Firsts for Ashleigh

Ashleigh starting out on skates with Mommy and Rob's sister, Tina

Ashleigh with my brother, Steve, and Tina

Taking a break on the ice

In the last two weeks, Ashleigh has had several firsts. I took her ice skating for the first time with my brother and sister-in-law, who just so happens to be taking figure skating classes and was an excellent teacher. Ashleigh went three times around the rink holding our hands, before deciding she wanted to go home, but I was proud she lasted that long. I imagine that's hard having unsure footing in the first place, then balancing on two blades on a sheet of ice.

Ashleigh's First Swim Lesson with her teacher, Paige

She also started swim lessons last week. She had been in a parent-tot swim lesson with us, but this is the first time in a lesson with just the teacher and us observing. She's doing great and getting more comfortable with the water. One lesson we learned with Ashleigh that we won't repeat with Ethan is to build trust in the water and not dunk them or float them on their back before they're ready. Her teacher is great with that, but with Rob and I both being excellent swimmers on our high school swim teams, I think we were overly excited to teach Ashleigh how to swim.

Ethan sitting up with his buddy Aiden

Ethan has started eating Cheerios this week and is getting about half of them from the tray to his mouth now. He's also started this shriek/yelling thing for attention, or maybe he's just plain happy. We're not sure. But he does do it when we're sitting down to eat, or after his food is gone and he wants more. Guess he's just learning how to communicate with us using the tools he's got.

Happy New Year 2008!

Ashleigh (3) and her friend, Abby (4)

OH NO! Ashleigh got eaten by a fish!

Ashleigh and Abby playing dress-up and tap dancing at the Children's Museum

My dear friend, Ann, with Ethan (6 months)

We had a quiet New Year's Eve. Stayed home, ordered pizza, watched a movie, played some games, and had a few mixed drinks. Little known fact: Rob attended bartending school during his senior year at Mines as a fall back career and for fun too, but that knowledge does come in handy when making drinks at home. We made Cosmopolitans as I had never had any drink close to a martini and usually prefer wine and beer to mixed drinks. Ashleigh's favorite part of the evening was playing Sequence with mommy and daddy. Rob also made her a special apple-cranberry drink and we let her stay up as late as she wanted (which was around 10, when she started getting cranky.) Thankfully, we are all well again with the exception of Ethan's minor cough.

We also got to spend some time with our friends from Seattle, Ann, Josh, and their 4 year old daughter, Abby, who were in town for Christmas. We took the girls to the World of Wonder Children's Museum in Lafayette (where her mom lives). There was a lot to do there, including a pirate ship and reading pirate stories, an Egyptian machines exhibit, a music room, a wind room, a pretend bank, store, playhouse, sandbox, and a dress-up and dance area. We also had them over to our house for an early dinner, went out for some girl time coffee, and celebrated Abby's birthday together too. On a side note, there was a great turn out from Rob's family on Christmas Eve, his grandma from Riverton, his parents, his two brothers, and sister.

Rob's Extended Family on Christmas Eve