mop that’s more her size.  After playing with the toys, a trip outside, and a change of clothes, we went back inside where an impromptu dance party broke out in the living room.

Aside from all that, Ashlyn said her longest sentence this weekend:  “Daddy is mowing the grass.”  She’s also counting objects well, up to the number four with consistency, and can sing most of the ABC song.  She was back in Gymnastics on Saturday and did bars for the first time.  The coach said that Ashlyn was pretty strong.  So with her strength and and speech progression, I’m hoping “Daddy is mowing the grass” will turn into “I’ll go mow the grass so daddy wan watch TV inside” very soon.

Pretending begins…

This week marked the arrival of a new doll named “Buttons”, or as Ashlyn calls it, “Baby”.  The doll was purchased as an aide to help show Ashlyn how to put on her own clothes, but it quickly turned in to pretend play instead.  This included eating time, where Baby was put into Ashlyn’s chair and then fed.. well, something.  We don’t know because it was an empty bowl and spoon.

It must have been messy, because Baby got a good cleaning after the meal, and after the cleaning Baby went back into the chair for some refreshments.

This is a good thing I think, it’s a break from the iPod and its encouraging her to get more creative in her play.

By the way, it’s hard to do laundry when your daughter wants to wear the boxers you’re trying to fold.  *sigh*

Mom and toddler gymnastics started up again this weekend, and Ashlyn is really getting into it.  Mom was watching a gymnastics meet on TV, and Ashlyn was trying to mimic the floor routine, complete with lying on her side and putting one leg up in the air.  It was really funny, but you probably had to be there to see the humor in it.  She doesn’t quite have the tumbling down yet but she’s trying and having a lot of fun at it.  With mom’s help of course.

So from our little gymnast, have a nice week everyone.

Our little girl continues to grow up…

The topic for today is, as the title suggests, growing up.  To start, I’d like to set a frame of reference.  This is Ashlyn a year ago:

She was sitting up, crawling, and her hair was just starting to show some curls.  And today?  Today she’s a running, jumping, laughing, screaming, curly haired little girl.  She did a few things this week that highlight how far she’s come along, and I’d like to share them.

This is a her poor pillow pet being ridden around the house like a horse.  The pillow pet never complained, and appears to be uninjured.  It’s interesting to watch her use toys as she runs around the house, since she’s no longer content to simply sit and play anymore.

She also wants to be more like mommy.  Here we can see Ashlyn picking up a bag, hanging it over her arm, and heading for the door.  I’d be more impressed if she picked up a weed eater and went out into the yard, but you have to start somewhere.  She watches older kids, adults, and parents and is picking things up incredibly quickly.  It’s fun to see.

We now have to be even more careful around the house, because she can climb up onto chairs on her own now.  She seems to be very proud of herself.  What you don’t see, off in the top right corner, is a nervous mom waiting to catch her.  If anyone knows how to toddler proof a kitchen table, let me know.

She’s not fully grown up though, and still seems to get a few things wrong.  Here are two examples.  The first is her putting on dad’s socks, and the second is her trying to put a swimming diaper onto her head.  She’s trying to dress herself, but she has a ways to go I think.

I have to admit that I’m proud of her; she’s learning so fast and is such a wonderful child.  But I keep seeing this Subaru commercial on TV (Link to Subaru Commercial), and I can’t help but think that at this rate our little girl is going to be driving away from us before we know it.  And that makes me a little sad, but I know we have many years left to go.

Still, if anyone knows someone at a Subaru dealership, send me their contact info, ok?

Gymnastics and dog water…

On Saturday Ashlyn attended her first gymnastics class with mommy.  It would be nice to say that Ashlyn was flipping through the air when the class was over, but she spent most of her time running everywhere with a tired mommy chasing behind.  In between running all over the gym, they were able to coax Ashlyn into a few actual gymnastics exercises, such as the balance beam and trampoline. 

We think the class is going to be a good opportunity to learn how to take turns, since only one kid could be on the trampoline at a time.  Ashlyn kept running out on the trampoline and had to be pulled back by mom.  But it was fun and Ashlyn seemed to enjoy it, so I have a feeling there will be more classes in the future.

Aside from gymnastics, Ashlyn learned how to drink like Rusty.  And not just like Rusty, but with him.  At the same time.  From the same water.  Awesome.  At least she’s drinking from a section that’s separated from the other.  We love Rusty and all, but he’s not exactly a preferred source of education.

And on a side note, Ashlyn would like to say Happy Birthday to Papa (Grandpa Wolf).  We know he’d rather be out fishing instead of working on his birthday, so Ashlyn had to do it instead.  And yes, Ashlyn likes fishing in her pajamas.

Happy Birthday Papa!