December 2009 Entries
Chritmas 2008 was in Salem and saw the introduction of the Rocking Cow. Ashley was not impressed with the whole ordeal, but she wasn’t particularly upset with it either. It was a real take it or leave it day, but her cousins had a ton of fun. I know this video is about a year late. I know I know I know.
Mom and Ashley weren’t able to fully clean up the holiday mess after we got back from Athena. So we took our last Sunday in the long weekend and put all the decorations and tree away. We put away all of the new toys, cleaned the cupboards, organized the pantry, picked up everybody’s rooms and did several loads a laundry. Go Mom Go. Go! Go! Go! For his part, Dad took Ashley on a red wagon ride around to the park and rode swings. Christmas was great, but I think we are all glad to be home. ...
Ashley and the gang traveled to Athena this year for Christmas. We left Thursday the 24th packed to the gills with presents and a happy baby. We arrived to a house full of people in Athena and had a rocking couple of dinners, breakfasts and more snacks than a pelican could fit in it’s beak. Ashley learned some new life skills with cooking in the kitchen with Grandma and reloading shells with Grandpa. The uncles showed Ashley how to ride a skateboard and Aunt Tylee taught Ashley the fine art of light saber fighting. We caught a...
Christmas 2008 was Ashley’s first and we tried to start a family tradition. The plan was to have Christmas Eve at home, travel to Salem and spend Christmas day with the family. Well, Snowpacolypse got in the way. The snow came down hard and heavy for many days. Instead of having a nice evening in front of a fire, we had to bust open the presents at the drop of a dime at 2:30 in the afternoon. The news said it would be warming up and raining, and we didn’t wait around. We celebrated with Ashley and still got...
We have been traveling to and fro, meeting and gathering with our friends and family. It has been very nice so far. I am not sure why exactly it is this year, but the entire Christmas season is seeming far less commercial than it usually does. Perhaps I haven’t been looking, or maybe I don’t go out enough to be buried. Maybe it is because we don’t have cable tv anymore or possibly because my job is pretty secular. Whatever it is in the world, perceived, real or otherwise I am happy that it is so. I have spent...
My kid is staring to want to sit on the toilet after going potty at 21 months. Her timing is off but the will is there; once we get the timing right there will be nothing but songs from our bathroom. (Our potty training toilet sings when you use it) She might not have a lot of hair. She might not have a lot of teeth. She might not string sentences together. But she craps where she is supposed to. Hell yea.
Christmas 2009 is a very promising one. Mom is in full swing and very excited with decorating and gift giving. Dad is very happy because mom has agreed to tone it down a bit from last year and stick to a budget. Ashley is excited because this the first year she recognizes gifts for what they are. Rock hard awesome. Aunt Stacy brought over a gift for Ashley in an early season gathering and it was amazing to watch Ashley dutifully and slowly unwrap the present because Mom asked her to. The first few tears were done out...
Ashley is a better bowler than either of us. She was charming at the lanes and basically a good sport. Part of being a good bowler in Ashley’s world is charming the glitter off of the nice ladies in the lane next to us and the nice server lady. Everybody was impressed. Ashley scored a legitimate 30 (without weak bumper usage) in her 4 frames.
I think that it wasn’t really the swine flu because by all accounts the whole family should have been sicker than dogs for over a week. That just didn’t happen. Mom and dad escaped with little to no effects. Sure we had headaches, coughs, runny noses and general malaise, but since nobody got all the symptoms at once or any kind of temperature I am willing to chalk it up to poor health in general related to our sedentary lifestyles and Delta Burke poor eating habits. Ashley felt much better the next couple of days as well. She perked...
Ashley got into a fight with the swine flu. The sign on the door at her daycare one Thursday night claimed that at least two kids were infected with a case of the porky plague, and of them was in her room. The room teachers were valiantly cleaning and sanitizing the room as I entered that evening, but bless there hearts there was no stopping it. Mary and I did wonder aloud (half joking half serious) what it would be like. Friday we found out. Our little baby was as hot as an oven. For our...