To Daddy, Love Ainsley

It doesn't get much better than this.

*If you haven't read Ainsley's 7 month post below then keep on reading!*

7 Months

Ainsley turned 7 months old this past Sunday. Boy does time fly! I keep saying every month that that month is my favorite age. Yet again, this is my favorite age! She is so interactive and fun, but she is still a baby. I just love this little girl more than anything in the world!

At 7 months Ainsley is:

~loving her food! She eats cereal in the morning, a veggie and fruit for lunch, and a veggie and fruit for dinner (Stage 2). She gets excited at the site of container of food and the spoon. She has gotten to where she will eat all of the foods. The greens are still the most difficult, but with some fruit every other bite she has no problems eating it. She's getting a baby belly and we love it!

~"eating" crackers. We will give her (saltless) Saltines to "eat", which really just ends up making a big mess for me to clean up! But she loves them and it entertains her for all of 5 minutes.

~going to bed at 8:00. She really gets fussy for bed time between 7:00-7:30, especially if she took a shorter afternoon nap. But I try to get her to stay awake until 8:00 to keep her on her morning schedule.

~sleeping around 9 1/2 to 10 1/2 hours a night. She is still waking up once during the night every now and then. But it hasn't been real consistent. I actually let her "cry it out" for the first time about a week ago. Talk about hard to do. I just laid in bed and almost cried myself. But the doctor recommended this because at this point she should be able to put herself back to sleep without my help. But like I said it's inconsistent, so I don't know if it will actually help.

~taking a morning nap (around 45 minutes to 2 hours) and an afternoon nap (around 1 to 3 hours). You just never know with this one! The only thing that is consistent is that she takes a nap in the morning and one in the afternoon.

~wearing a size 2 diaper

~wearing size 3-6 months in most clothes still.

~rolling from back to stomach. I have a hard time believing this one considering she has done it twice and both times was when Brantley was watching her in the morning. She hasn't done it for me yet! Oh well, I guess I'll believe him.

~sitting up with our support. She is still wanting to lean to the side or back when we let go of her. But with the boppy or our help she will sit just fine. She did sit by herself the other night for a minute or so, but still not quite ready.

~reaching for our faces, especially our mouths. I LOVE this!

~pulling mommy's hair. I don't love this!

~fussing when I lay her on her changing table. It's as if she doesn't want me to put her down, but right when I start the motion of laying her on it she begins crying. All I have to do is give her her paci and she stops. She doesn't mind having her diaper changed. I think she's just being a little spoiled stinker!

~also fussy and throws a fit when we put her in her car seat. Yet again her paci usually does the trick. It's like she expects it.

~reaching for her toes and holding her feet.

~reaching her arms out when I reach to get her.

~giving wide open wet mouth kisses.

~reaching for toys, along with the tv remote and our cell phones which she is intrigued by.

~still playing with her favorite toy: the paci

~able to get her paci and put it in her mouth by herself (although I keep a couple in her crib at night and am still unsure if she knows to do this during the night).

That about wraps it up. I'm probably missing some things. But if I haven't already thought of them they must not be too important. But it's past my 9:30 bed time (haha) and I'm about to crash. Hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving next week! I know I will!

I guess she thought if she strangled the bear I wouldn't be able to take any more pictures.

Bear, or no bear...the picture taking continued. (Don't worry I stopped after this. I just had to capture her usual "I've had enough of this" mood for my own record keeping.)

CMA's

Before you get too excited, I have to admit I really do not have any pictures from the CMA's. I know, I know. How could I not? Well, silly me followed the rule stated on our tickets, which said, "no cameras, no video, no something else I can't remember..." So I decided to leave my camera at home knowing they would be checking purses at the entrance. I figure I had my phone so that would just have to do. Upon our arrival to Bridgestone Arena we began noticing signs that said, "No Professional Cameras or Videography Allowed." Uhhhhh! I was so mad that I didn't go ahead and just try to "sneak" in my camera because then I would have had it. Of course EVERYONE and their mom had their cameras. Brantley started getting annoyed by me because every five seconds I would say, "I can't believe I didn't bring my camera!" Anyways, all of this to say the pictures I took with my iPhone will have to do for now, but I am only posting a few because they all look the same. Go figure. Luckily, there was another man there Brantley works with who had his camera (smart him). So Brantley is dreadingly going to ask the man if he can burn us a cd of the pictures he took. I know that's weird for him to do since he's a guy, but I told him he could make it clear to the guy that I was making him ask! So for now...

*Update: Since I typed this post I found out I will be getting pictures from the man at Brantley's work. So hopefully I will some day actually have something worth showing!

All dressed up and ready to go

(Please ignore the mess background :)

Before the celebs were seated

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood

Taylor Swift

Carrie Underwood

"Luck of the Draw"

Guess where I will be this Wednesday night???

Going to the...

My wonderful, amazing, loving hubby won us tickets to the Country Music Awards!!!

I am so so so excited! And to top it off 2 of my most favorite artists are hosting it (Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley). Of course the first thing that came to my mind when he told me we were going was, "What am I going to wear?!" So I went on a mini shopping spree today and came home with 2 options. The problem is I have no idea which outfit I'm going to choose! Thank you Brantley! You're the best! (Can you tell I'm just a little excited with all of the exclamation points I used?)

*By the way, for those of you who care, I went back and posted a few pictures of Ainsley with the cat hat on that matched her outfit in the previous post. They are the last few at the end of the post.

Halloween (kind of)

So this year our Halloween was, well, non-existent. Everyone kept asking if I was going to dress Ainsley up and as what. My response? "Maybe. At home. For a few pictures. That's it." I know that's not very fun. But I didn't have anywhere to take her and obviously she could care less and would not be happy in a "costume" for very long. But since it was technically her first Halloween, I did go ahead and dress her up at home and take some quick pics for all of our enjoyment and something for me to look back on some day. So here ya have it folks!

Ainsley got a Halloween treat from Lili and Pop. What baby doesn't love new toys to chew on? Thanks Lili and Pop!

Giving Pop a big ole smile

Here are the pictures I did take of Baby A dressed up in the comfort of our own home :) I must say she makes a really cute flower and it would have been the perfect "costume" if we had taken her somewhere where she would have needed to dress up. A special thank you to a dear friend, Erin, for giving me this flower outfit for Ainsley back in February. It was absolutely adorable (although Ainsley didn't seem to be as amused as I was)!

The prettiest flower I have ever seen!

"Seriously? This is so ridiculous."

"Really, I can't decide what I am thinking."

"I guess I'll play along."

"Hmmm..."

"Okay, I think it's been long enough. I mean it's been what, 5 minutes already!?"

"At least it's soft and pink!"

"But I'm still not sure..."

"Okay you can take this off of me now...."

"Maybe if I do this, Mommy will get the idea!"

*Honestly it wasn't the outfit she wasn't happy about. She always gets really fussy after I sit and take pictures of her for very long (as you might can tell from other previous monthly posts I've had). But I gotta have the pictures, right!?

Ainsley's Mimi (Brantley's step-mom) bought her this cute Halloween-ish outfit. Brantley almost didn't approve because it had to do with cats and he hates cats, however it was great for Halloween week and just to lounge around in. Also, the saying on the front is too cute! Thank you Mimi (and Pawpaw) for this fun outfit!

Side Note: Don't miss Ainsley's 6 Month Check-Up post below!

6 Month Check-Up

Today was Ainsley's 6 month check-up with Dr. Walters. It went really well! But we were both a bit sad when she had to get those dreaded shots! I went ahead, with some hesitation, and got her flu shot. I was a little apprehensive about it because they say the child has to be at least 6 months old and she just turned 6 months. It's not mandatory, but our pediatrician kept saying (with emphasis) that it is something he would highly recommend. And I trust his opinion, so we went ahead with it. But poor baby ran a little fever that evening and was PITIFUL! I never imagined how awful it would feel when you can tell your baby doesn't feel well. I would have done anything to make her feel better, but obviously besides some tylenol and lovin', there's not much you can do. I will spare you the rest of the details and leave you with her stats. Overall, we have a healthy beautiful baby girl and she is developmentally on track and doing great!

At 6 and 1/2 months:

Weight- 15 pounds 2.5 ounces (25th percentile)

Height- 26 and 1/2 inches (65th percentile)

HC- 17 and 1/2 " (90th percentile! Haha.)

Waiting to be called back to see the doc. Can you tell she's excited? (Really she had just woken up from falling asleep in the car.)

2 shots on each leg :(

She was in a pretty good mood right when we got home, so we played for a bit. But by the evening it was a different story.