Laney through the months

In preparation for Laney's first birthday, I guess it is time I finally catch up on her month to month pictures.  I haven't posted one since she was 4 months old!  I have taking them, but just not doing anything with them.  Time to fix that!  This is like a little walk down memory lane to get you ready for the big birthday.

Laney - 5 months old
This must have been a rough day - Laney's not even wearing pants.  Third child - pants are not necessary.

6 months
The pictures are getting harder.  Laney likes to wiggle and chew on everything! She started eating solids this month.  She loves rice cereal and is slowly warming to other flavors.  At her 6 month appointment, she weighed 16lbs 13oz (63%) and was 25.5in tall (31%).  At this appointment, she was referred to the ophthalmologist for being cross eyed.  She saw Dr. Jordan the following month (interesting fact - this is the eye doctor that comes to our NICU to check all the babies' eyes.  It was neat seeing her outside of work!).  The ophthalmologist said that she was not actually cross eyed.  She just appeared that way (pseudostrabismus) due to her wide nasal bridge and large epicanthal folds. She should just "grow into" her nose and outgrow the cross eyed appearance.

Will needed in. 

But then this happened...

 7 months
Laney is sitting up on her own.  She likes to eat, especially when she gets to hold her own spoon.  She has 4 very sharp little teeth.

 8 months
I remember this month being the one that I felt like Laney finally started sleeping better.  She would usually only wake up once or so in the night and even occasionally slept through the night. At 8.5 months, Laney started army crawling. She also said her first word - "Dada!" A little later she started saying "Mama"

 9 months
Another bad month for taking pictures. Looks like Will decided to get in on the action again.  At 9 months old, Laney started crawling and pulling up on things.  She loves to stand while holding onto any sturdy structure.  At her check up, she weight 19lbs 7oz (71%) and was 27.25in long (34%).

10 months
At 10 months old, I felt like Laney had a sleep regression and started waking frequently in the night again.  That was rough!

Hehe, looks like Laney is waving her fist at me, as if to say "Mom, why is he in this picture?"

This is what happens when a baby gets to feed herself yogurt.

11 months
Oh no, dress repeat! I didn't realize she wore that for her 7 month pics as well. Here is a picture of Eliana wearing that dress too! Must be a favorite. Laney has 8 teeth, sleeps terribly, and climbs on everything!

 
 So that's our year in review!

Dinosaur ride at the zoo

All summer the kids have been begging to go on the dinosaur ride at the zoo.  The zoo has a little 5 minute boat ride through some wooded area that changes themes year to year.  Last year it was a Pirate Adventure.  My kids had no desire to see that and in fact were scare to go back near the kangaroos because you could hear the booming cannons from the boat ride.  This year the theme is dinosaurs so they have really wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, all passengers must be old enough to walk in order to ride.  Which means we could not go on the boat ride until either a) Laney learned how to walk or b) David was able to join us at the zoo so one parent could hold Laney while the other went with the older two kids on the ride.  Last month, on an absolutely beautiful Saturday, we were all free and decided to go to the zoo to check out that ride! Unsurprisingly, just about every other person in Columbus decided to do the same thing.  Usually going to the zoo on a Tuesday morning, I was definitely not used to the crowds of a perfect Saturday afternoon....

We beelined it for the back of the zoo where the dinosaur ride was.  When we got there, the sign said "30 minute wait" but while we were standing in line for tickets, the sign was changed to "45 minute wait."  The kids were really set on finally going on the ride, so we decided to do it anyway.  They actually have a great set up for kids while they have to wait in line because every few few there is an animatronic dinosaur to look at.  We learned about paleontologists and the different eras that the dinosaurs lived in.
Here are some dinos that we saw along the way.

It's a nest!

We were in line for a long time!  I was really impressed though because neither Eliana nor William got whiney about the long wait.  They were both so excited about finally being able to go on the ride. (I guess having to wait all summer made this wait seem shorter!)  Which is really good because the 45 minute wait turned into over an hour wait... David though we were never coming back.

But we finally made it on the boat! The wait was worth it for me just to see the kids' faces.  Will said he wasn't scared, but he held onto my hand very tightly, and every time we came upon a new dinosaur (most were meat eaters with sharp teeth), he would squeeze my hand even tighter.

Look at Ana's face! I think she might have gotten nervous a couple of times too.

 We literally only had time to ride the boat and then turn around and go home.  But the kids might just say it was one of their favorite times at the zoo!

Backyard Time

Loving the outdoors

 Everyone likes to push Laney in her new baby swing.  Will also likes to twist her swing and turn her in circles.  It always makes her laugh.

Sweet kisses

I think she might like her swing just a little.

Laney has been venturing in the sandbox a little.  She has to be watched very closely because she really likes to eat sand. Or eat the toys in the sand that are covered in sand. 

This is what summers are made for.

In our neighborhood, a lot of people put things that they don't want anymore out by the curb as a free item for anyone to pick up.  Our neighbors next door do this on a very regular basis.  And quite a bit of it is baby/kid items that they have outgrown.  So also on a regular basis, we grab the stuff that they have set out and bring it over to our house.  They might just supply our whole play room with toys and furniture!  This baby gym is a recent acquisition.  It is just the right size for Laney!  I think we will actually move it to the basement once it is winter time for some indoor fun.  We are very lucky to have such generous neighbors!

After playing in the backyard for a while, the party moves to the front yard when Daddy gets home from work.  Laney is always especially excited to see David when he gets home.  She is the biggest Daddy's girl.  Note how she thinks she is such a big girl too and is trying to walk.

Speaking of teeth

William visited the dentist for the first time last month.  He did great!  I was nervous because when he first got to the office, he hid behind a couch when the hygienist came to get him.  However, we convinced him to do some dinosaur roars to show her his teeth.  That, plus the promise of a prize for good behavior, was enough to get him excited to be there.  He sat in the chair all by himself and was a perfect patient.  No cavities for this big guy! What a relief.  As his prizes, he picked the blue spider you see in his hand plus the funny glasses. This kid always cracks me up! They hygienist had him put the glasses on before the dentist came to see him.  Dr. Barry played along and pretended that he couldn't find Will, just some stranger wearing glasses with a mustache. I think Will had enough fun that he will be willing to come back again in 6 months!

Highlights of Eliana's summer

Eliana had a busy summer this year.  She started kindergarten in August, so I feel like she did a lot of growing up this summer.  Time sneaks up on you.  I blinked and she has grown up into this wonderful, smart, loving young lady.  Remember when she was just a baby sharing our room in our one bedroom apartment in Fountain Square? Or when she was little and refused to ride in the stroller and tried to walk everywhere? Or when she was a defiant toddler and hated naps so she would make huge messes in her room during "quiet time"?  And now she is a big sister twice over, riding the bus to school, able to swim across the pool, and reading chapter books.  When did she become this big little person?

This picture is from our parish picnic.  Eliana has always wanted to have her whole face painted like this (they offer this at the zoo but I have never let her do it). She was so excited to be a cat.  She asked me to take this picture of her growling.  This picture is more significant though because it is the last one with all of her baby teeth!

Later that evening, with her face freshly washed, Eliana lost her first tooth!  She couldn't wait to put the tooth under her pillow.

Missing tooth selfie

This summer Eliana had her first sleepover.  She has probably been asking for the past year if she could have so-and-so over for a sleepover (boys and girls).  I finally agreed that she could have Adele over to spend the night.  Sometimes I feel like Adele could be her sister, they are so close.  Plus she lives down the street so if there were any issues in the middle of the night, her parents were close by.  Eliana had some very elaborate plans for the sleep over including camping in the back yard and roasting marshmallows on a fire.  In the end, they painted, played dress up, watched a movie, made s'mores in the toaster oven, and ended the night with a tea party at 10pm.  

 The girls slept in the basement on the pullout couch.  At 4am, I heard footsteps and got up to find a tearful Adele wandering the hallway.  I asked what was wrong, and she told me that she couldn't find Eliana.  I took her back down stairs and we looked together.  I found Eliana sound asleep on the floor right next to the couch.  She apparently rolled off the couch and didn't even notice haha.  Adele felt better that her friend was still in the basement and was able to go back to sleep.  Just until 6am... They were some tired girls the next day!

We went to a park the morning after the sleepover.

 Eliana also participated in Safety Town this summer. This is a two week class for kids entering kindergarten to teach them about safety related to things like bike riding, swimming, riding the school bus, weather safety, gun safety, stranger danger, don't do drugs, etc.  Eliana had a ton of fun and has now become my safety patrol when it comes to crossing the street or wearing a bike helmet. She is pictured above at her Safety Town graduation.  I thoroughly enjoyed Safety Town because Eliana took the afternoon session and, amazingly, almost every day that she was in class, her two younger siblings napped at the SAME TIME.  That meant two hours a day to myself!  I took naps, cleaned the house, folded laundry... you know, Mom Fun.  Awesome!

Eliana was in class with Adele.  Will and Hannah joined in for graduation.

Laney had such a fun time at Eliana's graduation ceremony that she couldn't even stay awake that evening to finish her dinner.

Shortly after Eliana lost her first tooth, a second one right next to it got loose. Now she has lost two teeth!

Eliana has been very excited about her tooth fairy money.  In fact, when she lost her second tooth, she had me help her write a note to the tooth fairy to tell her how much she loves her.  Eliana is just starting to grasp the concept of money and getting to use it to buy the things we want.  She took her money to Target and was very excited to pick a Unicorn out of the bargain area at the front of the store.  We had to have a long discussion about how she could afford the unicorn but not the big doll house in the toy section.  She said, "you can just buy it with your credit card!" so I had to explain that the card was not magic and that I had to have actual money to pay the bill for the things we buy with the credit card.  Definitely a tough concept for a little girl to grasp.  Now if someone asks what she spent her tooth fairy money on, she tells them that she gave it to Mommy to pay the bills at the bank!  Hopefully no one thinks we are desperate for money and having to ask for a loan from Eliana!