Oh my goodness, how time flies. June has become my favorite month for two reasons and two reasons only: 1. Aspen and 2. Mia. I became a mommy on June 12, 2007 when Aspen was born. Through her amazing, selfless and just all around incredibly wonderful birthmom, I first felt the joy of being a mom. From the moment that little baby was born and in my arms, I knew that I would never be the same, that our family would never be the same. Aspen Nicole Hasselblad. I can't believe she's two today. I remember just like it was yesterday waiting in the hospital for her to be born. I remember the days and weeks leading up to that day and the anticipation and excitement and nervousness. Here I sit two years later with my two daughters and I know that Heavenly Father loves me and Malo. He has blessed us so much and I can't even imagine our lives without these two beautiful girls. Anyway, I could ramble on and on about my feelings, but instead I'm going to write about Aspen and some of the fun, funny, quirky things that make up her little self. First of all, she is so snuggly and affectionate. She loves hugs and kisses and will freely share them. Even with donkeys in Tillamook....
Aspen loves the water. She loves to play in the bath. She gets SUPER excited anytime she sees any water anywhere. She loves to water our strawberries and blueberries and she will carry the watering can out to the garden and water the vegetables (also with the garden, she planted lot of peas in random spots....so now I have peas growing up in the lettuce and the radishes and other random spots. she's a quick pea planter! hehe!). 
Anyway, we go swimming most days now that the weather is nice and she LOVES it. Also, Keila was here over Memorial Day and with her we discovered that many of the parks in town have splash pads for the kids to play in and both the girls love it. So most days we head over there and they play in that water, too. She is a water girl for sure. :)
Aspen used to be our cautious little girl. Now she is not at all! She climbs up on rocks 12 times as big as her, jumps off the couch with wreckless abandon, climbs on the table, climbs in and out of cribs, basically climbs on anything she can. She also has started paying a lot of attention to what the big kids to at the park and tries to imitate...like climbing on the monkey bars she can't even reach-terrifies me! She loves to slide and the higher the slide, the better! She won't go down them anyway but by herself now! Just the other day she decided she wanted to swing on the big kid swings instead of the baby swings and she wants to be pushed "higher!" She is hilarious to watch! :)
Aspen's vocabulary is improving every day! She can say most anything - and much of what she now says can be understood by strangers. She is pretty clear on a lot of words and is putting together 3 and 4 word sentences. A funny thing she's started to do lately is add "ing" to a lot of verbs....like when she's asking for help she says "helping." Its just funny the words she picks to add "ing" to. She loves to sing along to songs and its hilarious because the words she knows are coming up she says really LOUD! Like twinkle twinkle little STAR, how I wonder WHAT you ARE (she only says the capitalized ones!). The other day Vanilla Ice came on the radio and she sang "ice ice baby" it cracked me up. :) She also sings to her toys-
She LOVES being outside. Whether its at the park or swimming or in the garden, or just playing on the grass with a ball, she is happy as can be. she loves animals and playing with them. She likes to try to ride other kids tricycles anytime they're not being occupied (at the park mostly) and I have to really make sure she doesn't take off with them. (she'll be so excited when she sees the trike Malo picked out for her for her birthday!!). She loves going on hikes. She really loves playing with dirt and rocks! :)And the sand at the beach.
She is also into drawing and finger paints and other little crafty things. She has recently shown some interest in writing her name (she wants me or daddy to write it, but she likes to see how the letters are made) and she can do an "S" even though its backwards and sometimes can get her A down. She spells her name out loud "A,B,S,A,P" as she's writing. its pretty cute! :) She also will say "circo" (circle) as she's attempting to draw circles.
Some other things she's super interested in are: dancing (that's nothing new - she's always loved music - but man, she's got some good rythmn!), chasing games and saying "gotchyou," "bwush-ing teef-ing," reading (again, nothing new, but still something she enjoys more and more)and eating. She's obsessed with trucks and has to say "hi truck" and "bye truck" to any truck we happen to pass in our travels. She loves shoes and putting any and every shoe on that she can find. :) . She has recently figured out how to do somersaults and backwards summersaults by herself so she spends a lot of time doing that. And of course, bubbles are a kids best friend.
Aspen can eat! Wow, she has a good appetite. Which I am so thankful for, it was pretty scary there when we were figuring out her celiac stuff and she was losing weight....ugh. But now that we've (mostly) figured out her gluten-free diet, she is happier and healthier. :) YAY! She loves meat, cheese, fruits and veggies. She will eat peppers like apples and just bite into them. She often asks for peppers. She also eats cucumbers just biting them. She's pretty funny. She'll eat spinach as long as I don't tell her its spinach...if she thinks its a pepper, she'll eat it.
And Aspen is still a ridiculous daddy's girl. Its pretty sweet, really. :) I can't blame the girl...she does have a pretty awesome daddy! ;-)
Ok, last thing...she is touch and go with Mia. Some parts of the day she will happily play side by side with Mia and I adore the sounds of laughter that come from those two girls when they are getting along. It makes my heart happy. She mostly refers to her as "baby Mu-uh." She likes to try and ride Mia like a horse, which of course doesn't go over well because she's twice as big as her. When Mia is having her diaper changed she will come over and try and wipe her bum for me and say "ewww, gwoss, mu-uh." And then some of the time with Mia, she is not kind. She often has to go into time out for hitting or pushing her, and its so sweet when she's done because she says "sowwy mu-uh" and hugs her...and her sorry sounds so sad and genuine. However...sometimes...she says sorry right before she is about to hit her! Yikes! At least we have fair warning!
Oh and she LOVES purses! We've picked up several just from the dollar store. But anytime we go anywhere, she needs her purse and blanket and she's set. :)
Anyway, Happy Birthday to my dear Aspen. Our lives are so blessed because of you. Oh and p.s. in case people think that I never do anything with her crazy hair-i do! She just pulls it out as quick as she can manage!
