Lainey 8 Months

Size: Despite all the appointments we have been to this past month, I do not know your stats. According to our scale at home you are 16.8lbs. You wear 6-9 month clothes and size 2 diapers.

Likes: You love it when I lift/bounce you while watching Cambry jump around. That usually gets some giggles out of you. You like watching Cambry and she likes talking to you and getting you. You like when Daddy whistles. You have started kicking a lot more during bath time, and you like looking in the mirror. You are super grabby now and like to put everything in your mouth.

Dislikes: You still don't like tummy time, which is probably due to your ongoing reflux issues. You do not like getting dressed. I wouldn't say you dislike new situations and environments, but you are just very serious. You look around and it takes some time for you to warm up. When we get back home you give us those sweet smiles again. Also, you have started pulling out your headbands and bows and eating them. WHAT?? That is not acceptable. I will press on.

Working on: You started rolling from back to tummy this past month, yay! You don't exactly like to, and you will strongly resist when we try to push your leg over, but you can do it on your own if you are motivated enough by a toy. You are sitting up by yourself up to 15 seconds at a time. You just started trying to raise your booty in the air a little when on your tummy.

Sleeping: Well, we have finally stopped swaddling you! This just happened a few days ago. We bought you one of those Aden and Anais sleep sacks and we were shocked that there were no issues with the transition. You go to bed around 7:30pm and wake up around 6:30am. You usually wake up a couple times at night needing the paci and then we feed you around 5am. You take 3 naps a day. Although if they all end up being short then you may take a 4th cat nap around dinner time. You really do not like to sleep on the go. You do fall asleep in the car some, but you much prefer and sleep best in your crib. You are so very good about going to sleep. I just put you in your crib awake, you usually drop your paci and cry once, I put it back in, and then you go right to sleep - for naps and night. So thankful for this! My favorite thing is when you wake up and I go in to get you and you start slamming your legs down over and over again.

Eating: You are liking carrots and apples now. And you like to gnaw on strawberries. You take a bottle every 3-4 hours and drink about 5 ounces. You still don't have any teeth!

Your have been laughing more this month, which is a joy to hear. You are such a sweet little baby and we love you so much!

Carrots, Snacks, and Smoothies

1) I am still trying to add new vegetables to our dinner rotations and trying to branch out and like new things. I do not like cooked carrots. I never have. I will eat them if they are mixed in with things - like stew or soup, but I am not crazy about them plain. However, I tried this recipe for Maple Glazed Carrots and they were SO good. They are not as healthy as straight up carrots but the recipe only calls for 1 tablespoon of syrup and I bought the fancy organic grade B maple syrup like my sister told me to because she knows about healthy cool paleo stuff and I get confused and overwhelmed and just read you are not supposed to eat soy or your thyroid might die and oh my gosh I love edamame and I like to eat oatmeal for breakfast which apparently is not a superfood so sue me. Anyway, the carrots are delicious. Even the next day the leftovers were still good. I will definitely be making them again.

2) Lara Bars, mmm. My sister introduced me to these. I have only tried a couple so far, but I want to try more of them. Some contain just 2 ingredients, like peanuts and dates. Cambry likes them too. I finally stopped eating chocolate chip granola bars (I pretty much ate one a day for years), so this is a good alternative for a snack on the go.

3) I still love making smoothies, and Cambry loves them too. I recently wrote a post for HMB with 3 smoothie recipes. You can read it here.

And a bonus item related to food. Greg and I want to try out Costco. I went once a while back and didn't think it was really for me. Still, I always hear such great things about it and friends that find great products there. I think the problem it that it is just so big and I don't know what to get. So if anyone has suggestions on products that they love from Costco, please share!

Cambry 2.5 Years

I thought I would give an update on Cambry since she is officially 2 1/2 years old. She is the sweetest little girl and a wonderful big sister. Here are some facts about her at this age.

• She talks all the time. She is so funny and repeats everything we tell her. She will say things like "you have to tell mommy when you need to go potty and you will get a skittle" or "we don't push our friends. You have to share".

• She loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Cars.

• She eats a TON for breakfast. I think this is due to the fact that her dinners have gotten very small. She has gotten pickier and she often times does not like what we are having for dinner. We usually don't give her other options so I guess she is super hungry in the morning. One morning recently she ate an english muffins with jelly, an egg, grapes and strawberries, and cereal. On another morning she ate 2 1/2 eggs, 1 1/2 pieces of bacon, and 2 helpings of cereal.

• She is currently obsessed with her "cookie dress". It is a hand-me-down pajama dress that has cookies and milk on it. Every day she has to put it on. She wants to wear it for nap or whenever we get home from being out.

• She loves doing puzzles and is very good at them.

• She loves Minnie Mouse.

• She loves sunglasses and we can hardly leave home without them. As soon as we get in the car she yells - it's bright!!

• She likes to try and make Lainey laugh. She likes to give her hugs and tickle her. But she does not like Lainey kicking her, or trying to grab her toys, or taking her monkey blanket, or getting slobber on anything.

• She makes the 's' or 'sw' sound for 'f'. It is so cute. So she says swiretruck (fire truck), sork (fork), swall (fall), etc.

• The other day I was in the bathroom and she was clinging to me and I said "can I get a little privacy please?". She left the bathroom, came back a few seconds later, pretended to place something in my hand and said "privacy". So funny!

• She is a master staller at bed time. As soon as we finish the whole bedtime routine and put her in her crib she needs water, needs to use the restroom, needs another doll to sleep with, etc. One time she was fake crying after we put her to bed. I go in to check on her and I could tell she was trying to think of an excuse. She touched my face and said "I like your hair mom".

• Which reminds me...she often calls me mom instead of mommy. She will just add it to the end of everything. Yeah mom. Thanks mom. I don't know mom.

• The other day before nap time I was reading her a book and we were both squeezing in next to each other in the chair. She said - move out my way! I told her that was not a very nice thing to say. So she said - move out my way please!

• She still loves to take care of her baby all the time. Basically anything I do or say in reference to Lainey she does with her doll. She puts her doll down for naps, swaddles her, gives her the paci, tries to teach her to roll over and sit, etc. She is a good little mommy.

• She loves playing with play do and doing "crafts". Basically she just wants to use a glue stick on anything.

• She takes one nap a day usually between  noon and 1pm. She usually sleeps for 2 hours, sometimes more lately. Although she will still fall asleep in the car if we are out and about close to her nap time. She will even transfer in to her crib usually if she hasn't been asleep too long. She usually wakes up for the day around 7am and we put her to bed between 7:30 and 8:00. She is still in her crib but I think we will take the side rail off soon.

I could go on with a million other cute and funny things about her, but I will stop here. Although she has fussy and disobedient times just like every kid, I would say the 2's have not been terrible at all. I'm sure typing that out is sure to bring out the worst now, ha! Or we will just be hit hard with the terrible 3's! But I want her to know when she reads this one day that she is such a delight. I am so thankful for the past 2 1/2 years with our sweet Cambry!

Grosse Family Vacation 2014: Crystal Beach

Last week we had our annual Grosse family vacation and it was so much fun! This year's destination was Crystal Beach, Texas. Though the seaweed was horrendous, we had such a great time and even after our 7 days flew by I didn't want it to end.

The cousins had so much fun together. It was adorable to watch. Kyler is almost 4, Cambry is 2 1/2, and Hayes is approaching 2 1/2. Little Lainey is 7 months and was showered with lots of attention from her adoring cousins. Each day my mom would gather the kids and give them a little surprise. It brought me back to the days of family vacations growing up when my mom would give us goodie bags each day of travel on the road.

The 3 big kids all slept in the same room and it actually worked out pretty well. We stuck a pool noodle under the sheets along the edge of Cambry's bed and it worked like a charm in keeping her from falling out. Each night before bed the kids would have story time together. So cute.

The seaweed was out of control. Each day we would get to work trying to make a path and clear an area. Then the water would just wash it back up. There were bulldozers out there but as soon as they cleared it it would be back again the next day. The kids didn't mind though!

Lainey took her naps on the beach in the baby pool.

One day we went to Moody Gardens and the kids loved playing on the water slides and in the lazy river. Lainey hung out in the shade with Gigi.

One afternoon after naps we took the kids to these water slides that my sister and I absolutely loved growing up. We went on them every summer and had a blast. They are just these two small slides that you go down on mats but somehow they are so entertaining. Hayes was sick so he didn't go, and Cambry tried it a couple times but was scared. So the adults had fun making trains and going fast on the slides. Lainey fell asleep in Pa's arms.

We also made a number of trips to Gulf Coast Market. It is pretty much the best shop on Crystal Beach. Imagine a mix between a mom and pop grocery store, Academy, Home Depot, Walmart, and a souvenir shop rolled into one. 

One of the themes of the trip was how long it took to get ready to go anywhere. In the morning after breakfast and a bit playing around the beach house we would say - ok, lets get ready to go to the beach. About 90 minutes later we would finally be ready. Taking kids and especially a baby to the beach requires so much stuff and so much sun tan lotion. But it's worth it.

No Grosse family vaca is complete without games. We played several card games and of course minute-to-win-it games that my mom prepared, along with lots of fun prizes. The best one was throwing toilet paper rolls under your leg through a hula hoop.

Then of course when there is a hula hoop lying around there is bound to be a contest. We were all shocked to learn that my dad is a hula hoop ninja. I had no idea he was hiding his awesome hula hooping skills all these years.

We are so thankful to Mom and Dad for planning this fun vacation! We loved every minute of it.