Lainey Lou ~ Month 5

Our little Lainey grew another month older (4.1.16). And boy oh boy was it a fun month. Lots happened and our little's personality is growing so much.

You can check out Lainey's growth in these previous posts:

• Lainey Lou ~ A Birth Story
• Lainey Lou ~ Month 1
• Lainey Lou ~ Month 2
• Lainey Lou ~ Month 3
• Lainey Lou ~ Month 4

Here's what's happening in your world lady ...

You have the most smiley and bubbly personality.

Your eyes really are that bright and blue!

Chair pictures were a bit more of a challenge this month as you're getting so squirmy.

And the majority of the shots ended with the props in your mouth.

Everyone meeting our sweet dog little girl, Lainey Lou. Hehehee!

How Big Are You?
Your 4 month well visit, with shots, wahhhhh was 3.8.16 ... and you're growing little miss!  You've got some adorable little chunky monkey thigh rolls and your cheeks are the squishiest!

• Weight: 13 pounds ~ 26%
• Height: 26 inches ~ 97%
• Head: 16.5 ~ 90%

You've officially grown out of all of your 3 month items and I had to spend some time this week to buy you some clothes that actually fit! You can wear some 3-6 month items but you're mostly rocking all 6 month attire.

What's Your Temperament?

• Your personality continues to shine through and you are the sweetes. You are happy 95% of the time and love to be talked to or just in the middle of the action. You smile from the moment you wake up in the morning until you go to sleep at night. I think you're shaping up to be your daddy's little clone from a personality perspective and if that's the case we're going to get along just fine :) 
• When you start to get sleepy you get so vocal and you love to be heard!
• You're giggle is here and here to stay! Ahhh it's too adorable for words. 
• You're working out your triceps 24/7 and it's hysterical. You've got this thing where you constantly flex your arms and put them behind your back like superwoman flying and we love it. It's so funny.
• You also LOVE your hands. You like to suck your thumb and you like to put your hands in your mouth constantly. Feeding you can be a bit of a challenge because your hands and your bib make it to your mouth before we can finagle the spoon in there. 
  

What Are You Eating?

• You're eating 4 bottles a day and 1-2 pouches of baby food for dinner.
• On the baby food front, you've had:
• sweet potatoes (your favorite)
• green beans
• apples
• carrots
• prunes
• mangoes
• You eat an 8oz bottle when you wake up in the morning, another bottle about 3 hours later, another 3-4 hours after that, 1-2 pouches of food for dinner, and then you have a nighttime bottle before bed and sometimes only eat a couple of ounces. 
  

What Are you Sporting?

• You've graduated to #2 diapers and still Pamper's people.
• You've certainly grown out of all of your clothes and you're rocking some 3-6 months and lots of 6 month springy items!
• You still rarely wear shoes, but hopefully when you start sitting up a little better we'll work some in. 
  

How Are You Sleeping?

• You're still rocking sleep!
• You've graduated from your velcro swaddle-me at night time and are now in a sleep sack with the swaddle wrapped around your mid-section but your arms free!
• Your routine goes a little something like this (it can vary plus or minus an hour depending on the day ... but this is pretty close):
• 7:00am wake up - so happy and smiley - 8 oz bottle
• 9:30am - nap in crib 1.5 hours
• 11:00am - 8 oz bottle
• 1:30pm - nap (often in pack and play, car, etc) about 45 min - 1.5 hours
• 2:30-3pm - 8 oz bottle
• 4:00pm - cat nap while hanging out with everyone
• 5:30-6pm - 1-2 pouches of baby food
• 7:00pm - bath time, pj's, swaddle
• 8pm - 8 oz bottle - sleep IN YOUR ROOM!
• You're such a big girl! You made the transition this month to your very own room and you're doing great. 
  
  
  

Lainey Likes + Dislikes:

• Dislikes:
• Your torticollis is SO MUCH BETTER! No helmet needed! Which means your dislike of PT is OVER! Yayyyyyy!!!!
• Tummy time - you're getting better, but you definitely don't love it
• Being held like a baby - you want to be upright
• When the car isn't moving 

• Likes:
• Your bouncy seat is your best friend. You LOVE to bounce.
• You like your Soothies pacifiers - we're working to integrate Avent ones
• You like white noise (the same mountain river sound as your big brother).
• You like your Baby K'tan + Baby Bjourn carriers. 
• Laying on your back + being held upright (head over the shoulder)
• Bath time
• Being talked to and played with
• Your hands!
• Your play gym!
• Your big brother, you think he is so funny
• Rolling all over the place
• your princess mirror
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Fun Moments, Favorite Notes, Lainey Quirks + Milestones:

• Your current official nicknames are Lou, Snowball, Monkey, Lainey Lou, Lousey and Wittle
• You ate your first real food. 
• You celebrated your first St. Patrick's Day!
• You celebrated your first Easter!
• And all together, you're just the sweetest little to have around! 
  
  
  
  

And that's a little update of what's going on this month with our sweet Lainey Gal! Being your mommy is the greatest! Love ya monkey.

Weekend Round-Up

It was another great weather weekend here in Nashville, and we made the most of it! Hubby had to work an event Friday night, so the kids and I headed to bed early to rise and shine ready to take on two full family days of fun ... which has led to a slow Monday morning and lots of couch snuggles and extra coffee. I posted this pic to twitter:

"#MondayVibes: Put on your shades and keep them on until it's time to put your PJs back on"

Little miss is getting so big and getting so routine with her sleep schedule. She is so sleepy and sweet. I snapped this pic while Hubby was gone the other night. She fell asleep during her nighttime bottle and I just stared at her and prayed over her sweet littleness. <3

Saturday morning B started his latest round of soccer/baseball practices with his new team. So, Daddy and little man headed to the fields while Mommy and Lainey stayed home and had some girly time.

 She's turning into such a smily, drooly ham!

And I love her.

Brother Bennett Beiber picked up some bagels for breakfast and we were thankful.

Then I put on real people clothes and fixed my hair and did my makeup for a sweet little baby shower for Ms. Elsie Tate.

And packed up a diaper owl along with some other goodies for the little miss. Creepy or cute?! You decide! Haha!

 Then we had big plans to watch the games with friends, but sleepiness and babies got the best of us and instead we sat on the couch and I played with Snapchat filters. Saturday night is WILD around here folks :)

We woke up in the morning and put on our Sunday bests and headed to church to praise His name. It was Baptism Sunday so Bennett took advantage of the reception after mass and snagged a cookie after Sunday school and was pretty stoked about it.

 After church we grabbed a little brunch at Proper Bagel (yummy) and then headed home for an early nap and extra baby snuggles.

And once we woke up we headed to the park to play for the remainder of the day! Everything from creekin', to hiking, to chasing and running.

He needed to stop and "take a rest"

 Then we headed to find the perfect spot and had a little picnic.

And Lainey busted out her hoodie and that gummy smile. I mean, is there anything cuter in this world?

 Bliss.

And for anyone out there reading this that understands this can you please explain this to me? At every park people just go and "hammock". They legit head to a park, hang up their hammock and just lay inside of it. I kind of get it. But I kind of don't.

Dancing in fields .... foreverrrrr.

 And acro-yoga ... or something. Ha!

 A boy and his dog.

Family days make me happy. 

Cheers to a great week ahead!

Potty Training a Boy {OUR EXPERIENCE}

Guys, I'm nervous if I actually write this and share it with the interwebs it's going to make everything not work. But, I'm here today to tell you, we've got a potty trained two year old boy (for the most part) and we did it in 3-4 days. Gasp! I know.

Now, I realize everyone's experience is different and there are many many methods of what may work for your family - but this worked for us so I want to share. Plus, I am so dang proud of my little guy that the mommy in me want's to give him a medal or something. But, that would be very weird to give my child a trophy and if I were to make it it would be a tiny golden toilet or something. So, I should probably just stick with my high fives and reassuring hugs.

So, here's how it worked for us. Bennett was on Spring Break last week and it came on the heels of some very bad news for this momma (still waiting to share with everyone - I will be having some surgeries in the coming weeks - so I will bring you up to speed as we know more - but again, if you've got a prayer to lend send on my way!) so I found myself in a fragile place mentally with nothing to do but wait for dreaded appointments and phone calls. And I realized I needed a distraction. Hubs and I had been talking about potty training Bennett since December but had continually found reasons why it wouldn't work. Mostly due to his new baby sister, my lack of patience, and just finding other things we made more important. But, we figured if I was going to be home and so was he (thanks Spring Break!) and I needed a distraction, this was as good of time as any to give it a go. (I'll give you my step by step breakdown at the end).

Last Wednesday we woke up, made an impromptu potty chart, utilized grandparent Easter candy, busted out the hand-me-down undies from our big cousin Brody and were on our way!

Don't laugh at my chart. Bennett loves stickers, so when I was thinking of ways to "incentivize" him, I thought a sticker chart would help him see how great he was doing vs just shoving candy down his throat (however, he is also receptive to candy - so I did both).  And literally we decided to start this at 10 in the morning, so Bennett was already more than awake for the day, so I had to whip it up quick. And his interpretation of it was well received! We would get to place a sticker on either side based on what happened. 
 HE also got to choose from one of two bowls of candy. He got one M&M if he peed in the potty and he got a candy bar (snack size) if he pooped in the potty.

 And because Bennett loves stickers, we had several options in the archives we pulled out and watching him meticulously choose his sticker each time was adorable.

The first day we set a timer and every 15 minutes an alarm on my phone would go off and we would try. We would hear the timer and yell "POTTY TIMER YAYYYY!".

<insert family only photos of Bennett on the potty here :) so I'm not scolded when he is older>

 And when we shared a success story, we chose a sticker and piece of candy.

 And were so proud of our chart!

 And just like that, we said goodbye to diapers and now we rock tiny man undies. Be still my heart. So big, so fast.

Here's the play by play of my method:

Items needed:

• lots of undies and stretchy elastic pants
• stickers + paper or poster for chart
• small candies (m&m's or skittles, etc)
• larger candies (snack size bars, suckers, etc)
• potty seat + step stool
• patience (hehe) + a good attitude
• commitment to staying home for at least 3 days!
• pull-ups (named SPECIAL nighttime undies) for nap and overnight

Play-By-Play

• Day One
• Expect a lot of accidents and look at the bright side - clean floors :)
• set a timer and head to the potty every 15 minutes to try (regardless of fail or success)
• if an accident happens - reiterate pee and poop belong ONLY in the potty
• if there is a success - clap, cheer, dance + reward with piece of candy and a sticker! yayy!
• pull-up at nap time and overnight
• Day Two
• repeat of day one - but set timer to 17-20 minutes
• Day Three
• repeat of day two - but try to focus more on HIM telling you when he has to go (with coaxing) vs you telling him
• Day Four
• hold your breath and plan an activity to leave the house
• we left for FOUR hours and used three public restrooms and had ZERO accidents!! Yayyyyyy Bennett!
• Day five and beyond
• continue to ask him, but also let him tell you
• don't get frustrated if there is an accident and be mindful of before you leave and when you arrive places (go potty before, during and after)

And then wake up on Day six, squeal do a happy dance - and send him to school to and pray he does as well there as he does at home! Week! (update: he had one accident at school, but went on the potty twice. He'll head back today and hope we have a better report!)

Good luck. It's a dirty job :)