March of Dimes Walk

Brooke invited the South Newton walkers to a pre-march breakfast at her house. These 5 darlings are the reason we chose to walk. We've all been fortunate to have healthy babies, and we wanted to help for those who may not have been as lucky. From left to right are Annie (7 months), Lauren (8 months), Harris (7 months), Nick ( 2 1/2 years), and Ivy (1 1/2 years). Suzanne made all of the kids "South Newton Tiger Cub" t-shirts with their names on the back!

Jayme and Annie, Kristi and Ivy, Lauren and me, Suzanne and Harris, and Brooke holding Shanna.

Mommy and Lauren, ready to walk! It was only 9:45 and it was WARM!

This was the first leg of our walk. You can see that we had a big hill to climb. Here are other participants in the March in front of us.

Here is Lauren at the halfway point. She tuckered out just before the walk began and woke up just as we finished. Note that her left foot is propped up on her stroller. This is how she eats in her high chair, too!

Thank you to all of those who helped us raise money for our walk! (Grandma Wade, Daddy, Aunt Sherry, Aunt Suzy) As a team, South Newton raised $1,100 through fundraisers and donations from family and friends!

36 Weeks 04-25-08

36 Weeks. I was lucky to get such a good shot! Lauren is wearing an outfit from her Grandma Wade. I LOVE the hat!

Lauren's on the go so much that she barely stays still long enough for me to snap her picture. She tried to get gone 3 seconds after the picture above. She'll grin when she sees the camera still, but she won't stay for the picture. I kept looking over my camera card, surprised that I didn't have more pictures from the week.

I have pictures of Lauren and Harris, but none of the pictures show either of the kids looking at the same time. I need to scan and post a picture of the two of them from their spring school pictures. They are sitting on a bench and Harris has his arm around Lauren!

Lauren is eating fabulously. She still wants her veggies and eats minimal meats. I usually have to hold her off of her dinner with animal crackers while I make it. Otherwise she gets too ornery.

I should also mention that Lauren had two accident reports from school this week. She ended up with a bruise on her left cheek and one on the back of her head. All of this crawling and standing has her marked up constantly!

I've had some people ask how Lauren tolerated the ice cream. She never cried or had other issues that would indicate that she was in pain. She was cheerful as usual and happy. I'm hoping that we'll be able to put her to a soy/2% milk mixture at a year and gradually put her on milk completely. We'll cross that bridge when we get there!

Yummy Food

Lauren found a new tasty treat today--cat food! Paul was "watching" her while I was cleaning the kitchen. Lauren snuck into the dining room where we keep the cat's things. I heard her making noise and when I found her, she had her hands in the food dish. I pulled her hands out, said, "YUCK!" and then noticed that she was crunching...cat food! I just couldn't believe it! I washed her hands and fussed at Paul for not watching her...just a preview of what's to come I'm sure!

Ice Cream!!

We ran errands in Hickory this afternoon. Afterward, Paul thought it would be a great idea to get some ice cream to enjoy on the patio. Lauren wanted in on the fun. Paul and I had to alternate turns with our ice cream cones. Lauren would suck forever, and when she would take a breath, we'd swap out. If we didn't, she'd scream.

Here she is with the evidence that she had ice cream! You may not be able to tell, but she was NOT impressed that the ice cream was gone. She started to cry just before I took this picture. Paul had a little bit left, and being the generous daddy he is, let her finish it off. She had no ice cream on her until this last bit...and an enourmous drop fell all over, covering her WHITE onesie. (Incidently, this is the SAME onesie that saw the green bean disaster of March!)

Moving Around

Lauren is in constant motion. We're having to shut doors to keep her corraled. She mastered using other objects to get from being on the floor to upright on her feet. She's been struggling with getting back down from the upright position. She'll fuss and cry when she wants help.

Tonight, I noticed that Lauren started to get frustrated, but I let her work it out for herself. She figured out how to get down (and then made a beeline for my papers in front of me!). She'll be walking by 10 months, I can feel it!

Lauren's pink eye has gone away. However, something is going on with my eyes. I cannot get rid of the red. I have puffy and swollen eyes and lids. I wake up with my eyes glued shut. All of this is still going on even with being on Lauren's prescription drops for pink eye for two weeks. I have an appointment with the doctor on Friday to see what's going on. Even taking Benedryl and Zyrtec haven't helped.

8 Months and 35 Weeks

We've had a big week! Here is Lauren on Sunday in her new BIG GIRL CARSEAT! She was really excited at first. However, she misses her bugs on her infant carrier and has started to fuss when it's time to go in. Suzy told me about this foam thing that helps recline the car seat. I bought it, but I still need to install it. Lauren fell asleep on Tuesday in it and her poor head was almost in her lap!

April 15: Lauren decided to go through my purse and dumped its contents on the living room floor. She found my wallet of all things and honed in on my credit card. Paul made a comment about her using Mommy's card and you can see the result.

April 15: I clicked on the wrong picture. You can still see that she's checking out my credit card with knowledge that it's going to be hers someday. Yikes!

8 Months old on April 16! (Happy 1st birthday Cousin Evie!)

Lauren woke up this morning (April 17th) and wanted OUT of her crib! If you haven't seen enough of Lauren grinning behind her pacifier, you can see the crinkle in her eye as she grinned for the picture (then started to fuss for me to pick her up!).

Lauren at 35 weeks. If you remember my last post, Lauren had SCREAMED to be in the grass. Taking Kristi's suggestion, I put down a beach towel and let Lauren explore from that safety. She was soon pulling up her daddy's pretty grass and having a ball!

34 Weeks

Lauren has obviously observed the cats peering out of the lowest window by the front door as they watch the squirrels and birds. On Sunday morning, she immitated the cats by taking over this new found peek of the outdoors! 04-06-08 Lauren's first experience with grass. By the way, it terrified her! 04-07-08

Harris and Lauren and school. Harris loves his friend as evidenced by his grip on her dress, not letting her go! 04-10-08

Harris (6 1/2 months) and Lauren (at 34 weeks) 04-10-08

It's been a rather interesting week to say the least. Lauren found the fast forward button on her crawling and tears all over the house at lightning speed! (This is especially true if there is a cat around for Lauren to follow!)

She pulled herself up for the first time on Monday and has been improving this skill all week. (To say the least, we've had a LOT of spills and bumps on the head as Lauren practices.)

On Tuesday, the weather was too beautiful to be inside, so Lauren and I went out. I held Lauren in my lap while I sat on the grass. I pulled up several blades of grass for Lauren to play with and to feel. When I sat her on her bottom on the grass, she started to scream in terror. I picked her up, shocked by her response. When I tried it again, she screamed more. When I picked her up and held her close to the ground, she screamed harder and thrashed to get away from the grass. Paul came home and tried to help transition her to the grass. Every time he'd get her close, she'd start grabbing at his sweatshirt to pull herself back onto his belly!

The pink eye has ended for Lauren (Mommy is still infected though it slowly subsides). However, I got a phone call from Lauren's school today saying she had vomitted a LOT around 1:30 and that she will not be permitted to go to school Friday, so this is the 2nd day in two weeks I've missed of work. She hasn't vomitted again tonight and drank a considerable amount of Pedialite, had some veggies, and snacked on my Froot Loops and her animal crackers. She went down to be a little earlier than usual and is out as we speak. She's extremely clingy to me and won't allow me to be out of her reach, so I know that she isn't feeling good on that behavior alone. She's laughed a little bit and smiled some but not her usual amount. I love on her tomorrow and through the weekend (and pray that I don't get what she's got) and that should help a lot.

Lauren is Trying to Walk!!

Lauren has started to crawl like there is no tomorrow. She follows me everywhere and gets frustrated when I go from point A to B and back to A in a matter of seconds because she's just arrived at my second destination. She is quick to move, so we're having to watch her VERY closely for fear that she will get hurt or get into things she shouldn't. (We're baby-proofing the house as we see the need.)

Lauren and I went to Hickory today to get her a new carseat as she's growing out of hers quickly. When we returned, I got Lauren out of her carseat and she started tearing all over the house. I got her diaper changed and got her fed. When I let her loose again, she made a beeline toward a basket of clothes waiting to be folded. For the first time, Lauren stood up on her own! She was a little ways away from the basket and took a step with her left foot toward the basket to right herself! I was shocked! Then the fear set in that I'm never going to have a moment's peace for the next several years as each change in the house becomes something for her to discover.

1st Science Center Visit

Paul surprised us today with a family membership to the science center in Hickory (along with a long list of others nation wide). We decided to take advantage from day 1 and spent the day playing and learning together. Above you'll see Lauren playing in the Kids Clubhouse with a praying mantis.

Here she is learning about the transfer of electricity through plasma. You can see below her hands the exchange of energy by the straight line she produced.

A picture for Uncle Luke...

Lauren took a spin on the NASA space shuttle, more her size than ours.

Here Daddy and Lauren explore together. The object was to get the golf ball into one of the three containers at the end. Lauren did it!

This was in the kids area, too. I'm going to assume that something from the heat of the hands makes the rainbow color. Paul and Lauren both put their hands on with the result above. The tiny print on the right is Lauren's, too, but it didn't quite work out as well as the print on the left.

Lauren and I took a tour of the heart. We started in a healthy artery and gradually made it to the fatty deposits. Lauren did NOT like the springy foam or the texture of the material at first. I had to crawl in with her before she felt comfortable enough to go on her own.

Overall, we had a great day. We went to the planetarium after our science center tour to see a presentation on the night's sky in Catawba County. Very interesting. Lauren feel asleep just before it started and slept soundly for almost 2 hours!

Her pink eye is clearning up, but I think that I'm getting some of it, so both of us girls are taking Lauren's drops. I think she's having some issues with allergies, too, which are causing more problems with her eyes. She's been happy and content, so we cannot complain.

On our next trip to the science center, we will check out the new aquarium just opened in October.

The Last Week of March

Unbagging her Easter present from Neigh-neigh Tracy 03-27-08

Sitting on Daddy's shoulders (and laughing hysterically for some reason) 03-27-08

My Polish Immigrant 03-27-08. Lauren likes to play with the scarfs at school. I put one on her and was astounded how similar she looks to the photographs of true immigrants. She is, however, Polish on her Mommy's side of the family!

Lauren and Harris in their pajama playdate 03-28-08

Aunt Sherry and Lauren 03-30-08. Aunt Sherry and Uncle Luke came to visit for the weekend. This was the only picture that we have for some reason!

Taking a big girl bath (with Mommy) 03-31-08

Pink eye 04-02-08

Helping Daddy draw out the new kitchen cabinets 04-02-08

Chasing the ball with Mommy 04-02-08 )

33 Weeks

Where does the time go? I know that I lament this every week, but really! My baby shuns baby food and would rather eat anything (and everything) we do. She LOVED some pizza and ate it by the fistfulls! That was funny.

Lauren has started to growl when she eats her food. We aren't sure if she's trying to be like a dog, protective of her food, a demon child, or if this is how she expresses that she likes what she's eating. Her teachers think it's hilarious...I bow my head and apologize profusely when I get these reports.

Lauren's pink eye transferred from the left to the right. Both eyes are no longer red, yet both eyes book ooze a yellow, very sticky, puss of sorts that mats her eyes closed. She screams when I put the drops in. I feel wretched. I took her to the doctor today when I picked her up from school (without an appointment) because her eyes are very red, purple, and puffy underneath her bottom lid and she just looks rough. The doctor said that it's because of the infection and possible allergies to things inside and out. I worried that she had an allergy to the drops. We also discussed Lauren possibly n eeding to have tear ducts inserted into her left eye because of all of the drainage.

There is a purple line on the left side of Lauren's picture on her forehead. Today when I picked her up, her teachers said that she was using the toy shelves in her classroom to help her stand up. Her hand slipped and she has the resulting bruise. Lauren can get on both knees and put her left foot on the floor while her right knee is on the floor. She's been trying to coordinate her body to get both feet on the floor to push herself up. I truly feel that this development is happening so quickly that she'll be walking by 10 months, if not sooner. She really wants to move!

I had to install the plastic plugs into the outlets today. Lauren discovered them when she couldn't climb my plant stand and saw them out of the corner of her eye. From the experience of a friend, Lauren will probably be pulling those out soon and I"ll have to find more durable covers...I'll be posting pictures from the past week this weekend.