5 months old

While it is hard to believe you are 5 months old, the last month didn't seem to go quite as fast as the last few had been going. You are such a joy and have been so happy lately. You came down with your first cold about a month ago and ever since then your sleep schedule at night has been messed up. At first I said your schedule was messed up because of your cold, the next week I blamed it on a growth spurt, then another cold the next week. Now, I'm not sure my excuses work, I think you have just decided this is fun! You did so great at month two and three and were sleeping for 4-5 hours at a time, but the last month you have been up every 2 hours at night, it's like clock work too. Mommy has been extra tired from all of our middle of the night feedings, but we make it through the day. Last night though, you broke the spell, you only woke up once between midnight and 7. Typically you would have been up 3 times. I hope this may be the beginning of  a new trend. We have been debating about starting rice cereal for you thinking that maybe you are just hungry and that's the reason for so many night feedings, but we might give you a bit longer and see if we can get a different schedule going. You love to "talk" and when you get going, you can really use that voice. You also found your feet. It is one of my favorite things when a baby plays with their feet. So I've been enjoying this and always commenting about it to daddy.











Your hair is getting longer and a little fuller. A lot of people have been commenting about it when they see you. I think we are in the beginning stages of teething. You still love to suck on your own fingers and are putting more and more toys in your mouth. You have also taken to putting other peoples fingers and hands in your mouth to chew on. It must feel good. You are in size 2 diaper. I don't know what to do with you and your diapers though. Judy says it's her goal each day to get you to actually poop inside your diaper rather than up your back, most days...she fails.  :)
 Almost every day this last week you have pooped all over your clothes. The size 2 diaper is good for up to 18 pounds so I don't think changing sizes will help at this point. Good thing for Oxi-Clean! You are in 3-6 months clothes. We're excited for the warmer weather so we can start wearing our summer wardrobe. We have lots of cute things to wear! We haven't had an official weight check, but I think you are about 14 pounds. We are still working on tummy time. You are not a fan really at all, but we're still trying to roll over. There have been a few times when I thought you've been so close, but just not quite there yet. 

I fall more in love with you every day. I was just thinking yesterday, it is very bittersweet that you are not a newborn anymore and the time went so fast I feel like I don't remember so many things. But, I was thinking of how fun it will be when you start eating baby food and real food and crawling, and sitting up on your own, and walking and all the fun things that come with growing up. I so look forward to teaching you new things and watching you learn new things each day.

ENT

It has been three months since we had seen the ENT doctor. So, we went back for a check up today. It seemed like we waited for quite awhile in the waiting room and the office was rather busy and seemed to be disorganized. But, Ashley didn't mind. She was really pretty happy, quite the chatterbox actually. She was being loud and really showing off her voice. She is quite a different baby from 3 months ago when we saw that doctor. I'm not sure what I really expected from the appointment, I know she still breathes loud and is not over the laryngomalacia, but I think I was hoping he would tell us he saw improvement in her breathing. So, the doctor put the video tube down Ashley's nose again. She had a few things to say about that! She cried instantly, thankfully in lasted less than a minute. Dr. said that her larynx is not nearly as red and inflamed, so the acid reflux medicine is doing it's job and we should keep up with that. Then he said there was no other change in her larynx and she still needed time to grow out of this condition. Those are good things to hear, and we will go back and visit him in 6 months. Hard to think that Ashley will be almost one year by then!

Too cute

We went and had some pictures taken of Ashley for Easter, we came away with a cute one in her precious pink dress...

Ashley Grace 4 1/2 months

Another Fever

Ashley woke up this morning with another fever of 100.1. I gave her some Tylenol and she seems to be doing better. Her temp has been good since about 10:00. This morning she didn't seem like she felt very good, so we read some books and then when daddy woke up, Ashley sure was happy to see him...

March for Babies

For Tate's Sake we marched for babies on Saturday. We had a good time. It was cold and windy first thing when we were registering, Thankfully, we had a bit of time to go inside and warm up and get out of the wind before the walk.

front of our shirts: Fearfully and wonderfully made

back of shirts: for Tate's Sake, march for babies

Our group at the starting line

Ashley enjoyed the first bit of the walk, but eventually got tired of being in her stroller covered in the quilt I made. :) She couldn't see out and see what we were all doing. So, she got to get out of the stroller and got to be passed around the rest of the walk.

I should have brought her papoose, but I thought it would be too cold. It wasn't though because we quickly were shedding layers. Thankfully, Papa Bear carried her majority of the way.

The reason we were marching, Tate Christian

The Finish line....2 miles and more than an hour later

sisters

Stinemetz's

Nana and Tater Tot

Ashley fell asleep right at the end of the walk, so she slept through lunch, but did wake up for a few pics at the end.

After the march, we went shopping with Gigi and Cj, Ashley was pretty excited...

Happy 60th Papa Bear!

Papa Bear turned 60 on April 6. We went all out and celebrated Beatles style. Cassie came up with all sorts of ideas for the theme and we did a pretty good job pulling it all together.

 We had "strawberry fields forever" strawberry shortcake, "For the Benefit of Mr. Sprite, Sgt Dr. Pepper And the chocolate cake design is based off of the Sgt Pepper album cover (that was my part and it didn't turn out quite like I thought it would, but it worked).

 PHOTO BOOTH

 Entertainment: Beatles Rock Band on Wii

Ashley is "Baby's in black."  I don't think Carver was very amused with our theme.  :)












And yes, I stole all of these pictures/collages from Cassie's blog

Harry

Ashley met Harry the Harris Hawk last week. They had seen each other a couple of times, but this was the first time that she got a good look at him.

He wasn't so interested. He was eating, so he kept trying to get away from them.

Harry or Harriett, we're not really sure :)

Goodbye KS, Hello MO

We took a mini vacation over the weekend. We went to Branson, Missouri. This was Ashley's first time to leave Kansas and ride in a car for 5+ hours. The longest we've been in the car is to Manhattan and Topeka, so just a couple of hours. We went to Branson with Uncle Pete, Aunt Caitlin, and cousin Claira. We went to visit Uncle John. We left on Friday at 5:00, and Ashley was got a little fussy about an hour and a half intothe drive, so we stopped and had some sandwiches. Then we pulled over on the side of the road one more time not long after that to try and settle her down. She did eventually settle down and slept the rest of the way. Claira did pretty good too. She eventually fell asleep and except for waking up from a nightmare (which we had to pull over for and get her out of the car) she slept the rest of the way too. Branson should be only about a 5 hour drive. We were expecting to add a little bit of time onto that for the little ones, but what proved to add on all the extra time was actually the GPS. We had plugged in that we were going to Branson West (where the house was that we had rented) and instead of taking us through Springfield and then to the Interstate, it kept us on all the tiny 2 lane roads through tiny little towns like Crane, MO and Reeds Springs, MO. So, after almost 7 hours, we finally made it to our destination. The place we stayed was on a golf course and was a really nice place, there were 4 bedrooms and 4 baths (each one with a jacuzzi tub!) and plenty of room for us. On Saturday, we went on a walk down the creek and looked for rocks.

 

Uncle John came over (with his girlfriend, Tessa). The boys played a game in which Pete and John ended up in their boxers and Nate locked them out of the house (A typical outcome to a Mathews Men game). While the girls were napping, we played some Monopoly, and it did not turn out so well for Nate and I, notice we only have $1 to our name...

Pete sure was happy to own all 4 railroads!

We took a trip to Branson Landing for some Orange Leaf...delicious! Only down side was that for space reasons we decided not to bring any strollers. When pulled up in the parking lot Ashley was sleeping, so unfortunately she didn't get her nap in and so she wasn't in the best of moods during our shopping trip.

Checking out the first at Bass Pro Shop

Looking at the fountains at the Landing

Claira found the bubbles!

For the evening we went to the Dixie Stampede! It turned out to be a great show for the kids because it was so loud, it didn't matter if they got fussy or if they got excited and were screaming and clapping. Claira really enjoyed watching it. Ashley did too, she was fascinated by all of the lights, I couldn't tell that she really was paying too close attention to all of the animals. It was noisy though, and you could tell Ashley was trying to figure out what she was supposed to be watching...the lights, the crowd, the waiters running around. It is always challenging to hold Ashley and eat at the same time, but this proved to be extra challenging because there was no silverware, you ate everything with your hands...a biscuit, soup, an entire chicken, corn on the cob, baked potato, ham, and an apple turnover. It was messy, but very yummy! After the show, when we walked to the car we found this....

John had his friends fill our van with balloons. He apparently was getting back at Caitlin for filling his car with leaves at Thanksgiving.

Ashley got to play with a balloon too!

 And the drive back to the house, went something like this...

Nate in the back with 2 crying kiddos!

On Sunday we went to church on campus at CofO then we had lunch with John and Tessa. We got on the road about 2 and made it home by 7. Ashley did really well on the drive home. She was pretty happy for the whole drive. We had a great trip and were glad to spend some time with Uncle Pete and his clan now that he is back from Iraq! Looking forward to our next adventure with them.