Ashlyn's Antics

Ashlyn hasn't hit any major milestone lately, but I did want to share a few of her most recent interests.

Things that many 18 months old are probably doing:

1. Whining. Ashlyn isn't new to whining. It is annoying, of course, but over the past couple of weeks, she has been whining constantly. Somehow, it seems to just be when I am around. Allen keeps telling me that everything is fine with her, until I come in the room, and then she has to whine and cling to me.


2. Words. She keeps adding new words to her vocabulary all the time. (One of her newest is sheet!) We are currently working on milk and up, hoping to avoid the whining that happens so much when she wants one of these things.


3. Clothing. Ashlyn is really working at getting dressed by herself, mostly pants and shoes. She often tries to put pants on, legs first. Or, she tries to put both legs in one pant leg. With help from Garland, she did manage to pull her pants on Sunday, and she was so proud. Yesterday, she was whining because she couldn't get another pair of jeans over the fleece lined pair that she was wearing. She also likes to put on her shoes, which she can sometimes manage. Generally, she only does one shoe. But, don't take it off, unless you want to hear more whining, which often leads to a tantrum. Oh, and she now likes hats. I don't know where that came from, but she does see Allen wear them all the time.

Wearing her hat around the house.

I don't think every kid is doing this:

1. Ashlyn's sheet. To some extent, this isn't really that unusual. Many kids have a blankie or toy or other such thing that they are attached to. But, Ashlyn is attached to a sheet. A full size bed sheet. I totally thought of Linus when Ashlyn started whining and then had a meltdown as she saw me put one of the sheets into the dryer and close the door. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be just one particular sheet. She will really accept any sheet. She even latched onto a pillowcase, that I was really rooting for, but it didn't stick. The thing about the sheet is that is a rather large thing to carry around with you, especially now that it has been in public.

Snack time, while holding the sheet.


2. Drinking. I'm not talking about beer here. I'm talking about the dog's water dish. Ashlyn picked up Ranger's water dish and tipped it back to drink out of it. We are so proud.

As I've mentioned before, I love having a husband around. (Of course!) Last week, I took Ashlyn to hourly care, so that I could come home and work on school stuff. When I mentioned it to Allen later, he said, "I could have taken her." Oh. It didn't even occur to me that, yeah, he could have taken her. He would be going on post about that time, anyway. So, yesterday, he took Ashlyn to hourly care and picked her up! This gave me at least another hour of time at home. Plus, on Monday morning, he was home from PT before she woke up, so he got her out of bed and made us breakfast. There are other reasons that I'm happy he is home :), but I was so used to doing the mommy thing alone that I notice those differences even more.

French toast!

This has nothing to do with Ashlyn, but it has been SO COLD the past couple of days (and I want to whine about it.) It didn't get above -40 yesterday. It only warmed up to -29 today. It has also been all foggy and yuck. BRRRR. I'm going to lie under a blanket now.