Sept/Oct happenings

Things have been so busy lately, a good busy though!  In the last four weeks we've had both my parents and Dan's parents visit.  We went to the zoo both times.  Dan, Ashlan, and I also went to a "pumpkin patch", where we spent a few hours there and Ashlan had a complete blast.  In fact, she had so much fun that she didn't want to leave, lol.  Then last Saturday our neighborhood community put on a "Halloween Spooktacular" and we met some friends there.  We didn't know what to expect because we had never been but we all had a really great time.  It rained a little before we got there so everything was a little wet, but thankfully it held off after that.  There was trick or treating there, games for the kids, a bounce house, food, and a DJ.  We will definitely be doing that again next year.  Ashlan had a great time dancing with her friend, bouncing in the bounce house, and playing several games.  We enjoyed the music, free food, and good company.  We had went costume shopping a few weeks before and she picked Rapunzel.  I was afraid she wasn't going to wear it because when she tried it on at home, she said it was itchy and wanted it off.  I thought for awhile how I could fix the itchy part but couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't ruin the rest of the material.  I ended up buying some camis, one which was purple, and it was perfect!  You can't see it at all and it made her happy.  She didn't want to take the costume off after that.  :)

This weekend we will be going to Disney and meeting some friends there.  We haven't been since June because we went on other mini-vacas, so we are so anxious, especially because food and wine fest is going on!  And if you missed the big announcement, I'm about 17 weeks pregnant!  Unfortunately, I won't be able to partake in the wine for food and wine fest, but I am looking forward to the food.  There's always next year.  :)  

Ashlan has been loving her gymnastics class.  Her and the other little girl in it have become fast friends and enjoy each other's company.  The other little girl actually asked me if she could come over to play, so of course her mother and I said we'd do a play date.  Last class, their teacher gave them a few minutes of free time at the end and they ended up holding hands and jumping on the trampoline.  So cute!

So Ashlan has been completely binky free for about two weeks now!  The first night wasn't too bad, the three nights after that were not good, but after that she has been a champ.  I am so glad to finally have her rid of that, even if she was only using it while she slept.  I wanted to do it before she was three anyway, and since the holidays were right around then, and we have family visiting after and we're going on vaca before, we figured it'd be best to do it now.  She has really been a champ.  We took her to Target and bought her a toy that she picked out for giving it up, so at least we felt better about taking it away, lol.  It was kind of unplanned, otherwise we probably would have had the "binky fairy" leave her the gift.  Oh well, this worked just fine for us.  

So, oh boy, this is what happens when I only get around to one blog a month...enjoy all the pics!  :)

Painting with Nana.

My little dancer.

She recently got a few new outfits for gymnastics and she loves them.  She calls this one her ballerina outfit.  :)

Grandpa and Ashlan.

They look like they're having a serious talk here, lol.

Ashlan had a lot of fun with him!

Aunt Katie and Ashlan.

By the way, these fools were crazy- the water was super cold!  Grammy and I did not go in, lol.

This was at 14 weeks, wow!  

Me and my girl.  <3

So I'm the pregnant one and he gets to take a nap?  ;)

Feeding the giraffes with Aunt Katie.  Ashlan touched his tongue, eww!

Fun at the pumpkin patch.

Ashlan loved this "ride".  You can see her smile from behind!

Feeding the goats with Daddy.

I was afraid the goats would try to charge her since they did that with each other but they were nice to the ones that had food, lol.

Hay ride- super muddy.

So happy in her dress.  :)

About to go to the Oakleaf Spooktacular.

Putting game, where she didn't do half bad.

Daddy came after work, which is why he was dressed so nice.

Ashlan and her friend, Jocelyn, "dancing" to the DJ.

Little ballerina.

Silly girl.  Found a bunch of old baby hats and ribbons of hers and wanted to play with them.

Just life, lol

Must have been a busy summer seeing I’ve hardly done any blog entries!  Caesar hasn’t had a great summer, though he is doing much better now.  He had some seizure activity and then some major heart problems, but is now acting like himself.  It was a rough few weeks there.  We had to go see a specialist for him (read $$$), who put him on some new meds and took him off some old ones.  It’s amazing what medicine can do.  Unfortunately, the vet did tell us that with a heart Caesar’s size (the size of a cocker spaniel’s and Caesar’s a 9 lb Chihuahua), that he probably won’t last a year, but you know what- he has had a great life and he is not giving up, let me tell you.  Every freaking time we think this doggie is a goner, he comes back with a vengeance!  Lol.  He might be 11 years old, but considering all these problems started when he was 5, he lasted 6 years longer than I thought he would!  He is one tough puppy.

So since this is still the Ashlan Show (lol)… we were trying to get Ashlan into dance or gymnastics or something and for dance, you had to be three.  Considering she was a few months shy, no one would let her do that until she turned three!  So, I contacted the gymnastics place.  We started in the parent/tot class but that only lasted one time and now she is in the 3 year old class.  She loves loves loves it!  She was so unhappy to leave the gym after the first class that she threw a fit!  The only way we got her to calm down is to say we’re coming back, lol.  She did really well her first class in the 3 year olds though.  And no fit this time, probably because I had told her we’ll come back again, haha.  She is with one other girl, who is 3 ½, and is obviously much better than Ashlan because she’s been doing it since she’s been three.  However, Ashlan didn’t do so bad next to her!  It is obvious she needs to work on perfecting things, but she is grasping how to do all the moves.  She also listened very well to the teacher.  Not that I was too surprised, because she listens pretty well to me at home, but I was mostly worried about that!  Of course, she was still a toddler, and there were a few times that she didn’t, but all in all, I’m very pleased with how she behaved and how well she did.  She is definitely so happy to be there and that’s all she talks about now.  We’ll see how this class goes and if she’s really adamant about it, maybe we’ll do it two times a week.  We may do dance once she turns three, but she loves this so much, might as well just go twice.

Today we happened to be watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  In this episode, there were two of the chipmunks.  (A little background: Way back in February or March when we went to Animal Kingdom, we happened to see two of the chipmunks in costume, waiting around to take pictures with people.  They were with Donald Duck, and although we wanted to take a picture mainly with Donald, we took one with the chipmunks as well.  Fast forward to today…)  I mentioned to Ashlan, “We saw those chipmunks in person”.  I was just thinking she’d say “yeah” and that’s it, but instead she said, “Yes, at Animal Kingdom.”  I couldn’t believe she remembered where we saw them so I just was a little shocked and mumbled an “Uh huh”, and then she says, “It was by the Simba show”.  OMG, she also remembered we saw the chipmunks just outside of The Lion King show, which was absolutely correct.  How many 2 year olds know direction?  We hadn’t even gone to The Lion King show at that point (saw it in maybe April or May) so she put two and two together that the place where the show is, is next to where we saw the chipmunks- during two different periods of time.  I swear… her memory is awesome.  I hope she never loses it because I was not blessed with a memory like that, especially at her age!  Another story about her memory: We have the book Madeline.  I’ve only read it to her a handful of times.  Yesterday evening, I told her she had to read me a story.  I just wanted to see what she came up with considering all the pages have pictures on them.  She could tell me almost word for word the first 8-10 pages of the book.  Now, I only read it to her about 3-4 times, so hardly enough for her to memorize.  She wanted me to read the rest after that, but I am still so impressed with what she did remember. 

I have started to give her some chores around the house and she is doing great with those.  My favorite is that she sorts all the silverware (minus knives) when we empty the dishwasher and unloads and stacks all the Tupperware and puts them on the counter for me.  I have to put it away, obviously, and all the breakable items and some other items, but you know what, that’s awesome to me.  She gets stickers or a few morsels of milk chocolate and we’re both happy with that.  A win-win, lol!  She also helps me with laundry.  I will pour detergent into the washer and she’ll put the clothes in there, and I’ll take clothes out of the washer and put them on the door of the dryer and she’ll push them in there.  She’s been doing that for as long as I can remember though, but still does it now.  She is also very good about cleaning up her toys.  Thanks to her slightly OCD mom, they all go in a certain place (well, sort of, lol), and she has taken after me in that every toy has a special place to go.  She also helps me bake.  I will measure out all the ingredients and she will pour them into the bowl.  She loves to help me bake, and eat what we made, lol.  She has always been a big helper.  Hope that doesn’t change!

So, even though Ashlan will be 3.75 next September (September 1 is the cut off for preschool), we have decided to put her in a pre-prekindergarten, lol.  I am currently “researching” schools in the area and seeing what would best fit her.  I think we have decided that once she hits preschool (4 years old), that she will be at the Catholic school closest to us, to the church we belong to as well.  But they do not have the option of a 3 year old program and she’ll be ready then.  She is ready now, lol.  I just want something two or three days a week, only a half day.  It’s already going to be an adjustment (for me!) because I will miss her so much but she is so independent and I know she’ll thrive.  I just wish it wasn’t so dang expensive!  I know it will be worth it though.  I went to Catholic schools almost my whole life and can’t imagine it any other way for her. 

Enough blabbing, onto the pics!

She wanted me to take a picture of her.

Silly goose.

First gymnastics class.

Chores.  :)  Ignore her being pantless, lol.