These are new pictures, but these are not pictures from yesterday or last night. See, somehow we have misplaced the camera's charger. And the camera has died. So until we find it or buy a new one, you'll just have to see my favorite pictures. I just love the one of her in the yellow top and plaid skirt. She makes the funniest faces when you pull out the camera. She knows you're going to take a picture of her. We can probably thank my mom for that. For anyone who doesn't know my mom well, she always...I mean always...has her camera with her. Don't worry mom, I'm not picking on you. It's actually a very good thing, we have plenty of gorgeous Ainsley pictures to choose from.
I bought Ainsley a waking toy (you can see part of it in the second picture). It is this little contraption on wheels that stands up so little ones learning to walk can push it around and still have a little support. Then when they are way past the walking milestone, it turns into this little car type thing that they can ride. Anyway, very good idea, but not really thought out all the way. So Ainsley, as I've said before, is all over the place. She no longer stays where you put her. I can't take my eyes off of her for a second. This doesn't mean just crawling, she stands up every chance she gets. She can walk around furniture and stand unsupported...she just can't do the two together. So these little walkers are supposed to help with that. Unfortunately they don't really have a slow down option. Baby stands up and puts pressure on wheeled contraption and baby does not know how to move feet well yet. So guess what happens...right, she falls right on her face. Luckily, I realized this issue before letting her just have at it. So instead of this becoming a fun toy that will keep her occupied while I make dinner, clean the house, whatever; it has become a "mommy holds it steady and moves it slowly while Ainsley takes little steps" toy. I know she'll get there, and believe me, I'm not trying to rush her. I'm just trying to keep her focused on things other than the remotes, the phones, the mail, the dog food, the cords, the TV, the DVD player...you get the picture. Find the one thing in the room that you don't want Ainsley to touch and she's bound to already be there and stuffing it in her mouth before you can even consider moving it.
Aside from the walking, Ainsley is also making great strides in the eating department...but these milestones can be tough hurdles to overcome as well. After Ainsley's 9 month check up, we started feeding her real table food instead of just baby food from the jar. She still gets the strained carrots and peas, but now she eats just about anything we eat as long as it is somewhat soft and/or can be cut into minuscule pieces. She's only got two teeth, so chewing is not so much chewing as mushing with gums. With this new taste adventure comes the danting task of feeding herself. She's becoming quite good at it. No more raking food towards her or mashing it with her palm and hoping it sticks long enough to make it to her mouth. Oh no, she has just about mastered the pincher (for non mommies, or mommies who haven't had babies in awhile that's the technical term for picking things up with your thumb and pointer finger). I thought this would be a momentous occasion, finally we could sit down and have family dinners. To some extent we have, however with the pincher has come just a little bit of attitude from our dear Ainsley. You see, she no longer wants to be fed with a spoon. She would prefer to hold the spoon (when I say hold I mean, slap, throw, bang, etc) herself and gets very upset when forced into spoon feeding from mommy or daddy. This would not be a problem if we could get completely off the baby foods, but some things she's just not ready for yet, plus not everything can be picked up with the fingers (soup for example :). So for now we just fight with her. I guess its the first of many to come. Tonight we had spaghetti for the first time and Ainsley loved it. Who wouldn't right? I wish so much I had the camera tonight because you all would of loved these pictures. Spaghetti up her nose, red sauce on her ears, ground beef in her hair. It was a work of art.
Never a dull moment. It's happening so fast and she's growing up so quickly, I just can't believe it's been 9 months. I was just talking to my Aunt Linda tonight about her kids. Her oldest is graduating from high school next month and her youngest is 6 feet tall. I used to change these boys diapers, play basketball (which I hate!) with them, and play the same baby games I now play with Ainsley. It seems like just yesterday...it's hard to believe Ainsley will ever be that big. Of course, nine months ago I never would of thought we'd be here. I'm just trying to take every moment in as slowly as possible. Maybe every once in awhile I'll be able to make time stand still. Maybe.
