Mommy and Ainsley days

Things have slowed down at work for a little bit.  Can you tell???  I'm actually able to blog again.  It's so hard to catch up with the blog when I'm swamped at work and this last week or so has been nice to have a little break.  Ainsley's been home with me for the last few days and we've had fun

Someone managed to get her ravioli all over her face!

I found some old coloring books in the basement and got the crayons out.  I'm pretty sure I colored more than Ainsley, but it was a good stress reliever.  Ainsley always holds crayons/pens/pencils in her right hand and never in her left, so I'm pretty sure she's going to be a righty. 

Ainsley was more interested in trying to put all the crayons in her hands then actually coloring, but she would scribble on a few pages every once in a while.  Of course, I couldn't color with a crayon for very long because the princess thought she needed whichever crayon I had at the time.

We've spent a lot of time outside the past few days.  It's been in the upper 80's and pretty nice outside.  There were lots of bubbles blown today and we both were covered in chalk by the time we came in. 



On the go...

There was a bunny in Wilma's yard this evening and Ainsley enjoyed watching it hop around.  When Joel got home, I told her to tell him about the bunny and she said:  "hop, hop, hop" and then "bye bye" because the bunny hopped around the house and we couldn't see it any longer.

Puma, the neighbor's dog, came barrelling out of their house earlier today and of course, ran right over to our yard, barking non stop at me and Ainsley.  Ainsley loves that dog, and laughed and laughed at it while it barked at her. 

Yelling at Puma, the dog

Uh oh....here comes Puma again!

Love her concentration...

We had borrowed a bunch of Drake's old toys months ago for Ainsley and Jennifer was finally ready to come and get them.  A lot of them were too young for Ainsley, and she didn't play with them any more.  They were all down in the basement for her to play with while we were down there.  When I brought them all upstairs, Ainsley was in heaven and couldn't wait to play with all of them.  She especially liked the basket that I stored the toys in, and climbed in and out of that thing probably twenty times.

She can't go without her bracelets...

I found a new feature on my camera tonight and was trying it out.  They're all black and white, but some of them turned out pretty good.  I guess it helps when you have a cute subject!!!

Crawling around getting dirty

Waving to someone going by

Love her face in this one!

I went to the new nail "spa" across from Lincoln Square today and it's really nice!  They had a lot of people working, so I was able to get right in.  They have a menu of all the different pedicures they offer.  It was pretty cool.  I'm definately going to be going back there.  Another bonus is they're open on Sunday's.  The other two nail places aren't open on Sunday, so I'm sure the new one is packed on any given Sunday, but at least we have one open in Jacksonville now!

We have a busy weekend coming up.  Mom and Mark are getting married! 

Learning to share

When it comes to sharing, Ainsley has a lot to learn.  Alaina brought supper over for us last night and Hadlee came with her.  Hadlee liked all of Ainsley's toys, but Ainsley didn't like Hadlee playing with them.  In fact, every time Hadlee would start playing with one, Ainsley would drop what she was doing and run over and take the toy away from Hadlee.  Hadlee didn't seem to care, but I still felt bad for her.  I know one day she'll get Ainsley back.  Joel thought it was funny to torture Ainsley with Hadlee.  He would pick Hadlee up and then tell Ainsley to look at him with Hadlee in his arms.  Of course, that didn't make Ainsley very happy.   I love how my husband likes to torture his daughter...

My daughter...the bully

I LOVE Hadlee's face in this one.  She's thinking:  get that crazy girl away from me!

This is as good as it gets for a picture of both of them

Hadlee and the sock monkey having a stare down

Ainsley loves to dance in the middle of our bed and the other night was no exception.  I'm just glad she no longer dances on our bed in the middle of the night while we're trying to sleep!!

I found a few more purses of Ainsley's in a drawer the other day, which made for a happy girl!  I also had to try on some of her shoes to see which ones would fit for this fall/winter, since we're almost out of flip flop weather.  She's in between a size 6 and 7 right now, but I was lucky enough to find a few pairs that will fit her now and then some for later on this winter that we already had in her closet.  She loved trying on all the shoes and sat good while I tried them all on her.  She especially loved the new Wee Squeek shoes I got her, but they're still a little big, since they're a size 7.  She would run around the house stomping her feet so the shoes would squeek.  She hasn't had her pair of squeek shoes for a few months now, so it's like they're a new thing again!

We went outside this afternoon for a little bit, and Ainsley wanted to swing.  I tried to take her picture, but every time I get the camera out now, she starts crying and throws her hands in front of her face!

Here's a short video that shows the life of an 18 month old.  She had my phone this evening while we were outside and I was trying to video her earlier.  I had no idea that she got my phone turned on and had started the video, but I just have to laugh after watching it.  Wilma had come over to see what all the dust was about in the air (they were doing something on the baseball field behind our house) and started getting Ainsley's toes.  At one point, Ainsley was bent over getting Wilma's toes (who had on sandals), and after she was done with one foot, she had to get the toes on the other foot!  Ainsley sure likes Wilma!

Visit to Prompt Care

What did people do before Prompt Care?  I guess kids just suffered through the weekend until they could be seen by the doctor on Monday?  I have to say that we love the Prompt Care in Jacksonville.  It seems like Ainsley always starts to get sick or needs to go to the doctor on the weekends.  This afternoon, she was still stuffy and started pulling on her ear, so Joel and I decided to go ahead and take her in to Prompt Care to have her ears checked out.  We've never waited more than 5-10 minutes there, and we've always had a good experience.  They got us right in this evening.  The nurse wanted to get Ainsley's weight, but Ainsley refused to stand on the scale for her.  She didn't want the nurse to touch her at all!  As soon as the nurse went over to the computer and stopped messing with Ainsley, that's when Ainsley decided she wanted down.  Where was the first place she went?  Over to the scale, of course!  The nurse just laughed at her.  For the record, she weighed 28 pounds.

Ainsley continued to run all around the room and hop on all the blue floor tiles.  Most of the tiles were white, but she liked going over the blue ones and stomping on them.  Of course, once we got into the exam room, she acted like nothing was wrong, as if she felt just fine.

I'm so glad we went ahead and took her in.  The doctor said one of her ears looked red and it was turning into an ear infection.  Seriously...another ear infection?!?!  So, we got a prescription for amoxicillin and hope that we kick it in the butt now and it doesn't get any worse.

We picked up a Happy Meal for Ainsley and Chinese for us on the way home and we're hoping to have an un-eventful rest of the weekend at home.

Purses galore!

We had a rough night on Wednesday.  Ainsley's nose started running on Wednesday morning, and she had been cranky the night before.  When we got home Wednesday night from my Mom's, she was an absolute bear.  Her nose had really started running and she was sneezing like crazy.  Every time she would fall asleep, she would wake herself back up coughing from the drainage.  I finally got her in the crib around 11, but she was back up an hour later standing up and screaming.  I knew she felt bad, and I felt bad for her, so I brought her back into bed with us.  She had been doing so good, sleeping in her crib for the last two weeks, and I hated bringing her in our bed for the night, but thought she needed her Mommy for the night.  Well, it ended up being a very rough night for all of us, with noone getting much sleep. 

Another bottom molar is starting to pop through, so I'm assuming that's why she's so stuffy.  She usually gets a runny nose with each new tooth.  I'm just hoping that it doesn't lead to an ear infection this time.  It seems like every time she gets a runny nose, she gets an ear infection to go along with it.

Speaking of her runny nose,  Ainsley has learned to blow her nose.   If you put a kleenex up to her nose and tell her to blow her nose, she blows out through her mouth.  We've told her to "blow" on her food before to cool it off, so I guess that's where she's getting it from, but it is so funny!  You'll see the kleenex come up off her face from her "blowing".   

Ainsley loves dressing up with bracelets, purses, and hats.  The other morning she had to have every purse she owns on her arm and then wanted her hat on her head.  She walked around the house carrying all those purses for quite a while before dropping them!

It's going to be a lazy weekend at the Freeman house and I hope it consists of a lot of sleeping, and hopefully Ainsley is feeling better in the next few days.

Catching up...

Where have the last few weeks gone?  I don't know what we've been doing, but we've certainly been keeping busy.  Joel started getting some corn out of the fields on Thursday, and continued into Friday.  The elevator was closed over the weekend, so lucky for us, he was home and able to spend some time with us.  It certainly isn't going to be a good year with the crops, but I guess you have good and bad years.  We got a little bit of relief from the hot temperatures late last week and it was in the upper 70's one day and even got down into the 50's during the night.  It was nice to be able to get the windows opened up for a few days and let the house air out.  Of course, we had to shut them again yesterday afternoon before the road crew started working on the road again today behind our house.  I'll be so glad when the road is completed and I can open our windows again (and not have to deal with the loud noises, dust, three way stop, 45 mph speed zone, and the flaggers).

Last Sunday, Ainsley and I went to Hannah's 1/2 birthday cookout.  I can't believe she's already 6 months old, and is such a happy baby!  Callie had little pools out for the kids to play in, and Ainsley loved them, although she kept falling while trying to get in and out.  She only came home with a few scrapes and bruises.  As soon as Ainsley got in the pool, Madilynn had to love on her.  Ainsley usually gives hugs and kisses right back, but she wasn't too keen on it that day.

Hannah even got in the pool for a little bit and loved to splash and watch the other kids run around.


Hannah 6 months enjoying the water

Ainsley didn't want to sit and eat supper, but instead wanted to go up and down the deck steps and run all over, so we didn't stay long.  I think she was asleep before we even got a mile down the road, and was one wore out baby after playing outside and running around!

All the girls in the pool...Ainsley, Madie, Hannah, and Reese

I got Ainsley's quilt out the other day after Ainsley fell asleep to lay her on the floor while she took her nap, and she loves to play with it now.  She'll drag it around and try to lay on it herself, although she's usually just laying on the carpet beside the blanket.

Her newest thing, especially with the pictures on her quilt, is to ask "What's that?"  It's so funny to watch her say it, because she doesn't say the "What is" part, it's only "That?".  And, she says it while pointing to the picture.  I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Ainsley doesn't use her pointer finger to point to things, but rather uses her thumb.  It's so cute to watch her say "That?" and point using her thumb to a picture.  I love these quirky little things about her!

Speaking of quirky things...I walked into the living room the other day to find Ainsley laying on the floor with her toes in her mouth.  Really?!  Here's a video of her with her toes in her mouth.

Since it cooled off last week, we were able to go outside again.  I've been keeping Ainsley inside because it's been so hot outside.  Ainsley loved it!  We've went for a couple of walks during the past week, and she likes to reach out and touch the grass in one of the yards we pass.  The grass is really tall, and the people should really cut it, but Ainsley seems to like it and will hang her arm out of her car and touch it while we walk by.

Touching all the grass....

While playing outside the other day, the phone started ringing in the house and Ainsley heard it.  She immediately put her hand up to her ear and started "talking on the phone."  In this video, you can hear her say "hello", "daddy", and then "joel" and "trista".  She still walks around the house yelling "Joel" and "Trista" throughout the day and very rarely calls us Mommy or Daddy.

Another new thing she's just started doing in the last week is leaving her sunglasses on.  In the past, she would leave them on for a few seconds at a time, but she's been doing really good about leaving them on and will even ask for them when we get in the car.  Now, if only she'd do the same with bows...

Having a snack

LOVE how she always has her pinky finger up while eating....so proper!

One of Ainsley's favorite toys outside is her bucket and shovel.  She likes to run laps around the house, and will usually have the bucket and shovel in her hands while doing it.  The landscaping rocks are also fun to scoop up with her shovel and then she likes to dump all the rocks out of the bucket once she's scooped some in.

Keeping tabs on our street is also a fun thing to do.  She's started waving to everyone as they drive by and yelling "bye-bye" to them.  For living on a dead end street, our street is still pretty busy with all the guys coming and going to Brockhouse's, so she gets plenty of action throughout the day.

Grandma Bowman was admitted to Passavant last week, and Ainsley and I went over to see her one night.  Mom was also there visiting before starting her shift for the night, and both Grandmas were happy to see Ainsley.  I knew we probably wouldn't be able to stay long, since I had a busy 18 month old with me, and I was right.   Ainsley was getting into everything (well, I guess it could have been worse, but it was bad enough).  She managed to dump the diaper bag, and then liked Grandma's purse.  I don't know how many times she ran into a machine at the end of the bed or how many tears were shed over running into the thing.  Needless to say, it was a short visit!

Ainsley has discovered ketchup and thinks she has to dip everything in it.  Which, mainly consists of dipping her finger in it and licking it off, and occasionally dipping food in it.

Yummy ketchup!

Powdered doughnuts are so good

She doesn't like for her banana to be cut up anymore. 

Here's a video of Ainsley sleep-eating from last week.

We've had a huge accomplishment over the last week or so.  I can officially say that Ainsley is now sleeping in her crib all night!  It is wonderful (although, I do miss snuggling with her at night).  The first few nights we put her in the crib, she woke up 2-4 times crying, but would eventually go back to sleep.  Joel and I each got up a few times to go get her, or try to calm her down, because we couldn't take any more, only to reach our doorway and stop because she had finally fallen back asleep.  She's even sleeping in longer in the morning.  For a few weeks, she was getting up between 5-6, and now she's been sleeping until 6:30-7:30.  She's even sleeping in her crib at nap time, which is nice. 

Someone wasn't very happy after waking up!

Pouty face

Ever since we got back from vacation, it seems like Ainsley needs to play with my hair more than ever.  Every time she drinks from her sippy cup, she has to play with my hair.  She will literally reach as far as she can if we're both sitting on the couch to play with my hair.  Even Lisa said she's noticed that Ainsley's been wanting to play with her hair more than usual lately.  (For the record, I'm so happy that we have a sitter that lets my baby play with her hair!!)  I don't know if she just really missed me the few days I was gone or what, but it seemed like I couldn't do anything because every time I turned around, Ainsley needed my hair.  So, being the good Mommy that I am, I googled the issue.  It turns out there are lots of babies (including myself when I was younger) that uses hair as a type of security blanket.  One suggestion was to get a baby doll (or other stuffed toy with hair) and let the child play with it while falling asleep.  So, off to Walmart we went in search of a baby doll with hair.  Ainsley loved walking through the toy aisle and looking at all the toys.  As soon as I handed her a baby with hair, she immediately started playing with the baby's hair while in the box, so I thought this little trick just may work.  Unfortunately, once we got the baby home and out of the box, it didn't quite match Mommy's hair, and I still had to let Ainsley play with my hair to fall asleep.  Ainsley does, however, like the baby and the little brush that came along with it.

This is what I get when I ask her where her teeth are.

Brushing her baby's hair

Brushing her hair

This past weekend was Chapin Big Country Days, with the parade on Saturday morning.  We walked up town to watch it, and Ainsley seemed to enjoy it.  She liked getting the bead necklaces and knew just what to do with them.

Ready to head to the parade

Ainsley and Daddy watching the parade

We went over to Jim and Rita's later that afternoon, and was entertained by Drake.  I don't know where that kid comes up with half the stuff that comes out of his mouth, but he sure is a funny little guy.  One of my favorite quotes of the day was when Rita came out of the bathroom after her shower.  She was in her robe and her hair was still wet, and when Drake saw her, he said:  "Look at that fancy lady!"  Oh, how I love that kid!

We finally went over to Jeremy and Kathleen's Saturday night to take Jack his birthday present.  We were only a few weeks late!  Ainsley loved playing with the Mardi Gras beads and bracelets at Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Kathleen's!

Ainsley didn't get too far out of Lani's sight, and if she did, Lani was sure to run over and get her.  I think Ainsley only got tired of it a few times and would swat at Lani's hand!

Kathleen had a yard sale earlier that day and the couch and loveseat that was for sale hadn't been moved back into the garage.  Joel made himself right at home in the driveway.

The boys thought they could help Joel move the couch, but I don't think they were able to lift it even an inch off the ground!

I wanted to take Ainsley to the State Fair yesterday, but Joel wasn't having any of it.  Instead, we headed over to Lowe's for a little shopping and then a trip to Washington Park.  I wanted to let Ainsley feed the ducks, but we couldn't figure out how to get back to where the ducks were, since most of the park was shut off for runners.  We let Ainsley play at the playground and in the big sand box instead.  She loved going down the slides and running around.  Once she found the big sand box, it was all over.  She didn't want to leave it!  We had a little temper tantrum when we did finally leave, but it didn't last very long.  I think we need to get her a little sandbox, because sister loved it!

Joel needed gloves, so we stopped at Farm and Home before heading home.  I was hungry, and Funyons sounded good, so I grabbed a bag before checking out.  Ainsley had a few Funyons the day before at Grandma and Grandpa's, and liked them, so I handed her some on the way home.  I looked back after handing her one, and she was trying to put it on her wrist like a bracelet.  She's such a diva, funyon bracelets and all!

Here's some pictures of Ainsley with her baby.  She likes giving it her sippy cup and pushing it around in the stroller, however she isn't the nicest when putting it in and taking it out of the stroller!