Heading East- Part II

On Saturday morning, we headed back to Mount Pleasant (about a 2 1/2 hour drive). We had a birthday celebration planned for GG's 80th birthday! Grandpa's sister, Aunt Jan, and her family came in from Louisiana and GG's brother and his family came in from Arlington! We had a wonderful lunch and lots of cake and desserts! Ainslee found lots of ways to entertain herself in and out of the house!
I believe this might have been Grandpa's rocking horse!

Aunt Jan took Ainslee on LOTS of walks to look for kitties. Anytime Ainslee saw Aunt Jan she would immediately sign "kitty"- meaning take me outside to look for them! Aunt Jan was nice enough to oblige, even though it was super hot outside!

They found one!

Grandma played on the porch with her. We filled a tub with water and bath toys to keep her cool!

Look who decided to join her! She was thrilled!

She kept trying to bring the kitty water to drink, but the cup has holes in the bottom of it :)

Grandpa turned on the sprinkler for her to play in and she loved it!

He also let her have cookies right before bed! I tried not to care too much about her sleeping/eating habits on the trip. Aren't grandparents supposed to spoil them?! :)

Of course, that was followed by a shared glass of milk :)

Another walk with Grandma and Aunt Jan

Ainslee loved sitting in this chair that was GG's parents! It was just the right size for her to get into all by herself.

After all that running around, she finally stopped to cuddle with GG!

We had a great time in Mount Pleasant and enjoyed celebrating with GG all her family!

This was one of our last stops on the way home. We stopped at every Bass Pro, Gander Mountain, and Cabella's all along our trip. We just let Ainslee run a muck all around the stores to burn off some of her energy. She especially loved the fish tanks and picking out lures in the fishing section :) Here she is with Daddy at Cabela's.

Heading East- Part 1

On the 10th, we were picked up bright and early by Grandma & Grandpa to head East and visit both sides of Jason's family. We spent the first night in Mount Pleasant, TX at "GG's" house (Jason's Dad's mother). We pulled in the driveway and told Ainslee we were at GG's house, to which she replied "G?" GG was thrilled that she could say her name! The next morning we left for Camden, Arkansas to visit Jason's mother's family for a few days, before heading back to Mount Pleasant for GG's 80th birthday bash!

Don't let the picture fool you, very little of this actually occurred in the car. Thankfully we had a portable DVD player, Elmo videos, and a Wee Sing video from the early 80s that kept her pretty well entertained. But, nose to nose with Ellie was pretty darn cute.

We made quite a few stops to stretch and change diapers! This is the Arkansas welcome center. It is very pretty and has a fun playground that we always stop and play on (even before Ainslee joined us!)

This was Ainslee's first time to meet her Arkansas Great Grandparents and it was love at first sight! She also got to meet her Great Uncles and Aunt for the first time! She had a lot of fun with Great Grandma in the garden, going on walks, and looking for the kitties. She even paused for a few snuggle breaks!

Going for a walk in the wheel barrow

Then she wanted to push it!

Only in an Arkansas feed store would you find this!

Chasing a kitty through the garden, she also stopped to pick a few (unripe) tomatoes!

Part of Great Grandma's BEAUTIFUL garden!

Helping Aunt Becky prune the Crape Myrtles

The garden is surrounded by all different types of fruit trees. I think there are pear, plum, apple, and fig! Ainslee and Hayden (Becky's 6 year old grandson) had a BLAST playing together and collecting fruit that had already fallen.

I gave Ainslee a ripe plum to see what she would do and she ate the whole thing and then another!

Daddy gave Ainslee a ton of rides on the elliptical machine. She thought it was a lot of fun!

"Hey Ainslee, where is Great Grandpa?"

The last cuddles before we left for Mount Pleasant

We had a blast in Arkansas and enjoyed spending time with lots of family we don't get to see nearly enough! Ainslee ruined a few shirts and literally wore holes in her shoes, which I believe is a good indication that she had a lot of fun and played super hard! :)

First Sentence

Ainslee said her first sentence this morning! Well, for all the proper grammar people out there it was missing a few pronouns and prepositions (or whatever it is you need to make a complete sentence). But in true girly, girl fashion here is her sentence:
"Keys, urse (purse), bye!"
She gathered up her toy keys, a bucket that she pretends is a purse, and headed for the door. She is definitely a girl on a mission!

*Lots of new posts, including our vacation, to come soon!

Follow Up

We finally had Ainslee's 18 month check-up yesterday. We waited until after our vacation, just in case she had a reaction to her shots. We actually had a new doctor, because ours moved to a new practice too far from our house. I loved her new doctor and Ainslee seemed to really like her too! The doctor said she looked great and was ahead in her milestones. She did listen to her heart for a really long time and then asked if anyone had ever noticed a heart murmur before. No one has before, but she said it was not too uncommon in children her age. They will check it again when she turns two, and if it is still there we will have to get it looked at further. Hopefully it is something she will just outgrow! Now for the stats:
Height: 31 7/8 " - 75th percentile
Weight: 21.4 lbs - 10th percentile
Still long and lean for this little girl!

Weekend with Katy

Katy B. from College Station came to visit us this past weekend. Ainslee hasn't seen her since the Aggie game we went to in the fall! Ainslee did not seem in the least bit shy around Katy and LOVED playing with her. Katy took her on walks, brought her presents, and let her eat at the bench at the table instead of her highchair. Katy knows the way to Ainslee's heart :) By the end of the weekend Ainslee would call out "Kayie" whenever she left the room. I think she was really wondering where she was on Monday morning. We had a great time hanging out and Sunday went to Guadalupe State Park (one of our favorite spots). We enjoyed a picnic lunch and swimming in the river. We are definitely going to have to make a trip to College Station to visit "Aunt" Katy again soon!

Katy let her watch Elmo on her iphone!

Swinging at the park

Headed to the river!

18 Months Old!

18 month picture in the chair, in pj's

A little late, but better than never! Ainslee is now 18 months old. I cannot believe how quickly she has changed, especially when I think about how we were so impressed by her sitting up skills around this time last year. She is so much fun these days (when she is not partaking in the terrible 2's a little early). I've been meaning to write down a list of her new tricks, but of course, that has not happened.

Grammy came to visit on Ainslee's half b-day and brought her a basketball goal. I don't know if I have mentioned before, but she is just slightly obsessed with basketball! I don't know of any other toddler girls that leave the park to run down to the basketball court to watch guys playing basketball. If the court is empty she does her little "where are they" sign and just stares at the hoop. Does this seem strange to anyone else? It must be in her genes though, because her grandpa and great-grandpa played college basketball!

Getting an assist from Daddy

Another one of her favorites is singing and dancing. She loves the ABC's (or C's) as she calls it, I'm a Little Teapot, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, and anything that is sung on Sesame Street. She will get a sweet little hummy voice and sing along to songs she knows, or even doesn't know. She will combine the dance moves to all the songs she knows into one dance-it's hilarious!

Playing blocks with Grammy, Pop, and Cameron

Ainslee is starting to say more words and still continues to make up signs or gestures to get her point across. Words she says that I can think of:

dadda

kitty

Charley

ball

ice

shoes

hi

bye

Pop

please

"eese" - short for berries

ba- banana, bottle

If you're wondering why "mamma" isn't on this list it is because she refuses to say it for some reason. We've heard her say it, but she won't on command. Seriously Ainslee, say mamma!

One of her biggest accomplishments lately is that she no longer takes a bottle! I know, call CPS, my child drank out of a bottle until she was 18 months old... For some reason she would throw massive fits if she had anything other than water in her sippy cup. It just was one of those things that wasn't worth fighting. She now takes a cup for her milk too, and I will admit that it looks much more like a bottle than a cup, but it's an improvement.

We haven't taken her in for her 18 month check up yet (official stats to come soon), but I know that she has grown a lot lately! She grows out of her shoes every few weeks it seems like and her dresses have gotten a lot shorter, too! She has become quite the cuddle bug, which I love! She will come up and tap your leg, meaning she wants to sit on your lap. She imitates everything we do, like washing hands, talking on the phone, taking pictures, and she tries to take care of Cameron too. I think it's hilarious when she pats Cameron on the back to try to get her to burp or wipe her mouth with a burp cloth :)

We love Ainslee to pieces and enjoy watching her learn and discover new things! I can't believe my baby is really a toddler these days.

Just when I think she is no longer a baby...

Weekend Outside

We had a great weekend spent mostly outdoors. Saturday was Daddy's last Panther Mountain Bike club ride, so the kids and their families celebrated the end of the year with a barbecue at O.P. Schnabel Park. Ainslee and I came out for the festivities and to go on a family ride after lunch. It was INSANELY hot, so Ainslee spent most of the time playing with the ice chests and eating ice (I was so afraid she was going to choke, but she seemed to do fine with it). She learned how to say "ice" very quickly! We had a fun ride and Ainslee seemed to love the bike trailer she got for Christmas. We will be doing that again soon!

Trying to stay cool with a chunk of ice

You can barely see her little head sticking up

On Sunday we finally made it to Sunday school, it seems like we have been out of town or had company every weekend lately! We enjoyed a fun lunch at Indigo Joe's with lots of friends afterwards. That evening we headed to the Pool's house for Elizabel's 2nd birthday! There were tons of kiddos running around and the backyard was set up with kiddy pools and a slip and slide, what fun!

The cute little birthday girl

Ainslee loved this swing, it went really high

Playing with the older boys, of course!

And playing house with Joshua

This kid loves ice cream (like her mommy!), and a spoon just takes time and effort

So this is what her face looked like

And speaking of birthdays, Ainslee would like to wish her Grandpa a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today!