Aisling

Aisling is our preemie baby. She's pretty tiny still, but she's a quick. Take your eye off her for a second, and she's up the stairs, or playing in the toilet water, or chewing on the shoes. Unlike her older siblings, she couldn't care less about Baby Einstein or Treehouse TV. Instead, she's much happier pulling the books off the shelves, pulling everything out of Mommy's purse, taking the credit cards out Daddy's wallet, or digging through the pantry. Sometimes, when I'm trying to get dinner ready, or wash the dishes, I will open the pantry and let her have her fun.

And to the exasperation of all, she likes to take the clean clothes out of the laundry baskets and drawers and dump them in the tub. Most especially, her brother's super hero underwear in the bath tub full of water.

From about 2 months, we noticed Aisling was a very smiley baby. If you looked at her, she grinned. She still does. The big smile was the reward because she was quite colicky. And from the moment we brought her home, she liked to fall asleep, snuggled up against someone's chest.

Aisling likes to voice her opinion. As the third child, she's learned to be vocal to get our attention. Around Christmas, Aisling was nicknamed the Gremlin by Auntie Grace because she grunted and growled a lot. Now she's been given the nickname "E.T." because she loves to point, and touch everything with her index finger. She uses that pointed index finger to greet others, and loves it when you touch your index finger to her's. It's a communication tool, as she will point to what she wants. But she also uses it, along with a glare at the subject, to demonstrate her displeasure.

She is a climber. At the playgrounds, she will climb all the structures, including the ones made for kids older than 5 years. I took the kids to an indoor playground that all sorts of well-padded climbing structures and slides. Aisling used every appendage, including her head to give her some leverage, to climb and to keep up with her older siblings. She reminded me of Syd the Sloth in Ice Age. She hasn't figured out how to climb down, despite our attempts to teach her. But that's okay, because otherwise we'd never be able to keep tabs on her.

Every afternoon when I pull into the driveway, she's in the window. There's nothing that melts away the stress of the rush hour commute than seeing Aisling's toothy grin as she dances a jig in excitement. She loves to rush to the door to greet Daddy with a hug around his legs when she hears the front door open.

Aisling's favorite game is "run and catch me". After bath time, she will take off running with mommy or daddy giving chase with the baby lotion and diaper. If she's caught with a no-no, like her older sibling's lollipop, she will run to a corner, put her back to you and attempt to hide.

And she's learning to be a regular imp, like her siblings. This morning, after I had changed her and dressed her for the day, I brought her downstairs to the living room. I gave her a sippy cup of milk, set her down in her chair, and ran back up to finish getting ready for work. Brushing my teeth, I heard a sound. There she was, back upstairs, waving at me, smiling and saying "Hi!" I again brought her downstairs, and this time, handed her to our nanny. Back up I went, to put on some make-up, and brush my hair. Heard another "Hi". Turned around and there was Aisling - smiling her toothy grin, and waving "Hi!" She was obviously very proud of herself for getting up the stairs so quietly and having snuck past the nanny.

I could go on and on about our angel Aisling, but alas, it's time to get some work done. So enjoy the pics of our littlest one!