Ainsley's Stories

"Put these girls in the picture!"

This morning, when I went to get Ainsley out of bed, she said, "Not yet!" This morning, like many mornings of late, she's been deeply engaged in the stories she's created for her babies.

This morning, Ariel was dying and Hoth Luke Skywalker was kissing her back to life. All Ariel's friends (Mermaid Barbie, Butterfly Barbie, Weird McDonald's Happy Meal girl toy, Cinderalla, Big Cinderella, Walking Ariel, and Snow White) were all gathered around Ariel in concern. I was sent away so she could finish her story.

A has gotten VERY HUGE into playing out stories with her babies lately. It's cracking me up...and it makes me so happy to see her engaging so creatively.

Sleeping Babies

So, I started this thing a couple weeks ago. I started taking pictures of the kids asleep before I went to bed (or once, when I forgot, when I woke up before them). I thought I'd see how long I could go. Then I though I could share the pictures, sort of like a 365 Stewarts sleeping. I'm not diligent enough to add everyday, so I'll just do it every so often. 

*side note* As I worked on this blog post, I discovered something WEIRD. Even though they're in different rooms, they're often in the same position when I take the picture (which, in most cases, occurs within 2-3 minutes of one another). People have asked me if they're twins before...but this is too weird.

November 6: Flanked with Babies

November 7: Stretched Out Stewarts

November 8: Lovin' Babies

November 9: Ainsley as Scarlet O'Hara, Xander as Pillbug

November 10: Babies Hiding Faces 

November 11: Tuckered Out at Grandma and Grandpa's

November 12: Even MORE Tuckered Out at Grandma and Grandpa's

November 13: Home at Last...and Ridonkulously Tired

November 14: Babies with Babies

November 15: Contortionist Sleepers

November 16: Fetal Position Stewarts

Cute-lette: Oh really?

Trying to scale the crib.

Every morning when the kids get up, invariably, one kiddo will sleep longer than the other. There is no rhyme or reason to who sleeps longer when. Regardless, when whoever is second wakes up, the early riser must assist me in getting his/her sibling.


It seems that when Ainsley wakes Xander, cute slapstick stuff happens.  When Xander wakes Ainsley, it's normally just plain funny. 


Example: this morning.  


Me: Good morning, Ainsley.
Ainsley: I WAKE UP!


[Xander walks into Ainsley's room.]

Ainsley: Xander's trying to kill me!!

And then, for those of you that remember this, you'll understand why the Velociraptor of Irony came in and ate her.

I Wake Up!

Thanks, Kid. No, Really...

The last couple of months, Ainsley has started waking us up using a new method. In the past, when she woke up, most of the time she'd play with her toys for a while. We'd hear her on the monitor and have a leisurely morning wake up.

Now, however, she's taken to screaming at the top of her lungs:

MOM! I WAKE UP!  MOOOOM!  I WAKE UP!!

Don't think it doesn't piss me off that it's "Mom!" she screams and not "Dad!" WTF?!

Normally, I'm already awake with Xander, so this isn't too startling. But occasionally, Xander will let me sleep in--and it's on those mornings that the monitor scares the crap out of me.

Yesterday, when Ainsley WAKE UP!!, I went downstairs and discovered exactly how much my daughter she is.  Check this awesome hair.  I'm pretty certain that my family has very similar pictures of me (and my awesome hair) like this at her age.

Also, sorry about that kid...our hair kinda sucks.

And Now for a Little Xander


After waking up, Ainsley decided it was time to go get Little Brother.  Per her usual, she asked to be put in Xander's bed.  This time, however, she did not try to lay on him and smother him in his bed.  Instead, she felt it necessary to show how she could pick her nose. Xander, in turn, offered up some pretty solid scrunchy face.

This Happened Today

Holy Shit.

Gender Norms, Dancing, and Cuddling, OH MY!

Pink and Blue

I know a lot of people who plan to or do fight reinforcing gender stereotypes in their kids: boys who play with dolls and dress up, girls who like trucks and dinosaurs.  I have to say, I find myself both reinforcing and fighting the reinforcement every day.  I figure it's a good sign that Ainsley is just as comfortable asking for a princess toy as she is asking for a car.  Xander adores playing with his sister's toys, and her dolls are no exception.  My theory is I encourage the things I think are good or harmless (most Nick Jr. stuff—Bubble Guppies, Blues Clues, and Yo Gabba Gabba, particularly) and don't freak out too badly at the things that aren't (I'm looking at you, Disney Princesses).  At least most of the shows they're repackaging for the children of my generation (My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake) are trying to reconcile the gender stereotypes that we grew up with.

Awesome.

Every now and then, though, I get hit in the head with some obvious symbolism.  Take this week, for example. I was working (or playing on FB, it's hard to say), when I looked up and saw the kids had decided to climb onto chairs/rockers.

Ainsley took Xander's John Deere rocker while Xander decided that he needed to sit in Ainsley's princess chair. So, that means my work is done, right?

Our Names Are AINSLEY and XANDER! 

We like to dance!

I Warned You that You Can't Handle It

Xander still has his bottle at some nap and all bed times—don't judge me.  If he didn't, you wouldn't get to marvel at this cuteness:

Chillin'

Xander's Senior Picture

The Stewart Children At Play

Yesterday, when Ainsley and I went to get Xander up from his nap, she decided they needed to play in the bed together. Hilarity ensued.

They had a grand old time rolling around and wrestling together.  He, of course, used it as opportunity to try to rip off Ainsley's glasses.  She used it as an opportunity to sit on his head and suffocate him.

"I GET HIM!!"

Scrunchy Face

And Then There's This...


Xander has been more and more expressive. The last few weeks he's been making this hilarious scrunchy face. I've tried and tried to catch it on film...and finally here it is!

Xander Is a Big Boy

Lately, Xander has started moving in leaps and bounds.  It used to be that he would army crawl around the house.  Now he does a right proper crawl.  His most favorite thing to do right now, though, is to pull himself up onto things. The other day, I went to wake him up and decided it'd be a good day to document some cuteness for the Interwebs.  This is how I found him in his bed.  

Seriously, Xander is the happiest damn baby you'll ever meet. He has his crying and fussing moments, but he is So. Chill.  I guess he has to be as a reaction to his sister, Captain Cranky Pants.

BIG BOY!

Anyway, lately, X is pulling himself up, so when we go to get him out of bed, he's no longer laying around chilling with Max, his Grinch dog. Now he's a Big Boy, standing up and yelling in his crib.  Big Boys stand in their cribs and chew on them.  Big Boys get excited and jump up and down in their cribs and then fall down. Big Boys find that hilarious and lay on their backs laughing.  Oh yeah, being a Big Boy is pretty awesome.

Can you hear the theme to Jaws?
I can.

Xander will pull himself up on anything he can.  I've forgotten what it's like to have an almost 9 month old baby in the house.  Lately, it seems we spend our days chasing after Mr. Big Boy and protecting him from our stuff and our stuff from him.  For example, my table in the living room ("The Mess" as Sean calls it) often will have random bills/mail on it.  Did you know how tasty bills and mail are?  I didn't. But I do now!

Can I haz stairs nao?

Another new discovery Mr. Big Boy has made is the steps.  Right now we have to leave the steps up to our bedroom open because Ms. Fat Blacky Beaner can use her paw to open the door and if she gets stuck up there, she pees on our bed in protest.  Ms. Fatty is a bitch, by the way.

This has allowed Xander to discover the stairs.  He can't crawl up them yet, but he is VERY interested in them.  You may recall Miss A's fascination with the steps (and her fit throwing when I put the gate up to stop her). Xander is no different.  At the moment, he'll just stand at them.  Then sit down and look at me..then stand at them again.  Rinse, repeat for 20 minutes.

Ainsley has the coolest stuff!

Ultimately though, Xander's favorite thing to do is to play in Ainsley's room.  Because A's toys are everywhere, Ainsley's room is a bounty of toys and awesomeness.

Ainsley: "I Done Bed."

I've mentioned Ainsley's meticulous nature before...her kiddie OCD.  She likes to line things up, put things in groups, and organize things in general.

Kate and A in January 2009

Lately, she's been stepping up her game.  The hat that Xander is wearing is actually Ainsley's.  My girlfriend Kate Freeland made it for her. Ainsley loved to wear that hat. She wore it and wore it until the spirally tassels on it fell off. I tied them back on a gazillion times.  Finally she grew enough that it didn't fit her head anymore.  So, being a good Momma, I commissioned another funky hat from Grandma Parker.

"Match"

The arrival of the new hat was very exciting for Ms. A. What I didn't expect was that she'd still need the old had to be used.  The other day, Xander was in his chair eating puffs.  She put on her new hat, brought me the old one and said, "Xander. On."  When I asked her if she wanted them to match, she smiled and said, "MATCH!'  I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of the two of them...but here you go. Ainsley and Xander: Lined Up.

This Tuesday while I was working on a project for one of my classes, Ainsley and Xander were playing in Ainsley's room.  Well, Ainsley was lining things up--ponies and popit people, to be specific.  What I find interesting is how she's pulled the shelving boxes out of the shelf to create a storage unit for the lined up ponies. Notice how proud she is of the lined up stuff.

Of course, no bout of playing is complete without Xander RUINING IT! Another toy that Ms. A loves is her Pooh puzzle--my mom brought this for her a while ago, and she just can't get enough of it.  She's actually big into puzzles right now as a whole. Of course by looking at the picture, you can see that she's not too keen on an actual picture.  She just likes putting the pieces together.  Xander, by the mere act of crawling toward the pieces, destroyed everything!

Today, however, is what made me realize that the blog needed a posting.  Ainsley fought nap today--as she does most days.  According to Ainsley, napping is for suckers and losers.  She'll fight nap with her DYING BREATH.  We often have to go in there and put her clothes back on her (NAKED is awesome, btw) or settle her down.  As much as she hates bed and nap, she also must be encased in babies--and she knows each and every one--if one is missing, she'll scream nonstop, the Rocky to whatever toy's Stella: "PPPPEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGUUUUIIIIINNNN!!!!"

As I was saying, today, she started getting adamant about being done with bed.  I went into her room to find that she'd started cleaning up her bed...and lining up her babies.  Please to enjoy "Ainsley: I Done Bed."

Also, apparently, Sean had told her that after her nap, she could have ice cream.  Guess who didn't forget that little nugget?

For those of you without sound or if the sound is bad (this was taken with my phone, which is old and not the best quality), the transcript is below:

Me: What are you?

Ainsley: Over there?

M: You put the Christmas book over there, I see that. What else?

A: I put these down there.

M: Are you done?

A: I done bed. I done bed! I DONE BED! I done bed! I DONE! BED! I done bed! I done bed! I hungee now! I hungry! Want some ice cream! There's my Christmas book.

Being Thankful

Had I thought about this blog post before 10:00 tonight, I'd have taken more pictures to document the day.  As it stands, I figure I'll just toss out some of the random memories I have from today.  Background: my sister Jill and her boyfriend Joe came to have Thanksgiving with Sean, the kids, and me.  Ainsley and Xander dressed for the occasion.  Ainsley's shirt says:  I'm thankful for 1. Mom and Dad 2. Yummy Turkey 3. Football.  Xander's onesie says:  Daddy loves me more than football.  So, yeah, football is integral to our holiday.

Two Green Beans
I made two different green bean dishes today.  Jill and I love the classic green bean casserole.  Joe and Sean do not.  Beyond the green beans, our menu consisted of turkey, Stove Top, yams, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, cranberry jelly, and gravy. Sean requested another vegetable beyond potato/potato.  Can't say I blame him.  So, I made all-day green beans and green bean casserole.  However, I forgot to pick up the all-day green beans fixins--all of them.  Even the beans. So, I sent Sean to the store to get the fixins while I worked on turkey prep.  When Sean goes to the store, we generally exchange several texts.  His text to me today: "Ah, Thanksgiving. The only day of the year you see this many men shopping for groceries."  Hee! To the right is the meal that my daughter ate.  Or should I say didn't eat.  She was so excited by the visit, all she wanted to do was show Jill and Joe her toys.  See commentary below.

Smurfs and Snoopy
While I was getting the food together, Xander slept in his swing and Ainsley watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  She was particularly drawn to Snoopy.  I tried to get her to check out the Smurfs, but she didn't really care.  She did keep pointing out the "chickens" every time a turkey appeared on screen.

JOE!  JILL!  Come on, guys!
When Ainsley has company (and make no mistake if you come to my house, you're Ainsley's company), her main objective is to boss her company around.  Because she's cute, she gets away with this.  But I find it particularly charming when it works on people who I normally wouldn't expect it to--like Jill's boyfriend Joe.  First, it must be known that Joe is an awesome guy.  He's kind, polite, funny, and, most importantly, loves my sister and treats her well.  Ainsley loves Joe.  When he's around, she'll make him play, read, rough house, whatever she wants.  And Joe's a willing participant.  It was sweet to watch her give him hugs.  It was hilarious to watch her discover his cartilage piercing.  She was fascinated that he had one ear pierced and the other not.  She just kept running her fingers along his ear back and forth from ear to ear.  He let her do this for about 5 minutes.

Mmmm cookies!

When we were decorating our Thanksgiving sugar cookies (turkeys, owls [Ainsley's choice], and acorns), Ainsley sat in Joe's lap...where she proceeded to sneak bites of cookie.  I'm no fool; I knew that she'd get a cookie in the decorating endeavor.  She snuck two for sure.  Also, Ainsley "decorating" cookies entails her dumping the small bowl of sprinkles onto one cookie.  I like to think of it as the Super Cookie.  Joe deemed it necessary that the Super Cookie be eaten right away.

Jill brought Ainsley some books that she'd gotten from a friend.  The most valuable of these books was a magnetic Barbie doll set thingy.  Basically it's modern paper dolls set but in magnet form.  Ainsley deemed this AWESOME.  Notice how she's holding the book away from Xander.  She does not want him near it!  Xander, of course, doesn't care.  Mr. X spent most of this holiday giggling, MMMMMMMmmmming, and nomming.  He had his first bite of non-rice-cereal food: mashed potatoes. He ate two or three small bites, but he wasn't really into them.

After Jill and Joe left to go home, I put Xander into his Thanksgiving p-jammers.  At this point, Ainsley decided it was time to play Tickle Tickle with Xander.  Of course, anytime A gives X attention, he goes C-R-A-Z-Y!  He'll giggle and giggle.  I was able to catch some of it.  Her method was to take her Lorax (Ax) and Seabee and tickle Xander's belly.  He would then laugh hysterically.  It was genius.



The visit really tuckered the kids out.  They had such a good time with Aunt Jill and Uncle Joe.  The playing and the laughing and the tickling and the couple bites of turkey we could convince A to eat should make for a wonderfully restful night.