Holding the bottle

This has been a fun process for me to observe. Each day Lainey seems to try to hold her bottle, and each day she does a little bit better with it. She held it for a little while today, however, after I ran to get the camera I came back in and the bottle had slipped and she was sucking the side of it. Lots of slurping effort for no reward!

4 months old!

Lainey is four months old! :)

As a 4-month-old baby, Lainey...

• is 15 pounds, 15 oz. (75th-90th%)
• is 26 inches long (95%)
• has a head that is 44 cm. around (95%)
• loves mirrors (smiles each time)
• loves being lifted in the air
• is getting better and better at grasping things and shoving them in her mouth
• likes being tickled under the chin
• still loves baths and bottles and being outside
• is entertained by Reagan and moving objects and her cousins and other family members
• can roll from front to back, but not the other way (although she seems close?)
• has decided that sleeping through the night is not her favorite thing anymore...she's quite inconsistent! Many nights she awakens for food and eats an entire bottle (7 oz.) and then other nights she'll go the whole night.But we're having more awake nights than sleepy nights!
• loves her binkies when she's tired
• is the absolute joy and light of our lives, and we couldn't imagine life without our cute, sweet, lovable Lainey.

a quick picture before church (where she went to the nursery for the first time on Sunday!)

**A note about Miss Reagan. I think we have seen the final pieces of the pacifiers she ate A MONTH AGO emerge today as she threw up 8 times (and two times yesterday). 4 times on the bed, 3 times on the carpet, and once on the tile. Thanks, Reagan...and you know she did this 15 minutes before we had to walk out the door! Poor baby dog. She seems okay now, though. :)

Home at last!

Lainey and I made it home safely to a happy Ben. Reagan was thrilled to have us home, too. I think she was happy to have Lainey back so she could resume binkie hunting and licking her face and hands. These are two pictures of Lainey passed out on the plane. Again, we sat next to the nicest person. And we had the nicest people help us at the airport when I didn't have enough arms and hands to get everything properly done (folding/unfolding the stroller, taking out bags of liquid formula for the security peeps, keeping our things from spilling all over the place, etc. etc.). Lainey was a tiny bit fussier on the flight home but I don't blame her; we had been in the car already for four hours and had been in the airport for nearly two...she was ready to just get home.

Last day in Pagosa

Baby's first waterfall

Baby's first driving lesson

What kid didn't learn to drive on a farm/country/ranch/mountain dirt road?

Hike #2

We took a beautiful hike along the Piedra River. Lainey, again, was a trooper...only getting a little cranky at the end. She has developed a funny little whine and she went ahead and tested us for the last ten minutes or so. But she did great and my dad and I were able to enjoy the scenery! This is one of my favorite hikes here in Pagosa. At this point, Lainey can't go above 10,000 feet so we're sticking to ground-level hikes. We leave Friday, so after a short hike to the Piedra Falls, tomorrow will be a day filled with laundry and packing.

New pictures

Here are some more pictures! All in all, we've done pretty well. Lainey is sleeping pretty well at night - usually asleep or close to it by 8 and then she generally awakens around 4:30ish - hungry - and then she'll continue sleeping until around 8 or 8:30. I'm okay with that. She isn't a fan of napping during the day here. I think there's too much going on! :)Lainey and I on our way to the Barlow's party (my parents' neighbors). Rae Rae, can you tell that she's wearing the outfit that you gave her?

Here's baby's first hike - this is how she rode the last quarter of the trip (completely sacked out).She woke up just as we arrived at the car. Thank you, Aunt Sarah, for the backpack. :)
She did well 95% of the time on the hike. She is a little small for the backpack right now, but I'm excited to use it more in the future. She didn't enjoy when we stopped. She likes moving and walking and going all the time.

Here we are elk viewing from the car (no pictures of the elk - they were too far away). Obviously, Lainey was thrilled to see them.
enjoying some time outside

Sofi and Lucy basking in the sunshine

New toy

This is Lainey's new toy in Colorado. I know she's supposed to jump in it but she's a little short. She just swings back and forth. In other news, I ordered a new camera (YAY) and Lainey and I have decided to fly home. After observing how we would travel home with two dogs, 3 adults, and one baby in a small SUV we decided that flying was probably the better option. So we'll drive from the house in Pagosa Springs to Albuquerque on the 22nd and hop on a plane, arriving in Dallas at 5:30 (yucky trafficy time to arrive) where Ben will pick us up! He'll have not seen us in nearly 3 weeks so I know Lainey will look very different to him. He's missed her (um...us) a lot!! We've missed him terribly, especially being here in Colorado. It's not the same without you, Ben!

Colorado!

Here are some pictures of our vacation thus far. They are in random order - it is taking forever to upload pictures here so I got a bit impatient and put them all on here without much thought. Sad news - my camera has died, I think. It will not take a picture that requires a flash. So I can take lots of non-flash pictures, but those will not turn out so hot. So here's what I have so far, and this might be the last picture post for a while! :(

Lainey and my mom on the deck

Baby Sof enjoying Lainey's bouncy seat...these dogs take over all her toys.

Cocktail hour at the Hagan house

Cutie Pie eating her finger

Lucy hunting Muffy (the cat)...she enjoys hunting her from afar. Muffy is a bit dangerous up close. She has sharp claws and a threatening hiss.

my dad engaging Lainey

Muffy on the prowl...she actually hunts real animals: mice, moles, chipmunks... She is our resident "mouser" and gets all the mice around the property.

the pups playing: Polly (lives in the valley - owners are the former owners of Sofi), Sofi going in for the kill, and Lucy supervising

Sofi, Polly, and Lucy

We made it!

on the plane to Albuquerque

We made it safely to Colorado! Lainey was a champ on the airplane (It didn't hurt that we sat next to a very, very nice woman!) and then did well on the 4-hour drive to my parents' house. She even slept in her pack 'n' play pretty well last night - headed to bed around 8:30 and slept until 6:00. She had one cry around 3:15 that announced her desire to have her binkie plugged back in her mouth, but that was it. :) She's even taken a few naps today and has been pretty well-behaved despite being introduced to Sofi, who believes Lainey is one giant, meaty chew toy. The puppy loves her toes and hands the best.

Bow-head Baby!

I just love this adorable baby with her big bow! However, there are a couple of reasons why we probably won't be sporting this cute accessory too often:
1. I think the headband part bothered Lainey. It kept sliding around her head when she tried to eat and when she was sitting in her car seat.
2. It made a red mark around her noggin. :( I think she needs a little more hair for padding.

I'm so excited that she smiled for the camera! :)

A night out!

My in-laws graciously kept Lainey last night so I could attend a wine tasting honoring a bride-to-be, Michelle. It was a great evening and it was fun to catch up with some friends from college - it's always great to see them! It's hard to believe that we've all been friends now for 12 years. It seems like we all just graduated but, well, that's not the case. :)

Kristi, me, Kourtny, and Michelle

Boys, toes, and bows

We had lunch with my good friend Emily, her mom, and her two boys today. She's moving home from Norway!! Well, she's moving to Oklahoma but that's still closer than Norway. Camden and Drew are her two boys (2 and 4) and they are so incredibly cute and sweet. I have never met two brothers who are more different from each other. They are total opposites in looks and actions and preferences, and it is so fun to be around them.

I took these photos of Lainey's cute little feet while she was napping on our bedroom floor today. She fell asleep there while I was getting ready, and she slept for a good 45 minutes. It was nice!

And, here's Lainey's first picture with a bow. She has some very long strands of hair at the top of her head and I was excited that this bow actually held. :) It's sweet, I think.

an almost-smile

Gray's birthday dinner

Gray, Maddie, and Keegan were kind enough to invite Lainey and I to Gray's birthday celebration at a restaurant in Plano. I had a great time, but Lainey was a bit fussy. So she got passed around to different family members and that helped tremendously. I think she was tired of me and wanted some new faces to entertain her. :) While we were there, we saw a newborn (so we thought) with his family at the table next to us. I saw the baby was nursing and under the blanket he seemed to have the tiniest head and body - so sweet! I was thinking to myself, "Wow, it's hard to believe Lainey was ever that small...time flies quickly." Well, I casually asked the mother how old her sweet little one was and she replied, "3 months." Are you kidding me?? So this "newborn" was born five days after Lainey. I think Lainey could have eaten him. She looked like a giant next to this baby!!!

Lainey with Maddie

Here's Keegan. He has the same affliction Lainey does...he gets a bit thrown off by the camera light and flash. His cute, cute smiles disappear when I hold up the camera!! He turns one next month. He's so fun to be around and is completely into touching and grabbing at Lainey. She is equally enthralled, but she doesn't quite know how to use her hands that skillfully. She just looks at him and is intrigued!

Lainey with Gray, the birthday boy

Obviously, she's had enough pictures.

Cute pictures

I have been trying to get another picture of Lainey's smile but it has been SO difficult! She is too fixated on the camera and then the light to keep a smile on her face for too long. So here are just some random shots. She's pretty funny. At the moment, as she's settling for her nap, she's kicking her legs in her crib. She pulls them both up, then drops them down again. I can hear it downstairs and it makes me laugh each time...usually it precedes crying.

sitting in her pod

Again, everything is in the mouth...it's fun to see how she's grabbing for toys and things! I love it!

Playing "Ketchup"

A recent experience while dining out with Bud and Yiyia at Fishmonger's.

Hmm...I like brightly colored objects.

Thanks, Yiyia, for allowing me to get a better look at this unusual object.

Yep, I'll still look at it if you hold it to my right...

and to my left...

and yes, I'll even look at it when it's up high. Thanks for entertaining me with a ketchup bottle instead of eating, Yiyia. :)

Our new arbor

For the past couple of days we've been in a construction zone. These are pictures of our new arbor. It's not completely finished; they still have to stain it and put in two fans but we are really pleased and excited. It will make going outside in this heat slightly more bearable. We think the baby did a fabulous job of sleeping through the noise, although we fully expected her to awaken from her naps with a full frustrated cry. She did pretty well though! Go Lainey.
AND...everything is in Lainey's mouth these days. She has one giant drool waterfall coming out of her little mouth at all times. It's a little gross but she seems quite content. She and I are preparing for the departure of her dad on Monday. Ben is leaving for work training in New Jersey for nearly three weeks!! Wish us luck...