The family took a trip to the Portland Zoo to try and get out of the house after a long weekend of being sick and crabby.  Ashley wanted to get out of the house herself.  We got there nice and early and saw animals, apes being grotesque, elephants and other animals being depraved and generally animalistic.

So while we were barfing in our mouths at the motions of the elderly chimps, at least we didn’t have to fight crowds and we got nice close in parking.

Mom got Ashley a set of paints and stuff the Ikea.  So they put down some cardboard and went to town.  Much more than just the paper was dabbled on, but all in all it was a pretty fun exercise in messing up Mom.

There were many cools paintings and even a special I Heart Daddy painting.

First she spends time making a mess, and then demands to help cleaning it up

We went with Auntie Laurel to a dirty farm filled with filthy farm animals.  It was a pretty cool time.  There were goats, pigs, deer and a wallaby.  The wallaby didn’t know what the hell was going on (I think it was drunk) but the other animals were pretty happy to be there.

Ashley rode on the ponies and confirmed the stereotype that little girls like ponies.  So if anybody wants to “pony up” (zing) and help get the fund started it would be pretty groovy.  Mom and Dad don’t want to participate in the horse shenanigans, but we welcome anybody else to buy up a bail of hay.

Ashley got a ton of movies for her birthday.  I think her metamorphosis into a actual slug will complete before summer is up.

So, no salt at the house please.

Step 1:  get born

Step 2:  live two years

Step 3:  party like there is no tomorrow

We went the children’s museum.  We all took public transit and basically it was one of the most hectic days on record.  Sam wound Ashley all up, and she in turn put the monkey’s in his backpack so there was a lot of chasing kids around.

Plus it is probably just irresponsible to put out a water exhibit in March.

It was a nightmare of color and panic, but the carpet made it through just fine.

It was a nice day and Ashley wanted to prove she could ride down the slide by herself.

Nicely done

Ashley graduated from a crib into a new bed.  Mommy picked it out and made a very nice bedroom for our baby to sleep and play in.  The bed will expand all the way out the length of a twin, so Miss Ashley has some room to grow in it.

It was pretty much the greatest thing to the the little princess, and she took to swimming in the bed like a crow takes to corn.  Admittedly there was a “falling out” incident the first night, but since then it has been almost perfect.