Standing, The Park, and Other Random Pictures

I don't know what's in the baby food we've been giving Ashlyn, but she is doing some things a little faster than normal. Just 10 days after she turned 6 months, she starting pulling herself to a standing position. Once she did it once, she didn't waste any time...she pulls herself up on anything she can find. This weekend we did a lot more baby proofing.

Also, today she said her second word. Her first word was "dada". She first starting babbling "dadadadada" but finally starting just saying "dada" (that was probably a few weeks ago). Today I pointed at one of our cats and said, "Cat". Immediately after I said cat, she clearly repeated, "cat".  Ramon and I thought it must have just been a coincidence, but then I said it several more times...she thought about it....and then would say, "tac" or "ca" or "cat". It was obvious she was concentrating on how to say it but just couldn't get it right every time.

Here's a picture of her pulling up (sorry, some of these pictures are blurry)

 After bathtime

 At the park with Mommy, Grandma, Shipley (Boston Terrier) and Emma (Half Beagle/Half Toy Fox). She was laughing from being tickled by mommy.

Playing in the storage unit of a small ottoman at Grandma's house.

24 Hours with No Responsibility

How easily we forgot how life was like not having to worry about the baby, homework, housework, and work work. Ramon and I just got away for 24 hours, which doesn’t sound like a long time, but it was amazing. We dropped Ashlyn off at my mom’s house on a Friday night and headed to Galveston. We ate at a delicious seafood dinner on Friday night then went back to our hotel. We stayed at the La Quinta on the Seawall. We could see the Gulf from our balcony. Here’s a picture from our balcony:

We spent several hours Saturday morning walking along the strand, going to the fun little shops and eating some awesome ice cream from the old fashioned ice cream and candy store. We actually got a little bit of Christmas shopping done also (I like start early). We had seafood for lunch at a restaurant on the strand right on the water. I got pooped on the shoulder by a seagull while we were eating so that wasn’t exactly the highlight of the trip, but it was pretty funny.

After lunch we went back to our hotel to change and headed to the beach. Going to the beach was super fun. Ramon and I swam in the ocean, except there was a lot of seaweed, so I was totally freaked out by that every time it hit my legs. Once we got out into deeper water the seaweed was gone. Then we just laid on the beach for a while so soak up some vitamin D and Ramon read a book.

After the beach, we went back to our hotel to get cleaned up and I taught Ramon how to play Solitaire. He doesn’t really know a single card game but he wants to learn. It was also pretty amusing teaching Ramon how to shuffle!  Once we got back home it was great to see our little girl again and relax. It was the perfect little getaway.  

Half a Year!

Ashlyn turned 6 months old on May 9, 2011. She is now crawling forward (she started with backwards) all over the place. If there is something that's on the floor she wants, she has no problem going to get it. She's getting better about using her knees, but for a while there she was doing the bear crawl; i.e. crawling on her hands and feet. It was pretty funny to watch though!

She also just started eating twice a day and drinking 8 ounces with every bottle. She can now hold her own bottle (yay! It's so much easier that way when you're busy).  We all got a terrible stomach bug, which started with Ashlyn getting it first. We had to cut back on the food and regular formula for a while so she lost a little weight.

At her 6 month check-up she was in the 70% for height (who knows where she got that), the 38% for weight, and the 30% for head size....at least she doesn't have a big head!  We have problems with putting pants on her because all of them are either fit at the waist but are too short, or they are the right length but always falling down. Ramon and I sing to her "Pants on the ground, pants on the ground!"  Here are a few recent pictures of the hunny-bunny.

 Celebrating the Royal Wedding!

 She is learning to pull up on things, but she can't pull herself up to something as high as her crib. We sometimes stand her up in different places in the house (like in her crib, or holding on the ottoman). She will stand there for a some time (5-10 minutes) and it's quite obvious she is VERY proud of herself. She wants you to notice that she's being a big girl.