Turtle

I've probably been called many things in my day but Speedy has never been one of them. At least, not without a hearty dose of sarcasm. It seems that Lainey has picked up this trait as well. She is just kind of poky! :) Lately she has been taking about 45 minutes to eat dinner and she waited until just shy of turning 11 months to start crawling. Yup, that's right folks...we've got a mobile munchkin!

Troy was gone for 2 weeks for his Annual Army Training. Being a pseudo single parent for that time was tough, but that is another post. But before he left, Lainey was getting so close. She was finally figuring out how to get up in the crawling position (if she could just get that pesky leg to cooperate...) and I was just hoping she would hold off. I assured Troy, "Hey, she's waited this long. Surely she can wait two measly weeks!" Yeah...not so much. She put it all together and starting crawling the Wednesday before the weekend that he came home. I hadn't told him (or anyone) because he'd said he didn't want to know. So Friday evening he comes home. And he's unpacking and he shows me the medal that he was awarded for his general awesomeness and Lainey seemed interested in it. He placed it a little away from her to "encourage" her along and of course she crawled over to it. He looks up at me and I'm all, "Ohh...wow. Did you see that? That is something...she just crawled." And he was all, "Uh-huh. Somehow I get the feeling that's not the first time she's done that." I like to think it's a good thing that I'm such a bad liar.

So anyways...my poky little nugget. She's moving! But she moves at turtle speed. And just as I suspected, she is not all over the place. She simply crawls to get to something and then she happily sits up and plays with whatever it was she went to get.

In other Lainey news, she is also (finally) getting her second tooth (two months after the appearance of her first tooth at 9 months). She eats like a champ and is still our little chatterbox. She says, "uh-oh" in the appropriate context, points at our cats and says "Ow" (that's her meow) and goes "woo woo" whenever she hears a dog bark. She loves loves loves the kiddie pool my parents bought for her and is a generally happy and sweet girl! :)

Updates & stuff

Things have been busy busy at the Benton household. Lainey is growing and seems like she learns a new "trick" every day. Yesterday, she whistled. Swear! She did it three times. Thankfully Troy was there to hear it too because at first I wasn't sure that's what I really heard. Too funny. We have also been making lazy attempts at teaching her some basic signs. So far she has yet to sign anything back to us. Instead, she's gone straight to answering us. When I do the sign for "more" when feeding her, she has taken to nodding or shaking her head in reply. Where does she pick these things up??

Yesterday she and I met my Mom in Burlington to do a little shopping. I was actually able to find some things which was a nice change. And the only things purchased for Lainey were a cute little food tray (can't wait for her to hurl that at my face) and a hat because my Mom decided I need to have one to keep in the car at all times. :) I also decided that I should buy a new bathing suit top. I just don't feel comfortable wearing my old bikinis with my post-breastfeeding boobies and post-C section belly. Also, you apparently can't lose those last 10 pounds of baby weight by not exercising and eating lots of junk. Go figure. So...I was on the quest for a tankini. Now, am I mistaken or did they not used to have cute ones? It seems that only octogenarians wear these nowadays as those were the only types that I found. It's like Tommy Bahama's grandmother out there, y'all. I finally found a decent top that I will pair with some plain black bottoms I already own. It will go lovely with my lily white legs!!

In other news...there's not much other news. Troy's business is doing really well. In fact, he's considering hiring someone later this summer (so if you know anyone with an interest in IT, let me know). I'm in a little bit of denial that my baby will be a year old soon. But I better get on the ball if I plan on actually doing anything for that milestone!

More pics to come soon. :)