Ashlynn is 18 months old!

Our little princess is getting so big!  She turned 18 months old on the 8th and had her 18 month checkup last Wednesday. She is weighing in at 22 pounds 10 ounces which puts her in the 25th percentile. She's tiny compared to what Dawson was at 18 months... he was over 28 pounds already! And she's still a shorty, they measured her at 32 inches, I think she's actually only 31 inches, though. They stretched out the paper after they marked it and then measured it. Either way, she's short just like her mama. :) She was in the 50th percentile for height.*Edit to add: I just measured Ashlynn and just as I expected she's 31 inches tall. :)

She loves playing with her princesses, she LOVES wearing shoes, she loves wearing earrings... We just put stick-on earrings on her, Dave really wants to get her ears pierced but I don't. I know she loves them now but what if she doesn't when she's older, you know? I think we'll just stick with stick-ons! :) She also loves necklaces and purses. With all that being said, she also loves to play with Woody and Buzz and she loves playing with Dawson's cars when he has them out, too!

I love this picture of her wearing my shoes, if I leave them out she has to put them on! She is REALLY good at walking in them, too!

She also loves to read and be read to.

I can't remember if I posted this picture in the blog or not but I made Ashlynn a purse. It took me a couple of weeks to teach myself how to crochet but I was determined to make her a purse, so I did! I was hoping that I would have time to keep practicing crocheting so I could learn to make other things but I just don't have the time. Maybe someday, though!

I love her big smile in this picture. ♥

And I love this picture that Dave took before we went to church a few Sundays ago.

I'm going to try and type out a list of words/names that Ashlynn says on her own but I am sure that I will forget some! Here we go...

Mama, Dada, Daws, Papa, Nana, Arika, Kaka, Brons, Hailee, Drea, Becca, (I can't remember if she says Brandee on her own, I know she'll repeat it, though) yes, no, light, off, belly, cheek, feet, toes, eye, nose, juice, hi, bye-bye, Ariel, barbie, ball, shoes, baby, wawa (water), bath, potty, dress, wow, purse, Jake, bite, please, mine... and that's all that I can think of right now! I think that's a pretty good list, I might be missing one or two words, though. She doesn't say all of the these words 100% clear but we can understand her. :)

She can point a lot of her body parts when we ask her to, too. She knows her hair, eyes, cheeks, nose, ears, mouth, tongue, fingers, belly, feet, and toes.

She loves to walk around and hold hands. I love it! I remember when Dawson was her age he did not want to hold hands, he would always want to run off and we'd have to make him hold our hands. Not Ashlynn! A lot of the time she won't start walking somewhere unless she's holding somebody's hand. She loves to walk up and down the hall holding mine or Dave's hand, too. We'll seriously go back and forth for a good ten minutes just walking the hall and holding hands and I'm sure she'd go much longer if we let her! haha

Another thing that I absolutely love is her hugs. She gives the best hugs! She reminds me of a little monkey sometimes because she doesn't just hug with her arms, she uses her legs, too. She doesn't hug like that all the time but I love it when she does. :) She's a little snuggle bug.

She also loves to play peek-a-boo! There's another word she'll say on her own... "boo!" She thinks it's hilarious to hide her face and then peek out and say boo. She loves playing Ring Around the Rosie, too. She calls it "ashes." (Add that to the list of words that she says on her own!) And she loves when we rock her and sing Rock-a-Bye Baby to her. She sings it to her babies, too. Her version goes like this: "baby, baby, baby, baby" It's really sweet. And that reminds me, I sing a cleanup song when we're picking up toys (which she is really good at by the way, I don't remember Dawson putting away his toys this young when I asked him to, maybe he did though?) But anyway, the song goes like this... Toys away, toys away, gently put the toys away. And Ashlynn will sing it! She sings, "away, away, away, away" It's too sweet! So far she only says one word at a time but I'm sure it won't be much longer until she's putting two or three words together.

And just because I haven't put one of these together for awhile, here is how Ashlynn has grown since birth! :)

1/8 (birth) -------- 5 lbs 6 oz ---- 17.5 inches
1/31 (3 weeks) ---- 5 lbs 15 oz --- 18.5 inches
3/8 (8 weeks) ----- 8 lbs 10 oz --- 20.5 inches
3/15 (9 weeks) ---- 9 lbs 10 oz --- 21 inches
5/5 (4 months) ---- 14 lbs 1 oz --- 23 inches
6/7 (5 months) ---- 16 lbs 6 oz --- 24.5 inches
7/15 (6 months) --- 18 lbs 3 oz --- 25.5 inches
10/20 (9 months) -- 21 lbs 3 oz -- 27.5 inches
1/9 (12 months) --- 21 lbs 1 oz --  29.5 inches
4/11 (15 months) -- 20 lbs 7 oz -- 30 inches
7/11 (18 months) -- 22 lbs 10 oz -- 31 inches

15 months is when she was sick with two double ear infections back to back, I think that's why she had lost a little bit of weight.

 Ashlynn truly is a little sweetheart. I know me, Dave, and Dawson absolutely adore her and I'm pretty sure everybody else does, too. ♥ We love you Ashlynn!!!