On all fours rockin' away....

She will soon be off to the races.....

Thanksgiving 2010

Ashley's is now 6 months old today. 26 weeks. 1/2 year old.......... WHAT??? I feel like she just arrived. We had a few doctors appointments this week. Her neurologist said she looks perfect he is just going to follow up at 9 and 12 months. He has cleared her. The Physical Therapist said she looks great. We are staying on once a month since she is still progressing. We also had a 6 month check up and shots. She is 17.5 lbs and 29 inches long. We are 99% in height and 57% in weight.


Thanksgiving was a nice day. We really missed Grammy and PaPa. PaPa we all hope you are feeling better. We had a few friends over for dinner and Grandma was here with us. Ashley got to eat her first "meat" meal. "Turkey & Sweet Potato" in Gerber 2nd Stage Foods. She loved it.....

We gave her the drumstick to see what she would do with it. It was bigger then her so Grandma helped her hold it for a cute picture............

Our Pianist

Check her out......

Alicia and Joe came over and bought her a cute princess book that has a piano attached. She loves it. I was so amazed that she knew just what to do with her little fingers....

HELMET.....

Ashley's doctor and Physical Therapist agreed that Ashley would benefit with getting a Cranial Band/Helmet to improve her head shape. She was flat on one side. It is called Plagiocephaly. This is a result from her Brachial Plexuis and Tortocollis. We tried re-positioning and no luck. She will have to wear it for 6-12 weeks.

She got fitted last week with a laser scan and the helmet came in yesterday. She is on a schedule which will build her up to wearing the helmet 23 hours a day.

Ashley and her cousin Katie are setting the fashion trend for all the babies. I say it is her latest and greatest accessory. They both have smiles that light up and room and the helmet just crowns their beautiful princess faces.

Ashley has several appointment over the next few weeks. She goes in to her Neurologist Friday, her 6 month shots and check up on Tuesday and the 2nd week of December she meets with the Brachial Specialist in Miami again. I will post next week.

My First Halloween 2010

Ashley's First Halloween was fun for all of us. Grandma bought her this cute little ladybug outfit.
I call her my "little bug" so this was perfect.


When her Grammy & PaPa came down we took her to the Pumpkin Patch. She was tinier than some of the pumpkins.


Mommy had to work on Halloween Night so Grandma bought her this cute outfit to wear with her daddy....
She also got to play with an Ashley size pumpkin.

What would Halloween be with out candy........



She loved the baby pumpkin.......



One of the girls at work got her this cute T-Shirt... You know I loved it!!!!!

Grammy & PaPa made a cool Halloween Cards this year. Grammy brought down the costumes and we got Ashley dressed up to take picture....
Here she is with her Grammy all dressed up.....

5 Months Old...

Ashley is now 5 months old. She is doing so much now. Most of the infant traits are gone. Now that I am back working 55-60 hours a week I feel like she is growing like a weed. She rolls all over the place. She has many conversations with Mark & I daily. We just need to figure out what she is saying. She has been eating cereal for a few weeks. We are making our way around the fruits and vegetable selections. She is a smiling cutie pie.... My world just melts and everything is perfect when she looks at me and smiles.

Her Physical Therapist has reduced her Tortocollis therapy from every week to once a month. Her sternocleidomastoid muscle fibroid tumor (contracted muscle) has disappeared and she has 95% rotation. We did our job daily with stretching and doing daily therapy at home. I am so happy she is doing well.

Ashley's Occupational Therapist for the Brachial Plexius injury thinks that next month will be her last visit. At 6 months all range of motion should be present. She is now displaying 100% mobility, rotation and correct positioning of her hand, wrist and arm. She is also reaching above her head for objects. We have a follow up appointment with her Brachial Plexius Specialist down in Miami in December. He thinks he will find her to be a rare textbook case of spontaneous recovery with out any side effects. Thank God! I know my daddy is up there taking good care of her.

We are looking into doing a helmet for her. She has a flat spot on her head which is a result of the Tortocollis. She should have it with in the month. She will wear it for 2-3 months. Her cousin Katie has it and she is doing great with it.

Ashley's First Real Food

It was so much fun to feed her. She was lovin it. Aunt Leslie even got to share in this milestone over the phone...... Enjoy the video.... I think she says "All done" .......

Dad's House

Ok So the deal I spoke of on Oct 5th fell through. The buyers could not get the loan so we went back to the drawing board and put it back on the MLS listing. This past weekend we had several showings. My mom, Ashley and myself went down to the house to do a few things and bumped into a nice couple who were interested in the home. The made an offer on Monday. They do not want to close for 90 days which is bit longer than I would like. We are in the process of negotiations. I also received another offer by some one who viewed the house on Monday. This is a single guy who is also interested in keeping the dinning room set. He wants to close Dec 18 which is more reasonable. There is also another serious buyer viewing the home Thursday who likes the home, he has a 50 foot boat and is looking for deep water access. So, we told all the real estate agents that there are multiple offers and they need to have their best offers and contingencies on our desk Friday morning.

Our 4 Month Old Rock Star

Ashley is doing great. She is sleeping through the night great but now that we know how to roll over she wakes up up around 8:30 AM because she gets stuck in the corner of the crib and can't roll back over. Fun Stuff......

We went to the pediatrician this past week. She is now weighing in at 15 lbs and is 26 3/4 inches long.

We also have some great updates on her Brachial Plexus Injury and her Tortocollis. We went to Miami the last week of September to meet with the specialist who only deals with the Brachial Plexus. He did a nerve conduction test and some motor skills demos with her. The results are in that she has mild nerve damage and will not need any surgery. We will continue with Occupational Therapy once a month to watch her motor skills progress.

As for the Tortocollis, the lump is almost gone and she no longer carries the tilt. She is still tight on rotating her head all the way right. She saw a new therapist today since ours is on vacation. He said she looks wonderful and other than her rotation he wouldn't be able to tell that she had the Tortocollis. He said we are doing great. She has been advised to get a helmet to round her head. They said it is not bad and should only require 6-10 weeks. She was so tight for the last few months that her head position was a challenge to change. We will have an appointment next week her in West Palm for a consult and we will see where we go from there.

Mark is doing great with her and we are loving parenthood.......

Ashley has broken another milestone.... The double roll...

We are so shocked that she started to grab her toes and roll side to side a few weeks ago. You can imagine our surprise when we saw her roll over for the first time last week. Now she just keeps going..... and going ....... and going.......

PREGNANT.......Yeah......

One Year ago today Mark & I got back from a nice vacation from North Carolina and a Cruise to Cozumel. We spent the first half of our vaca with Mark's parents golfing, playing tennis and beaching it. We also found out that Leslie was 6 weeks pregnant. After we left there we went to Clearwater to meet up with my Mom, Dad, Jenee, Nick and Jacob. We all took a 4 day cruise to Cozumel. I knew I was late and while in Mexico we went inside a drug store and had a pregnancy test in our hands but put it down (what a storey that would have been to find out in Mexico our little Ashley was on the way)... we continued on on voyage. When the ship docked on Sept 21st Mark, my Dad and I took a flight back to Ft Lauderdale together. We drove back to West Palm and I hit the grocery store o stock up on some food since we were gone for over a week. I picked up a test (don't ya know I ran into one of my employees while checking out with the test in my hand).

I got home and started to unload the groceries. I took a minute to take the test. I left it on the counter and continued with putting away the groceries and doing laundry. Ten minutes later I remembered the test and went into the bathroom. I saw two lines......What...... So I took a 2nd test and don't you know.....We were pregnant. I yelled up to Mark.... BABY... he replied yes, as if I was calling him... again I yelled BABY.... he said what...... I said...B....A...B....Y!!!!!! He said really and came down the stairs and looked at the test. We both were so excited....... What a little blessing.

Tiny Dancer........

Our Little Ballerina....

Aunt Jenee and Uncle Nick bought me this little tu tu outfit...... I can not wait to get on my tippy toes and do pirouettes.......

Our Little Cheerleader.....

Go............ Bucs.......

NFL Season is here. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a new cheerleader.
The Bucs won their first home game of the season yeah..........

I loved this shot..... It reminds me of a game I went to a few years back when Matt Bryant kicked a 62 year field goal with seconds on the clock... hummm I really can not remember who we beat that day......... :)!!!

Thank you Aunt Loretta & Uncle Randy for this outfit...

Daddy's Car wakes me up........

You can hear the race car when the video starts.... Ashley wakes up from the noise of it coming back into the garage...
I caught it on video to see her reaction to hearing the car....

Just Hanging Out......

I love the random shots of Ashley when she is doing nothing more than just doing her thing....... Here are a few random shots......


The sleeping picture was taken at 9:20 AM when I was leaving for work the other morning..... Did I mention that we are very blessed with her sleeping patterns.......

3 Months Old.....

Where has the time gone???? Ashley is 3 months old. She is sitting up and holding her head up. She has the cutest smile that could light up a room.... Although it is hard to capture,,,, She is doing Tummy Time really well...She loves to play with the rings and mirrors on her pay mat....

Did I mention she sleeps from 10:30PM -9 AM. This has to be the best baby in the world for sleeping an respecting her parents schedule....

We had a doctors appointment on August 23 with the neurologist and he said she was cleared from her Brachial Plexus Injury. Both of her hands and arms are working correctly. He will need to see her at 6 months to do one more test and look over her motor skills. She will be seeing an Occupational Therapist once a month to make sure she is reaching her milestones for her arms and hands. She still has the Tortocollis ( a shortened muscle in the neck which causes her head to shift left more than right) but is doing much better. She has one on one Physical Therapy every other week and then she has a group class that a few other children with tortocollis get together and the parents share there stores of success for their child. Ashley is doing better and we think we will be finished with the therapy at 6 or 9 months. Other than that we do not have any weight or length updates for this month.

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Happy Birthday Great Grandma .......

Although we celebrated my Great Grandma's 90th Birthday here in Florida we still wanted to get dressed up an celebrate the day with her on August 30th......... Ashley put on her party dress and mommy helped make a card.

Our Little Rollie Pollie

Ashley is starting to roll side to side........ Here is our little Rollie Pollie.......

Daddy Day Care

Well on August 9, 2010 Mommy had to go back to work..... Daddy is watching her while I am at work. We seem to have a good system so far. Mark is wonderful with her. She just loves her Daddy. He gets her up in the morning (she is a sleeper like him... she sleeps until 9:30AM) and he bathes her and gets her dressed for the day. He is great with diapers, play time and just chilling out. This is what I saw when I got home the other day.... I love that we do not have to leave her with a stranger or put her in a daycare...... I know it allows me to focus on work and I do not worry what's going on with my baby girl. She is in Great hands........

All Smiles

Ashley now smiles... It just lights up my world when I can capture it. She seems to get mesmerized when I put the camera or iPhone in front of her. It is hard to get her to keep smiling but here are a few of her smiling away....

Tummy Time....

Ashley was struggling with her tummy time. At the Physical Therapy sessions they were really concerned because of her arm and neck. She would just plant her face into the mat and cry. Well this week we had a major breakthrough. I think it clicked that if she looks up there are so many interesting things she can do. I bought this tummy time mat. It seems to have made an impact check out the video.......

Ashley Rayne at Two Months

Ashley has been keeping us busy. She changes everyday. Just when we think we have her figured out she changes it up on us. She went through a real fussy stage and had really bad gas pains. We changed her formula and she has been doing better. She still has her fussy moments... but don't we all.....She has a good set of lungs on her...I know in life she will always know how to voice her thoughts and opinions. (At least that is what I keep telling myself while she is crying loudly in my ear)

She has started to smile... if you go to the video post of "Waking up from a Nap" you can see her beautiful smile....

2 Month Photos

Waking up from a nap..... Big Smile!!!!!

Ashley had a rough morning and was cranky. She took a long 3 hour nap and woke up smiling away. I got the FLIP Video at the end of her smile show. Just as the video starts you can see her big beautiful flirty smile. Focus on the first clip of the video.

July 11, 2010...... My Baptism

On July 11. 2010 Ashley was Baptized into the Catholic Church. Deacon John did a private ceremony. Leslie and Rick are her Godparents. We had a very nice ceremony. Ashley did very well. She loves getting her hair wet so she loved it when Deacon John baptized her with the Holy Water.

She wore a dress which was handmade by her Great Grandmother 67 years ago. Her beautiful headband was made by her Grammy out of my wedding dress. She wore the socks I wore at my baptism which was exactly 34 years and 1 day prior to hers. The blanket she was wrapped in was her daddy's baby blanket.

We had a wonderful lunch at the Waterway Cafe. We went back to the house that Grammy and PaPa rented in Jupiter Farms and opened some lovely gifts from the family. It was a perfect day and we were so happy that everyone was here to share her special day.

My Whole Family.......

Last weekend was so much fun. My whole family came to visit me. We celebrated every day. Friday was PaPa's birthday. We had a nice dinner and I got to meet my Great-Grandmother, Aunt Leslie, Uncle Rick, and all of my cousins Ryan, Kyle and Katie. I also got to meet my Great Aunt Geri and Great Uncle Richard along with my cousins Chris, Jen and Natalie.

Of course I was very happy to see my Grandma, Grammy and PaPa again.

On Saturday we celebrated my Great Grandmother's 90th birthday. She was so surprised. We did a family portrait that Leslie captured. Great Grandma Rose loved it. It was great seeing pictures from the past and just be all together for a family dinner.

Here is a picture of me and my cousin Katie. She is 10 weeks older than me.
Here is a picture of my Great Grandma holding me and my cousin Natalie. She did so great with me. She fed me a few times and I enjoyed sleeping in her arms. I love her so much.
Here is a picture of my PaPa's birthday with my Grammy and cousins Ryan and Kyle.

Mommy's birthday

Happy birthday to my mommy.......
Daddy & I had a fun plan while mommy was getting her hair done we would sign her cards.
Daddy had to do most of the work since I am too small and not quite coordinated to do much this year. I think secretly daddy had so much fun doing arts & crafts.

Mommy got home and was so surprised that we made these cards. Mommy also surprised us by cutting her hair off. Check out her new do..... One was from yesterday her salon do and one was from today her curly do... I know she loves not having all that hair to deal with.....