Exploring

Ainslee seems to be having so much fun exploring lately, now that she has a whole new perspective. She is even more into EVERYTHING, which I didn't think was possible. Poor Charley cat is also suffering from her new found walking skills. She chases him endlessly around the house, until he figures out that he can go through the gate and she cannot. She has a huge fascination with putting objects into other objects and trying to stack them, even if they don't go together. For example, she got a plastic teapot for Christmas and tries to put everything in it. She discovered plastic Easter eggs (she found them while we were getting out Christmas decorations and will not let them go) fit perfectly in the teapot. She is also having a blast at the park now that she can chase after big kids. She screams with excitement whenever she sees a little kid and does her best to keep up with them. This is particularly the case with little boys! One of the dads at the park actually noticed this and said that her daddy better get the shotgun ready now :)

Have I mentioned she LOVES black beans, and the five o'clock shadow they give her?

Ready for the park

Doing her sign for "kitty"

She got him cornered...

And gave him a kiss

A 2009 Update

It is quite sad that this is my first post of 2009, I promise I will try to get better again. We have had a fun start to our new year! One of our exciting updates is that Miss Ainslee is officially a WALKER! Last week she decided it would be her primary means of transportation, I think seeing the big kids at the park was good motivation. I'm sure she will be running all over the place before we know it. She is also using her sign language to communicate a lot better. She signs and says more, please, hi, bye, and will sometimes do kitty. She will also point to whatever it is she wants.

Here she is signing "more"

Another new adventure for us is that Mommy is now keeping a 2 month old Mon.-Fri. I will just use this as my excuse for not blogging as often. Baby Cameron has been wonderful and is such an easy and super sweet baby, and best of all, Ainslee ADORES her! I was a little worried how Ainslee would handle her role as "part time big sister," but she has been doing great. She loves to hug and kiss the baby, two things I didn't even know she could do! Whenever Cameron is in the swing, Ainslee will bring her all sorts of toys to "play" with. Cameron seems to be quite entertained by Ainslee also.

On our first day with Cameron-yes they match :)


Ainslee sharing her toys

Cameron giving Ainslee huge smiles!

Ainslee with a huge smile, she loves watching Cameron!

Mommy and Daddy went to Dallas this past weekend for a baby shower for our friends, Allison & Brian who are expecting a little boy pretty soon. We decided to make a nice getaway out of it, so Ainslee stayed at home with Grammy and Pop. We enjoyed staying at a nice hotel (highly recommend aloft hotels), eating out, AND going to the movies. We had a wonderful time together, but were ready to see our baby girl on Sunday!

It was a Merry Christmas!

I have been such a blogging slacker! There have been many things to post about, but I just haven't found the time to sit down and write. So bare with me, it's going to be a long one :)

The Well Baby Visit

Ainslee went for her one year "well baby" visit two weeks after she turned one. Daddy wanted to go to the doctor with (we had a lot of questions about Ainslee's eating) and that was the soonest he would be able to go. The stats:

Weight- 18lbs 12 oz

Height- 29.5"

Needless to say, she won't be a "forward facer" (in her carseat) for a few more months :( She doesn't know what she's missing, but Mommy thinks it will be a lot more fun! The doctor said she is on the small side, but is still growing nicely. She assured us that she is probably eating all she needs to, but we will encourage her to try new things ALL the time. She is still refusing the sippy cup when it's time for milk (will ONLY drink it out of a bottle), but will take it just fine in between meals with just water in it. It makes no since, but the child seriously has a mind of her OWN.

Santa

Jason and I took Ainslee to visit Santa at Bass Pro Shop one night after he got off of work. Ainslee seemed interested, but looking back I think it was because of all the other little kids running around. Jason was holding her and as he approached Santa, she began to get a death grip on the back of his arm, tightening as he got closer and closer. She sat in his lap and didn't cry, but has a look of absolute fear in her eyes in the picture we got. If I can figure out our scanner, I will post it.

Christmas in Austin

Auntie Lo and Uncle Trevor spent Christmas in Houston this year, so we decided to do Christmas with them the weekend before. We met Grammy and Pop at their apartment and Lauren made a wonderful chili dinner for all of us. We exchanged presents and had a great time watching Ainslee discover the joys of unwrapping gifts. She really started to get the hang of it. I think her birthday was good practice. We spent the night with them, which probably ruined Ainslee's chance of having a cousin in the near future. She had an "episode." She has done this once before and we can't figure out what it is all about. She went to bed just fine, but woke up SCREAMING an hour later. She seemed like she was still asleep but would shriek every few minutes...this lasted until 1 am. Luckily her aunt and uncle really love her, so I think she is forgiven :)

Opening a present from her aunt & uncle

Pop & Grammy love her

She loves Baaab, the auodad

After a rough night, she woke up with serious bed head

Christmas in Kerrville

Christmas Eve we packed everything and the kitchen sink and headed to Kerrville to spend the week with Jason's family. His grandmother, brother, aunt, uncle, and cousins all came into town as well. We had a great, relaxing time hanging out together and visiting. Ainslee had a blast with her Grandma and Grandpa. They took her outside to feed the chickens and pet the horses a million times. She LOVES the chickens! She also loved showing off all her tricks and having them chase her around the house. Ainslee must have been a good girl this year because Santa came and left some fun presents under the tree for her! I think her favorite thing this Christmas was pulling everything out of her new stocking Grandma made her. She pulled each thing out one at a time :)

Checking out what Santa left

I think she likes it!

Bottle break with GG

Opening a present with Grandma

Checking out the goods in her stocking

This was her serious stocking digging face :)

Grandpa made sure to keep her warm before heading outside to see horses!


We made a couple of visits to Grammy and Pop's house also, and got to see both sets of Ainslee's Great Grandparent's (on Mommy's side) and her Great Aunt Cathy and Uncle Rob.

She loves her new tea set from Grammy & Pop

Birthday Party!

We celebrated Ainslee's first birthday on Saturday with family and friends! Auntie Lo and Uncle Trevor came down on Friday night to spend the whole weekend with us! Thank goodness they did, because we had them babysit on Friday night so we could go to our Sunday School Christmas party and they were a HUGE help with preparing for the party on Saturday. Mommy made the cake, Daddy made appetizers, Auntie Lo made cupcakes, and Uncle Trevor was on baby duty :) We had to wake Ainslee up from her nap because she tried to sleep through her own party. When I brought her into the living room there were already quite a few people and balloons everywhere, she appeared awe struck! We had a lot of fun visiting and eating. Ainslee was not too sure what to think when we all sung happy birthday to her, and she was not very interested in her cupcake, but she did like the icing. She loved opening her presents, but I think she loved being around all her wonderful friends and family most!

The cake


She was so excited about all the balloons!

She thoroughly enjoyed being the center of attention

Planning their escape

Not sure why everyone was singing and looking at her

Yummy icing!

Some very cute kids!

Birthday Dinner

We took Ainslee to McAlister's Deli for a birthday dinner last night. She LOVES their fruit cup and teddy grahams, we are working on the grilled cheese (she threw most of it on the floor).

Daddy using our order number to show how old she is


Love that bumper sticker!


"How big is Ainslee?" She is showing "so big!"


Glad this is the last "chair" picture - she WON'T sit still!


When we got home she got to stay up late and play with one of her birthday presents

One Year Old!

My sweet Ainslee,

To my amazement, you are a year old today. Everyone told me that you would grow up so fast, but I really didn't expect that your first year would feel like a blink of an eye. As I was rocking you before bed last night, part of me wanted to keep holding you all night, thinking that if I did you would just stay a little baby. When your Daddy and I went in to get you this morning you were as happy as could be. We told you happy birthday and you got a giant grin on your face, like you knew it was your special day!

In just one year you have completely changed my life. I never imagined it possible to love you so much. You bring so much joy to our lives. Because of you, I have an even greater understanding of how God must love us, His children. Your Daddy and I are so blessed to be chosen as your parents. We love to watch you grow and learn new things everyday. Your curiosity and interest in people fascinate me, I can't wait to hear what you think about the world around you.

At a year old, you have lots of new tricks. You like to play peek-a-boo by hiding behind something and then popping your head out with a huge grin on your face. You love to clap and dance to music that you like by waving both hands in the air. You can wave hello and goodbye, but you say "hi" when doing both (we are working on saying bye). You are very good at throwing a ball. When we throw (roll) it back to you, you lift your arms out like you are trying to catch it! Wen you are in your highchair we ask you, "How big is Ainslee?" You will lift your arms over your head and we say, "so big" - Daddy and I think this is the cutest trick!

Ainslee, your daddy and I love you so much. We are both looking forward to watching you grow up and see you use all the talents God has given you. But always remember, no matter how big or how old you are, you will always be my baby girl.

Love,
Mommy

Thanksgiving Week

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week spent with lots of friends and family. Jason had the whole week off from school, which made for a nice long break! The Sunday before Thanksgiving our friends from North Carolina came down for a visit. Their little girl, Addison, is 4 1/2 months younger than Ainslee. We picked them up from the airport and the girls were in matching dresses, I promise we hadn't planned it! We all went to church and out to lunch with everyone from our Sunday school class. We came home and ALL took a nap. The next day we decided to pack up and head to the River Walk. We had beautiful weather and there weren't too many people downtown, great combination :) Tuesday was not the best day. Miss Addison woke up a little fussy and very sleepy. She continued to seem worse and when we discovered she had a 102 temp. we called our pediatrician (Ainslee had to visit their pediatrician when we went to NC in June, so it was only fitting). The boys dropped Laura and I and the babies at the Dr. and headed to the pub down the road. While we were there, Ainslee starting feeling really warm and was acting very lethargic. Well, once we got in the exam room the nurse took both of their temps, and Ainslee's was even higher than Addison's! After both being examined, we headed to HEB to fill "matching" prescriptions of antibiotics. Wednesday, the fevers had subsided so since it was our last day together, we decided to go on a little road trip to Fredricksburg. We had a fun time shopping, eating, and playing. On our way home we stopped in Luckenbach for a quick break. We had such a fun time watching the babies play together during the week. They were quite interactive, much more so then in June. We had a wonderful time with the Simpson's and are already looking forward to a Summer vacation with them!

"Hey look, we have on the same dress!"




They had lots of fun in the tub together


The River Walk


Both waiting to see the Doctor


Josh's shirt says "chillin with my peeps," how appropriate :) They were watching Praise Baby, and you can tell they are not feeling very well.

Riding a mechanical horse in downtown Fredricksburg


The Gang


The three of us headed to Kerrville just in time for Thanksgiving lunch. We ate at my parent's house with Jason's parents and brother, my sister and brother-in-law, and my grandparents. It was so nice to have our families all together! We stayed through the weekend and just relaxed and watched a LOT of football :)

Playing in the leaves at the park, she loved it!

So happy!