Ainsley Stats

Ainsley had her 18 month appointment with the doctor this past week and I wanted to give you her new stats.

Weight: 25 lbs 5 ounces (75th percentile)
Height: 33 1/2" (95th percentile)

For the first time in a long time, Ainsley did not cry when the doctor listened to her heart and checked her ears. She did cry a bit when she got three shots. We also found out that she has a full-blown, double ear infection...no symptoms - nice!

TGIF everyone :)

It's all about sleep

So, if you have read my blog for any length of time you know that Ainsley is not the best sleeper. You know that we have struggled to get her to go to sleep, stay asleep and sleep in her crib. You've read my guilty rants about the "cry it out" method and my new found hope in the "no tears" way. Well now I'm here to say that it's all total crap. I've decided that if I really want to make my millions I should just write a do-it-yourself, teach your kid to sleep book. If I ever get Ainsley to sleep on a consistent basis, I am publishing that IMMEDIATELY!!!!

Ainsley goes back and forth with sleep. She started sleeping through the night on a fairly consistent basis in October - she was 15 months old. So all you mommies out there that whine about your babies not sleeping through the night at 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 months...come, visit me for a few nights. Feel my pain! Seriously, I'm just kidding. If I've learned one thing about being a mom, we should not judge. Every mom has her own special way of coping. It's not an easy job. Anyway, we started travelling the weekend of Thanksgiving. We were all over the place for 6 weeks straight. During that time Ainsley was actually pretty good about sleeping, but she got very used to sleeping with us or in the car or in her stroller or on the couch...anywhere but her crib. So fast forward to this month, we've been home the last 3 weekends and don't have any travelling plans. This girl will not nap, will not go to sleep, and when she finally does go to sleep it's for a very short period of time.

This first reared it's ugly head when Ainsley was home sick about 2.5 weeks ago. I was home with her all day and she would not go down for a nap no matter how hard or what I tried. Clif came home around 2 so I could get into the office and get a few things done. I came home that night to a little girl passed out on the living room floor. Now, you may not think that is such a big deal. We've all seen the videos or pictures of the toddler snoring in his cereal, or drooling on her drawing because the little tot is so tired he just can't stand up any more. Ainsley is not like that. She is determined to stay awake at all costs and she has never fallen asleep. Ainsley must be put to sleep, lulled to sleep, rocked to sleep...there is no falling about it.

The even funnier part about the longest nap in history (she fell asleep at 5 and woke up the next morning at 7), is that at 10ish that night, she sat up, opened her eyes and cried. I pulled her up on my lap and instead of calming down she just cried louder, pushed me away, then crawled back to the floor where she snuggled up with the pillow and went back to sleep.

The child is insane.

Still no Internet...

So my confidence in Verizon FIOS is slowly dwindling. I still have no Internet at my house which means I can't update my blog, I can't work on my class and Clif can't look for a job. Actually, Clif is at Panera as I type this using their free Wi-Fi. But, because Verizon told him that the new router would be delivered by noon on Friday, he was at home waiting for it. When he called back he was told just some time that day. When he called back at 7 PM that night, the guy basically laughed and said, no way...they send those things 2-Day! What a load of crapola! Anyway, I would of updated with pics, if I had the Internet. So here are a couple of my favorite pictures of Ainsley that I happen to have at work.

Internet DOWN...

So I'm trying to stay true to my word and post twice a week. The beginning of this week has been very busy. So I haven't posted and I haven't worked on my class. Tonight, I was planning on doing both...however, I hear from my husband, who is at home (more on that to come), that our Internet is down. So I am at work posting. That means no pics...sorry. We are supposed to be back up and running tomorrow, so I will post again this weekend.

Most of you know that Clif worked for Circuit City, and I'm sure most of you know that Circuit City is done :( This makes me very sad for multiple reasons. First - my husband does not have a job. No worries, we will pull through. I am confident that he will find something soon. Second - it just makes Richmond more depressing. So many companies have laid off or closed around here. I know so many people out of work. It's like I went to sleep one day and everything was fine and then poof, I wake up and we are right here in the middle of crap. I'm sure if I was really good at following politics and the economy and the news, I would have expected it, but I feel like it happened so fast. I can't stand to think of all those people out of work, it's just so sad. Third - Best Buy...you know my hatred for them and now they are going to get even more business...so I have to say shop Target, shop Wal-Mart...do not go to evil Best Buy!!! I can't stand going to Wal-Mart, but I will brave the nastiness and crowds at Wal-Mart to avoid Best Buy. It is my vow to never step foot in that store again. They just give me more reason to hate them at every turn. And when people stop buying gift cards for Clif there, I will force him to do the same.

Well, other than the no job thing we are doing fine and I will post pics of Ainsley this weekend. She's growing up so fast. The little baby I had just a year and a half ago is about gone, she's such a little girl now...AND!!!! I can actually get barrettes to stay in her hair now! Can you believe it?!?!?

Trip to the Aquarium

While visiting my parents for Christmas, we took Ainsley to a near by aquarium. I think she really enjoyed it, she was pretty tired due to no nap, but I think she had a good time. I told Clif that we would have to take her back to the zoo now that she's getting into animals.

She loved the fish tanks. She would pick out the brightest fish and get so excited when they swam by. She also learned to make a fish face. Also, the aquarium was so wide open that she got to run around like a mad woman. Exactly what she loves to be!

Not too many stories from the day, but we got lots of pictures, so enjoy...

New Year's Resolutions

I'm one of those people who likes to have a starting point for something. For instance, I won't start exercising on a Thursday...I'll wait until Monday. Or I won't start a diet on January 15th, I'll wait until February 1st. So of course, I am quite the resolution creator. I don't always stick to them, but I try for awhile.

One of my resolutions for 2009 is to update my blog more. I am shooting for twice a week. Lately it has been once a week at best, and I really want to do it more...life just gets so hectic. I'm also resolving to work on my freaking Internet class 3-4 times a week. I have totally fell off of that recently. The holidays just got in the way and there really was just no time for it. So I started again tonight. I feel my mood dip when I know I have to do it. It's not that I don't like it, I think I like it - I'm really not sure at this point. The problem is that the days that I try and work on it are just the longest days in the history of time. Working 8-10 hours at my real job, scrambling to get dinner made, then working 2-4 hours on the course before passing out just sucks. So I just can't wait until I'm finished, then at least when I work some extra time I'll get paid for it.

Ok, enough complaining. Let me catch you up on all that has been happening. Ainsley is growing up so fast. I mean she talks now. Not full on conversations, and I still can't understand everything she says but any day now she's just going to bust out in a monologue or something. Crazy how quickly time passes. So I guess the last time you heard from me was after our trip to Connecticut/NYC.

The two weeks between that weekend and Christmas were nothing but shopping, cleaning, baking, visiting and nursing Clif back to health...nasty stomach flu, luckily Ainsley and I did not get it. We attended a couple of Christmas parties, did all of our shopping in 24 hours and baked loads of cookies for Ainsley's teachers.

We did try and visit Santa during that time. Yes, I say try. I guess just like every parent I thought, well I know kids don't like Santa, but those other kids are not MY kid. Of course she'll do great...right. We went to dinner before hand and Ainsley was so friendly and talkative to everyone around us that I was just sure she'd sit on his lap. Then on the way to the mall we worked on our "Ho, Ho, Ho." Definitely no problem. Then we get to the food court. She sees Santa and waves and belts "Ha, Ha, Ha." Oh, we've got this in the bag, I think. We will have one of those adorable pictures of her smiling on Santa's lap. I step across the threshold towards Santa and meltdown! Let me say that Ainsley does cry, and she does throw her little fits sometimes, but this cry and this fit were like nothing I had every witnessed before. She wrapped those little arms around my neck so tightly and buried that little face in my shoulder. Huge tears just streamed down her cheeks and dripped from her chin. Needless to say, no pic with Santa. This was the closest we got...note that you can't even see Ainsley because she is doing her best to hide in my sweater.

Finally it was time to head to NC for Christmas with my family. We arrived on Christmas Eve and attended church with my mom. Ainsley was pretty good. I haven't really taken her to much church, but she did OK. Then we went home to go to bed and wait for Santa to come. Santa was very good to Ainsley...she must have been the best little girl ever because the kid made out. Tons of new clothes, a table and chair set, a talking Elmo, a shopping cart with food, a baby stroller with baby, blocks, books, a ladybug tent, shoes, I could go on and on. Basically, the kid is spoiled!! She is the only little one to buy for on both sides of the family, so I really don't know how to curtail it.

Ainsley had a blast opening presents. She did it with a very stern gaze, a steady hand and a strong determination to remove every last bit of wrapping paper. Once the paper was off, the lure of the gift really wore off.

Here are some pictures of Christmas morning.

We spent the days after Christmas just relaxing and hanging out with my family. Nothing too exciting, but it was a nice change of pace.

New Year's around here was pretty uneventful. We were excited that Aunt DeeDee and Uncle Mike came to hang out. You don't do much partying with a little bug around and who can possibly afford a babysitter that night. We had a few people over, played some Wii and ate a bunch of very fattening food. It was a good time.

So now we just try to get back to normal. We are not leaving town for...well, lets just say we have no travel plans at the moment which makes me so happy. I'm sure things will come up, but it will be nice to spend a few weeks at home.

I hope everyone had nice holidays...I'll talk to you later this week hopefully :)