On the move at 5 months!

So in the blink of an eye, another month has gone by. And Ashni hasn’t ceased to amaze us. She now weighs 16 lbs 13 oz – just over double her birth weight. Also she’s moved beyond simply wriggling around on her belly. In the past couple weeks, she figured out how to pick her chest up off the floor, rock her entire body back and forth while on her hands and knees, and propel herself forward by flinging both arms out in front of her. She started doing this on cushioned surfaces about a week or two ago, but now even our hardwood floors don’t phase her. In fact, she’s starting to transition from rocking her whole body to moving just her hands and then pulling the rest of her body while scooting her legs. She looks like a cute little inchworm. 

Here she is at the beginning of the month when she first started rocking and flinging forward:

And here she is stalking Pepper just last night:

Another thing that Ashni enjoys immensely is standing and stomping with some assistance. She can completely support herself if she has something to hold on to. In this video, she is standing and jumping against the back of our couch:

The craziest part about all this is that she still can’t sit up unsupported. She’s almost there, but when you try to help her sit, she just leans forward onto her hands and knees and takes off (at inchworm speed mind you). She’s capable of sitting in a bumbo seat, but she doesn’t enjoy it very much. She’ll tolerate it while we eat dinner, but only because we entertain her and replace toys as she flings them off her tray. Once we stop distracting her, it’s usually a short while before she discontentedly whines and squirms. But no surprise there, she’s always hated being restrained. 

We took this video the day she first got her bumbo seat, and we were amazed at the way she played in it.

In other news, on June 15th, Ashni officially gained an aunt – Chad and Nagisa got married! The wedding took place right before sunset at the Oasis on Lake Travis. Ashni even got to be the flower girl.

Scattering rose petals (with some assistance) - wedding photography by LewChan

Mrs. Garyet(s)

Since then, we’ve been pretty busy with Austin summer activities. We celebrated Ashni’s first Fourth of July at Auditorium Shores where she was totally captivated by the fireworks. We also attended a number of outdoor movies, concerts, pool parties, boat outings, and more. With the Texas heat, it’s a good thing that Ashni enjoys the water. In fact, she might enjoy it too much. When she’s not kicking and splashing, we have to be careful to keep her face away from the water– otherwise, she tries very aggressively to drink it all by lapping it up like a puppy. But hopefully we can get her past that when it’s time for her to learn to swim! 

Watching fireworks the night before Nana's birthday and Ashni's 5 Month birthday

Papou is such a good influence

Slip n' Slide!

All in all, it’s shaping up to be a good summer. I’m really thankful that having a baby hasn’t slowed us down and that we’ve been able to partake in so many fun activities. Things may be a little more complicated than they used to be, but I wouldn’t change it. Sharing these experiences with Ashni has been good for us. And even though she won’t remember any of this, seeing the way she’s been taking everything in is pretty extraordinary and I hope that one day she'll come to enjoy what we enjoy. She’s been a good sport about everything so far and we’re pretty lucky – we couldn’t ask for anything more.