10 Months Old

So I am a terrible mama! Baby girl has been 10 months old for a week and I am just now posting this. Needless to say, I am falling behind.  This week Brian went back to work and we got back in to our routine. We spent time playing at home, swimming with friends for the last few times before the pools close and helping Brian decorate his classroom. It has been a good week, but very busy.

At ten months old Lainey is SO close to walking! She has been walking with help for months, but she now takes a several steps on her own, holds on to the wall and cruises around without my help and is in to so much more. She tries to reach on top of the cabinets to pull things down, rushes to any open door to go explore, climbs into the dishwasher all of the time, and loves to play chase crawling around.

Lainey is so much fun at this age. She belly laughs at the smallest things. I can say "up", "down" in a funny voice and she dies laughing, she thinks it is so funny to be tickled, and loves to sing and dance. She basically bounces up and down with her hand in the air and it is the cutest little dance ever!

Lainey loves books, her play computer, Daddy's iphone, being outside and looking at trees, her octopus, matching the colors of her toys, music, her walkers, her swingset, swimming and her buddies. I'm pretty sure she thinks she is at least two because she loves kids that are older than her and enjoys getting right in the middle of whatever they are doing and just jabbering away. It is so funny to watch. I wish she had an older sibling, but she sure does love her friends! We are beyond blessed to have kiddos around that are so loving to our girl!

Lainey eats three meals a day, one snack, takes several bottles, and still nurses in the morning and at night. We are pretty much only on finger foods at this point, but if we are out an about I will still feed her baby food because it is easier to pack. Her favorite foods are black beans and bananas. She loves almost all fruits, most veggies and any pasta or other carbs she can get. She also loves Popsicles and Brian loves sharing them with her. They are quite the pair.

Lainey is now in size 12 month or 12-18 month clothes and she still wears a size three diaper. She is growing like a weed!! My wrist has been killing me from carrying such a heavy kid around all of the time.

Although she is getting better about going to other people, she still does not go to bible class or childcare at the gym without a fuss. I've gotten to where I just plan to stay in class with her on Wednesday nights. It is so close to her bedtime, she does not do well at all if I leave. I am almost finished teaching the three year olds on Sunday mornings. Once I am finished teaching I am going to push her to go to class more. Right now she usually ends up napping on Brian through adult class, but I hate that she is missing class. I am so ready for the day that she wants to go to bible class. She goes to my parents and our friends Ryan and Jess more than anyone. She adores her Joyz and Papa and will spend lots of time with them even if I am in the room.

Lainey is still sleeping through the night, which I love! She goes to bed by eight and sleeps until somewhere between 5:00am and 6:15. After she wakes up, I bring her to our bed and we all talk and wake up together. I LOVE our mornings even though they are earlier than I would like. :) Naps are also getting better. She is now going down in her crib! THIS IS HUGE for us! (Don't get too excited, I still don't have tons of time on my hands because she only naps about 15-20 minutes.) However, the fact that I have time to shower without her crying in her crib is amazing.  Hopefully as she gets older and is moving more she will become more tired and sleep longer. One can hope, right?

Sweet girl fills our life with so much joy! She is such a special gift from God and I truly feel like the luckiest woman in the world to get to be her mom. God is so good! Our long awaited blessing is such a treasure and I cannot imagine life without her. I can't believe in just nine weeks she will be one. It seems like just yesterday that I was starting the school year and getting ready to welcome her into this world. Time flies!

Happy 2012-2013 school year! I can't wait to see what God has in store over the next few months.

At 10 months Lainey loves our homemade toys! She also still puts EVERYTHING in her mouth!

Fabric scrap fun! 

Lainey loved the Aquarium in Kemah. We had such a fun day with our friends the Trahans. 

Photo Book

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Sea World and Graduation

We have had a very busy week! This week we went to San Antonio with our good friends the Colemans. We love them and are so thankful to have them in our lives. Lainey adores them all too, so it was perfect to go with them. Kinley and Jax play so well with little miss and she thinks Mrs. Jess and Mr. Ryan are pretty amazing too. We played at Sea World for three days and had an absolute blast! Lainey loved the shows which surprised me. She watched very closely and laughed tons. It was adorable. It was super hot so we also enjoyed playing at the new water park, Aquatica! It was fun to watch Lainey splash around, enjoy seeing sea creatures and swim. Brian and I took turns riding rides and had tons of fun ourselves. I am so glad we didn't attempt Navarre Beach this year like I originally wanted to. 3 hours was plenty far for us to drive and we all had so much fun!! I love that we were able to do a little getaway before Brian goes back to work. It was a blast!

After we left San Antonio we headed to Austin for Brian's graduation. He finished his masters degree in Education Administration from Concordia and of course, he wanted to walk. His co-hort got very close over the last two years so it was fun to get to celebrate with all of them. Brian's parents and my mom came to celebrate as well and we had a really good time. (My dad is in Liberia which is why he didn't make it)

I am so thankful that Brian is finished and planning to take a year off of school. Coaching takes up so much time by itself, but it will be so nice to not have tournaments and games plus homework for school! We are so proud of him and cannot wait to see what God has in store for him in the coming year. Right now he is thinking he wants to get a doctorate, I can't even imagine, but am so glad he is as driven as he is. God uses him in such amazing ways and the state of Texas is lucky to have him as an educator.

Here are a few photos of our exciting week! Hope you all had a great week as well!

We loved Sea World and cannot wait to go back soon!

The Sea Lion show was her favorite!

Azul was pretty neat too!

Watching Shamu was simply magical! I'm so glad she got to see this! 

Lainey loves her Joyz!!

Graduation ceremony

Yea Beebs!!

Brian getting his hood! So proud!

Brian's awesome co-hort

Celebrating at Petes!

Nine Month Photo Session

Before we left for San Antonio we had a nine month photo session with my good friend Jessica who owns Frugal Fhotography! She got some great pictures, and Lainey was not even in a very good mood! Thanks Jess! WE LOVE THEM!  

First Haircut

Big stuff got her first haircut today. The sides of her hair were looking pretty stringy and needed some help. Lainey constantly pulls her clips out and messes up her hair, so the length was really showing. It looked like she had out of control sideburns. :)

Brian and I went round and round on this because he did not want his little one having her hair cut this early. Once he saw what it looked like when I left it without a clip he agreed to let her go. :) She did not love having it done, but she was not too terrible either. She did have a death grip on my arm and wanted me right by her side. They used a bumbo in the chair she sat in and she started trying to escape as soon as they set her in that. HAHA We haven't used that since she was about four months old. She is way too squirmy!

We went to snip-its in Vintage Park and they really did a great job! She got to watch a movie, play with a toy remote, they saved her hair for me and she got a prize. :) It was a cute place. Hopefully her hair will begin to grow evenly so she won't have to have it cut again for a while. I want her bangs to grow out so they didn't cut much there, but it really does look better. Her hair is starting to curl up tons, I can't believe how much it has changed in just nine months.

Bye, bye stringy hair. :)

playing with her "TV remote"

Finished and ready to go! :)

Happy Birthday Joyz!!

Today was my mom's 49th birthday and we spent the day celebrating at their house in Magnolia. It was so great to spend time with them. We see them at church, but since we see them there don't go out to visit very often. My mom has been re-doing rooms for a few weeks and just finished "Lainey's room." She pulled out some of our old toys as well as bought some new ones. Needless to say, Lainey had a blast. She loved playing blocks with Joyz and Papa, loved the doll house, the fun balls that Joyz just had to get her, the new cabbage patch doll that has hair like her friend  Julia, and really liked the old pull around puppy that was my mom's when she was a little girl. My mom has spent tons of time carefully watching what Lainey loves and made sure she had all of those things to play with. It was so cute! Lainey is a little obsessed with her three friends Julia, Zeke and Sabastian's hair. They all have very curly hair and Lainey always reaches out to grab it. She loved having a doll to stroke without us immediately pulling her hand away. :)

I am so glad that we have my parents close. They adore Lainey and she has so much fun with them! I can't wait for more visits out to the country to see them. The pond, the ducks, the trees, and the turtles and fish were so much fun for Lainey to look at. She loves to be outside! Here are a few of my favorite pictures of today. Missy was so happy that it is hard to just pick a few. Happy Birthday precious mama! I love you so much!

Feeding the geese!

Splash pad fun on our way home! 

They adore each other!

Block tower fun!

She doesn't get any attention. :)

This toy was my mom's and Lainey thought it was so funny!

Making a mess

Loving the blocks

Reading with Joyz!

Papa being silly!

Sweet Mimi and Grandaddy came to celebrate too