Lainey 16 Months

Little Lainey is 16 months. This update will be short and sweet. I realized I have been taking no pictures on my phone lately! Lainey never stays still though so all of my pictures of her turn out blurry. Anyway, this sweet girl is adorable and so fun. She is into everything. She just wants to open and unload stuff. Basically make a mess and move on and make another mess.

I think she weighs about 20 lbs. She wears 12-18 month clothes. She still babbles a good amount but no real words. Sometimes it seems like she is trying to say things or imitate but I'm not positive. She is cruising more and can even do a push toy by herself for short distances. Someone told me to put duct tape on the wheels so it doesn't roll so fast and that has been very helpful. She has also started letting go of things while standing to see how long she can balance by herself. It is usually only a few seconds before sitting down but I am very proud of her for trying to stand alone. She also is starting to want to climb things. She can climb on a very low surface (like when the couch cushions are removed). No feeding progress really. 

And on a final note, I have been trying to bring out Lainey's curls recently. Her hair is curly and adorable after bath but always straightens out in the morning. So I have started re-wetting it to revive the curls and it has helped some. I am also experimenting with a little gel because...are these curls not the cutest??

We love our sweet and silly girl!

How to Make It Really Hard for Your Mom to Cook Dinner

Step 1: Open the cabinet and take out all the fruit strips

Step 2: Find the napkins next to the fruit strips and spread them all around

Step 3: Leave your mess behind so no one knows you did it

Happy Valetine's Day

We sent out that picture to the Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles. I could NOT get Lainey bear to smile. It was difficult enough to get her to sit still without crawling off.

Greg's Dad was in town so he stayed with us Friday night. Cambry was loving all the attention. We got fro yo after dinner - Cambry's favorite. Lainey tried it this time and liked it too. Then Saturday morning his Dad headed out and we went to breakfast at Kraftsmen Cafe in the Heights. It was such a cute place and the food was sooo good. We will definitely be going back.

We just hung out around the house and outside the rest of the day since the weather was beautiful. Happy Valentine's Day!

Lainey 15 months

I feel like I need to keep documenting Lainey's monthly updates. It is hard to see the progress when you are with someone everyday, and I definitely don't remember what to compare it to the previous month if I don't write it down. So here is what is going on with her now.

At her 15 month check up she was 19 1/2 lbs (25%), and heights was 75%. Those are approximations since I am too lazy to dig up her well check sheet. 

She is making a LOT more sounds. M, B, D, P, raspberries, squeals, etc. It is so good to hear her learn to make new noises. She used to be so quiet all the time. In the past her therapy sessions were usually silent (on her part). Her  speech therapist was very impressed with all the sounds she is trying to make. No words, but this is good progress.

She is now super fast at crawling. She easily pulls up on anything, and can get down safely. She will cruise a little bit along couch or low table or tub, has better balance, and is starting to take a few steps while pushing an object (like a small chair).

She is still majorly a mama's girl. Surprisingly she doesn't cry when dropped off in child care (fingers crossed). But sometimes she can't handle me leaving the room at home or if someone else is holding her she will start leaning/lunging toward me.

She is very affectionate. She loves to give hugs, she likes "burrowing", wrestling, etc. I love how loving she is. She likes to give Cambry hugs too but it is a little more like tackling sometimes because she will raise her arms up and then just fall in/on Cambry. 

She still takes 2 naps a day. The length varies. Usually 45 min - 1 1/2 hours. Sometimes she will only take one nap if we have church or Divine Design where she doesn't sleep, and then her nap will be about 2 hours.

She takes 3 bottles plus baby food. She is still on nutramigen because dairy seems to aggravate her reflux and we are still working on chewing.

I love this little girl. I love it when she wakes up with wild hair in her footie pajamas with a paci in her mouth and a paci in each hand. Cracks me up. I love how hyper she gets at night when Greg wrestles with the girls and she is so silly and fun. I feel like I can never get a good picture of her because she will never stay still. I can hardly cook at all because she will try to remove everything from the kitchen cabinets and child locks don't stop her. She keeps me on my toes all day long!

Family Fun Week

My sister and her family came in town from Phoenix and stayed for a whole week at my parents' house. And my other sister, Ashley, was in town and stayed a couple days at my parents' house too. We had a blast all together especially the kids. The cousins hadn't seen each other since our beach vacation last summer, but they played like they see each other all the time. Greg took a day off work so we spent 2 nights over there and then I would come during the days the rest of the week.

We celebrated my mom's 60th birthday and my sister's 29th birthday by going to Ciro's, a family favorite restaurant. Then we came back for cake and presents.

 

Back in December my sister had suggested that instead of exchanging sibling Christmas gifts, we should go out to dinner sans kiddos. So one night we put the kids to bed (Cambry, Kyler, and Hayes all in the king bed), and left them with the grandparents. We went to Liberty Kitchen and had a wonderful time and conversation. My sister even found a wine I liked! If you know me you know that I hardly ever drink. There is not much I really enjoy and I am far too cheap to get a glass of wine or other fancy drink at a restaurant. But she ordered a moscato and insisted I would like it. And she was right! It pretty much tasted like welch's white grape juice which is why I liked it. Anyway, now I can say there is at least one type of wine that I really like. I am so sophisticated.

While the Kimmels were in town we had to go to Monkey Bizness like we did last year. I think we enjoy racing each other in the inflatables more than the kids. My sister gets super competitive.

We spent a lot of time hanging out at my parents house letting the kids run around and play or going to the park. On Saturday morning my dad, Cody, and Greg got to play top golf, which was part of my dad's Christmas gift. Then later that afternoon we went on an impromptu RV trip to Stephen F Austin park. We had just discussed personality types and how my sister was fun country. So of course this was something she loved. Well I was abruptly woken up from my nap with Cambry and told we were leaving in about 5 minutes so I got kinda cranky. My personality type is perfect country (meaning I like things a certain way, like to be prepared, etc). Anyway, I like to spend forever getting ready for the smallest outing and packing everything imaginable that I might possibly need for the girls. I eventually got over my crankiness and had a lot of fun. We hiked some trails and had hot cocoa outside. Then we headed back and picked up Rudy's on the way home. It was just a quick trip but really fun to go in the RV.

We had a great week of family fun. Thanks Gigi and Pa for putting up with all the kiddos in your house!

Hair Cuts, Lessons, Crying, and Wrestling

She is 3 years old and we finally got her hair cut. Her hair came in very even and it was always so pretty that I never wanted to cut it. She didn't even need one that bad, but I thought the ends would look better if they were trimmed up. They cut off a couple inches but I should have gotten more cut off because I can barely tell a difference. Maybe in a couple months I will take her back and get it cut shoulder length for a change. I even think a bob would be adorable but I'm not ready to go that short yet. I guess it is just hair and not a big deal but my sister and I still make fun of my mom for the way she cut our bangs (a good 3 inches above our eyebrows). I'm sure Cambry will find plenty of things to make fun of me though no matter what.

Since I am trying to be more intentional about teaching Cambry things, I started talking about the weather when she was playing outside one day. I was explaining the different seasons and how we are in winter right now and it is cold. But then spring will come and it will start warming up and flowers will grow like the bluebonnets we saw last year. Then summer fall blah blah blah. She looked at me and said "Can you stop talking about that?" Yep. Lesson over.

Lainey bear has been such a mama's girl lately. Sometimes I can't even leave the room without tears. She almost always comes crawling after me when I go in the kitchen. And every so often throughout therapy she will have to come dive into me for a quick hug. When Greg is holding her, if she makes eye contact with me she will start crying for me to hold her. We had a couple days this week where she was so fussy and clingy. Basically we had to be in a perpetual embrace all day. Sweet and exhausting.

The picture below pretty much summed up Monday of this week. Pitiful. Even had her ears checked. They were fine.

 

But gosh she is cute.

When Greg gets home from work the girls love to wrestle with him. Yes, even delicate Lainey likes wrestling. He is the best daddy. He will change out of his work clothes and then often times we will just all pile on the bed and the girls will attack him. 

We haven't been too busy this week. Just getting back into the swing of things. It has been cold but we did find a nice day to take out the new wagon (thanks Nana and Pops). Next week Divine Design starts up again which I am super excited about. And family is coming in town so it should be a fun filled week!

 

Faith Family and Bows

A while back I gave our master bedroom a new look. It had been the same way for a while and I was ready for a change. We had the walls painted, bought new lamps, new curtains, switched out our old duvet for a plain white one, and bought a few throw pillows. We kept all the same furniture because things can get expensive and you gotta draw the line somewhere. I also ordered 2 canvases from our family pictures we had taken this fall. I love how the canvases turned out. As I was trying to decide where to put the canvases, I felt like maybe I should group them together with something else. Greg suggested putting big wooden words on the wall that said FAITH FAMILY BOWS. I guess that describes us.

As you can see we have nothing on the wall next to the closet. I would like to get a decorative mirror to put there. We also have nothing on or above our big chest of drawers. Maybe this will be the year I work on that.