Her First Story

Ashleigh told us her first story today! She has been saying lots of random sentences and phrases (like "Oh no, what happened?" but she has never told a story. Today when Matt came home for lunch, she ran into the kitchen to greet him as she normally does, and then she proceeded to tell him a story.

Ashleigh: "...(random words we couldn't figure out)... I went to the store!!"

Daddy: "You did?"

Ashleigh: "Yeah! I ride the horsie!"

(Every Meijer has a ride-on horse toy at the front of the store that only costs 1 penny to ride. Every time we go, we let Ashleigh ride it, if she has behaved!)

Both our jaws dropped open. We couldn't believe she had just told us a complete story! Wow!! Our baby girl is so big!

23 months old!

My little 23 month old girl. Too big for her britches. She thinks she is such a big girl, but I’m not ready for her to be THAT big!

Ashleigh seems to grow daily- physically and mentally! We will see her lying on the floor (on her belly with her hands propping up her head) and we’ll think she looks like she’s grown a foot overnight (or at least her LEGS have grown that much! Sheesh, she has some long legs!) Or she will say something that we will *think* is jibberish until we realize that she just said an entire sentence! Crazy!

For the past few months, I know I have been listing the words she is saying, but there is just no way I could list them all here now. Her vocabulary seems to triple every night! She is saying whole phrases and sentences now.  Here are some of our favorites…

Oh no!  (said with sincere concern!)

What happened? (Usually follows her “oh no” exclamation)

Where’d it go?  (“Where go?”)

I don’t know  (“I doe no”)

Where is Ashleigh? (“Where Ash-ee?”)

What’s that? (“Whah tat?”)

Mess. Big mess. 

Tractor. BIG tractor!

Plane. Big plane!

(Do you see a pattern here?)

I no like it.  (She said this for the first time when I made a new Mexican dish. It was a bit spicy, and she made a face and said she didn’t like it. My feelings weren’t hurt too much!)

At 23 months, Ashleigh…

-wears 18 month clothing, although she is starting to fit into some 24 month clothing that is on the smaller side

-wears size 4 diapers.

-loves to sit on HER potty (she hasn’t done anything in it yet, but she does love to sit on it!)

-talks quite a bit

-laughs a lot

-is using her imagination when she plays (SO CUTE!!)

-knows how to count from 1-10!!!! (one, two, free, fuh, fife, seex, sefen, eat, nine, teh)

-knows a lot of her alphabet letters! She loves playing with the alphabet puzzle from great grandma and great grandpa, and she loves alphabet books. She has also started pointing out some of the letters she knows on signs or in books.

-is eating more foods. She isn’t being as picky with her fruits and vegetables! She has started to enjoy grapes, blueberries, pineapple, and tomatoes! Yay! Finally- a variety!

- is working hard on sharing (it’s definitely not one of her strengths!)

-loves to get dirty… dirt is her favorite toy! She loves playing outside. Thank goodness we have had such nice weather this summer!

-enjoys watching Netflix on our phones (who could have taught her how to do that?!)

-loves, loves, LOVES going to the playground. Did I mention she loves playgrounds? If you don’t believe me, just watch this video…

One month month, sweet baby, until you are 2 years old! I can’t believe it!

August visitors!

This past month, Grandma and Grandpa Titus came to spend a few days with us, and then a week later, Matt’s brother and sister-in-law, Jason and Tatiana, came to see us on their way back from Chicago! We had a great time visiting, hanging out, and showing them around our favorite spots in Mason and Lansing. Thanks so much for visiting! We had an awesome time!

Hot Air Balloons!

One evening after supper, we spotted some visitors in the sky around our house…

At least 8 hot air balloons were floating directly over the soybean fields beside and behind our house. They were quite low so the “whoosh whoosh” of the flames were pretty loud.  We watched from our side yard as the balloons kept getting lower and lower. (We were hoping they weren’t going to land in the soybeans or clip our power lines!)

We put Ashleigh in the stroller and started to walk down the road where the balloons were landing in our neighbor’s yard!

(We thought it was pretty funny that the Michigan and Michigan State balloons both landed in the same yard!)

So as we were walking closer to the balloon, the pilot and owner of the Michigan State balloon asked if we wanted to go up! We said yes! As we got closer to the balloon, Ashleigh freaked out. She was terrified of the flame and the noise. So Matt and I took turns holding Ashleigh  and we each got to go up in the balloon. It was so peaceful! (well, besides the fact that Ashleigh was screaming on the ground below!)

What a fun evening!

Jackson County Fair

So, Ashleigh and Frankie had so much fun at the Ingham County Fair that we decided to take them to the Jackson County Fair.  We had  a great time watching Ashleigh and Frankie hang out together, and Matt and I enjoyed spending time with Frankie’s parents. We enjoyed eating Friske fries and elephant ears and hot cinnamon rolls. Yum!

Riding the spinning strawberries (kind of like the tea cups)

I guess that’s the last of the fairs…until next year!!

Ingham County Fair

The Ingham County fairgrounds are about 3 miles down the road from our house, so when the fair came into town, we just had to go and experience a small town fair! Matt, Ashleigh, and I met up with Ashleigh’s best friend, Frankie, and his mommy. Ashleigh was a daredevil and wanted to ride all the rides. Frankie was a bit more hesitant, but he did manage to ride a couple of rides with Ashleigh.

The hit of the fair was looking at all the animals! The petting zoo was their favorite!