13 Months

10 days later, here is Ainsley's 13 month post. Now that she has reached the big ONE year, I haven't been as persistent on getting new posts up. They aren't any less important. I guess I just lost some of the enthusiasm I had had in keeping up with it! What a difference a month has made. Technically, we have an 11 month and 3 week old (given she had been born near her due date). And what has been interesting is that her 1 year-old-ness has really started to come to life in just the last week and 1/2. Yes, our sweet little, carefree, go with the flow, serious Ainsley has turned into a food throwing, screaming loving, very talkative, yet hilarious, hilarious, hilarious little girl. She has started picking up on so many things, imitating us all of the time, and knowing that when she does something and we crack up at her it was funny and she will continue to do it over...and over... and over again. Our little clown has a great big fun loving personality that continues to amaze us every single day. And as if I couldn't say enough about this precious girl, here are a few more things Ainsley is now doing at 13 months:

~I call her my Little Miss Piggy. This girl is a GREAT eater and will now pretty much eat anything we offer her! I still have a few things on my list to try in the near future (like peanut butter, which I'm sure she will love).

~Absolute favorite foods (but will eat most anything): chicken, burger, steak, cheese, grapes, BANANAS, grilled cheese sandwich, green beans, mac-n-cheese, carrots, turkey, ham, yogurt, pasta, and pizza

~EVERY time she hears music ANYWHERE we are, she will start dancing and then proceed to look right at us with a huge grin to get a reaction of "Yay! Dance to the music!"

~She randomly started clapping again. She went through a short phase around 8-9 months of clapping and then she quit doing it. She seems to be this way with a lot of things. I think she gets tired of doing what is new at the time, so it comes and goes in phases.

~Thinks it's a fun thing to spit... (and yes, we may or may not be encouraging it).

~Makes a hilarious face we have named "squooshy face" and will usually do it on command.

~Completely on a sippy cup as of May 13th. Yippee!!! (Although, putting her bottles all away was a very sad moment for me :(

~And BIGGEST event to date....

Ainsley took her first TRUE and CONTROLLED steps on May 23rd! I was at home with her alone and really wasn't expecting it. She usually takes maybe two unsteady steps and then falls towards the person in front of her. This time she wasn't really focused on it, so I let go of her fingers just to see if she would stand alone and off she went 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 steps (straight towards the marble fireplace, so I had to stop her). Brantley was so bummed he wasn't there when I called and told him because we've both been working on it with her at night. However, don't be fooled, the most steps we've gotten her to take since then has been 5 to 6, but her balance is definitely getting stronger. She also thinks it's funny just to fall towards the person in front of or behind her. So we've had to do a lot of catching and have also had a few times where we just quite didn't make it in time....

So that's what's been going on in our house the last month and a half. I feel that we officially have a toddler on our hands and we are finally baby proofing our house this weekend. (Which our pediatrician actually had told us to do by this past Thanksgiving. Ha.)

~13 Months~

Ainsley could walk around the couches and big ottoman literally all day. She is rarely sitting. So we keep a big pile of toys easily accessible at those two places.

However, she has discovered she can get to Bella's kennel. . . . .

And the blinds. . . . .

And the chair cushions. . . . .

And the end table (where there is now a huge couch pillow for a barrier). . . . .

She may be a mess, but she sure is a sweet mess!

Mommy's magazines are fun too!

She has discovered she can make it to a whole new world : the kitchen.

Oh no.

And as if there wasn't enough entertainment already, emptying Bella's toy basket is a new fun activity. Bella sure doesn't mind :)

Because I never did a Mother's Day post. . .

A Daughter

(Author: Unknown)

A daughter brings sunshine to brighten your day.

A daughter brings joy through her loving ways.

A daughter is a blessing that comes from above.

A special and beautiful treasure to love.

God is good.

For My Own Records

As I said in my previous post, last Saturday was the one year mark of when we were able to bring Ainsley home from the hospital! I meant to post some pictures to show what a difference a year has made. Take a look at our beautiful, healthy, one year old girl! INCREDIBLE.

~5/4/10~

~4/30/11~

Ainsley's Special Day

Earlier last week, I told Brantley that on Saturday we needed to have a day dedicated to Ainsley and doing things that would be fun for her. I feel like we are always so focused on what we need to get done and she is just along for the ride. We need to remind ourselves that she has gotten to that age where we need to start scoping out the things that she would enjoy doing as well. Sometimes it's hard to remember that we have an interested, observant toddler now and not just a little baby! So for A's special day we decided to finally make a trip to the Nashville Zoo and then to Babies-R-Us to pick out a new toy! (Ainsley got a gift card there for her birthday from her Aunt Amanda, so we wanted to take her to "pick out a toy" ;)

Friday night, something dawned on me. I realized I couldn't have picked a more perfect day to have a special day for Ainsley because Saturday was the 1 year mark of when we brought her home from the NICU (4/30/10)! It was weird to think the time that has lapsed from her birthday 16 days earlier until then was how long we went without our baby girl being at home with us. I thank God that she progressed so quickly and remained strong during those 16 days because many people are not as fortunate and their wait to bring home their baby is much longer. (As terrible and LONG as it seemed to us at the time, I have come to realize this.)

I was so excited about spending this beautiful day with our little family. That morning, Ainsley fortunately took one of her longer morning naps. While I was getting her ready, Brantley went out to the car and turned A's car seat around so she would finally be facing forward! I had been waiting as long as possible, but I thought this was as good a time as ever to do it. And boy did she enjoy this! She talked the whole way to the zoo and was so smiley! She did pretty good at the zoo, it being her first time and still on a 2 naps a day schedule. I really didn't know what to expect. But we got in a good 2 hours and she enjoyed looking at (a couple of) the animals. Hopefully that will get better considering we paid for a year long membership! Haha. Brantley joked about 10 minutes after getting there saying, "It's a good thing we spent a bunch of money so we could bring Ainsley here to watch kids!" Because that's what ended up happening. We know it will get better and she will eventually want to go to the zoo for reasons that you go to the zoo. For now, watching other kids will have to do. A lot of the animals were so far in the distance that she wouldn't have noticed them. The ones up close she enjoyed watching though. I'm definitely looking forward to going back again, especially considering we didn't look at a map when we got there and only covered about 1/3 of it. After the zoo and dinner, at Red Robin, we headed to the store to pick out Ainsley's new toy. I loved what we ended up with! It's so cute and something I feel like she will be interested in playing with for a long time. Anyways, enough of my rambling and on to the pictures!

**If you haven't checked lately, don't miss my other new posts below.

"What is going on!?"

"This is so much better!"

"I can even wave to Mommy now..."

Ainsley's favorite animal of the day: Meerkats

She wouldn't stop pulling to railing to lean over and take a peak!

Walking break...

Juice break...

She liked the flamingos too!

I was kind enough to let Brantley take Ainsley into Alligator Cove. Although I was dying to go in and see the alligators, snakes, and fish, I decided to not be selfish and give him the chance, while I stayed behind to keep an eye on the wagon. HA!

(Hence I have no pictures from here, but Brantley reported that she liked watching the fish.)

One of the many times we pointed at an animal and Ainsley looked the complete opposite direction...to watch kids.

"Ooooh, zebras!"

Red Robin and one of A's faves: grilled cheese.

Ainsley's new grocery cart! Daddy put it together for her while she took her bath and then we had a little play time before going to bed.

I love my sweet girl!

A lot of catching up to do!

This is a post to let you know I have new posts! I didn't want to you to miss a thing :) So check out my FOUR new posts below.

What a mess!

But totally worth it!

(Ainsley enjoying her first chocolate chip cookie. I think she liked it...)