Swimming, Choking and Cuteness

We took Ashlyn swimming for the first time at my friend Ivy’s son’s birthday party in a baby pool. She loved it! So we bought a baby float and went over to my in-law’s house to swim in their big pool. She really liked it also.

Ramon had a good 1st Father’s day! We went out to eat at one of his favorite places, BJ’s, on Saturday and he went fishing with his dad most of the day on Sunday. I had a little scare with Ashlyn when he was gone. I gave her some of these little freeze dried yogurt treats for babies and she got one stuck in her throat, to the point that she wasn’t breathing! It scared me to death! I saw her leaned over in her high chair with her eyes wide open, face red, and holding her mouth open but she wasn’t making any sound. I ran over to her as fast as I could and pulled her out of her high chair, threw her across my forearm and started hitting her back. (I've never taken any class, just went off of what I've read online.) After about 3 hits to the back she started coughing and then was screaming. It was all a very scary experience but I thank God that she’s okay. She definitely won’t be eating any more of those treats.

Here’s some updated pictures of Ashlyn:

 Ashlyn Clapping

 Ready to go swimming! This is really a hand-me-down size 12 month swimsuit. We bought a 6-9 month size swimsuit but she only wore it once and got too long so it didn't cover her chest (daddy wasn't going to have that!)

Milky mouth. She was in the middle of saying "dada" in this picture on Father's Day.

Ashlyn is now 7 months old and doing great! She now eats twice a day; 1 jar of fruit baby food at lunch and 1 vegetable jar at dinner and has graduated to the level 3 foods since she was getting way more than enough of the recommended formula intake. She also has been eating more regular food, like little mashed up pieces of fruits and veggies from our plates.

She had her first ear infection when she turned 7 months (about a week ago). She had a fever over 101 several times throughout one day and that night. We thought she might be teething since she was drooling so much and put everything in her mouth, but we decided to take her to the doctor to be on the safe side. We’re glad we did because she had an ear infection and a soar throat (her throat was red, but no strep).
She’s getting faster and faster at crawling and it looks effortless for her to pull herself to standing now. She recently started clapping her hands a lot. If we say “Yay!!!” then she’ll smile and clap even more. I’ll have to try to get a picture of that. But for now, here’s a few pictures of Ashlyn (some of these are about a month old though).

 Chillin' at Grandma's

 Trying to drink from a sippy cup.

 Playing in her kitchen.

"Excuse me...I'm trying to fix dinner, mom."

Standing, Standing, Standing! And Friends.

  All Ashlyn wants to do is stand...and stand...and stand. She can now stand and hold on with only one hand. She also likes to do the squats (stands up, squats down, stands up, squats down), and "dance". When music is playing she holds on to something while standing and bounces up and down with the music (not necessarily on beat) :)

 Trying to escape!

 Grandma and Ashlyn

 Her best friends, Shipley and Emma. Oh, and Shipley's best friend, Ashlyn. (Emma's best friend is still her mommy, which is me)

Baby #2!!!!!!

If you haven't already heard, Ashlyn is already going to have another brother or sister!  It was COMPLETELY unexpected. I was 4 days late on my cycle and I thought I'd take a pregnancy test (one that I had left over from when I tested with Ashlyn) just to ease my mind. In no way did I think it would actually show up positive! I was in total shock! It was one of those annoying tests that have a little symbol of a + for pregnant and a - for not pregnant. I just kept looking at the test, then looking at the box over and over to be sure I was right. But the little + sign was clear and it only took a second for it to appear.

I've had three ultrasounds so far (due to having an ectopic pregnancy in the past), and the baby looks good. We've seen a healthy heart beat and everything looks fine so far. My hormone levels also looked good when I was 5 weeks along. And I haven't had any symptoms that would cause concern.

How far along: 8 weeks, 3 days. (Due January 11, 2012) That will make Ashlyn 14 months older than her sibling.

Baby's size: About the size of a raspberry!

Symptoms: NAUSEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  But, thankfully I haven't actually thrown up! I've gotten REALLY close many times but I've managed to hold it down. Also, I've been bloated and very sleepy. 

Gender:  Ramon wants a boy more than a girl, but he would still be a very happy, proud daddy either way. I don't really care because it's win/win either way. If we have a boy, then it's our first boy, and if it's a girl, we have everything we need already.

What I miss: Lunch meat and not feeling like I'm going to vomit 24/7.

What I'm looking forward to:  My second trimester! 

I'll try to keep everyone updated every couple of weeks or so throughout my pregnancy.

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.



Ashlyn's Easter Basket

The Hand, Official Easter Outfit, and Emma

We were at Luby's eating and Ashlyn was in a high chair. All of the sudden she became VERY fascinated with her hand. She was moving it around really slowly and kept examining it. She looked like she was thinking, "Wow, where did this come from? How am I moving this?"  She did it for a long time, then stopped and did it later on several more times. Now she does it every now and then at home.

Okay, here's the first picture of Ashlyn in her Easter outfit, lol!

 After Mommy started singing the ABC's and played Peek-a-Boo she lighted up.

  Trying to Crawl! She scoots backward but hasn't got the forward motion yet.

My two girls!  Poor Emma gets a little jealous. We took this picture so she would know that she's still a part of the family.