First meetings...

Jordan and Ashlyn hiding from Jen

Saturday, June 4, 2011, will be a day I don't soon forget, and I'm pretty sure Ashlyn won't either. We FINALLY got to meet Jen and Jordan of Born Just Right and it was AWESOME!!

The girls were a little shy for a couple of minutes, but Ashlyn doesn't let that keep her down for long. She finally approached Jordan and asked her if she wanted to play. She then noticed, and pointed out, that both girls had the same little arm and BAM they were off and running, screaming, giggling and having fun. We also got to meet little Andrew and his family. He's 15 months, so he wasn't of the running and screaming age just yet, but he and his family live close so we are hoping to make a connection there and become friends and supporters very very soon! (In fact, I have their card on my desk to make sure I email them today!).

Andrew and his mom Sarah, Ashlyn and Jordan

The girls enjoyed running around like wild childs throughout the Rainforest Adventure at Crown Center. Anything Jordan did, Ashlyn would mimic and sometimes add a scream or giggle of her own. LOL. It was just so cute!!

Ashlyn and Jordan

I spent a majority of my time trying to chase down Ashlyn, so I didn't get to talk to Jen as much as I would have liked, but we are FB friends and she has that awesome blog that I talk to her on, so I guess it was really all about getting the girls together.

We did have an awesome chat with Kevin Carroll though. He helped build a helper tail for Winter the Dolphin and though he was out of animals and books at the time, he promised to send Ashlyn one soon (another email and/or phone call I need to make today). He was such a nice person and loved talking to the girls even though they were easily distracted.

Such and amazing visit with such incredible people. I'm so excited about entering a new world of contacts and connections with these families. I'm not passionate about too many things in life, but the one thing that I'm very passionate about is my daughter and giving her memories, friendships and connections that will last a lifetime!!!

One of the fountains at Crown Center

Mommy failure

Ashlyn and the kitty take some time to watch the grass grow.

It finally happened. I failed my girl for the first time in the great world of making friends. I'm not sure how or why I let it happen the way it did. Guess I was lost in a world of other thoughts with so many things going on with my family.

Ashlyn and I (along with her Papa and Nana) went to a playground at a local elementary school. Ashlyn always has a blast on the slides, swing, climby things...pretty much everything about the playground is her "favorite" thing. There aren't a lot of kids that go there to play, but every once in a while she'll find some one willing to play with her besides me and my family. However, this time, I failed as a mom.

She was playing happily with Nana when a little girl (about 7 or 8) showed up with her family. Ashlyn was so excited to have a "friend" to play with. She rushed up to the girl and said, "Hi, do you want to play with me?" in the happiest friendliest voice ever. The little girl just stared at her. I said, "Well, tell her your name honey." And she did. The little girl didn't speak. Just stared at her. Her dad said, "Tell her your name too." She simply said, "Abby." Ashlyn said, "Hi Abby, do you want to play with me?" Abby just stared for a moment and then got down off the monkey bars and ran away to play something else. I was shocked. Neither her nor her dad really said much of anything.

Why didn't I step in at that point? Why didn't I say, "She was born this way, and there's nothing wrong with her and she'd love to play with you."? I have no clue. I guess because I wasn't really sure if was an "arm" thing, and age thing or just the fact that the other little girl was shy...which Ashlyn is so NOT. So I let it go. But I wasn't happy. The little girl came back a few minutes later and Ashlyn attempted the friendliness again, yet still no response from the little girl. She just wouldn't speak to her. Finally I just said it was time to go and we headed home. Ashlyn didn't think twice about it, I don't think. But I've been frustrated ever since. Not only that the little girl didn't talk to Ashlyn at all, but that I didn't do more to encourage it. Time for me to get my "game plan" together so that I can encourage other kids to actuallly play with my precious princess rather than act like she doesn't even exist. *sigh* Yep, it was a mommy failure for sure.

Easter 2011

Ashlyn spent the first half of her day with her dad. When she got home, she was pretty tired but she came home to this.

So what little girl wouldn't be excited right? Yeah, I overdo it. It's what I do. All she wanted from the Easter Bunny was a princess scooter and a princess helmet. She was so happy (yet not surprised) to see that he (she) got the memo. *smile*

We visited my brother for a little while that afternoon. Then we enjoye some ice cream from Dairy Queen and spent the evening at home playing with her new stuff. Have I ever mentioned that she is the sweetest girl EVER? I might be a little biased on that.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well!!

Miss Versatility

Is this a title that can be won in a contest? Because my girl has got this down.

Yesterday we spent the day doing yard work. She was busy searching for worms and bugs. Her favorite was the roly poly. She found a lot of them and was so gentle to not squish them, and let them walk around and her arm and hand. She had so much fun with these silly little bugs and even begged me to let her keep one inside, as a pet. I guess I should get her a bug box, so she can enjoy the little critters inside the house, without getting them all over the house. She was filthy, and I mean filthy by the end of the day. Clothes, feet, legs, hand, arm...everything covered in dirt. Hair (which had been in 2 pony tails) was a complete mess. Yep, she was a tomboy from head to toe.

After we completed our yard work for the day, I showered and then gave her a bath. Scrubbed her clean again. She opted to wear her blue Easter dress (which is 1 of 4 dresses she has to wear for Easter this year...yeah, I'm weird). It looked absolutely adorable on her. I braided her wet hair and she looked like she was ready to go to church, or to her castle depending on who you ask. *smile* She then went to show my mom how pretty she was all cleaned up in her pretty dress and with her pretty braid. My mom asked if she wanted to look for bugs again and Ashlyn says, "No, gross! Princesses don't play with bugs! Gross!" It hadn't even been an hour since she was last cooing over her newest roly poly friend. :)

This was the princess...not the tomboy. :)

Potty Mouth

My precious little princess is the picture of wholesomeness. She is sweet and loving and as funny as they come. However, we have a new problem that I'm not sure how to correct. She has a serious case of potty mouth. I won't say that I don't use curse words when she's in earshot, because she learned her first one from me...but in the scheme of things, I don't feel "Damn!" is completely horrible. However, there are words that I do NOT use when she is anywhere around and that includes the "F" word.

She has picked up learning several of these words and I can't seem to get it through her head that they are not nice words and I don't like to hear them coming out of her mouth. She will be busy playing some imaginary games and I will hear one of these words come of out her mouth and I just stop what I'm doing and look at her, she see's that I've stopped moving and says, "What? I didn't say anything." OR "I love you mom." Thinking either of these sentences is suddenly going to make me unhear what it is she has said. I feel the more I try to convince her NOT to say them, the bigger the problem becomes. I also feel that if I ignore these words, she will think it's okay to use them. I've tried both things and still the words come out of her mouth. *sigh* I fear being the only mom having her child kicked out of preschool for her language.

She will come home from school though and tell me, "Mom, at school I didn't say: shut up, or stupid, or dou**ebag, or jacka**, or fu**ing, or anything, " and smile at me as though she's solved the worlds problems. I'm pretty sure she DID use those words, or she wouldn't have felt it necessary to tell me she did not use them. Oh dear, how to fix this? She's such a sweet girl, and to her they are only words, she has no clue what they mean. I don't think I could ever do the whole "soap in mouth" thing because that's just cruel, I just honestly don't know how to eliminate these words from her ever growing vocabulary. Suggestions?

Ashlyn's First Snow Angels

I love snow. I really do. I'm not a fan of the super cold temps that seem to go along with it, but snow...I heart it! Apparently Ashlyn does as well. She was SOOOO excited when we FINALLY got enough snow fall on Monday (1-9-11) to go out in her snow suit and make some real snow angels. She has been practicing for this day all year long.

This was actually the first time I really let her get out there and play in it. And play she did. She made about 50 snow angels in all. She also liked licking the snow off of pretty much everything that had snow on it. She attempted to lick the snow off a metal fence and I think I startled her pretty good when I caught her, tongue out, headed to the metal pole and with me screaming...NOT THE POLE! Oh gosh, I could just see me freaking out while my poor daughter has her tongue stuck to a pole. We narrowly missed that panic moment. *wiping forehead*

Here are a few pictures of her enjoying the only snow we've had this year. The first picture made the local news!!! She's a celebrity!!



Catching snowflakes on her tongue. (My FAVORITE picture!)




A REAL Snow Angel!

A wet snowbaby bum (after the snow angel).

Licking snow off a rock.

I wish we could all enjoy the snow as much as children do. *smiles* Stay safe and warm everyone!!

Holidays...Welcome 2011!

The holidays have, sadly, come to an end. We enjoyed so much time with friends and family. Ashlyn, of course, enjoyed Santa's visit. As you can see, she was obviously a very good girl.

Waiting to Open Presents

The Aftermath

We spent NYE at home. This was a treat because this would normally be her time with her dad. But he had made other plans that weren't really "kid friendly", so I gladly stayed home with her and enjoyed making cakes in her new Easy Bake Oven (which were horrible) and drinking from our new fancy glasses (filled with Cherry 7-Up and garnished with an orange slice, pink straw and umbrellas). We ate junk food and stayed up til midnight to watch the countdown. This was her first New Year to make it all the way to midnight. Woo hoo!!

Sad little Easy Bake Cakes with pretty drinks

CHEERS to the New Year!! Welcome 2011!

Our NYE Entertainment. Rocking Princess Ashlyn!!

I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season. I pray the New Year will bring you many blessings! Happy New Year to you all!!