Weekend Recap

Last Friday night we met Auntie Lo & Uncle Trevor in New Braunfels to pick up the new stroller (can't wait to use it!) and have dinner at Mamacita's, yum! Apparently it had been too long since we last saw them, because Ainslee got a little freaked out when Uncle Trevor walked up to the table. Maybe it was the beard? Auntie Lo enjoyed getting to see Ainslee walk-yes, it had been THAT long! We enjoyed our quick little visit with them and can't wait to see them again.

Saturday was Valentine's Day/my birthday. Daddy got Ainslee a giant horse for Valentine's Day and she and Charley are enjoying climbing all over it. That afternoon, we went to a birthday party for one of Ainslee's little friends, Braden who turned 5! It was at a park so Ainslee had a great time running around chasing after big kids. Daddy made a surprise stop on the way home and picked up Mommy's ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins, jamocha and chocolate! I told him that was all I wanted for my birthday :) When we got home Ainslee refused to take a nap since she had slept in the car, so Jason took her to HEB to pick up dinner making supplies...while I took a nap. Jason made dinner -grilled steaks, corn on the cob, asparagus, and beer bread. We put the babe to bed and watched The Secret Life of Bees (another request) and ate cake. It was a wonderful, relaxing birthday!

Sunday morning Jason had a mountain bike trip with his Jr. High group and got home too late for church. We ate lunch and decided to head to the rodeo... To make a long story short- we don't have debit cards (we just realized)=no cash=no parking=no rodeo. So, we decided to go to the zoo, who accepts major credit cards and checks! We spent all afternoon showing Ainslee all the animals. She signed kitty, dog, or fish for everything. I guess we need to learn more animal signs. But hey, a lion is like a big kitty right?

Ainslee got a pony for Valentine's Day!

Charley likes to cuddle with it too, and they match :)

My cute and delicious cake!

The fam

Our beautiful little butterfly

The zebra is not eating my hair

She loved to pull the goats horns, they did not enjoy it

They didn't mind the kisses though. She kissed all of them on the back.

Wrestling alligators already!

And the infamous fish face, haha!

Oh the places we will go...

My name is Cara and I am a strolleraholic. I just purchased our 4th stroller. But this one will be grand! I have been in DIRE need of a double stroller now that we have baby Cameron with us during the week. I have been looking on Craig's List since December and haven't found anything that didn't look completely repulsive to put two sweet babies in or wasn't $200! The other day I decided to try the Austin list and found the exact stroller I almost bought new online (for way more than I'm getting it for). Aunt Lauren was leaving to go skiing in CO so her sweet friend, Johnna, met up with a stranger, in a parking lot to pick it up for me. How WONDERFUL is she?!

I am so excited! I once attempted the baby bjorn and single stroller combo on a trip to the park, and I thought I was going to DIE by the time I got home. Not to mention it was rather difficult to get Ainslee out of her stroller and into the swing, and back out, while I had Cameron attached to me. Who knows what kind of adventures we might have in our new double stroller!

You can have both seats facing out, facing you, or facing each other. They also both fully recline for naptime!

It also does this:

14 Months... and a day

Well, I realized around 7:30 last night, that Ainslee was now 14 months old! This is exciting to me only because 14 just happens to be my favorite number! Strange, I know. But I thought I would give an update on her latest and greatest tricks, although I'm sure she will add another one by the end of the day. She truly learns something new everyday and it has been so exciting to watch.

We are slowly adding more signs to her repertoire, only because she looks at us and waits for us to show her the sign for something. This is quite unfortunate if we have no clue what the sign is. She now signs hi/bye, more, please, finished, baby, kitty, horse, dog, and has her own *very* distinct sign for fish (I'm not sure what the real sign is). As you can see, she has a love for animals. She also blows kisses, such a sweet new trick.

Her speaking vocab now includes mama, dada, more, hi, bye, banana, duck and fish. She will also say moo if you ask her what the cow says (or if you just say cow)-it's hilarious.

We know she is understanding almost everything we say these days, which is a little scary. She can follow simple directions. She can also point to her head, ears, and bellybutton when asked. We are working on learning body parts these days.

She is starting to eat more foods (finally!) and has discovered a love for carbs :) She loves waffles, bread, crackers, pancakes, and bagels. Her favorites though are still any kind of fruit and avocados.

I'm sure I am leaving out a few, but as you can see she is keeping us well entertained these days.

Watching Sesame Street with Cameron

Beautiful, happy little girls!

"Hi"

Ainslee wanted to tell all her faithful blog readers "hi" and thanks for all the get well notes. She is feeling much better.

She also wanted to blow kisses to everyone, since that is her latest trick.

And show everyone what a big girl she is playing with her alphabet letters and eating out of her snack bowl.

Now I must go figure out why she won't take a nap!

Sick Little Baby

As expected, Ainslee came down with the church nursery funk last Tuesday. Well, the funk started getting worse over the weekend, while we were in Kerrville, and by Monday morning I knew she needed to go to the doctor. The poor baby was diagnosed with a fever, double ear infection, and bronchialitis. We had to do a breathing treatment at the doctor's office, which she just LOVED *sarcasm.* She got an antibiotic for the ears and albuterol and a nebulizer to do breathing treatments every 4-6 hours. We got an ointment to put on her little cheeks because they were getting quite chapped for some reason, and lotramin to put on a lovely little rash she's had since October. She is also taking Motrin for her fever. Can I just say that doing all of these "treatments" takes FOREVER! Hopefully, they are working though! She has to go back to the doctor on Monday to check her breathing and make sure she is on the mend. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to mind the breathing treatments anymore (as long as Praise Baby or Sesame Street are on). She will actually sit still the entire time. I think she knows it is helping her.

We are very much missing baby Cameron this week. She is with other little friends so she doesn't get Ainslee's nasty germs. I know Ainslee misses her, because anytime she sees a baby on TV or in a book she signs baby, which she learned on Monday while playing with Cameron.

***Our sincere apologies go out to anybody that was around Miss Ainslee last week when we thought it was just a little runny nose.

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!