It has been a really long time since I have journaled about Ainsley's latest quirks and development. She is 2 years, 2 months old now and she is an absolute hoot. She makes me laugh everyday. She is full of personality and spunk. Here are some examples of her funny personality:
*She absolutely loves to sing, she sings all the time. She knows all of the primary action songs, all of the princess songs, and many nursery rhyme songs. She will break out in song anywhere...for example, last week during a very quiet part of sacrament meeting she all of sudden started singing, "Some day my prince will come." Tom and I couldn't stop laughing. She loves to listen to the princess cd that her aunt Susie made her, and will inform me which Disney movie each song came from. She knows them all, even the ones from movies she hasn't actually seen.
*She is really into 'make-believe' and pretending. She pretends to talk on the phone to all her friends, she makes up stories as she plays with her Little Peoples. She pretends to change, rock, and feed her babydolls. She also insists on carrying her purse with her while we get in the car which is full of pretend credit card, keys, phone, and make up. She also loves to have Tom and I play with her, she always yells, "Come on Mommy, come play. Come play"
*She loves her baby dolls. She has names for all of them...but basic names like, Bitty Baby, Pink Baby, Little Baby, Littlest Baby, Ella Baby, Ainsley Baby, etc. These babies come with us everywhere, the grocery store, library, walks, car rides, etc. She also insists on sleeping with at least one almost every night. She also has names for each of her Little People.
*She loves Costco. She recognizes it as soon as we pull into the parking lot and yells its name at the top of her lungs. She continues to yell its name as we walk in the store and in the aisles. I think her love of Costco comes from the fact that she gets to eat snacks while we shop. She will point to each sample and say, "I want some Mama" then usually she takes one bite and hands it back to me to finish.
*She loves to dance. Her dancing skills are pretty hilarious to watch and usually consist of one leg tapping or jumping and twirling at the same time. It's pretty funny. She keeps a tiny Elmo cd player in the front room and constantly turns the music on to sing and dance to.
*She loves the Disney Princesses and Tinker Bell. She loves to read their books and watch the movies. We bought her little figurines of each of them, Snow White has always been her favorite.
*Ainsley is an excellent talker now. Her vocabulary exploded while we were in Utah and she easily expresses herself in conversations now. It is fun because she has really funny expressions. For example, when offered something she doesn't want, she responds, "No Mom, I can't like it" or "I can't want it." Every morning and after every nap, and even sometimes during random parts of the day, she will inform us, "I had a good night" She also has a little bit of a lisp. She says, "Yeth" instead of "Yes." Should I be worried? Cause I kinda am.
*She is very worried about being clean while she eats. When she spills, she yells, "I need a
nakin" or "Wash my hands mom." If she spills a little milk on her shirt while she eats her cereal, she says, "My shirt is dirty, take it off" and insists we take it off before she will finish breakfast. So needless to say, she eats many breakfasts shirtless.
*She loves tunnels. She thinks freeway overpasses are tunnels and yells "Tunnel" every time we go under one. She also thinks that trees arching over the road create tunnels or any small space is a tunnel. She also pretends that her blanket over her head is a tunnel. Often Tom will tickle her while she is in her tunnel blanket and she calls it the "Tunnel Monster."
*She also loves Firefighters and motorcycles and will point them out whenever she sees them. But one funny thing she does though, is every time she hears a siren instead of yelling "Firefighter" like she does almost anything else she likes, she whispers it. Its like she is afraid of them or at least says it in reverence or something but it is pretty funny. We hear a siren, she whispers, "Firefighter."
*She loves to take baths but still hates to get her hair washed. When she was little we would tell her to close her eyes and be brave while we poured the water over her head. Now that she is older, she proclaims it herself. As soon as she gets out of the bath, she runs in to tell daddy, "I so brave."
*Each member of the Reese family has their own nick name for Ainsley and she knows what each person calls her. She won't let anyone else call her by that name...hence the title of this post. If we say, "How's my Ainsley Bug?" She'll glare at you and respond, "No, Grandpa's Ainsley Bug" because that is his nick name for her. We often recite these at night....."What does Grandpa call you? What does Grandma call you, etc." So here is the names each person is allowed to call her:
Grandpa Reese-Ainsley Bug
Grandma Reese-Sweetheart
Dad-Stinker Bug
Mom-Sweetie
Annie-Girlfriend
Susie-Sassafrass
Grandpa Butler-Baby Girl
*We often get into "arguments" with her about who loves the other person. We'll say, "I love Ainsley" then she'll respond, "No, I love Mommy" and it will continue back and forth until it gets more heated and louder until she ends up screaming, "No I LOVE MOMMY." This happened the other day at Costco and although the content of her screaming was really adorable, it was also embarrassing as my child is yelling, "No, I love Mommy" at the top of her lungs. Also, if Tom and I raise our voices or start to argue (we never do of course:) she yells, "No, No, No." She doesn't like contention. She is also still protective of me. She doesn't like it when Tom holds my hand or puts his arm around me. She wants all of Mommy's love and attention for herself.
*She is amazingly computer savy. She loves to pretend to type on Tom's computer. She also knows how to turn on his iphone, open up itunes and start one of her Signing Time or Elmo movies. She also knows how to use Tom's ipad to play a Toy Story Game or help feed the fish on the aquarium app.
Here are two video clips to show you a little bit of Ainsley's personality. The first clip is her dancing and playing with her playhouse, and the other clip is her retelling the story of Sleeping Beauty.
I had never seen so many corvettes in my life! There were hundreds!
Ainsley spent the entire time on her "pretend cell phone."
We've also spent a lot of time at lakes. There are hundreds of small lakes around where we live. Tom's cousin moved to Ann Arbor for medical residency and I've had fun hanging out with his wife and kids. Tricia took me to this lake near her house called Indpendence Lake. It had a great private beach and splash pad to play in. Ainsley loved playing at the beach. The water was so warm and shallow, she could walk far out into the lake to play. We've been there twice and it has been so much fun.
Ainsley loves playing with Sydney
Second cousins-Sydney, Owen, and Ainsley
Ainsley sharing cheetos
When Annie was here helping us get settled, we drove to downtown Detroit and walked along the river front. The towers on the other side of the river are in Canada...this is the closest Ainsley will be to leaving the country for quite awhile.
We took Ainsley to the local carnival. But just like her experience at the Strawberry Days Carnival in PG this summer, she would not go on any rides. So we had some frozen lemonade and fried food. Ainsley played a fishing game where she won a small doll set. She loved it.
Our good friends from IU, the Newtons also moved to Michigan, but about two hours from where we live. They came down one Saturday and so we took the kids to a nearby park/petting zoo. They loved feeding the goats and seeing all the animals. It was so fun to see some old friends again!
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