08.06.02

Wah!...Today Ashlyn turns 10 months! What are my observations this month? She's starting to "talk" and babble A LOT!...most of her words sound like "ta-ta-ta", "pa-pa-pa", "da-da-da", "ba-ba-ba", "goo-goo-goo", "la-la-la-", or "mum-mum-mum". Nothing really distinguishable. But she has been saying "Up!" a lot lately. We don't know if she knows what that means. If she does, then it's kinda sad that that would be her first word. I was hoping her first word would be "mama"...although I've heard that many babies start with "dada". Well, we'll see. She continues to laugh, squeal, and scream with happy enthusiasm. As you may already know, she's crawling around now...smoothly and quickly! She also pulls herself up to a standing position, and has stood unassisted for a few wobbly seconds before lowering herself to a sitting position. If she's holding onto furniture or someone, she can walk or side-step all around the room. She kneels a lot while playing. She continues to bounce with joy and has started "dancing". It's really cute. Whenever she hears music, she rocks from side to side and waves her arms. She also nods to music...and surprisingly she does it to the beat. HAHAHA! She also loves to climb on everything or anyone and she finds climbing through or into small tight spaces a enjoyable challenge. She is constantly curious and gets into EVERYTHING! Ashlyn doesn't drool as much now *thank goodness* and doesn't have much of an appetite anymore. Feeding her solids takes much longer than before. She prefers table food over the jar-stuff and can feed herself soft chunky pieces of fruit and veggies. The dexterity in using her thumb and forefinger to pick up small items has improved quite a bit. And when she's full, she'll let you know by shaking her head. What else?...hmmmm....she doesn't sleep as long as she used to and wakes up earlier now. She's very affectionate. She's big on hugging, patting, nuzzling (er, should I say...grind her forehead on your face). She's not big on kising though. Everytime I lean in to kiss her, she'll quickly turn her face away. What a tease! But she is quite narcissistic and she'll kiss her own reflection in the mirror. hehehe She's beginning to imitate our actions. Whenever she gets a hold of my cellphone, she'll bring it to her ear....except she doesn't do it gently, and ends up bashing herself upside the head. =P She can clap her hands and wave "Hello" and "Goodbye" on command. And just weeks ago, she was left-hand dominant, and now she's a righty. Hmmm??? =) I guess that's pretty much it. She's learning so much and impresses us with a new skill each day. She's truly a joy!

Well, I'm leaving for Northern Cal. YAY! It's been over two months since my last visit, and everyone's dying to see Ashlyn...especially my parents. I'm bringing the laptop so I can dump my pictures off the compact flash daily, but I doubt I'll be updating on this visit... it's shorter than previous visits. I'll be sure to backload everything upon my return. =)

[time elapsed]

My dad picked us up at the airport and we met my mom and Rudy for lunch at 4th Street Diner in Downtown San Jose. My parents were so happy to Ashlyn and spent all of lunch playing with her in a hypnotic state. Afterwards, we went back to my parents' office so they could finish off some work before heading home. Prior to visiting, I had asked Sis to pick up a child seat for me (so I wouldn't have to lug our bulky child seat around). The one Sis bought is similar to the one we have at home (except it's the Eddie Bauer version), and Ashlyn loved sitting in it. The remainder of the afternoon was spent at home with my parents playing with the baby. Today's weather is unbelievably hot for Northern Cal. We let Ashlyn splash in the bath to cool off, then I got ready to meet Cin and Ivy for dinner.

Cin, Ivy, and I met up in Union City for dinner. Ivy was running behind, so Cin and I took our time talking and picking at our steamed mussels and clams appetizer at Pasta Pomodoro. We caught up on current events and such. Ivy finally joined us halfway through dinner...the poor girl has been so busy with the restaurant these past months. After dinner, we walked over to Starbucks for our usual Caramel Macchiato. Despite the hot weather, I felt an onset of a cold coming on. *UGH!* We walked around and talked before we went our separate ways. I felt bad that Ivy drove all the way out to Union City just to hang out with us for a little while, but I had promised my mom and Sis that I'd get back by the time their dance class ended so we could spend time together.
Ashlyn slept the whole way home, and by the time she woke up she was in a hell of a mood! She cried incessantly for nearly two hours! I don't even know why. I'm assuming that she was overwhelmed by all the dancers who kept running up and getting in her face or who just excitedly snatched her out of my arms....but it would have been rude to deny them when they mean well and were just happy to see her. After the dancers left and the house was quiet again, she calmed down. My mom and Sis suggested I "take her out" more and expose her to more people so she doesn't freak out. Not to sound defensive, but I think Aric and I take her out quite often. I guess Ashlyn was just tired. =P Wil , who came over with Tony after softball, looked bummed that her usually upbeat niece was being a tyrant. It always worries me that times like these make Wil and Tony glad that they don't have a baby. =(

Putting Ashlyn down to bed was harder than normal. She refused to go down easily. By the time she finally fell asleep, I was butt-tired and the glands in the back of my throat seemed to double in size. I called Aric to say goodnight and to see how his day went. He was busy with Ed and James doing their thang and kept busy setting up his home office. I missed him. *sigh* G'Nite!

Pictures from today:

Ivy, me, Cin, and Ashlyn

Ashlyn at Starbucks

Ivy, Ashlyn, and Cin