Ashley's Updates

Ashley had her 9 month checkup today.  I was alittle late in getting this done since next week she'll be 10 months.  Anyways, she is looking right on track with everything and alittle above her age range with how mobile she is - pulling herself up, walking across furniture etc. 

Her weight is 18 lb. 3 oz which is in the 25% and her length is 28 inches which puts her in the 48%.  Being thin runs in both of our families but the doctor figures her lower weight is because she's so active.  We've just got a little peanut on our hands I guess :-)

Bennett's Rides

Bennett has been one lucky kid these past two weekends.  Last weekend our neighbor was out riding her horses and Bennett was outside playing.  Next thing you know, Bennett was getting a horse ride and he LOVED it!  I haven't seen a smile that big on him in awhile.  He was probably on the horse for about 10 minutes.  She let him ride the horse back to her house to get it a drink so I followed to walk him back home.  For those of you that don't know, we live right on the edge of town and there is a farm right behind our house and a corn field right off our backyard.  These neighbors have 6 horses, chickens, a goat, cats and dogs.  I love where I live :-)  So anyways, that was his special ride last weekend.

Now this weekend they were combining the corn at my mom's place.  Bennett loves playing with the toy tractors, wagons etc. so now to get to watch them combine and unload the corn in person - boy, he had a fun weekend over there.  So today before they were done with mom's fields, we made sure to take him out and get him a ride in the combine.  He really liked this also and had another great experience. 

And speaking of farming at my mom's... for those that haven't heard, last Thursday, one of the corn fields actually started on fire.  It is sooo dry here in MN - we haven't had a decent rainfall for many many weeks!  They were combining one of mom's fields and somehow, something sparked which started a fire.  Besides it being so dry, it was incredibly windy this day which meant that the fire was jumping and spreading.  The fire department was obviously called out along with the neighboring town for backup.  It luckily was one of the fields behind the pasture and barn so it wasn't near the house or any other buildings.  If so, we would have had a huge problem on our hands!  It is hard to know exactly how much burned because of the fire jumping etc. but they are guessing about 10 acres.

It was hard to get a picture of what exactly happened partially because I didn't go back there when there was actually flames and a big fire.  But in this picture you can see all the black.  Most of that was already combined and the stuff that burnt was just the remaining stalks.  And the corn that is still standing on the left side they were going up and down the rows spraying it to make sure everything was out.  It was a pretty intense afternoon.

Ashley - 9 Months

A few days ago Ashley turned 9 months!  Wow this year is going fast!

Here are a couple of quick updates on her life.  She has had a very big month and has learned SO many new things!   

*She is slowly starting to actually crawl.  It's only a few crawls and then she flops back down to her belly to scoot probably cause it's faster. 
* She has started pulling herself up to standing - anywhere and everywhere.  She stood up against the patio door the other day and looked outside for 20 minutes!  She hasn't quite perfected getting back down though - she just kinda lets go and drops to her butt.
* She has (yikes) started crawling stairs already.  We were downstairs playing the other day and I was over by Bennett.  Next thing I know Ashley is on the second step.  Ugh, way too early for this!
* She is really starting to get in to things she shouldn't - pulling books off the shelf, playing with cords, picking at the plant etc.
* She LOVES wrestling with Bennett on the floor.  I honestly don't know which one of them is going to get hurt first! 
* She goes to bed at night at 8:30 but lately wakes up for a bottle around 4:00.  I hate having to get up with her, especially since I haven't had to do this since she was about 4 weeks old, but the plus is that she will then sleep until 8:00 or later. 
* And speaking of bottles, she is only having about 3 bottles a day totaling about 20 oz.  She has 3 big meals a day and lots of Cheerios.  Her favorite baby food is spaghetti and she also likes mashed bananas.  She not a huge fan of green beans and of course, that's the one that I made for her from my garden green beans and have in the freezer. 
* Naps - she used to have a short morning nap, a long afternoon nap and then a short evening nap.  But, some days now she's down to only one - (I'm not fond of this).  She's doing really good though and doesn't get very crabby even when she only has the one nap.  And she has also been doing incredibly well the nights when we go to Kristen's volleyball games and don't get home until after 9:00.  You'd think she'd be a nightmare by this time but she's still happy and smiley at everyone there.
* She waves Hi, Bye and Night night which is so cute.  She also shakes her head No and I think she's actually learning what No means because if I say "Ashley don't", she'll shake No. This doesn't mean she'll stop what she's doing though!  She also has learned to clap over the past month and is constantly clapping and laughing. 
* She will have her 9 month checkup next week but for now, I weighed her on our bathroom scale which says 18.2.  This is about 3 lbs. less than Bennett at this age.  It doesn't surprise me though because Bennett was chunky chunky and Ashley is pretty skinny. 
* She is wearing size 3 diapers and sizes 9 month or 12 month clothes.  The 12 month pants are alittle long but fit her waist. 

She is such a peaceful sleeper!

 And, she always wakes up in such a good mood.  (this picture is taken about 2 minuters after she woke up from that nap)

Wrestling