Ansley's Anslers

{nearing 19 weeks}

1 toy rocking horse, a pint-sized barstool, 1 jumper (well.. more like a "twister" at this point), several trips to target and countless cute outfits later: christmas = done. whew. 

since everyone kept telling us this was the year to save money, we more or less let you sleep through the festivities. sorry about that, but i promise to make it up to you in christmases to come which i'm sure will find you spoiled out of your mind and high on candy canes and cocoa (that or eating wrapping paper and playing with boxes).

most of your items probably won't be used until you're a tad older anyway (see above list), so as aunt heidi says "you'll be alright."

now, for the all about ansley section:

1. you have fans. i get requests on a regular basis for more pics of you (and not just from the grandparents). i don't know what i was thinking trying to keep up "the daily ansley." it has now turned into "the occasional ansley" and i fear the masses may riot if i don't give them more you with a quickness.

2. you are one flexible little noodle. it's not really a surprise when you grab your feet these days, but last week daddy caught you putting one in your mouth. that can't be sanitary but we'll allow it. and if we sit you up, you slump over almost in half like a little gorilla. it's quite cute. 

3. you still like to stand. unless you're sleeping or eating, it's your preferred position. i think you enjoy being up at our level, but it makes for a very tired mommy. if i even attempt to put you on your stomach, you "fake cry" (then real cry) or push up and roll right over onto your back (it's your newest trick ;)  which i'm sure you think is pretty clever. at this rate, you may just bypass the crawling thing altogether and go right to standing. yikes. if standing is not an option, you demand that we walk you around in an outward-facing fashion. it's kind of like you're riding around in the crook of our arms. you even cross your feet (and thus wiggle off any of those pesky sock-things we keep trying to apply). 

4. you put everything in your mouth. apparently this is absolutely normal for a child your age, but it's still funny. if we lay you down on your back and hover over you, your current instinct is to grab for the face and try to fit it in your little mouth (which you open as wide as possible in a birdlike manner). there is lots of drool involved, but i consider it a baby kiss and therefore love every minute of it.

(daddy demonstrating the "baby kiss")

5. you've thrown your first tantrum. whether it was teething or sleepiness or just not feeling like yourself, i don't know, but right before your 4-month checkup you started refusing to eat (or stopping in the middle of eating) and screaming loudly and angrily like a wounded dinosaur. it sounded painful (to both of us), so we as new parents obviously freaked out and rushed you to the doctor - who basically told us that you seemed fine and if you got hungry enough, you'd eat. 

...he was right... 

6. you're starting to show preferential treatment to mommy and daddy. though i secretly feel honored, i also don't want you to ignore others and am poised to discourage this behavior should it get out of hand. there are too many people who love you for us to keep you all to ourselves all the time.

7. my darling, i fear we may eventually need a paci (nuk, bink, pipe, dummy) intervention. when you are upset, it is about the only thing that calms you. so of course we have a plethora of them in a wide selection of brands and colors. we are trying to teach you to manually reinsert them yourself. i'll let you know how it goes. it is helpful to attach them to a leash, since you take pleasure in spitting one out and then whining about its disappearance. 

8. your current favorite toys are soft things with texture - one in particular that i have dubbed porcupuppy, since it looks kind of like a gummy cross between the two species. daddy asked its name the other day and since porcupuppy was all i could come up with, has taken to calling it "pp" for short. he finds this most amusing and enjoys referring to you "playing with your pp." unfortunately, after mommy sterilized porcupuppy aka pp, his spikes seems irreversibly sad and damaged. but no worries - mimi and your hero daddy won you a replacement in the movie theater claw game!  except that this one doesn't have a face, so it just looks like a hairy blue ball. 

oh crap...

9. you coo and babble like its your job. sometimes you emit strange gurgling noises. and sometimes i swear you've formulated a word (like "hi!" or "hannah"). i'm pretty sure your first phrase will be "HANNAH NO!" or "no, ma'am." the most recent casualty at her paws was one of your favorite pacis. 

10. you love hannah. she fascinates you, and you live for the rare moments when we actually let her come up and lick your hands (after which we promptly sanitize them). i think the feeling is mutual. bo, on the other hand, treats you like you have baby-cooties and will not linger within 3 feet of you for more than 30 seconds at a time. if we set you down next to him when he's lounging, he promptly (or as promptly as an old arthritic man can muster) gathers himself up, does a 180 and saunters off. jerk. (don't worry i'm sure he'll realize he loves you soon enough).

11. you are becoming my mini-me... in an i'm-so-picky-i-only-drink-my-milk-at-a-certain-temperature way. dangit. 

you prefer your milk warm, and goodness help us minions if it's not prepared to your liking. heads will roll (or eardrums burst). and of course you sleep best when swaddled (i'm sure because it's most like being cradled in our loving arms. how annoyingly sweet). but seriously, you conk right out as soon as we wrap you up and put in the plug. daddy likes to tell you "you will go to sleep, or i will put you to sleep (a la ben stiller in happy gilmore)" and then do so.

Pig & Berries

{almost 16 weeks}

it's been raining and nasty quite a bit in recent days, but this past saturday we ventured out to get the vaccine for the dreaded H1N1 virus (aka swine flu). mommy's boss forwarded us the top secret announcement that the guilford county department of public health was holding a free clinic on saturday morning, so we packed you up as proof that we were in one of the "risk groups" and headed to the high point location. things went surprisingly smoothly and the people there were very pleasant - even when daddy (much to mommy's disbelief) responded to their questioning at the entrance with "oh we're here for the safe surrender." he was joking, of course, but for a split second you should have seen the horrified looks on everyone's faces. i know. let's hope you get mommy's sense of humor... but after the initial shock, we all had a good laugh and daddy and i proceeded merrily through to get checked in (so merrily in fact that daddy banged your carrier against at least 2 walls. but it's ok he just calls out "new parent!" and people pretend not to notice).

you're still pretty good when we go places, though recently you've started refusing to eat out and we have to return home to give you a bottle. you had your first taste of formula last week since mommy just isn't making enough food for you right now. hopefully the fenugreek will reduce the need for that. i spilled about 3 ounces of precious milk trying to make you a bottle while you squirmed in my arms yesterday and was beside myself. there were tears. (yes, i was literally crying over spilled milk).

then on sunday we stopped at costco and daddy had the brilliant idea to buy them out of strawberries in order to save money and make jam as christmas gifts. unfortunately, you do not save money when you purchase an entire pallet (24 2-quart cartons), get it home, cut and crush 50 pounds of strawberries, work deep into the night canning them and then realize that your calculations are incorrect and the recipe calls for about 1/4 what you thought. basically, instead of prepping only enough strawberries for the 48 jars of jam we thought we'd make, we prepared enough for about 200. whoever said measure twice, cut once was a smart man. and was clearly not related to either of us. at least our delirious laughter at the realization was kinda fun. you slept through the whole thing. apologies if i am only able to hold you in 15-minute increments for the next few days until my triceps stop burning.

yeah, i'm not sure why daddy's smiling either. (just kidding).

Giving Thanks

{15 weeks}
new developments in your world include an overwhelming urge to grab your own feet. you prefer they be bare (and are quickly becoming accustomed to preferring everything bare... a-hem let's try to get that out of your system before you're running pantsless around the house at 5 please). oh who am i kidding kids heart nekkid time.

you are on the verge of completely rolling over, but can only get 3/4 of the way by yourself. you like to pull your legs up and use them as leverage to fall onto your side; then grunt and struggle to get over onto your belly. though i'm not sure why, as you still hate being on your stomach and really only like to stand or be held in a seated position. wiggleworm.

mommy has formulated about 50 nicknames for you. they include butterbean, peanut, naughty monkey, bug, droolopotamus, little dickens (that came from mimi), cooey monster, my precious, little pumpkin, dollbaby, my boo, a-bomb and minime. i also read on babycenter that the more words a baby hears in her first year of life, the more intelligent she can become, so if mommy slips a few SAT words into our regular conversation, don't be alarmed. feel free to memorize and use them in a sentence.

we must tell you we love you 20 times an hour, and i'm convinced your first phrase will be "you're so pretty," because we say it so much. but it's true. i have never seen a more beautiful baby. i don't care that i'm biased and every mom thinks that about her child. you enjoy looking at yourself as well, but mommy can't tell if you know it's you smiling back. strange how once you have a baby, you really don't look at yourself in the mirror anymore. :)

thinking you may start "cutting teeth" soon (that's a weird phrase, btw..), since you're drooling something fierce. i can't tell for certain yet, but you enjoy chewing on things, and i have recently caught you sticking your fingers down your throat and choking yourself. this is not good, baby.

we had thanksgiving feast at your aunt jenna and uncle ryan's new house, and they did a fantastic job hosting. there were tons of people there and you were the best baby ever. slept the whole way to sanford and back, hung out and let everyone hold you and even allowed us to eat while you napped. it was awesome. we were trying to get you to "talk" to everyone, but apparently you like to save that for mommy & daddy solely on the weekends. i think that's currently my favorite time. i get you up on saturday or sunday and you eat breakfast, then we sit in bed and you coo and babble at us for a good hour. it's when you're the most talkative. i think you're filling us in on your week.

(you in all your Thanksgiving cuteness)