Our Mini Winnie: 13 Months Old // 0-2 Weeks Old

One night, I noticed that as I was rocking Delaney to sleep, she grabbed a burp cloth that was hanging over the side of the rocking chair, tucked it under her arm, and nuzzled it to her chin. She was snuggling with it, and it was so darling the way she seemed to be comforted by it. So at 13 months old, Laney has started napping with what we're referring to as her snuggle bunny - a small pink blanket with a bunny head on one corner. Now that she has passed the 1-year mark, we feel comfortable with her sleeping with a soft toy in her crib. I figured that as she gets older, it might help comfort her as she falls asleep and if she wakes up in the middle of the night. So far, she's loving it! Every night when we hand it to her, she smiles and lets out a little giggle. If we forget to hand it to her, she looks over at it and reaches for it. She's only allowed to have it when she's in her crib, so it has become a special part of her nap time and bedtime routine. Sometimes as she's winding down in her crib, she'll stand up, hold the snuggle bunny over the side of her crib, and let go. She looks down at it lying on the floor and starts to whine when she realizes she can't pick it back up. We decided not to go into the room to give it back to her because we're hoping to avoid the game of "drop the bunny on the floor so mama and papa will come in and give it back to me." She's been dropping it out of the crib less and less. She's a quick learner.

Laney's love affair with the country singer Luke Bryan began when she was just a few weeks old. If we were driving somewhere, she could be crying in her carseat and would immediately become silent if the song "Crash My Party" came on the radio. At first, I think we thought it was a fluke. But then as she was having another crying fit, Brad would play the song on his phone and she'd stop crying again. She would stare at Brad and excitedly kick her little feet into the air. To this day, she still loves all Luke Bryan songs. We use it to our advantage and play his songs in the car if she's having a meltdown during a long road trip. It works every time! Recently, there was a music awards show on TV and Luke Bryan was performing. Laney dropped everything she was doing, crawled over toward the TV, pulled herself up on the ottoman (it was in front of the TV to block her from playing with the cable box and cords), and stared at him. She was completely mesmerized! As soon as his performance was over, she got down on the floor and crawled back over to her toys. It was hysterical.

Laney's first molar just came in! Her gums were swollen for a long time as it pushed its way to the surface. Then one day she was playing tag with Brad, crawling around the ottoman in the living room and chasing him. She reached to pull herself up on the ottoman, slipped, and hit her mouth on the edge of it. At that moment, her molar finally broke through and her mouth filled with blood. I completely freaked out until I realized it was from her new tooth. She cried for about one minute and then forgot all about it. I'm still recovering…

Our little explorer finally stopped picking everything up off the floor and putting it into her mouth. Her Grandpa Gary taught her to hand over whatever she finds. Now she'll pick up crumbs/dog hair/etc, hold it in the air, wait for me to come over to her, and she'll gently place it in my hand. This is probably the best lesson she has learned thus far! It's so nice that I don't have to worry about her stuffing things in her mouth, AND she's helping me keep the floors really clean! (ha)

Owen has been an exceptional newborn. I've been spending the majority of the day and night in his room with him, feeding him and rocking him back to sleep. He's a very good eater and consistently eats every 2.5 - 3 hours. At this point, it's pretty easy to rock him back to sleep, with the small exception of a few nights that he wanted to stay awake around 2:00am. But aside from that, he'll sleep through all noise and doesn't wake up to bright light. Although it can be exhausting to function on such little sleep, I forgot how simple it is to take care of a newborn.

At Owen's checkup with Dr Moriarty the day after we got home from the hospital (4 days after he was born), he was 7 lbs 6 oz and 20.5" long. It can take up to 2 weeks for a newborn to return to their birth weight, but he was already 2 oz heavier than his birth weight! He was also 1 inch longer than his birth length! The nurse said it could be because he wouldn't stretch his legs out all the way when he was born, but it could be because he grew?

He must've been a thumb sucker in my tummy, because he's been doing this since Day 1: