*Ashby*

Thursday, July 14, 2011

My slippery fish

I signed James up for swimming lessons. The class ages were 6 months to 2 years. It was a steal of a deal at $20 for 2 weeks. The lessons were held at the rec center and who knew there was a fun mini water park that is so close to home? AND it's only $3 per person!! We will definitely be getting season passes next year!

The first day of lessons I quickly noticed all the other kids were on average 2 years old. One mother admitted to me her kiddo was 3 and a half. So while the other kids practiced blowing a ping pong ball across the pool, I focused on making sure James didn't put the ping pong ball in his mouth. We did have fun little games and James loved jumping in (which was really me sitting him on the side of the pool counting to 3 and then flying him in the air and then into the pool). I was getting a decent workout and a decent tan. James did however improve his splashing skills. Now he goes wild in the bath tub soaking almost the entire bathroom.

Today was the last day of lessons and James was so excited to get there. He knew where we were going, I love seeing him flap his arms and kick his legs when he gets excited about something. I am really glad we did it, and I may even try to sign up to do it again for a later summer session.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

To Learn

Have you heard of http://www.khanacademy.org/? It's amazing. You can go on and watch tutorials about various math and science subjects and learn, for FREE!! Amazing. I have always wanted to keep my math skills current so I will be able to help my children when needed. Now, there is an easy way to do so! I'm excited.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Cousin Outtakes and other things...

James, doing his Jim Carey impression

Um James, we're cousins, don't hold my hand.

Luke is bored with James' game of 'watch me get my binki with no hands'

Grace's best Courtney Love impression

CC is very helpful in quieting the baby, James is doing his best frog impression

Grace is checking the nutritional facts on the Marshmellows

Luke is preparing to be the next S'More spokes kid

Say S'More!!

Grandpa's 1st S'More, EVER!

Yum!

James just loved grandpa Ducks!

James met Kat for the first time!

And Uncle Richard

And he got his first set of bunny ears

He went to the beach for the first time.

And caught his first wave

And went on his first beach walk

(No idea what I was doing)

And on the walk wanted desperately to roll around in the sand

He spent WAY too much time in his captain's chair

He spilled an enormous glass of water in mama's lap.

And went on a golf cart ride around Friendly Valley.

He decided he had way too many treats while on vay-cay so he has been doing his best to work off the calories. Check out his Push-up position.

Note, he is balancing perfectly on his toes which he says makes for a tougher workout. With those muscles, who is going to argue?

Friday, June 24, 2011

Book Worm

I like to read. I like fiction for leisure. I like informational books, especially if they are relevant to things I am experiencing. I find self help books are tough for me to muddle through so I tend not to even try. Maybe there is a self help for readers who don't like self help books? I like to read religious book, but I get a bit picky about the authors. And pretty much, I will read anything Ambyr recommends to me.

I thought I would share some books that have been particularly helpful to me within the past 2 years:

-"The Fertility Book" by Dr. Richard Marr. While we were "trying" (I hate that term but what else can you call it?) I read this book. It helped me to understand everything I needed to know about fertility. I found this book very empowering. It was informative and helped me to know what I needed to be concerned about and what would be considered normal. It helped me to ask all of the right questions. This book has A LOT of information. I overheard a part of one of Sam's lectures on reproduction the other day and told Sam I could probably ace that section on the boards (I was completely joking, but partially wondering how I would do). One side effect, for better or worse, when I have friends who are "trying" (:-/) I all of the sudden cannot help myself and I become very nosy. Only because I want to help them figure out if there is anything to be concerned about so they can fix it if necessary. I have to give myself a mental face slap to snap myself out of it. If I have done this to you, sorry, know it was out of love.

-"The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" by La Leche League International. I use it more as a reference book rather than a cover to cover read but it taught me so much about nursing and I love the way they really encourage nursing if at all possible. As mother's know, nursing can be very difficult and it was nice reading this book and feeling like I had enough information to do it.

-"Caring for your Baby and Young Child" by Steve P Shelov (among others). For first time mommy's this book is a must!! It helps you to know everything about caring for a new baby. It makes for an amazing gift as well. Ambyr gave me mine and I use it almost daily. It tells you all of the different milestones. What to expect. What different symptoms could be. Example. James had a rash. I went to my little book and it had photos of various rashes. James had a heat rash so I knew it wasn't anything serious and not worth taking to the pediatrician. Side note: I took him anyway :-/ I mean I am still a first time mom and wanted to be 100% sure.

-"The Read~Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. If you like to read, you should read this book. If you do not like to read I insist that you read this book. It discusses the importance of reading to your children, reading yourself so your children see you reading, and how reading will improve your child's test scores and help them to become a life time reader. Simply put, Reading= Smart. People do not get this and I don't know why. If you read, you will know stuff. Certain people I know pretend to know stuff, but the secret is you can actually know stuff! Just read about it. Getting information from friends, relatives and acquaintances is good and can certainly be helpful but reading about the subject and getting information from various authors and subject matter experts is very informative and will make you smarter. It will also help to improve your grammer and your vocabulary.

-"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. This is a political book by a Russian woman who calls her political philosophy Objectivism. I learned a lot from this book and I have to say, it is my favorite book. What I liked about this book is it shows the importance of learning, working, thinking and action.

James wants his recommendations included as well:

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" By Eric Carle

"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Henry Holt

Anything by Sandra Boyton

"Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown

(Yes, he is wearing Halloween PJs, don't judge me).

Happy Reading!!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

A bit of bad luck

Lately some fishy things have been happening around the Ashby household:

-A few weeks ago Sam kept getting flat tires. The odd part was after he would fill the tire, it would be fine but a few nights later a different tire would be flat.

-One night, Sam left his window cracked a bit and someone threw rocks in his car.

-A week later, someone keyed the driver's side of his car.

-Then someone tried to steal my car! Yeah that's right steal it. Something felt off the second I walked up to the car. Sam had been driving it the night before and the driver's door was unlocked. The rest of the doors were locked. Sam is very conscious about locking doors, I have never seen him leave a door unlocked so right away I knew something was wrong. Then, I got into the drivers seat and the chair was moved forward even more then where I would place it. Sam is 6'7" so it should have been all the way back, where he left it. Then I noticed all of my consul contents were all over the floor. Then I tried to put the key in the ignition and the car was left in the start position. And the battery was dead. Luckily they didn't take it but scary for us.

-The next night someone wrote on the hood of Sam's car in permanent marker.

-The next day James was napping and I heard a loud pop. I looked everywhere but didn't notice anything weird. Then when Jams woke up I looked at the window and saw this:

We're hoping things get back to normal soon...

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

My 6 month old

I completely forgot to finish and the post this, so sorry. I have failed my blog lately. I have also failed to read blogs lately. I will attempt to explain in a future post until then...

James is a very happy baby.

He smiles and laughs all the time (and in my head I picture him saying "smiling's my favorite!"

I'd officially call him an easy baby, although he still wants to be held most of the time.

James weighs (well weighed at his 6 mo appointment) 20lbs (99%)

James is (was) 28.5 inches long (99%)

I do not remember what his head measurement was; but usually he is usually around the 70%.

James got tiny little bumps all over his face one day. The next day they were on his chest. And the day after that they covered his entire body (poor guy). Turns out, he had heat rash. I now carry ice packs with me and when we get out of the car I have to line his seat with them. Since I have been doing this, his heat rash has disappeared.

James isn't super into solids yet. He will take about 5 bites (max) and about 3.5 of those bites end up on his bib. Then he gags and clamps his mouth closed so I can't feed him anymore.

He still nurses every 2 hours (day and night). It started to slow down a while back but he is in another growth spurt and with the heat like this I'm sure he is a bit more dry than usual.

He likes to prop his feet up on me. On my arms, or legs, or chest; whatever he can.

He is a chatter box. I LOVE listening to him rattle on and on in his baby talk. Usually it sounds like Da da th th th th waaa et aaaahhhh. I'm pretty sure it means, I love you mommy.

James loves books. He no longer tries to put books in his mouth when I read to him! He watches the pictures and tries to turn the page.

The second I lay James down on his back he rolls over to his tummy, then waves his arms frantically as if he is trying to swim.

While in the crawl position he arm crawls with one arm. No legs. He can actually make an entire circle!

I still bounce James to sleep for every nap and for bedtime, people tell me I am spoiling him. Really I am just enjoying every second with him. Is that so wrong?

We do bedtime routine each night. I think he is just starting to expect that bedtime is approaching when we do story, scripture, song, pray...

James has a nervous laugh. When he is anxious to eat, or prematurely wakes from a nap, he laughs. Not his normal laugh, but almost an irritated laugh. Wonder where he picked that up...

James is the most cuddly baby I've ever known.

When Sam walks in at night, James immediately smiles his best smile and starts to make happy noises. He knows Sam is just about to scoop him up and entertain him. It's my favorite part of the day, watching them play together.