Ashley's on the move!

Last weekend Ashley had an impromptu get together with her girlfriends Elsa and Violet. Ashley is hoping that she will be able to get together with all 4 of her girlfriends at the same time.

This weekend Ashley was feeling cooped up so we decided to take her sledding. The bumbo did a fabulous job of keeping her in place on the sled. We pulled her in the snowmobile tracks on the lake. She had a blast.

Ashley all bundled up wearing her froggy slippers.

Ashley has mastered the sippy cup. This weekend we needed to get to her chiro appt and she just wouldn't eat before we left so I placed her formula in a sippy cup and gave it to her in the car and she drank it while we were on the road. She's just getting so big. We took her to the chiropractor this weekend. I have heard from several folks that an adjustment could be the answer to the end of the many ear infections Ashley has had, so, we decided to try it. Ashley was at the doc on Monday for a follow up to the double ear infection/pneumonia spell a couple weeks ago and she either had the same infection or a new ear infection, so anyway, this is I think the 4 course of antibiotics. Her doctor will see her again for her year check up and if she's still having ear infections, she will be recommending an ENT (ears, nose & throat) doc to discuss tubes. At this point, I am against tubes. Ashley's ear infections have always been at the same time she's getting new teeth. I've heard that by tooth 6 or so, the ear infections stop, in addition, we are nearing the end of the winter season and she is almost a year and her anatomy will start to change and hopefully the ear canal will start to slope and drain.

Here is a picture of Ashley with her friend Maddy. We got to visit with Maddy and the rest of the crew while celebrating Maddy's grandma's 60th birthday.

Here is a video clip of Ashley is her rolling walker. We have had this since last weekend and Ashley has mastered it. She can go backwards, forwards and turn when she wants to. She loves her new found mobility. She will come scooting over to me when I call her or leave her site.

The past two weeks have just been a blast with Ashley. She just keeps getting more and more fun. She is really snuggly now. She will crawl at me if I call her name. She squeals with excitement. If I pretend to chase her on my hands and knees, she will crawl faster and laughs and squeals while she tries to get away. She's ticklish under her arms. She got another bottom tooth this weekend (6 total now). She has mastered standing. She can pull herself up on anything. She is always standing when we go in to get her out of her crib. If she is standing and wants to get down, she does the splits till her butt hits the floor. It is so funny. We've also discovered that she can crawl up our two stairs. This is something she's learned in the last two weeks. She wasn't crawling up the stairs while she stayed at grandma's just two weeks ago. It's just amazing how fast she learns. Within the last two weeks she has also started eating the snacks and lunches served at daycare and now refuses the pureed baby food.

11 Months Old Today!

Hello All! Yes I know it has been a long time again since the last update, but we have been very busy this past month. What's new with Ashley? Well, she now has 5 teeth! She has three teeth on the bottom and her two fang teeth on the top. It looks like her two top middle teeth will be popping through soon and we are hoping they will as right now...she looks a little like a vampire.

Today Ashley is 11 months old. We took this picture of her this morning playing with the maraca's we brought her home from Mexico. She loves them! For those of you who didn't know, Matt and I were in Mexico last week for our friends wedding. We got home last night and we both had the day off today to get back in the swing of things, do laundry and get caught up on all of the hugs and kisses we missed from Ashley last week. Ashley stayed the week with her Grandma Terry and Grandpa Randy from Saturday evening though Wednesday evening and then she spent the remainder of the week at her Grandpa Larry and Grandma Sue's. The Grandparent's all said she was great and they would miss her when she was gone. We picked Ashley up around 11:30 pm last night and she was so cute. She was playing shy (and she was of course very sleepy) but she was full of smiles and was very excited to see us and her puppy Ruby. We were so amazed at how different she looked and at the new noises she was making and at her new teeth poking through etc. I thought I would include a few pictures from our trip for those of you that are interested...but if you just care about Ashley, you can stop reading now. :o)

This is Travis and Lynette- our friends that got married in Cozumel, Mexico! Don't they look wonderful? The wedding was on the beach at sunset. Absolutely beautiful.

Here is a picture of Matt and I. It's not the best but unfortunately out of about 100 pictures, this is one of the only few of us together. I am usually much better about making sure to take pictures of us together but apparently I didn't do as well on this trip.

Here we are being digested by a shark. We spent a lot of time tooling around the city with our friends John and Sheli. We rented scooters and had those for a few days which was a blast. We also rented a jeep for a day a toured the whole island. Just about everyone we were with rented a jeep that day...i think there were 8 jeeps with 4 people in each jeep, so we had a big group of us following each other around the island. It was a blast.

Something we all found amazing was the "family transportation" in Cozumel. It seemed every family owned a scooter and they would all ride on it- even their babies of just a few months old. The most I saw on one scooter was two adults and two children! It was insane. I didn't get a picture of it but I wish I had. The picture above is of a regular bicycle which fits three- notice the home made baby seat in the middle of the bike, and the pegs on the back? Matt and I got a good chuckle out of all how safe we are in MN with car seats etc because we spent two hours Saturday night attempting to get Ashley's car seats into our parents cars. In fact- we ended up just leaving my car with my mom because we just could not get Ashley's car seat into mom's car tight enough...and in Mexico- you just squish them between the two adults on the scooter. Crazy!

And one last humorous picture... check out the incline on this handicap accessible ramp. What's even more funny about it is that we weren't the only one's to notice it and take a picture of it. I could barely walk down it, it was so steep! It was a great trip. Temperatures every day were in the mid 80's and we came home to -10 degrees! Almost 100 degree temperature change. We miss the warmth already!

10 Months Old!

Yes, hard to believe...she is already 10 months old. What's new with Ashley?... Well, she has mastered crawling and now she can do it with speed. She can also go from sitting or laying to crawling. She is so fun to watch. She is eating a lot more these days. This weekend we tried cottage cheese, cut up peaches and yogurt- all were a real hit.

Here's a picture of Ashley wearing her new froggy slippers from her cousin Jessi from Christmas. Also- notice the orange hue to her nose? Yes, I guess all babies her age get it. My girlfriends have told me it will go away eventually.

Matt and I refer to this picture as "I'm to "cute" for my hair"

Here's Ashley at 10 months. I figured she was old enough now to learn how to vacuum so she is hanging onto the hose.

P.S. We'd also like to send some mad props out to Ashley's girlfriends for all of the cute hand-me downs. She say's keep 'em coming ladies! :o)