Carrots...

My mom has convinced me to make Ainsley's baby food, and its actually very easy, not to mention cheaper and free of preservatives and other non essentials! We can also give her a wider variety of baby foods by making it ourselves instead of buying it. Today we made carrots and gave her her first taste of veggies. She likes them much better than her cereal, but she's still learning the whole process.

Old Friends

My mother, Ainsley and I had lunch with an old friend of mine yesterday. Maren and I are both guiltly of losing touch with one another, but we were once very close. We spent a large part of our middle school and high school years at one another's homes and I think each felt at home with each other's family. Despite the number of years its been, it is amazing how you can sit down with an old friend and talk for hours like it was just last week that you last spoke. I think that is a sign of someone who has been a true friend to you. I pray that Ainsley has many friends in her life like Maren, and I pray even more that she's better at keeping in touch with them than I have been. Since we hadn't spoken in several years, Maren and I had no clue that we were both pregnant at the same time. She has a precious little boy named Carson who is about 7 weeks younger than Ainsley. Now that we know just how short of a drive we have to make to see each other, I hope that we will get together more often.

Who knew Ainsley was into vintage?

Now that Ainsley is getting better at sitting up with a little support, she prefers to swing sitting up where she can see everyone. And her swing of choice is the older Graco swings. They still make them, but I just don't see them in stores very often. So we searched Craigslist and found one to buy from a family nearby whose little girl had outgrown it. She loves it and we've found the perfect spot for it where she can see us in the living room, see us in the kitchen and can't see the TV. You can see in the second picture that she likes to wedge her foot up in the tray while she swings. She also liked to wedge her foot in my ribs when I was pregnant with her...coincidence? Maybe. In the last picture it seems she got bored with her book and fell asleep (actually, she loves her book)!

First Surgery

Lots of firsts for Ainsley this week, not all good ones. Ainsley had a super short surgery this morning to have tubes put in her ears. We got there at 6am and were walking out the door by 7:30am. The surgery itself was barely 5 minutes. The ENT said that she had so much fluid in her ears that her ear drums were bulging. We can already tell that she is feeling better and hearing the world differently! We pray that she continues to get better and that this is an end to her ear infections for awhile. Almost two months of ear infections was enough. Now does this look like a little girl who had surgery this morning???

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She did it!!!

Ainsley has been so close to rolling from her back to her tummy for awhile, but tonight she finally did it! I had been on the floor with her trying to coax her the rest of the way over for about 10 minutes when I got up to get on the computer for a second. I hadn't been away from her for 30 seconds when I looked down and found her on her tummy. She's finding it fun now and done it several more times, including once for the camera....enjoy!

First Play Date!

Ainsley had her first play date this afternoon with Jaxson, the son of our friends Lenzie and Cory. Jaxson is 7 and a half months. We don't get to see Ainsley interact with her classmates at day care very much, so it was fun to see her interact with Jaxson. Jaxson is very sweet and wanted to hold Ainsley's hand. We had a good visit and cannot wait to see them again! By then, Ainsley will be sitting up and more mobile so she can keep up with Jaxson.

4 Months!!

It's hard to believe it, but Ainsley was 4 months old this past Wednesday. Once again, she had her shots the day she turned 4 months, and she was not a happy camper. She got quite a bit more upset with these shots compared to the numerous other times she has had shots now, so the only 4 month picture of her that we got was her asleep in Dustin's arms. Everyone says they wish their babies didn't grow so fast, and in Ainsley's case she isn't. She was just 11 lbs 14.5 oz at her appointment. We are hoping she will start gaining weight a little quicker once we can get her ears better. We have an appointment with the ENT in the morning and are hoping for some good news. She is in the 10th percentile for her weight, but 90th for her length...who knew Dustin and I could have a tall, skinny child!?!? (I never did post her 3 month picture...I'm going to try to add that tonight as well)

New Things!

Ainsley received a doorway jumper from her Nana for Christmas. We put it up for the first time today. She's still so small that she really does not fit well in it or in her exersaucer that we gave her for Christmas. So I had to tuck two hand towels in with her so she would fit better. The doorway where we would like to leave the jumper is too high. Even with the jumper on its longest/lowest length, she's about an inch away from being able to touch the ground. So for now we will probably have to use it in the smaller and shorter doorway between the living room and bedroom and just put it up each time we use it. She really seemed to like it and I think as she figures it out a bit better she will love it. Here's my first attempt at adding a video to the blog, plus a picture of her in her jumper and just a cute picture of her and Charlie hanging out together:

Duck Hunting

Okay...so she isn't duck hunting just yet, but I'm sure Dustin and my dad will have a shot gun in her hands as soon as she's old enough (I believe 8 was the magical age for me). Ainsley made her second visit to the duck camp in Arkansas over the New Year's holiday. We didn't get a chance to take pictures of her there when we went after Thanksgiving. This time we were able to get pictures of her and she was able to wear her new camo from Grammy and Grandpa.

We had a great time until she got sick on New Year's Eve. She had been crying all day, but didn't have a fever until about 10 that night when it was very suddenly at 102.8. So we headed to the ER in Texarkana and I won't even get into that fiasco. She is fine now. We visited our pediatrician again yesterday and she still has her ear infections. We are trying to treat them one more time before she will refer us on to an ENT. She's had ear infections for almost a month now. So Ainsley spent her very first New Year's Eve in the ER with Dustin and I and Nana and Papaw. Had it not been for Ainsley, I think we all would have been in bed asleep and never seen the New Year come in. We hope your New Year's was a little less chaotic than ours. Here are the pics.

LoLo

LoLo and Ainsley met for the first time Saturday. For those of you who do not know LoLo, she has been a part of our family for over 50 years. Just over a year ago she moved to Houston to live closer to her family, but she decided to come back home to Shreveport. She moved home the day after Christmas, so I took Ainsley to meet her the first chance I got. It was a short visit, but I'm happy that she is in Shreveport again and we can both visit her more often. Here are a couple of pictures from our visit.