Lainey's Vocabulary at 1 year

I've wanted to post this blog entry for quite a long time now! We have been compiling Lainey's vocabulary and wanted to make a list to save.

Here are the concepts that she understands:

Eat (sign and "eat")
Cracker (sign and "kaka")
Water (sign only)
Milk (sign and "ma")
Banana (sign and "nana")
All Done (sign and "aa dun")
Mom ("mama")
Grandma ("nana")
Dad ("dadadadadadadadadadadadada")
Grandpa ("paw paw")
More (sign and "moh")
Bird (sign and "buh")
Fish (sign and "shhh")
Cat (sign, "teetee," and "maoh")
Dog (sign, "dah," and "wuff wuff")
Horse (sign and "neeeeiiiigh" with a head waggle)
Baby (sign and "dayydee")
Shoes ("soos")
Socks ("soh")
Hat (sign and "hat")
Please (sign and "si")
Thank You (sign only)
Car ("bubububububububu")
Ball (sign and "bauh")
Night Night (sign and "nigh nigh")
Bath (sign and "bah")
Teeth ("tee")
Book (sign and "booh")
No ("no")
Apple (sign and "apuh")
Pear (sign only)
Bubble ("buhbuh")
Outside (sign and "sigh")
Go ("go")
Up ("up")
Down ("douwn")
Cow ("moooooooo")
Cookie (sign and "ku ku")
Cheese (sign and "chee")
Mouse ("mou")
Duck (sign and "duhduh")
Bunny ("buh")
Landon ("yandon")
Landis ("yandih")
Piper ("di di")
Freddy ("eddy")
Good Boy ("buh boy")
Good Girl ("goo guurrr")
Hi ("hi")
Bye Bye ("dye dye")
Amen ("aaahhh-dae")
E-I-E-I-O (song) ("e-i-e-i-" or "yi-yo")
Dance (sign and "bah bah bah")
Guitar ("tah")
Sheep ("baaabaaa")
Bite ("bite")
Eye ("aye")
Nose ("noh")
Ear ("ee")
Button ("buh")
Belly-Button ("buh")
Monkey ("oo-a-a-a")
Tiger ("raaaaar")
Lion ("raaaaar")
Cheerios (sign and "Chee")


I think that's it. We may be editing this list in the days to come as we remember more. 65 seems like enough though!!

Some new videos!

Here are a few videos from the last week for those of you that aren't on facebook. We got a bubble blower from the Celoria's for John's birthday. Really the gift was for Lainey, but Daddy has fun with it too. Landis loves them as much as Lainey does!



And on the 20th, we filled the baby pool and went for a swim. Lainey loves to play in the water. Bath time is her favorite time, so what could be better than a bath in the sun? It's amazing to me that we can go swimming at the end of October here while most of the rest of the country is complaining about how cold it is. Lainey loves to blow bubbles in the water and is very proud of herself, as you can see!




Thanks for watching!

Learning so much!

Lainey is picking up almost a word or sign per day these days. John and I want to sit down and write down all the words she knows so that we have a record of it for her first birthday. Just as an example, this week she learned the sign for bath and says "ba" (bath) and "buh-buh" (bubble). She is also attempting the sign for dance. Will takes her dancing almost every day. So far, her favorite is the waltz. We'll have to get this on video in the next few days. Lainey loves her 'Uncle Will' and asks him to hold her all the time so that they can dance. When he puts her down, she keeps dancing with her baby. It's really cute.

Lainey had a fever this week and seems to have a little bit of an intestinal bug. We are watching her carefully for dehydration, but she is drinking water and nursing well. She's refusing almost all of her solid foods though. Hopefully when this little illness passes, she'll be back to eating well. I was beginning to wean her, but I think we'll have to put that on hold until she is feeling better as I don't want her to become dehydrated.

We leave next Sunday for California. John will be having hip surgery on the 29th and we are celebrating Lainey's first birthday with the family!! It should be an eventful trip to say the least!

Cookie?

Yesterday morning, Lainey woke up around 8:15. She's been doing really well with sleeping the last few weeks. She's made it through the night from about 8-8 most of this week. On the days she doesn't make it, she's up around 6:30 for some milk and then goes back to sleep. She was having some milk yesterday, but it really didn't seem like she was all that interested. Next thing I know, she's looking up at me and says, "Coo-kee? Apple?" Then she signed eat and sat up. Obviously this child knows what she wants!

Another sweet morning moment happened today. We had a slightly overcast morning, so even though it was around 8 again, her room was very dark. After her milk she was resting her head on my shoulder and I kissed her on the cheek. She then picked up her head and planted an open-mouth, slobbery baby kiss on my nose. She couldn't see me in the dark and when she missed, she tried again. She then laid her head back down on my shoulder for a few more minutes. I am so not a morning person, but these moments are totally worth every second of missed sleep. She is so precious and I am soaking it up while I can!

www.laineyhudgins.com is closing

We haven't used the website in many months, as some of you have reminded me. The reality is that I don't know how to update it, and John is just too busy to do it each day. So, it will be coming down when the payment period for the hosting is over. I don't know exactly when that will be. The good news is that we will have all the files from it, so we can put it back up if ever we feel like it. Hopefully I will be better about updating here so that those without facebook can see some videos and pictures. Thanks for following us! It's been a wonderful year with our Lainey-Bug!

Wow, I'm really behind!

Since joining facebook, I've mostly posted Lainey updates and photos there. But I have a few friends (who will remain nameless) that have been bugging me about updating this blog also. So, I am going to try to add a few things here and there. Really, this blog is the best thing I have to keep track of Lainey's "firsts". So, perhaps I should stick with it! I don't have much time tonight, but here's a Lainey first for you.

Lainey got her first baby doll today. We had a $10 coupon for Kohl's, so we went there to see what we could get with it. After playing with all of the obnoxious electronic toys and listening to Elmo giggle, we found the babies. Lainey has loved the babies at the church nursery, but only has a cabbage patch kid at home. This baby was on sale for $9, so we got her for free! Lainey adores her already. She didn't put her down once we opened the package at home. She was rocking and kissing her all afternoon. She wanted to eat dinner with her, and she's sleeping with her now. It's very cute. She doesn't say the "B" letter sound in words yet, so she calls the baby Day-dee. Happy early Birthday Lainey!

Recapping the last month

It's been a while, huh? So sorry!! We have been so busy this last month with Spring Training and now we are out and about getting ready to travel for the baseball season. John left for San Antonio on Monday and boy do we miss him! We are calling each other on Skype everyday and it's very cute to see Lainey recognize her Daddy.

Some highlights of the last month...

March 12th was our first trip to the zoo. We had a nice time with Sasha and Kaylan. Kaylan is so cute. I think both girls enjoyed the goats in the petting zoo the most. Lainey didn't really pay attention to much other than the goats and the macaw parrots. They were brightly colored and easy to see in their habitat. Here's a picture of us in front of the bears. You can't see the bears, but they are back there somewhere. :)


March 26th: Lainey also attended her very first baseball game this month. We went to watch John pitch, but he ended up not playing in that game. We've since been to a couple of Daddy's games and Lainey can be quite talkative when Daddy is out there. We just hope she's not too much of a distraction for him!

Here she is watching the game and holding herself sitting up!

Here's Daddy and Lainey at her first Spring Training game.


March 31st: Lainey is five months old! It's gone by so quickly. This day was also particularly big in terms of baby milestones. It's the first day that Lainey rolled from her back to her tummy. She did it in her crib sometime in the night while swaddled in her Woombie, so that was a little scary. We quit the Woombie cold turkey that night. I was too nervous to have her rolling without having access to her hands to roll back. Lainey is now a rolling champion! Just the other night while we were on Skype with John, she was flip flopping back and forth. She wants to crawl so much. I don't think we'll be able to contain her soon. Also on March 31st, Lainey peed on the potty for the first time! Some of you may think I'm a little crazy, but I've been reading about what is called "Elimination Communication". It's basically a diaper-less way to help your child to toilet train. It's a form of potty training that is common in other parts of the world. I don't plan to do it full time and we are not going diaper-less, but every pee in the toilet is one less diaper to change! Since that first day, we have done pretty well. Up until we came to California, we were going on the potty 2-3 times a day. Not bad for such a little one!

Here she is from today. So proud that she just rolled over!

At some point in the last few weeks, Lainey began to say, "Mama". It started as baby babble... mamamamama. I don't know if she was referencing me specifically or milk because she only did it when she was hungry or tired and she pairs it with the sign for milk. However, I always respond to her when she says it and now I think she is really using it to get my attention. For example, during dinner tonight she said it and I looked at her. She just smiled at me and went back to playing with her toys. I took some video of her rolling tonight and will post it to facebook. She says "Mama" in the video. John will have to get it up on our website when I get to Texas in a few weeks.

I think that just about wraps up the last month or so. I will try to do better with updating the blog, but I can't promise anything until after we get settled at our new apartment in San Antonio. Lainey and I will be driving with my Mom and getting to Texas on the 22nd. It's going to be a long drive! Lainey and I are currently in California visiting all of the family before we head out on the road for a baseball summer. We are excited to be back in the game after such a long rehab for John. He feels pretty good and we are hopeful for a great season!

Thanks for reading and we'll see you soon! I will leave you with one more photo... Lainey in her springtime onesie outfit from Pawpaw John... making what I call her turtle face. :)

First swimming lesson, horses, a doctor's appt.

We had our first swimming lesson this week! It wasn't the most beautiful day we've had this spring, but the jacuzzi was warm so we went for it. Lainey got to wear her super cute bathing suit that Grandpop Tom and Uma Dawn picked out for her. We wanted to make sure we got her in that before she outgrew it! Lainey loved the water. She was fascinated with the bubbles and all her toys as they went swirling through the water. She even put her own face in to taste the bubbles. You can see her in her Daily Lainey video swimming with Mommy. I dunked her once after blowing in her face and she took it pretty well. She was startled at first, but recovered quickly. If there is one thing I can pass on to my kids, it is that I want them to be good swimmers. My Dad dunked me early and taught me to swim almost before I could walk.


We also introduced Lainey to horses this week. Our good friends, Will and Laurén live in a guesthouse on a boarding stable property. Laurén has a horse out there named Shiloh that she is using to give riding lessons. When Shiloh poked his head out of his stall, I let Lainey get a close up of him. She was entranced and smiling. Shiloh then sniffed her arm and she giggled. I think Mommy may have given Lainey the horsey bug. It's too bad Daddy says she can have what ever she wants, except a horse. Good thing Grandma Lisa still has one that we can go see and ride someday!

Lainey has also really taken an interest in Freddy. She watches him walk around the house and wants to pet him. She also thinks it's pretty funny when he barks. That's another of the recent video updates on her website.


We had our four month well baby visit on Monday and Lainey is doing pretty good. She is small for her age, in the 20th percentile for her weight. She is just under doubling her birth weight, which supposedly kids should do by four months old. She is 12 lbs. 14 oz. and 24.5 inches long. Her doctor isn't worried about her though because she has always been in the 20th percentile since birth and is doing all the things she should be doing. She is sleeping from about 10pm to 8am now. (Woo hoo!!) And nursing every 2-3 hours during the day. She is rolling from her tummy to back which Dr. Pham doesn't expect until six months. She has good head control and she is very strong. We got one more vaccine (DTaP) and she seems to be tolerating it well. She has a small, red lump at the injection site, but it doesn't seem to bother her. I think it has more to do with the nurse's injection technique than the vaccine itself. We will be getting a different nurse next time.

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo with a good friend of mine, Sasha and her little girl, Kaylan. I am very excited because I think Lainey is at an age now where she will probably respond a bit to the animals. It will be a short trip, staying about 3 hours or so, but should be fun! Expect a zoo update soon! With that, I leave you with last week's "Mr. Bear Picture".

Four months old!!

John has set me up on email reminders that I need to update the blog, so hopefully it'll work and I'll be putting up posts more often! :) Lainey is four months old now! She didn't have an official birthday because there isn't a 31st of February, so we are counting today! It's been an amazing four months so far. She is really doing great. Some major recent milestones include:

-Learned to sign "milk" while nursing! She did it the first time at 15 weeks, and then repeated it twice at 16 weeks and that's when I knew she was actually signing and not just playing with her hand. She won't be able to sign to ask for milk until she's older and develops object permanence (the knowledge that something exists even when you can't see it), but I am very excited at this first step into signing. I am practicing "all done" (sign for finished), "diaper," and "sleep." I expect her to really pick up the signs at about 6 months or so.

-Found her toes! She found her toes on a walk this week. I was lucky enough to have remembered to bring the camera on our walk and captured the moment. She thought they were pretty neat!

-We may have had our first tummy to back roll over today. It happened twice and I had to make her stop because John wasn't in the room. When he came back, she wouldn't do it again for him or the camera. But I am sure we will see that more often now!

-She is sleeping through the night! I put her to bed around 10:00 and she is sleeping until 6:30 or so. She will then sleep with me for the rest of the morning until I get up. Way to go Lainey! We love that she's as good a sleeper as her Mommy! :) The last three nights she has been putting herself to sleep in her crib. She falls asleep in my arms and wakes up on the transfer, but doesn't fuss about it. The first two nights this happened she chattered and played by herself until she fell asleep. Tonight she just looked at me and turned her head to the wall and closed her eyes again. I ordered a Woombie for her last night. It's a sleep cocoon that mimics swaddling without the heavy blankets and with less restriction for their arms. It's a good transition tool to quit the swaddle and it won't make her hot as summer is rapidly approaching.

I think that's it as far as milestones go. Quite a lot of progress in so short a time! She's an amazing kid though. Not that I'm biased or anything. :) The only hang up we are having is the continued spit up. It has decreased significantly thanks to a light massage-type technique my Mom's friend Jane (a physical therapist) taught me. She said that Lainey's small intestinal rhythm isn't in place yet and so milk is backing up in there because it isn't being pushed into the large intestine. Because it backs up, it back flows through the pyloric valve and comes up as spit up. It's also not spending enough time in the large intestine and thus we get many blow out diapers. Both have improved with the massage and I am on a strict diet. No dairy, tomatoes, citrus, caffeine, lots of sweets, peanuts, and go really light on wheat/gluten. I am almost gluten free right now. It's a hard diet to maintain, but it will be worth it and now I'm only 10 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight!

John and I are truly enjoying being parents. It's an awesome experience and really makes me grateful that God entrusted us with so precious a gift. Thanks for being a part of our lives, near and far. We love you all! And with that I will leave you with this picture of Lainey in her dedication dress. It's a dress that was sent to my Grandma from my Grandpa's Aunt in Switzerland. Almost every girl in our family has worn it at one time, including me and my Mom. It's a treasured heirloom that I will be sure to pass on.

Lainey was dedicated today!

February 15, 2009
Lainey was dedicated to the Lord today. Our whole family was there and it was wonderful! She is one loved little girl! For those who may not know, baby dedication is not like baptism. We do not believe that dedicating a baby will provide their salvation. Instead, it is a public commitment by the baby's parents and family to pray for the child and to teach them about the Lord. Today we committed to teaching Lainey about the salvation that Jesus Christ offers. We promise to help her find her spiritual gifts and help her develop and use them as God wills!

We were so blessed to have so much family in attendance. It is wonderful to know that everyone loves Lainey so much. We are attempting to upload the video of the dedication to the website, but the file is quite large. We hope to have it up soon. If you are interested in getting an email update about new "Daily Lainey" videos, you can go to her website and enter your email address on the Daily Lainey page. We will send you an email each time we add a new video. Also, don't forget that we are always adding new pictures to her website too!

www.laineyhudgins.com

Tongue

So, Lainey has been sticking out her tongue a lot. It's pretty funny. She looks pretty silly, but it makes us laugh. Also, Daddy taught her the "peek-a-boo" game tonight. She was giggling at him. It was cute. For the last two weeks or so, she has been spitting up more often, and Mommy is a little bit worried about it. She thinks that it may be due to a lot of dairy in her diet, and so she's decided to cut back on that (a really hard thing to do for her... all she eats is cereal and cheese). Daddy's pretty sure it's just a "spit-up phase," but Daddy never really worries about anything. That's mommy's job. :)

She's starting to laugh!

Lainey has started to laugh a little bit. She started just a few days ago. She is only giving us a little bit of a laugh at random times, but it's always when we are tickling her. We have tried to catch it on video, but it's been hard to catch. She seems to run out of giggles when the camera comes out. We will keep trying to catch her. It's so cute it just melts your heart!

We got Skype!

We just got Skype and it's so fun! Call us if you have it! Our ID is laineyhudgins.

Lainey's Check-Up

Lainey had her two month appointment on Thursday. She weighs 10 pounds 6 ounces and is 23 inches long. Dr. Pham said that she's on the thinner side of the spectrum, but still quite healthy and gaining weight appropriately. She's also on the longer side. I think being tall and thin isn't so bad! :) She had her first shot... diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis combo (DTaP). Usually the doctor recommends giving two month olds a lot of other shots, but John and I are not comfortable pumping little ones with so much medicine. We are spacing Lainey's vaccines out, and skipping some of the ones that are either low risk for her right now (Hep B) or not life threatening (Rotavirus). I do not think there is a correlation between autism and vaccines (with scientific studies to explain why), but I do think that too many vaccines can be dangerous (not so scientific... mostly an anecdotal and common sense conclusion). If anyone is curious about which vaccines we are giving when and why, feel free to email or call me. I would be happy to explain.

Lainey gets cuter everyday if that's possible. She is smiling all the time and just a joy to be around. John has one more trip to take back home. He's leading worship for his Dad's church on Sunday night. When he gets back, I think the Daily Lainey will be updated more regularly. We finally feel mostly rested and have the house put back in order. More updates soon. For now it's time to hit the sack because Lainey's been asleep for over an hour... so I should be too!

Vacation from our Holidays.

We are finally home after what seems like a long time away. It has been great to be with our families, and we would definitely do it again, but it's still a long time to be without any routine and without our normal lives. Lainey is a rock star. She hits the road like a champion. Hardly a peep from Surprise to Mission Viejo to Albuquerque to Mission Viejo to Dallas and back. We even did an 18 hour stretch from Dallas to Surprise. She's been so easy, and we are so blessed. It was great for her to get to see everyone - especially John's mom's family in Dallas. We hadn't been to Dallas to see them in a long time. Amanda finally met Joel - John's cousin - and his wife Fawn, which was nice since he was the last of John's family members that she hadn't met. Lainey was, of course, adored by all.

Lainey is growing up so fast. She is giving us smiles all the time and chattering away in her own language. She had a long conversation with Mema (John's grandma) in Dallas and it was very sweet to watch. We captured part of it on video and will hopefully get it up on the website soon. It was taken on Janiece's camera, so we'll have to get it from her first. Lainey has a doctor's appointment on the 8th and will get her first shots. We have decided to separate her shots out instead of giving them all at once. We feel like that is a lot of challenge to a baby's immune system all at once. It's a hard decision to make and one that's very controversial at the moment, but we feel most of the vaccines are beneficial. (We are skipping a couple of them.) We estimate she's about 10.5 pounds now, but we will see her official weight on the 8th.

Unfortunately, it seems Lainey has caught a mild cold or maybe has some irritation from the change in environments. She wakes up with a stuffy nose which is a scary thing for a person who only breathes through her nose. She is not a fan of having her nose suctioned either. But she's soon happy again once she settles down and seems to be able to breathe much better during the day.

Well, we are off to finish unpacking, go get some groceries, and then relax this afternoon. Maybe we'll get some laundry done too. Happy New Year everyone!