The dreaded flu

It hasn't been a good week at the Freeman house, so this is going to be a quick post and hopefully I can catch up with the blog next week.  We've all been sick with the flu and I'm happy to say that we're all finally on the mend.  I still don't have much of an appetite, but was able to finally eat something yesterday.  I hadn't been able to eat since Saturday night.  Ainsley doesn't seem to have much of an appetite either, and Joel's getting his back.

There was A LOT of laying on the couch this week

Ainsley has learned one new thing in the past week.....how to flip the laundry basket over and stand on top of it.  We try to ignore her, but she thinks she's pretty funny!

I just have to note that right after this picture, we had a major diaper blowout, complete with diarrhea all over.  You would never guess she didn't feel good.

10 year class reunion

My 10 year class reunion was Saturday evening.  Thinking I've been out of high school for ten years already makes me feel old, but not as old as my husband, who is quickly closing in on his twenty year reunion! 

I'm very pleased to say that I haven't changed a bit since my senior year.  I'm still as skinny as ever.  HA!  I wish!!!

We had 38 in our graduating class, but only 12 showed up for the reunion.

Class of 2002

10 years later...Joe Spiro, Jon Spiro, Tyler Huson, JT Thompson, Adam Butcher, Justin Dambacher, Josh Craig, Nikki Murphy, Me, Alaina Hallock, Ashlee Newberry, and Jennifer Smith

The reunion was at the Waverly park and kids were invited. 

Drake Smith, Hadlee Hallock, Ainsley, Kane and Kasten Newberry

It was good to see everyone that showed up, but I think I'll be leaving Ainsley at home for the next reunion so I can actually visit!


Volleyball Seniors

Ainsley and Hadlee loved the playground. 

We weren't even there five minutes and Ainsley took a dive in the mulch on the playground.  She was running over to me, and everyone saw her fall then get up and brush the dirt off of her and keep going.  I didn't realize how bad the fall was until I got closer to her later on.  Her face was all scratched up!  She sure is one tough little girl, and luckily most of the scratches were gone the next morning.

Follow up doctor's appointment

Did I mention how much I hate ear infections last week?  Well, hate doesn't even begin to describe how I feel toward them.  We took Ainsley to see Dr. Johnston yesterday for her follow up appointment to make sure the ear infections were gone.  Surely the second dose of an antibiotic would have taken out this dang ear infection that has been hanging around for almost a month now, but it didn't.  Ainsley still has an ear infection in her right ear. 

We got yet another antibiotic yesterday for this ear infection.  This will be our third antibiotic for this one.  I'm always worried with new antibiotics because of the reaction Ainsley had to one when she had her first ear infection.  She had terrible diarrhea, which led to a terrible diaper rash that lasted the entire ten days she was on it.  Well, we're back in that situation again this time.  The diarrhea started this morning, and her butt was already looking terrible by noon.  I'm talking about a bright red butt covered in bumps.  Every time I take Ainsley's diaper off, she screams and whimpers while trying to touch her butt.  I'm guessing it itches and burns.  I feel so bad for her, and it's going to be a very long ten days for all of us. 

I called the doctor this afternoon to get a prescription for diaper rash ointment, and they think it's a yeast infection by the way I described it.  I ran into Walgreens tonight to pick up the ointment and am hoping it helps relieve some of the pain.

I was packing the diaper bag for Lisa's tomorrow and turned around to see this!  She had to put her teddy bear in with her.

Ainsley's done quite a few cute things the last few days.  She has to tell everything "bye-bye".  If she's sitting in her high chair eating, and I ask her if she's done, she has to look down at her food and tell it bye-bye while waving to it.  The first time she did it, I literally laughed out loud!  She also has to tell the bath water bye-bye while it's going down the drain and I'm getting her out of the tub.  Every car that goes by our house gets a wave with bye-bye, every other customer in Walgreens, Walmart, or wherever else we may be, the girl working the McDonald's drive thru...the list goes on.  She doesn't discriminate against anything or anyone.  I tell her we're leaving, so I need to shut Mickey Mouse off, and she has to tell Mickey on the tv bye-bye.

Watching Daddy mow the yard

Since Joel's back in the fields again this week, I'm on my own with Ainsley.  The past few nights when I get out of the shower, Ainsley will come in and play in the bathroom while I get dressed.  Ainsley thinks she needs the lotion when I get it out to put it on my legs.  I put a little on her hands for her and tell her to rub it into her legs.  She does pretty good with it, but isn't a happy camper when I put it up.  I put my leg up on the countertop to put the lotion on my calves and she tries sticking her leg up on the counter, too.  She is little miss monkey-see-monkey-do!  Yesterday morning I was brushing my teeth and Ainsley was beside me getting her toothbrush and toothpaste out of the drawer.  She squatted down beside me with the tube of toothpaste in her hand and I feel the tube of toothpaste push against my leg.  The next thing I know she puts the tube of toothpaste down and starts rubbing on my leg.  I think she was pretending to put lotion on my legs.  I just chuckled to myself and let her do it.  She had to do it a couple times, too.  She would press the toothpaste against my leg and then rub her hands on my leg and repeat the process.

Like father; like daughter

She's really discovered how to climb and does it all the time.  Blaine (who also goes to Lisa's) is responsible for this activity.  He climbs on everything, and has for a long time.  I'll walk into Lisa's to find Blaine climbing in one of the dining room chairs so that he can then climb onto the top of the dining room table.   Ainsley follows Blaine all around every day and likes to do everything he does.  I've caught her climbing on the bookshelf in my office, the end tables in the living room, dining room chairs, and the latest is the pantry shelves. 

Today was a "hat" kind of day.  At one point, she had three hats on her head at one time.  She definitely likes to dress up.  Hats, shoes, bracelets, necklaces, rings, are all fun to play with. 

Big floppy hat and a tractor

Ainsley thinks she's big stuff when she drinks out of a straw.  She gets so excited when I let her do it, and doesn't want to give it up.

Ear infections can go far, far away

We had another nice visit with Dr. Raj at Prompt Care last night and found out Ainsley has a double ear infection.  I don't think she ever got over her last ear infection, and I know we waited way too long to take her to get it checked out.  It's just so hard to tell when her ears bother her.  She's been cranky and not eating much for the last week or so and Joel and I mentioned maybe we should take her to Prompt Care last Friday, but decided we would wait until Saturday to see if she was still cranky.  She acts fine most of the day, but there are times when she's a bear.  After pulling at her ears again yesterday morning on the way to Lisa's, Joel thought we should take her.

I tried calling her regular pediatrician to get an appointment with her today, but of course, she's out on Friday's and the physician's assistant is out this week also.  I didn't care for the nurse practiononer in the office, and they couldn't guarantee me an appointment with her anyway for today when I called yesterday.  They said I had to call back in at 8 AM this morning to see if they could get Ainsley in at that time. 

I decided I wasn't messing around trying to get into a nurse practiononer and not even knowing for sure if she would be able to see Ainsley tomorrow, so we headed to Prompt Care last night.  I'm seriously so glad there's one in Jacksonville.  We saw Dr. Raj, who we've seen a few times before, and I really like him.  Ainsley doesn't fight him too much and he's quick.  As soon as he looked in her first ear he replied with "Yep, she's got an ear infection".  Then the same with the other ear.  We're on a different antibiotic this time, Z-pak,  which is only 5 days instead of the 10 days for the other we've been on in the past. 

I feel like a horrible parent for not taking her sooner.  I'll be glad when she's old enough to let me know when something hurts.  I even asked Lisa yesterday if she thought Ainsley was acting different and Lisa just said that she'd been chewing on everything, but didn't think she'd been pulling at her ears.  I.HATE.EAR.INFECTIONS.

We have an appointment on Tuesday morning with Dr. Johnston to follow up and make sure her ears are looking better.

We stopped at Steak N Shake before going to Prompt Care for some supper, and Ainsley was really good.  She sat in the booth with Daddy and colored and played with her pig and kitty cat until the food came.  Of course, I forgot a sippy cup (Mother of the Year award, I know), so she had to drink out of a cup and straw, which she loved!  We finally had to take it away because she wouldn't eat anything. 

While we were waiting on our prescription, we decided blizzards from Dairy Queen sounded good.  I got an Oreo blizzard, and Ainsley couldn't get enough of it.  As soon as I would take the spoon out of her mouth, she was ready for another bite.  She's never really cared for sweets before, but the last few weeks have been a different story!

Playing outside

It was really nice out yesterday afternoon, so Ainsley and I took advantage of it.  She loves being outside, and once we're out, likes to take control.  Wherever Ainsley goes, is where I go.  Whatever Ainsley wants to do, is what we do.  She remembered that the slide we brought home from Abby's was in the back yard and ran around the house to it. 

She'll climb up great, but then gets "stuck" at the top and refuses to sit down and go down the slide.  Once she gets to the top, she starts whining and reaches her arms out to me until I go over and get her.  If I sit her down and make her go down the slide, she throws a little fit.  Hopefully we can work on that in the next few weeks and she'll be able to do it on her own in no time!

Once she saw her swing, it was all over.  She got in it and didn't want to get out.  I think I pushed  her in the swing for at least 45 minutes and she still didn't want to get out when I finally took her out of it. 

Ainsley still walks around the house saying "Trista-Joel".  Lisa says she walks around her house all day saying it, and I notice it the most when Joel isn't with me and I'm with Ainsley by myself.  I don't think she understands that I'm "Trista" and Daddy is "Joel".  For the past few weeks, if she says "Trista-Joel", I'll respond by asking her "Where is Daddy?"  Then I'll tell her he's in the tractor.  So, in the past week or so, she's started saying "Trista-Joel" and as soon as she gets the "Joel" out she'll throw her arms in the air, as if to ask "Where is he?"  It is the funniest thing.  I've been trying to get it on video, but of course, she stops doing it as soon as she sees the camera.

Where's Daddy???

Another new things she's started doing is putting her hands in front of her mouth when laughing hard.  It is the cutest thing ever! 

Something was funny!

If I'm at my desk working, Ainsley wants to be on my lap.  I've been letting her write while sitting on my lap while I work.  She knows she can have all the pens (as long as she's on my lap) and write on the paper.  She's really into coloring and writing right now.  Pens, pencils, crayons, chalk, anything she can find, she'll scribble with.

Writing while Mommy works

Writing in her book outside

Her vocabulary expands every day.  Some of her new works are: "Mickey", "blast off", "thank you", "please", "Tanner", "cack cack (for quack quack)", and lots of babbling.  She also likes to talk on the phone (the real phone).  She's getting better about not pressing the buttons and actually talking on it.  My favorite new word that she's learned is "meow".  If you ask her what the kitty says, she'll respond "eow-m".  She puts the "m" at the end of the word instead of at the beginning.  I crack up every time she says it.  No matter how much I emphasize the "m" at the beginning, she still puts the "m" at the end. 

Peek-a-boo!

I introduced Ainsley to Oreos this week and she doesn't like it when you tell her she can't have any more.  It didn't help that the afternoon I took the picture, she was also tired, but she threw a fit when I told her no more Oreos.

Weekend fun!

We had another birthday party this past weekend.  J.D. turned three!  Although, if you asked him, he still only held up two fingers.  It's going to take a while to get used to being another year older and another finger to hold up!!!


I'm "2", Mom! (I'm really 3)

J.D. doesn't like for you to sing to him, so we couldn't sing "Happy Birthday".  Instead, we all just told him "Happy Birthday" while he blew out his candles.  Of course, he had to try to take a bite out of the cake when he thought noone was looking!  (He gets that from his mother).


Noone will notice if I take a moutful of icing right about....here!

He got lots of cool presents, and it was fun to watch him open them.  He would rip a little of the paper off and then try to look inside to see if he could tell what it was.  I think his favorite presents were his new bike and new train.

Daddy showing JD how to pedal

His smile says it all!  He was one happy boy!!!

Of course, Ainsley really liked his new train also, and only got caught playing with it a few times by the birthday boy! 

BUSTED!!  The birthday boy wanted his train back!

We have tried to show Ainsley how to climb up a slide before and then sit down to go down it, but she didn't quite get it.  J.D. had a little slide, and after just a few times showing Ainsley what to do, she got the hang of it.  Although, she didn't fully understand that she needed to sit down to go down the slide, but we didn't have any major falls, so that was good. 

Aunt Sudi helping Ainsley

Can't I just walk down the slide?!

She would clap for herself and then look around at everyone when she landed on her butt at the bottom of the slide to make sure everyone else saw her and clapped.   She's such a ham!

We ended up bringing the slide home with us.  JD got a new swingset for his birthday, and didn't play with that one any more.  My car was full on the way home!

Clint, Brayden, and JD

Me, Ainsley, Abby, and JD

It had been a few months since we had seen Dad's family, and I know everyone enjoyed seeing Ainsley.  As soon as we got there, we had to go into the garage so Ainsley could have her presents.  I thought we were going for J.D.'s birthday party, not so Ainsley could get gifts!  She sure is one lucky little girl to have such great Aunts!  She got all kinds of cool new toys and it was like Christmas morning to her when we got home.  She couldn't wait to play with all of it!

Playing with her new baby bottles

She actually knew what to do with the "punch" balloon and was pretty good with it!

Riding on one of JD's toys

Look at my new hat, Mommy!

She LOVES the megaphone.  Future cheerleader on our hands?!  Mommy will be no help there!

She would squint her eyes every time she shook the pom pom

These are fun!

I've already found numerous things stuffed in this suitcase. I need to remember to check in it the next time we're missing something.

We left Abby and Gabe's and headed to the field to ride with Daddy in the tractor.  I haven't been able to get Ainsley out to the field yet this fall.  The last time she rode in the tractor, which was in the spring, she didn't last very long.  Joel and I both were pleasantly surprised with how well she did.  She sat on Daddy's lap like a champ and didn't bother the steering wheel or controls (too much). 

She wouldn't take her necklace off or let go of her pig and kitty (in her hands)!

She liked looking at all the corn.  Joel points out all the corn fields on their way to Lisa's every morning, so Ainsley has gotten pretty good at saying "corn".

After an afternoon full of excitement, Ainsley was one tired little girl.  It was an early night to bed for her!

Quit taking my picture, Mom.

C'mon, Daddy

It's hard walking through the corn.

Daddy to the rescue

Waving bye-bye

I met a few friends for breakfast Sunday morning in Modesto, and since Joel was still in the fields, Ainsley came along.  She was better than I thought she would be and did pretty good while we ate.  Ainsley didn't eat anything, but a few bites of her waffle, but she enjoyed watching the people and coloring while Alaina, Ashlee, and I talked.

Ainsley and I went to Dad's after we ate breakfast.  It ended up being a lazy Sunday and Ainsley enjoyed playing with Grandpa and Uncle Tanner.  She got up at 5:15 Sunday morning and only napped from Jacksonville to Modesto that morning, so she was very tired early afternoon.  I tried laying in Tanner's bed with her so she would fall asleep, but she thought jumping on the bed was more fun than falling asleep.  It also didn't help that Uncle Tanner was playing peek a boo with her from the other room (without Mommy knowing).  So, we headed back out to the living room without a nap.   I decided to go ahead and fix her lunch since she wasn't going to fall asleep.  I was in the kitchen for five minutes and walked back out to let Ainsley know her lunch was ready and she was asleep on Dad's lap!  I laid with her for fifteen minutes and the little stinker didn't fall asleep and a few minutes on Grandpa's lap and she was out cold! 

I was able to witness something at Dad's over the weekend that I never, in a million years, thought I would see.  Tanner was reading a book.  Let me repeat that:  Tanner.was.reading.a.book.  And, no, it wasn't a book for school.  It was a book just because he wanted to read.  By the time we left Sunday afternoon, he only had a few pages left in the book and he had started it on Thursday.  Man, oh man, I still wonder if my eyes were deceiving me.

We couldn't leave Grandpa's without a banana.  She had to shove it ALL in her mouth!