Smiling

I haven't had anything to post this week. Tom used the car everyday and so Ainsley and I were stuck home. So I decided to post these pictures that were taken by our friend Laura a few weeks ago while she was babysitting Ainsley for us. I really appreciated them because Ainsley is smiling in them! Lately it is so hard to get Ainsley to sit still and actually smile for pictures...as soon as she sees a camera out, she just freezes up and stares at it. So thanks, Laura.

The next stuff is for journaling purposes. I haven't written down what Ainsley has learned to do in the last several months. I'm sorry it is so long, you don't have to read it unless you really want to know:)

Ainsley:14 Months
Words:
-Oh, Yeah
-Ma-hee (Mommy)
-Dada
-Ok
-Uh, oh
-Ka, ka (for anything gross)
-Mmm-ma(Grandma)

Signs-
-Milk
-All done
-More
-Eat
-Banana
-Apple
-Cracker
-Bread
-Cheese
-Bath
-Wash hands
-Baby
-Hat
-Car
-Soap
-Asleep or Nap
-Shoes
-Socks
-Bird
-Please
-Thank you
-Bye bye
Ainsley loves to watch Signing Time. We will watch one every few days and she will sign right along with the movie. But she isn't speaking much and I wonder if it is because we have been using sign language and she can use that to communicate instead of verbally. Hopefully as I speak and use signs though, she will catch up on the words quickly. Any advice from those of you who have used sign language with your tots?

Habits and New Skills:
-Ainsley is learning her body parts and can point out her eyes, nose, mouth, ears, belly button, and toes. She also is learning to color. She loves to hold pens and crayons and scribble. She also enjoys eating the crayons.
-She still only has two bottom teeth. She is beginning to get one of her inscisors though. She is going to look like a little vampire without her two front teeth:)
-Ainsley's absolute favorite thing to do is to talk to her grandparents on Skype or webcam. Everytime we open Tom's laptop, she gets so excited because she thinks we are going to talk to them. She knows the ringing tone on the computer and will start to scream in excitement for us to answer it so we can talk to her grandparents. Ainsley loves her grandmas! She likes to point out grandma everytime. If grandma leaves the screen view for a few seconds, as soon as she comes back in view, Ainsley will point to her again. It leaves smudges all over the computer screen.

-Ainsley is such a little busy body now. We can't get her to sit still for more than a few seconds. For her first birthday, Grandma Butler gave her a doll stroller. She loves to push it around the apartment. She will put stuffed animals as well as other objects she finds around the house in the stroller. I often have to check the stroller for my keys and cell phone that she has retrieved.
-Ainsley also loves purses. Anything that has a loop will become a pretend purse. She has been known to put her panties, swimsuit, t-shirt, grocery bags, etc. on her arm as if it was a purse. Grandma Butler bought her a little pink purse that is just her size. She will put things in it and carry it around with her stroller.
-Ainsley's favorite stuffed animal is "Doggie," a little stuffed dog that Grandma Butler sent her for Valentines. She sleeps with it every night and carries it around with her all day. It is well loved and has already had to be stitched up twice. Her favorite thing to do with it is stroke the tail. When we lay her down at night, she will twirl the tail in her fingers until she falls asleep. It has already fallen off once and looks like it will fall off again soon. She also loves a stuffed lamb we nicknamed, "Lambchops."
-This past week Ainsley has become a little "Mommy." When she was about 5-7 months old she was completely attached to a pink baby doll. But her little doggie has since replaced it. But this week, the baby doll was out and so I taught her how to wrap the baby in a blanket and then hold it and rock it to sleep. She loves to do it now. She lays the blanket out on the floor and will carefully pull the sides over the baby and get it all wrapped up. Then she will hug it and rock it and kiss it. She will also stroke it's head and lay it down to sleep as well as put it in her stroller and push it around. It's pretty cute.
-Ainsley loves to dance. Anytime music comes on, she will automatically start to bounce and nod her head along with the beat. She will also yell and sing along. She knows all of the actions to "Popcorn Popping" and will do them with me every time we sing it. She also sing along with the "Ah, ah, oh" part of Little Brown Jug (we have modified that song a bit though since it is a drinking song:)
-Ainsley loves to see animals and other babies. Whenever she sees them, she will make a high pitched squeal and point. It sounds like, "Eeee, eeee, eeee..." Each time I go to the mall, we visit a small pet store there that has about 10 glass cages of puppies. She puts her hands on the glass and squeals at every one.
-Ainsley learned how to walk on June 10, 2009. That entire weekend she did really well. She would take several steps going between Tom and I. But as the weeks have gone by, she has actually gotten worse. We struggle to get her to take even a few steps between us. It is not that she can't do it...it is that she seems too scared to even try anymore. She loves to walk holding our hand, and so we try to make her walk everywhere around the house instead of carrying her. But as soon as we let go, she will stand for a few seconds then automatically drop to her bum. It is very frustrating, but we've learned that Ainsley will only do things when she is finally ready. She couldn't be forced to roll or crawl until she was ready and walking will just be the same way.
-Ainsley does like to crawl up the stairs though. She will do it everytime she gets a chance which has gotten pretty tricky because we haven't bought a gate, so if we're not watching she'll head straight for the stairs.
-Ainsley loves to feed herself now. She won't let you feed her anything anymore, she must do it herself. She likes to pick up the bowl, so most of the food ends up on the tray or on her rather than in her mouth. She also likes to pretend to eat using a spoon. I will often put an empty plastic bowl and spoon on her tray while she eats so she can practice the hand/eye coordination without making a mess. Another time, we gave her an empty frosty cup from Wendy's and she pretended to eat it with a spoon for about an hour.
-She is starting to obey or follow directions more often. When she does something that she is not supposed to do (such as open the entertainment center drawers) we will shake our heads and say no....she will start shaking her head too and has this look on her face like she is agreeing with us and saying, "No, Mom you're not supposed to do that-I was just making sure you knew that you weren't supposed to be doing it."
-We are trying to teach Ainsley to fold her arms each time we pray now. At night, we will read her a story, sing her a song, then say a prayer with her before bed. But often when we have her in our laps during a prayer, she will stick her finger and poke us in the eyes because she doesn't understand why we have our eyes closed.
-The tantrums have officially begun. When she doesn't get something she wants, she will throw her head back and scream and whine. She will also hit and try to bite me. It is shocking to see her behave this way because it is so different than other times she has been upset. I have tried to establish a "time out" on the bottom stair when she behaves like this, but she doesn't quite understand and will continue to scream at me because I am forcing her to sit still. So the last two times, I've actually taken her up to bed and put her in her crib with her binky. She will stop crying immediately. But I don't want her to associate her crib as time out because then she will never want to go in it for naps or to sleep....we'll have to see. Any advice from other moms?

Whoever thought a cute face like this could throw such a tantrum?