Happy New Year!

This is how the Ashley family gets jiggy on New Years Eve...enjoy!

Oh the places Emme will go!

I am so excited I had to share...

Emaline just took 3 steps by herself! She has made leaps and bounds in mobility in the last week. Pulling up on anything she can, crawling (in her own weird way), and finally going from laying down to sitting. This girl cannot be stopped, now that she has a taste of the good life she wants more!

I will do a better and more thorough post soon, but I was just bursting with pride and had to let everyone know. Ten months and two days old and she wants to be a rockstar! I included a few pics of Emaline's first trip to Jump Mania. She definitely loves thrill seeking activities, preferring the "big kid" area to the "little kid" one. (Grandpa Dave take notice of the police cruiser she enjoyed driving).

Also, congratulations to Jason and Angelia Ashley on their new baby boy! We can't wait to meet him. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend that was action packed, but not too overwhelming. On Thursday we got up early and participated in the annual Turkey Trot 5K in downtown Springfield. Emaline did pretty well in her stroller, but did not want to stay bundled up so that was a bit of a battle.

Next, we went to lunch at Grandma Ginny's house and got some pictures taken in the back yard (pic #1). It was a very nice lunch and a good chance to visit one on one with Ginny.

Then we came home and had a nap which was great for all of us! Jimmy and I hosted all of my siblings and their partners for supper. That made for 10 of us and it was a really nice night.

On Friday we went and got our Christmas tree and put it up. We did a little shopping that day and decorated for Christmas as a family.

On Saturday we loaded up Emaline and the dogs and headed for the lake to celebrate Thanksgiving with Grandma Chris and Grandpa Dave. Luckily it was a great day outside and we got to enjoy some time on the dock (pics #2 & #3). Then we got to watch the final Mizzou game of the season (border war against Kansas) on the big screen which was fun. After a rowdy game (that we finally won) we had a very nice supper and got to see Aunt Helen and Uncle Fred. Needless to say after three days of running Emme was more than a little taxed (pic #4).

Hope everyone had a great holiday and is looking forward to the next!

9 months old

Emaline turned nine months old this week and we had her well baby check up yesterday. She is doing great and again Dr. Mai commented on how incredibly healthy Emme is, so we are very blessed. She is still tracking in the 75th percentile for weight, height, and head circumference which is good since she is proportionate. She weighed 20 lbs. 10 oz. and is 28 and 1/4 inches long.

Emaline now has four teeth and the doctor did comment that the top two are quite far apart and we will have to watch that. I am not sure what would be done for a gap in baby teeth, but it does appear that we have braces in our future. She is doing well with feeding herself finger foods using a fist and a pincer grasp. Unfortunately her love of veggies and fruits in pureed form has not carried over to finger foods. Aside from avocado she wants nothing to do with them, but is VERY fond of all carbohydrates. She loves puffs, crackers, wheat bread, etc. In fact, at her doctors appointment she was a good girl for her shots so they gave her animal cookies. She stuffed a whole one in her mouth before we could stop her and ate the whole thing!

We did get Emaline the seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccines as they were available and it felt like the safest thing to do. She was very good about the shots and has shown no side effects at all. They were both the "Kill vaccines" so no live virus to spike a fever, etc.

Emme is doing well developmentally hitting all of the age appropriate markers except one. She is not currently able to go from lying down to sitting. However, once sitting she loves to pull up on whatever is close by and walk around so...a delay in one area, but advanced in others. Dr. Mai advised us to give her plenty of opportunity to work on this skill and make sure that she gets it in the next month or so.

Emaline is still doing a lot of babbling (she has always been very vocal) and we can make out a couple of words, but I am not sure she knows that she is saying anything. She can say "hi" and wave and she will go on a long rant of "mum, mum, mum," but it isn't directed at me. On a side note, I'm not sure where she got the idea that we are British?

The pictures I included are just some silly shots around the house. Emaline having her supper in the nude because we are tired of stains and Emaline learning to do laundry to help get out all the stains!

Overall, we are all doing great and enjoying the company of each other. Jimmy and I will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house and we are looking forward to seeing all of our family at the holiday. To those that can't be with us physically this year we want to say, "We'll miss you and have a great Turkey Day!"

Love,
The Ashleys

Halloween 2009

Well, Emaline ended up being very fussy on Halloween night due to a lack of sleep and a cutting tooth. Needless to say her monster costume did not stay on long at the Estes' Halloween party. However, she did get plenty of wear in the days leading up to the big night so it was not a loss. The only pictures we have of her though were taken on the Saturday morning of Halloween. Grandma Ginny had plans the rest of the day so she stopped by to see the little monster and thankfully she got some pics.

We also have the proofs back on the family pictures we had taken so we will have those to post soon as well since we bought the digital rights. Stay tuned...

Hope everyone is enjoying their fall festivities and gearing up for the holidays. We are definitely looking forward to them more this year; anticipating the joy of sharing them with our daughter!

New House

We made it! It will take some time yet to finish unpacking and longer still to make the house feel like home, but we are here. Thanks to the help of our wonderful family, especially my Dad and JoEllen, we moved in a week ago today. We have been very busy with all the chores, but I'm trying to make sure that we enjoy the holiday and my favorite season too. I took Emaline out to enjoy some much needed sunshine this afternoon and got some pictures in our new yard. We have also been to a Halloween party, Spooktacular at the Dickerson Park Zoo, visiting Great Southern in monster costume (pictures to come), and another party tomorrow.

Emaline is cutting her third tooth (a big one on top) and it has been a bear. Sometimes I feel like my baby has a split personality, but with some Tylenol and time hopefully this too shall pass. I will try to post again soon with pictures from Halloween; hope everyone is doing well!

Moving update

I realize it has been too long since my last post. I can't begin to catch everyone up on the roller coaster ride here in the Ashley household so I will just cover the highlights. After a very long, ugly battle we will all be moving to our lovely new home in two weeks. We are in the middle of packing up right now and making all of the arrangements to make the move as smooth as possible. We will only be moving slightly East of where we live now, remaining very centrally located in the city. The new place has a lot more room and will likely look very bare with our sparse furnishings, but it will be fantastic to be able to spread out a bit! I included pictures of some highlights the past few weeks. Emaline in the black shirt is from the day we went to Cider Days on Walnut St. and she got a new red headband. The one of her upside down shows a favorite game of hers and her little teeth. Finally, the cheerleader in the making went up to BKD to visit Daddy on game day. While it was a crushing loss, you can see that these two fans were in high spirits sporting their Mizzou gear!

Quick Update

Well, it would seem that a few people would like to live on Cherokee St. Jim and I showed the house 9 times in 10 days and got an offer on the 11th day! Needless to say, we are a little overwhelmed trying to get things in gear for the big move. We are set to close on October 23 (provided that the inspection process goes okay) and will move that Friday. We have a contract on another house so hopefully we can go right from one to the other. Emaline is very excited at the prospect of much more space to learn to crawl in! We will keep everyone posted as to whether it is definitely a go after both inspections are complete.

Emaline now has two bottom teeth and they are just about the cutest thing I have ever seen. We are actively working on crawling, but much like every thing she does it will just have to happen on her own timeline. I have included some pics of her playing in her nursery with her fake food and some I just took a few minutes ago of her with the new toy Grandpa Greg picked up in St. Louis. Fred Bird sings "Take me out to the ballgame" which she thinks is very fun and because he is almost the same size as Emme I think she is under the impression he is another baby! She keeps holding his hand and talking to him (unlike eating him as she does all other toys). Hope everyone else is well!

Oh the places we'll go...

We have decided to try and sell our house FSBO if anyone is interested or knows someone who might be. While we both love this house and the location we really need more space. We figure we will give it a couple of months and if nothing happens then we will stick it out for a couple of years. I created a different site to showcase the house if anyone wants to look or pass it on: 720Cherokee.blogspot.com. The only other news around here is that Jimmy has moved to his new fancy office and is quite busy at work. Also, Emaline is cutting her first tooth and while it is very exciting and quite cute sticking up out of her pink little gums I might lose my mind before it finishes emerging. Hope everyone else is well and out enjoying the unseasonably pleasant weather!

Weekend of fun

I had to do another quick post because we got some great pics of Emaline this weekend. On Friday night we went to the mall and as you can see Emme was quite taken with a couple of hats she tried on. Then I included one of her on the sofa right after she woke up this morning, her face says it all. She is such a joy to wake up to! Finally, We had a lovely picnic in the park this afternoon and she enjoyed the baby swing by herself for the first time. Hope these make you smile!

6 Months Old

Emaline turned one half year old this week! We got her a new ball to celebrate (which Jimmy thinks is his new toy). We went to the doctor today for her well baby visit and she tipped the scales at 17 lbs. 12 oz., which is in the 80th percentile for her age. She is now 26 inches long which is in the 75th percentile. All the nurses and doctor kept saying was how healthy Emme is. I finally asked if that was a nice way of saying she is too fat. Dr. Mai assured us that Emaline is not to chunky and that she needs the nourishment for her brain development; she made sure we understood not to put her on a diet! Since my last post Emaline has decided to resume her rolling over. I think she was a little ticked that I told the world she wouldn't do it anymore. She is also sitting very well now, but still topples after a while so we keep something behind her to absorb the shock. As always she prefers standing to any other position. She has also shown the beginning signs of creeping. In an effort to get her favorite toy she began to scoot on her belly using her arms to pull herself yesterday. As an aid in this effort, Jim and I are looking for a new rug for the living room that is a little softer to crawl around on. Emaline is still eating fruits and vegetables at supper time, with green beans being her favorite by far. Dr. Mai encouraged us to continue to add solids to her diet as she wanted them, but to make sure that the majority of her calories still came from formula. Basically, as long as she is happy taking the milk we shouldn't push other forms of calories too much. Emme got her last round of the vaccines in the newborn series today and will only be faced with one shot at her nine month appointment (flu vaccine). She did pretty well during the doctors visit and seems just fine this afternoon, showing no signs of side effects. Finally, Emaline got her first cold last Saturday and it is still hanging on. Luckily, she has been very good natured about the whole thing only crying when we suck out her nose. She didn't sleep well for the first couple of nights, but we are running the humidifier and she is doing better. The rest of the Ashley's are doing just fine, and as you can see in the photo everyone is playing well together. I think that is all for now, hope everyone is enjoying the end of the summer; and to all the teachers out there I am thinking about you. Hang in there, there can only be one first week back to school!

Big girl

Thought it might be time for a quick update on what Miss Emaline is up to. She finally rolled over about a week and a half ago. However, it has only happened twice and her Mom is the only one to witness it so far. She just really does not like being on her belly and gets quite upset every time we make her lay on it. She is also doing really well with her sitting lately. She still falls over when left to her own devices, but is pretty steady when she is up. Also, Emme is eating cereals, vegetables and fruits for supper now. She is doing pretty well and seems to enjoy most of the food, as well as, using the spoon to eat. I have included pictures of her in a shopping cart and in a highchair at a restaurant. These are new activities for her and she seems to enjoy the view (rather than being in her carrier). She is laughing at all kinds of things now, but still seems to think that going fast in her stroller is the funniest thing of all. I have included a few pictures that I took of her to send to Jimmy while he was in Illinois for a week. They showcase some of her favorite daily activities like standing, reading, hanging with her puppies and playing on the quilt that Grandma Chris and Aunt Sarah made. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the last days of summer!

Five Months Old Today

Emaline is five months old today and I am alternating between excitement and tears. I find that you don't understand the passage of time in the same way you did before you had a baby. In one way I feel like she has always been a part of our family, and in another I feel like she just got here yesterday. At her four month well baby visit, which was just a couple of weeks ago because it was scheduled late, Emaline weighed almost 15.5 lbs and was 25 inches long. This put her in the 75th percentile in both categories and her head circumference was in the 50th percentile. The doctor was very pleased with her growth and development, remarking on her incredible strength (especially in standing). Emme is very close to rolling over on the floor, but hasn't quite made the hurdle. She will do it on soft surfaces like the sofa or bed with very little encouragement so we do have to keep a close eye on her now. She also laughs a lot now, the dogs in particular are a real riot to her. We got her on a great roll one night this week by just saying "Ma Ma" and "Da Da" so we aren't sure that her sense of humor is too particular yet! Emme is now eating rice cereal every night at supper and seems to like it, but she is eyeballing pizza, pasta, and tacos too so she might be ready to expand her horizons. Finally, Emaline began sucking her thumb a few weeks ago. I can't decide how I feel about this, but she only does it when she is tired and it might help us get rid of the binkie so I guess I won't worry over it too much. Overall, we are all doing very well and just enjoying the summer. We took Emaline to the park again yesterday to swing and she seemed to enjoy that. I have chosen some pictures from the past week or so to display, including one with the beautiful blanket that Emaline's Grandma Jo made her. Hope you all enjoy and I will try to post again soon!

Our Little Fish