It’s amazing to me how many new things Laney accomplishes every day.  We have our times of frustrations and our struggles as we try to learn something new but day after day it’s one new thing, then two new things and sometimes it feels like there are 10 new things in just one day.

This morning I had to turn her mattress to the Toddler side, her sweet little (large) head was making a dent in the baby side of the mattress so I figured it might be time for the Toddler side.

She is using a lot of baby sign language (it is AMAZING and I recommend it to all parents) she can sign more, eat, car, bubbles, book, ball, swing and hat.

She LOVES animal noises and can make the sounds for a lion, tiger, kitty cat, doggie, duck, sheep, monkey and piggy.  She has also recently started to point to them in books.  She really likes books, she won’t sit through a whole story yet but loves to flip through the books and point to things.  We can sit on the floor and look at books for at least an hour.

She gives all of her stuffed animals hugs and kisses and has recently started hugging and kissing – animals in books, puzzle pieces, her toy phone that she plays with as well as any other toy that she likes a lot.

She has started talking too, a lot is just babbling or yelling – in all sorts of tones while making all sorts of faces.  But she has settled on a few words that she can say.  Some she says more than others: mama, daddy, bath, doggie, Laney, Ashley (she sees her picture on the fridge a lot), night-night.  Right now, she will repeat a lot of things after you, so if you say, “can you say more?”   She will make a noise afterward that sounds like the inflections that you just put on that word.

She loves to be chased.  As soon as you say, “I’m going to get you.”  She squeals and has a big grin on her face – usually she just stands there and waits for you to come and get her.  Sometimes if Daddy is near when I do it, she will curl into him and kick her legs for him to pick her up.

She is not mobile on her own yet but while she is seated on the ground playing she will scoot around in a circle to go and get things.  When we are walking, she now walks with one hand – but still likes to hold two hands because she can go faster.  She will be walking soon – she will now go from item to item on her own.

It’s funny that she has never rolled around or crawled – she will now roll all over when you put her on our bed, she can also go from a laying down to a sitting position, but she will only do it when she’s on our bed.

She loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Mandy – she also really likes Dora and Diego, these quick 20 minutes shows provide us with a nice break!  ::sigh::  I like Dora and Diego because they are a lot more educational then the other ones.

We realized the other day that we really need to start getting her around more kids more often.  We think it would be good for her now to be around lots of other kids her age.  It’s hard to do this with our crazy schedules but we need to start making an effort to do this more often.  She is still napping twice a day which makes it hard to take her to the library for baby story time or something like that because everything seems to interrupt her nap times.

All in all, she is progressing wonderfully and she did great at her one year appointment.  She is almost 23 lbs, is 32 inches long and her head circumference is about 20 inches – yep, you read that right her head circumference is 2/3 the size of her body…haha : 0 )  What can we say?  She’s got a big brain!

Parenthood is hard work and can definitely be challenging but the rewards are great!  There is nothing better than when she turns around puts her arms up and says mama or when she leans in, puts her head on my shoulder and squeezes me and pats my back.  Or when you ask her for a kiss and she makes big kissy lips and leans right for me.  I LOVE being a mom and am so glad we decided to start a family when we did!

We received the results from Laney’s cat scan.  She did really well at the cat scan, we didn’t have to sedate her but they had to put her head in this thing and wrap her all up tight so she wouldn’t wiggle.  She wouldn’t fall asleep there, which is what I was hoping for so she was overly tired and didn’t like the procedure but since it only took like two minutes it wasn’t so bad.

The results came in and what we were looking for (fluid pockets or some other crazy big words I can’t remember) was not there, which is great!  So, her head just continues to grow because she is cursed with her parents genes.  She is doomed to have a large cranium, haha…she’s just going to be really smart like her parents : 0 )

Sadly, there was an incidental finding.  The radiologist found a small cyst inside her brain, it is very small, pea size, only about 1/8” in diameter.  They described it as a calcified cyst, supposedly they run into them every once and awhile.  You would never know if you have one or not unless you had a cat scan done.  So, they could be extremely more common than what doctors even know.

They are not worried about it and assured us that since it is not blood related it is nothing similar to what I have.  Which was GREAT news!  The next steps is to have her take another cat scan in a year just to check if it has grown any or not.  If it hasn’t grown then we have nothing to worry about.  That is what we are hoping for.  As of right now there is no need to worry about anything, we will continue, life as usual : 0 )

This morning I was listening to music and the old hymn, I Have Decided to Follow Jesus came on, the version by Phil Wickham – which I love!  Just a little guitar and voices, plain and simple.  As I was sitting there singing along, while I was feeding Laney her breakfast.  The words to this song hit me like a ton of bricks.  When we say “yes” to Jesus, we really have no idea what we are in for.  The life of a christian is full of ups and downs and in Sean and my marriage usually when we have a down, there are lots of downs that all come at once.  The phrase “when it rains, it pours” is a good phrase that can sum up some big decision making times in our lives.  The good news is that God has proven to us that when He brings on the rain, He POURS out His blessings in the end.

The waiting and trusting is the hardest part through these times.  We have been in one of these times since December and it has been a challenging one.  Every couple of weeks another challenge has added to the previous one, making the previous challenge only that much more complicated.  As He continues to pile on the challenges, eventually the bottom drops out and then we are forced to sit in His arms and make a decision.

The good news is that, “We have decided to follow Jesus!”  We know that no matter how bad it gets, no matter whatever life dishes out to us, we have the calm, confidence and security knowing that God is in control.  So, as we decipher where our next step will be, we put the world behind us and affix our eyes to the cross that goes before us.  The cross that reminds us why we have decided to follow Jesus.

So, there’s no turning back.  We continue to wait on Him and know that He will show us the way we need to go and help us weigh through all the hard decisions.

Thank you Lord for the reminder this morning that I have decided to follow you and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.  Keep reminding me of that Lord!

I have decided to follow Jesus

I have decided to follow Jesus

I have decided to follow Jesus – no turning back, no turning back

The cross before me, the world behind me

The cross before me, the world behind me

The cross before me, the world behind me – no turning back, no turning back

Laney is now 9 months old and is growing like a weed!  She is still pretty stationary but is getting more aggravated when she can’t move to where she wants to be.  She still loves to stand and her exersaucer is probably her favorite place to be.  She is much more animated and has developed an attitude and language all her own!  She is DEFINITELY a girl!  My favorite thing right now is just to watch her play and to hear her talk.  Her smile is the best!  She is saying “hi” now in her own way and version of course.  She also just started doing “so big” yesterday, seeing her little chubby arms lift above her head is absolutely adorable!

We had her 9 month well visit yesterday and she is developing right along.  She is 30 inches long which places her in the 97% for height.  She is 20 1/2 lbs which is the 75% for weight.  And her head continues to grow, she is now in the 99% for her head circumference.

Because her head continues to grow and is not really leveling out our doctor is kind of concerned by this and we have scheduled a cat scan for Laney on May 7th.  This is just a precautionary measure, sometimes babies can have a build up of fluid or sometimes the bones don’t mesh together right which causes the head to grow larger than it should.  He felt every little inch of Laney’s head and pressed around and didn’t find anything abnormal but still believes we should proceed with the cat scan as a precautionary measure, just in case there may be something in there that is causing her head to keep growing.

Sean and I have decided we will go through with the cat scan and view it as purely a precautionary measure.  We both have larger size heads and have always had trouble finding hats that fit, etc.  So, we really just think her head size is a hereditary thing that she is stuck with, haha, sorry Laney!

The worst part about the can scan is that Laney has to be really still so they will sedate her : 0 ( with an IV of some sort, I’m going to call Akron Children’s tomorrow to get more information so I can be sure what they are injecting into my daughter, ugh!  They stated that it will only be a 5-10 minute procedure so fortunately it will not be long and we can go into the room with her so she won’t have to be by herself.  So, overall, that’s a good thing.

I’ve taken some great 9 month photos of her, will post them soon!

For those of you who can’t figure out what bf stands for, it’s NOT best friend.  This entry is going to be a tribute to my adventure of breastfeeding.  So, if you are not interested in this topic, this blog entry may not be for you.

It’s hard to believe that Laney is nine months old and just nine months ago, I wasn’t sure I wanted anything to do with bf.  I still remember having this very hard discussion with Sean and him kindly listening to my pregnancy and new mommy emotions and responding, “well, I suppose you don’t know until you give it a try.”  My hero!  There was so much wisdom in that phrase, why didn’t I think of that?  So, that was it, I was going to give it a try.

Now, as this chapter of my life comes to a close, I’m SO glad I gave it a try.  It worked out wonderfully for Laney and I.  It was tough and took a lot of dedication and as Sean will tell you, we definitely had our ups and downs.  One minute it was wonderful the next minute it was the most horrible thing I ever decided to do.

For all those women out there, who were like me while pregnant and are just not sure whether bf is for them.  Give it a try, one solid week and then make your decision.  Warming: it’s like a part time job but the rewards for you and the baby are great!  The bonding, I can not even begin to explain.  The healthy, happy baby without the disgusting smell of formula is an EXTREME bonus and did I mention the weight loss plan is INCREDIBLE!  I have eaten like a cow and am 14 lbs under my starting pregnancy weight.  It is extremely important to have the support of your spouse.  Even though it’s your body, he is making sacrifices too and will need to do more things to help out since bf takes a lot of your time and energy.  A couple of good girl friends who have been there, done that, are also helpful in this journey.

I’m writing all of this to try to process the fact that my body, for the last 18 months, has been Laney’s protection and nutrition plan and to think that in another couple of days she won’t need me like that anymore is hard to comprehend.  As I look into her radiant, little eyes and look back on pictures of her from her birth I know that the sacrifices I made were TOTALLY worth it.  She is growing up to be a beautiful, vivacious, little girl!  And this is just one step (with MANY more to come) along the road of her growing up.

She will always be my little girl but now it’s off to another stage of her development, rejoice in the tiny baby stage being over and embrace the excitement and fun that is to come!