16 Months is Messy!

We have been letting Ainslee feed herself a lot more lately, using utensils. She is getting pretty darn good at using a fork. She can fork a black bean, and they are small! :) We have also noticed that she is much more willing to eat something if it is on a fork...kind of like the whole food-on-a-stick gimmick at festivals. We are getting there with the spoon, but it has been one messy process. I'll let the pictures say the rest.









Blackberries- her new favorite!

Weekend fun and the not so fun

Daddy left on Friday to go to a wedding in Houston, so Grammy came to stay the night with us. We went to dinner at EZ's where we discovered Ainslee has a love for focaccia bread, I mean who doesn't?! We had fun and got home way past bedtime. Saturday morning Mommy got to clean house while Ainslee stayed entertained by Grammy. We ate lunch and decided to do some shopping, of course. We went to Kohl's and discovered a WONDERFUL selection of baby play clothes (thank you Katie!). Ainslee now has a complete summer wardrobe!

The bad news...we were in Jason's truck, which translates to parking far out and hard to put Ainslee in her carseat. Well I turn the car on to get the AC going since it was a billion degrees, load up all the bags, get Ainslee out of her stroller, load her up in the truck, buckle her all in, close her door, and get in myself. All the while I am talking to Grammy who is assisting in this ordeal. We get home, I open up the backseat and the stroller is not in there. It is not in the bed of the truck either. What the heck?! Now I know what you are thinking. I once saw a post on Craig's List for a missing stroller that a lady left while she was voting. I remember thinking to myself, "how the heck do you manage to lose your stroller!" Well, now I know. It's rather easy actually. We drove right back to Kohl's and I searched the parking lot while Grammy asked Customer Service if anyone returned a teal Combi stroller (she also made a quick scan of the kids department to see if anyone was USING our stroller). Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Who jacks a stroller?! So yea, that part of the weekend really stinks!

We came home to find Daddy had made it back from Houston and brought "Uncle" Sterling with him. Since Ainslee missed her afternoon nap, due to the stroller ordeal, we decided against going to a restaurant and ordered Chili's to go instead.

Sunday we had a fun family day. We went to church and before we picked Ainslee up from the nursery we peeked in to spy on her. Let's just say I think we have the wild child in class. Climbing is her new passion, and apparently she is practicing wherever she goes. We see her standing up on the table (a long skinny table for about 10 kiddos) waving her hands over her head and squealing her excited laughy squeal. She then walks down the table and makes it to the other end before an adult comes to get her down. Crazy girl! We decided to go to McAlister park that afternoon to let her get out some of that energy and had fun on the playground and then on a long hike!

Grammy with a sleepy baby

Peek-a-boo!

Her preferred sliding method

Trying rock wall

Daddy wasn't even holding on!

Hiking

First skinned knee from hiking-time to add bandaids to the diaper bag!

Easter '09

We had a wonderful Easter weekend spent in Kerrville with lots of family. We got into town friday evening and stayed at Grammy and Pop's house. Saturday was cold and rainy, of course not what I had packed for, so we spent most of the day inside. Mommy and Grammy did make a quick trip to the mall while Ainslee took her nap. Sunday morning the Easter bunny stopped by and left a fun basket and lots of eggs to hunt. It was still cold and rainy so the hunt was inside. The eggs were filled with Cheerios and Goldfish, what more could a 16 month old want?! Daddy showed Ainslee how to put the eggs in her basket (at first she just threw them off the chair and onto the floor) and she was on a mission to put them ALL in her basket in no time! That afternoon Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Trevor and Auntie Lo, and Great Memaw and Putt came over for a big Easter lunch. We had fun visiting with all of our family and Ainslee got to have another egg hunt (she had to show off her new skills). We ended up having beautiful weather and enjoyed spending the day outside everyone.

Now get ready for picture overload, just too cute not to post!

Helping Grammy fix breakfast

Making a giant mess

This is what the Easter bunny left

Why is this egg in the chair?

Daddy showing her what to do with the eggs

Pop showing her the goldfish inside

Discovering her basket

Counting her eggs

Cute Easter PJs

Reading with Pop

The fam

She found an egg in a bucket

And just dumped the whole bucket in her basket

Her audience

Ainslee w/ Mommy and her Great Grandparents

She played a LONG game of hide and seek with Auntie Lo

Fun in the Country

This past weekend we went out to Katie & Bo's house (Cameron's mommy & daddy) in the country. We had a great dinner and enjoyed hanging out with them. Ainslee finally tried some hamburger and apparently loves Bo's grilling, because she ate about 5 bites! She also had a blast playing with their dog, Joe, running around their yard, and discovering Frisky the horse. Here are some cute pictures I was able to take while she was too distracted to notice I had the camera-her new obsession.

She got to eat dinner in Cameron's Bumbo

Petting the dog

Smelling Katie's pretty flowers

Aren't they cute?!



On the move

Not at all afraid of the horse

Finishing w/ a drink from the hose

The Bubble Suit

Two babies...11 months apart...one bored mom...and one green bubble suit (this is what gymboree calls it). Aren't best friends supposed to share clothes? Katie, per your request:

I think instead of 6-12 months, it should be sized 5-16 months :)

Aren't they cute?! Ignore the fact that Ainslee is in the process of taking off her diaper.

Ainslee's thinking, "Wow, that is impressive!"

Remember this?

Do you remember seeing pictures of Ainslee wearing these outfits?

July-7 months old

August-8 months old

Well, we're getting some good use out of them...

March-15 months old

Today-almost 16 months old (a different shirt though)

I think I'm going to have to get out her bag of clothes from last summer that I packed long ago, and see if any of them actually still fit her. I just assumed they wouldn't fit her after the winter, silly me!

Talking & Tantrums

Apparently they go hand in hand. Ainslee has started saying and trying to say a lot more words this week. She has reached the fun stage where we can ask her to say something and she tries to repeat it. Some new words this week include: kitty, green, keys, Jesus, and please. The Jesus one has been my favorite so far. We got a brochure from the Jehovah's Witness left on our door the other day and it had a picture of Jesus on the front of it. Being the paper lover that she is, Ainslee immediately wanted the brochure. So I handed it to her. She pointed to the picture and I said, "that's Jesus." She looked at me and smiled and said "Geeshush." From then on she would look at the picture and point and say Geeshush (we switched the brochure out for her Children's Bible), love it!

What I am not loving is the new outburst of tantrums. I think she is getting really frustrated with not being able to actually say what she needs to, that and she is just a tad impatient and stubborn. We are working on ways to reduce this issue, but any suggestions are much appreciated! Here are a few pictures to demonstrate the issue.

Such a sad little face!