A ponytail and guacamole?!

I didn't think the day would ever come.  The day that Ainsley let me put her hair in a ponytail.  She's refused for the last year, and every time I would even start to gather all of her hair in a ponytail or mention putting her hair in one, she would give me the nastiest look followed with:  "NO!"  If I was able to wrestle her down and actually get her hair pulled back, she would pull it out within seconds.  It wasn't worth the fight.  That is, until last week!  I was in the bathroom putting my hair in a ponytail and told Ainsley I was going to go downstairs to work out.  I asked her if she wanted to work out with me, to which she replied:  "Yes".  I asked her if she wanted her hair in a ponytail like Mommy's and to my surprise she replied:  "Yes, in a mi-mi (Minnie) ponytail".  She has some ponytail holders with Minnie on them and ran into her room to find it.  Sure enough, she sat still while I pulled her hair back.  I couldn't believe it!

On a side note:  I'm determined to lose these last 10 pounds.  I started working out last week with the Biggest Loser dvd's and Ainsley is right there beside me.  I don't know how much of the dvd I actually followed on the first night because I was too busy laughing watching Ainsley try to do jumping jacks, crunches, and lift the dumb bells!  She would do a few and then fall down on the floor, panting, saying:  "It's too hard!" 

I made guacamole one day for lunch and Ainsley couldn't get enough of it.  She's such a picky eater, but I always offer her everything we eat.  She dipped a chip in and was hooked.  I don't know how many chips she actually ate, because she would just use the chip as a spoon.  She would get some guacamole on the chip, eat the guacamole off the chip (without eating the chip) and then dip it again and repeat. 

Dr. Ainsley Freeman has a ring to it, right?!  It sounds pretty good to me, because, you know she's going to be one smart cookie and get all her schooling done before she marries and has kids, which will include medical school.  Ainsley loves her doctor kits and will walk around the house carrying them calling herself:  "Dr. Ainsley".  It's so funny!  If I mention that anything hurts, she's quick to look at me, run into the other room to grab her doctor kit and run back into the room yelling:  "Dr. Ainsley"!  It sure would be nice to have a doctor in the family!

Dr. Ainsley checking out Uncle Tanner

Lani was a good patient

For the longest time, Ainsley didn't want anything to do with Lani.  Thankfully, she's finally starting to warm up to her and they've started playing really well together.  Lani still doesn't rank up there with Jack yet, but I don't think she's far from it.  I don't know why, but Ainsley always asks to go to "Jack's house".  It's never Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Kathleen, or Lani's house, it's always Jack's house.

Playing house and babies

We took Ainsley to the Chinese buffet one evening.  Let's just say we had the wild child that was running all around the buffet carts in her boots to find her Dad, but it was the Chinese buffet, so who really cared.  We fit right in!  Following in her cousin Jack's footsteps, she absolutely loved watching herself eat in the big mirrors that line the booths.  I'm pretty sure they both got that from Jeremy!!!

If I'm doing laundry, and Ainsley's home, I always have a helper.  She has to put every article of clothing in the washer and take every article of clothing out of the dryer, shake it, and then hand it to me to fold or hang up.  Laundry takes three times as long as it should, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Daddy's socks are her favorite

Playing hide and seek!

Ainsley always asks to play tractors.  She never asks Joel, it's always me.  I don't know the first thing about "playing tractors" and try to convince her to play baby dolls with me or train, or something else, but she refuses.  It's always tractors. 

Another new thing she's recently started asking is to play "cards".  She has some alphabet cards and will sit and play with them for an hour at a time.  I line 3 or 4 cards up on the floor in front of her and ask her to show me where a specific letter is in the line up and she thinks it's just the best thing!  She's getting pretty good at identifying (some) letters. 

Little sister is always watching big sister.  Always.

She's hooked on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Easter dvd right now.  Pete forgets to say:  "Miska Mouska Mickey Mouse" during the episode and the clubhouse disappears.  Here's Ainsley telling me what Pete forgot to say.