Some random stories

Ainsley got a balloon at the train show over the weekend, but decided to bite it (yes BITE it) yesterday. So, once it deflated she had to find a new use for it. She started filling it up with Benji's food and then feeding him from it...piece by piece. She did this all morning so as soon as she sat it down I quickly chunked it. Only I put it in the toy room trash (a small wastebasket in the closet) rather than the kitchen trash. My mistake. So, this morning she's playing in the toy room when I hear, "No, no, no, Momma!" and she comes running into the kitchen with the balloon in her hand. "Don't throw-a my bloon in trash, ok? That is NOT nice! You say, 'I sorry, Ainsley!'" Me-"I'm sorry Ainsley." Ainsley-"Good girl. You be nice now, ok? Or you get spakin!" (Oh, and the next conversation always goes... "Ainsley, who's the boss?" "Oh, I sorry Momma.") Ha! Sweet baby girl!

Last night Clint came home and ate with us, then left for choir rehearsal. As you know, Ainsley likes to say that Daddy goes to church to 'sing for Jesus'. So, I found her in the toy room playing "church" with her barbie dolls. She had her foam puzzle pieces set up like chairs and a whole little family (Ken, Barbie, and Dora) sitting in "church". I wish I would have thought to get a picture. When I walked in, she was standing in front of them holding a domino as a microphone and singing "I have da doy, doy, doy, doy down in ma hawt...whewe?" When she noticed I was watching, she handed me a microphone and instructed me to stand behind her and clap my hands. I think I was the praise team! Ha!

Today Ainsley told me that Daddy goes to work with Jesus. She said he works in 'da heaben' and says "Hi Jesus! Good morning, Jesus! How are you?" (And she's sticking her hand out like she's shaking someone's hand as she's saying this) Ha! Oh, also, on Sunday she was sitting in big church with me when Josh, our worship minister, walked up to start the worship time and Ainsley said, "Look Momma! It's God!"

Her favorite thing to do lately is be "Miss Cherrie", her dance instructor. She likes to stand in front of us and tell us to put our toes on the red line. Then she tells us everything to do. If we don't do it exactly, she gets upset too. Like tonight I was supposed to have my arms straight out and I guess they were droopy, because she lifted them up and said, "Airplane arms, Momma!"

Lunch: "Momma, I want pizza!"
"No, we're having noodles, remember?"
"Oh, noodles....for me?"
"Yes, for you!"
"Oh, thank you! I love noodles! They're SOOOOOO yummy!"
After eating: "I love noodles. I love pizza too! I love pizza later?"

Baby Peas?

We had some steamed sugar snap peas for dinner last night. Ainsley picked every pea out and kept telling us they were her baby peas and the pods were the mommas. (She's really getting into this whole "baby in the momma's tummy" thing!) She would cup them in her hands and talk to them in a baby voice. Then rock them and sing to them, and finally put them to "sleep" under the napkin. It was SO funny! We were cracking up! She acted like they were so special to her, but after she put about 10 or so to sleep, then she'd eat them and start all over again! Needless to say, dinner lasted MUCH longer than usual last night! :)

Baby's Room - Completed

I still need some decorative items, but I'm calling it complete!
(BTW - I don't know if the TV will stay in here. It's was there before and I just haven't moved it, but it might come in handy for Ainsley to watch TV while I'm nursing or something. We'll see...)

Wow! I just noticed the countdown...58 days! This pregnancy has gone by SO fast! So, do you think we need a name? :) Drum roll please.....

Grady Matthew Bean

Well, actually, we may name him Graydon and call him Grady, but that's still undecided. Grady means "Noble and Renowned" and Matthew (Clint's middle name and a family name) means "Gift of the Lord". Again, we went with a Gaelic first name and a Hebrew middle name....just like Ainsley. And, as with Ainsley, this is what we think we'll name him, but we have backups if he just doesn't look like a Grady when he's born. (I don't like to be firm on the name thing until I see the baby) And, of course, we have a girl backup too...just in case the ultrasound tech made a mistake! :)

Almost finished.....

I stayed home today to finish some projects in the baby's room. I didn't have a lot to do, but just a few craft projects that I wanted to do...if I found the time. I had promised Ainsley, a couple of weeks ago, that she could paint a picture for baby brother's room. (She had asked back when I was painting the canvases) So, here is Ainsley at her messiest! She insisted on using her hands just like we did at Christmas....

The finished product....she ended up mixing all the colors together so it doesn't really match the room, but it's still cute. And she's VERY proud of it!

Ok, I'm kind of a "matchy" dork! (Just like my mom!) So, I glued some ribbon onto this wipes container to match the room also. When we get a name nailed down, I'll probably put his name on it too.

I couldn't find a lamp that I liked, so I improvised. I found the shade on the clearance aisle at Wal-Mart and only paid $9 for the base. (I just glued the ribbon onto the shade)

Ok....so here are the curtains that I hated! I used the leftover fabric from the chair cover and I just thought it made the room look too drab. It was just....well...brown! So, I took them off yesterday and sewed some ribbon onto them also. The ribbon matches pretty well (it was just some I had leftover from Ainsley's hair bows) and made the curtains look much cuter. They are double-layered suede denim, so it's very dark in the room when they're closed. An added bonus!

A close-up of the ribbon...

I still want to paint a shelf, as well as a little foot stool for Ainsley to stand on when she's "helping" me with the baby. (Right now she tries to climb on the side of the crib and changing table to see, so I think the stool will help ease my stress) But, overall, I'm finished with the major pieces of the room. It looks like a babies room now! Pictures of the entire room coming....

Trains & Shopping!

I went to the "Going Beyond" women's conference with Priscilla Shirer this weekend. It was held at our church and I absolutely LOVE her studies so I was super excited about going! I really had a great weekend. I had been worried that Mother's Day Out would be canceled because of the weather. (The schools were closed the day before due to the ice) But luckily, school was in session! I went straight to my doctor's appointment that morning where I learned that I PASSED MY GLUCOSE TEST! Yeah! What better way to start the morning? Then I went to Target to create a baby registry and buy a few things that we needed for the nursery. The day continued with lots of shopping. I'm hosting bunco this month so shopping with someone else's money was fabulous! And to top it all off, Ainsley took a nap at school again this week! Almost 2 hours!

The conference that evening was great. I went with a group of girls from my home group and we really had a lot of fun together, but got home very late. It was about 11:30pm when I got home. That's very late for a pregnant woman that can't sleep anyway! Saturday morning as I was getting ready I asked Clint if they had any plans for the day. (I was only gone until about 1:00pm) He said he hadn't really thought about it much yet, so I figured if anything they might just go to the associate's store or something. Well, when I got home and asked where they had been he didn't want to tell me. He kept saying he was going to let Ainsley tell me. I was very intrigued!

So, as soon as Ainsley woke up I asked her what she did with Daddy. She got real excited and shouted, "I go with Daddy to the train store!" And she showed me a stamp of a train on her hand.....and one on Daddy's hand too. So, I thought they went to Dilly Dally's (a toy store) and played with trains. I couldn't imagine what she was talking about until Clint told me that he took her to the model train show at the Clarion hotel! He wanted to do something fun with her so he got online to learn about all of the events happening. It turns out that the train show was only on Saturday. She got lots of free stuff like balloons, key chains, etc. and Clint bought her some new pieces for her train track since they were sold at cost. He told me that it was probably good he wasn't home with her all day because he would spend way too much money on her. (They did go to the associate's store where she got a new toy and then to Sonic for lunch too!) Apparently she loved it and all the old men loved showing their trains off...making them go super fast and all.

Oh, yeah.....I was also shocked to learn that he even remembered to take the camera! So here are a couple of pictures. Oh, another shock? He took her out in panties too!



P.S. This was the first time (EVER) since Ainsley was about a year old that she was out in public without a bow in her hair! Clint said he fixed her hair, but couldn't get the bow to stay in. He ran into a friend of mine at the store who is very observant and quickly pointed out, "Mandy's going to kill you when she finds out Ainsley didn't have her hair fixed!"

Sesame Street Live!

I'm SO excited! I just purchased Sesame Street Live tickets! Ainsley is going to love it! We wanted to take her to some sort of show before the baby was born, but there weren't any good options. Doodlebops was in OKC in January, but I waited too long to get tickets and they were too expensive. Then Diego was going to be in Tulsa (who Ainsley LOVES), but after watching the preview for the show, I don't think Ainsley would like it much. "Diego" is just some guy with a rescue pack on. He doesn't have a big foamy Diego-head costume, so I don't think Ainsley would recognize that he's playing the part of Diego. So, our last option was Sesame Street, but it was in OKC in late March and I thought that was too far to travel so close to my due date. I was VERY swollen with Ainsley in my last month and traveling to Oklahoma was miserable! So, to make my long story short, Sesame Street opened up a show in Tulsa the last weekend in March. And to make matters even better, they have a Saturday morning show! It's at 10:30am...plenty of time to go to the show, get lunch, and nap in the car on the way back! PLUS I ordered the tickets directly from the Mabee Center for only $16 each....ground floor....row 14! Yeah!

We had some friends come by yesterday to dig through some of Ainsley's baby clothes and check out the nursery. Baby Avery came too...she's 3 months old. Ainsley absolutely adored her! She had a Soothie pacifier and Ainsley kept asking to put her finger in the hole! Ha! She'd try to dress her (she put several pairs of shoes on her) and put headbands and bows in her hair. You should have seen the look on her face when I asked her if she wanted to hold the baby! Talk about a happy girl! She was SO good too....supported her head, patted her back, etc. Her friend Peyton was here to play during that time too, but Ainsley hardly played with him at all. Even while we were walking around the house, Ainsley just sat next to the baby in the living room the whole time. Silly little momma!

Well, I have a "client" coming over for a haircut so I better stop bragging now! :)

Gross!

I just changed my first poop in panties! ugh! They were mostly white so I ended up throwing them away, which sent Ainsley screaming for 10 minutes. "My panties! No, I want my panties!" Ha! I guess she'll learn not to do that again! She's been doing so great, but wet her panties at childcare last night and then this today....not sure what's going on around here...

Chair Cover Complete!

I finally finished my slipcover for the pink chair. Boy was that hard! I definitely won't be tackling anything like that again in the near future. Anyway, here are a couple of before/after pictures. As you can see, it was a very ugly pink chair. :) I bought it at a garage sale for $8 from an older couple. It's actually somewhat mauve. Here's the before: (The black mat underneath is to keep the carpet clean after oiling the chair...just hadn't been moved)Tada! The finished product! I even put piping around the cushion to make it a little more professional looking. The hardest part was the piece of the chair that pops up when you recline. I couldn't figure out how to slipcover that piece, so I ended up upholstering it on...just loosely.
I also made some curtains today, but I really don't like them at all. I had a lot of fabric left over from the slipcover, so I decided to make good use out of it. I doubled it up to make it extra dark (and it really does) but it also made the curtains rather stiff. They hang really funny and I just don't think I like the color (tan) with all of the other bedding and wall colors. It's too blah. So, I have to come up with a different option for the window treatment. Maybe a roman shade or something?

Ainsley and I had a date with Daddy yesterday. We had discussed going out for Valentine's Day, but we never really do much since our anniversary is in March. So, Clint told me he was kind of wanting to take "his Valentines" out for dinner. Ainsley was SUPER excited about going on a date with Daddy. She got all dressed up and picked out a bow for her hair and everything. It was the cutest thing! She sat right next to him and even wanted to ride home with him. It was just really sweet.

I also have some Valentine pictures posted on flickr. Also a funny story....I asked Ainsley what she wanted to make Daddy for Valentine's Day and she told me pizza! Pizza? So, I said, "What about a cake or cookies...maybe chocolate?" And she replied, "Chocolate pizza!" Ha! Well, it was her present to her daddy, so we made some chocolate pizza! I bought some pizza molds and she had all kinds of things (dates, raisins, almonds, pecans, peanut butter chips, chex, pretzels, etc.) to "top" the pizza with. It took FOREVER, but she did it all by herself! Clint also bought her a Tinkerbell purse and coin purse that she's in love with. She took it on her date....filled with crayons and her Blue's Clue's notebook. I got a vanilla reed diffuser and this really cool pillow/wrap thing that you can heat up and lay on pregnancy aches. :) My husband is so sweet!

More projects!

I've been working hard on the baby's room the last week. I started sewing the cover for the pink chair this weekend and I'm really close to finishing. It has proven, though, to be a monster project! All I have left is the foot part that reclines...I have to figure out how to attach the material without attaching it permanently. The chair is a swivel/glider/recliner that I bought for $8 at a garage sale, so I wasn't about to spend $150 for a recliner slipcover. Can you believe they cost that much!?!

Anyway, I wanted to take a break from all of the sewing so I decided to work on the mobile today. I bought this for under $10 when I was pregnant with Ainsley. It was pink and purple with safari animals...all pastel colors. Since I couldn't find a cheap mobile that matched our bedding, I decided to just convert the pink one for the baby boy. I bought the little animals on the $1 Easter gift aisle at Target and painted everything else. I think it turned out pretty cute...especially since I wanted something real simple. Ainsley absolutely LOVED this mobile as a baby and it was a real life saver for us at times, so hopefully this baby is going to love it too!


I had planned on painting some sort of canvases for the nursery also, but I just haven't had time to go get any. Since I had my paint supplies out while painting the mobile, I decided to go ahead and paint over the canvases I had in Ainsley's nursery. They never matched exactly anyway. I think they turned out pretty cute...especially after I put the frames on!


I had my doctor's appointment on Friday that included my glucose test and rhogam shot. I'm measuring 2 weeks big, which is something I never did with Ainsley so that was good news! Maybe we'll at least have a "normal" sized baby rather than a 41 week preemie! :) I failed the glucose test, though, and had to go back to the hospital Monday for the more extensive test. I still haven't received a call with my results, so I'm hoping that no news is good news! I'm pretty worried about it, though. I failed the first test with Ainsley too, but just by 8 points. This time I failed the first test by 40 points!

Anyway, Clint stayed home Monday morning until Ainsley woke up and then dropped her off at Katie's house. When she woke up she apparently asked where I was. Clint said I had to go see the doctor. He said she got all excited, her face lit up, and she said, "Ahhhh! Gonna take baby bwoder out! Yeah!" :) Yeah, I think she understands now. Anytime I tell her I have a surprise for her she says, "Baby bwoder come home?" She's SO excited! We didn't even tell her I was pregnant until Dec 14....I can't imagine having her wait longer than that!