We're still alive....just busy!

Well, so much for things being relatively quiet around here.  The last few weeks have been absolute chaos.  Work has been crazy and Joel has been in the fields, which makes my life even harder.  But, I've got a lot of quality time with my baby without Daddy home. 

A few weeks ago, I noticed Ainsley answering questions when Mickey would ask them on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  But, the only answer she would give for every question was "No" with a shake of her head.  Mickey would ask:  "Is that a ball?" (while they show a picture of a dog)  Ainsley's response:  "No".  Mickey would ask:  "Is that a ball?" (while they show a picture of a car)  Ainsley's response:  "No".  Mickey would ask:  "Is that a ball?" (while they show a picture of a ball)  Ainsley's response:  "No".  It's so funny!  Aunt Jennifer was able to witness it the other day and just laughed at her. 

Ainsley and Drake watching Mickey

Someone wasn't a happy camper....

With work being crazy and Joel in the fields, supper has been neglected quite regularly and whatever you could find to eat is what you did.  I gave Ainsley some ravioli one night and she ate it okay, but didn't eat enough to be full, so I was trying to find something else to get her to eat a little more.  She wanted some puffs, so that's what she got.  She had to dip the puffs in the ravioli sauce!  You can watch her doing it here. Whatever works, I guess.  At least she got a little bit of vegetable that night.  Tomatoes in ravioli sauce counts as a vegetable, right???

Freeman Farms had some activity at the shed (at Mimi's) a few weeks ago.  Some of the hay bales caught on fire, and they had three fire departments respond to the call.  Luckily, they were able to get the fire under control and out before they lost too much hay.  I think around 30 bales were destroyed, but it could have been much worse.

Ainsley loves her plastic bucket and shovel outside, so I bought her one for inside a few weeks ago.  She likes to put the bucket on her head and walk around the house.  Of course, she can't see where she's going, so she runs into walls, cabinets, etc.  After running into one too many walls with the bucket on her head, she decided it would be a good idea to stop every few steps and lift the bucket up a little so she could see where she was going before putting the bucket back down on her head and walking some more. 

She also loves hats.  She'll walk around the house with two hats on her head at a time sometimes and won't take them off!

Fish lips!

It seems like the only time I have been able to put a bow or headband on Ainsley's head was when she was an infant and didn't know any better.  As soon as she was old enough to realize it was on her head, she would reach up and pull it out of her hair as soon as I got it in.   That was, until a week or so ago.  Now, that's all my daughter wants is a bow in her hair.  She literally had a meltdown the other day when I took a bow out of her hair.  I was trying bows in her hair to see which would stay in for Mom's wedding, and when I took it out, she was hysterical.  She screamed and threw herself on the couch because she wanted a bow in her hair.  That was music to my ears!  Of course, she can have a bow in her hair whenever she wants.  She even had to have a clip in her hair the other night before bed, with her pajamas on.  She went into her room and got one and brought it in for Daddy to put in her hair and wasn't going to leave us alone until it was in her hair.  I'm so glad Ainsley's finally realized that it helps to keep her hair out of her eyes by wearing a bow or clip (and that it makes her even cuter than she already is!)

Playing with Daddy's hair

Dancing to the "hot dog" song

She loves to brush her teeth and can usually be found a few hours of the day walking around the house with her toothbrush in her hand.  The only bathroom drawer that doesn't have a lock on it (because it's impossible to get one on that drawer) is the one with our toothbrushes and toothpaste.  The other morning, I walked into the living room to find Ainsley sitting on the floor with my toothbrush and tube of toothpaste.  I know that she watches everything Joel and I do, but it was so funny to watch her put my toothbrush up to the tube of toothpaste like she was putting the toothpaste on the brush and then putting the brush in her mouth.  I guess she really does pay attention to what we do!  Now, she thinks she needs her tube of toothpaste every time she gets her toothbrush out and she'll walk around the house putting toothpaste on her brush (with the cap still on the toothpaste, of course).

Another new thing she's been doing for a while now is banging her head off the back of the couch.  She'll sit on the couch and fling herself back so her head bounces off the back cushion of the couch, and do it over and over again.  We've been trying to get her to stop, but haven't had much luck.

Getting ready to bounce her head off the couch...

This last picture makes me laugh every time I look at it.  Ainsley's scared of the vacuum and "hid" under Daddy the other morning while I vacuumed. 

I'm hoping to get caught up on the blog a little better over the next few days, so keep watching for more pictures and posts.

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!