The Bounce House

Last Friday, Laney went to Maggie’s second Birthday party at a bounce house.  This was a little outside of Laney’s comfort zone.  It took her awhile to warm up and get the courage to play in the bounce house.

A little scared!

Finally playing in the basketball bounce.  She was having fun until a boy came by and knocked her down.  That turned her off to the basketball bounce for the rest of the day.

She wanted to climb the stairs to the slide soo bad.  Here she is looking back at me, very unsure.  I thought when she saw her friends do it, she would also do it.  However, it never happened.  Laney is a little too cautious.

Laney did much better here..

Coloring on the white board.

And what made me most proud was craft time.  There was a “teacher” instructing the children to draw a picture.  Laney was such a good listener and was so focused on the “teacher.”

And what made me least proud…

Laney rolling on the ground in the middle of the place, because she could not do what she wanted.

Overall she had a great time celebrating Myles’ 5th birthday and Maggie’s 2nd birthday. 

What’s That??? 23 months

Happy 23 Months Laney!  There are so many new things, it is so hard to keep up with everything, but I tried my best.

• 24 Month Clothes- 28 lbs.
• You still love Barney, Elmo, and Oso.
• You love to hear airplanes, look for buses, and big trucks.  When you see a bus as we are driving, it is the greatest thing on earth to you.
• You say “what’s that” to everything.  You make a trip to Target much more interesting.  You are so intrigued by everything you see. 
• You know the toy isle and ask to visit it whenever we go to the store.
• You love to drive your Cozy Coupe and drive to visit Lolo (Logan) and Lala (Elena).
• You say huh? alot.  I am trying to get you to say what instead.  However, I do not always set a good example.
• You remember the last word on most pages of the books we read at night.  You help me read them.
• You are very concerned that mama and dada are with you.  You like to say Mama come too??  Dada come too?
• Your words are exploding, you’re using 2-5 words at a time.
• You are finally liking baths again.  You will play with your baby and draw with your bathtub markers.
• We started Kindermusik again.  Campbell and Lucy are in your class and you have so much fun.  It takes you a little bit to warm up, but then you are dancing and running like crazy.
• You love to read Shiny Dhina, your Kindermusik book. You are an expert of the song about losing your car keys and then finding them.
• You like to sing your abc’s.
• You can talk on the phone a little bit.  You can answer questions as long as you are not being stubborn.
• You call a banana “yellow”
• When the microwave goes off (or any type of timer) you say ______ ready.  What ever it is that we are cooking.
• You say ta-da
• You are ocd.  You do not like to have anything on your hands.  You get crazy about making sure things (like blankets) are laid out perfectly straight.  You like to line your toys up in a straight line. 
• We finally put out your sandbox.  You love it.  You like to pretend you are cooking.
• You LOVE to play outside.  We kick the soccer ball, color with sidewalk chalk, collect rocks, and play in the sandbox. 
• You love to draw- favorite things to draw are (trace mama’s hand, circles, house, flower, and the names of all your family and friends)
• You like to pretend to drive mama’s car.
• You are very bossy and demanding- you told daddy to stop and move the other day.  However you are very polite.  You are so good at saying please, thank you, and your welcome.
• You love IU and wearing your IU shirt- You say go Hoosiers and will do the IU cheer with your hands.
• Food: You love to eat lunch at school, usually 3-4 helpings.  You are not a big dinner eater.  Dinner still consists of your yogurt and a fruit or veggie.  We did add English Muffin pizzas into your rotation (you love them).
• You love to mix/cook.  If there is ever anything that needs to be mixed you want to do it.
• Your hair, bless your heart is beautiful and curly at times, while other times it is a hot frizzy mess.  You have the best bed head I have ever seen.
• All size 6 shoes are now to small.  We had to move to size 7.
• You take awhile to wake up in the morning.  You wake up grumpy, and after 15-20 minutes you are in a much better mood.

Singing to your baby in the bath.

Driving mama’s car.

Look how long your hair really is when I comb it out.  Give it 2 minutes and it curls right up.

 

Drawing your circles.

Looking for the airplane.

Showing me the pizza you made me for dinner.

Having a tea party with your monkey and bear.

We have so much fun together; dance parties in the kitchen, art projects, cooking, playtime, reading books, and cuddling.  I love that we can have conversations now.  You make me laugh by some of the things you say (or try to say).  You are so inquisitive and try to take in everything around you.  It is so hard to believe that next month you will be 2 years old.   Life just keeps getting better and better.  You make my life a very happy place.  You are so loved!

The dreaded words…

Ear infection!  We had such a successful night with operation bye bye paci.  Laney went to sleep with no crying at 6:30.   Then came 10 o’clock and Laney awoke screaming.  I went in her room and she said “My ears hurt",” and she was pulling on her right ear.  Laney was inconsolable for over an hour.  Finally a little after 12, she finally went to sleep.  It was another day off for me and another trip to the doctor.  Laney’s tubes fell out about a month ago, and we were hit with another infection.  Laney has an infection in her right ear.  After we left the doctor, Laney kept saying “my ears sick.”  After a 3 hour nap, Laney woke up in much better spirits. 

Enjoying her sucker after the doctor check-up.  The doctor thought her throat looked red, so he wanted to do a strep test (it came back negative).  Laney did not appreciate the test very much.  The doctor commented “She must have eaten her Wheaties this morning.  She is one strong willed little girl.”  She put up quite a fight during the strep test.

On our walk, Laney wanted to collect rocks.  She would find a rock and put it in her pocket.  Then she lined them all up on our front porch, counted them, and sang them her abc’s. 

Laney’s grandmas know her so well.  For Valentine’s Day, Tyler’s mom got her Mickey Mouse, and my mom got her Elmo.  She spent time playing with both of them this afternoon.

Conversations with Laney

I love that Laney is able to answer questions and carry on little conversations.  This past Sunday we were playing in her playroom and had this conversation.

Me: Laney what do you want to do?

Laney: Play blocks

Me: What do you want to build?

Laney: house- for Santa (this is a little toy figure of Santa she got at Christmas)

So we built the house and Laney put Santa in the middle of the house.

Me: What is Santa doing?

Laney: TV (translation- watching TV)

Me: What is he watching?

Laney: IU (Tyler was watching the IU basketball game earlier that day).

Operation Bye Bye Paci!

Last week, Laney’s daycare started putting her down for her nap without her paci.  So operation bye bye paci was to be this past weekend.  As you know, Laney came down with croup.  Laney returned to school Monday and had a good day.   She went down for her nap without her paci and did not cry or fuss.  So I thought Monday night was as good as any for bye bye paci.

Night 1:   I knew that I would have to endure some crying.  Laney cried for about 30 minutes, then for the last 10 minutes she was in and out of crying.  After 40 minutes (this is very hard on a mama, but I knew it had to be done) Laney was asleep and slept the whole night.  She did wake up at 5 am, this is an hour earlier than usual. 

Night 2:  When I picked Laney up from daycare, I kept asking her “Are you going to go nigh night without your paci?”  She would say yes every time.  Then we watched an Elmo video where he sings a bye bye song to his paci.  After the video we sang the bye bye paci song, read books, and got ready for bed.  Right before I placed her in her crib she asked for her paci.  Then I reminded her that we had to say bye bye to her paci, and we sang the song again.  I laid her down, left the room and on night 2 of operation bye bye paci, there was NO crying at all.  She went right to sleep.  Success!!  Hopefully night 3 will go as smoothly.

Bye Bye Paci!

This is the Croup I Remember!

After a pretty good day on Thursday we had a very sleepless night.  The croup turned into what I remember from last year. Friday Laney started running a high temperature, which she still had when she went to bed tonight (Saturday night).  It has been over 24 hours of crying, cuddling (which I do love), coughing, very little sleep, and a very pitiful Laney.   Before bed tonight, we did see some signs of our sweet Laney.  Hopefully we are near the end of this, so we can all return to our normal routines on Monday. 

Rosy cheeks and her poor little eyes.  In the midst of being sick, she kept asking for a bow in her hair.  :)

Sick Again!

Last night Laney woke up every hour with a loud barking cough.  When she woke up her little voice was very hoarse and she was wheezing.  Laney and I stayed home today.  We went to the doctor and she determined Laney has croup.  The doctor put her on medicine, and also suggested to spend some time in the fresh air, which was wonderful since it was in the mid 70’s today.  We took advantage of the doctors orders. 

 

Unfortunately, this is Laney’s second time with croup.  Last January Laney had croup but it was much worse than this time. She not only had croup, but also a high fever, and ear infection.  Here is a picture of Laney last year with croup. (this picture makes me soo sad).