Wow, how time flies.

Once again I must start by saying I have not been posting near as much as I would like. Actually I would like to throw my computer out the window this week. Tuesday night I lost all my files during a computer freeze and system recovery. I never thought I would be so thankful for my blog, myspace and facebook. All of my pictures and videos are preserved on these. My advice for the day is BACKUP your files.

Anywho, I also feel like it is the big mans way of telling me life is more important then some files on the computer. It is funny how worked up I got. Yet the next morning Ashlynn was still all smiles. I thank God for her everyday.

She is getting so big. Sitting up now on her own like a champ. She has two teeth on the bottom and one coming in on the top. She is eating all sorts of new food. Avacoado, sweet potatoes, nectarines, butternut squash, bananas, pears and lots of cereal. She had yogurt and teething biscuits for the first time yesterday.

She is getting so strong and beginning to get up on her knees and scoot backwards. My MIL says that when she starts crawling the party is over but Steve and I think that will be such a great time. We have got to baby proof the house this weekend.

One really neat thing is that she started rolling a ball back to us the other day. She loves balls and things that she can interact with.

She is noticing the cats and dogs more and I think she understands a few of the signs we have been learning.

I feel like I am rambling and I promise to get on here more often. Parenthood is a gift and I am so thankful for the oppurtunity to be a mom.

Halloween

We went to a few pumpkin patches today. Had such a great time. The weather was beautiful and so was Ashlynn.

Wonderful few weeks

Thank you to everyone for all the prayers. God certainly answered them. We went to St. Pete on Wednesday and the doc said her EKG looked perfectly normal. He changed her medicine to twice a day and told us to take her off the monitor if we like. We are keeping it on her at night until her 6 month bday. She will be monitored and on medicine until she is 1 but after that there is a 96% chance that she will be all better. It is such a relief and wonderful feeling.

She is so much fun. Doing all sorts of new things. She is sitting up by herself for a few seconds, laughing, babbling, rolling over, pushing off with her legs, supporting all her weight on her legs, responding to voices, showing so many different emotions, eating like a champ, chomping away at anything and everything, I could go on and on.

Today she went swimming with daddy and I swear she was actually swimming. I was working (Booo) but the video is hilarious.



Working is somewhat of a bum. It is nice to have some adult interaction but I miss her terrible. Also, it is pretty exhausting. I work 12 hours on Friday nights so Saturday is a total bust for me. I have a hard time making it out to meetups with my mom group and such. But I think I will get better at it the more I work.

We just got a new camera at Target for a ridiculously good deal. It is the Cannon S5 IS and we got it for $150. So you can expect lots of new photos. Here are a few.

Super Busy

I need to get a better schedule for updating this blog. I started working a few days a week at the new Stevie Tomato in Cape Coral. It is nice to be able to bring in a little extra and yet not miss out on much with Ashlynn. I miss teaching something fierce but I know that in time I will return to the profession. I work Sunday days, Wednesday and Friday nights. Our parents rotate watching Ashlynn on Fridays otherwise she is with Steve. I miss her so bad but I also think it is good for her to be with other people.

She is getting so big. We had our 4 month check up (even though she was really 4 1/2 months) She weighed 13 pounds and was 25 inches long. Dr. Jones was very pleased with her development and said she is super strong. He commented on how strong and sturdy she is on her legs. She loves to stand.

He did mention that her head was leaning a bit to the left and said she might have a bit of a tight neck. He suggested proping her side up and night to force her to lay her head to the right and more tummy time. She actually enjoys tummy time now so we do it all the time.

We have continued the cereal but tried it in the morning also and she was really off with bowel movements and very gassy. I decided to wait a few more days so for now she is getting 3 tablespoons every night. She loves it. I just bought sweet potato to make my first baby food with.

She smiles all the time and is loving music class. Daddy sings to her all the time and she is the happiest in the mornings.

A little over a week until visit to St. Pete. Keep up the prayers. I know that God is listening.

Dad in town

My dad arrived from KC on Friday. It was sad because he did not stay very long but we had a great time. We had a fun night out on Friday, spent time with my brother and his girls on Saturday. They grilled some awesome steaks, played badminton, swam and had a grand ol time. On Sunday I worked my first bar shift at the new Stevie Tomato Sports Page on Pine Island and my dad, brother, husband and fatherinlaw came to visit. Needless to say Sunday night I rested due to the first time on my feet for 6 hours in a very long time. Monday was my dads birthday so we took him out to Sanibel for the morning. He really enjoyed the breeze and all the shells. Monday night we went to the Twisted Conch for dinner. Unfortunately my dads shrimp were not very good. He had to leave this morning. I miss him already.

Ashlynn is doing so good with her cereal. She loves to eat and daddy put together our highchair today. We ate our dinner in it. She is still waking up almost every night at 4 but I think it might be teeth. I see a little whiteness on her bottom gum. We go see Dr. Jones tomorrow so I can't wait to see what he thinks and get new measurements for our special girl.

3 weeks till our next big EKG please keep us in your prays.

Here are some pics from this weekend.

Many Firsts

This has been a week of many firsts. It started with Ashlynn sleeping on her tummy one night. She had been a bit gassy and continued to wake up through the night. So I rolled her on her tummy and she zonked right out. She didn't wake again until the morning. Yeah. Now when I put her down for her nap, I don't have to rock her until she is asleep and oh so carefully place her in her crib. I feed her, rock her and sing for a few minutes and then place her on her belly and she sooths herself to sleep. However she has been waking up at 4 in the morning for the past 2 weeks for a feeding. So, we had our first taste of rice cereal. The first time of course we didn't get any in our tummy, the second time maybe just a little bit. But last night she ate a lot and guess what....no 4 oclock wake up. She slept from 8 to 7. It was very refreshing.


She had her first breastmilk popsicle after a nice long walk outside in the hot and muggy Florida weather. I started freezing ice cubes of breastmilk to help her practice using her mesh feeders. She loves it but it is messy. I guess we have entered the bath everynight faze.



We went to the teddy bear picnic at Four Freedoms Park and she had her first ride in the big girl stroller. She loved it. She had more room to move around and I don't think it was as hot as the carseat. Daddy suggested freezing some washclothes so she chomped away at one of those and then we wore it for a hat. We had a great time and she napped for a long time when we got home.



And the most excited first for Steve and I was...her first LAUGH!!! Last night on the bed during her nightly baby massage, I lift her arms up to stretch and I was running my hands down her armpits and sides. About the 3rd time I did it she let out the cutest little laugh ever. How exciting.
We also started Music Together classes at Four Freedoms with Mrs. LouAnne. Ashlynn loves to watch the other boys and girls and she loves the hello song. We have a lot of fun.

Grandpa is coming in town tomorrow and we are super excited to see him.

I just can't believe how much she is growing and changing. We are so blessed to be her parents. It hit me the other day that we have the oppurtunity to spend the rest of our life with this amazing little girl. God has truely blessed us. Please continue to keep Ashlynn in your prayers. We go for are next EKG in October and we need a shortened QT wave.

Day in the life of Ashlynn

One of my mommy boards did a fun post about the day in the life of your child. When I put the slide together I was amazed at how much we get done in less then 12 hours. This was done Aug 22nd I believe. Enjoy.