Ainsley loves playing outside. So far she doesn't have any phobias about the grass, bugs, or anything else. Well, she isn't a huge fan of the sandbox yet, but hopefully she will like it by vacation time!
Aubrey was excited that I pulled out some garage toys to add to the fun. She loved the Flinstone-esque car.
Jasmine got in on the action too. Good times were had by all. Maybe tomorrow we can make snow angels.
I have been struggling trying to come up with balanced meals for Ainsley lately. Her new found displeasure with being fed coupled with her tendency to drop any food off her tray with an ify texture has left my little munch on the hungry side. I found a winner. I prepped some butternut squash, much like I would to make baby food, and gave it to her in chunks. She loved it! I froze half of it in large chunks so I can still defrost it and have something healthy and yummy for her in minutes. 
Aubrey loves the squash family and was thrilled to have 3 servings with lunch. On the last serving she didn't want me to cut it so she could eat it with her hands like Ainsley. Whatever, her hands were already sticky from PB&J, so what's a little squash thrown into the mix? Those scabs on her nose and chin are from a swing set injury on the 14th! I don't even remember what she looks like without scabs anymore.
My little girl turns three in about 6 weeks and it is crazy to me. I can vividly remember her a year ago, and how sweet she was with her new sister, how she would take 30 minutes to fill a bucket with sand using a small shell, and how her vocabulary consisted of about 10 words. She was so little! Now that she is almost three we are noticing a whole new kid emerging. Some notables...
Don't you wish you could be 1 and really go at it if you enjoyed something instead of using a spoon and not licking the bowl?
"Oh Gosh!" is Aubrey's exclamation for everything. I have no idea where she picked it up, but I love it. If someone says "God" in a irreverent way, Aubrey will actually correct them and say "Oh my gosh." Whoever is teaching my kid this, keep it up, I love it. She is rarely out of my site, so maybe it is the Almighty himself teaching her how to respect him. 
Cozy place for a nap!
We rode the train for the very first time. I knew it was a mistake. Aubrey kept saying "more rite too too tain." all day. I'm sure she will also say it every time we go to the zoo for the rest of the summer. Oh well, it had to happen sooner or later. 
Ainsley loved it too. She thought it was really fun. 
Then Aubrey rode the carousel for the first time. She LOVED it. It was her first "ride" ever. I am looking forward to the fair!
It went really fast in my opinion. My camera thought so too. Aubrey kept talking about how it went up and down and so fast. 
We went home briefly and then headed to Laina's party napless. We left the party a little after 5pm. Look what Aubrey did in the car on the way home. 
Ainsley slept too. And don't worry, she is usually secured better than this. It must not have been tightened after the jacket came off. 
18 pounds, 13 ounces
Yesterday was Ainsley's first Birthday. What a joyful day! We were so excited to share it with 13 family members and 8 friends. It was very windy, so we kept the party indoors, but we managed to still have a great time. We had 10 children ages 1-5 and very little conflict. That was a nice surprise to say the least. 
Ainsley had two large helpings of lasagna for dinner along with grapes and yogurt. She was stuffed by the time the cupcake came along. I fed her a few bites, but that was the end of it. 
Ainsley was happy to take a few moments to pose for a Birthday picture with her mom and dad.
Just a snap shot of the chaos that is a one year old's party. We generally feel that we live in a large house, but when you stick 25 people into it, the walls begin to close in on you a bit :)
Ainsley still has zero interest in opening gifts, so I quickly opened the gifts from our guests and the party resumed. Ainsley is playing with one of the pinwheels that was floating around. That was the favor for the younger guests at the party. I have tons of pictures of adults trying to blow the pinwheels that are hilarious, that may be a post later this week. The grandparent gifts will be opened slowly this week as we have 3 out of 4 grandparents in Colorado currently. We missed you Dad! So now I have two toddlers! That's crazy! And even more crazy is that Aubrey's party is in less than two months!
I've been handing Ainsley silverware at mealtime. It turns out that if I give her her own spoon I can feed her! So it works out great. The other day I handed her a fork, and went to get another one so I could feed her. I came back, and she was putting a mouthful of pasta in her mouth with the fork! She ate a good deal of the meal with the fork and used her hands for the rest!!!
She was very pleased with the arrangement. I let her use a spoon for yogurt the other day too. The only downfall is that is creates an immediate need for a bath. I hate mandatory bath time more than I hate laundry. So it is nice if Mike is here too so we can divide and conquer!
Do you like Aubrey's grandma panties? They are washable pull-ups. I have two pairs, and I made her wear them after her accident today. Needless to say she kept dry the entire time she wore them, including her 2 plus hour nap! So after dinner she had a bath, after her bath she sat on the potty. It was 6pm. I put her in her jammies and told her she could wear underwear until bedtime because she was doing a good job staying dry. We went downstairs, I explained her incentive chart and gave her a sticker for using the potty at Target. At 6:45, Mike went downstairs to practice guitar for tomorrow. He asked Aubrey if she needed to sit on the potty before they went downstairs. She yelled no, ran downstairs, AND peed on the basement floor. Luckily I had nothing to do with this interaction and let Mike take care of it. She actually cried in time out, I'm guessing because Daddy was mad at her and that hit her harder than me being mad. We then took her upstairs and put her in bed. I told her she must be pretty tired to pee on the floor right after being asked to use the potty. So here I sit at 7:00 with no kids, no husband, no nothing. That is weird. So if you think of it, while you are going to the bathroom, say a little prayer for our sanity over here and for our very stubborn kiddo.
I cannot believe I am still dealing with this. Aubrey's last accident was March 19th. I revamped the whole potty thing and took a stand. After all, for 6 months now, Aubrey has been dry for three weeks and wet for one week. Well, she made it shy of three weeks dry by one day. Aubrey had a real accident on Tuesday. It was real and authentic. She was getting ready to use the potty and peed on the bathroom floor. I didn't get mad, I just cleaned her up and told her she needed to ask for help or go earlier. We then went to the zoo and she used the potty twice while we were there. We got home and she sat on the potty, I left the bathroom, she called me, and sure enough, she got off the potty, peed on the floor, and got back on the potty to call me. Wow, that was a whole new dimension of angry for me. I was fired up mad. How can she do something like that? I later realized that she probably tried to stand on her stool and squat over the potty like mommy did at the zoo, but still. There is no excuse at this point.
Ainsley will be 1 year old in 11 days. 11 days? What! Where did the time go? Well, just as I have seen before, the days of enchantment with my little peach are coming to an end and we are coming into the real world now. 
My good friend, Tara, was in town for a few days while her hubby was at a conference in Denver. Jenna, Tara, and I were the core ladies in our OC Bible Study. Sure, there were others, and some of you may be reading this, but you all know that the 6 of us were the tried and true. We were there week one, and all there the last weeks before we each individually left California for our wagon trail journeys east. Tara and Tommy forgot to stop driving in Colorado and ended up all the way in North Carolina. Darn Tara and her hatred of the cold! This picture also represents the ladies that will be chillin' in Holden Beach, North Carolina, this summer. I can't wait! 
Oh yeah, we went to the zoo today. Jenna and I both have double napper kids so Tara has spent a lot of time at my house. Today was the day to get out for a bit. Aubrey announced that the elephants are now her favorite. Maybe she can ride an elephant some day. Anyway, it was great reconnecting and picking up right where we left off. It made all of us so much more excited for June and more good times with friends.
I wasn't sure how I was going to handle Spring and Summer. I want Aubrey to be able to spend a lot of time outdoors, but it is hard having a younger kiddo that isn't "independent" outdoors yet. Ainsley is a trooper and loves our backyard. She is pretty content with a patch of grass and a ball, and we have plenty of both. With each little family outing and adventure I am getting more and more confident with what I can do as a parent. 
So I took my aunt's advice with the whole potty issue and told Aubrey she would have a timeout in her wetness, in the bathroom, if she pees her pants. We are going on 2 weeks, and she has not had an intentional accident! She has been asking to wear underwear when we leave the house and is doing great. I even put her down for her nap in undies today, which is totally outside of my comfort zone, but you gotta do it at some point, right? She is still sleeping, but I am really hoping she doesn't wet. I think she would be devastated if she did. I am also taking myself more out of the equation. If I go into the bathroom with her, I give her verbal directions instead of doing the majority of the work myself. I still wipe, since that is a more advanced skill in my opinion, but she is on her own besides that. She came out this morning and announced, "You're so proud of me!" I assured her I was. I think I may like age 3 a little better than I have liked 2.
