Sunday, March 22, 2015

Happy Birthday Ashley!

5 things about Ashley:

1. She is a do-er. I have been so impressed as I have watched her over the last few years. Since I was always a bit timid and hesitant to try anything new and different, especially as a young teenager, I notice and am in awe of the people I see who take life by the horns and try everything they can. She seems to be one of those people. She tries different sports, she gives a talk without being totally freaked out, rides roller-coasters, dresses up crazy for spirit week or themed dances/activites whether anyone else does or not and she has fun doing it, rides a motorcycle, learns new music, performs in church and talent shows, and can tube behind a boat with the best of them just to name a few. The most impressive part of this characteristic to me is that I actually believe it is more her nature to be a little bit timid, but she is determined to push herself. So she gets to experience so many great and fun things that life has to offer.

2. The artistic gene seems to have skipped most of the rest of us and piled up in Ashley. Since she was a little girl she has loved drawing and making crafts. She is getting really good at drawing and she is figuring it out almost completely on her own.

3. She is great with kids. Darcy first met Ashley when she was a few months old, and she has been completely hooked ever since. Darcy spent this whole last week telling everyone she could that Ashley's birthday was this weekend, whether they knew who Ashley was or not. Darcy loves to go to Grandma's house and her first concern is whether Ashley will be there or not. I love that Darcy will have Ashley to look up to forever. Darcy isn't the only one who gets the good Ashley treatment though. Ashley plays with all of our kids and all of their cousins. She builds them forts, does crafts with them, jumps on the trampoline, gets them snacks, plays hide-and-seek, comforts them when they're sad, watches movies, has races, pushes them on the swing, reads them books, etc. etc. etc. It is so great for the moms of those kids (that includes me) to have her around, because we know they are in good hands.

4. Ashley is a beautiful girl, and only getting more beautiful all the time, but that isn't her main concern. She likes to dress up crazy and wear funny outfits. She is the queen of funny faces and crazy poses, and she makes those Billy-Bob teeth look good! :)

5. She is really musically talented. She took piano lessons for a few years and I was always amazed at how quickly she progressed and how good she got. She stopped taking piano lessons to be in the school band and play the flute. She has gotten really good at that now too. When she was in middle school they bumped her up to play with the high school band. A few months ago we went to watch her in her school's play. She was Rapunzel and had a solo. I hadn't even heard her sing very much at that point and was amazed when she first started singing. She has a beautiful voice and she did a great job!

You are awesome Ashley! You were the best surprise our family could have ever gotten!! Happy birthday!

Friday, March 13, 2015

11 Months

Parks is 11 months old! He has almost survived a whole year in this wild family. We are loving the stage he is in. He is learning all sorts of new tricks and he has a pretty good fan club around here to cheer him on and to be excited about all of his accomplishments.

Some things we want to remember about Parks at 11 months:

- 20.4 lbs. 20% percentile. I was thinking this number seemed familiar so I just looked back at his ten month post and I guess he is the exact same as he was last month. Part of me is surprised about that since it feels like I'm constantly feeding him, but the other part of me isn't surprised since he spends every waking moment on the move. He is doing everything he can to keep up with Darcy and Ezra.

- He LOVES to be outside. I have started opening the back door and just letting him go. He goes out with Darcy and Ezra or sometimes just by himself and explores the backyard. His favorite thing seems to be eating the dirt. I'm wondering how long it will take him to realize that stuff isn't very good. Since our trampoline is in the ground he can crawl straight onto it and bounce. He also loves climbing in and out of the raised garden bed.

- He started to clap a few days ago. I also noticed he was driving cars and planes around and making an engine noise. Of course we think he's a genius. (If your kid did these things earlier just don't tell us.) Haha!

- He says "Hi!" We hear him say "mama", "dada", "baba", and "tickle, tickle" but we're pretty sure none of them mean anything to him at this point.

- We noticed he gets really excited about motorcycles. He had his first ride and loved it.

- He walks around the room holding onto things. We have been trying to get him to stand on his own, but after doing it one time he will no longer even put his feet down to try it. He bends his legs up behind him and won't put them down until we give up holding him in the air.

- Thankfully he seems to love the chaos of our little home/family. Sometimes there will be yelling and wild playing and my head starts spinning from the noise and I look over at him and he is looking around and smiling at all the people making the noise thinking it's a party. A lot of times he add a few little screams into the din for good measure.

- He loves baths and I am having to start watching him carefully if bath water is running. He is really working on climbing up into the tub and he has almost made it over a couple times.

- It seems like he wants to be eating all day long, but I am struggling to come up with things to feed him. He only broke his fourth tooth a couple weeks ago. So I'm trying to figure out what to feed a really hungry growing little guy that he won't choke on.