"4"

"4", originally uploaded by tjsmommabear.

The time has flown by. Today, I looked at my baby boy - and all of a sudden...he's not a baby anymore at all. He's a full-fledged boy. Right now, we are entrenched in potty-learning, discipline, and playing, and just getting caught up in the whirlwind of days, weeks, months... But in reality, life is moving past at an astonishing rate of speed. With every milestone reached, another little piece of his childhood is left behind us.

It's all too easy to forget to take these little moments in. This is something I need to remember daily. To stop and cherish, and commit them to memory... because otherwise these little moments vanish - all too quickly, it seems.

Monday Morning Wake-up Call!

The next logical step..., originally uploaded by tjsmommabear.

As most know... The Girl Child has two speeds. Fast and even faster. As evidenced by her rapid entrance into the world... and everything else. She's in a hurry. She rolled over at around 6 weeks. From back to front, which is apparently more difficult than from back to front. She clearly has an agenda: stuff to do... adoring public to meet.

Ashley has only been crawling for 2 weeks. Months ahead of her older brother, who crawled at around 10-11 months.

In that two week's time, she has cut her first tooth, and is working on another. She can go from crawling to a sitting position (briefly) and she is now pulling herself up to standing on anything that's available... I fully expect her to be taking her first steps well before Thanksgiving, when she will be at the ripe old age of 8 months.

As we already knew, this one is certainly a force to be reckoned with!

Hard at work, on her Christmas list...

Hard at work, on her Christmas list..., originally uploaded by tjsmommabear.

We just got our mail key delivered today. All of the mailboxes for our block are together at the end of the street. The previous owners had a bunch of their mail in our mailbox...and Ashley enjoyed perusing and subsequently shredding the American Girl catalog. Good thing, cause I am NOT paying $100 bucks for A DOLL, and $30/ per EACH doll outfit, kiddo. That's what you have Grandparents for...

Second Child Syndrome...

Poor Ashley... she's definitely our second kid. Not only is it never quiet around here...in-utero she was treated to the soothing sounds of me constantly yelling at her brother.

"Travis, be careful" "Travis stop that!" "Travis listen to me!" "TRAVIS! TIME! OUT!!!"

By contrast, Travis luxuriated in the gestational soundtrack of classical music and calming voices since I worked in a medical office the entire time I was pregnant with him.

Beyond that, it occurred to me that gotten very few new toys.

She's got Travis' old "Giggle Ball" aka "Baby Anvil 2000" and various jingly/dangly toys for her play gym (which was also T's) and some stuffed rattle things.

In the last few days we have handed Ashley the following "non-toy" things to play with (while supervised, of course):

A plastic hanger (which she played with for about 15 minutes laying on our bed while we started packing the master bedroom)

A Seal CD (out of the case) (no sharp edges, shiny, lightweight, rainbow-y)

Just now as I was typing this entry, an Altoids gum tin (still wrapped in its packaging) she happily shook it, and whacked it on the desk, making all kinds of joyful noise. Good times! :)

Paper towels & their empty rolls
One of Ashley's favorite things to do when we are eating is to wave a crumpled paper towel around, and smack it everywhere. We let her keep it until she tries to eat it.

As much as all of the above are highly entertaining, when I am next at Target, I'll most likely find something new for her to play with... but pretty much anything there is made-in-China crappy plastic. Ugh.

Growing up fast!

I realize it's been a veeery long while since I updated/bragged about Travis. It's much easier to get lost in the day to day obnoxious stuff, and focus on that instead of the good stuff.

Travis is a smart kiddo. He just acts like a jackass sometimes. But, he IS only 3. Well 4 in two months, but still. I need to remember to be more patient with him on a daily basis. It's just when he willfully ignores me, it drives me effing bonkers!

Anyway... he knows his alphabet, and his letters by sight. He can count to 20 in English, and 10 in Spanish. He knows his colors, and shapes, including trapezoid, octagon, oval and rectangle.

He sings songs, by memory, even without musical accompaniment. This kid has a real ear for music. I'd be surprised if he didn't play an instrument later in life.

He knows all of our names, first and last, and my cell number (sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle").

He can tell a tapir from a pygmy marmoset, from a 3-toed sloth. He can identify a spectacle bear, red eyed tree frog, and a maned wolf.(Thanks Diego!)

He knows who the president is currently, and knows John McCain, and Barack Obama when he sees them on t.v. He knows the California Flag, "America's Flag" and our city flag by sight. he knows we live in ____, California.

I get a spontaneous "I love you mommy!" throughout the day. <3

He's an amazing big brother to his baby sister. Every morning he greets her with kisses and hugs. He gives her toys, turns on the music on the bouncer for her, lets me know when she spits up while I am driving.

Everyday, I am amazed. My baby boy... now getting all grown up.... soon to be starting school. It's insane! We actually have long conversations... conversations where he "gets" everything I am saying.

The same boy I worried had delayed speech didn't crawl til 11 months, and didn't walk until he was over a year old now never shuts up, and climbs to the top of the slide at the park.

Now, if we could just get him to stop crapping his pants, we'd be golden!