Two

Ainsley-

Where have the last two years gone??  It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital getting ready to bring you home with snow covering the ground!  I can't believe how much love and joy you've brought to our lives.  What did we ever do without you??  You make us laugh every day and are turning into a little girl.  Daddy said a few weeks ago that you're no longer our baby, but rather, our little girl now. 

You love: going bye-bye, your jewelry, baby doll, Mickey Mouse, Little Einsteins, Mommy's hair, puzzles, reading books, balloons, playing in the basement, and wide open spaces to run.  You don't walk anywhere you go, but rather run. 

You've started telling Mommy and Daddy "no-no" with a shake of your finger.  I think it's your favorite thing to say right now.  You only want Daddy to change your diaper or clothes, and if Mommy asks to do it, you tell her "no-no" while shaking your little finger. 

You still don't eat very good, and refuse to eat meat.  If you get even a little bit of any kind of meat in your mouth, you immediately spit it out.  You'll occasionally eat a few bites of a chicken nugget or a cheeseburger from McDonald's, but that's it in the meat department.  You love fruit, bread, cheese, milk, cookies, suckers, crackers, macaroni and cheese, chips and french fries.  You also think you're big stuff when you get a capri sun or juice box. 

I got some sandwich cookies the other night and gave you one (which you were very excited about).  I'm assuming Lisa gives them to you, because you haven't had an Oreo here in a few months.  You immediately ripped the cookie in two, put down the side that didn't have the icing on it, and lifted the side that did have icing on it to your mouth where you proceeded to lick the icing off!  We cracked up!  We can only guess you've seen the other kids at Lisa's do this.  You refused to then eat the side without icing, but instead, wanted another cookie to start the process over.  I think we ended up with 3 half cookies with no icing when we were done.

You've started trying to figure things out on your own and are becoming very independent.  You want to take your own shoes off, and get mad if we try to help.  You've also figured out you can unzip your pajamas and have started looking at buttons and snaps.

You're very ornery.  You think it's funny to tell us your name is "girl" instead of Ainsley, call Daddy "Joel" instead of Daddy, and put pieces of puzzles in the wrong spot.  You know exactly what you're doing with all of them and only do it to be a little stinker.  You'll laugh after you do something you know isn't right.

You've started opening the closet doors in the office and closing yourself in.  Once you get the door closed, you sit down on a file box and just giggle in there.  We have to ask "where did Ainsley go" before you'll come out.  Of course, Mommy worries about you smashing your fingers, but it will only take a couple of times doing it before you learn your lesson!

Getting ready to hide

You love music and dancing.  You've even started to sing along to your new "favorite" song and the songs off of Mickey and Little Einsteins.

Your 2T clothes are starting to get snug, so we're transitioning to 3T clothes now.  The 3T pants are still way too long, but we need it for the waist!  You're in size 7 shoes, but they're also getting snug and I'll be ordering some new size 8's this week. 

You jabber all the time, but we can't understand most of it.  There are only a few words that we can understand, and those are:

Mom, Trista-Joel, Tanner, Papa, Grandma, cookie, girl, Lisa, bye bye, please, thank you, poop, shoes, boots, apple, yeah, no, mickey, blast off, balloon, ball, truck, car, corn.  You know just about every sound an animal makes, but won't actually say the name of the animal yet. 

You keep us on our toes, and we love every minute of it.  Happy 2nd birthday Ainsley-bug!!!

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Ainsley's birthday was actually on Friday, but I've been swamped and haven't had time to update.  She woke up Friday morning to the living room covered in balloons!  I don't know how Joel had any oxygen left in him Thursday night.  It took him an hour to blow them all up!

I had a doctor's appointment that morning, so we all headed up to Springfield. 

Mommy and the birthday girl

Love when we catch her little teeth in a smile!

Joel took the day off, and we took Ainsley to Chuckie Cheese for lunch after my appointment.  Jim, Jennifer, and Drake all met us up there.  While we waited for our food, Ainsley ran around and played some games.  She loved every minute of it.  That is, until our pizza came and I made her sit down to eat lunch.  She didn't want to sit down and eat, and only ate one bite of pizza.  She was having too much fun running around, watching people, and playing games!

Ainsley and Papa Jim

She loved the little frog game where you had to push the buttons to make the balls fly

Drake and Jennifer having fun

Ainsley's wondering if she can get up yet and go play....

While we were eating, Chuckie (the mouse) came out of the back.  We all told her to look, and at first she seemed excited.  That is, until the mouse started walking toward her.  She immediately started inching more and more toward Joel the closer the mouse got to her.  She didn't want anything to do with it!  Of course, that was all Joel needed to pester her for the rest of the day.  Every time Ainsley would do something she shouldn't, Joel would bring up the mouse.  Ainsley would stop in her tracks and look around for it.  Poor thing!!!

That is what happened when you told her the mouse was coming...major meltdown!

I think everyone loved playing skee ball.  Most of our tokens and time was spent there! 

Check out the "Freeman" follow through

Just helping Daddy...

Ainsley thought she was big stuff, and would try to throw the ball up the ramp.  I'm talking about literally throwing the ball!  It would hit off the metal every time and make a loud noise.  She enjoyed it, though.  Then, she decided it was fun to help Daddy.  She would hand Joel each ball before he would roll it up the ramp.  She also tried crawling up the ramp, and running over to the side and literally putting the balls under the plastic at the top to make it go in.  I'm so glad it wasn't crowded in there and she could run around and pretty much do whatever she wanted!

Drake wanted all of Uncle Joel's tickets and wouldn't put them down once he got them!

Thanks to Joel for winning a ton of tickets at skee ball, Ainsley and Drake were able to pick out a few toys (or junk).  It's okay, though, since they had fun. 

Ready to pick out their prizes

Before we left, I wanted to get Ainsley back on a car ride where the machine takes your picture.  I had tried putting her on it while we were waiting for our lunch, but as soon as it started moving, she freaked out and tried getting out of it.  You can barely see her face in the corner of the first picture.  So, I decided to get both Drake and Ainsley in the car and put Ainsley on the inside, so Drake was trapping her from getting out.  The camera captured exactly how Ainsley felt about that ride.  She hated it and wanted off!!!  I still crack up looking at the picture of her standing up, holding on, screaming and crying while Drake just sits there!

Our time at Chuckie Cheese was a success and the birthday girl had fun!  (Except for Joel telling her the mouse was coming every five minutes, and me sticking her on the car with the mouse in it)

Mommy and Daddy with the birthday girl

We headed home that afternoon and there were flowers waiting for Ainsley when she got home from my boss!  We opened up the box, and there was a lady bug flower pot cover with flowers to go inside.  Ainsley's eyes got great big as soon as she saw the lady bug and leaned down to sniff the flowers!  She didn't understand why she couldn't carry them around with her and why I made her just look at them sitting on the counter.


Wow!  Flowers!!!

She also had birthday cards come in the mail, and had fun ripping them open.  She got her first birthday card the day before from Aunt Bessie, who had sent money.  Ainsley's been eyeing her piggy bank that's on top of her dresser for a month or so now, but since it's glass, I won't let her even touch it.  I did get it down after we opened her birthday card, and I let her put the money in it.  She was excited at first, but once she dropped the money in it, and didn't have any more, she quickly got mad.  Things really heated up when I told her we had to put the piggy bank back on her dresser and she couldn't play with it.  I'm telling you, the problems toddlers have are just terrible!

Before the meltdown, when putting the money in was still "fun"

We had been home long enough to open the flowers and birthday cards that came in the mail, when the phone rang.  It was our neighbor, Wilma, who wanted to bring a birthday card over for Ainsley.  My daughter isn't the least bit spoiled!  She sure has a lot of people that think she's pretty great!  Wilma even got a few hugs out of Ainsley and was able to see how much she's grown the last few months.  We don't see her very often now that it's cold outside.

After an eventful day, Ainsley was exhausted.  She ended up crashing around 5 that evening for a little bit. 

While she slept, I ran into town to get her some cupcakes for her birthday, because every little girl needs to be able to blow out candles on her birthday, right?  She was excited about the cupcake, candles, and us singing Happy Birthday to her.  She knew just what to do with the candles, and blew them out.  I think she learned that from the Mickey episode where Minnie blows out her birthday candles!  She then asked for more, so I had to re light the candles again.  The second time, she wanted to touch the flame, and didn't understand why she couldn't, so of course, we had a meltdown and that was the end of blowing out candles!

She didn't stay interested in the cupcake for very long, and asked for some Doritos instead (one of her favorites at the moment). 

I think Ainsley ended up having a pretty good birthday.  I know she was one wore out little girl!