2 Years Old

So I realize that I’m super behind in updating the blog. Last year I had our blog printed and bound into a book. We love it and would love to continue to make these “books” to look back on all the memories of the girls growing up. Anyway, here is Ashlyn’s second birthday post from November.

Since it’s March and Ashlyn is now 2 years, 4 months I’ll just write about what all she is doing now. She continues to impress us with her vocabulary. She will only hear something once or twice and remember it. She uses new words in the correct context from the first time she learns it a lot of the time. She just picks up on things so fast. She also uses correct grammar most of the time.

Recently we finally made the switch to what we call a “big girl bed” which is really just her crib converted to a toddler bed with a bed rail. Not that much different other than she can get in and out. This was an overnight decision. She started crying one night screaming that she needed to go potty and she’s too short to open the door to her room, and too scared to even climb out of her crib. So we placed a small potty by her “big girl bed” and started putting pull-ups on her at night. Her pull-ups are sometimes wet in the morning still, but she usually also uses the potty 1-3 times in the middle of the night by herself.
She’s getting a lot better at coloring and can easily draw a circle, vertical line, and horizontal line. She’s getting better about coloring in the lines but, of course, she still isn’t great at that. Ashlyn loves to paint with water colors and do crafts with mommy’s help. She also LOVES sand. We’re thinking of getting her a sandbox for her birthday. She is getting more social now and likes to play with other kids.

Ashlyn also had her first dentist appointment recently. She did really well. She was very scared but hardly cried. They just looked at her teeth and did a little brushing. The dentist doesn’t think that she will need braces…keeping our fingers crossed!

So that’s basically what’s been going on with Ashlyn the last few months. She still throws the occasional temper tantrum and takes toys from Sariah, but overall she’s not a bad two year old. Here are some pictures from her birthday party in November.

Galveston Family Trip

We took a much needed family trip to Galveston in early October. We stayed two nights at a resort where Ramon's parents have a time share so we got to stay for free! Yay! We all had a blast. Some of the things we did were:  Eat at the Rainforest Cafe, go to the beach (twice), went out to eat, and walked around the strand and got homemade ice cream. Here are the pictures from the trip:

Ashlyn looking at the gorillas coming "alive" at the Rainforest Cafe:

Fall/Halloween 2012

It's almost December and I'm just now posting Halloween. But here it is...

We had a few fun activities that we did for Fall/Halloween. 

1- Visited a Free Mommy Expo in the Woodlands and rode a train ride and took a couple of pumpkin patch pictures.

2- The girls, Savanah (our neighbor), and I went to a small fall festival at a church nearby. 

3- Ramon, the girls and I went to a very large fall festival at Champion Forest Baptist where we went truck-or-treating and Ashlyn got on a few of the bouncy houses. 

4- My mom, the girls and I passed out candy and I took Ashlyn trick-or-treating on Halloween night. 

Here are the pictures from these events:

CSA

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We have recently joined a CSA in the Houston area and we LOVE it. Here what they offer:

-Locally grown, organic produce that was picked within the last week

-Drop site locations all around the Houston area

-Pay half up front for a season and remaining balance half way through. It comes out to $29/week.

-You can add other products to your order week by week to pick up along with your produce. They have other farms in the area you can purchase from, all on the same website, week by week. For instance, you can add a whole chicken, eggs, cheese, yogurt, honey, fresh herbs, etc. to your order and it is ready to pick up at the same location and time you pick up your veggies. 

I think the whole thing is awesome. Sooooo many benefits…eating healthy, no lines at the grocery store, and it’s supporting local farmers. If anyone is interested, here’s the website: www.homesweetfarm.com. Here’s what our first share looked like for this week (cost for all of this was right around $70): 

 2 Tomatoes, 4 Squash, 3 Sweet Potatoes, 4 Bell Peppers, a Bunch of Arugula, A bunch of Broccoli Greens, 12 oz. of Green Beans, A Whole Chicken, A Pint of Yogurt, 8 oz of Cheese, a Dozen Eggs, and a Large Jar of Honey.

Sariah Summer- 9 Months

Sariah is now 9 months old.  She weighs 18 pounds, 6.4 ounces (37% for weight), her length is 28.25 inches long (69% for length), and 17.52 inches for her head circumference (62% for HC).  She has a  very sweet personality and we love her to death. She loves to play with toys, especially push things around, and loves to put everything in her mouth. She is starting to stand for a few seconds here and there without holding on to anything, but she’s totally mastered pulling herself to standing. 

We are, however, a little concerned about our sweet girl. She has not even attempted any type of babble whatsoever. The only thing she ever says is “Aaaaa” or “Oooo”.  On top of that, she may be having seizures when she hits her head. We’ve seen this happen seven times in the last few months. Anyway, we don’t want to jump to any conclusions yet. We are scheduled to see a pediatric neurologist next week. We are also scheduled to see an audiologist, but I really don’t think it’s her hearing. Just keep her in your prayers and pray that we would make the best decisions regarding her health.  We will love her the same no matter if it’s something minor or life changing.

Here are some pictures of her recently. 

Oh, and she loves to eat. She just eats what we're having for dinner now. No more baby food!

She loves to see all the sights and hear all the sounds outside. 

She thinks she's a big girl here. She is at the toddler play place in the mall. She was looking around at the other children. 

"This is the life, Mom."

"I'm so sleepy." 

That pool was fun and all, but there's nothing like sitting in Mommy's lap wrapped in a warm towel.

First time eating watermelon. She got really mad when we took it away. This was a couple of months ago when she just started eating table food.

She likes the front seat of the double stroller a lot better then the back seat.

Chillin' at the art table. She's always trying to eat the crayons and playdough. 

Messy baby!

She's mastered the pincher grasp. She picks everything off the floor like really tiny specs of stuff all the time.  They go straight to her mouth. I've pretty much given up at this point. It's constant. There's no telling what little specs she's eaten.

"Daddy is so cool!"