Ainsley Brooke Colvin, age 2

Ainsley's birthday was a few weeks ago and I wanted to document what she's like at age 2. So, here's a glimpse of what she's like right now.

Dear Ainsley,
Happy 2nd Birthday to our sweet baby girl. You have grown up like a flash. We say that you were not a baby for very long, and that is entirely true. You act very grown up for your age in many ways. You are sweet, funny, lively, curious and particular. We have many nick names for you, including: Ainsy, Ainsy Belle, Ains, baby girl, sugar plum, sugar dumplin, and sweet darlin' baby girl (this is your daddy's).

You weigh about 26 lbs, are 34 1/4 inches tall, and wear a size 5 diaper. You've always been tall and thin. You have long arms, legs and fingers. You have a wide foot, and narrow shoulders. You wear a size 24 months or 2T clothes. Your hair has gotten much longer and thicker over the past year, and you have sweet curls in the back, particularly when it's wet. Your eyes are blue but look green at times. You still have 2 big dimples (the first thing your daddy noticed when you were born). You still suck the first two fingers on your right hand, although not as often. I don't mind you doing it at night because I know it's your comfort (and because it's just about the last "baby" thing you do). You have recently gotten your last two baby teeth, your top canines.

You are a good sleeper at this point. You take a 2-3 hour nap each afternoon. You go to bed around 8:00 or 8:30 each night and sleep til around 9:00 each morning. Sometimes you go through spells where you wake up crying and it takes both of us to settle you down. We hate those times because we don't know why you woke up and don't know how to settle you down. We hate to see you so upset. Your bedtime routine consists of a bath with Will, lotion and pajamas, brushing teeth, and then settling down in the rocking chair. Lately you have been a "momma's girl" and only want me to put you down. We get your constant sidekick, Brownie Bear, a few blankets, and some books. We read (sometimes 8 or 9 books!) and then you lay across my lap and want me to sing "Rock a Baby" (Rock a Bye Baby) a few times. Then you sit up and put your hands together and we pray. You pray for everyone in the family (you even remember Papaw Butch) but you always ask to pray immediately for Guy and Julie and Shepherd. Then I lay you down, tell you I love you, blow you a kiss, and leave the room. You are still in your crib and never try to climb out although you easily could.

Every morning you have "O's" (cheerios), a cereal bar, milk, and sometime yogurt bites and dried apples. You are a very good eater. You love fruit, bread/carbs, cookies, and you will eat most veggies and meat, although sometimes a little prompting is needed for those. We have to hide food from you or our own eating from you sometimes! You drink lots and lots of milk! We're working on utensil use and drinking out of an open cup.

You LOVE books!!! You used to literally chew holes in them (we thought you were part goat) and although you don't do that anymore, you still are kind of rough on them. You love "Bible stories", Very Busy Spider, Brrr, Hatch, Little Red Hen, The Night Before Christmas (and any Christmas books), Chick Tock, Flutterby, and a whole host of other books.


You love airplanes and are keenly aware of them right now. You can hear and see them before anyone else. We never doubt when you point to the sky and say that there's an airplane up there. You also love playing outside! You recently learned to slide without holding someone's hand. You like playing on the swingset at Papaw and Mee's house, running around in our back yard, blowing bubbles and drawing with sidewalk chalk. Even though you play hard outside, you like dressing up in dresses - and you love new shoes! You point your foot in front of the mirror and admire your new shoes with the biggest smile on your face. This scares your Daddy a little bit!


You love Zoro, the neighbor's dog; you talk to him over the fence and look for him out your window before going to sleep. It bothers you to have a bug in the house. You cannot rest until it is gone (you say "Shoo bug!") or until we make Daddy come kill it!

You like Sesame Street and know all the characters (you love SS books as much as the show). You like to watch some of Will's favorites too like Curious George and SuperWhy. You also like the Winnie the Pooh characters and know them all by name as well.


You have quite a vocabulary and are repeating everything you hear. It's fun to have little conversations with you. You ask, "what happened", "what Daddy doing", "where Will go", etc. You don't forget anything. You look forward everyday to getting to "go pick up Will" from pre-school. Your favorite phrase right now is "Ainsy do it!" You are very independent and want to do everything yourself. You can buckle yourself into your booster seat at the table and insist on trying to buckle your car seat as well. We are introducing potty training and recently bought you a potty shaped like a frog. You like sitting on your "frog potty" but have not had success on it yet. I'm sure that will come soon.

You enjoy playing with other kids. Your friends inlcude: Lottie (you call her "Lolly", Sophia ("Phia"), Libby, Harrison, and Carly. Your Sunday School teachers always tell us that you are a good girl!

You bring lots of fun and joy to our lives and we love our Ainsy Belle!

Easter Weekend and Ainsley's 2nd birthday

Easter weekend was a good and busy one for us. On Thursday, Will had an Easter party at school and came home with lots of candy and goodies from Mrs. Melinda and his classmates. That evening, we went to an Easter egg hunt at Hope Landing. The weather was perfect! They had eggs hidden in different areas for different ages. I went with Ainsley and Mitch went with Will. It was Ainsley's first real hunt. She went to one last year but was not into it at all. She wandered around slowly and when she did see an egg, she picked it up and looked it over carefully before putting it in her basket. Will knew what to do, but his eggs kept falling out of his basket since it is kind of shallow. Someone got a Wal-Mart bag for him! They had lots of activities for the kids to do - hula hoops, sidewalk chalk and paint, snacks, etc. Someone was dressed like a bunny, and Will did not like that at all. He does not like people dressed up as Santa, the Easter bunny, or anything like that - he likes to talk about them, but he does not want to go anywhere near them! One of the kids, Michael, was dressed like Winnie the Pooh. Will went to him willingly, but you could see Michael's face, so he wasn't scary to him.





On Friday, Mitch took the day off and we spent the day getting ready for Ainsley's birthday. Will went to a birthday party for his classmate, Grace (who he calls "Gracie Poo"). That evening my brother and sister in law, Guy and Julie, and their new baby, Shepherd, got into town. We went to my mom's to visit. The kids were enamored with Shepherd. The loved kissing him, talking to him, and making him laugh. Ainsley was especially interested in him. Any time he would cry or start to fuss, she got a worried look on his face and said "What happened Shepherd, what happened?" She was such a little momma all weekend.


Shepherd was very good natured and has the best smile! They had just had some 3 month pictures taken of him by their friend Jill; these are my favorites:


On Saturday, we went to the church for an egg hunt there. There were lots of kids and not as many eggs to find, but they had fun anyway. Will loved the "bouncer" and Ainsley played with some other little girls her age.




After coming home, we dyed eggs with the kids. They did pretty good! They took naps and I went to mom's to eat and snuggle with Shepherd some more.







Saturday afternoon we celebrated Ainsley's 2nd birthday. We sat outside, the kids played baseball and blew bubbles and Mitch grilled burgers. We set the table with three pictures of Ainsley - a newborn picture, one on her first birthday, and one of the recent spring pictures we had made. She has changed so much! She's not a baby anymore, she's a little girl. Her cake was adorable and delicious. Later she would say "more Happy Birthday" - which meant "more cake"! Mitch's parents met Shepherd for the first time. Gill called themselves "Cousin Papaw and Cousin Grammy" which is a pretty good name for them. Ainsley got some nice gifts. Will got her bubbles, she is really into right now, my mom gave her a Raggedy Ann & Andy book with dolls, Mitch's parents gave her a Peter Cottontail book and stuffed rabbit, and Guy and Julie gave her a cute dress and the cutest purple sandals! Mitch and I gave her a "sick" baby that she can take care of. The other day she was giving her baby some "medicine" and saying "it's lasik" . . . it took me a minute to figure it out, but she was saying "Lasix" - one of the medicines Will takes. I guess she's heard us say that a few hundred times!















On Sunday we got up and let the kids see their Easter baskets. They each got a book, some stickers, and a little toy. Nothing big, but they were excited about them.




We went to Sunday School at FBC and then went to First Methodist with mom, Guy and Julie. Ainsley went to the nursery and Will went to the service with us. He did pretty good except for the constant burping he did on the lady in front of us! Sigh. We came home for lunch and took some pictures in front of the azalea bushes.





We had Easter dinner at mom's Sunday night with Mitch's parents. Monday it was back to the real world and Guy and Julie had to leave, but it was a good weekend while it lasted!