4-28-10

Laney is now 23 months old, and is in full swing with the terrible two’s behavior:  throwing things, crying, and saying her favorite word, “NO!”

She has become obsessed with milk and chicken in the last two weeks, demanding both constantly.  I am fairly sure that she is getting ready to go through another growth spurt soon.  Last week we had to re-sleep train her after she woke up one night at 1:30 and didn’t go back to sleep until 5am.  She is getting up at 5 am now, and we don’t know what to make  of it.  We have let her cry it out several mornings until it got light out, but that doesn’t seem to help.  Patrick thinks that she is having growing pains like he did when he was little!

Laney is really into walking places right now, and still wearing her necklaces all the time.   Her hair is long and ringlet curls in the back.  She can wear little pigtails all the time, and looks soooo cute with them in.  She is also really into the swing and the park.  We have to go to the park for about an hour each afternoon so she can climb on all of the equipment and go down the twisty slide over and over.

On another note, she actually answered my “What’s your name?” question with “Naney” yesterday.  So proud of her.  We are getting a little better restaurant behavior out of her, as long as we sit in a booth where we can block her in and she can stand on the seat.  She only wants to eat our food right now, and really only likes to eat my food.  We have been setting a spot for her at the dinner table and letting her eat from my plate.  Sometimes I give her turkey and tell her it is chicken so she will eat it. 

We are able to bargain a little with her now, things like take 4 bites and then we can play choo-choos.  She is really loving choo choos right now, and seems interested in the Thomas the Tank Engine show  (thank God, because I cannot take another minute of Baby Einstein!).  We are encouraging this new interest, and I took her to Target yesterday and let her pick out some trains.  We have a set in the front room for her to play with and it is the first thing she runs to in the morning. 

She still only wants Daddy a lot of the time, but will settle for me at bedtime and when he is not around.  She does only want my food, however.  Her vocabulary increases by leaps and bounds daily, and she is really using phrases a lot, and repeating everything she hears (including dammit when I stubbed my toe!). 

Right now I am 16 weeks pregnant and just started feeling the baby move last week!

4-8-10

Laney is 22 months old now.  I have been on Spring Break with her for the last 2 weeks.  2 weeks ago we decided one morning to go to Tahoe with my mom and the dogs.  That afternoon we landed in a winter wonderland.  We had all 4 dogs there, and found out that Laney can easily tell the difference between all of them.  We had a lot of snow while we were there for a few days, and I was really looking forward to playing in the snow with Laney.  However, during our trip, I came down with a cold as did Laney.  We both had fevers, but hers spiked to 103 degrees!  That night she kept waking up shrieking because she was shivering and scared.  We took lots of cool showers and baths with her.  The next day we flew home and she saw Dr. Schmottlach who prescribed Augmentin.  He said that because she is getting her back molars, she may have been getting an ear infection due to extra digestive juices blocking her eustachian tubes.  Wednesday night was no better with the fever, and she slept in our bed between us in only a diaper because she was burning up.  Every 2 hours or so we would pop her into a cool shower and bring her temp down to 97.  What a long night it was for us.  Finally she broke that fever by lunchtime, but it took me until Friday to completely kick mine. 

Easter was that weekend, and Laney did not really have a good time.  I think she was overwhelmed by all fo the people at my mom's house (our family, the Olsons, and the Millers).  She did not even want to egg hunt!  Kiersten was so sweet to her, helping her find eggs but she only wanted Daddy.

Last week was the peak of tantrums and bad behavior by Laney...lots of time outs for throwing things.  This week has been a completely different story.  She has been such an angel and so loving and cute towards me.  We have made it to Stroller Strides this week and have had lots of play time together.  Yesterday she made her first "friend" at the park. Another 2 year old boy was playing on the playground and she grabbed his hand.  They rna around the lawn holding hands and laughing.  Later they hugged each other.  She told me to go sit and wanted to play and go down the slide by herself.  WE are working on the concept of sharing with her, which she likes to yell at the other kids ("Share!")  Occasionally she would sit down in the middle of the stairs to block the other kids from the slide, as she thinks the slide is hers! 

Patrick and I have noticed such a change in her the last few days.  She is using more and more words, even remembering to say thank you and excuse me.  She seems to be maturing a lot right now.  She even had  her first haircut today with Sonny.  He trimmed her bangs for me, and she looks like a preschooler now.  I just can't believe that my Laney Bug is growing up so fast.

When I was getting her ready to leave the house today, she ran back and got one of great Oma's necklaces to wear today (she plays dress up with them).  So precious!  We bought her some necklaces in the Brass Plum at Nordstroms.  She was in heaven.  Lately she has been layering on mardi gras beads left over from my 30th birthday party.  She puts so many on that she looks like Mr. T!

3-16-10

I took Laney to Palm Desert this weekend to see Pops at the Betty Ford Center. I planned to have her nap all the way there in the car. Guess who would not take a nap! She was in such a good mood as we drove, talking to herself and laughing too. She watched some "moomies" and then I turned off the DVD player hoping that she would get bored and sleep. I even turned on an audio book and that didn't do the trick.

All that worrying for nothing because she was a little angel while visiting my dad. She was cute with him, and was even more adorable chasing ducks on the lawn by the pond. She was running all around the lawn with a big smile on her face as we tried to catch ducks. I brought her new trike with us and she rode around the grounds too. We took turns pushing her around, and then she got tired of it and we all hung out on the lawn in the sun playing. Mom and I left at 5pm, and Laney was asleep in 2 minutes in the car. She woke up at 6:30 in Temecula, so we fed her McDonalds for dinner. She really loves ranch dressing and chicken nuggets.

Last night we took her to Costco with us and she ate pizza with much gusto for dinner! She was taking big snapping bites and adding sound effects too. Hilarious! This morning Patrick was letting her eat a chocolate frosted doughnut for breakfast and I got a big, chocolatey kiss when I left for work. How I love that kid!

2-28-10

Another great day with Laney. She was in such a great mood today. When we arrived at the church nursery this morning, she tried to be brave and not cry. Her lower lip started quivering and she cried when we handed her over to Mary. Mary reported that she stopped crying immediately and played indpendently all morning. Hopefully there will come a day when the nursery doesn't make her cry!

Laney continues to be very vocal about what she does and doesn't want. She gets soooo frustrated when we don't get it, and throws things or hits us. She is a work in progress. We just keep reminding her to use words and to show us what she wants.

In the last two days, Laney has started saying phrases from favorite books while we are reading to her. Right now she will make the sounds in Peek-a-Who? and in Go Dog, Go! How sweet to hear her little angel voice yell out moo, boo, zoo, choo choo, and you. She will say go and stop and party for you doing Go Dog, Go! Another step closer to reading. It brings joy to a teachers' heart.

2-22-10

Yesterday was a really off day for Laney.  She was cranky and only wanted to play with Daddy.  We took her to the playground on the way to the grocery store, and she went on the slides like a madwoman.  What a little daredevil she is.  Finally she just was exhausted and started to cry so we knew it was time to leave.  We could not really get her to eat lunch, and around 4:30 she had  a hanger breakdown.  Thank goodness for apples and Pirate’s Booty!  She wouldn’t even take a bath last night…and that is usually a preferred activity.  I put her to bed at 6:45 and she was passed out by 7.  Hopefully today she will be happier when I get home.

This morning she went over and was pointing and blabbering at the open cabinet.  I shut the door and that appeased her.  Then she found some trash and excitedly ran over to put it in the can.  We always tell her that she is a good helper and she likes the praise!

Heading to Sea World for a few hours. We had heart shaped pancakes for breakfast. Driving along listening to Laney moo along with Old Macdonald in the back

2/4/2010

Last night we went to the Hadams to watch LOST. Laney stayed up until 10 pm with us, refusing to go to bed and crying histerically every time we put her down. Poor little baby had puffy, red, sleepy eyes but hung in there with us. She was so passed out in the car when we got home, that she was like a limp rag doll when I carried her upstairs.

Arianna has been putting clips in her hair to make pigtails in her little curls in the back. She looks so much like a big girl that it makes me a little sad that she isn't my little baby anymore. Can't wait to get home from work and play with her!