"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!

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