Funny Ashley

It's funny how the three kids have different gifts. Brandon is our scholastic whiz. Jonathan is our Theologian. And Ashley is just the most responsible girly girl, girl I've ever seen. This absolutley *cannot* have been learned behavior. Posted below are before and after pictures of my office and formal dining room. . . Ashley's room is the only one in the house that never needs cleaning. Sometimes, she'll even decide it's not clean *enough* and reorganize her jewelry box, empty the "wastebasket" and arrange the clothes in her armoire by color. She neatly folds or hangs up her school clothes after school and changes into playclothes such that the only thing that's ever in her hamper are socks and underwear with an occasional shirt or pair of jeans she's deemed not clean enough to wear again wihtout washing.

She's also a very good supervisor. She has a great sense of organization and helps the boys clean their room too. She uses a pointer to help them organize things into piles. . . then she helps them sort each pile and put everything in its proper place until its as neat and orderly as her own room.

She also acts as a den-mother to the boys and our dog. Most recently, I've been impressed with her keen "a mom just knows" sense . . .only she's just a kid. A few weeks ago, our dog had a spider bite on his paw and licked all the fur off (and licked and licked some more) until it was swollen (the vet called this a lick granuloma). Ashley is the one who noticed this. "Oh mom, look at Stetson's paw. . . It's much worse. Come here, boy. We need to show mommy. Good dog. Now sit. Shake. Give me your paw. Now mom, look. See his paw is much worse than yesterday." Unfortunately, part of the treatment for this was a stylish lamp-shade collar he had to wear for two weeks - from which he developed an allergy to plastic. . . .And Ashley once again was the first to notice. "Oh mom, look at Stetson's mouth. He looks like he has itchy pink spots on his mouth. I think we need to take him to the vet." . . .Took him to the vet and lo and behold. . .
But last night was the most impressive to-date. She came downstairs before bed and said, "Mom, I think Brandon isn't feeling very well. His head feels warm and he looks tired. Maybe check on him before you go to bed." He did feel sweaty when I checked on him and this morning he woke up sniffly.

Honestly, she inherited some responsibility/presence of mind gene that's way more dominant in her than in any of the rest of us.

And she is sooooooo girly. Being the middle child, sandwiched between two brothers, no less. For our 11th anniversary, Karlon bought me a heart-shaped ruby necklace and presented it to me over a dinner date. I was wearing it when we picked up the kids and Brandon and Jonathan didn't notice at all, but it was the first thing Ashley saw. She ran up to get a closer look: "Oh, mom! It's so beautiful! Where did you get it?"

And she's been needing a new leotard for a while and when I took her to gymnastics, the gift shop happened to be open. I bought her two new leotards and when her class was over she wanted to know what was in the bag. . . she was *totally* delighted. . . you'd think I'd given her a pony. "Oh thank you mommy! I don't know how I can ever thank you for this." Asked which one she liked better, she said: "Oh, I don't know. I just can't decide. I love them both the same. . . .I just couldn't decide."

. . .And while the rest of us ate donuts for breakfast the other day, she said: "No thanks, I think I want something healthy for breakfast. Do we have any cereal?. . .

Where did this kid come from?

I'd think she might have been switched at birth except for having been born by c-section in a surgical suite. . . (and those eyelashes - I could have picked her out of a line-up after seeing her just once). I would have loved to know what God was thinking when He made her so completely unique from the rest of us. Maybe something like "What this family needs is. . .Ashley."