What it's like

<---Before the meal, just lounging in the high chair.

After the meal, you can barely tell which one's Ainsley

and which one's

the high chair! --->

<---Typical, she's always getting distracted by her hands these days.

She's starting to sit up on her own and, as you can see here (getting ready for bath time), she's quite pleased with herself. She sits for a while before she falls over too so she's doing really well. --->

<--- We saw the health visitor and she said

now that Ainsley has teeth we need to start brushing them straight away. So here's our big girl getting used to the toothbrush.

Ainsley loves to think she's feeding herself so we usually have two spoons at every meal, one for eating and one for holding. Yogurt is her favourite food, strawberry, raspberry and apricot, but she loves every food she's tried. She's a great eater. ----->

We couldn't be more blessed, although she has her moments, Ainsley is the happiest, most laid back baby and very independent too. Also, I'm happy to announce that she is sleeping through the night! It took us letting her "cry it out" in the middle of the night one night (that was terrible, we felt like the worst parents in the entire world because the crying lasted for 55 minutes and all we wanted to do was pick her up) but, none the less, she does it! The average is 10-11 hours but we've had a 12 and a 13 hour night as well. So, all is well in the Odle household. I'll write more soon.

A few random shots from this week

Mmmm... I love my vegetables...

Look mom, 2 teeth!

Daddy's always tickling me with his beard.

I'll be fine right here with my monkey.

I feel so free in the bathtub and I love how my hair just flows in the water!

What did we talk about B.A. (Before Ainsley)?

As you can see, we have no shortage of pictures of our daughter. I can't help it... every outfit she wears, every new thing she does, every cute smile she gives us...I have to capture it! Everyone says, "make sure you enjoy it, they grow so fast". It's true, Ainsley is almost 6 months old already. She's in a crib now because, you'll notice, she's much too big for her moses basket. She sat in a high chair for the first time this week, ate vegetables and drank from a sippy cup for the first time tonight and loves bouncing around in her new door bouncer. Yesterday she got her third set of immunisations (3 shots, ouch!) and did great. She also got weighed and measured and pretty much slept through the night (I feel like that's too good to be true though so I'll keep you updated on whether or not that continues). She's now topping the scales at 17 pounds 3 ounces, exactly 10 pounds gained since birth and she's 26 inches long, 6 1/2 inches longer than at birth. She's in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. Also, every time we lay her down she strains her neck to try and sit up before actually giving in and putting her head down. It probably won't be too long until she's sitting on her own. But don't worry...we'll take pictures! Anyway, that's the latest with the Odle family. Hope everyone is well. I'm sure there will be more to update you on soon so keep looking!

Indiana

Nearly 3 weeks went by and we were off to Indiana, on November 29th. The first week was not that exciting because Ainsley was sick (first doctor's visit, with a chest infection, had to take antibiotics...boo) and we didn't have a car to use. So, we stayed in the house and did nothing but watch tv, take naps and do laundry. The rest of the time was great though. We loved spending time with Andy's family and some great friends, who we miss so much. Our friends Todd and Theresa had a bunch of baby toys that they lent us while we were there which was a huge help. Ainsley got use out of every one of them every day. Grandpa and Gran Odle loved having the baby girl around and of course she loved them too. She also loved all her Aunts and Uncles and cousins. She is such a happy baby, we couldn't be more thankful. Ainsley also had a few more "firsts" while we were there. I already mentioned the first doctor's visit, her hair started laying flat, she ate rice cereal and bananas, we left her with babysitters so we could go to lunch and a movie (okay, it was the grandparents but it was still a little bit hard for me to do...I managed though and we had a nice time at the movie), she discovered her feet, she watched her first Colts game, she had her first Christmas, saw her first snow, experienced negative temperature windchill for the first time, opened her "first" present and she got her first two teeth (the bottom two)! I'm probably even forgetting something, there was so much that happened in the last 5 weeks. She's changing every day and we're still loving every minute of it. Another thing that was so much fun was spending time with some of our best friends Jeff and Sarah and Troy and Katrina. Jeff and Sarah just had their baby girl, Soren, on November 16th. It was crazy to think the last time we were together neither of us had babies and now we both do! We also had fun playing Dance Dance Revolution with Troy and Katrina, playing games with Tabby and all the girls that rent our house, hanging out with Uncle Jon and Aunt Amy (Ainsley actually calls all these people I've mentioned Aunts and Uncles...she's got lots of them!), hanging out with Travis and Brooke, Todd and Theresa, Andrea and Nick, Uncle Brian, Aunt Becca, Grandma Martha and Grandpa Lee, bringing in the New Year with Grammy and Grampy Mac, etc., etc., etc. I could list every single person we saw but you're probably already getting bored with the amount on here as it is so I'll spare you. Needless to say, we had a brilliant time in Indiana!

California

After our short trip to Washington we continued on to San Francisco, on November 12th, to visit my parents. Dad picked us up at the airport and got to see Ainsley for the first time in person. We drove towards Mom and Dad's place but stopped for lunch at In 'N' Out Burgers (yummy!) then surprised Mom as she was getting off work. The weather was beautiful while we were in California and my parents live in a great area where you can walk to stores and through parks, etc. so pretty much every day we went for a walk somewhere. While we were there we also worked out at my parent's gym, enjoyed seafood for dinner quite often, drove to San Diego for a weekend (where we got to see our good friends Jon and Amy McLaughlin and Maigen Rowe and also go on board the USS Midway), got family pictures taken, went up to Ukiah for Thanksgiving with Uncle Jack, Aunt Maureen and some more extended family, stopped at a winery, drove into the city to hang out twice, got stuck in an elevator, drank coffee at Peet's Coffee just below my parent's apartment and more. My mom and I got pedicures and manicures too (since that day I've stopped biting my nails...yay!) It was very relaxing and Ainsley had a couple of her "firsts" while we were there. She also had pretty much undivided attention from Grandpa Bahrt. She spent a lot of the time being held, bounced or played with by him. I think they were both in heaven. You'll see how content she was in the bottom picture. Unfortunately Mom had to work most of the time but when she could she played with Ainsley too. It was fun all around! Now, back to the "firsts". Ainsley rolled over for the first time the weekend we went to San Diego. Oh, what a proud Mommy I was! Andy didn't see it but she then did it for him the next day so he was excited too. When we were in Seattle my friend Meghan and I heard Ainsley giggle a little bit but it was so slight that I wasn't sure if that's really what was happening so I didn't count it as her first giggle. But, when we were at my Aunt and Uncle's for Thanksgiving we were all playing the Wii. It was my turn and I was playing tennis when I heard a noise from Ainsley (Andy was holding her facing out so she could watch along with everyone else). I looked back to see and hear that she was laughing like crazy which of course made everyone laugh and then she just kept on laughing. It was sooo... cute! So that was definitely her first giggle. So much fun!!

Seattle

As it were, Ainsley's first flight down to London was just a test case for the upcoming flights she would have to endure as we travelled to the States not even a week later, on November 6th. First stop Seattle (via London and Chicago). Once again, Ainsley was amazing on every flight. Thank you God! We finally arrived to my cousin Michelle's house, after travelling for about 24 hours, with no luggage because the airline lost it. They didn't just misplace it either, they actually had no record of it at all! So, through giving them our flight numbers and thorough descriptions of everything, including what was in each bag, we finally received the luggage 24 hours later. It could have been much worse. Thankfully we were with family so we could borrow clothes and wash the clothes we had travelled in to re-wear. Of course our first lunch in America was at Taco Bell. Maybe that's not an obvious choice to all of you but we thought it sounded pretty darn good because we don't have that over here. Anyway, our visit to Seattle came and went as we drove all over the place visiting friends and family. We went down South to Chehalis to see my brother's family, up North to Bellingham to see some good friends, to see my Grandpa on the way back down from Bellingham, to Seattle to have dinner with some more good friends and then all the family came to see us at Michelle's house as well. 6 days there was not enough but we really enjoyed it. It was so fun for everyone to meet Ainsley too. As you can imagine, she was passed around quite a bit which tuckered her out but she still did great!