Stranger Danger

Since our last posting, we have found out that Lainey is going through a stranger anxiety phase. This happened one day when Aunt Jenni was over and proceeded to hold her as usual. Bad idea! Basically, Lainey cannot be left alone in a room with a "stranger" without Jason or me. She only recently let Jenni hold her, but only if I stay super close and only for 5 minutes or less. She will sit by Jenni and touch her, but only if she's sitting on my lap. This fear of strangers has extended into other realms of our very small world; ladies coming up to Lainey while she's in the cart at the store (and not being held) creates some panic and a quick cry. Those poor ladies. Luckily, she is not showing signs of separation anxiety when I leave a room and leave her by herself.

Food and walking are big priorities right now. We went out to eat for the first time since the food obsession came along. Nothing, not Cheerios, nor Kix, nor toys, nor mashed potatoes or french fries could keep her satisfied. She wanted to eat like an adult, and that means everything on the plate until it's clean with her own hands. Needless to say, it was a short outing with lots of baby handling over the table. We'll stay home and eat after she's in bed.

Walking (with our help) is now preferred over crawling. She knows her army crawl is wrong and how to crawl the right way, she just doesn't feel like it; too much work.

Here's a picture of her with her sippy cup that she can drink out of if we help her; we're still working on her doing it herself, though. No hurry, as long as she's off the bottle by a year. She's also sitting next to a new toy she can stand at. But like most kids, she'd rather play with anything but her toys.

And here she is hanging out in her cage pack 'n play. We are getting used to it by using it for a couple of naps a day - so far she is doing good at going down wide awake like she does in her crib, especially now that we put her comforter (which looks just like her crib sheet and bumper) in there. Hopefully we can all get some sleep and enjoy ourselves while back home.