Easter with the Freeman's

We had Easter lunch today with the Freeman's.  Ainsley had a good lunch and then went out for an Easter egg hunt.  She found a few eggs.  She was more interested in what everyone else and the dogs were doing than the actual eggs.

I found an egg!

I'll just stand here and chew on it and watch everyone else!

It was so nice outside.  On our way home, my car said it was 84.  She still didn't like touching the grass, so we tried to stay on the concrete as much as possible.

Sue had some pretty flowers in her flower bed that were blooming, so I had to get some pictures of Ainsley bug in front of them.

Get me outta here!

I don't want to touch anything....

Maybe I like this flower...

Ainsley actually walked this afternoon while holding onto my hands and then walked with me and Rita for quite a while.  She would never walk with anyone before, only walking with a walker or taking a few steps by herself.  I was really surprised how much she walked while holding onto our hands today. 

We didn't stay long, because Joel needed to get back in the fields.  As soon as we got home, he left again for the river farm.  Ainsley fell asleep on the way home, but woke up as soon as we put her in her crib.  She took a twenty minute nap this morning and only slept for ten or fifteen minutes on the way home, so the rest of the afternoon/evening is sure to be "wonderful" and I'm sure I'll have a very cranky baby on my hands.

Fever

Yesterday before we left Dad's, Ainsley felt a little warm.  When we got home, I checked her temperature and it was 99.5.  I was worried that she may be a little dehydrated because she hadn't drank very much.  She hasn't had a bottle during the day since last Monday, and we've only been giving her one at night to fall asleep.  She doesn't drink the greatest out of a sippy cup, so I broke down and gave her Tylenol in a bottle with Pedialyte.  That bottle went right down, so I was glad to at least get some liquids in her.  I didn't think any more about her fever, and we put her to bed around 7:30.

She woke up around 3 crying and we let her cry herself back to sleep.  She wakes up occasionally in the middle of the night and will go back to sleep.  When she woke up an hour later at 4 and cried, I decided to go get her and bring her in bed with us.  I'm glad I did!  She was burning up.  I took her temperature and it was 101.4.  It scared the crap out of both of us. 

She was sweating, so we pulled her pants off.  Joel said he was putting her pants on his head to try to keep her entertained while I went to get her Tylenol, and she would barely smile.  I put her Tylenol in a bottle with juice and she sucked it down.  It took about an hour before she started to cool off.  She slept in until 8:30 this morning.  She wasn't running a fever when she woke up, but it started to creep up to 99.4 around 10.  She was suppose to go to Lisa's and I had some things I needed to do, so I ended up running her over to Lisa's around 10:30. 

We were scheduled for a follow up appointment with Dr. Johnston on Thursday afternoon for her ear infection, so I went ahead and called this morning to see if we could get in today.  I was worried that her ear infection hadn't gone away completely and that's where the fever was coming from.  We got an appointment for 4 this afternoon and when I picked her up from Lisa's around 3:30, she was starting to get warm again.  Lisa said she was clingy all day and didn't act like she felt good.  When we got to the doctor's office, her temperature was up to 100.4.  The doctor checked her ears, but they looked good.  She did a strep test on her, and luckily, it came back negative.  They think it's either something viral, that will last a few days, or her teeth.  I gave her more Tylenol when we got home and she slept about 45 minutes on my lap tonight.   She's up and playing now.  I'm hoping this doesn't last long, because I hate when she doesn't feel good.  I'm starting to wonder when we'll ever catch a break.  We just got done with a cold, ear infection, wheezing, and terrible diaper rash.  We only had our happy baby girl back for a day before she got sick again.

Here's a picture in the bath tonight.  I had a curl going in the back of her hair. 

Afternoon at Grandpa's

Ainsley and I headed to Dad's late this morning for a few hours since Joel was going to be working ground all day.  I grabbed a dress and Ainsley's rocking chair to take down with us so I could try to get her picture done for Easter cards.  I ran into the living room to get the camera, and by the time I got back to the kitchen to leave, she had climbed up and was rocking in her chair.

We got down to Dad's around lunch time, so after she ate her lunch (chicken, applesauce, and yogurt bites), she was able to eat a chocolate chip cookie.  I figured Dad had made them, and they were a little hard.  But, I was wrong!  Susie-homemaker TANNER made them.  That's right.  He made the dough from scratch and baked them himself.  He said Dad wasn't home and he wanted cookies, so he made them.  Well, the cookie I gave Ainsley was hard and black on the bottom.  Tanner said it took him a few batches before he figured out how long to leave the cookies in the oven, and he needed to take them out before the tops were brown.  At least he gave baking cookies a try!

Uncle Tanner's cookies are pretty good.

Notice how black the bottom of that cookie is?!?!

I took Ainsley's car with us since it was going to be so nice this afternoon, and we got it out and pushed her around for a while.  Uncle Tanner liked to do wheelies with her.  She loves being outside and riding in that car!

Uncle Tanner and Ainsley

Since I had some helpers (Dad and Tanner), I decided to get Ainsley's pictures done for Easter cards.  My helpers turned out to be pretty dang good.  They were a lot better than Joel!  Ainsley will not leave bows in her hair now, so I was positive we wouldn't be able to get a picture with a bow in her hair, but we got a few with the help of Dad and Tanner keeping Ainsley occupied at the same time.  Here's a few outtake pictures from this afternoon. 

You can have this bow back....I don't want it!

Getting ready for a picture......

Got it!

Now, get this bow off my head!

Uncle Tanner found out he had to get the bow on her head and get out of the picture, STAT!

Hurry Tanner-get out!

Got it!

I'm happy to say that Uncle Tanner now knows how to put a bow in hair!

I know what you're trying to do, and it's NOT going to happen.

Stare down!

It takes so much to keep Ainsley's attention during pictures and distract her from the bows going in her hair, as you can see below.

Tag-teaming her.  Flowers and bow

Hurry, Dad-get out quick!

This is the picture you can get when you have great helpers!

Ainsley loves to climb in her chair.  This afternoon was no exception.  She was tired of all the pictures and just wanted to climb and have fun in her chair.

She was too chicken to actually let go.

LOVE this one.  We have one with the same facial expression at Christmas.

Playing with her dandelions Grandpa Bill gave her.

 Once the photo session was done, Uncle Tanner found some Easter snack cakes.  Ainsley loved it!

An update on all the noises/words she can now say:  mama, daddy (a-dee), love you (a-boo), hi, yeah-yeah, mmmmm (if something is good), uh-oh, and she was saying papa but if asked now, she'll say mama instead.  The words she says in relation to animals are:  bunny-hop hop, horse-puts her lips together and blows making a pbpbpbpb sound (I don't know how else to describe that one!), duck-quack quack, fish-she'll make fish lips, cow-moo (or most of the time does the horse sound), dog-ruff ruff (this one is hard to tell if she's actually doing it or not),  and monkey-ah ah (the ending of ooo-ooo-ah-ah).  Uncle Tanner tried teaching her what a deer says today, but he didn't get very far.

She'll also pucker her lips if you ask her for a kiss.  When she gets close, though, she opens her mouth and will plant a big, wet, sloppy one on you.  It's still the sweetest kiss, ever, in my opinion.

The Easter Bunny and Ainsley are NOT friends!

This afternoon we took Ainsley to see the Easter Bunny at the mall.  She didn't like it.  At all.

Why are you doing this to me, Mommy????

She wanted to get away from the bunny as fast as she could.  I finally just told the photographer to take the picture with her screaming because we weren't going to get one of her smiling. 

I think I'm going to send a copy of the picture into the Ellen show.  Maybe Ainsley will make it on her Facebook page, or on t.v.  Ellen had lots of pictures of little kids screaming while sitting on Santa's lap around Christmas, so maybe she'll do a segment with the Easter Bunny.

We stopped by Babies R Us and picked up the conversion kit for Ainsley's crib.  We have the conversion kit to make it into a full size bed, but the toddler bed rails weren't in when we picked up the others.  Luckily, the toddler bed rails fit in the backseat, so we don't have to make another trip with Joel's truck to pick them up. 

Toys R Us is on my list of my new favorite stores.  Everyone knows that Walmart will take back anything, but I never thought Toys R Us would take Ainsley's Mickey car back after she's played with it for a month and a half, but they did.  We're getting a new one, just like her old one, shipped to the house and we're hoping to get it in the next week.  I'm anxious to see what toy will become Ainsley's new favorite since she doesn't have her Mickey car.  She's been hopping on it and can push herself across the living room while riding it.  I swear, she learns something new every day.

If you ask Ainsley how you brush your hair, she'll put her hand up to her hair and act like she's brushing it.  The same with brushing your teeth...she'll put her hand up to her mouth and act like she's brushing her teeth.  I tried to get it on video earlier today, but she hears the sound of the video camera and she won't do anything.  Hopefully I can get it in the next few days, because it's really cute.

My baby is WALKING....well, kind of.

I picked Ainsley up from Lisa's yesterday afternoon and they told me that Ainsley took 9 steps for them.  I couldn't believe it.  The most we've seen her take is 4 steps at a time.  I told Lisa that if that was the case, then she'll probably be walking by the time she goes back on Monday.  Lisa agreed with me.

This morning, Ainsley would stand up in the middle of the living room floor, look at me, smile, and then take a few steps without really even being asked or prodded.  Tonight, I was on the floor with her trying to get her to walk, and she took quite a few steps.  Check out the video here.  She's walked from the couch to the chair ottoman and from the end table over to her chair.  I noticed she would do a lot of circles today.  She stands up and will only put one foot out and take a step, and after you do that with the same foot a few times, you end up going in a circle instead of forward.  She's getting really close to just letting go and flat out walking.  The only thing holding her back is herself at this point.  We don't know if we're ready for her to start walking yet.  It makes me sad to even think about it.

Here's a video of her playing with her Minnie Mouse tonight.  You can watch her hugging and giving Minnie kisses.  She is the sweetest little girl!

Her Mickey car wouldn't make noise earlier today, so I thought I would change the batteries.  The batteries were really hot, and there was a funky smell coming from it, so I didn't put new batteries in it.  Joel looked at it when he got home and said there was a short somewhere and part of the battery compartment was black.  He tried taking the car apart to fix it, but didn't have much luck.   That car is one of her favorite toys, and I just bought it for her in mid-January for her birthday.  I called Toys R Us and they said that would take it back and exchange it, so I'm hoping to get over there this weekend.  Ainsley wasn't very happy with Daddy for taking her car apart and wanted in on the action.

Bump, Set, Spike!

Ashton and the rest of the 8th grade Pleasant Plains volleyball team went to the IESA State Championship game on Tuesday night.  I was super excited to go watch.  I hadn't made it to a game all year, and wasn't very busy with work that day so I called Jennifer that morning to see if I could ride along.  Rita was nice enough to get Ainsley from Lisa's that afternoon and I met Brian and Jennifer around 3 to head to Tolono (outside of Champaign).  It took 2 hours to get there, and we made it in time to catch some of the 3rd/4th place game right before Ashton's game started.

As soon as we walked into the building, I could smell it.  The smell of volleyball.  The balls, sweat, and popcorn.  The sound of volleyball....squeeking of shoes on the gym floor, the sound of players hitting the ball, whistles, players yelling "out" and "I".  I loved it!  I hadn't been to a volleyball game in probably 10 years.   The last game I would have gone to would have been one of my own in high school.  What I wouldn't give to be able to play volleyball again.

Not much has changed in the 10 years since I've played.  They now do rally scoring, and that was the only major change.  The warmups were the same as what we did by running out and then going through a routine at the net.  Each team was able to then hit at the net and then go off of the court and get some hits served to them from the coach.  They then would serve the ball over to the other team for three minutes.  It all brought back so many memories.

Ashton was one of the better players on the team and it was fun to watch her.  She even had some left handed kills.  I was impressed!  There were girls on the other team that were jump serving, and were doing it well.  Ashton's team could have played better, and I'm sure it was the best they'd ever played.  They were undeafeted going into the championship game.  The first game went pretty fast and they lost.  The second game was a nail biter, but the girls ended up pulling off a win, making them go to the third and final game.  The first half of the game was pretty close, but the girls started making quite a few mistakes and the other team ended up coming out ahead.  I'm so proud of Ashton, though and her second place win! 

Waiting to get their medals

I was trying to think back to how many years it was since I was in 8th grade, and it's been almost 15 years.  WOW!  Our volleyball team made it to state during our 8th grade year, but we were beat by who later ended up being the state champions in the Elite 8 game.  I remember the thrill of going to state, and am so glad Ashton was able to experience it also.

I had a few laughs on the trip to the game.  With Drake, there's always laughs!  My favorite of the night was after the game, we stopped at Olive Garden.  Drake wasn't very happy with that choice, and as we were walking in, he said:  "This place doesn't have as good of a playland as McDonald's".  Oh, that kid!

Hello Spring!

Today is the first day of Spring, but it's felt like spring for a few weeks now.  We've had record-setting temperatures, which has been nice.  It's suppose to be around 80 again today and I'm not complaining.  We've had the windows open for the last week, and it's so nice to be able to air the house out and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.  Buds have started forming on the trees, laundry is being hung out on clotheslines, and there are even people mowing their yards! 

Joel and Jim started working ground yesterday, so I've become a "Spring widow" once again.  I'm hoping these next few months go quickly.  Joel didn't get home last night until a little after 8, and Ainsley was beyond happy to see him.  As soon as he peeked his head around the corner and she spotted him, her eyes lit up, she said "Hi" in her little voice, and was reaching her little arms out for him to hold her.  She didn't want him to put her down, so he held her on his lap while he ate supper. 

Ainsley's sounding and acting like she feels better each day.  I only noticed her wheezing a little last night, she isn't coughing as much as she had been, and her nose isn't running as much.  She went to Lisa's yesterday, and she was wore out when I picked her up.  I called the pediatrician yesterday morning because her diaper rash wasn't getting better and they called in a prescription for it.  I picked it up yesterday morning and ran it to Lisa's so we could start using it right away.  Ainsley was excited to see me (it was around 10 and she's not use to seeing Mommy so early at Lisa's).  Her and Blaine had been watching Mickey Mouse and dancing.  She was looking at books when I got there. 

After using the prescription diaper rash cream yesterday, this morning her butt looked a little better.  We have 4 more days on the antibiotic, which means 4 more days of diarrhea and this terrible diaper rash.  Saturday can't come soon enough in my book.

Dad and Tanner came up Sunday afternoon and they were able to see Ainsley take 4 steps.  She won't take more than that before plopping back down on her butt.  Jim and Rita came later that evening, but Ainsley wouldn't walk while they were here.  She also said "bana" for banana on Sunday, but I can't get her to do it again. 

She's all about climbing and getting into everything now.  She discovered her rocking chair that Grandma and Grandpa Bowman got her in her bedroom last night.  I think she climbed in and out of it 15-20 times last night.  Every time she would get up in it and turned back around sitting on her butt, she would give me the biggest smile, like she really accomplished something.  She's figured out that there are little drawers on our end tables in the living room and will open them and pull everything out of it.  She also likes to grab anything she can off of the desk area counter top in the kitchen.  That counter is a little lower than the regular counters in the kitchen and it's just the right height for her to be able to see what's on top of the counter.  She was able to get Daddy's sunglasses the other night and Mommy's wallet last night.  She's such a little stinker!

Hmmm...what can I get???

Busted!

Audri posted some pictures of the girls hugging/kissing from Madilynn's birthday party a few weeks ago.  Since I didn't get any with my camera, I stole them from her.  They are so cute!

Ainsley and Madilynn smooching

Ainsley, Madilynn, and Reese in a group hug!

I'm pretty sure Ainsley was pulling Madilynn's hair while hugging her.  Notice Madie's hand...she's getting ready to push Ainsley away!

Reese and Ainsley

Madilynn and Reese

I can't wait to watch these girls (along with Hannah) grow up and play together.