When I posted my last blog update I was a little out of sorts.... and I apologize for the rot I spewed all over you guys... but I guess sometimes you have to get it off of your chest. I am a hormonal soon to be mother of two and there are times that gets the better of me. Just be glad that you aren't living with me... Poor Dave, Ash, Abigail, and Akari get the worst of it. I guess the thing is that I have fallen into an unexpected love. I never knew how it would turn out when I was pregnant with Ash. I knew I wanted to nurse for at least the first year of her life. I knew I wanted to try it more than anything. I was aware that it was the best thing that I could do for my child and I was determined that I would give it as much as I could.
It wasn't easy starting out. I had a c-section and I am a diabetic... two things that are a strike against me. Also I had the worlds most discouraging breast feeding consultant in the hospital... and Ash's Doc is not a real big breast feed your baby kind of guy. It was an uphill path for the two of us. You add into that the sore nipples and awkwardness that starts out breastfeeding and I was gritting my teeth for the first two months but still determined somehow to make it all work for us.
And then something changed and it all became much easier. My daughter caught on to the work she was supposed to do... I found a comfortable position to feed her in... and we started looking at each other when she nursed instead of fighting to figure it out. MAGIC HAPPENED! Both of us were enthralled with each other and nursing. My angels eyes would roll back into her head with pleasure when the milk would let down, she would pop off of the breast when full with the most satisfied punch drunk look you could ever imagine and milk would roll down her cheek and she was just happy. THIS is what breast feeding is about I would think. Both Ash and I fell in love with it. LOVE full out italian mama's open armed love. We would lay in the bed after a nursing session and just cuddle and coo at each other. Speaking a language that no one but us knew or understood. She would tuck her head into my bare breast and sleep with her face pressed into me content knowing that I was there and so was her milk supply and we were happy. So blessedly happy.
Nursing is more than just the physical act of providing sustenance to your child... and I believe that MOST women who do nurse their children feel the same way. There is something almost mystical about nursing your child that defies the explanations that I try so hard to come up with. It is an act of bonding and it is the ultimate offering of love from one to the other. It produces a feeling of well-being and relaxation that is nearly intoxicating for both the mother and the child... and once you have felt that feeling you want it to continue. Breast feeding creates a mother child bond that is forged to be unbreakable and it makes all difficulties that may come with it seem inconsequential. So you smell like milk all the time... so your breasts seem much larger than they were.... so you have to be careful of the clothes you choose... so you cannot be too far from your child. There are a million little annoyances that go along with nursing your child, but all of these things pale to nothing when your arms are full of your child and you are sharing your essence with that child. There is NOTHING more magical.
So we are weaning. Not by choice... but by necessity and so be it. When the new baby is born Ash may start nursing again. A lot of kids do when they see a new sibling nursing, If she wants to she will not be turned away. She may decide that she is a big girl and will not return to nursing. So be it if that is how it works. But it is with a great sadness in my heart that I do wean her. It feels like a chapter that is closing. A friend of mine urged me to remember that rather than letting Ash down I am preparing for the new baby. It helps to remind myself of that. So I try to remember that and day by day it gets easier for both of us.
I will leave you today with a quote from Selma Hayek on breastfeeding that I appreciate.

" I'm like an alcoholic. It's like I don't care if I cry, I don't care if I'm fat, I'm just gonna do it for one more week , one more month, and then I see how much good it is doing her, and I can't stop. It is a very powerful thing you know."
Yes Selma I do know and I agree wholeheartedly.

combinations of words I don't want to hear.

This morning when I called Dave into the bathroom to investigate the mystery water that was all over the floor I did not want to hear.... " I'm a little scared baby!" Followed by " I think that our septic might be backing up. I looked at the enormous puddle and my heart fell.... I went into the kitchen and saw the dishes that still had to be washed from the Spinach and Lentil soup that I made and it bottomed out. ( by the way the soup was INCREDIBLE... really easy and with 20 grams of fiber in a serving just what my husband's cholesterol needs!!!) But hey we roll with it all right we roll with it. So I just shook my head and wondered how it is that everything that CAN go wrong right now seems like it is.... you know that Murphy is a real jerk sometimes.
But off I toddled to the docs for a routine visit. Told her once again that I have been having bouts of contractions that are a little concerning and once again was told that we would see what the NST strip said. So off then I went to ultrasound where I found out that our "little" one is already .... wait for it.... you ready for this..... yeah brace yourselves..... 5 lbs and 8 ounces. Now I talked to both the doc and the ultrasound tech about this thing I had heard about how you take the growth at 32 weeks ( where I am now) and you double it and that is what your baby will weigh ( roughly.) Both agreed that is about right. I had to gasp... because that means that if we do that out baby will be 11 pounds if born on time. Ummm Thank God for C-sections. The doc said " this is a fairly good sized baby" and then said " growth for this one is 75th percentile. I would stop buying newborn sized clothes if you are." .... Oh dear! Take a deep breath. ( for the record I checked and Ash was 4 lbs 3 ounces at 32 weeks. She was 8 lbs when delivered a week early... so the odds are that she would have been one of those babies that makes that 1/2 the weight at 32 weeks rule sound about right. This one is obviously going to be bigger than her.) But we went over my HA1C and there is no way that it can really get lower... which means my blood sugars are really well controlled... which means that this child is not big because I am doing anything wrong. Which is something that as a mommy who is diabetic.... is really really easy to feel. I struggle with that all the time. Every one keeps assuring me that I am doing just what I should be. So I guess there isn't much to be done about her size... I just wish that it were more comfortable. I AM HUGE. And I am running out of clothes that fit... but I am so close to term I refuse to go shopping.
So then I went into my NST where the baby did fine. But ummm I failed. For the entire test I was contracting every 3 to 4 minutes. I TOLD THEM I WAS HAVING CONTRACTIONS!!!! But this time the machine actually caught them... because we must have been there at the right time. So I was given a Procardia and was kept on the monitor FOREVER. until the contractions had been knocked out of the park. I am now on a dose of Procardia every six hours ( yes I have to wake up to take it! I know I asked) and I am on fairly strict orders that I am to "Take it easy" I kind of joked that I didn't know what that meant as the mother of a toddler... and I was told in no uncertain terms that I needed to find out what it meant! So I am the stay at home mom of a toddler who I am not supposed to lift and somehow I am supposed to stay on the couch with my feet up. And there is at least 7 weeks left of this pregnancy. I also have to quit nursing my daughter.... as breastfeeding produces Oxytocin which in turn produces you guessed it contractions.
Tonight I put my daughter down for the first time.... denying her the breast. She doesn't nurse long anyways usually just a few seconds and then she loses interest. But She cried and cried and then I cried and cried. I kept telling her mommy loves her so much and tried to calm her but she wanted to nurse. And as my husband is not home for bedtime.... I could not have him put her down while I sat out in the living room and cried. My heart keeps saying she doesn't nurse long enough to really cause a problem.... my head says that we have gotten so far that I can't take a chance. The guilt that I feel is crushing. I had vowed that I would nurse my daughter until she weaned herself... barring a situation where she still was nursing at 6. But here I am turning her down from the comfort that she holds dear. I know how connected she feels to nursing. She talks about it when we aren't nursing. She knows the word breast and will pet my breasts when sitting in my lap. And I a mother who would do anything in the world for my little girl am turning her away. AT 18 MONTHS. She is still so little.... she still can get so much from the breastfeeding... whether it be physical or emotional and I am denying her from it. I feel like the world's worst mommy in the world. I am heartbroken.
The problem is that I feel so resentful of the contractions and while I don't blame the child I carry I am so angry. Why should I have to choose between the well being of my children. Why is my stupid body so unwilling to work with me on pregnancy. Why why why. I have been let down so many times by this body... and I am so sick and tired of that. So here I sit crying as I write this feeling sorry for myself... and still hating my body. Ash is asleep now... but it took 45 minutes longer than it usually does... and all I want in the world to do is go in and wake her up and nurse her... as some stupid childish response to my body letting me down again. I want to say "See! I CAN do what I want!" But how awful would it be to end up with this pregnancy ending early. YES Ainne has gotten far enough along 85-90% of babies born at this gestation survive. But how do you take that chance? I promised myself I would give nursing through pregnancy and tandem nursing the best try that I could.... and I have... every fiber of my being wants to continue... but if the baby is born early and has to be in the NICU for even a second I do not want it to be because of something that I could avoid. And yet I feel like I have made a choice that puts Ash in second place and it is tearing my heart up. SHE isn't ready for it yet... not just me. And sudden weaning is so unhealthy for the child. But this is the promise that I made... and I have to start thinking about the child I carry also... because before we all know it she will be here. And while I know that all of the ugly feelings that I am having are due to the hormones that are going CRAZY in my body right now.... I am still miserable.

A picture says a thousand words

I am a little tired and don't have much to say today. I know what is wrong with me right!? But I thought that I could at least share some photos with you all. As I am sure that is what draws a lot of you to the blog anyways. Tomorrow I will go for my appointment. The holiday changed it all by a day. So I will hopefully have new and exciting information regarding baby number two for you when I get back. I will be having an ultrasound to measure her growth and we will do a NST to make sure she is still healthy in there. Check on the blood sugars. You know the whole nine yards. So I will be sure to let you all know when I get home and post scans if I get new ultrasound scans. So without further ado..... I present to you Ash by way of photo. Enjoy!

Oh and I do apologize in advance for the numerous photos from Easter... but Dave was so handy with the camera and got so many cute photos of our girl that I can't help but show them off. Usually I am the one manning the camera (hence the lack in the number of photos that have me in them) but every now and then Daddy takes up the slack and gets some really awesome photos. So I hope you all enjoy!








This is an example of what her hair looks like after a bath. Yes I have heard it a million times.. " she has such beautiful curly hair" but oh some days when the combing starts we wish for a little less curl.










She really loved looking for the eggs and loved the idea of eating the eggs when they were in their colored shell... however over all not such and egg girl.













Oh look there is an egg! Yay!!!















Really Mom I don't need your help I am perfectly capable of walking up the stairs












Such a pretty little angel... and I just looked down and realized that I am wearing the same outfit.... I have about three that fit still.... counting maternity clothes. Sigh I am definitely bigger than last time.







Her face looks really dirty... but the day before this photo was taken she was chasing her daddy outside and face planted in the gravel. Bloody nose, bloody mouth. One of those make or break mommy moments. I am proud to say I didn't completely freak. I got some ice and comforted her and as you can see she survived.









This one makes her look an awful lot like her brother Keagan. Note the overalls that she is wearing. I am crazy about overalls and I suspect that Ainne will wear them constantly too. The scar from that fall is still hanging on under that little nose!










There that little scab is again. Such a big girl. She is getting her Easter shoes here.












What can you say about this one. Dave is so talented he often can get a whole lot of personality in one little photo!

This is the play set my grandpa made

This play set was built by my father when I was in middle school. My younger brothers and I had endless hours of play on it. When I met Dave and Codie and Keagan, his boys from his first marriage, started coming over for weekend visitations renovations began on the climber. It has been a slow process with a little more being done each year. New platforms being put into place... the swinging bridge replaced ( and revamped because it was learned by myself and several other people of my generation that though the swinging bridge was totally cool in concept if you ran over it barefoot it often pinched the bottom of the foot... and if the foot was small enough could pinch a toe! So it is now a fixed bridge and much better for it!) This has been a labor of love from once again all of the men in our family. Dave and Dad put in footings and leveled the climber part of it. Shawn and Dad revamped the bridge and several platforms. Brenden and Dad this week have been placing landscaping timbers around it and next week will be putting three inches of mulch so that the girls are safe from any falls. There will also be mulch put around the playhouse that my men have built for the girls. By the end of it all we are going to have a park in our front yard that any child in the area would envy. These are labors of love for the men as can be seen by the time and energy that they have freely given and the care that has been taken to make sure that safety is the number one priority. Any girl would be lucky to have them as Daddy and uncles and Grandpa.... and Ash and Ariah and soon to be Ainne will I'm sure realize that as they get older! And while we don't see Codie and Keagan any more... while they were an active part of our life.... they played on that climber every weekend! I would say that those bits of wood have more than had a good life.



Ash loves to play with the swings... but as of yet does not LIKE to swing. She isn't a real fan of the motion of the swing. So she just plays with the swing. She comes by it naturally enough her Gramps has serious motion sickness issues so she may never get into swinging!









The boys loved playing on the climber. Keagan is only a few months older than Ash is right now in this photo... As a matter of fact this photo was taken the labor day weekend before Keagan turned two.










The platform for the slide is still being worked on... but that doesn't keep a curious girl from playing in what ever way her imagination can come up with!













Dave is manning the camera... If the picture were a little clearer you could see just how much Ash and her brother look like each other!













Playing with the swing again.... but we won't push it.... Gramps gets sick on a swing. So if she isn't into it there might be a reason!

This is the house my daddy built... and my grandpa and my uncle Shawn and my Uncle Bren

I thought that I would take a post to show you all the really fantastic play house that the girls have been lucky enough to have built by the various men in their lives. My father, Dave, my brother Shawn, and my brother Brenden have all put serious man hours into this house. And it has paid off in my opinion. Ash loves to play on the porch as does Ry when she is over. There is still a little bit of work that will need to be done a little more painting etc... and then we will move to the inside.
When we get to the inside Mommy and Gran are going to be given the opportunity to shine! We will be making curtains and rugs and we will be doing all of the little decorating touches. It is a super tall house.... but there is method to that madness.... inside there will be a deck type loft that will be carpeted and have a railing and on nice summer nights.... there will be sleep overs in the house. What fun what fun..... Don't Ash and Ry have the best daddies and Grandpa in the whole world!




Ash climbing the stairs.... a handrail is going to be installed shortly... It will cut down on the heart attack mom has when she tries to go down those same steps














Ash standing in front of the door... There are two doors an Ash sized door in the front and a mommy and daddy sized door on the side!















Ash climbing on the new porch chairs that Bupa and Grandma bought. The color matches the color of the house so well. Ry chose the color she wanted a really dark blue... but we helped her to compromise a little.













Please ignore the old chair that was in front of our house for several years..... But do notice the really cool rounded door that my father and Dave crafted for the house and the actual working windows that will give the girls air on stuffy days!















Ry and Ash enjoying the house.... it was cold that day! You can just see the mommy and daddy sized door on the side.... for ease of parental access. LOL

What can I say you are worth it.

Alright so I promised a blog that would be a little more like a book you could read and less like a picture book when it wasn't midnight and I wasn't hurtin just sittin. Well I still have a back that wants to poop on me but what do I expect in the last trimester of pregnancy. The description " I am feeling good" changes a little as you get further along. The qualifier of " for someone who is eight months pregnant" gets silently added. But the nice part about being so far along is that you CAN see an end. Having been watched so closely from really the beginning of the pregnancy makes for a really long pregnancy. LOL My first appointment was when I was 4 weeks pregnant.... and here I am 31 and a half weeks along.
So for those of you who read my facebook logs and statuses you know that all of a sudden I have been having problems with my blood sugars dropping. This is not a great thing because.... Aside from the obvious of waking up with a blood sugar of 49 and feeling like crap... that low of a sugar can put me in a coma... and eventually kill me. Thank God for Ash waking me up is all anybody can say. As we were home alone and not expected at my parents for another hour and a half, things could have gotten ugly ugly. But Spirit was with us, and kept us safe. Apparently a few of my little angels are looking down and more often than not... because I have woken myself up with the same problem ( 53 and 61 respectively ) and the numbers that I have been having after dinners and such suddenly dropped too. Not huge amounts but just enough to be alarming. The worry is that if that happens there is a fear that the placenta is not working so well. So I told my doc on Tuesday when we went in and they started monitoring the baby to ensure that she is doing okay. It is a little early but an NST ( non-stress test) and a biophysical profile was done. Baby passed on both accounts. So we will have an ultrasound on Wed of next week and we will have another set of NST and biophysical profile and then twice a week she will have to pass her test from there. If the baby is in any distress due to the placenta failing they will take her early. So no worries we are in good hands. They also backed me off on my insulin so that I don't have any more reactions and I am under strict orders that I am to watch CLOSELY! So no big we are okay.
Ash is changing every day and becoming more of a big girl with every change. She is a pistol and keeps me on my toes.... sometimes literally. There are evenings when I want nothing more than to sit, but this seems to be a particularly active time and I end up chasing her from room to room in the house. While she can be left for a few moments by herself.... you cannot trust too much more than that. She is fearless and has an absolute certainty that she will always be caught when she falls by someone who loves her. Maybe that trust comes because someone always does. Dave keeps insisting that I should just let her fall.... then she will learn her lesson. I am of a different school of thought. I feel that catching her is the better choice, and so I scurry around keeping her safe. I figure there are better ways of learning lessons.
She has a mind of her own. An amazing mind of her own. It is a pleasure and a frustration at the same time. She is brilliant and can figure things out faster than we can contain her. She has figured out drawers and she has also figured out most of the childproofing methods and latches. She sings the ABC song and then claps for herself excited because of her accomplishment. She hollers when she doesn't get her way and has a knack for making sure that every one in the vicinity knows that she wants something. She will shout at top level. And if that doesn't work she will just keep shouting until she gets what she wants. For example she wants down from the dinner table but mom is busy cleaning up first. She will ask " get down" and when that doesn't work she will shout " GET DOWN" When that doesn't work she will shout. " GET DOWN GET DOWN GET DOWN GET DOWN" repeatedly until she gets her way. It cracks my parents up.
Somehow though even when she is driving me crazy she is making me love her more than anything
So we are counting down the days until the new baby comes and watching as our current baby becomes a big girl. Seems like nothing changes while nothing stays the same. I will try to keep up the current pace of blogging.... however I make no promises. I will of course let you all know if anything changes in the well-being of the baby.

Gonna spend a little time with my dad!

I thought that you all might enjoy a few pics of Ash and Dave together. There are a few of these that have now wiggled their way into my favorite pics group. I hope that you all enjoy them as much as I have...



The beginning of a fun day outside!
















Not my neck daddy not my neck



















Oh but not the belly either













This is what passes for fun for a pitbull. SERIOUSLY She loves it!!!!!















Okay I couldn't resist throwing one in there of me and her too.... Just ignore the belly... I am trying to!

I'm going to shock you all and go for a three-peat!

Thought I would take advantage of the little bit of extra time that I have while the punkin is still asleep and write a few words. Seems like all I am doing these days with the blog is struggling to keep up. Every day Ash is adding something new and as I want all of you in the loop.... especially the grandparents who are out of town I try to get as much as I can in the blog. But it is nearly impossible to do. There are a million and a half cute things that happen every day that I would love to add with all of the skills updates. There is a new word seemingly every hour. My little girl is growing up fast. Then there are the pictures. I have at least one hundred new ones to share with you all... but it has to be done in a logical manner! No one wants to look at 100 pictures even of the cutest kid in the world. You add to that the new pregnancy and things get a bit crowded. My blogs get long and seriously involved and by the time I am done I feel like I haven't been able to get you even half of the information that you all deserve.
And yet the free moments to blog are hard to find when you alone are in charge of a tornado with a purpose. And it is hard to fit it all in when you want to spend some of your time reading and some of your time knitting or crocheting and some of your time just daydreaming or god forbid showering.... and the tornado gives you two little hours ( some times 2 1/2 hours) of free time a day, if you are lucky because she has been known to miss a nap or two also. Factor into that the fact that I am more often than not outright exhausted and take a nap with her and you have a recipe for very little extra getting done.
I guess what this is turning into is an extended apology for both my sporadic posting and the length of the posts when I do. There is also a hint of apology for the reporter like quality that has become the posts, when what I really always have wanted was an artistic manner of sharing what my child and soon to be children are doing for the people who don't see us everyday. I will say that I will try to get better. Perhaps if I blog more frequently I can get the cute little things that Ash does that I don't have the space for into the blog. ( Example the other day we were playing out side and she saw a bumble bee.... now I don't want her to be afraid of bugs.... so I told her that bumble bees were nice bees... but that we should leave them alone. And I then caught her as she ran towards the bee saying " Aww Sweet Bee" and looking for a hug. Tell me that isn't cute. She then wanted me to take a picture of said be.... which I did)
I don't know how well my goal of writing more frequently will turn out. It may work... it may not. I am in the stages of late pregnancy with another. So it may take a full out miracle for me to actually find the time... as I am getting slower and slower. ( For crying out loud even things like getting Ash's shoes on takes me twice as long... and gets me out of breath. It is crazy!!!) But I will promise to try... meanwhile I will add lots of photos to the blogs as long as it isn't going to make the post ridiculously long. Until then I bid you adieu... oh and by the way.... some of the photos I am uploading today were actually taken YESTERDAY!!!! That is how current they are !

Two days in a row..... Yeah it is true

Okay so I finally got the pictures downloaded to my computer that I have been talking about and so I thought that I might share.... there are also a few new scans of ultrasounds of the new baby. So I will with out further ado offer pictures of the cutest kid ( and soon to be kid) that you have ever seen ( and again I state that I am not actually biased... just right : )

She looks a lot like me in this scan. The ultra sound tech took this pic and then said... Oh my momma she is gonna look like you. I got home and showed Dave and he laughed and said she has your chin! She sure is gonna look like you! Funny because the last one made her look like Dave!







One of my favorite pics of my girl. This was Easter Sunday and she didn't feel real well, but you can't tell. She still has the sweetest disposition. Not mind you that I am a proud momma or anything!












This is another of my favorites. They just don't make them cuter.... I could see as cute... but cuter NEVER!

















Here is another of the newest member.... Still looks like me in profile... but those big cheeks are all daddy : )









Wanting to visit Bupa and Grandma's house. On the weekends and days that we don't get over there, she misses them terribly. If we miss even a day she wakes us up in the morning with " See Bupa. See Grandma!" We hear about it all day until we go over to see them. Its even worse when Ry has been there over the weekend.... because we hear for a week straight about seeing Ry. Kid knows what she wants.

There are no excuses!!!

That's right I have no excuse. We have been busy yes... and remember that fantasy novel that I have been waiting to come out.... it did and my mom bought it and I am reading it. But really there is little excuse... except HAVE YOU LOOKED OUT SIDE LATELY. A and I have been taking every opportunity to be out in this gorgeous weather... because every other day it seems like it turns rainy and cold... so we want to make hay while the sun shines. I have pictures and with Dave's next check I am going to insist on buying a new USB cord because I am tired of his promises to A.) look for existing one and B.) down load directly from the card to his computer so that I can use his computer to blog. Not something I really want to do anyways, because he has one of those teeny little keyboards and my typing speed gets cut in half. I know I know that I should perhaps be able to look for the USB cord myself.... however it is in a tote in our storage shed that is stacked up with other totes... and in my current condition lifting and tossing totes is ill-advised at best.
So we have been busy and I guess I will have to just do a highlights show for you and skip the detail.... no one really wants to read all that I can write in a nap time.... even if it is a power nap hour. We are all doing well. Dave was in the ER last Tues for the usual crap with his pancreas. Another snafu with his meds. This time it is that he is on so many that cause his appetite to decrease that he hasn't been eating... thus his liver thought that he was starving and went into overdrive sending the Cholesterol through the roof which caused his pancreas to have a few things to say which sent him to the hospital in pain. He is feeling better now. They didn't even keep him overnight.... but they did prescribe a medication that will make him hungry.... CRAZY! If only we could do something about this in a natural way.... But I am cooking nothing but beans and whole grains with salmon and chicken as our proteins and he is still having trouble so I don't know what more we can do.
Baby number two is doing well. We had an ultrasound 2 almost three weeks ago and she is a big girl. Tipping the scale at 3 lbs and 3 ounces she is a full pound over the average for her gestation and she is more than a half a pound bigger than Ash was at that gestation. Ash was 2 lb 7 ounces. This one is on the border of being macrosomic already so we are probably going to have a big one. The Doc assured me that it isn't anything that I am doing my HA1C was 5.2 when it was checked only the week before the ultrasound. That is phenomenal. You really can't get better! They want it under 6 and not less than 5 so I am obviously walking the diet tightrope fairly well. There isn't much more that I can do. Not to mention each baby tends to get bigger according to the doc, at least with most women... and I am diabetic so there isn't much we can do. Just pray that she doesn't get too big, because due to the fact that I will already be having a C-section they will not take her early. She is a healthy child though. We have had all the heart checks and the kidney checks etc. that they do because of my diabetes and the PKD in Dave's family and we are looking good.... Oh yeah and she is still a girl. I don't care if we get a boy... I just want some warning. I have been garage saleing and I have bought a lot of girls clothes and I would hate to have a surprise in the delivery room. As to names... Yes yes yes we have one. Our little one will be names Ainne Roisin ( I won't use our last name because this is broadcast over the net but those of you who know us know our name) Ainne is Gaelic ( of course ) and is pronounce Ahn-ya Roisin is also Gaelic and is pronounced RO-ish-EEN. Ainne is the gaelic form of Anne or Nancy which is my mothers name and means one of two things either joyful or graceful depending on where you look it up Roisin is a traditional name that is used in the rebel songs that means little rose. It also has come to stand in for Ireland in those songs.... so if you see a song or lament for Roisin it is usually actually about Ireland. I liked that because. Aislynn or Ashlynn ( they mean the same thing) is the name that means Ireland in Irish poetry. So there is a little bit of a trend in our names.... besides the obvious of all being A names.... which by the way is entirely accidental. Not to mention which ever way you look at it I think Graceful little rose or Joyful little rose is a beautiful meaning for a beautiful little girl. Had she been a he, his name would have been Rylan Quinn.... which both Dave and I REALLY REALLY liked and are terribly disappointed that we won't be able to use.... Perhaps there is a higher power that is insisting on the A names who knows.
Now as to our princess. What can be said about Ash... she is growing like a weed. Something that Dave and I have noticed because she has had a little bit of trouble going under things that she has never had before... Lots of head bumping lately. Also she seems to be tripping over her feet a lot too. But then with this wonderful weather she has been outside a lot and our yard is not so wonderfully landscaped so she still walks like a toddler over the uneven ground. Inside and on flat surfaces she does everything at a flat out run. The same can't be said outside. She is becoming quite the toddler. Everything baby about her seems to have melted away. She is so big now and she is so much more sophisticated. She parrots everything that you say so you have to be careful. Dave and I were horribly chagrined when we came into the house and Abigail the dog got a little too jumpy and Ash says " Damn It Abby get down" Clear as a bell. Um.... OOPS! She also has learned the toddler method of protest: if she doesn't want to go somewhere she just sits down. Now I am 31 weeks pregnant and measuring 35 because the baby is big. I can only care Ash for very short distances and she is the perfect distance to hold hands right now.... any shorter and I am in trouble. So when she plops on her butt... it causes a little bit of a wrinkle for mommy. She also argues with you now. She has learned ( I have no idea where I don't think I want to know) to blame her stinkers on people around her. So she will stinker and then look at me with a grin and say "MOMMY STINKER!" and if I say no "Ashlynn stinker" she will rejoin with " NO MOMMY STINKER" no mind you she also has learned that TOP VOLUME gets more response so it is not a quiet argument. We don't get out much.... but I already see embarrassment for mom on the horizon with that one... it is just a matter of time! She argues about a lot of things... she just enjoys it. " BEAR" " Puppy" " NO BEAR" "puppy" well you get the idea. She loves to do it. I suppose that I shouldn't argue with my toddler even in play... but it is so doggone fun and the grin she gets while we are doing it is absolutely enchanting! She has got to be the cutest, prettiest, smartest kid in the world. And you can pass that off as being biased all you want... but like I told my cousin Sarah when she said that I am with Ash all day every day and that means that rather than being biased I am simply in the best position to make the judgement! She is a pistol and she keeps Dave and I on our toes, but she is still so sweet. I have seen kids turn into little demons when they reach the toddler years... but she is just becoming more complex and staying sweet.
It is hard to dress her right now... no not because she is in anyway difficult about it.... if anything her cousin Ariah's love for dress up has rubbed off and that is the one thing ( aside from eating) that there is NEVER an argument about! The thing is that she is in between sizes right now. 18 months is really the right size but we have to be careful washing so it doesn't shrink even slightly. 24 months will often fall right off of her... but if we shrink it sometimes it will work a little later. Dave is doing the laundry right now so that is a hit and miss thing. The other issue is that no two clothes company make their sizes the same so some times a walmart 24 months is more like a khol's 18 months. We have had some issues lately. But at the rate she is growing we will be looking at 24 months soon I am sure. Clothes get treated pretty roughly around here between the toddler eating and husband doing the laundry most of them have a stain or two that we have to live with. Dave doesn't pretreat and Ash doesn't show and quarter when she is eating. Red Jello is attacked with as much gusto as a clear broth soup. Yes yes bibs... well we have plenty and Ash knows how to take them off.... not to mention her hands get under them etc etc. The other day I was out with my parents and we stopped at a buffet where we responsibly put a bib on A before feeding her Sweet potatoes. It wasn't until we were leaving that we realized that those sweet potatoes had puddled in her lap and her pretty white and lilac dress was going to have some issues.... as well as my mothers white sweater ( the person who happened to be carrying her to the car when we noticed the whole lap issue. )
So yes we are here I know it has been a bit. Mother's day come and gone.... by the way for our mothers I bought the cards and Dave never mailed them. I haven't been out in a while but when I do get out again I will make sure they get mailed. Sorry!!!! But not completely unexpected I suppose. Used to be I would just walk down to the mail box on the end of the street.... not so much these days. My mother's day was nice and quiet. Dave got nice breakfast items and made a delicious breakfast for me followed by a nice dinner at my parents house. He also got me a new purse and a personal handheld back massager. I joked and said that one was self-serving because he is sick of hearing " sweetie would you give me a back rub?" Father's day is coming up and I am hoping to get the mother's day cards mailed before then. And I hope that my next posting is sooner rather than later.... but I make no promises....