Nearly 14 months!

Wow hard to believe 14 months have flown by!  Ashton is one adorable and busy dude!  He is totally our outdoor boy!  If he is outside he is happy.  If he is brought inside....so no happy!  We ended up tying baby gates to both the front and side door so he can go outside on the porches safely if we are inside.  He has spent many happy hours playing on his chair on the front porch!

He is also really beginning to communicate.   When he wants to eat sometimes he will point his finger into his mouth.  Sometimes he will do the sign for more when he wants more.  Sometimes when he wants something he'll come up to you with his hand like he wants you to take it and then walk with you to what he wants.

When he doesn't get what he wants or something is taken away from him, he let's you know in no uncertain circumstances that he is mad!  Oh the will of a toddler!

Also next Friday we celebrate Ashton's Heir Day!  The day Ashton officially became a Gjerde!  What a blessing he is to us!

Rock eater, Toilet, Bathtub and Dog water bowl swimmer, Poop explorer

Well Ashton is officially into EVERYTHING!  Absolutely nothing is safe or sacred!  He CANNOT be trusted ALONE ever!  If it's too quiet...something is definitely up!

So first there are the rocks/pebbles...he loves to eat them by the handfuls...no matter how many times we tell him no and take them out of his mouth, he finds a way to get them back in his mouth....yuck!  And it doesn't matter what size the rock is....if he finds little ones great....bigger ones...even better!

Then there is the water temptation.  It comes from every location.  The dogs' water bowl in the kitchen.  The toilet and the bathtub.  Today he decided to throw blue (his blue teddy bear lovey) into the bathtub.  While reaching for it, he slipped forward and dove head first into the bathtub with Lily fully clothed and shoed.  Thank goodness I was there to pull him out.  I think he was a little shook up, but then a few minutes later he went to do it again!

Olav reports one of the grossest adventures...the diaper genie.  Apparently Olav left a dirty diaper on top of the diaper genie (instead of flipping it down into the trash bag inside).  Ashton got ahold of the dirty diaper.  Well you can imagine what he did with that dirty diaper as he smeared poop everywhere on his little self and the area around him!  Gross!  Glad I missed that one!

Easter fun!

Ashton had his first "try" at the easter egg hunt! He found 1 camaflouge egg with the help of his supportive fans. He enjoyed shaking it and hearing the sounds inside!

1 year old!

Hard to believe tommorow Ashton will be one year old! Time really flew! What a joy he is! He walks all over the place. Loves to be outside. Is very mommy and daddy centric! We had professional photos taken of him recently and I will post them when I receive them! We had a family birthday party for him this weekend! Not 100% sure what he thought of the cake...He took a bite, but really just wanted the frosting off his hands!

It's amazing the changes in 2 weeks!

On Monday Ashton and Olav returned from their visit trip to Norway for 12 days. Boy did I miss them! It is amazing how much Ashton has changed in just two short weeks! Before the trip he was taking up to 11 steps. Now he is a walking maniac. He can occassionally has been "caught running". He can manuever his walking toy with ease. Pulling it backwards and forwards, moving it to where he wants it to go. Not only is he walking, but he is climbing. Climbing the bathroom stool, the baseboard heaters, climbing onto his tippy toes to reach the door handle. Not only is he super mobile, he is super verbal. Before he left for Norway was a man of few words. Now he is a babbling and yaking constantly! He says "G" and "da da". Plus he has the cute new thing he does when he looks at you and lifts up one arm up in the air...as if to say "so big". Hopefully I can snap a picture of it soon! If we thought he was a daddy's boy before the trip...he is totally a daddy's boy now. Mommy is officially chopped liver! Ashton can be fine, then daddy walks into the room...and all of sudden Ashton fusses and wants to be picked up by his daddy!

Frequent Buyer Card at the Pediatric Center

February 2012 will forever go down in the books as the month when the nurses and doctors at the Pediatric Center in Frederick became our best friends, and how I really think they need to start a frequent buyer card!

Ashton after his hemotoma scare, managed to spend a good portion of his weekends in the pediatric center for a bacterial eye infection called periorbital cellulits. Originally he looked like he had been punched in the eye. It went down, only to return shortly after finishing his first round of antiboitics. Now he is on round two and I can only hope this time we nixed it!

In other news...Ashton has offically outgrown his infant car seat. Hard to believe he is getting so big.

He is almost walking. He is now taking 2 to 3 steps at time! He has really good balance! I really want him see him "walk" before he goes to Norway next week! I don't want to miss his first fluid multi-step walk!

He has taken a liking to big people food! He eats almost anything that we offer him.

He loves his daddy! The sun rises and sets on daddy! As long as daddy is in the room no one else exists. If daddy leaves the room, Ashton is a mess! I think Olav has a love-hate relationship with the situation. On the one hand he loves that fact that Ashton is very attached to him and looks to him for most everything. But as you can imagine, it makes it very difficult for Olav to get anything done because he has a baby hemmoroid clinging to his legs constantly

He loves banging stuff on tables, daddys guitar, the floor etc. I really do thing we have a mini music prodigy. He also will dance whenever their is music on...very cute...sometimes he doesn't even need music!

Lily has been such a super big sister to him. He adores her! My happiest moments as a parent are when the two of them are playing and laughing together!

Hematoma Head

Well when Ashton was younger we called him baby bobble head, but after this week he has a new nickname: Hematoma Head.

The little man gave us a real scare this week. On Tuesday when I got home from work, he was crawling on the floor and "tripped" over himself and caught himself with his face. Needless to say his mouth took a little beating and bleed a small bit. While I was comforting him, I was patting his head....all of a sudden I noticed something wasn't right. A large portion of his head felt spongy. I immediately called the pediatrician, who asked us to come in. The pediatrician agreed that this was not right, so they sent us to the pediatriac emergency room. While there, it was decided Ashton needed a CAT scan to determine whether the bleeding on his skull was underneath the skull or above the skull. It would also show if he had a skull fracture. Fortunately their was not internal bleeding or skull fracture. They also tested his blood to make sure their wasn't any bleeding disorders that might of caused the hematoma since no one was aware of any direct trauma he experienced to his head and a lack of bruising. This too came back fine. We are very thankful for that!

But for now on he is going to wear a helmet.....and I now affectionately refer to him as Hematoma Head!