Warning number two: We have discovered the truth behind the addage "what you don't use, you lose." This year has been characterized by a lack of picture taking, which was quickly followed up by the disappearance of our camera. Subsequently, you don't get to see many pictures of Miss Ashlynn, which is really a shame.
Ashlynn turned two last week. She varies between insisting that she is a big girl and insisting that she is still a baby, and can be quite upset if you call her the wrong one at a given moment. I can understand; I'm struggling with the transition to her being a big girl too. She is a cuddly little thing when she wants to be and sometimes will let me cuddle her up in her blankie or towel and just snuggle her and it feels like heaven, holding my little baby. A few weeks ago she was sick and as I held rocked her in my arms in the middle of the night I wondered if I was sick too because I wasn't pining away for my own bed like my normal middle of the night self would do. I was loving holding her and easing away her tears at what to her was unexplainable "feel icky." So I get to snuggle her, and I love that. But in so many ways, she is definitely growing, and not just out of her clothes, though she is doing that too (anybody else find that all 2T dresses must be designed for girls in the 0 percentile for height?).
Ashlynn's newly acquired nickname is "Little Laffy Taffy." She is the laughingest kid I've ever seen. She will sit in her chair or wherever she is and suddenly start laughing, half fake, but then growing real and she will just laugh and laugh and laugh, trying to get Zeke, Trustin or I to join in, (which we can't help doing). When I push her on the swing (which is possibly her favorite pastime) she will just laugh and laugh like it is the funniest thing in the world, and when I add sound effects, it gets even more hilarious. I taught the kids about underdogs and now we do a whole variety of under-swings, such as "under-Hulk," "Under-Black Panther," "Under-Dragon" (any guesses who requests these three?) and "Under-monkey" "Under-Cookie" and "Under-sheep. When I push Ashlynn on our own swingset underdogs aren't really an option so Ashlynn requests sound-effect pushes such as "piggy" "lady-bug" (I know, I wasn't too sure how to do that sound effect either) and "princess push."
Ashlynn, despite the superhero focus of her upbringing, is quite certainly, our little princess. She has never seen a princess movie besides snippets of Tangled and yet she loves princesses, from princess diapers, to princess shoes, and princess jammies. She doesn't play make-believe princess games at all, but she in quite simple terms knows that "Ashin a princess."
She also loves her baby doll and all her accoutrements. She recently named her baby doll "Quack-quack" and spends much of her day pushing her in the stroller, or carting her around to do whatever she is doing.
Ashlynn loves colors and uses the terms all the time, though rarely correctly. She insists that she wants a yellow bowl or a red spoon while pointing at a blue or green one, but she is quite adamant that she needs a specific color. Sadly, she actually seems to be getting the colors right more often than not lately, while I found the previous stubborn but wrong color designations to be adorable. He favorite color to request is definitely yellow, but she doesn't seem to favor any color in actual fact.
One sweet thing about Ashlynn is that she is a believer in the power of kisses. It used to be that she would come to us with an injury and ask us to kiss it better. Recently she discovered that it is far more efficient to just kiss in herself. And she liberally bestows her kisses on anybody else who has an "owwie." I got blisters on my ankles last week and pretty much every time she see them she bends over and kisses them.
Perhaps I should have mentioned this first, as it is rather a dominating trait in my little Ash-n-Dash these days: She is INDEPENDENT, really. Zeke went through a little phase of wanting to do things himself, but with Ashlynn, whoa. She long ago insisted on choosing her own clothes every day, and now she put her foot down and will not allow anyone else to put them on her either. This means that her pants are frequently on backwards, jammies are often inside out, and the coordination of her attire is simply eye-catching. I can sometimes convince her to correct some things but more often than not, it just isn't worth the battle. Besides, with a mom's eyes, my mismatched, inside out, head trying to pop out a sleeve lady is positively the cutest little thing.
Her independence doesn't stop at clothing. She must open her own doors, carry her own snacks, climb into high places and a hundred other tasks by herself. Even when she deems to ask for help, she usually rescinds the request as soon as we actually start helping her. She has to put on her own seatbelt every single time we get in the car. And she can. It takes a few more minutes than I often wish to wait, but she buckles that pesky little buckle every time like a pro, and I just pull the strap to tighten it. (But I must never let my hand come near the car seat too soon, or there will be words). She remains my little fireball and with her independence has come an increase of the unattractive scream "ASHIN DO IT" which at a prompting from me quickly is revised into a lovely simpering "Ashin do it, please." We are working on that initial response...
Final last tid-bit, for the sake of remembering when I do a birthday page in our family album, Ashlynn requested very little for her birthday this year. Her requests were "Snacks, a big cookie, and ban-bans (band-aids)"
PS---Post about Zeke to follow, hopefully tomorrow. If it doesn't, get on my case.
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