9 months...

Yesterday Laela turned 9 months old. I just wanted to put on a few pics and then I will write more after her 9 month check-up on Friday.She loves trying to figure out how things work!

Laela has perfected the art of finding her paci and putting it in her mouth. We don't go too many places without 2 or 3 paci's. :)

Laela does a FANTASTIC job using her pincher fingers to grab food.

Please excuse the drool, but I think we are working on our 3rd tooth!

Everyday this sweet girl amazes us and we are thankful she is a part of our lives!

ATTACK!

By the way...Ro and Allie Mae got attacked by a pit bull while out for a run on Monday evening. Not a big deal, but Ro was kicking at the dog and it was biting at Allie. Our tough dog did great! She fought back and only came out with a little cut on her eye.

For those of you that don't know, Allie is part pit bull. It is weird how dogs with the same breed can act so differently. That dog was just CRAZY! Also, for future reference...we now know that you should call to report the attack. If it is during business hours, call animal control. If it is not, call 9-1-1. This way you have reported the animal and they can keep track of that dog's attacks. Maybe Ro will start taking pepper spray or a sledge hammer on his next run!

Green thumb or Brown thumb?

We are going to try again this spring. Today while Ro was golfing and baby was napping, I was able to plant a few flowers in our tree rings.

The yard is still a major work in progress. As we were busy having a baby last summer, we did not do ANYTHING with the yard. Now it shows. :( Over the last month Ro has been putting all kinds of fertilizer, weed killer, etc. Well, he may have done a little too much and killed the grass too. Hmmm...we will see!

Playing with my Gramps!

Laela loves any kind of flying, moving, bouncing, jumping craziness. Here's her and Gramps rocking in the recliner!

Did you notice my beautiful thighs?

Laela's first airplane ride...

My spring break started this week, so what better than going to visit some good friends in Nebraska. Our first thought was...how will Laela be on the airplane? We knew we wanted her to start experiencing different things and this is one of them.

The airport was great! If you know us well, then you know that we cruise into the airport about 30 minutes before the flight leaves. Then we get through security and RUN to the terminal. With Laela we knew we could not do that, so we were up at 5:00 and out of the house at 6:20. Laela was able to get a little sleep on the way and then we were off for our adventure! She did really well with the security and check-in. Funny thing was...we took off our shoes because we know the routine, but we didn't even think about Laela's shoes and her paci. The security guy said..."don't forget her shoes and paci!" Of course people are waiting on us in the line so I pop her paci right out of her mouth, grab her shoe off of one foot, spin around so Ro can grab her other shoe and we are off through the check point. Thankfully we all made it through. :) We even had one hour to wait before boarding! GO US!

We got on the plane and the first thing Laela did was look out the window. She thought it was so cool!

Laela played and played on the airplane. THEN she started to get tired. This is what I feared because the flight took off at 8:45 and her typical nap time is 9:00. Well...she made it to 9:45 and started screaming. Oh man...our worst fear! I felt like everyone was staring. We tried everything except hang her from the over-head compartment. Then Ro got her into just the right spot and she was OUT! (Really the crying lasted about 3 minutes but it seemed like 30.)

We made it into Omaha and got our bags and rental car. Oh man. Another crazy mess. The rental car smelled like smoke and the carseat would not hold in snug. We didn't really notice this stuff until we had already driven away. Ro took a turn and luckily I was sitting in the back, because the carseat practically turned over. AH! We went to our friends house for lunch and then went to check into the hotel. Also, one of our friends has a baby, so we were able to borrow their old seat. MUCH SAFER! We checked in at the hotel and had a few issues there. I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that I was about ready to rip off a lady's face. :) Here's Laela when we did finally get into the room.

For the evening, we planned to go to dinner with our friends. We left Laela to sleep at the friends house while one of their parents listened for her. The plan did not go exactly as expected. We told them our typical routine of eat about 5:30, drink bottle, and sleep at 6:00. Well, we tried but she knew that it was not her bed and she cried and cried and cried. We believe (to an extent) for her to soothe herself and cry it out. I felt horrible, but she was safe and fed, so she was just exhausted! We ended up leaving and going to eat with her still crying. I know that sounds horrible, but she did finally fall asleep. When we got back she was sound asleep. We decided to head back to the hotel about 10:00 so I went in to get her and when I picked her up she gave me the biggest smile. She would not stop smiling and giggling. When we go to the hotel she was still smiling. We put her down, she rolled over and she was OUT! She woke up at 9:30 the next morning! YIKES...and so much for our schedule, but she was soooo happy!Off for a fun day with friends! We stayed out most of the day so we had Laela all packed up with a stash of food and goodies. I got my hair cut, Ro went to the movies, girlfriends went shopping, etc. What a great, relaxing day with friends!

Monday rolls around and all three of us slept in until 8:30. YIPPEEE for sleep on spring break! We got up packed everything, got ready and headed out. We had most of the day to spend with our friends and then we were off for a 6:00 flight. Again, another wonderful flight time! Turns out that it was not bad since her sleep routine was a little off. The airplane was almost empty, so we took the side with 3 seats and let Laela play in the middle seat. She thought that was wonderful! I saved her dinner bottle to give to her when the plane was taking off (to help with her ears). Well...I gave it to her right when we started heading to the runway. Laela must have been hungry because she was done before we made it to take-off!

By the way...some of Laela's favorite things to play with on the plane were the AA napkins and the snack packs!

Overall, we had a wonderful trip! Yes we are glad to be back home and get back onto a schedule, but we loved spending time with our Nebraskan friends!

Lickin' Lips Good...

Laela just started this yesterday and I thought it was so funny! Just watch her tongue...

When Daddy's away, the girls are....shopping!

I decided to go golfing with my dad this afternoon since it was so nice out.. (Ok Ok, it was 50, cold, windy, etc). But as long as it wasn't a lightning storm, we were going! Well, Kelli and Laela decided to roam the mall " browsing" for new clothes and baby stuff. Kelli and I knew that Laela's current hat was getting slightly tight on her head (Thus, the reason her head size is like in the 94th percentile), and since the weather here is so crazy, she really needed one that fit for days like today. Well, Kelli found two: 1 normal, and 1 that looks like an "Ushanka" (It mean's ear-flap hats in Russian). Take a look.

Spiky Smile...

Laela got a little off on her feedings today, so she just woke up to drink her last bottle. Here she is...

Up-do's and finger foods!

Today Laela had her first "up-do"! YEA for long hairs!

Also, today Laela tried her first finger foods. She is so CRAZY! Lately, Laela will put anything in her mouth. This evening I gave her some little fruit, wheat puffs and she did great using her little pinchers to pick them up. Funny part....she did not put them in her mouth. What a nut!!!

Please excuse her "end of the day hair-do." :)

8 months

We made it to 8 months. YEA! This is not as hard as I thought it would be and I have to say...I love the whole "mommy thing." Laela truly makes my day, every day! She is so funny! Laela grabs things in both hands, bangs them together and laughs. She will put absolutely everything in her mouth, make motor-boat noises, and loves to converse with herself. Sometimes it can even get a little intense. Cracks me up! Also, Laela is working on waving bye-bye...she does it with us about half the time.

Laela is doing very well sitting up. When she is laying on her belly,she has learned to swivel around to get what she wants. Maybe she will be crawling some day soon. HA! That is going to be another adventure. She may need to lose a little bit of belly before that happens. If she continues to eat the way she does, we will have a 24 month crawler. AH!

Here is Laela with her dinner tonight! Macaroni and cheese, peas, apple-blueberry and the bottle. We hope to soon start some small "people" bites. Oh man...she may eat everything we own!

By the way...Allie is still hanging around. She always wants to know what Laela is doing (even though she is not supposed to be in her room). Tonight, Allie snuck around the corner and went in for the kiss! YIKES! Allie Mae is definitely a fan of Laela!