Book Worm

During the last few weeks, Ainsley has turned into a little book worm.  Her favorite toy is now books.  She still really likes her Mickey car and rocking horse, but she doesn't go very long without looking at a book.  I've been going crazy during the last week watching Ainsley with some of her books, but I'm finally over it.  I know she doesn't understand that she shouldn't chew, rip, fold, sit on, etc. books, but it's so hard to watch her tear them up.  I've taken some away from her, but there are a few that have bite marks and pages ripped out.  She loves the books that you have to lift something up to see what's underneath, and those are what she likes to rip off.  You don't have to look for the birthday balloons on one page, because the chair that use to hide them (that you lifted up) is no longer there.  At least she has fun with them, and that's all that counts, right?!?

What, Dad??  I'm just looking at my book!

I had to post this picture so you can see her neck...or lack thereof.  I love her back neck fat!

The other night she was laying on her back on the floor looking at one of her books.  Of course, it was upside down, which made it even cuter!

She hasn't really paid much attention to her chair that she got for her birthday in the last few weeks.  She climbed up in it once a few weeks ago, but that's been it.  Yesterday afternoon, she was in the living room with Joel and Joel yells at me to come in and look at our daughter.  I walked into the living room to see her sitting on her little footstool to the chair eating her yogurt bites.  It was the cutest thing ever!  Last night after her bath I sat her in the chair to see what she would do.  She lounged back in it and seemed content, so I gave her a book.  She looked at her book for a few minutes while sitting in the chair.  (Don't mind the "boy hair-do" as Joel and Thomas calls it.  I don't know how to comb her hair at night to make it look "girly".) 

So cute!

The rocking horse is another favorite toy right now.  She'll go up to it and try to climb on it herself.  She really just tries to put one leg over the edge, but you know when she wants on it.  She'll look up at you and make the horse sound and that pretty much guarantees that you'll be sitting in front of the horse for the next 5-10 minutes making it go up and down while Ainsley smiles in delight.  I've even caught her holding onto an edge of the horse and walking around the living room with it (using it as a walker). 

Daddy had the Hot Dog Song on the laptop and she was in heaven!

The Mickey car is also being used as a walker.  Here's a video of her walking with it.  It was the first time going on the tile, and she did pretty good!  You can also catch Joel dancing at the beginning.  Don't let him fool you, he's a dancing machine when it come to Ainsley.   He'll turn on the music to her toy on the refrigerator and dance with her.  He also likes dancing like Donald and Goofy off of the Hot Dog song.  I'm hoping to get a video of it one of these days...

She's been saying "papa" for the last week or so, and I finally got her to say "Daddy" a few days ago.  When it comes out of her mouth, it's more like:  "A-eeeee", but she's saying it!  Here's a video of her saying them. 

Another new word is "hi".  She still can't say bye-bye, although she does wave.  She has a toy phone and will put it up to her ear and say "hi", but I can't get her to say anything else into it.  While I change her diaper, I always try to give her a toy, book, or her brush to keep her occupied.  She loves to chew on the bristles of her brush, and if I ask her to brush  her hair, she'll hold the brush up to her hair and move it around a little.  Those are about the only new tricks we've learned in the last few weeks. 

While taking a bottle or falling asleep, Ainsley still likes to play with hair.  It's usually my hair and I get so frustrated with her because she pulls it.  I'm talking about tug and war type pulls.  It hurts!  Obviously, when Joel gives her a bottle, she can't play with his hair.  The other night, she was pulling on her own hair while taking her bottle, so I went to find her "tag blanket" to see if she would play with it instead, but it didn't help.  After she finished taking her bottle and was falling asleep, I looked over at them and she had her hand just under the neck of Joel's shirt and she was playing with his chest hair!  I cracked up!  It also reminded me of one morning a few weeks ago when we had brought Ainsley to bed with us so she could take her bottle (around 5:30) and when she was done with it, she rolled over and started playing with Joel's back hair!  He's going to love me for that one, but at least it wasn't my hair she was pulling on!

I almost forgot, but another new thing she's started doing is pretending to eat.  It's the funniest thing.  If I ask her if she's hungry, she'll take her pointer finger and thumb together and act like she's picking something up and putting it in her mouth.  She will also do it while in her highchair with food on her tray.  She won't actually pick the food up, but pretend like she is and then look to see if I'm watching.  Her absolute favorite food right now is a banana.  As soon as I show her one, she gets excited.  We took her to Pizza Hut on Sunday for lunch and she ate quite a bit of pizza, bread sticks, pasta, applesauce, and then her favorite:  pudding.  Lisa tried giving her pizza a few weeks ago, but said she didn't care for it and we hadn't tried pizza with  her yet.  She seemed to like it on Sunday.

I grabbed some food from McDonald's on Saturday before coming home and sister sure does like cheeseburgers and french fries from McDonald's! 

With a belly (and boobs) like hers, I'm thinking she may need to lay off the McDonald's for awhile.  Oh, how she's going to love me one day!

On a different note:  I printed off the blog for 2011 and the book came yesterday.  Joel came home and said it looked like a text book, which is true.  It's a lot thicker than 2010's book, but it is nice to have.  I want to let everyone know that if you comment on a post, I get those printed in the book also.  So, feel free to comment as much as you like and we'll be able to remember them years from now.  Ainsley says:  "Thank you!"