Genius at 2, big deal I am only 7 1/2 months!

Those are Ainsley's thoughts on the little boy we heard about on the news this morning. She just looked at him on the tv and gave her little glare and then whispered in my ear "that boy doesn't have anything on me!"

Ainsley is quickly approaching the 8 month mark! Can you believe that it has been nearly 8 months, my how the time goes by much too quicly. In her nearly 8 months of life she has accomplished so many things! We are such proud parents! I am pretty sure she is going to be putting that 2 year old genius to shame! I am confident that she will blow his IQ score of 160 right out of the water way before she turns 2:) Afterall, she can:

*sit up
*crawl all over the house
*pull up, stand up, and pat the furniture all in sequence
*wave bye bye
*say mamma
*we swear she answers our questions sometimes
*jump in her bed
*eat big girl food
*run around the house in her walker
*sucessfully stand behind her little walk behind walker and go from one end of the living room to the other- Some assistance needed, this is a new skill.
*Pull hands full of hair from her furbaby brother Riley

Those are only a few of her many accomplishments lately! We don't want to make the 2 year old genius feel bad just yet. We will save that for when she takes over the spotlight:)

If anyone would like to see some very recent pictures of Ainsley from her most recent photo shoot please visit www.libertycountyphotography.com and click on Children. Her name is listed near the top!

You are my sunshine!

On this very dreary, and cold day (yes a high of 74 today is cold) in Hardin, Texas Ainsley is our sunshine! She is such a ray of sun each and everyday and I am convinced I grow to love our little pumpkin more and more with each passing day.

She has been full of herself since waking us up at 5:00 this morning. I mean just super hyper and all giggles and smiles. Here is a video that I took after I got her dressed this morning. This is only 1 minute of the 5 hours of fun we have had this morning!!! Anybody care to join the party tomorrow at 5 am???

My daddy is SO FUNNY....

but I think he still needs to keep his day job:)

These are a few of her favorite things...

SMILING!

The girl smiles ALL OF THE TIME! From the time she starts talking in her crib at 5:30 or so every morning to that last good night kiss she is giggling and smiling!

SITTING UP!Ainsley has been sitting up on her a own for short periods of time for a couple weeks now. She improves everyday, but still tends to lose her balance when she wants a toy that is a little farther from her then her fingertips. We practice daily, and I think she will have the hang of it very soon.

ATTEMPTING TO CRAWL!

My baby is almost mobile! She wants her "cruising license" so bad! She has perfected the hands and knees stance necessary for crawling, and she can scoot her way to anywhere with the best of them. Her little arms get tired fairly fast though so she can't maintain the botty in the air and hands on the floor stance for very long. We are predicticing that in the next two weeks we will be installing a large baby gate to keep her out of the dining room and kitchen.

One last smile for all of you!

Splishin and Splashin!

We received an invitation this morning from my lovely friend Kelli to go to a pool party at her house! We were all over that invite! I have been wanting to take Ainsley swimming all summer but it never seems to work out for one reason or another. Today was the day! I had a lot to do to make it happen (I think we need to buy an enclosed little trailer to stow Ainsley's supplies for our day long adventures). I managed to get everything together, makes some brownies, place a few phone calls all before we left at 9:15. We had to make a pit stop in Liberty because I had ANOTHER lovely nail in my tire and it had to be replaced. So we head to the local tire shop and they gladly took my $218 and had us on our way in under an hour! The nicest thing they did for me was accept my check without a drivers license because I had left my wallet at home. When we were waiting for the van to be finished a nasty storm blew in. I was sure our swimming plans were going to be put on hold once again, but thankfully it passed quickly and we were on our way. Yes, Momma drove the hour long drive without her drivers license ( I was being careful). This didn't seem like a big deal until I realized Ainsley needed a swim diaper and I had NO WAY of getting a pack! I thought of every possible scenario and without my ID it wasn't going to happen. I decided to give Wal Mart a shot, sometimes they ask for ID when using a check and sometimes they don't. So we went into Wal Mart with fingers crossed that we would be leaving with a package of Small Swim diapers. I strategically chose the nicest looking cashier in the express lane. I was sure she was going to accept my check with no problem. I used my nicest smile and voice. Guess what! It didn't work! She refused my check even though it had every piece of necessary information! I was not a happy camper and felt like the worst mom in the world. My kid is ready for her first swimming experience and it is not going to happen because her mom didn't bring her stupid wallet! She wasn't nearly as upset as I was...When we get to Kelli's house I express how upset I am because Ainsley can't swim without a swim diaper. Well thankfully Ainsley is a big girl! She was able to wear one of Ethan's swim diapers!! Ethan is 18 months old and Ainsley is 5 months old! They both wear the small size! Momma was very happy about this:)

Ainsley LOVED the water. She was smiling the entire time she was in the water. Not only smiling but giggling. Not bothered for one minute by the splashes of the other children and she found the kids going down the sliding board to be hilarious. I hope that she continues to love the water. I am thinking that next summer we will be in a mommy and me swimming lessons. I really want her to enjoy the water. These Texas summers are way too hot not to take a dip in the pool from time to time, and we plan to have a pool put in sometime in the future.

After her swimming adventures she was completely worn out. You would have thought she swam the Atlantic. I put her in the carseat and before she could even bid farewell to her friends she was out like a light. She slept the entire way home and was more then ready for bed at 7:00!

Here are a couple pictures from our swimming adventure as well as she and daddy on the big tractor.

My kid has toe jam!

I made the toe jam discovery last week and I was in SHOCK! I haven't seen toe jam in years, and when I pulled little Ainsley's toes apart for inspection I made the discovery! She didn't like it, but her momma is a picker and so I had to pick it all out for her. There is no way on earth I could have waited until her evening bath time! I have no clue how long she has had the jam accumulating. I mean the child goes without shoes or socks everyday and I have never noticed it before!

In other exciting news momma finely gave in and let Ainsley sleep in her big girl bed last night! Ainsley has been sleeping in her pack and play beside our bed for months. She seemed to like it but we knew it was time for her to enjoy her beautiful bed we bought for her. She slept from 7:00 to 6:00 and I only had to get up one time to put her pacifier back in her mouth. When she would sleep beside our bed I would have to help her with her pacifier at least 3 times a night. I think she loves her bed and is probably wondering why it took so long!

I only have 15 days and I go back to work! I am not looking forward to it at all! I have worked in my room a couple days in the past two weeks, but I can take Ainsley with me. It is so wonderful to have her with me all the time. We have so much fun and I love to see those smiles all throughout the day. She has learned so much since I have been off for the summer and I have loved witnessing all of it. I know she is going to continue to learn at a rapid pace when I return to school and Grandma Linda will get to see a lot of the firsts, but I think I will tell Grandma not to tell me and Ainsley can surprise us with it when she gets home! One of the greatest things about being a teacher though is that I get so much time off! I am already looking forward to Thanksgiving vacation!

We are having a get together for a former co worker of mine today. Ainsley helped me prepare a few things this morning. She is so interested in watching me do everything in the kitchen. I can't wait to we can really cook together!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

What is our Little Miss doing these days?

On Sunday Ainsley turned 5 months old! I can't believe it has been 5 months since she joined our family!

You may ask, what is Ainsley up to these days?

*She can sit-up unassisted for short periods of time. That is until she gets interested in a toy that is not in her hand then she tends to loose her balance.

*She is beginning to like bath time more and more.

*She likes to "swim" on the floor, while swimming she goes in circles and typically will end up WAY off her pallet.

*She loves her toys, she plays with each and everyone of them everyday

*She now usually takes two naps a day and goes to sleep promptly at 7:00.

*She love the dogs and thinks they are just the funniest things. They really bring out the belly laughs in her.

*She watched Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa play "cowboy" with a bull on Saturday and you could tell she was taking it all in. Her daddy told her to learn alot because she will be out there with him in a few years! I think NOT!

*She gets to eat solids twice a day. She loves her solids. This week her foods have been rice cereal, applesauce for breakfast and carrots before her 4:00 bottle. It is so cute, she snaps that mouth shut like an alligator and it sounds like she says "mmmm'' after each and every bite!

I am going to attach a couple pictures from this past weekend, she was so cute decked out in her big hair bows. I know some people don't care for them, however I think they are the cutest thing and I waited a long time for this so she will be sporting hairbows for as long as she can tolerate them!

A new location, a new look!

I have not been very good at keeping up with our Babyjellybeans site, so I thought I would save a little money and cancel that account and start my own blog. Please be patient with me as I learn the ins and outs of keeping a blog. Babyjellybeans was SO user friendly, but a waste of money if I am not going to keep it up to date. We will give this a try and see how well I am at updating when it doesn't cost me anything:)

An update on Ainsley...she is growing so fast and is just such a joy. She is quickly approaching her 5 month birthday on the 19th of July. I can't believe we have been parents for 5 months. It just seems like yesterday I was in the hospital not knowing how everything was going to turn out since I was not progressing with induction. Time really does fly when you are having fun. I enjoy every minute of watching her grow up. It is amazing to me just to watch her little mind work. She takes in everything around her and I may be a little bias but I think she is going to be a pretty smart cookie.

I will list a few of her favorites as well as some recent milestones:

*She had her first airplane flight when we went to Ohio for 11 days-she was AWESOME! Thanks to my aunt, uncle, and cousin for helping me get to Ohio and back. I was a little nervous about the whole experience.

*She scoots on her belly and goes in circles, the girl is ready to crawl!

*She loves to play in her Baby Einstein Exersaucer and her walker. She has backwards down, just needs to master the forward motion.

*The girl will eat anything! She never has been a picky eater, and she continues this trend. Today she had peaches and cereal for breakfast.

*Has been sleeping through the night since about 8 weeks:) Continues to go to bed by around 7:30!

*She is a rolling over machine. She was only going back to belly but now she goes both ways. As soon as we put her on her pallet on the floor she immediately rolls to her belly.

*Ainsley loves to smile, she for the most part is a very happy baby with a lovely/funny personality. Unless she is sleepy or hungry then you better watch out:)

*She is trying very hard to talk, the only words I think I have heard so far are "Bubba" and "Mama". I am probably hearing things but from time to time it seems very clear.

I will upload some recent pictures of the little sweet pea. In the meantime you can visit http://www.libertycountyphotography.com/ and see some adorable pictures we had taken when she was nearly 4 months old.

Leave us some comments we would love to hear from everyone! My goal will be to post every few days but please don't stop reading if a week or so goes by without an update.