Thankful

As we do every year, we have so much to be thankful for!  We spent this Thanksgiving with 2/3's of our family.  We went to Emory Tuesday night after work and stayed through Thanksgiving Day.  Ashlyn and I got to have lunch with Mimi on Wednesday (she had to work).  Back to work on Friday and then Saturday we loaded up again and went to Arlington for the weekend.  Gpa treated us to the Texas Tech vs. Baylor football game at Cowboy's Stadium Saturday evening.  Gma stayed home and babysat.  I'm not sure who had more fun!  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any family in Abilene, but we plan on spending Christmas with them.  It is tough to make it east to west and try to work a little in between.  We are very lucky that all of our family has always been very flexible and understanding with the holidays!  We didn't take too many pictures throughout the week, but here are a few!  Happy Thanksgiving.  We love you all!

Mimi & PaJ

Aunt T & Uncle Big Bert 

Group kisses!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enough of the photo shoot!
I am sure I was trying to put a bow in her hair!

Checking out the tree at Gma & Gpa's house

Auntie Sarah & Ashlyn

Daddy's little helper

Disclaimer

I have been trying to catch up on my blogging.  Between a bogged down lap top, an unreliable internet connection and chasing around an 18 month old, I have gotten really behind.  Because I print our blog as a memento for Ashlyn, I try and keep everything in chronological order and around the correct date.  So as I have been catching up, I have had to postdate a lot of blogs!  So, if you are interested in knowing what has been going on over the past month, scroll back to older posts!  Now that I am almost caught up, I will try to stay on top of it!  Let's see how long that lasts :)

World Prematurity Awareness Day

Ashlyn surprised by making her entrance to this world a little over 6 weeks early (on Mother's Day).  She weighed in at 4 lbs 11 ounces and was 18 3/4 inches long!  She spent 23 days in the NICU!  Hug a preemie today! 

Ashlyn Mae 1 day old

18 months later!

Here is a link to the video I put together of Ashlyn's 1st 23 days of life!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sqPKVufLV4

Chance turns 38

We headed west to celebrate Chance's birthday in Abilene this year.  He was in good company as Jules and Joseph also had recent birthdays!  Happy Birthday Chance, Jules & Joseph!  Thanks for a wonderful weekend!

I don't need more hours in the day...

just more energy in my hours!  I have been a terrible blogger!  I promise to catch up this weekend and next week.  Lots of stuff to post.  But for now, must pack for Abilene!

18 months old

A year and a half.  Wow...seriously, where does the time go?  What a difference a few months makes when you are only 18 months old.  The growth and development we have seen in Ashlyn over the past couple of months and her personality is amazing.  She is like a little girl now.  Not so much like a baby.

Here is an update from our check-up:

Stats:

Height 31.5 inches (50th percentile)

Weight 21 lbs 6 ounces (20th percentile)

Head circumference 44.5 cm (50th percentile)

Her growth curve looks great!  She got 2 shots and we found out she had an ear infection.  Other than that, it was all good news!  I absolutely love Dr. Yaeger.  He is so patient and spends so much time with us.  He thinks she is doing perfectly.  He isn't quite ready to put tubes so we will watch her through the winter and see how she does.  He thinks she is getting to the age where they start growing out of ear infections and hers have been fewer and father between. 

Ashlyn's Daily Routine at 18 months:

She wakes up between 7:30 and 8.  Chance gets her up, feeds her and gets her dressed for school.  They load up and she usually get to school right around snack time.  After snack time they play, do arts and crafts, go outside, and have their "lesson".  Then it is lunch time. They all sit around a tiny table in tiny chairs and eat their lunch and drink their milk out of a dixie cup!  No sippy cups at the table!  After lunch, somehow the stars align and those teachers get all 10 kids to lay down on the cots and nap mats and take a nap.  Nap time is from 12-2, but I think Ashlyn is usually one of the first ones awake.  She just lays there until it is time to get up or Ms. Shandra will read books to her.  After nap time it is time for another snack! Then it is play time, bye bye buggy time, story and music time.  I pick her up at 4:30 and we start making our way home. We usually have a few errands to do on our way home.  Dinner is around 5:30-6:00.  Then we sneak in a little play time before we start our bedtime routine!  Our bedtime routine consists of a bath, books, poems and prayers.  We tuck her into bed between 7 and 7:30 and she is usually asleep before I even make it back out to the kitchen!  

What's new:

Ashlyn is walking and almost running all over the place!  She has gotten quite interested in climbing and has mastered the backwards dismount from a chair or higher surface.  She has 12 teeth and I think she may be working on 2-4 more.  Her hair is getting longer and darker, and it still has a few curls at the bottom.  Her eyes are still blue and she has the most gorgeous long, curled eyelashes.  I really hope those stay!  She wears mostly 18 month clothes and size 4 diapers.  She still has the tiniest feet.  She is starting to wear size 4 which gives us a few more options.  Her vocabulary (in English anyway...I swear she speaks Chinese) is still pretty limited but that is not to say she isn't verbal.  And getting very loud!  She still points and grunts a lot.  It takes a few time, but we can usually narrow it down to what she is wanting.  

Ashlyn loves:

Her dogs!  She is so absolutely crazy about Mazzy and Pip.  The moment we walk in the door she runs over to their crates to let them out.  She will throw the ball to Mazzy for hours at a time.  She throws the ball and then they race to get it.  Mazzy usually wins and Ashlyn waits patiently for Mazzy to drop it and then they go at it again!  She lays all over Mazzy and gives her "love" all of the time.  She would love to do the same with Pip, but Pip isn't quite so snuggly.  Pip usually just relocates...unless Ashlyn has food.  Slides.  Balls.  Other kids (older or younger...especially her cousins).  She still loves her kitchen spent and most often times can be found rearranging the fridge items.  She loves to make noise.  She bangs everything together...the louder the better!  Some of her favorite foods are:  bananas, string cheese, blueberries, applesauce, chicken nuggets, raisin, peas and oatmeal. She also loves any snack that is in a container that she can carry around.  Pushing things around...her stroller, her car, her highchair, her stand and play toys...bascially anything that moves.  She still loves anything electronic and everything becomes a phone.  She is starting to get into playing with babies and stuffed animals.  She will hold them long enough to give them a hug, point our the anatomical features on their face and then it is on to something else!

Ashlyn is not a huge fan of:
Bows...as soon as she sees it she will start crying!  I can usually distract her long enough to slip a bow or headband on a for a picture and then she will rip it off!  She still doesn't really tune into TV.  If we have it on, she will glance at it every now and then, but to sit still long enough to watch something does not happen!  Getting strapped into her car seat or stroller.  And once you take her out of the stroller, forget about getting her back in it!  It is really hard to think of things that she doesn't like.  She is such a laid back, easy going chick!  I hope that sticks through these toddler years!

A few things I don't want to forget about Ashlyn at 18 months:
Her precious giggle when she tastes something she likes.  The way she sleeps with her legs tucked underneath her, her bottom in the air and her tiny feet crossed at the ankles.  The sweet, sleepy look on her face and her bed head when she wakes up first thing in the morning.  The way she snuggles when I bring her to bed with us.  She slips one arm under your neck and the other over and gets as close as possible!  When I walk into her room at school, the way she smiles and runs over and hands me a toy!  The way she says "uh oh"...very drawn out and exaggerated.  The way she moves her eye brows.  It is new and still very deliberate.  Her cute, skinny tongue and the way she sticks it out and licks certain foods.

I love you Ashlyn Mae and am so proud of the sweet, funny, beautiful, loving, smart little girl you are!  These past few months you  have really changed and I have loved being a part of every second!

Our trip to Rockford

We have been trying to plan to trip to the midwest all summer, but with putting our house on the market and selling it so quickly and moving...our summer quickly turned to fall.  We were lucky enough to have enough miles for a free trip so we finally were able to make it to Rockford!  We have lots of family up there that Ashlyn had never met.  So we got up bright and early on Thursday and headed to the airport.  We dropped the dogs off at Camp Bow Wow for their vacation and were on our way!  This was Ashlyn's first flight so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I loaded up on snacks and quiet airplane friendly toys.  We were very lucky on our way up there and had 3 seats!  This gave Ashlyn a little more room to stretch out.  She did awesome!  Here are a couple of pictures from our first leg of the trip.

Waiting to board the plane.  We let her run around the terminal hoping to get rid of some energy while we waited.  She loved climbing up and down from these big seats.

Waiting to take off! 

Getting a little stir crazy!

I brought a few Dum Dums for desparate times!

Of course she fell asleep as we taxied to the terminal.  She took a cat nap as we made our way to get our luggage.

We rented a car (and a carseat...lesson learned there) and headed to the burbs.  Ashlyn was showered with gifts from her great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins the minute we walked in the door!

Ashlyn and Joey opening gifts!

Ashlyn with her great grands!

Ashlyn took another power nap in the car on the way to dinner.  Mimi climbed into the backseat of the car and slid over to the middle so she could ride next to Ashlyn!  When Ashlyn fell asleep on the way, Mimi requested that we bring her dinner out to the car so we didn't have to wake Ashlyn!

The next morning we got up and headed over to Aunt Sue's school.  She is a reading coach at the elementary school where all of the Doyle kids went!

Sitting at Aunt Sue's desk

We had to take this picture and send it to Gpa!  This was his elementary school.

After our trip to the school we headed over to Buff's house for lunch and to meet Sweetie Pie and say hi to our old buddy Sonny!

Sonny and Sweetie Pie

We spent a little time playing pinball.  I grew up playing pinball at Mimi and Papa's house!  They have added to the collection since I was little! 

We packed up and headed to Schaumburg to spent the evening at Laura and Reggie's house!  Ashlyn got a little cold on the plane and it hit her Friday night.  She was running a low grade fever and wasn't really herself that evening.  We had an awesome dinner and got to hang out with my cousins! 

Taking a cat nap on our way to Schaumburg

Saturday morning we got up and headed back to Rockford in time for Drew's basketball game.  He scored the first basket of the game!  Ashlyn had fun watching the kids play and wanted to join in!  We had lunch with Buff, Joey, Ben and Monica and caught some college football games.  After that we headed home for nap time! 

Drew taking a break after he jammed his thumb!

Saturday evening we headed over to The Nickel's house for a birthday party for Mimi, Papa and Charlie (Chance...the cake said "Happy Birthday Mimi, Papa and Charlie"...too funny!).  Everyone was there and we had a feast!  (Yes, there is a lot of pacibear in these pictures...but if you can't tell from her eyes...she wasn't feeling that great and she was such a trooper!  We drug that chick all over the place during our quick trip!)

Another cat nap on our way to the party. 

Ashlyn curled up in Lucille's bed

Sunday morning we packed up and headed back to the airport!  We didn't get quite as lucky on our return flight because it was full!  And we sat on the runway for an hour waiting on a maintenance fix!  That turned our 2 hour trip into a 3 hour trip.  Ashlyn did very well (our 3rd seatmate might have a different opinion, but I think all things considered she did awesome!)

Saying goodbye to Joey