Jan. 27, 2009 -
Ainsley continues to be a very happy child. She sings all the time - her favorites right now are Christmas carols including 'Mary, did you know.' She talks all the time and most the time I can understand her. She loves to play with her sister and do puzzles with mommy. She also is content to play with her babies or the play kitchen all by herself. Overall, she is very well adjusted.
She knows that mommy has a baby in her tummy, but I'm sure doesn't get the entirety of the situation. She'll kiss 'baby boy' or pat my stomach and say 'hi baby boy'. It's very cute. If I had to choose her favorite past time, it is probably laying with mommy or daddy rubbing her. She will take our hand and move it to whereever she wants to be rubbed. Many times she just takes our hand and has us rub her, but if she can't get our attention that way she'll say 'ruddy me' which means 'rub me'.
Oct. 08 -
Ainsley is down-right hilarious. She is adding to her vocabulary every day and while she is quite understandable, she is more unstandable than even last week. People other than me are actually understanding her baby talk, which is definitely a step in the right direction. She continues to be extremely happy, singing many times throughout the day, including during doctor appointments, grocery shopping and other such errands. She also loves reading, whether it's mommy or daddy reading to her, or her sitting in a corner reading to herself. She is totally into books. The biggest news is that after three long weeks, Ainsley is potty trained!! She was having some difficulties, but she was able to work them out to where she is consistenly going number one and two on the potty with only two accidents in the last two weeks. She is so proud of herself and announces every time she goes poo poo.
Sept. 08 –
Ainsley is again infatuated with the potty. She now removes her diaper as soon as she goes potty and then runs to the bathroom to sit on the toilet not caring that she just went in her diaper. It really becomes a problem when her diaper is dirty. She did get to the potty twice this week in time to go number two – for one instance she had to run inside from playing. I really need to potty train her, but haven’t had the energy to focus on it.
Ainsley is an incredibly happy child. She often is the first to wake up in the morning – anywhere between 6:15 and 7 a.m. depending on the day. She makes her way into our bed and cuddles with daddy and me. Henry and I are not morning people. There is a verse in Proverbs that basically says ‘a man who blesses his friend early in the morning with a loud voice is a curse to him’ – we totally relate. Often, we have to shush her because she’ll start singing Old McDonald had a Farm or Rise and Shine (and give God the glory, glory). She isn’t being bad at all, but we are trying to doze until it’s time for Henry to get up for work.
Yesterday, it rained all day and we were feeling a bit lazy. Natalie and Henry fell asleep late in the afternoon and I was lying in bed to settle my stomach. I could hear Ainsley talking and singing, but figured Henry was awake in the family room. I came down to find Ainsley walking around the house entertaining herself with whatever she found, singing her favorite songs to herself. She makes me sing those same favorite songs before she goes to sleep at night and reminds me if I forget one of them. They are: Old McDonald, Rise and Shine, The Birdies in the Treetops, and our family lullaby.
August 2008 -
Ainsley is officially two - yeah! Two has to be my favorite age. You can see the wheels turning in their little heads as they figure the world out. She surprised me with how much she knew this month. At the doctor's office, she pointed to the ABC plague on the wall and said, "DDD", which means ABC, and then started singing the alphabet. I didn't realize she knew the song went with symbols so was impressed with her knowledge. She also drew a big circle on a paper a few days ago, held it up and said, "whir-cle".
Ainsley has also figured out how to annoy her older sister. Natalie was sitting on the couch the other day and Ainsley was poking her in the leg. Natalie fussed a little and said, "Stop, Ainsley." Ainsley continue to poke her lightly in different spots on her leg at which point I said, "Ainsley, stop it!" She looked at me and gave me the most mischievious grin. She knew exactly what she was doing and was thoroughly enjoying it.
July 2008 -
Ainsley now puts together two or more words, still without many consonants! Now instead of figuring out one vowel dominant word, we must decipher an entire vowel dominant phrase. The longest phrase to come out of her mouth was the other day. Henry and Natalie went to a movie and as they pulled away Ainsley said, “I wanna go. Daddy.” It sounded more like, “I onna owe. Addy.” But, I got the idea.
She has also started referring to herself in different contexts. The other day our basketballs made it out of the garage and I asked Natalie if she took them out. She answered in the negative and I said, “Well, I wonder who took them out then.” Ainsley said, “Eee, eee!” “Oh” I said. “You took them out?” “Ya,” was her response. She will also yell “eee” when I ask things like, who wants to take a bath? Or, who’s hungry? It’s really cute.
In addition to her language skills, Ainsley is working on her dexterity and physical prowess. She now practices pouring water from one container to another and is content with this activity for an hour or more. She has also started running around the house and dances at odd times, almost like she has a lot of extra energy and doesn't know what else to do with it. They say humans have more energy at the age of two than at any other time in their lives - great, I think it's kicking in with Ains!
June 2008 –
Ainsley continues to improve her communication skills. Recently, I was p utting Ainsley to bed and thought it would be ok for her not to have socks because it was a warm night. As I was zipping up her sleepsack, she stuck her foot out and said, 'Brrrr" (her word for cold). I said, 'It's ok, Ains. You don't need socks tonight." Persistently while bringing her little arms up by her sides and shaking them a little she said, "Brrr." I said, "Ok, you want some socks." "Ockies" She replied. I grabbed a pair of socks out of her sock basket and she proceeded to shake her head, grunt and point at the basket. "You want a different pair?" I asked incredulously. "Ya." her response. I pulled out a different pair and showed them to her. "Ockies!" Her excited response while simultaneously holding up her foot. I couldn’t believe that she had the fortitude to not only tell me she wanted socks, but also which pair she preferred.
She also started requesting specific songs for her bedtime routine. The other night I asked her if she wanted mommy to sing to her. She nodded her little head and said, “winks-sul, winks-sul.” After trying to understand what in the world she meant, I finally asked her to sing it for me. She started singing Twinkle, Twinkle right away. The next request was, “dee, dee, dee”. Again, with no base to work off of, I asked her to sing me a few bars. Who knew – it was the ABCs. Apparently, Ainsley’s alphabet starts with three Ds.
The biggest development this month is that Ainsley is showing signs of readiness for potty training. She has been asking to practice on the potty more often this month and twice today removed her diaper after soiling it and brought me a new diaper. The second time, it was a messy diaper and I can’t stand the idea of this becoming a habit. I’m a little at a loss because she is soooo young and doesn’t have the verbal skills Natalie displayed at this age. She does have a word for number two though so I’m guessing she’ll come up with one for number one. I dread starting this process, but am considering trying this month or next. It beats having her run around the house with a naked, soiled, bum or actively teaching her to go in her diaper. Oh, the joys of motherhood. At least it's summer and she can run around outside while training.
May 2008 -
Ainsley is so darn cute! She is turning into a daddy's girl, crying when he leaves for work or when she has to go to bed and he's just gotten home. She lays on him in the mornings, making him rub her belly or foot, while he responds to email before leaving for work. She shows off for him when he's home saying 'addy, addy,' and then doing something with a sheepish grin on her face, obviously vying for attention. It's rather cute and I'm not jealous at all. Both my girls love their daddy - who can blame them!
Ainsley is talking more, but doesn't use very many constanants so understanding her is completely contextual. For example, 'ow' means cow, milk, out, and ouch. 'ello' means hello and elbow. I could go on, but won't bore you. Henry recently asked when she would start talking to which I replied she talks all the time. His response - "I mean in English."
She adores Natalie, most of the time, and wants to do everything she is doing. I packed up a lot of the toys Natalie was playing with at this age last week and put them in the attic. Ainsley has no use for them - she would rather play dress up, Polly Pockets and babies with Natalie. Mind you, Natalie or I have to help her get the dress up clothes off their hangers and get them on and dress the Pollies, but she wouldn't have it any other way. She even tries to ride a bike, but alas, her little legs don't reach the petals so she is reduced to straddling the bike and waddling down the driveway. It's a pitiful sight!
Ainsley loves being outside. She came down this morning still in her pajamas, wearing plastic, princess shoes, pointed to the door and said, 'ow-sigh'. "Not now Ainsley. We can't go outside. And you need clothes first anyway." She looked down at her attire then back at me with a look like, can't you see I'm wearing clothes, and shoes for that matter. We did make it outside today and Ainsley was in her element. Sometimes, if I still have work that needs done, I'll take my computer, bills, or calendar and phone (or all of the above) out with me and do work on the porch while the girls play. Today was one of those days. I left my stuff on the porch and came back to find Ainsley, phone to ear, pen moving across my to do list - like mother, like daughter.
April 2008 -
Ainsley has really turned into a little girl this month. She is taking pretend play to a new level. I caught her disciplining (spanking) her baby doll this week and then taking it by the shoulders and speaking firmly to it. She has also become infactuated with trying to diaper her baby dolls. She doesn’t understand the concept of tabs, but instead tries to wrap the diaper around the baby’s waist.
She is adding words every day, although to most they are unintelligible. She now says: elephant, cow, giraffe, sheep, pig, cheese, feet, stinky, poopoo, booboo, star, mommy, daddy, Natalie, kitty, doggy, Noah, yeah, no, and baby. There are many others, but these give you an idea of her range.
Another big milestone this month is that I put the high chair away. She simply refuses to sit in it, preferring to sit in the booster chair at the table, if you can call it sitting. She actually stands and rocks back and forth; or sits on the arm of the booster chair (which gives me a heart attack), or stands with one foot behind the booster chair and one on the seat of the booster chair. It drives me crazy, but she has yet to fall. So for now, I’m holding my tongue and marveling at her sense of balance.
March 2008 -
Ainsley is still saying very few words, but is learning other ways to communicate. She does a lot of grunting and pointing to get her message across. There are a few things she does to get my attention. First, when she is hungry, she either goes to the pantry and points to the animal crackers, pulls on the fridge door and asks for yogurt (I have no idea how to spell her word for yogurt so I'm not even going to try), or she points at the counter and asks for a nyanya (banana). Once she thinks I have the picture, she climbs up into her booster seat and taps the table. Very cute.
The other thing she does is to either pull me (if I'm standing) or try to pick me up by hugging my legs and trying to move them (if I'm sitting down) when she wants me to come with her.
She is learning to play by herself well. Natalie is in school two mornings a week and we use that as our special time. If I don't give her time to play by herself with all the toys, she gets upset, so I've learned not to hover around her for the full hour we have before her nap time.
She is also wanting to walk by herself now instead of being carried around. She sees her big sis doing it and feels it's time for her to start. She listens pretty well, but still wanders if we are in a store. It's cute to see the girls walking hand in hand or playing with their baby strollers together.
February 2008 -
Ainsley spent time with Marmi and Pop (Henry’s parents) while we were on our cruise. I wasn’t too worried about her as she does well with one-on-one time. She had a wonderful time getting to know her grandparents and they had a good time bonding with her as well. Marmi actually told me she cried the night before Ainsley left because she was going to miss her so much. I said I guess I didn’t leave her long enough! Pop, who loves giving gifts, spoiled Ainsley rotten. She left with more toys and stuffed animals than she came with – I stopped counting the gifts when I got to five. She was only there 11 days!
Ainsley had a hard time the first two nights we were back. I think she thought I was going to leave again. I had put her down the last night before I left at her grandparents house and told her I wouldn’t be there in the morning. I was taking a trip with daddy and I would come back and get her. I explained it would feel like a long time, but I was definitely coming back. She fussed when I said all this, but I didn’t realize how traumatizing it would be upon our return. She screamed, not cried, when I put her to bed those first nights back, I’m sure she was scared I wouldn’t be there in the morning. However, trust was reestablished and she now goes to bed just fine!
January 2008 -
Ainsley also loved Christmas. Her big present this year was a hooded towel in the shape of an elephant. I wasn't sure how this would go over, but Natalie has a hooded frog so I felt Ainsley needed something too. It was a weird shape so I decided to wrap it up in a shopping bag. I figured at 17 months, Ainsley would be just as happy to open a bag as she would to tear open paper. Boy, was I wrong. She had been practicing opening presents since Dec. 22, so when we handed her the shopping bag on Christmas morning, she passed it up and went straight for the wrapped presents under the tree. We tried to get her attention and tell her the bag was a present, but she would have nothing to do with it. Henry finally looked at me and said, "she has no idea this is a present because it doesn't have wrapping paper." I couldn't believe it, but he was right. We ended up unwrapping it for her and then handing her the towel. Boy was she excited about it. More than I thought she would be. She walked around half the day with that towel wrapped around her. Whew! Next year I'll remember to wrap all her presents with paper!
The only big milestone this month is that Ainsley added a few teeth to her mouth and a few bars of Christmas carols to her singing repretoire. She now sings a few measures of Jingle Bells and Away in a Manger. She loves singing and walks around most the day singing little tunes. Seems to me it's time to buy a piano.
November / December 2007 -
Ainsley continues to grow into her own little person. We are working on recognizing basic animals and shapes while doing puzzles. She is doing better each time, both at recognizing the object and finding where they go in the puzzle.
I think her biggest obsession right now is singing. She is constantly singing and I actually recognize two of the songs she sings most frequently - one is Twinkle, Twinkle and the other is a song about Noah that Natalie taught us from preschool. She also knows all the motions to the Itsy, Bitsy Spider and is gleeful every time I start to sing it.
The other day Ainsley went to the utensil drawer and pulled out what I thought were two random items. She then darted out of the kitchen and around the corner. I was cleaning up from dinner and didn't think much of it. I walked around the corner to wipe off the table and saw her sitting on the floor, off by herself, with a measuring cup , a large serving spoon and her sippy cup. Now this sippy cup is one of the disposable ones that has a lid, but no suction seal to keep it from leaking. There she was shaking water out of the sippy cup spout into the measuring cup and then stirring it with the large serving spoon. I realized she knew exactly which utensils she needed from the drawer! Ainsely says a handful of words including: ma, da, da-lie (natalie), ba (bath), and itty (kitty). She also moos like a cow, baas like a sheep and meows like a cat. Her new signs are fish and please. When she is crying for something, I say, ask nicely, and she either puts her little hand out and says, "uh, uh" or signs please. It's better than nothing. ; )
October 2007 -
Ainsley is obsessed with putting Natalie's shoes on - which she just accomplished fully this month after many months of trying and is also now proficient at pulling off and putting on her socks. She will sit for great lengths of time just trying to put on clothes and accessories.
She also loves the outdoors and the park. She tries 'driving' Natalie's cozy coupe and enjoys riding on her care bear truck. Natalie recently began preschool and Ainsley knows she is getting special time with mom. The first week we dropped Natalie off, Ainsley pointed at Natalie's empty carseat and grunted a few times as if to ask where Natalie was. This week, she cried when Natalie got out of the car to go into school. However, once at home, she quickly found the Natalie's special toys (backpack, purse, and phone) and asked to have them (they were up where Natalie had stashed them to keep them out of Ainsley's reach). We also started a mommy and me music class on Thursday mornings while Natalie is at preschool. Ainsley loves the class (she went before with Natalie and I, but was only a few months old). She recognizes the songs and immediately dances and claps when she hears them. She holds back a lot from being too close to the other kids, but I'm noticing her come out of her shell just a little.
September 2007 -
Ainsley is in such a fun stage right now. She is mimicking everyone and everything so anytime Natalie sings, spins in circles, cries, or laughs, Ainsley does the same thing. There are times when the girls will be in the car belly laughing at each other for no other reason than to laugh. One of the things I love is that this is the stage when my girls start singing along with music. When I put the girls to bed, I always sing them a specific lullaby. Now, when I'm singing to Ainsley, she hums along and then climbs happily into her crib, sucking her thumb and rubbing her fuzzy blanket. It makes me want to hug her forever.
Ainsley is also suddenly aware of bags. I remember when Natalie started carrying around purses and stuffing them full of toys. Ainsley is now doing the same thing, much to Natalie's chagrin since she has thus far had the monopoly on play purses. Alas, Ainsley now gives her a run for her money getting to the purses first. We are working on sharing.....
Ainsley's personality is continually developing. I've noticed a few contradictions, but nonetheless, they are consistent in her. For example, she is extremely cautious and has been since she started crawling, but she is an avid climber. For a child who knew how to crawl down the steps, but wouldn't for the longest time out of trepidation, she has no problem climbing out of her highchair onto the tray (which made mommy go into cardiac arrest). Or, climbing onto a picnic table and dancing around. Another interesting challenge is that she seems to have a sensitive spirit (cries at loud noises, cries at the first sign of discipline, cries when you are disciplining her sister, etc.); however, she is extremely persistent when she doesn't get her way. It will take some wise parenting to figure out how to discipline her without breaking her spirit. I'll let you know in eighteen years how it works out!
One thing is for sure. Ainsley loves her sister. Tonight we were playing in the basement and Natalie pinched her finger in the bathroom door. Ainsley came tearing around the corner when Natalie started crying. When she saw I was hugging Natalie, it seemed to satisfy her and she went back around the corner to continue her playing.
August 2007 -
Ainsley turned one on July 24!! She LOVED her cake and icing as I'm sure most kids do. At first she took one finger, poked it in the icing then put it to her mouth. She repeated this. Then, she dug in with her whole hand and gobbled up as much as possible. Henry and Natalie picked out birthday presents and helped her open them after the cake. She loves her shape sorter, stacking cups, pop-up toy, and stuffed leapard. (Natalie loves them too!)
July 24 was a big day for Ainsley for another reason - she took her first steps! She is still practicing balance and taking little steps, but I'm certain will be walking full-time by September. She gets so proud of herself and even claps for herself when she stands up.
Her vocab is growing to include small words like eyes, hi, bye, and dsh (this??). She also uses a lot of jibberish, but is very clear in what she wants. The other day while in her high chair, she pointed to the Cheerios box on the counter and said, "dadadadadada." When I poured more Cheerios onto her tray, she gave me a huge smile of appreciation.
June/July 2007
Ainsley has mastered the sign for 'finished' and added 'more', 'milk', and 'food' to her repitoire. She doesn't use them as consistently as when she first learned them as now she is adding verbal ques to get her point across. She is still cruising and now climbs the stairs faster than I imagined an 11 month child could. She is definitely our climber - she manage to scale our king size bed the other day and has since climbed it several times. I really have to watch her as she also tries to mimic Natalie crawling on stools, the back of the couch, etc. She is on the go all the time trying to keep up with big sis.
She cut several more teeth this month and has a total of seven - with one on the way, I think. Her nose started running again this morning. Her personality is continually evovling and her sense of humor is developing. The other day, my mom was feeding her and she wasn't enthralled at the choice of food. However, Natalie wanted to try some so my mom was alternating between the two of them. The look on Ainsley's face was priceless. She definitley knew it was an oddity and was in on the joke.
Ainsley is also becoming more of a daddy's girl. She recently reached out to Henry from my arms - a first - and went to play with him as happy as can be. This is wonderful news as she has been such a mama's girl. I love her to death, but it's nice to have her go to someone else without pitching a fit.
I can't believe she will be one year old in a month. Seems like just yesterday I was pregnant with her. She isn't saying anything too clearly, but definitely says, mama and dada but not in context. She also raises her hand to her ear (like a phone) and says, "ha, ha."
May 2007 -
I can't believe how fast Ainsley is getting. She is adept at crawling and started cruising the last week in April. I'm sure it won't be long before she is walking. She is so proud of herself when she pulls herself up and even happier when she cruises. She continues to be especially smiley - and giggles at the slightest provocation. She is starting to mimic - so far she will blow raspberries on command, wave in response, fake laugh, and give kisses.
She went to her nine month check-up on April 24 and weighed in at 17 lbs. 6 oz. and measured 28 1/4 inches long. She is right on track for development with language and motor skills. I noticed in the past week she is experimenting with handing things back and forth to someone. She doesn't quite realize she's supposed to let go of the item - she simply holds it out, lets you hold it (while still firmly grasping it), then brings it back to herself. Natalie gets into the spirit of things by handing Ainsley toys across the car seat when Ainsley gets fussy.
I am most excited that Ainsley signed "finished" in context the last week in April (seems to have been a big week for her). On Monday, I thought she was just waving, but then she did it again on Tuesday and I said to her, "are you finished?" She smiled really big and didn't fuss when I stopped feeding her the food. She has signed it consistently since then, even more clearly and better yet, once when I had given her about 4 bites of peas. She refused to open her mouth, fussed, and waved her little hands in the air. I'm excited to teach her more signs. We will work on 'more' and 'milk' next.
April 2007 -
Two teeth and a month later, Ainsley is as sweet as ever. She went through a rough patch of about a month (yes, nearly the entire month of March) of teething and colds, but for the past week has been back to her cheery self. She went from army crawling to crawling on all fours and pulling up on furniture and toys. She is so proud of herself when she finally gets up that she looks around to make sure we all witnessed her accomplishment. Natalie and I cheer for her and she smiles heartily. She easily maneuvers between laying, sitting, crawling and back again. I forgot how cute it is to look down and see a tiny body playing with a basket of toys.
The other day I was cleaning the kitchen and Natalie and Ainsley were playing in the living room. I heard Natalie say, "Ainsley's crawling on the step." I came around the island to see Ainsley crawling toward the kitchen. (this is a big deal because we have a step-up from our living room to our kitchen). I looked at Natalie and said, "How'd that happen?" "All by herself." Natalie exclaimed. I decided to see just how Ainsley managed to traverse the step so I placed her back down in the living room and sat back to watch. Sure enough, she was sitting on the floor and simply placed her hands on the step, pulled into the standing (bending at the waist) position and hoisted herself onto the edge. As she was doing this Natalie said, "You can do it, Ainsley, you can do it."
Ainsely also started waving this month. She charms people by entering a room, flashing her pearly whites (ok, four teeth that aren't fully grown in don't really flash), and putting up her little hand and waving. She also draws many chuckles and smiles as she 'drives' the shopping cart, sitting primly next to her big sis, and talking up a storm. I must admit, it's very cute to look down and see her little head next to Natalie's in the cart car. I'll try and get a picture for next month.
March 2007 –
January was a big month for Ainsley. She hit several milestones including reaching out toward mommy, sitting up by herself, cutting her first two teeth (at the same time), responding to her name, and on Feb. 1 she started army crawling. It seems like once they start doing one thing, it's only a matter of days or a week before they start something new. I'm a little sad that she's on the path to becoming a big girl, but am excited to see the new things she is accomplishing. Her personality is becoming more apparent with time. She is such a people person where Natalie is very project driven. As soon as Ainsley sees one of us, her little face lights up and she starts crawling or reaching toward us. She loves to just sit on mommy's lap and play with whatever she has at the moment. Natalie was always too busy to sit in my lap so I'm enjoying the cuddle time. Ainsley also responds dramatically to music. The other day, I put a toy xylophone in front of her to bang on and played a few bars of 'ode to joy' to show her how it worked. She broke into a smile as big as T exas as if to say, 'do it again!' She shows the same smile when I sing songs to her. It's as if she thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread. About a month ago, Ainsley started getting hungry every 3 hours instead of her normal 4. It was then I realized she was 6 months old and ready for solid food (you lose track of time the second time around). She quickly let me know she was not a big fan of either rice cereal or baby oatmeal. I also tried peas to no avail. I decided to take drastic measures and skip right to the sweet stuff - bananas! Since then, she learned how to swallow food and now eats a ton of different fruits and vegetables. I decided to try rice cereal the other day just to see if she changed her mind and she hasn't! She had her 6 month check-up today (she turns 7 months tomorrow so we're a little behind). She is now measuring 271/2 inches and weighs 15 lbs. 9 ounces. She is now almost the weight of her Aunt Katie's cat, Eve. Go Ainsley!
January 2007 –
Ainsley continues to flourish – she now can roll over both ways and is almost sitting by herself. I put her in the double stroller without her carrier the other day and she loved it! She was mesmerized by all the sights and didn’t complain at all about being confined (as she often does after several hours in her carrier). She is more aware of her surroundings and is infatuated with her daddy. Anytime he is in the room, she can’t take her eyes off him. She flirts up a storm and he eats it up.
November 2006 -
Ainsley is really starting to show her personality. She is quite the social butterfly - lighting up when anyone talks to her, or something catches her eye, like the chandelier, ceiling fan, mobile....you catch my drift. She laughs out loud when you tickle her thighs and neck and just today realized she has a voice. She has been cooing for quite sometime, but today realized that if she tried really hard, she could raise her voice and hold out the sound for a long time. It was cute to see her experiment.
I told Natalie that Ainsley was talking to her so Natalie bent down and started cooing at Ainsley. Well, Ainsley thought life couldn't get any better. She smiled and talked, talked and smiled. Natalie returned the gesture. It was such a wonderful thing to see the two of them interacting and I got visions of them playing together when they are older. BTW, ever notice how we parents don't have visions of them fighting?
September 2006 -
Ainsley is almost two months old and is growing like a weed. I can't wait for her two-month appointment so I can see how many inches and pounds she has added since birth. She began smiling a few weeks ago in response to voices, and today, I noticed she was not only following me with her eyes, but with her head as well. She loves to be held, can't stand to have dirty pants, and loves her big sister, Natalie.
Ainsley is a content, happy baby. She is starting to be awake a little more during the day. I've caught her more than once smiling at the animals that hang down from her activity mat. People ask me how she is different than Natalie and the only things I can think of are: she doesn't like to fall asleep in complete darkness, she can't stand having a dirty diaper, and she seems to leak more (meaning, I randomly find her with milk dribbling out of the corner of her mouth). Overall she is doing very well adjusting to the big world. She usually only wakes up once a night and tends to fall right back asleep. Occasionally she wants to stay up for an hour, but I'm hoping this past-time will taper off as she gets older.
Check out new pictures of her and everyone else in the Picture Gallery.