Miss Lainey

Lainey is such a sweet little girl.  She has such a fun personality and is so full of life.  She loves music, always has, and requests that we play the same song on repeat before naps and bedtime.  She used to ask for the "monkey song" but recently has been requesting the "violin" song.  She usually sings herself to sleep.  It is so cute!

A year ago we bought her a 2011 style "boom box."  She really likes it now and walks around the house singing and dancing.  She, unlike Erik, is not camera shy and let me take some video of her dance session this morning.  Enjoy!

Lainey is also quite fearless.  She likes to keep up with Erik and can most of the time.  She is very proud that she can now ride her balance bike "fast."   Her is a video of that for her Grandmas....

I hope sweet Lainey never loses her sense of humor, her confidence, or her zeal for life!

Bless You

Today has been a long one.  It started out earlier than normal (5:45).  The kids were behaving okay this morning but I was tired.  I decided to lay down during their nap time.  I accidentally locked my door which must have irritated Erik.  He was supposed to be in his room but instead, when he found my door locked, decided to wake up both Lainey and Carson from their naps, 45 minutes into them, and then hoot and holler until I woke up.  Errr!

So this afternoon has been just managing chaos.  Annoying.  I did actually sleep prior to Erik waking everyone up so I am more rested but now all three of my kids are overtired (and Carson is teething).

A bright spot in the day was my sweet Lainey.  When I was putting her to bed I sneezed.  She looked up at me and with a twinkle said, "Bless you...Daddy!"  Hahaha!  In response I said, "Thank you... Carson!"  She just giggled.  I love her sense of humor!

Notable Moment - Lainey

I have pneumonia.  Super crappy since I was supposed to be flying to California tomorrow and now can't.  Of course, there are worse things so I am moving on and looking forward to a trip rescheduled for the near future (hopefully)!

Anyway, Victor was kind and stayed home this morning despite a VERY busy week at work.  He took all three kids to Lainey's gymnastics class.  On the way there Lainey was belting out, "Old McDonald has a penis eieio!"   Hahaha!!  That girl cracks me up!!

20 Months

Hi Baby Little Girl!

You are 20 months old now!  You have changed so much during the past two months!  You definitely seem like a little girl rather than a baby now.  Here is what you are up to....

Development:

Potty trained:
Completely during the day.  It has been close to a week since your last accident.  You do wear a diaper during your nap and at night.  I am sure you don't need one during your nap as you always wake up dry but I don't want an accident to disrupt your nap.

Speech:
Continues to improve.  You speak in sentences most of the day putting up to 5 words together. You use the pronouns ME and I correctly.  You can say almost anything.  We always know what you want!

Puzzles:
One of your favorite activities.  You can do almost every board puzzle we have independently with the exception of the alphabet puzzle.  I am really impressed with this because Erik really showed no interest in puzzles until he was 2.5 years old.

Sleep:
You are pretty much down to taking one nap a day.  You get pretty crabby/tired by 11:00 or 11:30.  If we are home I put you down for a nap then.  If I know we will be gone until later I try to figure out a way to have you take a short morning nap.  This doesn't always work.  You usually sleep 2-3 hours.
At night you sleep close to 11 hours.

Personality:
Very vocal and friendly.  You say hi and bye to strangers.  You love to play with Erik and look out for him.  I love watching the two of you becoming friends.  You are very playful and love to play chase, swing on the doorway swing downstairs, play outside, gymnastics class, help in the kitchen, puzzles, looking at books, BABIES!, cats/dogs, anything Erik is doing.
You are still super sassy.  If something upsets you we know about it.  Things you hate -- the stroller, not being able to buckle yourself into/out of the car seat, being restrained in anyway, not being able to go outside when you want to, sharing your toys, etc.  If you are mad about something Erik is doing you not only fight back but cry so loud anyone who didn't know you well would assume you had been terribly injured when you are just mad.  Little Stinker!

Lying:
You are very smart and I am convinced you are already lying to me in order to get what you want.  Multiple times you have used the excuse , "I need to go poop/potty/" to get out of something you don't want to do.  Ride in the stroller, ride in the car seat, wait at the doctor's office.  I can sometimes tell if you are telling the truth or not as you will try this line out 5 minutes after going to the bathroom.  Other times I am not sure and since the potty training is new I hate to ignore it.  I have disrupted a doctor's visit and stopped at Panera before due to your persistent crying/screaming/yelling that you need to "poop" only to be proven a fool because as soon as we get to the bathroom you will say, " All done.  Out mama."  Errr!  I am not sure when it will be appropriate to force you to wait regardless - soon I think. 

Eating:
This is no longer a battle.  You are a pretty good eater now.  I have noticed that you really dislike water which is strange to me.  I have started to water down your milk 50/50 part of the time or you will go throughout the day drinking less than one glass of water.  Erik and I drink tons of water; Victor doesn't drink enough water either.

Other:
At this point I would consider you a "daddy's girl."  If we are both home you tend to prefer him.  It is not so bad that you look for him when he is gone though which is good.
You love babies and seem to have some understanding that mommy has one in her tummy.  You also think you and Erik have babies in your tummies though. :)
You are still sleeping in the crib.  We were going to switch you out of it this weekend but you had a fever/cough.  Sometime this week we need to get that done.  I think you will be excited to have a "big girl bed" but I am afraid you will get out of it a lot.  We'll see.
You get tubes in your ears next week.  I am nervous but looking forward to having it done.  I am fairly certain your ears have been bothering you daily for 2-3 months now.  Poor baby girl - I can't imagine how that you would feel.

You are a sweet, little girl who makes us smile and laugh multiple times a day.  We love you lots!!