Little Ashlyn

Ashlyn is not so little anymore! She is growing up so much I feel more and more like she's a little kid, and not my baby anymore! It's bittersweet for sure. I love, love the baby days (not to mention of course super baby-hungry here!), but it's also so fun to see all the new things she is constantly doing and learning!

SO, I will put some thoughts about her first, then be warned there is a big load of pictures! I hate when I get behind in blogging. This is what happens!!

THINGS ASHLYN DOES.....

Gives lots of hugs! She's talking so much, and she will wrap her arms around my legs and say "I LOVE you!" over and over. I die every time. :)

She LOVES smarties. They are my bribe of choice. She will do anything for some "Sammies" as she calls them.

Still constantly puts on Collin's and my shoes and trucks around the house in them like, no big deal. Sometimes this is where the smarties come in, when we have to leave the house and I need her to take those off and put on her own shoes.

She is back to insisting on picking out her own outfits each morning. The whole "Love and Logic" choices thing works well for me--so she doesn't usually end up in something completely crazy looking. We'll see how long she keeps falling for that!

She finally is starting to like movies. Like, real movies! She is constantly, constantly requesting to watch The Lion King. I'm guessing that's gonna be one of the ones she knows all the songs to. Kind of like me and The Little Mermaid! ha ha. She also really loves finding Nemo. I know this because it's the other movie she's constantly begging to watch!

Collin has brought home a few kids' books that are in Spanish, like Cat in the Hat and others. Now Ashlyn requests for all her books to be read "in Panish." It's cute. I think Collin's pretty proud! I always just say, "Mommy doesn't know Spanish. Can we read it in English?" and she says, "YEAH!" so we're good.

She sings lots of songs: Alphabet (sort of), Twinkle Twinkle, Eensy Weensy Spider, I am a Child of God..... and it is so, so stinkin' adorable.

She can recognize almost all the letters of the alphabet, and now she is constantly pointing them out to me. (She gets W and M mixed up. Who wouldn't??) We were at a friend's house the other night and she had a wreath that said "BSU" on it, and while we were standing by it Ashlyn just shouted out, "BSU!" Which sounded so funny since it seemed like she was reading although she was just telling us the letters. Awesome!

She can count from 1-20 in English, and 1-10 in Spanish. But NEVER on demand!

She still LOVES nursery! Goes running right in with a big smile every time! As for how she acts in there, I can't say I know. I hope she's nice.

She went through a little phase of always making sure all her stuffed animals and babies had diapers on them. It was so funny. She can't actually put them on so I would just keep finding little animals wrapped in diapers everywhere.

She loves being independent and getting her own little cup of milk or water out of the fridge. We keep it on a shelf where she can reach and I think she feels like pretty big stuff doing that.

She loves to "cook" with me. It's basically a big huge pain for me. There, I said it. It like doubles the cooking time, the mess, and the stress! But she loves it, and it's fun to spend time together. So we do it sometimes.

She has some little chores! These aren't done by her 100% of the time but more often than not she does them. Here is her little chore list: Put her dirty clothes in the hamper, Feed Lucy dinner (with help), Put her dishes in the sink after a meal, and..... that is about it. We are working on getting her to help with cleaning up the toys but oh my heck, I don't see how that is ever going to happen. 

Speaking of cleaning up toys, she has become an EXCELLENT dawdler. Whether it's bedtime, time to get into the car, time to get out of the car, time to go outside, time to come inside, or pretty much anything that requires some sort of transition, she all of a sudden becomes SO interested in the first little toys she comes across..or in taking off her shoes.... or putting on her shoes.... or she all of a sudden is dying for a drink of milk.... and she has even thrown out random crap such as "I want a peach!" to which I'm like, "say what now? I'm literally putting you in your bed. Too bad." It's amusing. Also frustrating! But alas, she's 2.

She now has "time out" with her nose in the corner. (see a picture below) She will stay there herself for the 2 minutes until we say it's ok to be done, then we have a hug and she says sorry to whoever she hurt. (which is 99% of the reason 99% of the time she goes to time out. It's almost always hitting either Mommy or Daddy, and almost always at a time we're working on transitioning, like I mentioned above! It's a work in progress!)

And that is some stuff about our cute girl in a nutshell. Sort of. If you really read all that you must be in my family because I am pretty sure no one else would take the time! ha ha. Love you all, thanks for reading. :)

PICS OF OUR ASHLYN:

These 2... love it! Watching out the window for Daddy to come home.

I love this face in the window!

Ok..... obviously not Ashlyn....but I cracked up at this picture.

I'm so glad Collin captured this. We do it a lot!

Well crap. One library book totally shredded, just what I wanted to find when I came in to get her up from her nap. This was the last time she was allowed a book in bed at nap time!

A decent pic of the yarn extensions I put in

Grandpa has been in town a lot lately, we have loved seeing him more!

Walking the dog..... at the slowest snail's pace any time Ashlyn is involved! ha ha.

We renewed our Zoo pass for another year, and have enjoyed the diversion to get out of the house! She was a little nervous about getting on this thing.

Every once in a while I make an attempt at getting her to sleep with different do-rags.... yeah this one lasted like 2 minutes, as usual.

Football game at Centennial! She will sit and "watch" with us, so funny.

Reading books in the car, what she does best.

Even fairies have to go to time out sometimes.

Partying at the mall playground with buddies Ellie, Brynlie, and Anberlin

We watched Ashlyn's buddy Addison for a couple of days while her mommy had a baby, and these 2 had a BLAST together. 

Ok, sorry, but again had to throw this gem in. My dog is so awesome.

Selfie

Feeding the ducks at Demeyer park..... more like chasing them!

More fun times with Addison. See what I mean? SO cute together.

Getting the big swing from Collin and Cory!

Collin took her to a Hawks (baseball) game one night because he had free passes.... they stayed like 25 minutes but the pictures are worth it!

RUNNING! (by the way, Collin looks SO cool in this one! ha ha ha!)

I love this--my peeps! All posing for yet another selfie.

The giraffe costume that wasn't for Halloween this year. She's too tall for the giraffe costume. Too bad because she really liked wearing it around! But I felt like I was in pain every time I looked at what a giant wedgie it gave her!

One of our hairstyles

And another of our hairstyles....yarn extensions! It was a great learning experience for me (like all the new styles I try on her) and they lasted about 3 weeks. I now know things to do to make them last longer next time. It was fun to have "long" hair to do different things with.....and also clear to me why toddlers do not typically have "long" hair! (dipping in the toilet, anyone?)

Ashlyn with buddies Kyra and Miles at a dinner party. Don't be fooled, they sat here for like 30 seconds and then spent there rest of dinner literally eating under our feet at the big table!

I LOVE this! Although she looks like such a big kid. This girl is constantly in the books. 

There's the whole bed drama. It's over now, but worth blogging about, at least for my family to read! Anyway, that will have to wait for another day.