Lainey, 22 Months Old

Our little Lainey is 22 months old!

As a 22-month-old child, Lainey...

• seems pretty excited about having a little brother. She calls him "Walk" and loves to pat his belly and his back, rub his head, cover him with his blanket, give him his binkies, help give him bottles and change his diapers, point out his facial features, play with his tiny feet, and give him lots of kisses and hugs. We're still working on controlling the enthusiasm with which she does these things (which can be a little much at times). If we talk about feeding him, she will put on her oven mitt and bring him a piece of pretend food from her kitchen (usually toast or grapes). If she hasn't seen him in a while or has been out of the house, then she'll run up to him and say, "Hi, Baby!" or "Hi, Walk!" and fortunately for everyone, he doesn't seem to get too startled by this! She likes lying down next to him and when I wrap him in his blanket, she wants to be wrapped in a blanket, too. On Monday night, while we were watching Daddy's City Council meeting on TV, the audience started clapping. Lainey said, "Yay!" and started clapping right along with them and then she ran over to Walker and took his little hands and clapped them together and said, "Yay!" It was so funny, and Walker probably would have thought it was pretty cool had he not been completely asleep in his swing. Sometimes Lainey doesn't enjoy having her little brother around (like when I'm holding him or feeding him) but if she's distracted enough, then most things don't seem to bother her too much. I think it's going to be quite a challenge for me to keep her happily distracted, however, once Daddy goes back to work...
• happily shows off her artwork by holding it up proudly and smiling.
• loves reading her books about buses, horses, and being a big sister.
• enjoyed watching the Olympic figure skating Tuesday night on TV. She put on her pink tutu and danced in front of the TV while the women were skating!
• puts on her socks in the cutest way. She pulls them on and then tries to fold over the cuffs. Sometimes she succeeds, other times she just ends up shoving the sock down. It's cute that she's trying, though! At times, she can be quite determined to put on her clothes and socks and shoes all by herself but thankfully, she still lets me help her a little bit - especially with her shirt because that one is tough!
• is starting to chime in with words that she knows to songs. For example, when we sing Barney's "I Love You" song, she'll chime in with the words "me" and "hug" and "too." She'll also say the word "me" when we sing "Jesus Loves Me."
• is also starting to chime in with words that she knows in her favorite books, like "baby" and "rest" and "work" and "yuck."
• loves to watch videos about horses on the computer with her dad.
• has several nicknames: Laine (most common), Varm, Varmie, Lango, Langolicious, Langolish, Punky, Punkalicious, and Punkalish...and then all of my silly ones for her like honey pie and sweet pea and angel.
• loves to say "hello" to everyone. It comes out like "hewwoo." She will say this to people when they enter a room or on the phone or in any public place where she feels the need to reach out to another person or get their attention. (She'll also say "hello" or "hi" to her mom and dad when she wants our attention!) She'll do the same thing with "bye." She'll say "bye" to anyone, and if she knows his or her name, she'll say that as well!
• is so funny when she tries to discipline Reagan. She says "no" to Reagan when she barks -just like her mom and dad do! It cracks us up because of the tone she uses.
• still says some funny words. "Pup" is "chip" and "ahh sis" means "wash hands." "Chay-uh" is "chair," "bay-uh" is "bear," and "shay-uh" is "share."
• knows most of the letters of the alphabet and almost all of her colors. I think her favorite colors are pink and blue - I think she'd like for all things to be pink and blue! It's a good thing that she has a little brother because in addition to all of her pink things, we now have a lot of blue things in our house!
• is becoming opinionated about which songs I sing to her and will tell me "no" if she doesn't like my song choice. She likes to do the hand motions to the songs she knows, like "Jesus Loves Me," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "If You're Happy and You Know It," and Barney's "I Love You" song. I get such a kick out of watching her perform these songs - it's too cute. Thanks to her teachers for teaching her these songs and their hand motions!
• is getting pretty good at putting two-word phrases together without our guidance. She's becoming an independent little talker!
• frequently requests to play the "Bus" and "Bubbles" applications on my iPhone.
• likes to say the number "two." She isn't counting things (without guidance) or saying "one, two, three" but she'll occasionally point out things that are in twos - two apples, two pretzels, two binkies, etc. :)

We love you so very much, sweet Lainey!