Sick November

Wondering what we've been up to this month?

Being sick. That's it. Joseph's parents came to visit and Ashton kindly shared her stomach flu germs with the entire house. She was feeling fine but everyone else was sick. We didn't do much except eat crackers and sip Sprite.

Once we recovered from that weekend, Ashton decided to get a new tooth or two. Teething for Ashton is a big deal. She definitely is not the kid who just wakes up one morning with another tooth and it doesn't phase them. The whole world must know when Ashton is getting a tooth. I look forward to when she has them all!

Once the tooth broke through, I thought we were good to go. I had my happy Ashton back. But not for long. She came down with a bad cold/cough a few days later. She didn't sleep at all at night unless she was upright. After a very long weekend, I took her in to the doctor Monday morning. They said she had an ear infection and pneumonia so prescribed antibiotics and breathing treatments. We started the medicine right away. Of course the antibiotics gave her a yeast infection AGAIN! That's fun. After three days of all the medicines, she still wasn't doing well. She could not sleep for more than an hour or two without screaming. I called the doctor again and they instructed me to have more tests done. So we did a chest x-ray, drew blood, and checked for the flu. The results came back and turns out her pneumonia is viral instead of bacterial so we just need to let it run its course. FUN!

I think we're on the upswing of things as she slept in her crib all night last night for the first time in a week. She only woke up once for about 45 minutes. That's a big improvement. We host Thanksgiving next week so I'm hoping all the sickness is behind us.

Here are some pictures of how we spent the days being sick.

Cleaning out the car was overdue so Ashton helped.

We were so tired to being cooped up in the house. It wasn't too cold out so I figured we could play a little at the park. I love her expression in this picture.

In the bathtub, with clothes on. She loves climbing in there to play.

I let her do whatever in our bathroom as long as I could lay in bed a little longer. And we stayed in our pajamas a lot!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken amidst all the illness at our house this month. We planned to go to the beach but then the freezing weather came. So we took some at our house. We plan to go to the beach after the holidays and when the weather goes back to normal.

Here are some pictures of the family.

Ashton tried her best to be happy but it was hard with her being so sick. But at least we got a few good ones.

The Language of Ashton

Recently, Ashton began saying a few words. From her vocabulary, you can tell what we say the most around her. Here are some examples:

- "No." This often comes when I say, "night-night." This is almost always followed by crying and walking out of her bedroom. I use this word a lot during the day. For example, Ashton just discovered that toilet paper rolls unroll. I used "No" several times.

- "Shoe" She hates wearing shoes and socks. She'll wear them outside if we're playing but the minute we go inside, she sits down and repeatedly says, "shoe." It sounds more like "shi" but close enough.

- "That" This sounds more like "Dat." Any time she is pointing at something she wants, she often says, "Dat."

- "Sit" Ashton despises sitting in her stroller, the shopping cart, her car seat, etc. So I say "sit" A LOT! Now she does too. The only thing is, when she says it, she doesn't sit.

- "Dog" Since returning from Wisconsin, Ashton can spot a dog a mile away. Okay, not really but pretty close. The other day, a neighbor walked their dog by our house. Ashton and I were playing outside and once Ashton saw the dog, she kept following it down the street. She was determined to follow it home.

- "Amen" This sounds more like "meh" but she only says it after we say Amen when we say prayers. It's pretty cute.

She still continues to yell, "Da Da Da" when she is happy and content. When she's mad, it is always "Ma Ma Ma."

She loves talking to herself. When she is playing by herself, she will often be narrating her playtime. It's fun to listen and try to think of the stories she's telling herself. It's fun to see her learning and understanding more and more.

Halloween Texas Style

The longer we live in Texas, we realize more and more that we were not raised as Texans. I'm pretty sure everyone on our street knows that now since we put our carved pumpkin out too early. And by too early, I mean before October 30th.

Having grown up in the cold states of Alaska and Wisconsin, putting pumpkins out a week or two before Halloween was fine. Not in Texas. After about 36 hours of being outside, our poor little pumpkin was just that... poor and little. It decayed rather quickly. Now we know, after talking to fellow moms at play group, to wait until the night before or even the day of Halloween to put our pumpkins out. How sad!

The other element of Halloween for Joseph and I growing up was to bundle up in costumes. Often, our costumes were required to fit over snow boots, snow pants, a big, puffy jacket, mittens, etc. So when I made Ashton's costume, I wasn't the least bit concerned about using a long-sleeve shirt and a winter hat. It didn't dawn on me that it would be about 70 degrees when we went trick or treating. She wore it for a while and then got too warm so lost the hat. I'll do better next year at planning cooler costumes.

Ashton enjoyed trying to eat her Halloween candy through the wrapper. We enjoyed sitting with friends at the church's trunk or treat night. We got rid of all of our candy, which is great! I didn't really want it sitting around our house.

Ashton's Marriage Outlook

Recently, Joseph was doing some family history work on FamilySearch. He saw this and told me about it:



We talked about how easy it would be to simply insert a name for Ashton's husband now. There are several young boys at church that we would love Ashton to marry. While she hasn't had her first kiss yet, she has shared plenty of toys and food from her mouth to a friend's mouth. It's hard to yell at her because it's her way of sharing. I do call one of her friends her boyfriend. Mainly because the little boy always looks for Ashton and then cries when he has to leave her. And he has cute curly hair, which makes it even better.

So I do think about who she will marry. I wonder if the person is alive yet. I wonder if his parents are taking the time to pray at every meal even though their son screams during it. I wonder if the parents put a picture of the temple in his bedroom and sings, "I Love to See the Temple" every night. I pray that the parents of the boy Ashton will marry is working diligently to raise him to treat Ashton with kindness. I pray his parents will take the time to the simple things like read the scriptures as a family, pray together, and hold family home evening. I pray they are teaching their son to keep the commandments and live a life that would please Heavenly Father.

Yes, it would be so simple to add a husband for her right now, especially since we know several good little toddlers. But I do pray often for the family who she will marry into since I have little say in that. Over the past few nights as I sing to her, I get this feeling that time will pass by so quickly. Before I know it, Ashton will be dressed in white on her wedding day. And I pray that her husband will be able to tolerate her persistence and stubbornness! Until then, I will work on tolerating it.