Nine Months Old

Lainey is now nine months old and such a stinker. She is a joy, very strong willed, super funny, loving to those she trusts love her, into everything and finally sleeping through the night! WOO HOO! This month Lainey got three teeth, started saying, "up" on a consistent basis, started saying "de de" when talking to her daddy, took her first steps (although she is not walking yet), and started eating several new foods. She also got roseola and was sick for about a week. That was tough. She is much better now and looking forward to lots of fun in the next few weeks. It has rained a lot lately so we haven't gotten to swim as much as mommy would like. After her doctor's appointment today we plan to go. At her doctor's visit last week she was 18 lbs. I thought she weighed more than that, but she is so busy all of the time I guess she has slowed down. She wears a size three diaper and nine month or six to twelve month clothes. We still have not bought diapers since Lainey was born, but if she doesn't grow soon we may have to. We are almost out of size threes. I am so glad we stockpiled diapers and wipes before she was born! It is been wonderful for our weekly budget and being on one income.

Lainey eats 3 meals and a snack of baby food/finger foods each day and nurses 4-5 times. Our naps have gotten worse rather than better. I have been making Lainey have "rest time" for almost a month now for about an hour a day. I put her in her crib asleep, but she wakes up as soon as I lay her down. I set the timer for an hour and our super strong willed child screams for an hour. I feel bad, but that is the only hour I have a day so I have to shower, clean, make baby food, work for Dr. H, etc... it is what we have to do at this point. I'm hoping she gets used to being in there soon and starts sleeping. However, it's been a month so I don't know that it's going to happen. As soon as I pick her up she usually falls asleep on me again and I just hold her. At that point in our day she needs to rest or we are all miserable so I just hold her. She always wants to nurse and I refuse to give into that. This girl is going to be so hard to wean.

I pray daily for wisdom when it comes to raising her. She is such a precious girl, but needs very little rest and tons of love and affection. I guess all babies do, but if she is not walking or playing I am holding her all day. We have started time outs for fits and I've had to pop her on the hand or foot several times already. She knows she is throwing a fit and  stops as soon as she gets her way. This is not something I thought we would be dealing with this early, but it needs to be dealt with so we don't have a terror as a toddler/older child. 

We love the blessing of being parents. It is so wonderful, but it also challenges us more than we ever imagined! It is so great to have the Christian friends that we do because our village is the best around! We are truly thankful for them and the love they show us. Here are a few pictures of our big nine month old girl! Love her to pieces!

Time with Daddy!

This week has been wonderful!! We have had so much fun having Brian off of work all day! We have picked blueberries, been to the Y tons, played and the splashpad at market street, shopped, spent the 4th of July with friends at the lake, slept in, and spent time with cousins! It has been so nice to have daddy home all day! (He is coaching sports camp from 7-11 most days and has had his last few classes for his masters two days a week.)

Here are a few of our favorite pictures from the past week! Thanks Jess for the cute ones from the splash pad and the lake! We love them!!

Our little blueberry fan! She loves blueberries!

I can't believe she didn't have a tummy ache since she ate the whole time we picked!

If I stopped feeding her she would start chewing on the branch. :)

"More please mama"

We loved spending the fourth of July with sweet friends on Lake Conroe! Their lake house view was beautiful!

Precious girl!

Lainey only napped once in the pool so by the end of the day she was exhausted! Her  eyes look so sleepy, but she was still having fun!

Sweet kiddos! I just love all of these kids and am so glad Lainey has them in her life! Their matching outfits just made them that much cuter! Thanks Jess!!

The daddy's kept the kiddos busy while the mama's got to play for a little bit! So fun!

Fun time at Market Street with friends!

Lainey loves the water much more now than she did this Spring. :)

So thankful for her daddy who let her "walk" around! She loves it!

Lainey loved her first 4th of July!! 

Into Everything...

It has been a while since we've just had a day at home to play and even longer since I've just sat back and watched Lainey's little mind wonder what she can get into next. Today we are enjoying one of those days. Here are just a few photos that capture this fun stage of exploration that she is in.

She spent about 5 minutes trying to get her sink to come on to play in the water. :)

Cooking Mommy lunch!

She loves her pots

What else can I get in to?

Time to dump all of my shoes that I've outgrown out!

Pretty sandals...

This stuff is so much fun!

Teething on everything!

Reading books before naptime

Lainey loves her ladybug rocker Mrs. Jess got her!

Silly girl trying to figure her ball popper out.

We don't sit in our exersaucer any more, but it's still fun to climb on and walk around. Such a  big girl!

FAMILY CAMP 2012

We are so incredibly blessed to go to the church we go to and have an amazing group of Christian friends to raise Lainey around. This weekend we went to family camp and had so much fun! We studied David Platt's book "Radical" and it was AMAZING! It was super challenging, but a lesson and challenge we needed. I am hoping people will step up to the challenge proposed and really live radically for Christ in the context that David Platt gave. (If you haven't read Radical it is a wonderful book!) 

Lainey loved camp! She loved the trees, the kids, the sounds of crickets, and so much more. She also loved staying up until midnight and getting to sleep with mama and daddy because she would not sleep in her pack in play. :) It was a blast and I am so thankful for the blessing Family Camp is to us.

8 Months Old

Our baby is growing up too fast!! At eight months old Lainey is such a mama's girl. She holds on to my legs and says "up" all day long. She loves walking with her walker, pulling up, is all over the place and into everything. (The dishwasher and dryer are both favorite things at the moment) Lainey is into making silly faces lately and does not want anything to do with her mommy leaving the room. This month Lainey finally got her first tooth. Poor kiddo has been working on that forever it seems like. She is sleeping about 8 hours straight but still not all night long. She goes to bed around eight o'clock every night and wakes up around 4:00 hungry. Lainey is loving the summer and loves to swim. She is getting so tan. I love that she has her daddy's beautiful skin. Lainey loves feeding herself peas, carrots, cheerios, bananas, broccoli and puffs. She is eating three meals and several snacks throughout the day and is still nursing 4-5 times a day as well. Lainey loves laughing at other kids and singing songs. She is now a much better car rider and is loving her new big girl car seat. Right now Lainey takes two to three naps a day. They are no more than 25 minutes a piece so I am learning to work on what I need to really quickly. She is so much fun and although we are in such a clingy stage right now, still tons of fun. Well, as I said she doesn't sleep long. She's up after an 8 minute cat nap. :) Off to go get the munchkin!

Fun in the Sun

We've had so much fun this week. Our church's VBS was this week so mamma helped until about noon each day. Lainey got to spend time playing with her friends Mercer, Mallory, Julia and Amelia in the nursery and then after VBS we would go swimming at the pool. We love having our Y membership this summer. Lainey loves watching her big friends swim and we love that Brian gets to come along too!  She is loving swim time. 

Summer Time

Wow! Things have been so busy lately. Brian is officially out of school for the summer and we are so busy. Last week Brian went to Baylor to coach basketball camp and my parents came to spend the week with Lainey and I. I ended up with the flu so it was so helpful to have them here. Once I was well we enjoyed swimming at the Y, playing in Lainey's baby pool, and just hanging out. It was so nice to spend time with them, and nice for me to have a few minutes to catch up on some things I needed to do without Lainey crawling all over me. :) I've started making and selling hats and cannot seem to keep up on orders. It is so much fun though.

This week we have VBS at church and I'm getting putting the final touches on kid's activities for Family Camp. I am so excited that Lainey will get to go to Family Camp this year, but it was so much easier to organize kid's activities in years past. :) This year we have 80 kids coming to camp. We are so blessed to be a part of the church we are at. It is growing so much and we can really see God at work.

Other than that we are just enjoying time together. Brian is coaching at speed camp every morning, but we hope to get to spend some time swimming and hanging out once camp is over around 10 each day. We are loving the stage that Lainey is at. She is pulling up on everything, laughing all of the time, trying to walk and just loving life. We are so blessed. It is hard to believe she is almost 8 months old! Where does time go?

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer!