8 months

She's mobile!  Yep, right around the 5th of October, we noticed that she was able to scoot herself around her room a little.  She's moving like an inchworm, scooting her legs up under her and then lunging forward.  A few weeks later, she switched to more of an army crawl.  She gets up on her hands and knee, rocks back and forth but hasn't figured out how to go anywhere from there.  I'm okay with her taking her time - not totally sure I'm ready for her to be that mobile.

As I wrote in a previous post, Ashley had her first plane ride this past month.  She did wonderful, never cried and hardly made a peep.  She got to meet a lot of my old college friends (and their babies) and check out my alma mater.

Ashley continues to make good progress with eating solid foods.  We put her high chair together so she's got a great place to enjoy her meals.  We've started giving her a few o's so that she can practice her pincher grasp.  Her face when she first tried the o's is hilarious!  She's gotten pretty good with them, even managing to put them in her mouth herself.  She's also practicing with a sippy cup.  She's got the basic concept of them down but isn't able to tip the cup up far enough to drink from it herself.  She's still young, though, and this is all for practice.  She was also holding her own bottle for awhile but recently decided that was too much work for her.

New and Exciting Times

It’s a rather exciting time around the Fagan household right now. Ashley’s updates get her own blog posting so this one’s just for us adults…

I recently started a new job. I’m not going to go into much detail since it doesn’t need to be broadcasted to the whole world. If you’re interested in knowing more, just give me a call or send me an email. I still work in the event planning industry, which I’m really excited about since jobs in my industry are few and far between right now. I will also say that my new office is just 5 miles away from our house so the commute itself makes me very happy.

Our other news is just as exciting, if not more. We are the proud new owners of the North 51 Grill. The place is at 3375 E Shea Blvd (just east of the 51 freeway). We took ownership of the place on Friday, November 18th. Though we haven’t shared many specific details yet, the staff and the regulars all seem very excited about our plans to market and improve the place. Our goals right now are to learn the ins and outs of the business and market the place to attract new (and returning) customers. In the future, they’ll be some remodeling and improvements but you’ll have to wait to learn more about that later.  In the meantime, if you live in Phoenix, come to our first big party on Friday, December 2nd.

Eric will be handling the daily operations of the bar. I’ll be helping out with some marketing as well as handling my own day job. Needless to say it’s a busy time around the Fagan household.

Halloween

We had bought Ashley's costume about 6 weeks before Halloween and all I could think about for 6 weeks was how cute she was going to be.  And she did not disappoint!

First up was breakfast at IHOP.  Had to start out in a cute little halloween themed outfit.

Next up was getting into costume.  I know I'm biased but she was a pretty darn cute cow.

We stopped by Eric's mom's office so she could see Ashley in her costume and show her off to her co-workers. 

After that, it was home for a nice long nap before we moved on to more festivities.  We stopped by her Auntie Erin's work to check out their decorations and do some trick-or-treating (translation - me stealing Erin's candy).  Erin was dressed as a witch, which confused Ashley as she recognized the voice but couldn't figure out exactly who was holding her.

Last but not least, grandma stopped by our house to check out Ashley.  By 6:30, she was fast asleep and her first Halloween was over. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of Ashley with grandma so we'll close with a family picture.

Baking Experiments

Given my newly found loads of free time, I've decided to get the creative juices flowing.  First up - making halloween cookies.

Now, I've never make cookies by rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters all by myself.  Sure, I've helped my mom make cookies numerous times but she was the one that would make the dough and roll it out; I would just cut them and decorate them (you know, the fun and easy stuff).  So this was definitely going to be an experiment.

Dough making - totally easy.  No problems.  Rolling the cookie dough out - a little more challenging.  Not impossible but I had the common challenges of rolling the dough too thin, or not thin enough, the dough sticking to the rolling pin, getting too much flour in the dough.  But all in all, I think it worked out pretty well.

First Batch - not so great

Second batch - looks better

I also made my own icing, tinting it various colors and decorating the cookies.  Again, the icing was easy to make but, considering the dough made 4 dozen cookies, it was a LOT of decorating.  By the end, I decided not to put faces on the pumpkins. 

So Halloween cookies were a success.  Eric took the majority of them to work as the two of us don't really need to eat 4 dozen cookies.  Not sure what the next baking experiment will be.  Perhaps some candies for Christmas...

Pumpkin Patch

A few days before Halloween, we took took Ashley to her first pumpking patch.  We went to a place called Schnepf farms where they have a pumpkin patch, corn maze, petting zoo, rides, bonfires and more.  It was a neat experience but, given how far away from our house that it is, I doubt we'll ever go back. 

Hey, what are these things?

Gotta play with the corn in the corn maze

First Plane Ride

Ashley got to go on her first plane ride when I took her to San Antonio for my 10 year college reunion.  Eric had to work so my awesome mother-in-law came with me instead.  It meant that I got to take Ashley out and show her off but then leave her at the hotel when everyone went out at night.  It was the best of both worlds.

She did awesome on the plane. She was really tired and wouldn't nap but she had a great time playing with her toys, the tray table and whatever else she could get her hands on.  She never made a peep the entire time and was a perfect angel.    On the trip back to Phoenix, she even fell asleep for an hour, which was awesome since our flight was delayed and she was exhausted.

First Plane Ride

What's out there?

It was so wonderful to see all of my old college friends again.  We went to the usual haunts - Bays, Alamo Cafe, Rudy's - and a few new ones too.

Oh, there are no ZX's in hell!

Lunch at Rudy's

Since so many of us have kids now, we even had a play date for the little ones.

Trinity's campus is so different from when I was there.  The fountain that used to be at the entrance to the school is in a completely different spot, many of the buildings have been leveled and re-built.  Even with all the differences, the place still holds so many wonderful memories.  I was truly blessed to be able to go there for college and make such great life-long friends (and I can't forget that I got a pretty good education too) 

New Entrance to Campus - nothing like when I was there

New spot for the fountain

It's been 6 years since I had been back to Trinity and San Antonio.  Hopefully another great reunion with all of us happens again sooner than 6 more years!

6 and 7 months

So much has happened over the past few months that I forgot to post a 6 month blog.  So we're going to combine 6 and 7 months all into one entry. 

Ashley's gotten so big over the past two months and has learned so many new things.  She is a very observant child, always watching things.  You can see her learning new things all the time, her little brain works so hard. 

A few days after her 6th month birthday, her bottom two teeth broke through at the same time.  We were pretty surprised as she showed no signs of teething prior to that.  Her gums didn't turn red or get swollen nor was she fussy.  It's been really difficult to get a good picture of her new teeth - this is the best we've been able to do over the past month.

We've continued to expand her solid food repertoire.  She's tried (and liked) peaches, pears, apples, bananas and sweet potatoes to add to the carrots, green beans, and squash that she tried last month.  I've also ventured into making our own baby food rather than buying.  It's incredibly easy.  She's not a fan of the homemade green beans or carrots but I had trouble getting those smoothly pureed.  Everything else she did really good with.  It's so great to see her enjoying her food - she gets this really big grin and practically shakes with excitement.

She's doing really well with sitting by herself.  It's not always easy to get her set up in a position where she can balance on her own.  She's also not a big fan of falling over when she loses her balance.  All in good time.  She's getting to be a little bit of a mover and shaker.  She wiggles herself around in circles.  You can tell that she wants to scoot forward and she's working on figuring out how.  She tends to roll onto her side, plant her feet and push forward while reaching.  If you ask me, it's pretty darn cute.

5 months old

It's been another fun month with Ashley.  She continues to amaze us as she changes and grows. 

She's finally rolled over from her stomach to her back although Eric and I have yet to witness it.  She always does it when she's in her crib and we'll find her on her back in the morning after she fell asleep on her stomach. 
Her favorite song is Wheels on the Bus.  No matter what, it always makes her smile.  It comes in handy when she's getting fussy in the car.  A few verses and she's quieted down.  Thankfully, you can create a lot of verses for the song.  My bus tends to look more like  Noah's Ark with how many different animals I put on the bus but the beauty of it is that she doesn't know that dogs, pigs, cows and horses can't all fit on the same bus.

She's much more interested in the things around here.  She loves watching our dog walk around the room.  She'll also watch Eric and I as we move around the house and tries to  peer around the corner if one of us has disappeared.  She reaches out for toys, grabs ahold and tries to stuff them in her mouth.  Texture is somehting she's starting to notice.  She rubs her fingers on the different parts of the toys and repeatedly squeezes things that make noise.  A couple of times she's even looked down to find the toy she's dropped. 

She's easily distracted while eating.  She likes to look around the room to see what else is going on.  She also lifts her feet up and starts playing with her toes while eating sometimes too.  She has officially started with some 'real' food.  A few weeks ago, we started her on some rice cereal to give her some practice eating with a spoon.  The first time was quite a sight as you can see below.  She took to it very quickly and will now open wide and lean toward the spoon as soon as she sees it.  She does like to help you out by grabbing the spoon and then holding it in her mouth while she gnaws on it and all the food falls out onto her bib.

Ashley also got her first cold this month.  She was a trooper and hardly complained.  But we felt so bad when we would listen to her as she breathed.  Unfortunately her first cold also coincided with mommy's first work trip.  I went to Orlando for 5 days for a conference and had to leave Eric and my little girl behind.  They handled it fabulously, just as I had expected.  And daddy was nice enough to send me lots of pictures while I was gone. 

Futures All Star Game and Celebrity Softball Game

 The All Star baseball game and festivities have been going on in Phoenix for the past few days.  Eric and I managed to get to the Futures All Star game, which is the game for the minor league players.  It was a lot of fun.

That same day happened to be the Celebrity softball game so we stuck around to watch that.  Some of my favorite people were playing in it including Luis Gonzalez, Larry Fitzgerald and Jordin Sparks.  There was also James Denton from Desperate Housewives, Jennie Finch (who had just given birth two weeks before!  crazy), Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy, and lots of others.   You might be able to pick up my on my obsession with Larry Fitzgerald based on the pictures:

Larry Fitzgerald sitting on the sidelines (right in the middle of the picture, in the red hat looking down)
 

A shot of Larry on the jumbotron

Jordin Sparks on the jumbotron

Jordin and Larry playing catch

Eric and I at the game

Fourth of July Fun

The fourth of July in Phoenix means a nice long weekend spent in the pool.  Or on your couch in an air conditioned house...personally, I think you'd be crazy to even attempt to go outside much less stand around in the heat with tens of thousands of your new BBFs waiting for fireworks to go off.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good fireworks show.  In fact, the fourth of July isn't a true celebration without fireworks.  But the nice country club down the street from my parents house doesn't do fireworks anymore so we were forced to improvise.  So my brother went out and bought the newly legal fireworks that are available in every grocery store parking lot in Phoenix.

And what a fabulous day it was.  We went to my parents house to celebrate with my family and Eric's family.  Ashley had a special outfit for the day, of course (thanks ATL Pedersen's!).  I'll load a picture as soon as I find a good one.

A lot of time was spent in the pool with tasty snacks and mojitos.  We barbecued some yummy sausages and hamburgers.  And then came our very first fireworks show.

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4 months old

Weight: 14 pounds 9 ounces, 75th percentile
Length: 25.75 inches, 95th percentile

Another month has gone by.  Life seems so short when you're measuring things in months.  It seems like the month passed by in the blink of an eye.  She's such a joy to have around - we love watching her grow and change. 

Ashley has started to figure out that she has control over her hands.  She seems to think that they belong in her mouth.  She usually chooses a finger or two to chew/suck on while watching the world go by.  She's not that interested in chewing on toys yet but I know that day will come soon.  She also likes to bring her hands together in front of her.  I feel like she's just going to interlace her fingers together like she's patiently waiting for something.  She also enjoys watching her fingers move. 

She laughed for the first time ever over Memorial Day weekend.  It was such the cutest thing in the world.  I'll admit - it brought tears to my eyes.  Of course, she didn't laugh again for almost 3 weeks.  We'd do everything we could think of to get her to laugh.  Finally she laughed again.  We can get her to giggle by tickling her or giving her big, exaggerated kisses.   It's still one of the cutest things I've ever heard. 

We celebrated Eric's first father's day this month.  Unfortunately Eric had to work.  Ashley and I made him a very special father's day cake.  (I have no idea why there's a screwdriver on the table).

Ashley rolled over for the first time on her 4 months birthday.  We put her down for a nap and then watched her roll over on our video monitor.  We were so excited that we grabbed her out of her crib and placed her on her play mat so we could record the event.  This is her rolling over for the second time.  I'm sure she was happy that her performance was over so she could go back to her crib for a nap. 

One last story totally makes Eric and I laugh.  So, all babies pass gas, right?  I'm sure it's very relieving for them.  Well, Ashley likes to take her dainty toots one step farther.  She doesn't just toot while drinking her bottle.  She lifts one leg so she can toot.  I swear to god!  She actually lifts her leg, toots and then puts it back down again.  It's hilarious.  I can picture it now, in 10 years she's going to exclaim 'I can't believe you told people that!'.

Family Fun

June is the month of family for us!  Not only did Eric's brother and family join us (technically that was in May, but whatever), my brother, et al came to visit the first and second weekends in May.  A little background for you: my brother Jim and his wife, Jennifer, live in Atlanta with their two kids, Stella and Harper.  We don't get to see them very often.  In fact, the last time was last summer when we all went to Disneyland together.  This was also their first chance to meet Ashley.  Okay, I think you're all caught up now :)

We all got to hang out during the first weekend they were in town at my parents house.  Unfortunately, Stella showed up with an ear infection but we still managed to play in the pool without her getting her ear very wet.  My parents held a barbecue on Sunday afternoon for family and friends, which was a ton of fun.  The slip and slide seemed particularly memorable - from us adults attempting to slide down what seems like a very short slide (don't you remember how, as a kid, the slip and slides seemed so long?  Doesn't seem that way when you're an adult) to the little ones being pushed along the slide (or drinking from the wading pool at the end). 

Jim, Jennifer and kids went down to Yuma to visit her family for the week.  I had tickets to see Les Miserables on that Thursday night (absolutely amazing production!  I may just be more emotional now but the show was so good, that I found myself with tears in my eyes. at least the other girls around me were tearing up too, that made me feel better).


The next weekend, they were back in Phoenix.  Friday night we got to have adult night out where we had a yummy dinner at Cheauvront and drinks at St. Francis.  Saturday, the guys hit the track to watch ???? and then went on to Magnums for some drinks and cigars.  The ladies stayed home, played with the kids, and then relaxed while they napped.  This was followed by a late afternoon swim and steaks for dinner.  Sunday they flew back to Atlanta, which made us all a little sad. 

In true Pedersen style, we have more pictures of the two weekends than anyone would really want to look at.  Here are just a few of the highlights: