Ainsleys' new skill

Our daughter does not like her food plain. She refuses to eat plain chicken breast anymore, it has to have some sort of spice or sauce on it ... same goes for pretty much all types of meat. SO - her Dad & I had a great idea to teach her how to dip her food ... we had chicken souvlaki and Greek salad on the weekend, and we showed Ainsley how to dip her souvlaki in salad dressing. She caught on pretty fast, and now wants to dip everything. I must also say that she has been 'pretend dipping' for awhile now ... where she pretends to dip her Cheerio (or whatever) in the invisible sauce that sits in the palm of a hand (like mine!) ... or sometimes in her yogourt! Very cute : )



Team PM & Ainsley

A very busy Friday night

Last night we had a few things on the go. First, we headed to the Officers Mess for the annual family Halloween party. There were games, crafts, door prizes, pizza etc. and, of course, all the kids (and some of the parents) were dressed up in costumes. Ainsley was a ladybug : )



Here she is enjoying some of the activities that were planned including coloring a picture, and watching 'Monsters Inc.'. She also 'participated' in musical chairs by watching the big kids play and dancing each time the music came on.





After we ate a yummy pizza supper, Ainsley had a quick change and we were off to Bonnyville for a Pontiacs game (Junior A hockey). Our friend Rob is a referee and so we wanted to go to one of the games to see him. Ainsley has never been to a hockey game before, and she was quite taken with the music, lights and action on the rink when we got there. She even had her own seat!



After she settled in with a snack (which all moms know is a necessity ..), she was pretty content to sit and watch most of the first period.



During intermission(s) she went for a walk with Peter; also, her friend Joel (Rob's son) and Joel's mom Kinsley came and sat with us, so the two kids got to entertain each other a bit. Ainsley was also very interested in watching the 'big' kids behind us being silly.


It took me awhile to get a shot of her looking at the camera ... isn't she a doll? : )


And finally we headed home and Ainsley hit the hay around 10:00 - which is very late for her. As you can see, she didn't quite make it home to go to sleep ; )



Team PM & Ainsley

More pics from my 30th

My friend Melissa is a professional photographer; she loves to take pictures and has such amazing talent at capturing great moments with her camera. Here are a few she took at the birthday party on Monday night ... okay, maybe more than a 'few'!


















They are all so good that I couldn't choose just a few ... so I posted just about all of them : )

Team PM & Ainsley

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my 30th birthday! My friends had a party for me last night, as well as for my friend Brenda who turned 25 yesterday. Here are a few shots from the party!




This was a game we played where each person took turns bending down to grab a cereal box with their teeth. After each round, a few more inches of the box were cut away to make it harder and harder. Nothing but your feet were allowed to touch the ground! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be ... but I didn't want to do any more damage to this old back of mine ; )



Tonight Peter is taking me out for dinner and a movie and Ainsley is heading to a babysitter (Brenda) : ) I cannot remember the last time we went out alone ... I don't actually think its happened since Ainsley was born!!

Team PM & Ainsley

Snow in October - Part II

After the post I made yesterday I took Ainsley & Olivia to the Provincial Park for a little walk. It was chilly out, but sunny too. I took a few pictures of them as they walked; we headed down to a little lookout spot where there are beaver huts and lots of birds. This spot is also adjacent to the beach ... which Ainsley saw ... and headed towards. I walked down to the water's edge with her and we looked at the water, but she wanted to go IN! Of course, I had to pull her away, and she got upset and threw a mini tantrum.


So - back up the hill we went (Ainsley in my arms!) Once at the top, Ainsley spotted a staircase which heads back down to the water - and made a beeline for it! She thought she had outsmarted me ... but I was hot on her heels because: 1. I didn't want her to slip on the snowy steps and fall AND 2. I didn't want her in the water and that point had to be made clear!


I eventually lured her away with the promise of going down the slides, which we hadn't done yet (good move Mommy - save the slides until last!) She was excited at this prospect and gladly headed in that direction. I did keep my eye on her because she would turn around and head the other way after I stopped watching her if she had it in her mind to do so ... maybe kinda strong willed ?? But, she was pretty intent on the slides now.


We got back to the playground, I put her up on the platform and then climbed down so I could snap a picture of her coming down the slide - you see, I already had this blog posting in mind and I thought the smiling picture would be perfect to cap off the chronology of this story : ) As you will notice - such a picture does not exist. Ainsley is normally fine at getting on to the slide on her own, sitting down and sliding away. BUT .. the play structure was a bit slippery, so while she was attempting to sit down, she slipped and came down the slide on her tummy head first - and had a nice face wash in a bit of accumulated snow at the bottom. AND, play time OVER. She was not happy about this turn of events, thankfully I was there to catch her and home we went ; )

I know you're thinking that it looks chilly from these pictures and poor us in Cold Lake. But, don't despair for us yet. I've learned that Cold Lake (regardless of season) is just a continuous cycle of warm spells and cold spells ... we are currently in a cold spell ... well, we were in a cold spell. Today we are heading up to 11 degrees and tomorrow 14!! So .. pretty sure all that snow that fell last weekend will be gone soon enough - actually most of it is already gone as the temperature started rising yesterday : )

Team PM & Ainsley

Snow in October

Yes, you read it right ... it has snowed in October. It started a bit on Thursday last week and we've had flurries on and off since then. Nothing has really accumulated, so its not that big of a deal, but I was really hoping we wouldn't see the white stuff until November. And - that's not just wishful thinking ... last year it didn't snow until mid-November! There is some hope that all of the snow that is on the ground will be gone by the weekend since we are heading back up to the double digits tomorrow - yay! Here, we had planned to finish work on the fence over the nice long weekend, and we did - except we were getting snowed on as we worked - not ideal : (

We also spent our weekend babysitting Courtnie (7), Caleb (4) & Kaylee (2 1/2) Colbourne while their parents attended a wedding in Regina. They are really good kids (aside from Kaylee's extremely strong will!), and we had a fun time with them. On Monday afternoon the little girls (Kaylee & Ainsley) napped and Courtnie and Caleb wanted Peter to take them behind our house to climb the 'mountain'. Its really just a big pile of dirt that was placed there when the land behind us was cleared for houses last year. Its such a lovely view ; )
Here are a few shots of them on the top as I waved to them from the kitchen door.



Other than that, we haven't much to report! Ainsley is learning new words everyday and is starting to catch on to words with more than one syllable in them, though she will usually only pronounce one syllable well while the other one is more of a jumble! Here are a few shots of her from the last few days.

Reading 'Pinocchio' with Daddy.


And, jumping around on the couch - a new favorite activity. She also loves to try and climb over the back of the couch to get to her toys ... I generally try and intercept in that situation!!




Well, it is currently 9:35 a.m. and both Ainsley & Olivia are still sleeping! Olivia goes to bed as soon as she gets here in the morning; normally she sleeps until 9 or 9:30, and by that time Ainsley has usually been up for about an hour. But, for some reason they are both really sleepy today and I am getting some extra time to myself : )

Team PM & Ainsley

Late update

I am overdue in updating my blog ... I haven't been myself for about a week now. I hurt my back (doing absolutely nothing, one of those weird, random things) and have been struggling just to get the basics done! I am slowly recovering, but it is taking longer than I expected. I'm at the point now where physical activity is a good thing, and laying down to rest my back every once in awhile helps me get through the day. I'm hoping to be 100% restored soon!!

That being said - a sore back does not mean that I haven't been taking photos! Ainsley continues to be the cutest 17 month old to be found. She is learning at an alarming rate and seems to understand more and more every day. It really is amazing to watch her grow and figure things out. She is very good at taking instructions now and almost always knows what we are telling her to do, and what she is/isn't supposed to be doing. Example: last night she accidentally knocked over one of the little speakers beside the tv - she knows not to touch these. She looked over at us to see what we were going to do, but we knew it wasn't done on purpose so we didn't say anything. She then turned back around, and dutifully stood the speaker back upright. It was super cute, and we were impressed that she knew to do this!

Here are some recent shots ... sporting a new vest from Grandma, playing in her tent downstairs and coming in the door from picking up Daddy from work.




On Saturday morning I went out to the big baby sale on base. When I came home I found Peter on the couch watching a movie, with Ainsley napping on him! This is so not like Ainsley - she isn't much of a cuddler, so you can imagine my surprise. She seems to be enjoying cuddle time more as she gets older - case in point! (Incidentally: Ainsley is a big drooler when she sleeps. Because of the way she was laying, Peter ended up having a trickle of drool all down into his armpit, ending in a pool on the couch!)



Later on, she decided to take a little break with Mommy - who was resting her back on the couch after a busy morning.


More photos to follow soon. We are off on our way to the park now!

Team PM & Ainsley