Little Ash

Ashlyn turned 18 months old! Yep, she is now officially NURSERY AGE! I'm pretty sure she was even more excited to start nursery than we were for her to start it! She l.o.v.e.s it, big time. When I drop her off she runs in right to the toys without even looking back. And apparently she is quite the social butterfly while she's in there too... she loves to "talk" to the nursery leaders and give them hugs, and makes sure to say her special "hi" with a wave to all the kids. 

Aaaand also apparently she holds her own in there pretty well too. Meaning she doesn't get pushed around by the bigger kids! In fact, she's the one mowing them over and stealing their toys! argh! But, that is what nursery is for, right? To teach her how to play with other kids? I hope so!

 She is just as happy-go-lucky as ever, loves to run (and I mean RUN) all around the house, morning to night. She doesn't seem to like to take the time to walk anywhere, if she has the choice. One of her favorite things is to hop into the laundry basket as I'm getting out all the warm clothes from the dryer and snuggle in them. Not a bad idea, I wish I could do that!

 We finally got a bike trailer and have had some fun family rides. She's not huge on sitting in the trailer for too long...unfortunately. That's why she has her special "blanket!" We ended up having a great tradition of riding bikes to the park and getting snowcones while she played. I am already looking forward to that for next summer again!

 Still LOVES stories. 

 Oh yes. This horse. She got it for her birthday....6 months ago.... and never had any interest in it until the last few weeks. Now, she rides it EVERYWHERE! It is so, so dang cute. She knows how to push the button that makes it play music and she'll sit there bopping to the songs, then ride away into the sunset. It has made many trips throughout the entire house. She even prefers it to a chair when she's watching TV!

 And then there's her and Lucy. The fun never stops! Maybe I won't have an insanely difficult adjustment to having 2 kids when the time comes...because there are times it feels like I already do?!?! Just joking I know it's not the same but really, sometimes they both give me trouble! Anyway, Ashlyn LOVES Lucy! I think her favorite part of the day is when Lucy comes bounding into her bedroom with me in the morning to say hello! She tries to call her--she says "shushy!" and then pats her leg, like I do when I call Lucy! So freakin cute. And she also has learned really well how to point to Lucy and say "NO!" hmmm, where did she get that??

One thing that Ashlyn is still having trouble catching onto is not feeding her food to Lucy while she's eating a meal! And it's like, time after time, the same thing! She will dangle a piece of food down where Lucy can reach it and--shockingly--Lucy will snag it from her! Duh! Then she seems so shocked and surprised that she bursts into tears and is all upset. This has happened SO many times. I am hoping one of these days she will remember *before* she dangles the food what will happen! Fun times. They like to play with each other though and it is so cute.

She has also learned the fine art of LEG CLINGING. I get this a lot these days. I've never been one to pick her up every time she wants me to and I'm still not... but boy she sure tries a lot more.

 It is so fun to see her figuring out new things--all the time! Like the other day I caught her actually putting shapes into the shape sorter! Big deal around here! She is also saying new words all the time and it's so cute. She'll say it and then look at me to validate that it was right! I love it. She just started saying "door" so wherever we are she likes to go close the door and say DOOR! And same with STAR and CAR... those are current favorites. She can also do about half of the actions of "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" an "The Eensy Weensy Spider" which just about kill me.

 AND she is a shoe diva. ALREADY! I know. She LOVES her shoes. Any shoes. Whether it be the ones she's wearing or, as the picture above shows, just any that she pulls out of her shoe drawer. Usually in the space of an hour or two she will bring out 4-5 different shoes to me and wants me to put them on her. She especially loves the shoes that are shiny or glittery. I don't know if this is my doing by buying her such dang cute shoes or what.... ;)

 "Helping" with the sweeping and mopping!

 Training her early! Ha!

 This is something we find quite often.

 We went to Idaho Falls for a little visit last weekend and she BASKED in the attention of her grandparents and aunts and uncle! And they were very quick to give her all the attention she could possibly want! 

 She really likes to find sticks on the ground and then carry them EVERYWHERE..this is much preferred to actually playing at the park, as you can see by her expression below:

 I wish I got a better picture of this. It was absolutely hilarious. Leave it to Uncle Cory to think of putting her in the spinning chair and wheel her around. She was like, half freaked-out and half-loving it, but just sitting there all regal-like in the big chair looked so, so funny.

 AW! Love from Grandpa and Grandma. Picture below shows a little of that spunk that she has a LOT OF! Love her to pieces! 

BOO!