Lunch with Daddy

Last week I took Ainslee up to Jason's school twice for her to have lunch with him. This was mostly because the first week of school is so chaotic that she wouldn't have seen her daddy those days otherwise :( On Friday, Jason's parents came to SA for some shopping and had lunch at the school with us. Jason had his lab stations set up with all the lab equipment so Jason's mom, being the former science teacher that she is, had a blast teaching Ainslee about all the different lab equipment. We are now in search of a mascot outfit for Ainslee that she can wear to Daddy's football games. Anyone know where we can find baby panther apparel?

Grandma's so silly!


Grandpa & Grandma


Helping Daddy at work!


"Look Mom, one hand!"

Bookworm

Just this week Ainslee has decided that she likes to read books! She has always been interested in chewing on books, but would not sit still to listen to a story (despite our MANY efforts). The other day I was able to get through three books while she sat on my lap and listened intently. I think her favorite now is Goodnight Moon, and her favorite page is "and goodnight mouse," she tries to pick the little mouse off of the page every time :) She will also try to turn pages for me! So now that she is finally into them, we are going to be on the hunt for more books!

I love this one, and it was not posed. I pray one day this becomes her favorite!

Standing Tall

Ainslee is now pulling herself up on EVERYTHING & it is really keeping Mommy busy!

She is pulling up on:

Toys

Her book basket

Mommy & Daddy's bookshelf

And this is what I find in the mornings & after naps

She has used just about every piece of furniture in the living room/dining room & she has even managed to get herself up using just the wall...spider baby :)

Ainslee has also made drastic improvements in her crawl! The inchworm only comes out now when she is tired or loses her focus. She was a little distracted in this video & has improved since.

Her latest trick is that she can give you "five." She thinks it is quite funny!

Fun with Grandparents

We went to Kerrville this past weekend to celebrate Pop's birthday and spend time with family before school starts next week. Ainslee had a great time staying at Grandma & Grandpa's house in the country :) Mommy & Daddy enjoyed getting to watch a little of the Olympics (since we only have 1 channel at home, abc) and Michael Phelps make history winning his 7th & 8th gold medals! At least we got to watch the good stuff! Ainslee was the main source of entertainment, when she was awake, showing off all her new silly facial expressions and her "pulling up" skills.

Ringing the bell to tell us it was dinner time


Happy Birthday Pop!


Checking out the greenhouse with the Grandmothers


Not too sure about the chicken




Playing with her new toy from Grammy & Pop


Grandpa feeding her fresh figs, she loved them!


Ainslee even got to spend time with Uncle Sterling

Big Girl!

Despite much protest, Ainslee will now hold her own bottle. This is a skill her daddy thought was very important for her to learn & had been working with her on mastering. I think it will make transitioning to the sippy cup a little easier too. She still prefers for us to hold it for her, but will hold it if she must.


She is also mastering the art of pulling up on things. Still not her bed, thankfully, but just about everything else. It seems like she is doing something new everyday these days!

I think she totally looks like Jason in this one!


She also discovered that she can pull the bars out of her toy baskets, and then take everything out...thus creating her first real mess!


"I will not clean up!"

Fun with Family

Daddy started football season last week, and Ainslee missed him a lot. I wish I had a picture of her face when he walked in the door after being gone all day. She was incredibly excited to see him & I believe the feeling was quite mutual, despite the picture below. Ainslee had many visitors this past week though to keep her occupied! Grammy came and spent one night with us. We did lots of shopping and eating out. Auntie Lo came for the day on Saturday, and again we did lots of shopping :) Grandma and Grandpa came Sunday after church while Ainslee was taking her nap, apparently Sunday school really wears her out. But she was excited to play with them when she woke up! It was so nice to see so much family in one week (without having to travel)!

Sleepy Daddy after football -Ainslee says, "wake up & play"

Playing with Grandma

Chewing on the fingers- her favorite pastime

The Crawl

8 Months Old!

Ainslee turned 8 months old today. To mark the occasion she was promoted (by Mommy & Daddy) to the "Crawlers" room at church! She was starting to look a little out of place in the infant room. She is officially on the go now and has perfected her own crawling move that has become known as the inchworm by some friends of ours. She gets up on all fours, with her belly off the ground and moves her legs, but then belly flops so that she can drag herself by the arms. The result is something resembling a late 80's dance move, but hey it works! She has already started pulling up on things or us and loves to walk holding our hands. She has been constantly amazing us with her new abilities this month. She recently learned how to wave to us, using her entire arm. She waves whenever we walk in the room and she will now even wave at Charley cat whenever she sees him. Ainslee has also become quite the Daddy's girl this summer. She gets so excited every time her Daddy walks in the room and gives him huge grins. She loves to use him as a jungle gym while he plays with her on the floor. I'm afraid she is really going to miss him once football season kicks into full gear :( Ainslee is still not a big eater, but doesn't seem to be all that picky about what she eats. She has discovered a love for Gerber puffs, mostly because she can feed them to herself. She now babbles ALL the time, and we are anxious to learn what it is she is trying to tell us. She also still loves to be out and about and is quite the people watcher. She loves going on walks with us in the evenings and likes it when we stop at the neighborhood park to let her swing.

She has gotten on a great schedule this summer & runs pretty much like clockwork:

8:15 - wake up/breakfast

10:00- nap

11:30- lunch

1:30- nap

3:30-snack

5:30- cat nap

6:30- dinner

8:00- bedtime