Happy Five Months!

Elaine is five months old today, and she celebrated with her first haircut. Yes, we gave her a haircut. While most of her newborn hair has fallen out and is slowly being replaced with blond strands, she did keep a fringe of the dark stuff at the base of her head. This has been driving Mark absolutely nuts, especially as it continued to grow at a much faster pace than the hair on the rest of her head and, if I'm honest, was starting to have the appearance of a baby mullet. I was afraid we would end up making it look even worse if we tried to cut it, but I have to say Mark did a great job and it really does look better. She still has the strip of dark hair, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out with the blond hair coming in, but at least for now it no longer reaches over her collar. No more Kentucky Waterfall for Lainey!

For all the pictures from Lainey's exciting fifth month of life, click here: Lainey's Fifth Month

Five months old and looking good!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Elaine celebrated her first Thanksgiving today! And you may be thinking, "what an interesting color Mark and Kylie chose for their new couch." It's actually a blanket to protect our current couch from Elaine's projectile vomit that she has been experiencing this week. Poor pumpkin is on her second round of antibiotics to try and clear up this ear infection and either the meds are getting to her digestive system or she got a stomach bug on top of the ear infection (and her cold and teething). Needless to say, she wasn't feeling very festive today. But, she seemed to perk up after an early evening nap, so I'm crossing my figures for a puke-free night.

I was in charge of cooking the big meal today. My dad and Mark's parents kindly entertained little Lainey (we really had to twist their arms), while I worked in the kitchen. We almost had a mishap with the turkey due to a broken meat thermometer that never registered past 140-degrees. Luckily I had a spare instant-read thermometer and was able to pulled the bird out before it was dried to jerky. In the end, I'm happy to say all was successful and the entire family is stuffed to the gills!

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday!

Peek-a-Boo!

Lowlight of the weekend: Elaine has ANOTHER ear infection. And it's in both ears this time.

Highlight of the weekend: She's started giggling. And nothing makes her laugh harder than a little game of peek-a-boo with her mom.

Feed Me!!!

Lainey definitely knows what her bottle is and what it does. If I'm holding her on my hip while mixing her bottle, she'll grab for it and try to start sucking from an upright position. And god forbid I take it away for 5 seconds while I get settled into a comfy position on the couch. (At least I know her lungs are healthy.) She's also started holding her own bottle, although it's a hit and miss skill. Last night, however, she was holding on to the bottle so tight that I had to put some extra muscle into prying it from her mouth when it was empty.

Give me my food!

What's New with Elaine?

Well, it's been a tough couple of weeks, so I haven't really been in the blogging frame of mind. But, Mom would be super angry if I kept Lainey's faithful followers in the dark on her new happenings. There was nothing she loved more than bragging about her kids and her little granddaughter. So, here's what's new with our little (although rapidly growing) peanut!





1. She's FOUR months old now!!! And still in the 95% for height and head size and 50% for weight. Although, she's starting to get chubby--I feel like I'm finding a new skin fold everyday! Too bad it's getting colder and I have to keep all those wonderful folds covered up most of the time! All the pictures from her fourth month are here: Month Four
2. She's a tough girl. When we got her vaccinations, she didn't cry at all after the first shot, and while she really wailed after the second, she stopped as soon as I picked her up.
3. She's super curious and wants to touch and grab everything--and then put it in her mouth.
4. Sofie Giraffe is her new best friend.
5. Mom had been trying to convince me since Elaine was about two months that she was teething, but it may finally be true. She's really started gnawing on things and the drool is neverending.
6. She's big enough for her jumperoo and LOVES it! Yay! I finally can have some hands-free time around the condo!
7. She's sleeping very well at night and generally makes it to at least 4:00am, if not the whole night, without waking. I was nervous, because during our travel she wouldn't sleep more than two hours. I thought we were in for a big "cry-it-out" battle. But, once she was back home and in her crib, she's been great!

Jumperoo time! (Note the droplet of drool about to fall from her chin.)

So, there are the highlights, and I hope to be back in the swing of updating this thing! Thanks to everyone for the love and support!



Kisses from Grandma