Ashlynn is a superhero too

I just wanted to add a tiny bit to yesterdays post.

Ashlynn is far from exempt in the superhero craze.  She is usually Baby Ironman or Baby Hulk.  She loves it.  Today we were out in the backyard and she pointed at said something unintelligible.  I guessed "Dr. Doom?" and she broke out in a grin and started bouncing in my arms.  Then we ran over to get the villain and she laughed as I tossed her around saying "Hulk smash!"  I put up my hand and shot the invisible Dr. Doom with my Iron Man laser and Ashlynn quickly imitated my action and sound effect. 

whistling, rough-housing, and saving the city--an update on Ash and Zeke

(The whistling when Ashlynn's face is turned is hers, so it is pretty poor proof, but you can take my word for it)

I wanted to give a little update on my cuties. 

Ashlynn is enjoying living in a house with animals.  She stands and the gate to the laundry room where the parrot lives and she and Mishka have nice long chats.  In fact I often can't tell if Ashlynn has fallen asleep or not if I'm downstairs because Mishka now makes a lot of Ashlynn noises and squawks.  She chases the cat and dog around as often as she can approach without them fleeing. 

The things Ashlynn loves most seem to be animals, shoes, and sparkly things.  However, I don't know that she will be as girly as shoes and sparkly things seems to preface.  I have never seen a growlier kid.  She doesn't say a whole lot of words but I suspect that is because she has focused her energy of becoming fluent in Growlish.  She also loves roughhousing and running around chasing people.  One of her few phrases is "dot doo" (got you). 

The other thing Ashlynn is crazy about is eating.  She's a big fan.  She walks around the kitchen doing her sign for more and pointing at food or climbing in her high chair.  Paca learned pretty quick not to leave tomatoes on the edge of the counter and she seems to have a sixth sense for when the pantry door gets left open and will rush over and raid the cereal.  We also have to make sure she doesn't catch sight of tomatoes or any fruit because she won't eat any of her regular food. 

One rather crazy skill this little lady has is that she can whistle.  Seriously.  I am going to try to post a video at the end but we had a hard time getting a good video of it.  Also, as the sister of a very imaginative big brother, Ashlynn is already a great pretender.  She fake sleeps (squeezing her eyes shut and scrunching up her face) eats fake food, chases fake villains and seems to completely understand the pretend world.

Zeke's world remains dedicated to all things super hero related.  We go to the library every week and Zeke wants every superhero book he can get his hands on (hence we are all quite educated in all the heroes and villains of both DC and Marvel comics).  We play superheroes everyday.  Stacking and building with couch cushions quickly creates Super Hero City in the living room and villains keep sneaking over from Villainville to attack.  In the backyard we run from one corner to the next and back again taking villain after villain to jail and then recapturing them again. He occasionally plays other things, almost.  When he plays dogs he plays "superhero dogs" and he is "Iron Man dog" or "Hulk dog."  When he wants to play monsters he says "Lets play superheroes play monsters."  Today we played pirates at the park and I was blackbeard while Zeke was "not the other Spiderman, I'm the pirate named Spiderman."  The other imaginary people playing with us were "the pretend pirate Doc Ock" and "Clark Kent". 

All of our family has been great sports.  His cousins obligingly agree to play superheroes every time they get together (Zeke will occasionally concede to other games, but rarely).  Grandma Anderson has accepted that her new name is Ironman, and Grandma Brockbank has demonstrated extreme martial arts skills as Black Widow. 

Other than that, Zeke is just his usual cute self.  His favorite things to do are play superheroes and read books and he is such a bright kid.  We were reading a book today that had a fire truck in it and Zeke asked me why the bumper was red on one page and then when the truck is in the book again (4 pages later) it has a gray bumper.  That kid is observant.  I am so proud of him every day.

Sorry not much pictures.  Haven't had the camera out much.

Camping and the Hand of God

Last weekend we went camping for the first time as a family (unless you count sleeping in a tent in the backyard while a tiny baby Ashlynn slept in the living room in her bassinet). You may recall that that night was...exciting. So was this one. Zeke slept well, but Ashlynn prefers a bed. She went to bed at 9:00 woke up at 10:00 and stayed awake jabbering at the campfire until midnight. Then we enjoyed a blissful four hours of sleep. Then 4-4:30 consisted of a lot of bouncing and whispering and singing (from Trustin and I) and a lot of howling, wiggling, screaming (from Trustin and I). Then I decided to spare the other campers and Ashlynn and I sprinted back to the car and drove around until she fell asleep...after 5:30. Then I parked the car and realized that in my run I had grabbed blankets for Ashlynn but none for me. So I slept curled up in the front seat turning the car on and off every fifteen minutes to keep the car somewhat warm.

But, it was worth it.

I loved seeing a bunch of old friends and reminiscing.

I loved seeing Zeke throw sticks and leaves into the creek and then jumping and pointing as they float off, taking credit when they catch speed and lamenting when they get caught in debris.

I loved that seconds after we arrived I set Ashlynn down and she instantly walked over to an old fire pit and transformed her little tan hands into black crayons which she quickly rubbed on her cheeks and my pants.

One of my favorite views in the world is the feeling of looking up through tree leaves into a contrasting sky. Shortly after we got to our campground I stopped under a tall red and pumpkin aspen tree and looked up through its boughs. Like I always do when look at this type of scene I found my thoughts brought to God. Yes, God created this. Then I looked down at my finger all wrapped up in a little charcoal hand, and up the path to the silly boy throwing his Frisbee (code for Captain America shield)at bushes. Yes, God created these. This is God's hand in my life. And yes, everything is worth it.