A Few of My Favorite Things

For those who are interested in Ashton's life from back home, here are a few of her favorite things. Sorry for the lack of pictures. If Ashton sees my phone, she wants it. So I hide it for most of the day. This leads to a lack of pictures.

1. Going to the park. Since the weather warmed up again to the 60's, we've enjoyed some wonderful afternoons at our local park. There, she loves going down slides, sitting in the swing for 0.32 seconds, "stirring" the gravel with a stick, and climbing up and down stairs.

This is her pushing her face against a little window in the playground tunnel. Probably not the cleanest surface to lick but oh well. This might explain her constant runny nose these days.

2. Talking. Ashton's vocabulary keeps expanding, which I love. Each day, it gets a little easier to understand what she wants. Her word list now includes: Dog, Duck, Done, More, No, Baby, Mama, Dada, Papa, Nana (means Grandma and banana), Shoe, Sit, Go, Bye, Hi, Up, Ick, and Daniel. "Daniel" means she wants to watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood on Netflix. I don't like that she now has a word to watch a show. My preference is for her not to watch any TV during the day. Some days, she gets lucky and she gets one episode.

3. Reading. She loves her books. Ashton especially likes the book her great-grandma got her about cats. It is just a book with a lot of pictures of random cats. She also likes pointing at everything in her books and asking what they are.

4. Picking up trash at the park. She then promptly says, "Ick" and hands it to me. At least that is an improvement from when she would just try to eat it.

5. Dumping everything out of its container, namely her snacks. That's fun. It also explains the current condition of our house. I'm tired of cleaning up everything only for her to dump it back out a few minutes later.

6. Copying me in anything. When Ashton sees me do something, she wants to do it "just like mommy." She likes to wipe the floor with a towel, sweep the floor, put dishes away, set the table, type on the computer, draw and color on papers, put groceries on the check out belt, brush her hair, and put on make-up.

7. I can't forget to put her juice on this list. Ashton doesn't nurse anymore but she still has a big desire to suck on her straw cups. I'm glad we never pushed the pacifier with her because I think it would have been a very hard habit to break now. But she loves to drink out of her straw cups. On a typical day, Ashton will drink 45-60 ounces a day. We put about an ounce of apple juice mixed with 8 ounces of water. It tastes terrible but she loves it. The only trick is limiting it at night or else she will wake up with a full diaper in the wee hours of the morning. I asked the doctor about this at her last appointment to rule out Type I Diabetes. He said it was okay and she is just a super hydrated kid that pees a lot. Thank goodness we use cloth diapers because she goes through a ton of diapers every day.

8. Art projects with me. My sister in law gave Ashton and I an art book for toddlers for Christmas. We've done a few things from the book. I love that Ashton is getting to the age to do some of these projects. They don't last too long but it helps give us something to do. We made some fun goop out of corn starch and water. She liked it.

 9. Dressing herself. She has my fashion sense.

 That's some of Ashton's favorite things. Those back home will get a chance to see this in person in just a few short weeks! She is full of fun and energy so be prepared!