Back to school

This year, Lainey is going to start going to "school" two days a week! It's really a Mother's Day Out program at our church, but we like to refer to it as "school". :) Last night we attended her orientation, and this morning Lainey got to visit her classroom and meet her teachers and classmates.

Here is the sign above Lainey's crib. Her teachers were being funny and thought it'd be cute to pair Lainey and Ben together (on different days, of course!). I hope she takes a nap in this crib...I do know that these teachers can work wonders with the little ones!

exploring the room

With Ella...Ella will be attending school on the same days as Lainey.

Oooh! Big hug!

This is a very typical pose these days. Lainey doesn't quite suck on her fingers, but they are in her mouth almost all the time (or something else is). She's still a very, very oral child. I don't know if it's just the constant presence of emerging teeth or what. I do think she's working on getting more teeth - she currently has 12, which seems like a ton, so maybe some others are trying to push through? Not sure!

Gatorade and blocks need love, too...

This is how I found Lainey and her stroller after her nap today. She's not into baby dolls yet, so for now, this stroller is used for blocks and Mom's Gatorade.


In other exciting news, Lainey just got over an ear infection. Number 9 (but who's keeping count?). This is her first infection post-tubes, so it was a bit scary because I was not expecting it! Instead of the infected fluid pooling inside of her ear, it poured out of her ear (gross) and it had me worried because it looked bloody and yucky (for lack of a better term!). On Tuesday, we got the majority of the gunk vacuumed out at the ENT (not a pleasant experience) and we've been treating the infection with drops since then. She seems to be better, but goodness...I don't want this to happen again! Lainey hates, hates, hates the drops - not because they sting but because they are cold - and so that's been our biggest hurdle. Thankfully, we seem over the worst of it!

Lainey and Reagan

Let me explain what is taking place in these pictures. First, a little background on our dog, Reagan. She's quite the finicky eater. She prefers to drink water out of those little Ziploc storage containers (the tiny ones) and she likes to eat her food off of a towel. Ever since Lainey became mobile, we had to move R's food and water to the landing on the stairs where it would be safely out of Lainey's way. Well, obviously, Lainey can climb up the stairs now when the gate's open but she's usually pretty good about just waving "hi" to R's water and food and then she goes on her merry way.

The other night she decided that she would be responsible for feeding Reagan. She would go over to the stairs, get one or two kernels of food, and bring them to Reagan on the living room floor. She did this over and over, very methodically. Reagan happily ate what she gave her. Lainey did this for probably about 5 minutes (while I was making dinner) before I grabbed my camera to take a few pictures. In the top picture, you can see Lainey and Reagan and then there's a few food pieces in between them (hard to see). In the second picture, Lainey got a little more creative with her food placement and put the kernels on Reagan's bed.

It all went downhill after these pictures were taken. Lainey climbed up to Reagan's food/water spot on the landing, dumped out all the water, and grabbed the towel upon which Reagan's food was resting. We stopped the game of "feeding Reagan" after that.

I am grateful that our child loves our dog. She's learned to say "leash" (sort-of) and loves to try to put the leash on Reagan (quite a sight). She also likes to feed Reagan by shoving food into her mouth (either her food or dog food). We're trying to limit the people food that Reagan gets, but these two are sneaky. ;)

Party pictures

My sweet friend Marissa sent these pictures to me from a birthday party we attended this weekend...look at the mess this child made after she dug into her delicious cookie (with lots of orange icing). And check out that cute little belly she's still sporting. It looks like she swallowed a small beach ball. I do love it though... :)

Peter Piper Pizza

The Harris/Cook clan got together this evening at Peter Piper Pizza for a family celebration of Yiyia and Bud's 40th wedding anniversary! The kids had a blast, and thankfully Lainey was at an age where she still didn't care if the machines were "on" or not. Thanks for a fun evening, Yiyia and Bud. And Happy Anniversary!!

so cute of Kate and Brooke - so upset that it's blurry...

Sonograms

So here is our little baby at 13 weeks, 3 days.

And here is the proof that it is most likely A BOY!!!!!!!

(My apologies in advance to my baby for posting this picture on a blog.)

I won't be purchasing anything boy-related until we find out for sure (20 weeks...around the end of September/beginning of October) but for now, we're assuming it's a boy!

Breakfast with friends

Ben was in charge of our little Lainey this past weekend while I enjoyed a weekend away with girlfriends. It was the first time in Lainey's 15 months that Ben took care of her solely so that I could get out of town; our first weekend away together from Lainey was 2 weeks ago when we went to San Antonio. I must say that it was a little strange and sad for me to leave them (only because it was the first time, not because I doubted Ben's fathering abilities!) but I had really been looking forward to my weekend of relaxation. Ben did a fabulous job as a single dad for the weekend and it was cute to hear stories of their adventures. They obviously got in some good bonding time and he taught her a trick or two - just CUTE. The girls and I went to the lake and we had the best time relaxing, sleeping, eating, and chatting. Thanks again, Sherry, for hosting us at your family's house. It was a wonderful weekend! While I was away, Ben and one of my girlfriend's husbands decided to combine forces with the kids. Ben and Lainey went over to Bruce's house last night and Lainey slept in a pack 'n' play in their computer room. She did great over there. The boys had a fun grilling steaks after the kids went to bed. This is a picture from breakfast that Ben emailed my friend Laura (Bruce's wife) and me this morning - Bruce had made the kids (and Ben) pigs in blankets! So cute.

Pigtails!

These took me awhile. She looks like such a big girl with them! I'm sure they won't last all day, but at least we'll have them for a couple of hours (I hope!)! :)

Awww...best friends. Well, according to Lainey.

Some of Lainey's favorite things...

So I'll remember this stage in Lainey's life, I've decided to document some of her favorite things to do as a 15-month old.

1. She loves, loves, loves the book Pinkalicious. It was given to us when Lainey was a baby by my friend Emily's daughter Sam, and Lainey just LOVES it. We read it about 3 or 4 times a day, and each time I read it, I want to eat a pink cupcake.

2. Screeching. It's loud. She'll screech in excitement or frustration. Anytime, anywhere.
3. Climbing. The refrigerator, the stair gates, couches, coffee tables, chairs, anything she can. It makes things a little hard because she's fast and doesn't understand why things are dangerous.
4. Playing with her dad on the bed. They rough-house on the bed, destroying the pillows and comforter and just making a mess. Poor Reagan. The bed used to be her sanctuary...now, not so much.
5. Yanking things out of the pantry and refrigerator, only to be told "no", which only causes her to move faster with the object she's not supposed to have (i.e. glass bottles of salad dressing, hot sauce, etc.) OR she'll just throw the object on the ground in frustration. We have to be quite skillfull in getting objects away from her - otherwise, we'd have a lot of messes. In the pantry, I've stocked the lower shelves with things she can play with, but I didn't do that with the refrigerator. Not much wiggle room in there!
6. Getting other people's attention. She loves attention, and loves to say "hi" and "bye" to strangers and they better say "hi" and "bye" back...otherwise, she'll keep yelling at them.
7. Mom's hair clips and rubber bands. I can no longer wear my hair up around Lainey - she just yanks the clip or rubber band out of my hair. Ouch. It used to be necklaces...now we're on to hair accessories.
8. Her old standbys - her binky and her sleep sack.

posing with Pinkalicious