Written:  June 16th, 2002

Well, little Miss Ashleigh has come a long way in the past month.  She's now fully mobile!!  She's just crawling up a storm... which she's perfected since early May.  We've moved on to standing and now she's cruising up and down the furniture with no problem!

Let's see.  She's been sick in the past month.  Took her to daycare on the 13th of May and she came home sick on the 16th, with a runny nose.  It progressed from there into conjunctivitis, rhinitis, and bi-lateral ear infections!!!  She cleared up most of it within a couple of weeks.  Her Nana was visiting so we kept her home for a few days and she seemed to do a lot better.  After the first dose of antibiotics, she still didn't seem quite right, so I took her back to the doctor's and she had another ear infection (thankfully, just one though!)  So, onto a stronger antibiotic we went.  She's been on that now for 10 days and she finishes it up this evening.  She goes back on Wednesday for a follow-up to make sure everything is all better!!!  (Let's hope!)  She lost a total of 18 ounces while being sick ... so as little as she was to start with, she regressed in the weight department.  She was down to 14 pounds, 10 ounces again.  She's regained her appetite, so she's picking the weight back up now.

What else?  Oh food.  We've moved on to some Stage 3 solids.  Pretty neat I must say.  She had broccoli, carrots, and cheese today and she seemed to love it.  Last week, before my Mom left again, we had rotisserie chicken, baked potatoes, and peas.  Guess who sat at the table and had the exact same thing?  That's right, Ashies!!!  We were so proud.  We cut everything up into little pieces and she just gobbled them up.  She's also eating Cheerios now... She loves them!  She has them in the morning when she gets to daycare and then again with banana chunks when she gets home for an afternoon snack.  On the food subject, she can now hold her own bottle too!!  It's so nice to be able to put her in her play pin, give her a bottle, and be able to do some stuff while she downs it.  She's also been drinking from a sippy cup for a while now, but only intermittently, so she's yet to perfect it.

So, I'm now officially a single parent.  My mom left last week and I've been Ashleigh's sole caretaker for 4 days now.  It's different.  Lots of things to try and get done and not much time to do it.  Handicapped by the fact that I woke up with pink eye on Wednesday, it really makes things difficult being sick trying to take care of a very mobile and agile 8 and 1/2 month old.  She seems to get into everything these days.  Twice in the past 4 days she got her clock all messed up and decided it was time to play in the middle of the night.  One night, I brought her downstairs, plopped her in her play pen (aka kiddie jail) with a bunch of toys and laid down on the couch.  I knew she'd holler when she was done.  

As today is Father's Day, and what would have been Neal's first, we went down to the cemetery this morning and hung out for a while.  We took him red and white roses and a couple of balloons... Ashleigh gave her Daddy his card and I gave him mine.  His guys from the Fire Department sent Ashleigh one of their 40th anniversary commemorative badges and a Disneyland Mickey Mouse fireman.  We took those down to show Daddy too.  I took some pictures of Ashleigh wearing the badge, and I'll put some on this page when I get them developed. 

She's rambling a lot, but no real words yet.  People swears she says "Mama," but I think it's actually just a coincidence that she's doing that.  She's beginning to really recognize things and people.  She knows her Daddy, through his pictures, and she waves to his collages all the time.  OH YEAH.  She can wave hi and bye!!  She knows when I point to her paci and tell her to go get it and she also understands sit and stand.  (Did anyone ever tell you that talking to an 8 month old is a lot like talking to a dog?  I'm learning that they really are close together!~ Not that Ashies is a dog, but you really do have the same tone!!)  She also understands "come mere"  or come here for grown-ups.  She's pretty amazing.  I'm sure all 8 month olds are this smart... but since this is the only one I've ever had, I'm certainly bias.  

She spends time in her pool almost every day.  My sister actually bought her a fire truck pool... but she's yet to get in that yet.  It's shaped like a fire truck and has a working hose!  I can't wait to put her in that.... For now, she's just in her little round pool out on the deck.  Mom bought a pretty outdoor carpet that is underneath it on the deck, so she has a nice carpeted space to sit on when she gets out. 

We went to her Great Aunt and Uncle's 25th wedding anniversary last weekend.  We got to see lots of people that we hadn't seen since Ashleigh's Baptism, so that too was very nice.  Ashies seemed to have a good time  :-)

OH-- Almost forgot, Ashleigh came home with an "Incident Report" from daycare.  I got there on Wednesday of last week, and when I walked in, the Director says "Ashleigh had an incident today and there's an Incident Report for you to sign in the back."  First thought, oh crap, she hit someone.  What other kind of incident is there????  She's not old enough to spit at anyone.  LOL.  Well, you can tell what kind of Mom I am... it wasn't anything like that!  She actually was walking along one of the tables and took a spill head first into the table.  She conked her head pretty good.  She had a bruise on her forehead for a few days .... but she's just fine now.

Ashleigh with her Fireman Mickey and her daddy's 2002 SVFD badge... in her firefighter outfit :-)		Ashleigh learning to stand and be brave by letting go		Ashleigh's newest toy... her car.  It converts to help her walk (she doesn't like that much yet!)
Eating Cheerios!!		Ashies in Jail   :-)
My little Pianist		Playing in the Pool on the Deck

Written:  June 27, 2002

Well, little Miss Ashleigh is sick AGAIN!  --  She went off antibiotics on Monday, the 17th.  I had a follow-up scheduled, but her doctor was, guess what, sick! so I had to move it to this week.  She spent the night at her Aunt Tracy's house on Saturday night and when I picked her up after church on Sunday, her nose was running and she was tugging and fussing, so in to Urgent Care we went.  They told me she had some fluid in her ear, but it wasn't infected.  Just to give her the prescription decongestant and it should clear up.   Sunday night she was coughing a lot, crabby, fussy, and down-right irritable.  The next day, she was awful!  Not my baby at all!!!  So, I took her in to her regular pediatrician, and he says, she has an ear infection again!  Well, now we're on grown-up antibiotics, Biaxin to be exact.  We've gone through all of the "baby" antibiotics, except for the daily shots.  If her ears don't clear up this time, we go see the ENTs.  She has her follow-up on the 3rd, so let's keep our fingers crossed that we won't be going to see the ENT after the 4th and looking at tube colors (I think they only come in blue....) or discussing surgery for tube placement.  The Mommy is just not ready for that!   Other than that, she's pretty much just been her typical self.  

She hasn't had any more incidents at daycare.  Although, she has now had one at home!  She lunged into the end table.  Not sure why.... but she did!  She was crawling along and all of a sudden, she just lunged for the end table leg.  She conked her head pretty good too.  I'm thinking she saw something she wanted, just didn't realize that the table leg was inanimate.  She had a huge red mark for hours.  I've learned she does not like cold things applied to her head.  

What else? -- Oh, she's now been trained into going to her high chair when she's hungry.  She'll crawl into the kitchen and stand up in front of it and pound on the seat.  It's just tooooo cute!  I'm now training our little puppy, oops, my angel baby Ashleigh, to go to the refrigerator when she wants a bottle.  She's watching me take them out of there so I am hoping that sometime soon, she'll start pounding on the frig door when she's thirsty!~

OK... will update you all soon!  Take care and God bless!!!

Written:  June 30, 2002

Well, it's official, Ashleigh can now say Ma Ma AND Da Da.  OK, so let me tell you, it broke my heart, made me cry, and thrilled me all at the same time.  I have the collages of Neal from his funeral hanging in my hallway to upstairs.  Every time we go past them, I tell Ashleigh to say hi to Da Da.  Well, she did on Saturday!!  We were talking to him on the way down the stairs and when we got to the bottom one, she said it!!  OK.  So, wasn't 100% sure, so I thought I'd keep an eye on it through the day.  Neal's parents, his sister (Ashies' Godmother), and his little brother came over that evening for a little while.  I said something about Da Da, and she looked at the collage.  I grabbed the pictures of him that she plays with and gave them to her.  She took her pointer finger, pointed right at his head, and said "Da Da!"  Needless to say, there wasn't a dry eye in the place!  It was bitter sweet.  Nealy wasn't there in person to start crying, and anyone who knew him knows that's exactly what he would have done, but all the talking about her daddy and showing her his pictures has taken residence in her brain.  She knows her daddy!   :-)  Thank you God!~

Daddy's Homepage

The Sherman Family
© 2002
No pictures to be reused without consent