Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  
Also:  I (Ashley) have lost my cell phone.  I'm pretty sure it fell out of the car last night as we were getting out to go to church.  SO... if you need to reach me in the next few days, try the house first (630-868-3036) and then try Rob's cell (773-350-8470).  I'll hopefully have a new one on the 26th.  

Sunday, December 21, 2008

"I heart Riley Green." -Robbie

Robbie has found a precious new friend in Riley Green over the last few months!  Riley is about 2 weeks younger than Robbie (and lives very close) and it is fun to see them developing along the same timelines.  Our recent playdates have included the following activities: always sharing snacks, lots of poking and grabbing at each other, toy sharing (stealing, whatever), talking back and forth ("ba-ba-ba", repeat), and us moms snapping pictures every time something cute happens.  Translation: we take pictures the whole time, pausing only to sit them back up when they topple over!  The bonus is that we all go to the same church, and they get to play in the cry room together on Sundays!  Lucky kids, they are.

This was our 'Christmas' playdate, as I'm calling it.  We set them up in front of the tree and their cuteness did not fail us.

Hi mommies!  We are buddies.

 
A lot of this goes on... they are very curious about each other's faces.  It usually ends with formerly-gentle Robbie getting excited and clawing Riley's cheek.  We clip his nails just before they come over now, to be safe.


Posing??  I think this is my favorite!  What a sweet girl.


Robbie loves the attention Riley gives him! 

 
And apparently Riley has a thing for big heads.  Robbie leans in so that she can get a good squeeze!

See?   I told you they were cute together.  ::sigh::

Friday, December 19, 2008

What does it mean when you say you have a 'bun in the oven'?

Guess who is going to be a big brother??

Rob, Robbie and I are excited to tell you that we are expecting baby #2 in early July!  We are just entering the second trimester and I'm feeling great (thanks to the occasional 2 hour nap with my little guy during the day!).  We are looking forward to Robbie becoming a big brother and know that he will handle the roll well.   

This picture was taken just after I told Rob the good news a few months ago!


Introducing: Spiral Macaroni

Yesterday Robbie got to try Spiral Macaroni and Cheese for lunch (...well, after he had polished off a bowl of oatmeal and applesauce and a handful of Peach Star Puffs).  He loved it, and just when I thought he was winding down and getting full, I put one last forkful of spirals on his tray... he grabbed the whole glob with his hand and tried to shove it all in his mouth at once!  He makes me laugh so hard.  Enough of this 'one at a time' thing.  




Monday, December 15, 2008

Deck the halls!

It's finally festive in here!



You will laugh, but I have been waiting my whole life to have monogrammed stockings for my own family.  These thrill me to no end.



Sunday, December 14, 2008

You aren't really surprised, are you?!

Neither am I.   :) 

Robbie's first word was "DADA".  The boy loves his dad.  No jealousy here on mom's end, wishing it were "MAMA" - I love that Robbie adores Rob!  It is what I have always prayed for. 

(ps. for those of you who may be thinking that every baby says dada indiscriminately - you are right.  Robbie has actually been saying 'dadadadada' for weeks now - 'mamamama' too, and lots of other things that sound like words like 'diaper' and 'truck'.  But we got him to say DADA on command, several different times, while pointing to Rob!  So we figured that counted as first word.)  

Robbie tries out the boots I got for Rob (which incidentally were returned - I'm not good at picking out shoes for him!).  These are some big shoes to fill.
Playing in the snow in his snowsuit!  

Please keep praying for our friends Mark and Heidi, whose 9 week old baby Kaiya is still in the hospital.  You can follow Kaiya's progress on their blog here

Saturday, December 13, 2008

WE HAVE FIRST WORD!

Very exciting - it was clear as a bell, Robbie repeated it several times after prompts from both mommy and daddy, and the word itself isn't really a surprise to me!!

Any guesses??!!

(ps. sorry dad, it wasn't "football", although he is working hard on his F sound!  ...soon.)