Ashlynn Olivia turns 2

Today marks the start of Ashlynn's second year!  We've been battling the terrible two's for months now so I can't really say that's going to be something new we see in the coming weeks.  She may be independent and spirited but she's also a pure joy.

I wish I had more time to put into words how I feel about our third daughter.  I find myself tongue tied and even with a bit of writers block when I sit down and try to write about Ashlynn.  She's going to look back, as all third children do, and get irritated at how little is written and recorded about her baby years (Although she can't complain about not having any photographs).  She'll envy the long heartfelt letters I wrote to her older sisters on their birthdays for sure.  But here's the thing,  Ashlynn is my last child.  She's a complete Mama's girl and hardly lets me out of my sight to have a moment to sit and write anything about her.  She's an all consuming kind of kid.  She has a really intense personality that is amazingly sweet at times but horridly bossy at others.  Her Auntie Brienne has nicknamed her aptly, a little dictator.  Which is really spot on.

At the age of two, Ashlynn can put her own DVD in the DVD player.  Her preferences right now are Ariel, Epic, and Elmo.

She eats a two eggs for breakfast every morning.  Then two hours later is asking for crackers.  Her favorite food is crackers and popcorn.  I can get her to eat anything in the form of a soup though.  I make a lot of soup for this reason!

She's sleeping in a toddler bed and has been for about a month and a half.  She has her own room and sleeps from about 6 pm to 6 am every night.  No progress on potty training yet.  When I ask her why she doesn't want to go poop on the potty she tells  me "No, I go poop in my diaper", which is a fact I am eager to change.

Ashlynn is a very physically active child.  She loves to climb, jump, dance and wrestle.  She is most happy doing these things with her older sisters.

One thing that is especially fun about our youngest daughter is how quickly she's started speaking.  She uses mostly full sentences to get her point across.  At 1 year she had quite a large vocabulary and from there she's just added on!  It makes life so much easier knowing exactly what she wants or needs.  She's able to ask for things and tell us what's wrong.  A few weeks ago she woke crying in the middle of the night and was able to explain to me that her foot hurt and asked me to rub it.  With the other two girls, I would have been guessing forever trying to determine what was the matter.  Having the ability to communicate with her sisters during play allows them all to get along better as well.  We love hearing her talk and the cutest things pop out of her mouth.  I will never get enough of hearing "I love you Mommy" or " carry me Mommy".  She is especially fond of saying "where did my lovie go?" and "No, I want to go in the car too" and "oops, I spilled_(fill in the blank)".

Ashlynn adores her sisters and has since she was very tiny.  They are her favorite people in the world next to her parents (or maybe her sisters are favored a bit more).  She at her happiest deeply involved in anything her sisters will let her join.  Turning the couch into a slide, dress-up dance party, chalk art outside, movie night with popcorn, Barbie playtime, it doesn't matter she's in!

We celebrated her second birthday on the day she was born as a family because it happened to fall on a holiday here in Ethiopia.  She woke from her afternoon nap to find a pile of gifts and a birthday cake waiting.  She needed zero explanation on what to do with her presents and when it came time to sing Happy Birthday and blow out her candles she sat smiling and even sang along a bit.  Having big sisters simply preps you for life!  What a lucky little girl.