Dearest Cutie Pie,
How in the world are you one month away from turning
two…insert sad face here from this mama! Our baby of the family has grown up
so, so fast! Babies don’t keep that is for sure! While this reminder that you
will be celebrating your second birthday in just a few short weeks pains me in
some ways, it brings great joy for so many other reasons! The biggest being
that you can now play and hang out with your big sisters! You three play
together so well and that brings us such joy to watch! You seriously have THE
BEST time together and the majority of the time you get along so well!
(probably because they attempt to meet and cater to your every need) but isn’t
that the kind of specialized treatment baby sisters get? =) Having three little
girls is seriously the best! If the Lord ever chooses to bless us with a little
blue, we would love it immensely I’m sure… but we’d have a lot to learn about
cars, trucks, and trains! Our house mostly revolves around babies, pregnant
mamas, nursing and feeding babies, playing house, grocery store, princesses,
tea parties, birthday parties for the babies, taking walks with your babies…you
get the picture. ALL THINGS BABY and all things baby related. And we wouldn’t
trade that for the world. It is so special to have all girls for now and to
receive such sweet kisses, hugs, affection, and cuddles from you three! Ashton
Kate, you might be the baby of the family, but you rule this house for now.
Everyone wants you to be happy and content and the four of us have worked
really hard the past 23 months to make that happen for you…and now the reality
of teaching you, disciplining you, giving you clear boundaries, and beginning
to hold you to the same standard as your big sisters has officially begun. And
you’re not a huge fan of it just yet. We will get there with lots of prayer,
patience, and practice! You are a constant reminder of the steadfast patience
the Lord continually shows us each day. =) Ashton Kate, you are still our
little firecracker, our hot little mess on a daily basis, and yet the cutest
thing we ever did lay eyes on! We can’t get enough of you and thank the Lord
for the blessing of being your parents. We promise to point you to Him-to his
mercy and His grace each day you are granted life. Your life is such a gift to
our family! We love you baby girl!
Love, Mommy
Milestones and Memories from 22-23mo:
-The disaster of feeding an ever-changing toddler’s
desires continues in this house. One minute you love it, the next you toss it overboard.
One day you’re starving and can’t stop saying “hungy, hungy” and the next you
eat next to nothing. Thankful for your squishy reserve of chubbiness you have
on hand to hold you over until a new day comes. You still LOVE your milky and
ask for it a good bit of the day! Other favorite foods lately include: pears,
peaches, frozen raspberries/blueberries warmed up, grapes (most days), mandarin
oranges, hummus on bread, cheese quesadilla, spaghetti (the meat not the
pasta), pizza, chicken nuggets, waffles with peanut butter, muffins, raisin
bread/English muffins, cereal, cheese sticks, yogurt, squeeze packs,
applesauce, and of course anything sweet. You love a treat, anytime-anywhere!
-Still can’t complain about your sleeping, but you
definitely sleep more like 11 hours each night rather than 12 and take more of
a 2 hour nap these days rather than anything longer. Still thankful that
barring you being sick or your teeth giving you occasional trouble, that we
never have to do much with you after we lay you down at night. Makes us pretty
excited to come get you each morning after you sleep so well!
-You are still extremely verbal and speak in sentences
for the most part. It is like we just have a third little girl and not a baby
anymore. Some sweet things we hear quite that sound more like other little ones
your age are… “bible tells me so” when you want us to sing Jesus loves me to
you, “what's
this mommy”, “what's that mommy”, “ok mama”, “come with me”, “wove you mama”, “stop
it”, “I do it, I do it”, “another one”, “go outside”, “read a book”, “with me”
(when wanting to take something in the car with her) and “new book please.” It’s hard already to remember life before you
could talk. It came on so quickly and hasn’t stopped since. We are really
thankful though that we can generally figure out what you are trying to say and
what it is that you want or desire. Sure does help eliminate the screaming when
you are trying to tell us what you want! You stop immediately as soon as we acknowledge
what you are saying. And especially this month (right past 22months) you
started adding a “y” to a lot of your words such as “milky” and “booky” and it’s
seriously precious!
-Toys and things you enjoy the most these days….hands
down still your baby dolls! And probably because that’s what Maddie Grace &
Makenzie spend most of their days playing with! But you can be found doing
exactly what they are playing…whether it’s creating a birthday party for the
babies, coming to visit them at the hospital post-birth, going to the grocery
store, playing school, nursery or bedtime with them-everything imaginative
usually involves the babies and you’re definitely part of the play! And if for
some reason it’s not babies for the day, it’s usually princess dress-up time
and they always have you decked out in your princess dress and high heels and
you will prance around the house in it just as cute as can be! You still LOVE
to be outside-playing in the sandbox and slide out back, playing with chalk on
the sidewalk, or taking a walk/playing in the cul-de-sac-outside is definitely
your happiest spot! Other things you love to do is read books (especially the
mini animal books-you will sit there forever if we read those!), you love to
play with the beanie babies and tote those all over (even into your crib to
sleep with), you love going to the zoo or the pet store because you love
animals tons! (until you are face to face with them and then you can become
petrified, ha!=)
-Things we want to remember you doing from this stage: you
ask to go potty all the time and have been pretty successful up there! You are
always saying “play one more second!” When it’s time for bed, you cover your
face with your lovey in the crib and it seems to calm you down if you’re upset
when we’re traveling (at least for now it works!) At nap and bedtime when we
are rocking you, you carefully spread out your lovey and lay it perfectly flat
on our chests for you to rest your head on (pretty adorable I might add!!) You
are obsessed with all things AUbie and thing he’s just the greatest! Now we
haven’t discovered whether or not you like him up close and personal but from a
distance, you’re a huge fan! You love to be just like your sisters so you will
yell to mama “watch me mama!!” as you try to copy and imitate tricks the twins
do from ballet moves, dancing, jumping, gymnastics and you love the
affirmation! Still a fiercely and I mean fiercely independent little thing. You
scream I do it, I do it and I buckle, I dress relentlessly! We turned your car
seat around and thought that might help your traveling in the car but nope, you’re
still a terrible traveler even around town and we won’t mention a car trip with
you-not your happy place for sure! Whenever we say “let’s pray Ashton Kate” you
bow your head, clasp your sweet hands together and scrunch your eyes halfway
shut-seriously the cutest thing in all the world and you stay pretty serious
until you hear the word AMEN! A few other quick things: you want to hold the
whole bag of a snack or the Ipad/mommy’s phone-showing you is not enough and
handing you a couple from a bag of snacks is not enough either-you want it all
and you want to be in charge of it!
-Important dates this month: 9/3- we turned
your car seat facing forward before our beach trip in hopes of a better car
rider! (didn’t help at all, ha!) 9/4-went poo poo in the potty for the first
time! (and asked to do so!), 9/5-went poop again in the potty-while we were at
the beach; jumped waves in the ocean on this day too!
