The perfect pumpkin

I know I'm behind on blogging, but I've been terribly busy!  Mom came over yesterday and informed me I needed to blog (that was right after she informed me how dirty my windows were....which she didn't offer to clean), so I guess I'll blog and leave my windows for another day.  She was good for one thing yesterday afternoon, and that was getting Ainsley to sleep.  She fell asleep sitting up just how the picture shows.  My poor baby was so tired!

Joel took Sunday off and he headed down to Hettick with me. We picked Dad up and went to Broom's Orchard to find a pumpkin for Ainsley.  Of course, she loved being outside and watching everyone walking around.  Joel thought we should get a short, fat pumpkin (to look like Ainsley) but we finally found the perfect pumpkin. 

This picture cracks me up-I wanted to get a picture of Ainsley with her pumpkin, and this is what I get!



Dad had some pretty mums along side the house, so I took a few pictures of Ainsley with her pumpkins.

She finally found the pumpkins!

That afternoon I ran over to an open house for a friend who just adopted a baby girl.  They have been trying to have a baby for years and went through infertility treatments with no luck.  After the latest infertility treatment was unsuccessful and when she was at a low point, they received awesome news that their adoption profile had been shown.  They adopted a healthy baby girl a few weeks ago.  I couldn't be happier for them and know that they are going to be awesome parents.  It made me think about how much Joel and I went through and how lucky we were.  I wouldn't wish infertility on my worst enemy.  I'm so glad that precious little baby girl found parents who will love her to pieces and cherish every day with her. 

I have to post about something that gave me a very good laugh.  Okay, okay, I'm not going to lie.....I'm still chuckling typing this.  It's amazing how fast you can forget about something, but when you're reminded of it, you can see it as if it happened yesterday.  I would like to say a big "thank you" to Jill Meisenheimer for mentioning this.  When Tanner was little (maybe 4) he would run along our driveway when a car would come or leave our house and chase them all the down the driveway and over to the "T" road barking like a dog.  Sometimes Brownie (the dog) would chase the cars with Tanner, but I can still see him with his little buzz haircut chasing cars as they pulled out of the driveway.  I had to get this down in writing somewhere so I would never forget about it again!  Hilarious! 

"Little Barky Tanner Gillespie"

This is going to be a "make fun of Tanner entry" because while we were at Dad's, Tanner came walking in the house chuckling carrying a paper towel tube.  It just wasn't any paper towel tube, though.  It was one he had just found on the porch that he had made when he was younger.  As you can read in the picture (if it's not too small), it was "Tanner's sord".  And, what a "sord" it was!  Of course, Ainsley liked it and Joel had to take her picture with her new sword.

Ainsley with Uncle Tanner's "Sord"

Ainsley is trying very hard to crawl these days.  She wants to go places so bad, but just hasn't figured it all out yet.  She can get up on her knees and rock back and forth but can't get both legs under her.  I've said this before, but the helmet is actually a blessing!  She face-plants it at least 4 or 5 times a day now that she's trying to crawl.  If she sees something that she thinks she wants and is too far out of reach, she'll scoot herself over to it on her butt or do circles to grab it.  I've taught her how to fake cough and when she wants to do it, she can REALLY pull a fake cough from way down in her.  She almost looks like she's going to throw up because she's trying so hard to get a "cough" out.  It's pretty funny!

She's also figured out how to play with toys.  What I mean, is if something should be pushed, she'll push it.  If it should be rolled, she'll roll it.  She loves to bounce.  Every time I pick her up and put her on my hip, she immediately starts "bouncing" on my hip.  If you hold her on your lap, she has to squirm around to a point where she tries to bounce on your lap.  One of the things that I wish she wasn't going through is the seperation anxiety phase. Any time I leave the room, and she sees me leave, she'll start crying.  As soon as I walk back into the room she calms down.  It makes it very hard to run to the bathroom, make her bottle, fix lunch, etc.

As you can see-she knows exactly how to play with that toy!



And how do you play with your own toes???  By putting them in your mouth, of course!

Holding her own bottle is still a work in progress.  She can do it when she wants to, but if most of the time she's just too lazy and wants you to do it for her. 

She was wore out this night and didn't even get a bottle in her before she crashed!  She held on long enough so she could see Daddy for a little bit.

Joel's been in the fields late almost every night, but he's still found time to have fun with Ainsley after he gets home.  Here's a video of them getting in trouble with Mommy.  There's a half black rubber duck now in the bathroom that use to be pink, and it was all from the night in the video.  Joel got the walker out tonight for Ainsley to try.  I think Daddy had more fun with it than she did.  By the time I got back down to the basement with the video camera, she was starting to lose interest.  Check out this video to see how Daddy plays with the walker.

We've had a few highlights in the last few weeks.  Joel finally installed her "big girl" car seat.  She's no longer in her infant carrier, which makes me a little sad.  No infant carrier means she's also sitting up in shopping carts now instead of being stuck in her carrier in the cart.  It made it hard on Mommy to shop with her sitting up in the cart because she wanted to play with my list.

I snapped this right before she swiped her bow off her helmet.  I had to re-trace my steps a few times to find the bow that she flung off her helmet and landed in various aisles.

I had a few more moles removed a few weeks ago and didn't get the best news on them (it wasn't the worst either).  They were both dysplastic nevus with moderate atypia.  That means that they had abnormal cells and there was a good chance they could develop into melanoma.  I had to go back last week so they could take a margin of each one and do a futher biopsy.  They called earlier this week to let me know that both came back fine and they got all of it the last time.  I have to go get my stitches taken out next week and don't go back again for another 5 months.  In the last few months, I've had around 40 stitches.  Let's just say I'm tired of stitches for a while. 

On a positive note, this is my 100th post!  Not only is it my 100th post, but I looked at my stats and I've had over 10,000 views to my blog.  Wow!  That's a lot of people checking in on little Ainsley!