Pig Tails and Patience

Ashlyn must always be in pigtails. For some reason--maybe because she can speak so well, or maybe because I see her so much as a "little person"--I sometimes forget that she is two. And then my expectations get all out of whack and when she does something that is typical of a two-year-old, like walking very slowly right in front of me or wanting to splash water everywhere, I get all annoyed. Putting her in pigtails helps. When she is in pigtails, it is easier to remember that she is my little girl and then I expect her to do these things. She must always wear pigtails!

We are loving shore duty. Daddy is home most days by 5:30, and we even get to see him in the morning before he leaves! We are like bona-fide normal people. Mark is taking the metro in to town and is enjoying his work...and the nice gym that he gets to use every day at lunch right there in the building.

Matthew is working on crawling still. He gets up on all fours and rocks away. When I get him after naps, he is usually rocking, (or pulling down the bumper to see me come in). He is still the happiest baby I've ever met, although lately he's been tired. We are trying to get him to sleep from his 9 PM feeding until around 5. Last night he made it until 6! He's tired because he cries a little, but he is crying less each night and hopefully soon he will not wake up at all. He is a sweetheart...he wants to hold my hand while he nurses.

Ashlyn is doing great. Although she is definitely two. She is teething a molar these days and is exceptionally whiny. She is into learning about letters these days. The other day when I got her after her "nap," she confessed that she did not sleep. I asked her, "You did not take a nap?" And she replies, "No, I just goofed off."

New Pictures

Here are some recent pics:

Matthew is up on all fours and rocking...and whining because he can't crawl yet.

Ashlyn is playing momma to her bunny. She likes to take him for walks.

Mark deserves "Dad of Year" for risking life and limb for this swing.

Ashlyn pushing Matthew in the swing. Awww.

Grandma Wendy getting giggles.

Matthew can sit up all by himself...but occasionally still falls over.

The boppy is a nice bumper.

Uncle Mitch stayed with us for a few weeks in Jan/Feb

while he completed a course in Norfolk.

Mark and I in February on our way to the Mighty Ike's dining out.

Grandma Wendy with ALL of her grandkids...Rose and Piper

came up for a weekend while Mitch was staying with us.

Ashlyn with her new sunglasses...thanks Aunt Rose!

Settled In

I've been getting threatened by the grandparents...post some more videos! More pictures! We moved and it was busy, but things are settling down again and we're beginning to get into a routine. Matthew is really trying to crawl and Ashlyn is talking more than ever. She will repeat whatever she is saying incessantly until it is acknowledged.

We are trying to get Matthew to sleep a 6 to 7 hour stretch at night, and he has made it two out of four nights. I guess I shouldn't say that 'he' made it since I was the one caving on the nights he didn't make it. I always doubt that he got enough milk during the day...one of the pitfalls of breastfeeding. I am also too slow in starting solids...but the boy doesn't seem all that interested in eating. Hmmm...

We recently made a quick trip to Tennessee to see Mark's grandmother and my mom, aunt and uncle. It was a fun trip and the drive wasn't too bad. I figured out how to recline Ashlyn's carseat so she truly had a La-Z-Boy. She was quite comfortable, but still didn't sleep that well in the car. The video was taken there...Grandma Wenny goofing off with the boy.

Moving Again!

I am in disbelief that we are moving again in just a few short weeks. Yikes. Two years certainly flew by, and with the exception of when I moved away from Charleston, I have never been so reluctant to leave. I love living here. The neighbors are great, church is great, friends are great. So is the house...yes, now that I have it the way I want it, we are moving. Blah!

Enough whining. I am just going to put up some recent pics and a video to show you that we are still alive and kicking. Photo 1: we have begun to "do" Ashlyn's hair. This was necessitated by the craziness of the fro at times...it's so curly! The picture shows her first 'do. Ashlyn is not only my parrot but is also the narrator of everything. She is declarer of the obvious. She is my talkative two-year-old. Her new favorite thing to do is run around singing the songs in her new video..."Nana song?" she'll ask. Then she will run around singing, "Yes, we have no nanas...we have no nanas today!" That's bananas, to you and me. See the video. She is sleeping better: an amazing 13 hours at night and a nap!

Matthew is sleeping about the same. He has discovered that he has arms and legs. He grabs at everything, and more than once a day I find he's grabbed my hair. He is also working on sitting up...doing some pretty impressive abdominal workouts--I know I couldn't hold the positions he holds for half as long. Babies amaze me. They aren't lazy; they're so excited to discover new things.

Look Who's Talking!

Mr. Matthew is growing up so fast. It's hard to believe that he's almost four months old already! He can roll over from his tummy to his back, do a small pushup and bear a lot of weight on his legs. The past few days, he has been talking up a storm! He's so excited about it that he stays up at night talking to himself. Cute, but not at 5 AM. If you talk back to him, he will just keep on going and going. He can sit up in a Bumbo chair, too (see picture). Matthew LOVES his swing right now, just like Ashlyn did at that age. For fun, I've attached a video of Ashlyn at 4 months and Matthew at 4 months in the same swing down below. It's hard to tell who is who, except that one is in pink and one is in blue. :-)

Ashlyn is getting ready to go potty. We bought her some training underwear and pull-ups a few weeks ago even though she wasn't interested (she would always say "no" if you asked her if she wanted to go on the potty), but tonight she asked to sit on the potty without prompting. After about twenty minutes on the potty, I bribed her with chocolate (it was bedtime and she still wanted to try). I went downstairs to get the chocolate, leaving her on the potty and when I returned, she was standing up looking in the potty and she had gone number 1. Bunny did a celebration dance and Ashlyn got her bite of chocolate (the entire Hershey's kiss!). If we weren't going to the Children's museum tomorrow, I'd totally spend the whole day training her. I think we'll put on the undies tomorrow afternoon and try to go potty every 30 minutes or so...hopefully that is often enough. We'll see!

I never really posted any pictures from the rest of our holidays...after my mom and Greg left, my cousin Teri visited with her husband, Josh, and her two kiddos (Hunter, 3 and Nathanael 9 months). Ashlyn and Matthew had a blast playing with their two cousins. Here's a picture of Mark and Matthew watching some James Bond movie. This is the best way to get Matthew to do tummy time...he really likes TV in general, not just James Bond.

Hunter was like a rock star to Ashlyn, going on the potty and going down the big slides at Kangaroo Jacks. She was terrified at Kangaroo Jacks for all but about five minutes when she actually jumped a little bit. Mostly, she wanted to "watch Hunter do it"! Having four kids in the house was a bit hectic, but it a great visit and we had a great time!

After Teri left, Mark's parents came up for New Year's. This visit was much more low-key, but we had a great time visiting with them. Ashlyn was sad to see Mimi and Baba go home, and she half expected someone else to arrive later that day because we'd just had three different families visit!

Ashlyn-isms and More Sleep!

After lights out the other night, Mark and I were cracking up reciting Ashlyn's favorite things to say. For example: "Turn wight on," when we get up in the morning or "It's durwy (dirty)" when her favorite cup is in the sink. Also, when her baby brother is in the swing: "Turn mobile on" or "The mobile stopped." She's the mobile police; she never lets it stop.

Randomly throughout the day, she says, "I like chocolate?" Really, she means that she would like some chocolate...it can't hurt to ask, right? Over the past several weeks, her daddy has been home and she's seen him a few times without his shirt. Guess what she says? "Daddy no have boobies no nurse Maffhew." Gotta love that.

We have been letting Matthew cry a bit at night...since Thanksgiving that boy has been waking up about every three hours at night. Talk about a relapse! I humored him because at first he had a cold and then I thought maybe it was a growth spurt. Any growth spurt he might have been having is surely over now, so we are going for a 5 or 6 hour stretch like he used to do. The first night was miserable...he cried for almost 2 hours. The next night was much better, about 10 minutes. I am feeding him around midnight and then around 5. I feel so much better with a long stretch of sleep. And that stinker will smile at me and want to play each time he is up. He is such a sweet smiley boy!