My Ashleigh ...

I miss my Ashleigh. She went to visit family in Elberton for the weekend and I am so lost without her!

Everyone needs an Ashleigh! My Ashleigh helps me cook, clean and take care of the baby! She is the most wonderful blessing a mother could ever ask for and I have a really hard time getting by without her. I never realize how much I depend on her until she isn't her and then I miss her so much! Of course, I miss her anyway because she not here with me but I really, really feel the pain of her absence when Adam is being a pill :-)

Adam just Adore's Ashleigh. She is the one person who can always make him laugh or smile just by looking at him and when she walks into the room he just lights up! It is incredible how close the two of them have become in just the short time that Adam has been around. The bond that they have is unlike any bond that I have with him or the bond that I have with her. Sibling bonds are so unique and I feel so lucky and blessed that we were able to have sibling for Ashleigh to experience that special bond!

But I digress back to Adam when in fact my posting for today was going to be entirely about my Ashleigh!

My little Ashleigh is the most helpful daughter. As a working mother there are times when things get a little hectic but Ashleigh is jumping in more and more to help out everyday. She unloads the dishwasher, clears off the table, helps with dinner, feeds her brother when I am busy, gives him his tubby at night, puts him to bed - everything! Now she doesn't do these tasks all day everyday (I do do somethings around here too :) but she does a lot of these things a lot of times a week and she never tells "I don't feel like it" or "not right now" when she knows that I've had a hard day and don't feel well. As a matter of fact she often jumps in and offers to do things just because she notices that I am looking a little tired or like I've had a rough day. Sometimes she'll say "I'll feed Adam - why don't you rest on the couch for a little bit" or she'll say "let's just have macaroni & cheese for dinner so I can make it and you can rest" and then sometimes she'll just jump in and do whatever! If I am making dinner and Adam is fussing she'll stop what she's doing and come play with him or give him a bath. She is just wonderful!!!

Not only does Ashleigh help me out a lot around the house and with her brother she is a very sweet little girl. She often thinks of other's before herself and she is always trying to help other people out or make them happy. It makes me so proud when I am talking to one of my friends and they tell me that Ashleigh was there to babysit and did such a great job. One of my friends told me yesterday that Ashleigh has unloaded the dishwasher and straightened up the house while she was babysitting! It's nice when other people tell you that your kid is good - it gives you reassurance that maybe your not doing such a bad job at parenting after all :-)

Ashleigh is also generous. now that she is babysitting more and more often she tends to have some extra money from time to time. Recently Travis and I celebrated our Anniversary and Ashleigh had gone away with one of her friends the night before. But Ashleigh being Ashleigh didn't forget about us - she lefts us a nice little note telling us Happy Anniv and left us $20 so we could go out to dinner on her. Of course, we thanked her a million times over and gave her the money back but it was the fact that someone her age would think about something that is fairly insignificant to her and do what she did. She does things like this all the time. If it's Mother's Day or Father's Day she stays up really late the night before making sign's and posted to decorate the whole house with different versions of I love you and what not. It is a big mess to clean up but when I see it I always know how much she loves me!

So today my posting is all about my Ashleigh! I would not be the person I am today if it wasn't for my Ashleigh. She had taught me patience, understanding, love and so much more! I always joke that the first child is always the practice child but for me my first child is the model. She is what I hope all of my kids will turn out to be. She is what every parent dreams of and she is one of the best things in my life!

I love you Ashleigh!!!