11 months old!

Ash turned 11 months old on Sunday. I cried because she was playing "peek-a-boo" with me. As in, she was initiating the game. Sad, I know. I just realized she is not a little baby anymore. She can stand by herself for a little while before slowly lowering into a sitting position. No steps yet...and I am slightly fearful that she will start walking while she is at her babysitters house. So Stephanie, if you happen to read this and she starts to take her first step while she is with you, just pretend it did not happen so I can be surprised when she walks for the "first" time with me :)

She loves to hold one toy in each hand (her favorites are these soft finger puppets from IKEA...thanks, Ashley). It is so funny to watch her crawl around while she is holding them and trying to climb up on everything.

She laughs a lot. Even when she is by herself in the crib, I hear her laughing and giggling on the monitor. It is so funny. And when she laughs, her whole body shakes, including that big, round belly. I LOVE IT!

One of my favorite things about her is that she is still cuddly. She still sits with me and Christopher for a really long time and lets us hold her. I want to cherish all of those moments because I know they are fleeting.

She can hold her own bottle (here is a picture for proof), but she mostly prefers us to hold it for her. Next on the agenda is to move to sippy cups. She has hated them so far...so we will see how that goes. You know how long it took her to actually start eating food.

Another fun beach weekend!

We just returned from a great weekend at the beach with our friends! Ashlyn truly is a beach lovin' girl (of course, I don't think we give her much of a choice). We had a blast...lots of laughs, kids running (and crawling) everywhere, girl talk, yummy wine on the beach, and late night doughnuts.

The only negative thing about the entire weekend was that someone broke in our house the last night and took 2 cameras and some cash. :( Sad way to end what was a wonderful couple of days. Last year, we had bed bugs...this year, we had a break-in. Perhaps next year we ought to consider a new vacation spot???????

Here are a few pictures from the weekend (thanks to Kitty and Ashley for taking them...I am soooooooo sorry about your cameras, sweet friends!)

Ashlyn LOVES the Baby Bjorn carrier. Seriously, Christopher "wore" her every afternoon for HOURS while he was playing bocce ball and other games with the guys. She was so happy to be close to her favorite guy (and my favorite guy, too!).

So sweet.

I was looking through pictures on our computer and this one made me laugh. One of my favorites from when she was really little (I think around 3 months). Had to share.

Oops

I love my Chi. So imagine my sadness when it slipped out of my hand tonight at my hotel in Charleston. I think I made my husband really proud by not automatically reaching in the toilet and pulling it out. Instead, I called the front desk and they sent maintenance up to cut the power off from the electric box. I'm sure they've seen stranger things, right?

I guess the real question is...would you use it again?

For $100, you better believe I will be drying that bad boy off and re-heating it soon enough...Let's hope sparks don't start flying.

*UPDATE*
Let's just say...$100 flushed down the toilet. SAD DAY.

Is it hot in here?

Our AC is officially out for the third time this summer.

Right now, our house is a furnace. For real. It is 87 degrees.



So what are we doing this evening? Sitting very still with lots of fans on high speed. Ashlyn is dressed for bed in her diaper.

And she spent the past thirty minutes playing with her thermometer. I wonder if she is trying to give us a hint? Yes, dear. We know it's hot in here.






So, who wants to come over and watch football on Saturday? It is only 92 in the room over the garage. I am just hoping our TV does not melt.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a blast this weekend on our "4th Annual" trip with our dear friends from college. This year we went to Dillard, GA and stayed in an amazing cabin in the mountains. We had lots of laughs and good food which makes for a wonderful weekend.

Ashlyn had a great time in the mountains. We took her on a hike Saturday afternoon. I did not bring my camera but my friend Amy did. And of course, her pictures are a million times better than I could ever dream of taking so I will put some of those up once I get a few. Ash giggled the entire way up the mountain. For over an hour one way while she was strapped to her daddy in the Baby Bjorn.

Here are a few pictures of Ashlyn enjoying the great outdoors.

And this one was so sweet, I couldn't resist.