All better

I am happy to report we are all feeling better! It took a while, but we're there.

Ashley is still not walking on her own. In fact, sometimes when we try practicing she forces herself to sit down. We don't push it, we want her to know she can trust us. I also read that if you do push it, it can actually slow down her readiness. She has stood for long periods of time, and she has also started plunging toward me (sometimes when I'm not even aware of it), so those are all good signs.

I have a feeling she is going to hold out for a while until she has mastered walking around on other things, then one day pick it up and will be a pro.

Ashley's vocabulary continues to grow. She is saying more words and has also started saying a couple of two-word sentences. She says "all done" a lot, and does the "all done gesture that we do". Matt also swears she said "there is is" a couple times when pointing to the moon in her book (that is what I often say when we read and she points to it).

She's gotten more into "singing along" and doing the hand gestures to songs like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". Sometimes she says "again" when I finish.

Tonight she had pulled out a rubber ducky, and I said "it's a duck". She happened to be holding it at the same time that we were looking in her book, and there was a pic of rubber ducks, and she pointed and said "duck". She was able to recognize matching objects.

She also has been playing with her toy phone. She holds it up to her ear and says "hello" or "hi". It's cute. One day she even took her baby doll and held it up to her ear like a phone and said hi :)

She has also been interested in her baby doll. I'll say "where's the baby?" and she'll look for it. She tries wrapping her in the blanket or putting her little cap on her.

I did some catching up on reading, and she seems to be right on track with milestones, behaviors, eating habits, sleep habits, etc. And apparently we seem to be responding to things very well (even prior to reading the how-to's), so that is good.

Ashley is definitely her own person. She's left behind the little baby phase, and has turned into a person with her own thoughts, feelings, wants, opinions, etc. It's lots of fun to see her growing.

Tonight we had fun. I don't even know why Matt had it out, but he had a flashlight out. We had a fun time playing with it. We turned out the lights, and Ashley had fun shining it all over, back and forth. Then daddy was making animal shadows out of his hands. Fun memories :)

Here are some pics from the past couple of weeks: (Newest to oldest) From our trip to the zoo, to getting into the toilet paper, to playing ball, to our fun day trip to Asheville NC last weekend, to fun playing with her toys.

Rough night...

Man, the past 24 hours have been rough. Poor Ashley still has been sick. Yesterday she was crying some, and lethargic and not herself. I brought her to the pediatrician and they said that she didn't have strep or ear infection, looks like a cold or the virus still running it's course with other symptoms. She also has three teeth coming through, including molars. Not much to do but ride it out and keep using the humidifier in her room. So, I went to work (reluctantly) since Matt was home with her. I knew she was in good hands, but felt bad leaving my poor girl.

Then when I got home from work, I started feeling kind of crummy. I ended up being sick multiple times during the night. NOT FUN! Matt and I usually never get sick, and this winter I've been sick with a virus twice now. Grr. Anyway, not only was I up multiple times, but Ashley kept waking up. I think it was a combination of hearing me up flushing (the bathroom wall is against her wall where crib is), and she was congested and feeling lousy. Since I was sick, Matt had to get up with her. He/they were up from 2:30 this morning.

Matt (daddy) was really amazing. He really stepped up and took good care of his girls. We were considering getting a sitter, but Ashley was so miserable and just needed her daddy or mommy. We didn't want to leave her with someone. Last time I got sick, it ran through my mind that it would be easier if we lived closer to family. But the reality is that there is no close 1/2 way spot between our immediate family, so we wouldn't be close enough anyway. And our parents aren't retired, so everyone has work anyway so it wouldn't be any different than now.

My awesome friend Beth had picked up soup and gatorades for me, but Matt had to go out later to pick up some meds for Ashley. Ashley and I napped while he was out. When I woke up from my nap, I came downstairs and Matt had roses, a sweet sign, and chocolates waiting. He had gotten Ashley and I some small gifts the other day, but these were a post-valentines/feel better flowers. And it was even nicer because I totally wasn't expecting it :)

Anyway, we survived. I'm just praying Ashley and I are both better tomorrow. It's been a long week!

Happy Valentine's Day

Here are some pics from today (Valentine's Day). Poor Ashley is still sick--she now has a cold, but she was a good sport while we took a couple pics for daddy...

On the mend...

Poor Ashley was sick with her first stomach bug last night. She's had a couple of colds, but up to this point we have been lucky to have a healthy child. She was fine all day yesterday, even right up to her getting sick. We had gone to Eli Wagner's 3rd birthday party yesterday at the fire station and then firehouse subs. She was enjoying herself. I'm not sure if she picked something up there being around a lot of kids, or if something was brewing already that we didn't know about.

Later that night daddy left to go work for the Hockey game (he does PT on the players). Ashley and I were skyping with grandma. We were upstairs in the bonus room, and we were showing grandma Ashley's new toy kitchen set she got for an early valentine's day gift. Ashley was playing and having a fun time. Then she crawled over to me, and threw up on the loveseat, rug, and myself. Poor girl. I held her for a few minutes, then brought her to the bathroom to get cleaned up and changed. She actually seemed ok, was happy and laughing again. So I thought maybe it was something she ate. I got her ready for bed, read a story, and put her to bed.

I went to clean up the mess (EWWW), when not two minutes later I hear a sound on the monitor that sounded like Ashley might have gotten sick again. Well, she did. At this point I had throw up in the bonus room, throw up on her clothes in the bathroom, and throw up all over her crib, and a sick, crying baby. So I called Matt and asked him to come home. I think that was the fastest time he's ever made it home.

Daddy came home and held Ashley while I cleaned up. She continued to get sick a couple more times. When she seemed settled, he bathed her and rocked her to sleep. We put her down, she got sick again in her crib, so we had to clean her up and change sheets again. This time I rocked her to sleep. We called the after-hours nurse, and she said there is apparently a bad virus going around. It starts up higher (with the vomiting), then works it's way down later to the lower GI with diarrhea. Fun! She said that we needed to keep her upright about an hour and half after her last vomiting so make sure it works it's way down. So I sat in her glider and held her until 12:45 a.m. Then Matt and I switched. He laid her in the crib and then laid on her floor for a little bit to make sure she wasn't going to get sick in her crib again. I think we made it to bed around 1:30.

Poor girl. She looked so pitiful. And it's so sad seeing a little baby throwing up the way she was. Luckily today she seems a lot better. She's still not 100%--not much of an appetite and does have the diarrhea that they said would come later, but she woke up wanting fluids, is in good spirits and is still wanting to move and explore like she normally does as the day progresses.

Just praying we don't get it now. It's hard to take care of a baby when you have a nasty virus.

It was def an experience...Luckily daddy and I make a good team ;)

Here are some pics from the birthday party (pre-sickness).

Just a couple things

There's not a whole lot, but wanted to update on a couple things.

First, Ashley may end up with some curls. When Matt was a baby, his hair grew in similar to Ashley's. It was also straight, then at some point it got really curly (sometime between the ages of 1 and 2. Ashley has had one little curl on the back of her head for a while now, but now she's got 3 curls. It's so cute!

Ashley has also started "dancing" to music more. I love to watch her move. :)

She is still fascinated with the moon. She points to them in all her books. When I ask her where the moon is, she goes right to it. In fact, she loves to point at everything now and have me tell her what it is. I have a couple of Valentines Day decorations up including one that says Happy Valentine's Day. She loves to point to it and have me say "Happy Valentine's Day". She lights right up or squeals when I do. And every morning when I get her from her room, she points to the big light in the staircase, and points to all of the pictures on the wall as we walk down the stairs.

She's also taking more practice steps at longer distances, although she still doesn't want to walk on her own yet.

I feel like there's more but I can't think of them right now. Aside from hating this unsteady time with learning to walk since we have wood floors and a tiled fireplace, I really do love this age. She is so much fun and I love watching her take everything in.

SOOOO Cute

The reason I chose this title is because Ashley has been doing something real cute. We ask, "how much does mommy and/or daddy love Ashley?" And she'll respond by raising her hands up high and we say "sooooo much". It's adorable!

Also now that I'm no longer breastfeeding, Matt has been helping with bedtime routine more often. Well, he has started this thing where after the bedtime routine, he pulls out her ladybug that lights up and projects stars and the moon all over the room. It's really cool. We also point to the moon and stars if we are outside at night. Anyway, last night I was reading Ashley a bedtime story that had the moon and stars in it. She pointed to the moon, then the stars, then up at the ceiling. She was able to put two and two together and knew that the moon and the stars in the book were the same kind that daddy would project up on her walls and ceiling. She's getting so smart.

I do a couple of baby sign language with her. Some people are really big into that. I'm not so much because I am pretty attuned and can basically tell what Ashley is wanting or needing most of the time. But I do some signs with food, such as "more", "all done" (which I made up my own sign for that one), eat, drink. She's been doing the "all done" for a little while, but yesterday she did the sign for "more" for the first time. She also makes this cute lip-smacking sound when I ask her if she's hungry or wants to eat.

Lastly, she got another tooth that came through within the past few days, and she's got a few others that are just ready to come through her gum line at any time now. She's such a good sport, if I didn't see it, I would never know she's teething.

That's all I can think of for now.