Wicked Game

This morning, Ashley and I were in the livingroom playing. I was catching up on an FX series that I like. Yes, I said FX. She seriously does not pay a bit of attention to the TV usually. Let's stay on topic here people. You can lecture me later.

Ashley, all of a sudden, dropped what she was playing with and stared at the TV. One of the ads for a new series was playing. It featured a cover of 'Wicked Game' by Giant Drag. She just stared at the TV and started rocking out with a little head bob and later added some bounce. I thought it would be a one time thing but she repeated it every time the song came on. I ordered it from ITunes for her so she's a happy girl.

I really didn't think she paid much attention to music. It sorta reminds me of the time that Cserno and I were staying with our friends Katie and Anna. Katie was 3 maybe 4 at the time. She said "Beth, do you like meatloaf?". I said, "Sure, is that what you would like for dinner?". She looked at me strangely. I later realized that we were listening to a mix CD that featured Meat Loaf as one of the performers. It didn't even occur to me that she would be familiar with Mr. Paradise by the Dashboard Light. Kids today are way cooler than I ever was...not that that is saying much :).

Let's go outside.

Ashley wants to be outside all the time. She will yell at us if we pass by the front door if we don't go outside. As you can imagine, this can be especially tricky if it is bedtime.

Ashley has been having a good time playing hide and seek with Momma and Daddy. One of us hides and the other one helps her find the hidden one. She thinks it is so funny.

She is still not talking. Mostly, I think it is because she can get her point across with a few yells and her tone. We are scrambling to get her food, her milk, her toy, my car keys, or whatever she is telling us. Yes, we are spoiling her just a little bit. She does say something that closely resembles "bird" so we may have to count that as first.

Many milestones.

We put a huge amount of those balls in her Pack and Play and she LOVES them. Her favorite game is to toss them out and have one of us chase them. Smart girl.

Ashley turned one on June 2nd. She is walking now. She puts about 10 steps together and is fairly good at keeping her balance. She tries to go a little too fast sometimes.

We think she is going through a growth spurt because lately, she is eating and eating. Her favorite thing right now is mandarin oranges and a small kiddie cup is not enough. Ice cream is pretty yummy too.

I'm a water baby.

We took Ashley swimming for the first time today at the local YMCA. She took to it pretty well and even put her face under water. Spraying Daddy with a water gun was fun. In this photo, she was making friends with the lifeguard.

Ashley, the alligator

Just in case you didn't know, my husband, Mike, is one of my most favorite people in the world for many, many reasons. I love that he can watch sports on TV 365 days a year. I love that he can kick my butt at Trivial Pursuit (I think that I have only won once and it was a cheap win - with Casper the Ghost being the answer on pink - I still did a victory dance but yeah, it was a cheap win). I love that he knows tons of stuff about history and will explain it on these long walks without being too political about it.

One of the best things about him is that he does tons of tourist stuff and loves it. Yes, we have been to the Drive-Thru tree in Northern California. Who could ever forget the drug bust we witnessed at the Meteor Crater? The first time I went to Graceland was with Mike and I am from West Tennessee.

Anyway, on one of our many trips to Florida, he insisted on going to this alligator farm. The main event was to see this huge alligator called Superman. The tour "guide" hands Mike the walkie talkie before heading in to the cage. He says "If anything happens, tell them Superman got me. You speak English, right?". Yep...fun trip. Anyway, everyone survived and on the way back to the bus, we were admiring lots of alligators just laying around sunning. Well, all of a sudden, one decided it wanted something and just took off. We both freaked...it was super quick and scared us to death.

Well, that's Ashley. She looks all innocent and babylike. She moves around a little but will still whine for one of us to pick her up. This all holds true until you open the dishwasher. She flies across the room and is in the dishwasher pulling out steak knives before you can do anything.

I'm exhausted.

Ashley had a big day. First, we all went to the zoo with Nana. She had her first taste of an ice cream bar and a bite of snow cone. She also rode the carousel with Momma.

In the afternoon, we went to our friend Anna's birthday party at My Gym. She loved the plastic balls.

Ashley is a player.

This weekend, we went to the park with our friends, Shab and Santi, and their son, Yago. He is a few months younger than Ashley. After walking, we went to their house to hang out for a while.

Ashley was very interested in Yago. I thought she was going to poke his eye out. She did kiss him (i.e. licked his face). He immediately started to cry. Of course, Mike thought that this would be a good lesson for Ashley - that she should never kiss boys. I disagree completely...but she will have to work on not scaring them off.