Keeping busy

As our little girl's big birthday quickly approaches, it's getting harder to call her our "baby".  She's turning into a toddler and there isn't much "baby" left to her.  She's getting closer to walking every day, and can make her way from one side of the couch to the other (while holding on, of course).

 
We had a physical therapy appointment last week, and the therapist was very happy with Ainsley's progress over the last month.  She couldn't believe how well she was doing.  She said that Ainsley is getting very close to walking and the only thing holding her back at this point is the confidence in herself.  Ainsley needs to have more confidence and trust herself to actually take the first step, and once she does that, she's going to be running around the house!

We also had an appointment at Hanger last week for the last followup appointment for her helmet.  They did one last scan on her head to see how much it changed on its own.  There was a little improvement over the last two months.  When we saw the before and after pictures, we could really see the difference the helmet made.  I think most of the time, the helmet helps babies out more, but with all the trouble we had with Ainsley's helmet, we're happy with the progress that was made.  I wish things could have worked out to where she could have wore the regular helmet, and it probably would have helped more, but it doesn't seem like we can do anything normal with our little princess!

Ainsley's last head scan!

Ainsley is into absolutely EVERYTHING.  Joel came home yesterday to a kitchen and dining room scattered with bowls, trays, silverware, and anything else Ainsley could find in the cabinets while I was fixing lunch.  One of her favorite things to get into is the pantry.  She'll open up the doors and clean out the bottom two or three shelves and then play with the food on the floor. 

We had a busy weekend, and Ainsley was able to spend some time away from us.  She stayed at Jim and Rita's Friday night, and of course, she was good for Grandma and slept all through the night.  Saturday night, she stayed with Erin, Terry, and the kids for a few hours and got lots of attention.  Dad and Tanner came up last night.  Tanner was a good uncle and let Ainsley play with his hair while Dad gave her a bottle. 

We put Ainsley in her crib yesterday afternoon, and she was suppose to be taking a nap.  She fussed for a little while and then started playing with her crib toy and we could hear her jabbering to herself.  We left her in there and hoped she would fall asleep on her own.  After five minutes or so of playing and jabbering, we heard a loud thud and then she started screaming and crying.  I ran in and grabbed her.  She was screaming and crying out because she was hurting, but I had no clue what had happened or what she hurt.  Of course, Joel just said that she scared herself when she fell, but I knew it was a "hurt" cry.  When I turned her around, she had blood coming out of her mouth!  We don't know exactly what happened, but we did discover little teeth marks on her crib railing and the wood was splintered up where she had been gnawing on the wood.  I don't think she got a splinter in her mouth from her crib, but who knows!  I ordered the crib rail pads last night so she doesn't chew up her crib!

Her other front tooth is starting to pop through.

She's loving all kinds of table food now.  Baby food is pretty much out of the picture now and macaroni and cheese has taken center stage.  She loves that stuff!  Pancakes, peaches, mandarin oranges, bananas, green beans, peas, and of course, yogurt bites are also on the food list.  One of the best things that I would recommend to any Mom for babies at this stage are the bibs with the sleeves that you can wipe down.  My cousin told me about them when I was pregnant and I just happened to be at Ikea the next week and picked some up.  I'm glad I did.  They really are a life saver!  Thanks, Amanda!

Ainsley has never really cared for a pacifier, but she found one in the bottom of her toy basket in my office a few weeks ago.  She likes to play and chew on it.  The other night she was actually sucking on it for a little bit and then would throw it and go get it and repeat the process.

We're gearing up for the big birthday party this weekend.  I hope everyone can make it!