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!

Last weekend we took the kids to have some spring pictures made. My friend Melissa Laird took them. They had a bunny named Oreo that posed with them for a few pictures. We had gone to a birthday party for a little girl that morning, came home, made the kids take a nap, and took pictures at 4pm. I did not have Ainsley's Easter dress in at the time, so I put her in a dress she already has. This is Will's Easter outfit, however. We bought it last year for Easter, but it was too big. Luckily he can wear it this year. The session didn't last long and they both did really well. Will espescially liked Oreo, and he was a very well behaved rabbit! The sitting fee included a CD so that we can print whatever we like. Now I just have to decide which ones.

Out of the mouths of babes

I wanted to write down some funny things the kids say or funny ways they pronounce things. They're both really starting to talk and we laugh everyday at what comes out of their mouths. Ainsley loves her brother Will. Every morning when she wakes up she says "Where Will?" except she calls him "Weee-iiill". They both have Southern accents and often draw one syllable words out to two or three syllables. When Will was born, Mitch's mom wanted to be called "Grammy" but when Will started to talk he shortened it to "Meee", so that's just what she's called most of the time. Will called my brother Guy, "Die" for a long time. And he would say it in this deep, growling kind of voice, just to get a reaction. He would go into places like Sunday School and say "Die!" in that voice and we'd have to explain what he was talking about. Embarrassing. Ainsley cannot be without her teddy bear and a blanket. We've named the bear "Brownie Bear" but she calls him either "Mownie" or "Bownie" - she's constantly asking "Where Mownie go?" Her pronunciation of "blanket" has evolved from "bots" (don't know where that came from) to "bankek" to "banket". I kind of liked "bots". This Thanksgiving when you asked her what a turkey said, she responded with "boggle, boggle!!" I think that's my favorite. When she learned what a donkey says, she would smile real big and then round her lips very deliberately to say "hee haw" - and it was drawn out with a cute Southern drawl. She asks for "wapples" (waffles) at breakfast, and tells her grandparents to put on their "gakes" (glasses) to read. She protrudes her tongue when she says her /l/'s, and her Papaw has taught her to say "hello yellow", which is pretty funny to watch. Will called Elmo, "Melmo" for a long time, and he called our Elf on the Shelf, Milton, "Melf" last Christmas. Will can imitate a seagull with perfection. He got a leaf blower for his birthday and calls the goggles that go with it "gobbles". For Halloween, he claimed he wanted to be a "firefighter ghost" or a "firefighter chief". In the mornings when I wake him up for school, he always says "I wanna go back to sleepy". Yeah, me too, buddy. Anytime the door rings, Ainsley yells "'Body!" - as in "somebody's here". Even when the toaster dings, she yells "'Body". Ainsley was sick a lot during January and got spoiled about being held and rocked. She never really liked to be held like a baby after about 8 or 9 months - once she was old enough to sit up on her own and was curious enough to want to know what was going on - she was done being rocked, although she was never really snuggley to begin with. But she started requesting to lay across you arms at night after reading books. She'll say "Rock a baby" which means that she wants you sing "Rock a bye baby" to her before laying her down for nap or bedtime. Ainsley says "mease" for "please", which Will used to say as well. When Will is finished with something - mainly eating - he says "ished" or lately "minished" - for "finished". One time late at night Mitch put him on the potty before bed and Will was half asleep. He looked at Mitch and said "Dada, I ished". It was pitiful. Last night Will got in his bed, threw his hand and arm over his face and said "I tired. I had a busy day. School, therapy, art." Drama. He was "ished!"

Mitch's Birthday card

I forgot to mention the birthday card that Will made for Mitch. He made it with his Speech Pathologist, Suzanne, on Wednesday as their activity during his therapy session. Suzanne wrote "Happy Birthday Daddy - Love, Will" in the middle of a piece of construction paper and then let Will draw on it. Then she dictated what Will had to say about his drawings and about Mitch's birthday in general. They included: "These are Daddy's balloons" (black scribbling), "Daddy wants to be a football player", "Daddy needs a cake. This is his cake. It's a green cake", and "This is his present. It's toys. Will wants Daddy to have a green boat and a baby dog". Ha! What an imagination! That kid cracks us up; he really is funny!

What we've been up to

January started with a laid back New Year's Day - watching football, eating some "good luck" dishes and relaxing after a busy month. On January 6th, Will had surgery at ACH. His ENT recommended doing another set of tubes due to several ear infections and chronic middle ear fluid that just would not clear up on it's own, despite giving it several months time. We also decided to have him circumcised since he would be under anesthesia anyway. That was never done when he was born, due to the circumstances surrounding his birth, and we had never been given the green light from Cardiology until recently. So Mitch, Will and myself drove to Little Rock late Tuesday night since we had to be at the hospital at 7:30 am. Ainsley spent the night at the Colvin's. He did really during the 2 hour wait until the procedure started. He was really funny after the nurse gave him the "goofy juicy" - versed - to relax him. He was swaying around from side to side, slurring his words, giggling uncontrollably! Both surgeries went well. The ENT was able to put T-tubes in his ears, which are larger and more permanent, so hopefully these will last us awhile! The recovery from the tubes was pretty easy. He fussed some when we had to put drops in his ears, but it was not too bad. The circumcision, on the other hand, was a totally different story. He had a difficult recovery from it that lasted a long time. He didn't want anyone touching him the first night. He became terrified to use the bathroom or take a shower. It took both of us holding him down to put the antibiotic ointment on him. The doctors acted like it would not be a difficult recovery or set him back with pottying, but it did. It took several weeks until he was confident enough to use the the bathroom by himself or pull his pants up and down. Poor little guy. It was rough for all of us! I'm glad it's behind us now!

The rest of January we were all pretty much sick off and on. Ainsley had a really high fever for days and we finally took her to the on-call pediatrician, which was a mistake, as it resulted in a 3 hour wait. We left the doctor's office at 8:15 pm! Never again! She got better only to get sick a few days later. Will had a sinus infection and missed another day of school. Knock on wood, we have been well since.

In February, I participated in the Service League's Dental Health Play that we perform each year for kindergartners in the county. I played one of the "bad snacks" - Carly Cookie. Mitch told Will that I was going to be a cookie in a play and Will laughed so hard at that! I tried on my costume for him and he really got a kick out that!



We also celebrated Mitch's birthday on the 10th. We had my mom's chicken spaghetti, salad, bread, orange "fluff" and his mom's yellow cake with chocolate icing (which he requests every year). She even brought 36 candles. Will was very talkative and he and Ainsley both enjoyed the attention of all their grandparents.


On the 11th and 12th, El Dorado actually got some snow. It started snowing Thursday afternoon and continued lightly until Friday morning. Mitch and I went to the MercyMe concert which was held at the Auditorium Thursday night. The snow was really pretty. El Dorado schools were open Friday, so Will got to have his Valentine party. He took "Toy Story" valentines and pencils. He helped me make sandwiches and then use a cookie cutter to cut them into hearts. He was proud of them.



By the time he was out of school at 11:30, all the snow on the ground and trees had melted. There was only a little on the bushes and patio furniture in the back yard. Ainsley was a little scared of the snow at first. We went outside mid-morning when there was still a little on the ground. (she insisted on taking her book!) They did scoop up snow and throw a few snowballs.