Well now you have.  Lainey loves to make people laugh.  We swear she is going to be a comedian someday.  Lately she wants me to sit in her room for a few minutes while she falls asleep (something I am not likely to indulge too many times because I fear this will become a bad habit and chip away at my “wine time”).  So the other night I was sitting there reading my book (ignoring her antics, hoping she would just fall asleep already) and I look over my book to see this face.  I nearly fell out of my rocking chair with laughter.  So of course I ran to get my camera.

(And yes, my 3 year old still sleeps in her crib and I LOVE it, no little feet coming down the steps to mommy and daddy’s room just yet.  We’re hoping she’s still in it through college.  Do comedians go to college?  If not, that would really save us some cash.)

It’s my favorite time of year!  I just love Autumn in Ohio.  This weekend we went to the Oktoberfest celebration in New Albany and had a great time.  Lakyn had a chance to spend some time with her friends and Lainey got to hang out with her buddy, Jared, and paint pumpkins.   I will post my “fall colors” pictures in a week or so during the peak time here in the Buckeye State. 

Lainey turned 3 last Saturday (while we were on vacation and thus the reason for the late posting).  In honor of her 3rd year I thought I’d share some of her likes, dislikes and just plain Laineyness.

Likes: Big dogs, Silky blankets, Dancing, Swimming, Purses, Play Cell Phones, Lakyn

Dislikes: Little yippie dogs (they freak her out), Bad Smells (she has the nose of a pregnant woman and will call you out if you have bad breath), Loud Noises (she’s tough physically but very much a ‘chicken little’ when she hears a loud noise, but she likes her music LOUD), Monsters (as far as she is concerned, they exist)

Laineyisms: TV is pronounced WeeVee, Grandma is pronounced Gair-mond, Blanket is Manklet

Laineyness: She loves the library… that’s my girl.  Recently we went to see a music program at the New Albany branch and in one of the dances the kids were told to pretend to be a washing machine, pop like popcorn and wear their binoculars.  So -of course- Lainey can’t say binoculars and that’s the only part of the song that she wants to do. So at random moments – usually in public – Lainey will put her fingers in circles over her eyes (like binoculars) and yell “Come on Mommy, do the BIG KNOCKERS dance!”  Nice.

And lastly, she can’t say music, so she calls it “magic” and isn’t that the truth?  Music is Magic!  I believe music has magical qualities: it can instantly change your mood, take you somewhere you haven’t been in awhile, make you believe you can sing (this is dangerous) and mostly it can just lift your spirits.

So in honor of Lainey Bird, here is her favorite song (and it hasn’t changed since she was 9 months old).  Jump Around by House of Pain.  Enjoy!

Every parent has dealt with the reality that no matter how cool you thought a toy was when you bought it or how much the child liked it when she begged you for it in the store… eventually it’s going to end up sitting in a corner unused. So today we held our first Toy Swap. We each brought 3 gently used toys per kid, dropped them in the middle of the room and started swapping. Lainey hit pay dirt… she got a cool Barbie 4-wheeler from Aunt Mo and a bag of toys from Julie. Mo got 3 pairs of Gap and Old Navy jeans for Madison and Julie got a dual-dance pad, a Wiggles toy, 2 dresses and 2 brand new pairs of shoes for Ava. I’m not sure about anyone else because I was too worried about losing out on that cool Barbie car to think straight. Actually Mo was gracious enough to promise it to me months ago and is aware that I know her address had she reneged the offer

Lainey was under the impression that this Elmo was part of the swap and she immediately fell in love…. Alex, however, set her straight since it was never in the swap pile (in fact Lainey went into another room and took it out of Alex’s toybox). Alex soon forgave Lainey and even tried to steal a kiss.

The next Toy Swap will be at my house on Sunday, March 9th. Invites via email soon. I don’t know that I will make homemade bruschetta like Julie did but it will still be a chance to see everyone and get the little ones together.

 Grandma Dedi got Lainey an indoor/outdoor pop-up playhouse that is the size of an apartment!   We put it up in our family room (temporarily) just to see if she’d like it and found out that all 3 of our Great Danes liked it as much as Lainey.  It’s so big that it has 2 rooms and comes with furniture.  It also has an opening for us to attach Lainey’s crawl- thru tunnel, but we couldn’t even get it in our family room if we attached the tunnel (and our family room is pretty big), so we’ll have to wait until we put it outside in the Spring to add that piece.  Here is a picture of Vedo (our tallest Dane) in the playhouse with Lainey this morning as she had her morning coffee (actually warm milk, but she doesn’t know).  Keep in mind that Vedo is only 3.5 inches shorter than the World’s Tallest Dog and he has plenty of room in there.  The second picture is before we let Vedo inside and he kept peeking in at us through the window.  He looked like Dogzilla stalking us.