You are such an active little one! You are always getting into things to find something new to play with. You love when the refrigerator door opens and you pull open the drawer where the cheese is kept and like to get a snack. In the process, you also pull out all of the other items too. You like to sit in chairs and on the couch. When you sit in the rocker in your room you always like to hold your baby. You love little kids. The neighbors at Gigi's like to give you high fives and you love to watch and wave at all of the classes that walk by when you are at Gigi's school.
You have a vocabulary of 3 words, momma, dada, and yes. Maybe we could add a fourth word, "out." That one is not quite consistent, but you say it some. You sign lots of words too, more, please, thank you, bye bye (which is waving or blowing kisses), bird, hot, baby, no, and of course your favorite...milk! You hold your hands up in the air to say "where did it go" and you point to your ear(kind of) to say "do you hear that?" You shake your finger back and forth as if to say "no no" but you are really saying around and around. You rub your hands together when I say wash your hands. You also love to give hugs and kisses. You walk up to us and hug our leg or rest your head on our arm as if to give a hug. It is precious.You know where your hair is and the other day you got it right when I asked where your mouth is. We are still working on eyes and nose. It is fun when I say a word out of context to what we are doing, but you do the sign because you recognize it.
At the doctor you weighed 22lbs 8.5 oz, which puts you in the 44th percentile for weight, you were 31 inches tall, 66th percentile and your head circumference was in the 99th percentile! You are doing great for your age, we hope to see you add a few more words to your list over the next few months. You are outgrowing more and more of your 12 month clothes. Some still fit, but we are wearing some 18 months as well. You are walking great and I love it when you take off running, it's quite cute. We did notice that you are taking after Gigi (and momma) in that you have a rash on your back, arms, and legs. The doctor thinks it is eczema, so we are trying a new soap to see if that helps.
You still love to be outside. Thankfully the weather has been good and so we have spent some time outside playing and going to the park too. You are doing great at feeding yourself. Recently you have started using a spoon/fork all by yourself. Usually you don't get too much food on it before it goes to your mouth, but you are figuring out the process. Most of the time you hold the spoon in one hand and then pick up food and put it in your mouth with the other. You like to "write" as well. When you find a pen you always need paper to go with it. You are also using your left hand a lot when you do these things, makes me wonder if you might be left handed.
Your sleeping pattern has changed and you seem to still be waking up a lot. I would say at least 2-3 times a night, around midnight, 3 and again around 5 seems to be consistent lately.
You are beginning to develop quite an opinion, and if you are not ready to get in the car seat or change your diaper or eat your food or whatever it may be, you are letting me know. I fear we may be dealing with some temper tantrums earlier than I expected (and earlier than I am ready for) :) We went to the grocery store the other day and you cried the ENTIRE time we were there. Made me wonder how the other lady who was there with the 3 littles ones, pregnant with a fourth, did it. But, she reassured me she's been there too! :)
I love it when you laugh. Your laugh is so contagious. You find the simplest things funny and it makes me happy to hear you laugh and see a big smile on your face.
Lilypie Birthday tickers
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Happy Valentine's Day 2012
For Valentine's Day this year, I was not organized enough to make cute cards to give out like I did last year. I wish I would have, but maybe I will get to it next year! Nate brought me flowers at work and he bought some flowers for his little Valentine too. She thought they were really pretty.
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| And they smelled good too! |
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| In addition to the flowers, Ashley also got a box of animal crackers! She loved them! |
Monday, February 20, 2012
To catch you up...Post-surgery check up with the ENT Dr.
1.27.12
We went back to Dr. Regehr to have a post surgery check up. Ashley had been feeling good and so I expected this to be a simple and routine appointment. It is routine to what for awhile in the waiting room, but for this appointment (the first one I went to without Nate) we waited for 50 minutes! I was starting to think they forgot about us. I should have gone to the counter after 30 minutes, but a 30 minute wait is typical. Ashley did good for the first 30 minutes, she played with other kids. She "colored," she got in and out of the kids chairs, she walked around the waiting room, she played in the water fountain, she washed her hands in the bathroom, she had a snack, she had milk, she had another snack. :) And on and on. Finally they called our name and we waited for about 5-10 minutes for the doctor to come in. That was easy! :) Doctor looked at her ears and thought they looked great, the tubes were still there and he anticipates/hopes they will stay in for a year to a year and a half. He said we didn't have to worry about getting the water in her ear anymore (which is good because it was hard to wash her hair and worry about water getting in her ears). I don't recall that he said much about her breathing...it's still loud! :) He said to continue with her acid reflux medicine. He wants to see us back in 6 months. Next up, we did a re-check of her hearing. We waited for another 15 minutes or so to be called back for the test. I'm not really sure what to think of the testing process. This is done with a small portable machine, with a small earbud headphone type piece that goes in Ashley's ear with a wire which connects to the machine. Somehow noise is transmitted and I think the machine reads if the ear drum responds to the noise? Basically, Ashley just sits there and has to be still and quiet. This is the same test we did in December which she failed on every level. The test goes through 4 levels and she should pass each level. When we went into the room, the technician mentioned that Ashley was breathing loudly, I told her this was normal and asked if it would be a problem. She said "we'll see, it might." She started with the left ear and began blowing bubbles to keep Ashley quiet and entertained. The earpiece fell out a few times and what it did read, she said she didn't pass. We switched to the right ear and I could see the machine for this one. Ashley kept wiggling though and the earpiece kept falling out. I decided to nurse her to keep her still. That worked much better, I could see the screen show that she didn't pass the first level, passed the second, "noisy" on the third, and then the piece would fall out and the fourth level would never finish. We did this 3-4 times and pretty much the same result each time. We decided to try the left ear again since she was being pretty still. We did the left ear and she passed all 4 levels! I was happy to see that. The techinician said she would let the doctor know the results and if he felt the need, he would let us know he would like to do a more extensive hearing test. If not, we would just retest in 6 months.
The technician asked if Ashley passed her hearing test at birth. I recall that they did have trouble with the tests at birth and did have to come back after an extra day to retest, I am pretty sure it was the right ear they were having trouble with too. But, I believe that she did eventually pass it.
I hope there is nothing more to it and the test was just not the best way to get results, but we will see after 6 months how she does.
We went back to Dr. Regehr to have a post surgery check up. Ashley had been feeling good and so I expected this to be a simple and routine appointment. It is routine to what for awhile in the waiting room, but for this appointment (the first one I went to without Nate) we waited for 50 minutes! I was starting to think they forgot about us. I should have gone to the counter after 30 minutes, but a 30 minute wait is typical. Ashley did good for the first 30 minutes, she played with other kids. She "colored," she got in and out of the kids chairs, she walked around the waiting room, she played in the water fountain, she washed her hands in the bathroom, she had a snack, she had milk, she had another snack. :) And on and on. Finally they called our name and we waited for about 5-10 minutes for the doctor to come in. That was easy! :) Doctor looked at her ears and thought they looked great, the tubes were still there and he anticipates/hopes they will stay in for a year to a year and a half. He said we didn't have to worry about getting the water in her ear anymore (which is good because it was hard to wash her hair and worry about water getting in her ears). I don't recall that he said much about her breathing...it's still loud! :) He said to continue with her acid reflux medicine. He wants to see us back in 6 months. Next up, we did a re-check of her hearing. We waited for another 15 minutes or so to be called back for the test. I'm not really sure what to think of the testing process. This is done with a small portable machine, with a small earbud headphone type piece that goes in Ashley's ear with a wire which connects to the machine. Somehow noise is transmitted and I think the machine reads if the ear drum responds to the noise? Basically, Ashley just sits there and has to be still and quiet. This is the same test we did in December which she failed on every level. The test goes through 4 levels and she should pass each level. When we went into the room, the technician mentioned that Ashley was breathing loudly, I told her this was normal and asked if it would be a problem. She said "we'll see, it might." She started with the left ear and began blowing bubbles to keep Ashley quiet and entertained. The earpiece fell out a few times and what it did read, she said she didn't pass. We switched to the right ear and I could see the machine for this one. Ashley kept wiggling though and the earpiece kept falling out. I decided to nurse her to keep her still. That worked much better, I could see the screen show that she didn't pass the first level, passed the second, "noisy" on the third, and then the piece would fall out and the fourth level would never finish. We did this 3-4 times and pretty much the same result each time. We decided to try the left ear again since she was being pretty still. We did the left ear and she passed all 4 levels! I was happy to see that. The techinician said she would let the doctor know the results and if he felt the need, he would let us know he would like to do a more extensive hearing test. If not, we would just retest in 6 months.
The technician asked if Ashley passed her hearing test at birth. I recall that they did have trouble with the tests at birth and did have to come back after an extra day to retest, I am pretty sure it was the right ear they were having trouble with too. But, I believe that she did eventually pass it.
I hope there is nothing more to it and the test was just not the best way to get results, but we will see after 6 months how she does.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
to catch you up...we went to a ROYAL party
1.21.12
Princess Callista Jane and Sir Carver Levi celebrated birthdays in January. Callista turned 3 and Carver turned 1! Chase and Annie put together a ROYAL party celebrated their two littles. It was very creative and very fun! The invitation suggested that Royal attire was preferred, so the girls took that seriously and we got all dressed up! Here is the sweet birthday princess (and her frog)...
and the birthday boy!
Here are the other ROYAL princesses that came...
Yes, Cassie and I wore our wedding dresses! When else would we get to where them again? Callista was very excited to see all of us so dressed up! And Aunt CJ curled her hair and gave her a tiara and she loved it!
The theme of the party was princess and the frog, so there were lots of girly princess things including a castle for the kids to go into and there were also lots of frog things as well. Cassie made the blow toys that Callista was playing with in the first picture and then Christin put together the "pin the lips on the frog game" Callista took it literally...
Ashley dressed up for the party too!
Awma got this dress for Ashley while she was in Mexico last year. It was a pretty cute dress. I say was because it was a little tight, not sure she will get to wear it again! :)
Daddy came to the party and he looked very handsome...
Annie made a princess cake for Callista and frog cupcakes for Carver, they turned out very cute!
Ashley had fun coloring and playing with her cousins.
I think Ashley's favorite part was her candy necklace. Gigi gave it to her and she stood in one place for a good 10 minutes chewing on it. Not sure that she ate more than a few pieces, but she thought it was great!
By the end of the party, you could tell Callista was getting tired. She went from a princess to, bridezilla? :)
Princess Callista Jane and Sir Carver Levi celebrated birthdays in January. Callista turned 3 and Carver turned 1! Chase and Annie put together a ROYAL party celebrated their two littles. It was very creative and very fun! The invitation suggested that Royal attire was preferred, so the girls took that seriously and we got all dressed up! Here is the sweet birthday princess (and her frog)...
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| Annie, Cassie, Christin, Celeste, Traci, Princess Callista, and Sir Carver |
The theme of the party was princess and the frog, so there were lots of girly princess things including a castle for the kids to go into and there were also lots of frog things as well. Cassie made the blow toys that Callista was playing with in the first picture and then Christin put together the "pin the lips on the frog game" Callista took it literally...
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| if only we would have had some red lipstick for her! |
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| that's better! |
Daddy came to the party and he looked very handsome...
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| I can see a lot of resemblance in this picture! |
Annie made a princess cake for Callista and frog cupcakes for Carver, they turned out very cute!
Ashley had fun coloring and playing with her cousins.
Happy Birthday Callista and Carver!
to catch you up...Ashley is 14 months old!
1.20.12
My Ashley girl is so big! It is crazy to me how much you are understanding what we say to you!
I told you to throw something in the trash the other day and you walked right over and threw it away! I was quite surprised. In the mornings I ask if you want a diaper change and twice you have gone straight over to the changing table and laid down for the diaper change! You respond in excitement when I ask if you want to go play in the basement. There is a bird in the basement and you always like to go down and check on him. In the end table downstairs there are some DVD cases in the two drawers and every.single.time we are down there you always open the drawers and play with the cases or add things to the drawers. You like to sign "milk," "more," "please." You sometimes can sign "thank you." You will blow kisses at people, you don't really "blow" the kiss though, you just kiss your hand. You wave bye bye all the time when we leave or someone else does.
At bed time when you are nursing you like to take a break and talk about "da da" and play peek-a-boo. It makes mommy laugh when you do that and then you laugh too. You are still waking up at least twice sometimes three times a night. I think it is getting a little better though. I can tell your crying is not so desperate for someone to come in, but just more of whining, just letting us know you are awake.
Your favorite foods right now are bread, grapes, spaghetti (or pasta), oranges, yogurt, and your absolute favorite is CHEESE. For snacks you love goldfish and cheez-it crackers. You are starting to like chicken more than you used to.
You are still in 12 month clothes, but some of those shirts are becoming belly shirts, so we are starting to move into 18 month tops, the pants are a bit long still for 18 month. Your hair is still growing, we have finally been able to put your hair in a pony tail or in pig tails and it.is.adorable!
You know where your belly button is (you have known this one for a couple of months I think) and where your hair is. If we ask where your eyes or nose or mouth is, you usually point to your hair/head. You can "meow" like a kitty cat. And you can "moo" like a cow. The meow is not really recognizable out of context and the cow sounds like "mmmmm." You can pick out a cow from the magnets on the fridge too.
You love bath time, Gigi gave you a tea set for Christmas and that has been a fun new toy to play with it. It seems like from that you have also realized what a cup is and when you have one, you always pretend to drink out of it.
You love to read books and when you pick one out, you bring it over to me and then hold your hands up so you can sit in my lap and we can read it together. I love that!
You love to dance! Anytime the music comes on, you immediately wave your arms or move your legs and dance! You have quite the moves too. You also like the ringtone on mommy's phone. When we get a phone call you like to start dancing to that. You also have an elephant toy in the basement that plays music when you push a button and you typically turn that on at least once while we play downstairs.
I love you Ashley girl, I am so thankful to have you in my life and to watch you grow and learn new things everyday.
My Ashley girl is so big! It is crazy to me how much you are understanding what we say to you!
I told you to throw something in the trash the other day and you walked right over and threw it away! I was quite surprised. In the mornings I ask if you want a diaper change and twice you have gone straight over to the changing table and laid down for the diaper change! You respond in excitement when I ask if you want to go play in the basement. There is a bird in the basement and you always like to go down and check on him. In the end table downstairs there are some DVD cases in the two drawers and every.single.time we are down there you always open the drawers and play with the cases or add things to the drawers. You like to sign "milk," "more," "please." You sometimes can sign "thank you." You will blow kisses at people, you don't really "blow" the kiss though, you just kiss your hand. You wave bye bye all the time when we leave or someone else does.
At bed time when you are nursing you like to take a break and talk about "da da" and play peek-a-boo. It makes mommy laugh when you do that and then you laugh too. You are still waking up at least twice sometimes three times a night. I think it is getting a little better though. I can tell your crying is not so desperate for someone to come in, but just more of whining, just letting us know you are awake.
Your favorite foods right now are bread, grapes, spaghetti (or pasta), oranges, yogurt, and your absolute favorite is CHEESE. For snacks you love goldfish and cheez-it crackers. You are starting to like chicken more than you used to.
You are still in 12 month clothes, but some of those shirts are becoming belly shirts, so we are starting to move into 18 month tops, the pants are a bit long still for 18 month. Your hair is still growing, we have finally been able to put your hair in a pony tail or in pig tails and it.is.adorable!
You know where your belly button is (you have known this one for a couple of months I think) and where your hair is. If we ask where your eyes or nose or mouth is, you usually point to your hair/head. You can "meow" like a kitty cat. And you can "moo" like a cow. The meow is not really recognizable out of context and the cow sounds like "mmmmm." You can pick out a cow from the magnets on the fridge too.
You love bath time, Gigi gave you a tea set for Christmas and that has been a fun new toy to play with it. It seems like from that you have also realized what a cup is and when you have one, you always pretend to drink out of it.
You love to read books and when you pick one out, you bring it over to me and then hold your hands up so you can sit in my lap and we can read it together. I love that!
You love to dance! Anytime the music comes on, you immediately wave your arms or move your legs and dance! You have quite the moves too. You also like the ringtone on mommy's phone. When we get a phone call you like to start dancing to that. You also have an elephant toy in the basement that plays music when you push a button and you typically turn that on at least once while we play downstairs.
I love you Ashley girl, I am so thankful to have you in my life and to watch you grow and learn new things everyday.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
to catch you up...First Word and hiding places!
1.15.12
One thing that we were hoping would change after surgery was Ashley's babbling and talking. She really didn't seem to make an effort to talk to us. I did notice a few times after surgery that it seemed she was hearing something new. One time in the high chair she was looking all around for something, and I think she was hearing the dishwasher running through a cycle. This isn't a very loud noise, so it probably is not something she ever noticed before. We could tell also that she could hear different noises and people talking in other rooms of the house. She occasionally could hear those things before, but not as consistently as she does now. Even just 2 weeks after surgery we could tell a difference. She even said her first word!!!
Ashley and I were playing in the basement waiting for daddy to come home so we could go to dinner. I had been talking about daddy and where he was and telling her he would be home soon. She loves playing with cell phones too, so we had also been "calling" daddy on her cell phone. She had her phone in her hand and she looked up at me, pointed at the stairs and said "da da." I was so shocked! It was a cute thing, because she knew he would come down the stairs when he got home! I wasn't positive at first if we could say it was her first word, but it is obvious now, when the garage door opens, she says "da da" and as soon as she sees him, she says "da da." I love it...and so does daddy!
After we put the Christmas tree away and put the living room back together, Ashley figured out a fun little spot she likes to sit and hide.
You might ask what is in her hands? Her favorite toy right now...my eyeshadow application brushes. I bought a bag that had about 20 in them. I think I used 2 of them, she picks them up and carries them all over the house. She LOVES to have something in her hand all the time and it's perfect when it is something little. :)
One thing that we were hoping would change after surgery was Ashley's babbling and talking. She really didn't seem to make an effort to talk to us. I did notice a few times after surgery that it seemed she was hearing something new. One time in the high chair she was looking all around for something, and I think she was hearing the dishwasher running through a cycle. This isn't a very loud noise, so it probably is not something she ever noticed before. We could tell also that she could hear different noises and people talking in other rooms of the house. She occasionally could hear those things before, but not as consistently as she does now. Even just 2 weeks after surgery we could tell a difference. She even said her first word!!!
Ashley and I were playing in the basement waiting for daddy to come home so we could go to dinner. I had been talking about daddy and where he was and telling her he would be home soon. She loves playing with cell phones too, so we had also been "calling" daddy on her cell phone. She had her phone in her hand and she looked up at me, pointed at the stairs and said "da da." I was so shocked! It was a cute thing, because she knew he would come down the stairs when he got home! I wasn't positive at first if we could say it was her first word, but it is obvious now, when the garage door opens, she says "da da" and as soon as she sees him, she says "da da." I love it...and so does daddy!
After we put the Christmas tree away and put the living room back together, Ashley figured out a fun little spot she likes to sit and hide.
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| Papa Rog made this clock for us, it has the perfect little "shelf" for Ashley to sit on! |
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| She loves this spot! |
to catch you up...Ashley's recovery from surgery!
Ashley did okay the couple days following surgery. She came down with a cold, so she had a terribly runny nose. She didn't seem to be all that uncomfortable or in too much pain. I did notice she didn't have much of an appetite and wouldn't eat much of anything when in the high chair. She did want to nurse all.the.time. Which was good, made me feel like I was making her feel better. The doctor said it was normal to see some drainage from her ears, we really didn't see any though. She had some dried blood. I ended up staying home with Ashley on Monday after surgery, just to give her an extra day with mom. Tuesday and Wednesday she went to Maria's and did okay, but she sure was ready to nurse by the time I came and picked her up!
Thursday and Friday was spent with Awma and Gigi and they took good care of her too. I remember on Sunday night (1 week after surgery) she could not seem to get to sleep. She would wake up every 20 minutes or so crying. I would nurse her and she finally would go back to sleep. She did this until about 10:45. I thought that was weird. Another thing that changed for her from the surgery was her sleep pattern. She still doesn't sleep through the night, but she would go about 4 hours between waking up, the week (actually longer than that) following the surgery she was up every 2 hours to nurse. I tell you, she likes her time with mama. And I like it too. That was very tiring though, it's been a long time since we had to do 2 hour intervals!
Monday morning I noticed a lot of discharge in Ashley's ear, I thought this was weird because she didn't have any the prior week. I assumed though it was normal and from the surgery. She didn't have a very good day on Monday at Maria's. On Tuesday morning, the same thing happened and there was even more drainage! Then I realized that there must be something wrong. I also remembered how fussy she was Sunday night and decided she could have an ear infection again! On Wednesday we were able to get back in to see Dr. Regher. We were right, ANOTHER ear infection, and he also thought she had an airway edema. Which I took as just meaning that her airways had some swelling from the surgery. Her breathing had been a lot noisier than she was before the surgery. So, he gave us another round of antibiotics, a round of steroids, and ear drops! The poor girl! I felt so badly for her, but she is quite the trooper! She did really well through all of this and once that week was over, she seemed to be back to her normal self again, sleeping pattern included! So glad all of that is behind us!
Thursday and Friday was spent with Awma and Gigi and they took good care of her too. I remember on Sunday night (1 week after surgery) she could not seem to get to sleep. She would wake up every 20 minutes or so crying. I would nurse her and she finally would go back to sleep. She did this until about 10:45. I thought that was weird. Another thing that changed for her from the surgery was her sleep pattern. She still doesn't sleep through the night, but she would go about 4 hours between waking up, the week (actually longer than that) following the surgery she was up every 2 hours to nurse. I tell you, she likes her time with mama. And I like it too. That was very tiring though, it's been a long time since we had to do 2 hour intervals!
Monday morning I noticed a lot of discharge in Ashley's ear, I thought this was weird because she didn't have any the prior week. I assumed though it was normal and from the surgery. She didn't have a very good day on Monday at Maria's. On Tuesday morning, the same thing happened and there was even more drainage! Then I realized that there must be something wrong. I also remembered how fussy she was Sunday night and decided she could have an ear infection again! On Wednesday we were able to get back in to see Dr. Regher. We were right, ANOTHER ear infection, and he also thought she had an airway edema. Which I took as just meaning that her airways had some swelling from the surgery. Her breathing had been a lot noisier than she was before the surgery. So, he gave us another round of antibiotics, a round of steroids, and ear drops! The poor girl! I felt so badly for her, but she is quite the trooper! She did really well through all of this and once that week was over, she seemed to be back to her normal self again, sleeping pattern included! So glad all of that is behind us!
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