Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Ashley is 11 Months Old

Getting her to sit still long enough to take pictures is getting tougher by the day, but I was still able to capture a few good ones.  And of course her brother wanted to get in on the action since he loves getting his picture taken.  Fortunately they both cooperated.



Ashley is getting really close to walking.  She's able to pull herself up and stand on her own, but once she starts to take a step or get excited she falls over pretty quick.  I'm sure it's only a matter of a couple weeks and she will be on the move.  She's not really saying any words yet, but babbles quite a bit.  She's also a really good eater.  We've always had a hard time getting her to drink her bottles and now she supplements it by eating tons of food.  All she wants is whatever we are eating or more specifically whatever Ben is eating.  Ashley loves music and 'dancing'.  Whether she's sitting or standing she will start o move to the beat and generally gets her whole body into it.  We've also found that she has learned to play the recorder.  She literally will put it in her mouth and make noise with it.  Ashley is able to crawl up stairs which we found her doing one day.  She is also starting to hold stuffed animals to her head or put her head down on things to snuggle which I have to admit is adorable.  Here's a perfect picture of her in action.


The two of them seem to get along pretty well most of the time.  In fact, this weekend they were chasing each other around.  I'm sure in a few months they will be pretty good play partners which will be nice.  She adores him, but is also a troublemaker/instigator.  Ash is always following him around and trying to play with whatever he is playing with.  Most of the time he is good about sharing which helps.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Wonderscope & Superbowl

 
My parents paid a visit this weekend to help with the kiddos since Brian just had back surgery and we took them to Wonderscope on Saturday.  Turned out to be a good time for indoor play with the rain and I also had a groupon so that made it cheap too!  I have never been there, but I learned that it is a smaller version of the Magic House (in St. Louis). Ben had fun playing doctor and he even had a pretty good patient to take care of who thought it was hilarious.

who is that in the window?!

And of course the shopping room was a lot of fun since Ben loves to go to the grocery store.  Ashley even got into the mix and was trying to 'taste' all the food in the room.  I hope they wash those things daily!


Then on Sunday we had our annual super bowl party and although several people weren't able to make it from being sick we still had a blast.  The kids loved Ben's new inflatable jumper and even found several new uses for it. If you turn it over it's a fort!

If you turn it on it's side it's a gerbil wheel!

the boys

Overall it was a great weekend and I wouldn't have made it through without my parents helping around the house.  The kids loved having them around and even Ashley favored Deebo!  I'm pretty sure that makes her the first grandkid to prefer her over papa.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Ice 'Scaping'

We took Ben ice skating (or ice skaping as he calls it) last weekend and he had a lot of fun.  At first he was really hesistant to stand up on the skates and I had to carry him, but once we got to the ice I was able to put him down and skate around with him.  Overall he did pretty good and he kept trying to stand on his own while skating.  He was able to stand while holding the boards which may be more than his dad, but that's a different story.




Playing at the park with Jack and Kate