Branstad Family: Transition to Toddlerhood

Has it really been almost 5 months since I last posted about Lainey? It's amazing how much can change in 5 months. When I last updated, Lainey was still quite a baby. Now, there's not much of that baby left other than her pudgy legs, arms, and cheeks. She's almost a toddler (sensing a little denial on my part?). We've had such a busy and fun summer and early fall with her that I'm not quite sure when she grew up! She's been growing, changing, and learning so much that I feel I can't keep up with all the new things she does. I just try to take in as much of her as I can. Since I still haven't filled out one single page in Lainey's baby book, I'm glad I at least have sort of been tracking some milestones on the blog. Hence, this blog post is going to read more like a list and is probably for my benefit rather than anyone else's. But if you're interested, here's what Lainey was up to this summer/early fall:

WALKING - Lainey started taking steps at around 10.5 months and was full on walking by 11.5 months. Now she's so confident in her walking she's trying to RUN, which usually ends with her tripping over her own feet and bonking her head on the shelves, chairs, walls, or whatever toy happens to be in her way. She hasn't been without a bruise on her forehead for a few weeks now. She's really loving her new independence and we are too, although there is definitely not as much down time anymore. And now there are new adventures like stairs to climb, chairs to sit on, beds to bounce on, slides to slide down, and play structures to explore. Man, she's fun! Her newest trick has been bending over and putting her head on the ground in a somersault position. Naturally, we can't resist flipping her over and she loves it and comes back for more. She even tried it in the bathtub the other night without warning and I stopped her just as she dipped the top of her curly locks in the water. Stinker.

TALKING/COMPREHENDING - I can't believe how much she's picked up in the last five months. I swear everyday she can do something new. Lainey's got a little vocabulary now: mama, dada, hi, ball, up, oh wow, and Ah-boo (peek-a-boo). She'll repeat some things you say to her like hot and ucky. She does a lot of jibber-jabber that means something - we just don't know what. She's also good with actions and sounds. She waves bye-bye and moves her hands like a fishy when she wants a goldfish cracker. When you start singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" she starts doing the spider movement. She also throws her hands up in the air when you ask her "How big is Lainey? So big!" She can find her nose, ears, eyes, hair, toes, teeth, belly, and diaper. She can tell you what the cow, doggie, kitty, and snake say. When you tell her no, she shakes her head at you but continues to do whatever she was doing anyway. At bedtime, when I say "Let's say your prayers" she puts her hands together. We can ask her to go find things like her ball, her Violet puppy, telephone, horsey, Blankie, cow, and shoes. She loves giving kisses (well, licks I guess) and hugs. And can blow you a kiss and giggles when you give her an Eskimo kiss. When we say it's bath time, she walks into the bathroom and starts throwing her tub toys in. We can't say bottle without making sure we're going to give her one in less than 5 seconds or we're risking a small fit. And if you say, "Should we do somersaults?", she assumes the position.

EATING - She's now on all table food and whole milk. Yay! I do not miss nursing, formula, or baby food in the least. So glad all those days are over. Lainey is a pretty good eater and has mastered the sippy cup. Next is utensils; not so much mastery in that category yet. Some of her favorite foods lately are mac and cheese (duh), spaghetti, lasagna, peas, green beans, peaches, and shredded or string cheese. She also goes bananas for yep, bananas. She can eat a whole banana like nobody's business, whether cut up or biting it off while you hold it. Just watch out for the epic diapers afterward. Yay fiber! That was something we learned the hard way on our flight home from Montana this summer. But that's a story for another day. And let's not forget about her ~~love~~ obsession with Goldfish. We buy them in the giant milk-style carton now and store it in the pantry closet. She is aware of this and goes into the closet, pulls the carton out (which is almost as big as she is), carries it over to us and starts panting and whimpering in excitement. There's a chair in front of the pantry closet now to ward off invaders.

PLAYING - Her favorite toys include her pal Violet, her little kitchen, stuffed kitty, dolly and cradle, Little People house, and Little People mini-van. She likes to press the paws on Violet or the buttons on her kitchen and dance around to the music. She'll sit and play with the little people and her house and van for a good 15 minutes by herself sometimes. And let's not forget the DVD's on the shelf, the CD's in the entertainment center (seriously, who displays CD's anymore...we're so old), and the 'Tupperware' in the kitchen drawer.

ADVENTURES - John and I were happy to learn that Lainey enjoys a lot of the same recreational activities we do. Boating, hiking, and staying up "late" "partying". We were able to get out on the boat with Lainey 3 times this summer and she seemed to really enjoy it. We took her out to "the island" and let her get in the water and she couldn't get enough. She loved walking through the water while John held her hands and was not afraid at all. She even enjoyed her favorite beverage of choice while lounging on the boat (under an umbrella of course).
Lainey's first big trip was to Whitefish, Montana for a family vacation to Glacier National Park. It went really well. Lainey did AWESOME on the flight out to Whitefish. It went so incredibly well that I was convinced we'd pay for it on the way home. And we did, but it was pretty manageable and she still ended up sleeping for most of it. The trip itself was great - I hope to post about it some day. We barely scratched the surface of Glacier National Park and we're already planning our trip back. Lainey generally liked the backpack carrier and was a pro in it by the last day. We also reserved one day out there that we made a "Lainey day." We stayed in Whitefish and went to a toy store, got ice cream, went swimming and took things slow. While traveling with a 1-year old certainly has a unique set of challenges, it was such a valuable learning experience for us. It taught us that with a little extra planning, traveling with kids is totally do-able and fun (for everyone, most of the the time.) Of course, there were little meltdowns (both Lainey and Mom and Dad) along the way and things that we could have done differently. But overall, great trip and I'm so glad we brought Lainey with. I figure if we keep doing it, it can only get easier, so where to next, Lainey?
We have also learned our little Lainey is a party animal. At the end of September, Lainey was a flower girl in her Auntie Anne and Uncle Erik's wedding. It was a very long day for her but she was such a champ and had a blast! She was pulled down the aisle in a wagon by Erik's nieces and I think wished the ride would've been longer. The dance was to start at about her bedtime so John brought her to a quiet place on the outside of the barn, gave her the sippy of milk, and tried to get her to go down. She was almost asleep (this was already on her 3rd wind of the night by the way) when she heard the polka music start and bolted awake. No one was going to put this baby in the corner! So out we went with her to the dance floor and she was in heaven! She shook her tail feather for 3-4 songs before she urped on her blankie. We decided that was enough for the night and I took her to the back of the barn to get her to settle down. She really fought it for another 30-40 minutes until she realized the other two older flower girls were down for the count. That's what we think anyway; she's clearly inherited our last man standing approach to social gatherings and should fit in well at college someday. All in all it was a great weekend and we were so happy to have Lainey be a part of Anne and Erik's special day!

Well, that's it for now. I hope to post on a more frequent basis going forward. We'll see. Life is moving fast but we're having so much fun now. And now, for some photos of Lainey's shenanigans the last 5 months. There's kind of a lot (we're making up for quite a chunk of time here):