The Postman Messed Up

The other day my sister called me shortly after she got my Christmas card. She told me her daughter Riley (4 years old) opened the card and just started laughing. She said the postman must have messed up and sent her a picture of herself.

Here are is a comparison of our Christmas picture and an old picture of Riley. What do you think? Twins right?

Brag Time

I really try to make this blog about more than my child. I know everyone isn't as interested in her as I am.

That being said, I took some really cute video of her today. Here are the highlights. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Simple Things

It's the simple things that keep you going when you are down. We are all still battling illness but in the meantime we are relishing in the simple things. And dare I even say it, IT COULD BE SO MUCH WORSE!

Here is my latest...My little girl loves to sit in our rocking chairs and rock herself. It's pretty cute.

Who Does My Child Look More Like?

Here is a recent picture of Ainsley (Don't mind the black eye...she's learning to walk). Who does she look more like?

Boo from Monsters Inc?

OR

Cindy Lou Who?

My Kid isn't Retarded But Maybe I am

My last post I talked about Ainsley walking and talking. I talked about insecurities and how I was sure that she wasn't keeping up to her peers.

Well, I have had many a pep talk from my friends and family. She is fine. She may not speak many actual words but I am convinced that she understands just about everything that we say. She may not walk, but I think it's not due to ability. I think it's due to being overly cautious. She definitely gets that from her father.

AND If she is delayed, would it matter? Would I love her any less? A big fat NO. She's my child. She's the gift that God has given me. I love her more than I could ever imagine. Cliche I know.

And how could anyone not love this face?

And since Ryan is away this weekend, there is a lot of time for cuddling and loving. I'm enjoying every second of it.

So Big

This morning Ainsley showed us that she has a new skill. We didn't teach her this. Maybe Anne did. I'm not sure but how cute is it!

The Faces of Vacation

As I have said, I'm on vacation in the Adirondacks. We are having crazy Adirondack weather. It's sunny one second and raining the next. It was literally just raining on one side of the house and sunny on the other. All that to say, I have nothing better to do than to post pictures on the blog of my sweet baby.

Ainsley asleep on the boat
Ainsley folded into a sandwich with her bear, sound asleep

Ainsley eating her Birthday cake

Ainsley crying when the cake was taken away from her

Ainsley and her cousin Paige

Happy as she can be

Ainsley crawling on the beach in her stars and bars bathing suit that has been worn by all her girl cousins.

Where Has the Time Gone

It has been a year. I can hardly believe it. A year ago, my life changed forever with the birth of the most precious little girl.

I have spent this weekend remembering the weekend of labor that I endured last year. As I remember how much work and labor it actually was, I am willing to say that I would do it again in a heart beat to have the end result.

My favorite part of Ainsley's birthday has been the cake. Ryan and I debated about the cake. Obviously, I fell on the side of the argument that we should let her have some. I won. Ainsley got some cake and I have to say the whole thing made me laugh. We sang Happy Birthday with the cake in front of her. As we pulled it away to cut it, she started to cry. She got her piece and she started to squish it in her fingers. She was very interested in the texture. Then she started to eat it. I let her enjoy a few bites and pulled the plate away. She cried again. I wiped her fingers of excess frosting and cake. She cried again. She is definitely more of a Gibbins than a Krumroy.

Overall, the day has been wonderful. I am so madly in love with my sweet princess. While I can't believe it's been a year, I can't believe it's only been a year. I can no longer imagine my life without her.

More Pictures to follow later this week....

Glimpse

We all have our things that we do that we secretly don't tell anyone. Little things that make us who we are. Sometimes people get glimpses of them, but mostly we try to hide them. Let me give you a glimpse of mine.

I like to organize. Like seriously like to organize. Not the things in my house, but my life. I like to have plans and follow through with them. I especially like lists. For example, here is my most recent crazy that I am actually kind of proud of. It's our packing list for vacation. Yes it's in Excel. Yes there are 6 tabs. Yes there is a column on each sheet to check off each item.


So I got to thinking. Did I pass this obsessive need to organize on to my child? Just look at what she did and you tell me. She put all her kidney beans in her cup holder when I wasn't looking.
What traits have you passed to your children? Are you proud of them or do you wish you hadn't been so dominant in the gene pool?

More Important than a Cute Picture

This past weekend we were able to visit my father in law's beach condo with friends of ours from college, Drew and Susan. They have a little boy, Jack, who is exactly 2 weeks younger than Ainsley. Ainsley has been around other children before but no one so close in age. It was amazing to watch the two interact. I think we all got our share of ohhs and ahhs.

The other part of the weekend that really struck me was to see Drew and Susan interact with Jack. A couple years ago, they lost a baby girl at 30 weeks pregnant. I think that loss really helped them to refocus on the every day. They really revel in each second that they spend with their son. It was a wonderful encouragement to me to see the hope and life that can come after such tragedy.

I think we often wonder how we would handle something like that. I think Susan said it best when she said that she sits in the fact that Reagan is in heaven with Jesus forever. We don't know the choices our children will make. We can only pray that they make wise ones and that they come to a saving faith in Christ. It was a great perspective shift for me to hear her be thankful for the gift of knowing that she will spend eternity with her child.

My prayer today is that I remember this day and this smile but more importantly that I continue to pray for her and the decisions she has in front of her.

I Blew It

On Thursday night I was talking with my father in law. We were trying to figure out what we should do this weekend and he invited us to the beach for an impromptu visit. We are blessed that he has a condo at Wrightsville Beach that we can visit.

After a day of busy packing and crossing things off my list on Friday, we headed out at 7:00 so Ainsley would be asleep. (Side note, I love making lists just so I can cross things off of them. I made 3 while getting ready for the trip and crossed everything off of every list. So rewarding. Now back to my story). We got the condo late, settled in and went fast asleep.

Saturday morning I wasn't woken up by my little girl until 8. Wow. What a treat. My father in law and I quick threw our running shoes on and went to run the "Loop". Quite humbling to get your butt handed to you by a 58 year old man. Oh well. I'm working on it. Give me a few weeks and I'll be able to keep up.

We spent some time out on his boat on Saturday afternoon. Ainsley didn't like her little pink life jacket. She did like the sand and her sun dome. Ainsley fell sound asleep on the way back on the boat. It was totally precious. She was covered in sand so we dunked the sleeping baby in the pool when we got back. She wasn't so happy with that. We went out to eat that night at a beautiful Thai restaurant. The ambiance was amazing! The food was amazing! The fellowship was amazing!

On Sunday we went to church with Nan from The Joy's of Boys. It was great to see her for the first time in 8 years. We spent the afternoon on the beach. Ainsley was adorable in her pink and brown bathing suit and her sun hat that was as big as she is. She loved the sand. She didn't love the ocean.

We came back on Sunday night and here we are Monday morning. We are headed to the pool this afternoon with friends from church.

So I write all that to say, it would be great to show you pictures of all these fun and new things. But guess what. I got to the beach, and didn't have the memory card for my camera. Are you kidding me! These memories will have to live in my head. It's a good thing we are going back to the beach in 2 weeks and can recapture some of these.

Sleepy Baby

Yesterday, my first Mother's Day, was a busy day that resulted in no nap for Ainsley. During Ainsley's dinner this happened. I have seen pictures like this before but never witnessed it first hand. We could hardly keep it together we were laughing so hard. Enjoy!

The Tooth

We all know that babies put stuff in their mouths. It's an expected part of babyhood. They crawl places and they see things that we never see and put them in their mouths. We try to vacuum and keep the little things from going in their mouths. Somehow, they always find something we didn't see.

This morning my wonderful husband let me sleep in because of Mother's Day. When I woke up he asked me to look at something. He handed me this...


Yes, it is a tooth and it came from here...


My husband told me that he saw Ainsley chewing this morning and went to figure out what it was and found this tooth. We are pretty sure she didn't pull it out of his mouth and that she just found it on the floor. We figure he would have definitely noticed if she got it from his mouth. But still it makes you pretty sad...Tucker agrees...

Thank goodness she didn't swallow it or we wouldn't have ended up like this today...

What is the oddest thing your children have put in their mouths?

No Better Way

There is no better way to break radio silence than with a video of the 2 loves of my life

Argh!

Why is it on the afternoon that I want to take a nap so badly, Ainsley won't nap? She sat in her crib and cried or talked for over an hour. Who can sleep with a baby jabbering in your ear via the monitor. Not me!

It's Even Scarier

Remember this post where I said that Ainsley looks like Ryan. I have recently referred quite a bit to the fact that Ainsley now looks like my twin.

Ryan was walking past my dresser the other day and saw this picture on it from when I was little. That's me in the middle sitting on Mom's lap.



Let's zoom in for a closer look. Scary isn't it. We are twins down to the facial expression! I think I laughed for 20 minutes when I discovered this.

How Cute is This?

I took this picture with my phone last night so the quality isn't the greatest...but...How cute is this? And yes, that is a ponytail. And yes, she looks just like me.

Yeah Ainsley

Ainsley has a new skill. Check it out!

For those of you who can't figure that out, she's clapping

A Month in the Life of Ainsley

Ainsley wanted to share a few highlights from her 7th month!

I started teething and Mommy gave me a carrot to chew on to sooth my gums. I liked it much more than those plastic teething rings.

Zoom in and you can see my teeth! Mommy says I'm being good and not biting because they are SHARP!

There was a cold day that I had to get bundled up really warm to go to Aunt Leah's house.

Happy Valentine's Day! Mommy was my Valentine this year. Notice my bow. I sport one just about everyday now. They aren't serving too much of a purpose besides fashion. Mommy is way more concerned about my hair than her own right now. I think it's funny.

Me and my favorite pug, Libby. I watch her constantly and laugh at the funny things that she does. She even lets me grab her tail. I like the way her fur feels in my hands. Mommy says that Libby is being nicer than anyone expected. I like Tucker too but he ignores me. Mommy says he's getting stubborn in his old age.

I just finished my carrots...They are all over my shirt but I am happy! I love to eat everything Mommy gives me.

I am a Mom

Over the past couple of days I have been trying to get onto the computer to type a new post. On Wednesday I wanted to write something about work. On Thursday I wanted to write something about being married for 9 years (Happy Anniversary Ryan). On Friday I wanted to write about anything. Today I realize that I can only think of one thing in my life right now - my sick baby girl and my need to take care of her.

Ainsley woke up on Thursday morning sounding hoarse and sick. It came on very quickly. I quickly reshuffled schedules and brought her over to Ryan's mom's house. I called Leah and told her to look into finding a place for Logan for the afternoon. I went to work and tried to concentrate. My mind was one place - home with my baby. I left an hour early and came home to find a pathetic looking child who needed to see the doctor. We went to the doctor and were informed that she has croup. We were told to keep her sitting up and bring her out to the cold to help her breath. Make her sleep in her car seat sitting up. Mostly the instructions were to just let it run its course.

So here I am on Saturday afternoon and I haven't left the house since Thursday afternoon. I have spent time just cuddling and holding my baby. She has been sick before but nothing like this.

As I have held Ainsley a realization has really sunk into me for one of the first times. Prior to now I really felt like she could be happy with anyone. But now I know...I am her Mom. I am the one that she wants when she doesn't feel good. I am the one who is there to take care of her. I am the one who will let her cough so hard she throws up on me. I am the one who will hold her as she cries. I know I am many other things too. Those other parts of my life are important. But right now, I am only one thing...a Mom.