Anniversary vacation

Yesterday was our 7th wedding anniversary.  That meant it had been 7 years since we'd been on our honeymoon and our last vacation.  I decided we needed to get away for our anniversary, just the two of us, before we had another baby and it was harder to get away.  We left Thursday morning and arrived at our resort around noon.  Neither one of us had been to an all-inclusive before, so we didn't have a preference on where to stay.  We ended up booking an Apple square deal where we were guaranteed a 5 "apple" resort, but we wouldn't find out where we were staying until we got to the airport in St. Louis the morning we flew out.  The Apple representative at Lambert told us we were staying at the Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda in Riviera Maya.

Our vacation didn't start out very good.  We got seated in the last row of the plane, which are the only seats on the plane that don't recline.  It made taking a nap on the plane a little uncomfortable, but I still managed a small one!  We were starving when we got to the resort, so we headed straight to eat.  After eating and walking around the resort for a little bit, we were both hot and wanting to get into our room and get a shower.  We were able to check into our room a little early and when we got to our room and turned on the shower, there was no water!  I called the front desk and they said it would be back on in half an hour.  Sure enough, it came back on and Joel took a shower first.  He didn't say anything about the water, but as soon as I got in, I looked down and the water was brown.  I didn't care at that point and just wanted a shower, even if it was in brown water!  Joel thinks they must have broke a water line.  The water was clear later that night when we got back to the room.

Yummy chocolate covered strawberries!

It didn't take me very long once I got out of the shower to realize I forgot my hair straightener!  It was still at home on the bathroom sink, right where I left it because I never ran back in to grab it before heading to the airport.  I called the front desk to see if they had a hair straightener or curling iron I could borrow, but of course, they didn't.  We stopped by the couple of shops in the resort to see if they had anything with no luck there either.  I finally stopped by the spa to see if they had one I could use, but the manager had already left for the day.  I went back the next day when the manager was there and they told me I could use their straightener at the spa (that was a good 10 minute walk from our room) that day but they didn't know about the rest of my stay.  I decided it was too much trouble and just pulled my hair back the first night for supper. 

After our rough start on our vacation of getting stuck in the back row on the plane, having no water when we got to our room, and then the major issue of not having a hair straightener, we thought it could only get better from there.  We woke up the next morning and got something to eat and then headed to the beach in search of a shady spot.  We were lucky to find a shady spot and enjoyed laying around reading the rest of the day.  The rest of our vacation went pretty much the same as the first day:  wake up, go get breakfast, search for a shady spot on the beach, lay around reading/drinking, eat lunch, back to the beach for the afternoon, shower, eat supper, watch a little of the nightly entertainment show and then crash when we got back to the room.  It was so nice to be able to go to sleep whenever we wanted and sleep in a little in the morning.  I don't know if I enjoyed sleeping or being able to read/relax more!

A coconut fell off a tree

Just swingin' at the bar

Nap time!

The second full day we were there our afternoon got a little messed up.  Everyone would get their beach towels and lay them on their chairs to "claim" them.  I drank a few pina coladas that morning and by the time we got up to go eat lunch, I was a little tipsy.  We left our towels on our chairs and after lunch we headed back to the beach to our chairs.  Keep in mind, that I was still tipsy from all the pina coladas that morning.  As soon as we walk around the corner and see our chairs, Joel says:  "Someone is in our chairs".  I didn't believe him, but the closer we got, I could see someone was in "our" chairs.  With each staggering step I took toward our chairs, I could see a woman and man in our chairs and the woman was laying in the sun.  Just our luck!  Well, our luck was even better when I could finally make out that the woman laying in one of our chairs was topless!!!  Yep, the first topless person I see on our vacation is laying in our chair.  Again, I'm glad I had been drinking already.  I walked right up to the guy, while trying NOT to stare at the woman's boobs, (who was European and had a very strong accent) and asked if the towels behind him were his and he replied they weren't, so I grabbed them and off we went.  He asked if we wanted the chairs back, but there was no way we were going to say yes.  By that time, all the shady spots on the beach were taken so we headed back to the room, which was probably the best thing that could have happened to me because I needed to sleep for a little while and give the pina coladas a break

I was a little tipsy and thought this towel animal was pretty cool

I don't know what prompted this, but on the way back to our room that afternoon, Joel had the nerve to say to me:  "Why do I have to be the responsible one?"  Really?!?!  The responsible one???  I hardly ever drink and the one time I do, he's worried because he has to be the responsible one?  Let's just say I wasn't very happy and it didn't help that I had been drinking. 

The rest of our vacation was pretty calm and relaxing.  I was able to read a couple of books, and take a few naps.  Joel enjoyed all the free alcohol and watching people walk the beach.  Even with sitting in the shade, wearing a big hat, and applying and re-applying either SPF50 or 85 sunscreen, we both still got burnt.  Joel looked like a backwards raccoon one night because his face was so burnt!

There wasn't much of a beach on our resort, but we had another resort right beside ours.  We walked over to the pier and then on down to the other resorts beach one day and it was a lot nicer than ours.  A big portion of our beach was covered in seaweed and had sandbags along it.  I don't think we'd stay at the resort we were at again, but we know what to look for if we do it again. 

Our beach....

Looking at our resort/beach from the pier

Beach at the resort beside ours...much nicer!

Monday morning before heading to the airport

We headed home on Monday and we both were ready to see our baby girl.  We sure missed her!!  Our shuttle picked us up from the resort around 8:30 and our flight was at noon.  We didn't get to Mom's to get Ainsley until 5, so it made for a very long day.  But, seeing her face when we walked in was priceless!   She looked at each of us and just stared at us for a few seconds like:  Is that really Mommy and Daddy?!?!  She then came over to me and once I picked her up, she laid her head on my shoulder and just hugged me.  She NEVER does that any more and she made my entire week.

It was so hard to leave Ainsley, but we knew she'd have lots of fun staying with everyone and getting spoiled rotten.  She stayed with Jim and Rita Wednesday night and then Mom picked her up Thursday night and took her home with her.  Mom and Mark then loaded her up and took her down to Thomas and Jamie's Friday evening to stay for a few nights.  Ainsley had her first taste of alligator on Saturday night and they said she liked it.  My poor baby was out in public for the first half of Saturday with her dress on backwards before Mom (or someone) noticed.  I'm glad she was down in Missouri and not around home so noone really knew her!  Ainsley then went to Dad's Sunday afternoon to stay the night.  We picked her up from Mom's on Monday evening after we got home.

I got the picture below from Tanner on Thursday night.  Attached to the picture was this text:  bananas + milk + Little Einstein's=Ainsley thinking I'm the best Uncle.  And this was at 10:45 at night!

Tanner says Ainsley said Tanner over the weekend, even though it sounded more like "ner", but I don't know if I believe him.  She won't say it for us.  She did, however, come home knowing how to make a "fart" sound.  Mom got her to say Grandma again, but I think she was saying it a few days before we left.

I know Joel and I had a good time on vacation, and I'm pretty sure Ainsley had a good time while we were gone also. 

Mommy's Little Helper

As soon as the dishwasher door gets opened, you're guaranteed to hear the pitter-patter of little feet running across the kitchen floor.  It doesn't matter what Ainsley's doing, she can hear me open that door from the other room, and she knows it's time to help Mommy.  For about a week now, she thinks she's the only person that can put the silverware away.  I never even showed her how to do it, or asked.  She just started doing it one day.

I usually start with the top rack of the dishwasher and put away the glasses, bowls, etc. but Ainsley likes to pull the bottom drawer out while I'm working on the top drawer and grab the silverware.  In the past, she usually just runs into the living room with a couple of clean spoons and I would just put them back with the dirty dishes once I was done.  It kept her occupied for a few minutes and would give me time to unload it.

About a week ago, that changed.  She would still take the spoons out (it's funny that she knows she can only have the spoons and won't even try touching the forks or knives), but instead of running into the other room with them, she pulled open the silverware drawer, stood on her tip toes and put the spoon away.  I couldn't believe it when she did it the first time, but I let her do her thing and sure enough, she had all the spoons put in the drawer in no time.  I let her move onto the forks while I grabbed all the knives.  Now, they are by no means put in the spoon slot of the silverware tray, but they all do make it into the drawer.

Clapping for herself after putting a spoon away

Gotta get another one

It's become one of her favorite things to do.  Joel came home one day and asked if Ainsley helped me put dishes away.  He just laughed when he saw the silverware drawer.  I know this is bad, but I don't even bother sorting the silverware out after Ainsley's put it all away, because I like looking at it every time I open the drawer and knowing my Ainsley-bug helped!

So, if you come over to our house and need a spoon...you'll find it along with a bunch of forks thrown into the drawer.

3rd ear infection

The last week has been busy and a little off schedule.  Lisa was off last Thursday through Tuesday so Ainsley stayed with a couple different people during the last week.  I've been very busy with work, and having Ainsley at home with me just wasn't an option the last few days!  Last Thursday morning, Ainsley felt a little warm so I gave her some Tylenol.  She slept for a little over two hours later that morning and then I had a conference call scheduled for that afternoon that came up that morning.  Luckily, Kathleen was able to keep Ainsley for me that afternoon so I could work and get on my call.  It was "Kid's Day" at the Morgan County Fair on Thursday, and Kathleen was planning on taking Jack and Lani, so Ainsley tagged along.  Kathleen said she was really good and liked all the animals.  They said she kept yelling "Joel" while they were there.  I'm sure she had fun looking at everything and then playing with Lani that afternoon.

Last Friday morning I met Mom at the hospital when she got off work and she took Ainsley to her house for me (which saved me a trip and a few hours Friday morning).  Thomas and Jamie then picked Ainsley up from Mom's that morning to watch her for me all day.  Ainsley had to show off for Uncle Thomas and Aunt Jamie and showed them lots of her new tricks.  She was able to play with Avery that afternoon, so I'm sure she had fun. 

Reading her "Tails" book with Aunt Jamie and Uncle Thomas

I don't know what it is about Jamie's sister, Jodie, but Ainsley likes her.  Jamie said Jodie walked in Friday afternoon and Jamie started saying "Dodie", which is what they call Jodie, and Ainsley started repeating her and saying "Dodie".  Seriously?!?  I try to get her to say new works all the time and she says "Dodie"???  I think Grandma Shelly was a little jealous, because she still won't say Grandma! 

Joel and I went down to Mom's last Friday night to get Ainsley and I thought for sure Ainsley would fall asleep on the way home, but she didn't.  In fact, she was up until around 10:30 or 11 that night and it wasn't a very good night.   She didn't have a good nap on Friday, either, so that didn't help things.  Saturday morning, she woke up and was still cranky.  I was rocking her trying to get her to fall asleep and she reached up and touched her ear.  Joel saw her do it and asked if she could have an ear infection.  I didn't think she could, because she hadn't been congested or anything, but when I thought how she ran a little fever Thursday morning, hadn't been sleeping or eating very well, and just general crankiness, I figured it would be better to go into Prompt Care to get it checked out.  Sure enough, she had another ear infection.  I thought her fever/crankiness/not eating was because another molar is coming in on the top.  I hate not being able to tell what's wrong with her.  We're on Amoxicillian again and it's seemed to do the trick.  She's much better now.

We headed down to Hettick Sunday afternoon to eat supper at Dad's before Thomas and Jamie headed back home.  We took Ainsley over to Mom's to swim for a little bit while the food finished cooking.  Ainsley loved it!  She would put her face in the water and then laugh.  Here's a video of her getting her face wet and laughing.  She liked splashing and being splashed....even if Mommy wasn't so fond of it.  Joel and Tanner would jump in and make waves, which Ainsley loved also. 

Someone is splashing water...Ainsley needed her sunglasses!!!

Happy girl!

She spent a little over an hour in the pool and was very content the whole time.  We tried water wings on her, but they didn't hold her up.  I probably need to order a puddle jumper for her, but I may wait until next summer to get one, since she was pretty happy just floating around in the baby float.

How many people does it take to get a baby in the float?!

Just floatin'

At Dad's house, the balls from Ainsley's ball pit were very entertaining.  The boys all thought it was funny to throw them into the ceiling fan and let the fan whip the ball in different directions.  How easy it is to entertain them...

While the guys played with Ainsley's toys, Ainsley jumped on the air mattress on the living room floor. 

Action shot...Tanner playing with the balls and Ainsley jumping on the mattress!

Down she goes...

She likes to fling herself backward onto her butt on the couch and chair at home, and does the same thing on the air mattress.  Of course, Mommy doesn't like for her to do it anywhere.

Ainsley had to get on Jake again over the weekend to try to ride him.  Luckily, Jake still doesn't mind that she's around or messing with him.

She still had crazy hair from the pool, but you can see how long it's getting in this picture!

A fun thing to do at Grandpa Bill's is crawl/walk behind the couch.  Ainsley's watched Jake do it many times and she thinks she has to do it too. 

Ainsley stayed with Grandpa Bill overnight Sunday night (for the first time) and he kept her all day Monday so I could work.  Of course, the stinker fell asleep early for him and slept in a little in the morning.  She also came home with a new toy from Grandpa's.  She's just a little spoiled!

We went down to get her Monday night.  On our way home, I asked her if she had fun at Grandpa's and every time I would ask about Grandpa, she would repeat "Papa".  We took that to mean she had fun!

She's started doing a few new things in the last week or so.  Burping and farting have become funny.  If she burps, she laughs afterwards.  If she farts and you ask her what she did, she'll laugh and then try doing it again, which includes lots of grunting, a red face, and if you're really lucky a dirty diaper!  Hands down: she gets that from her Daddy!

She got a book, titled:  "Tails" for her birthday and she loves it.  There are pages that have all different animal tails on them that stick out, are hairy, etc.  She's looked at the book so much that it literally fell apart the other day in the car.  I'm talking about completely separating into two pieces.  We had a small meltdown after it ripped into two pieces, but she still likes to look at it, even if it's one piece at a time.  There's one page in the book that has a little scratch n' sniff sticker on it for a skunk's tail.  It really does stink if you scratch it, and Ainsley loves to smell it.  As soon as she gets to that page, she scrunches up her nose and leans in for a big whiff! 

A new skill she's figured out is jumping.  At this point, it's really just one leg off the floor at a time, but it's still funny!  I'm hoping to get it on video soon, but haven't been able to get it yet. 

Ainsley's also discovered her baby dolls in the last few weeks.  She'll get them out of the toy box and hug it, then kiss it, and either walk around holding it or my personal favorite is putting the baby to sleep.  The baby has to have kisses before it goes "night-night" and she'll lay it on the little doll bed and then cover it up.  She drops the blanket on the baby, and there really isn't anything nurturing about that part of it, but it's still cute.

One thing she's started to do that we're not at all happy about is trying to run out into the street when we're outside.  Joel took her out with him the other evening while he watered the flowers and I was inside working.  I looked out my office window to see Ainsley running down the street and then a few seconds later, Joel is behind her and grabs her.  No matter how many times we tell her "no", she still runs right for the street.  She can't understand the word "no" fast enough for either of us. 

Ainsley talking on the phone

Ainsley loves phones, especially the home phone.  If we leave it laying around, she'll find it and push all the buttons she can until we find her with it.  We gave her an old cell phone that she carries around and "talks" on it.  I haven't been able to catch it on video, until the other day.  She had a pretty good conversation with someone.  In this first video, you can catch her saying "hello" and then she'll say "yah" and, my favorite, "Mmmhhmmm".  The last "mmm" is always in a higher pitch than the first "Mmmm-hhh" part.  She's so funny to watch and listen to on the phone.

Because Youtube will only let me upload videos that are about a minute long, I had to cut the video into two so you could see/listen to her saying "bye".  In this next video, she says "bye", although, you probably can't tell it's "bye" from what she says.  It is, though, I promise!  She yells it every time Mickey is over and tells Mickey Mouse "bye-bye".  She also waves her hand, so you can kind of tell.  Toward the middle/end, she kisses the phone when I ask her to say "love you, bye".  She's such a sweetheart!

Hopefully these videos will hold everyone over until I can get some pictures and a new blog entry done.  My internet was down for two days last week and I still don't have wireless internet (except for our neighbor's, which is touchy). 

I'm getting nervous and excited for next week....at this time next week, we'll be on a beach in Mexico without our baby.  I couldn't fall asleep last night thinking of leaving her, but I know she'll have lots of fun staying with her Grandma's and Grandpa's while we're gone.

Weekend fun

We took Ainsley to see the cows Saturday morning.  She didn't know what to think of them, and stared them down!  

Ainsley didn't want it too close to her!

She then wanted to get down and run around, which wasn't going to happen since she had on flip flops and there were big piles of poop every few feet, so we got back in the truck to look at the crops.  You're jealous of my exciting Saturday morning looking at cows and corn, aren't you?!


Sometime on Saturday, Ainsley found a pacifier.  She never really took a pacifier.  I mean, she may have sucked on one for five minutes here and there for a month or so, but that was about the extent of it.  Joel gave her a bath that evening and they walked out of the bathroom with Ainsley sucking on the pacifier.  It's so funny to see it in her mouth.  She was really sucking on it, too! 

I probably need to ask Lisa if she steals Blaine's pacifier at day care.  He's the only one she's around quite a bit that has one (that I know of, anyway).

I didn't think it was possible for Ainsley to get into more than she already does, but she proved me wrong this weekend.  She loves to climb in the chair in the living room, and she discovered the light switch that is right above it.  She likes to flip the light switch on and off...numerous times in a row.  At first, we ignored her and thought she would stop.  She would look over her shoulder and watch the lamp go on and off that's connected to the light switch and she'd look over at each of us to see what we were going to say.  We ignored her, but it didn't stop her at all. 

This light switch is pretty cool!

She's obsessed with buttons...the dvr in the living room, buttons on the oven, dishwasher, washer, dryer, if it has something to press, she's on it.  She's also figured out how to shut the vent off in the bathroom by pressing the little lever, and has really discovered outlets.  Every once in a while, she will go over to an outlet and look at it, but she's never bothered them before.  We've caught her numerous times in the last few days behind her rocking chair in her bedroom with the nightlight in her hand and out of the outlet.  She's also discovered the outlet behind the armoire in our bedroom and tries pulling the cords out of the outlet.  We have outlet covers on all the outlets that don't have something plugged into them, and hopefully she'll learn after a few more slaps on the hand that she can't touch the outlets.  I'm hoping this is another one of those stages that doesn't last very long.

I cleaned the house Saturday afternoon and Ainsley helped....sort of.  I gave her one of Joel's old socks and showed her how to "dust" with it.  She kind of got the point and would wipe down our bedroom armoire with it while I dusted.  She really thought she was doing something.  It was so cute!

Speaking of cleaning, I got a new vacuum a few months ago.  I got rid of our Rainbow vacuum and got a Dyson instead.  I have to say that I'm very happy with our Dyson and it makes it so much easier to go up and down the basement stairs and clean down there.  I ended up getting the vacuum for animal hair.  I figured, since I shed as much as any animal, I needed it!  It does a really good job getting all my hair, along with everything else.  I would highly recommend it!

Sunday, we met Dad and Tanner at Kampsville, and we were excited about eating some catfish fritters.  We hadn't been over there in a few years, and forgot how bad the service was.  We got there at 2:30 and it wasn't very busy.  It took us at least 5 minutes for someone to come and seat us.  Then it took at least another 5 minutes before a waitress came to get our drink order.  Of course, Ainsley didn't want to sit in the high chair, but instead wanted to get down and run around.  Joel and I caved in, and let her watch Little Einstein's on Uncle Tanner's phone.  That kept her entertained for 10-15 minutes, and she was really happy to watch it.  She patted her legs and raised her arms in the air when the rocket blasted off.  We finally got our food 45 minutes later and tried to eat as fast as we could because Ainsley was ready to go at that point. 

Ainsley's waving to the ferry

Waving again

Uncle Tanner showing Ainsley the water

We let her walk around and play outside while we waited on the ferry.  She liked waving to the boats and ferry as they went by.  Since it's been so dry, the grass was dead and very hard.   Ainsley only said "ouch" a few times while walking across it in her flip flops.  There was a nice breeze and it was a nice afternoon.

Ainsley watching the ferry as we ride across the river

Today when Joel got home and took his boots off, Ainsley thought she wanted them on her feet.  She played with them and tried to step in them, but didn't get very far.

Trying to get her foot in....