Summer Fun!

Here's a picture of Ashley on her 14 month birthday. She LOVES to be outside and explore. She's discovered that dandelions don't taste very good, but tree branches do. :)

Here is Ashley with Elsa and Gracie. They were enjoying cake and ice-cream at Violet's 1st birthday party! The little picnic table they are sitting at is a bargain I found at a garage sale for $10. Ashley knew how to sit and get back up without assistance before I had even sat her down. She must have picked up that skill at daycare. It's amazing how fast she is changing and how much she is learning every day.

This picture is how Ashley spent most of the month of May. Since she had her tubes put in, she has been on a cocktail of different antibiotics. She just couldn't kick the sinus/ear infections until just this week! At one point she was on 4 different meds. Because of all of the antibiotics, she also enjoyed many of the side effects from the meds, including yeast infections and thrush! To help the yeast infections clear, we were to bathe her after every diaper change...yes, BATHE her after every diaper change and then let her run around naked as much as possible. Needless to say, for those of you who don't know or remember how many diapers a baby goes through a day...it's roughly 8-10, more if their little tummy is upset from all of the meds. That's 20 plus baths every weekend. It was rather exhausting. I can't tell you how happy we are that she is FINALLY feeling better.

Here is a picture of some of the daddy's and their girls. This picture was taken at Maddy's 2nd birthday party. Pictured left to right is Tim with Elsa, Matt with Ashley and Jere with Violet.


Another birthday party means another opportunity for the girls to sit together at the picnic table and eat cake and ice-cream. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The ice-cream was melting faster than they could get it in their mouths. Above is Ashley and Violet discussing the day.

AND...a picture of all of the girls. Ashley was not happy that daddy set her down. I think the rest of the girls were looking at her and wondering..."Ashley, what's your problem?" For those of you who don't know, 4 of my best friends and I all had girls within one year of each other. Pictured from left to right: Ashley- 14 mo, Elsa- 21 mo, Maddy- 24 mo, Violet- 12 mo and Gracie- 22 mo.

Almost had them all looking and smiling at the camera...except Ashley. :) Pictured from left to right: Ashley- 14 mo, Elsa- 21 mo, Maddy- 24 mo, Violet- 12 mo and Gracie- 22 mo.

Here is a picture of us big girls. Missing from the photo is Sheli. :( Pictured from left to right is Julie- 30 yrs, Jessie- 30 yrs, Sheri- 31 yrs and Crystal- 30yrs. Haha :o)

Here's Ashley enjoying some cheez-its. She was ignoring me, I kept calling her name trying to get her to look at the camera. Her hair continues to grow and get curlier.

Finally the silly girl looks at me. She's so much fun.

For your viewing pleasure, a video of Ashley rocking on her rocking octopus. She received this from her Grandma & Grandpa J for her birthday. It took almost 2 months for her to like it. Now, it's hard to get her off. You'll notice in the video that when the music stops, she signs all done and says all done.

Other events this month: Ashley now gives kisses with her mouth wide open. She has learned a few more sign language signs and can now sign, eat, please, more, all done and thank you. She's says hi, ball, ba (bottle), key (blankey), ru ru (Ruby), key key (kitty), da da, ma ma, all done, uh oh, and hi. She has also started to blow kisses. She can get up from the floor and into walking position without any help. She's getting so good at walking that she's now picking up speed. She is ticklish on her sides, tummy, neck and toes and Matt and I get the biggest kick out of how she giggles when we tickle her.

Another post so soon....

Yes, another post so soon. Why you ask? Because we have exciting news....Ashley's WALKING! I've included video at the end of this post but before we get to the grand finale, here is a couple of recent pictures.

Here's Ashley investigating the special balloon & teddy bear delivery that she received from her mommy's work. How thoughtful!

Here's a cute picture of AJ after her bath.

See how long and curly her hair is getting!

And...she WALKS! Oh what an exciting evening. Both Matt and I were here and playing with her when I set her down and off she went. Then we had her walk between us over and over again. She'd come at us with a big smile on her face.

To celebrate Ashley's accomplishment, Daddy decides to share the dip n dots the Schwan's man had just delivered.

Catching up...

Here's Ashley with her girlfriend Maddy. Maddy stopped by for an impromptu visit. The girls had fun, Ashley liked watching Maddy play and move about.

Here's a messy face picture of Ashley. I made hot dish with noodles, cheese, tomatoes and hamburger and it was a real hit! Thank goodness we have Ruby, she's a real trooper when it comes to cleaning up the floor!

Here's one of Ashley's favorite past time hobbies. She loves to be in the laundry basket or boxes etc. This picture was taken just two days after her 13 month b-day. I've tried to take a monthly picture of her...not sure why I missed 4/11 but she didn't change two much in those 2 days missed. :o)

As you can see, her teeth are coming in nicely. She's got 8 teeth total now. In this picture I was attempting to take a picture of her showing off her bracelet. I made her a sterling silver name bracelet with aquamarine swarovski crystal beads. She actually holds her arm out so that I can put it on her.

Thank goodness, it's finally starting to get a little warmer. I am sure you are all feeling the same way, but we have a major case of spring fever. Ashley loves to play outside. Here she is in her new stroller that we picked up at a garage sale for $5! Another reason for the spring fever- we want to go to more garage sales!

Here Ashley is swinging on our neighbors swing. Ashley has a swing but at the time, hers was covered in sap, bird poop and dirt and we were working on limited time before dinner so we couldn't clean hers up.

Here's a picture from last Saturday. Ashley's girlfriend Maddy called to see if Ashley wanted to go to her first smelt fry and Ashley couldn't resist. :o) I've decided that those kind of events are definitely more work than they are worth. These days, Ashley is constantly on the go and doesn't like to sit still. She's not walking on her own yet but very close and she loves to practice. I left the smelt fry starving, full of baked beans and feeling like I had just wrestled an alligator for 3 hours straight. Exhausting!

Last Sunday Ashley went to visit her friends Violet and Henry. Ashley and Violet are only 10 weeks apart. It's fun to watch them interact.

Ashley Jane, Violet Sophia and Henry James.

Here's a recap of recent events in our lives. On April 23, the ice finally went off the lake! 4/23!!! Good grief! Ashley continues to say new sounds. Ka is her latest and she says that when she sees her Thumper and Friends book. Matt has enjoyed these few nice days and has taken Ashley on bike rides in her little tow along cart and to the park to swing and slide all while I am stuck on the bus home. I'm glad he gets to do that, but I am very jealous too. I wish I worked closer to home. Oh, and I am now a bus rider. There is a new bus route from Forest Lake into Minneapolis and I started riding in the beginning of April. I love it! As of 4/24 we are no longer sending bottles to daycare. She drinks her milk from sippy cups at daycare. She still gets a morning and evening bottle at home, but we will work to wean her off of those soon too. Today 5/2, Ashley had surgery to have tubes placed in her ears. Yes, originally I was against the idea, but she has suffered from so many ear infections and she has had fluid in her ears since birth. Imagine the feeling of having water in your ears for months- not fun. So we had to be in Woodbury by 6:15, so we had to leave home at 5:30am. Ashley didn't fall back to sleep either! The surgery went well. We only had one mishap and that was while we were on the drive home. While Ashley was in the recovery room, they gave us apple juice to feed her. She was starving and gobbled down the juice very quickly. Well, about half way home she coughed and then gagged and then threw up all of the juice. I now have apple juice all over her car seat, she is completely soaked, so is her blankey, her toy and the blanket we had on her lap to keep her warm. It all over my car mats, my seat. YUCK, what a sticky mess! Thank goodness for leather seats. At the moment she is now napping and I am thinking of doing the same.