45 Weeks

Lauren's discovered cupboards. This is the only one I'll let her in, which contains all of her things that she can play with. It was also the only way that I could accomplish anything. 06-22-08

And here she is IN the cupboard!

Looking too cute in her overalls and striped shirt! If you look closely, you can see her top two teeth! Speaking of which, #4 (the I tooth left side) came in today 06-26-08! This picture was taken 06-24-08.

45 Weeks. I don't know why her left eye looks goofy. She's been stuffy the past few days and grabbing at her ears when people talk or make loud noises. However, that doesn't stop HER from shrieking and screaming! 06-26-08

Lauren has an infatuation with shoes. She likes to untie them and swing them around, but it's almost as if she's trying to put them to rights. She also likes to play with the cabinet locks. Paul caught her trying to open a lock one day. She lacked the ability to push up and down on the buttons, but she knew that she needed that piece to move and tried!

We're having some issues with separation. Lauren has been crying hysterically if I don't pick her up when she wants me. It makes me feel good that she feels so secure with me, but it isn't always practical, especially when making dinner. She makes a beeline for the door when she hears Paul walking up the stairs. It certainly makes him grin to be loved so much. I also feel that I should say that Mama is becoming mingled a little more with Dada, so you know one person who is excited about this. It's also becoming said to us rather than in babble.

Lauren's discovered blocks. She likes to take one or two off of a tower that I build. She isn't knocking the entire thing down (yet), but she enjoys the challenge. She likes to bang two items together (balls, blocks, rattles, teethers, rings, food, etc.) and hear the noise, even if she sometimes squints her eyes and pulls her head back because the noise is obnoxious or loud. She's starting to try to take the baby wash bottle from me to play with rather than her toys. I'm almost out of her baby wash, so she'll get that soon enough for her own toy.

Paul and I have been watching her very carefully around the cat food. She's gotten into it twice this week. We shudder, but she enjoys it. We're discussing putting the cat's things in the attic and putting in a cat door so that Lauren doesn't have the opportunity to continue with her fine dining.

After Lauren's discovery of stairs last week, she continues to want to crawl them when she has the chance. I try to get Lauren outside for at least a half hour each day to play in the grass (which she pulls up), the dirt (which she eats), in the pool (which she LOVES), or just hanging out with toys. Last weekend when Paul was working on someone's go-cart, Lauren took one of her toys, turned it over, and started checking the wheels. Paul and I were in hysterics. I told him that she really must admire him to want to work on things like he does.

Cruisin'...On a Friday Evening...

Lauren finally has realized that cruising the couch is MUCH faster than pulling up, getting down, crawling, and pulling up again! She cruised from one end of the loveseat to the other to investigate my magazine. I was so surprised, but Paul and I were both able to see this.

Lauren was such a mama's girl today. She followed me all over the house. I went to the bathroom, and when I opened the door, Lauren jumped! She had crawled from the living room and waited in front of the bathroom door for me to come out! (I had to laugh because Jinx used to do this.)

We're still doing well without the bottle. I use a bottle to mix Lauren's formula for the sippy (they leak if you shake the formula in the sippy). She saw me shaking the bottle tonight, but she didn't seem upset. However, she's become quite partial to a soft yellow afghan when it's time to go to sleep. She likes to wrap up in it, nuzzle her face, and hook her fingers through the loops.

44 Weeks Old

This was the 5th picture that I attempted to take this morning of Lauren for her weekly birthday picture. It was something of a challenge. However, when presented with food, she'll ALWAYS be agreeable! (I'm hoping to get another picture when she gets home.)

We are now 55 hours without a bottle and not seeming to care. Woo-hoo! Next thing you know, she'll be walking, talking, and pitching tantrums...oh, wait. The tantrums have started.

For the past 3 days or so, Lauren has dropped her morning nap in lieu of a good, long nap after lunch. This means that she is not napping when she gets home, so even though she may be tired, instead of going down, she gets whiny. We had a good night the past two nights, so I'm going to assume that this is a new Lauren-imposed schedule for sleeping. She sleeps about 11-12 hours a night, so we really have no grounds for complaining. Her teacher said that she's quickly adopting a toddler schedule, so she's thinking that Lauren will make an easy transition in August to the toddler room!

We're officially having to babyproof the house. Lauren has been playing in drawers in the bathroom for a few weeks, but now she's taken to playing with objects in the drawers. Paul left to go to the cattle sale at the fair grounds so it was just Lauren and me this morning. She was playing in my drawers while I curled my hair. I saw that she had my new purple nail polish and told her to put it back. She tried, except that the bottle slipped out of her hand and shattered all over the floor! There was a great purple mess everywhere. I hurried to pick her up before she moved so that she wouldn't get cut. I cleaned up the mess and glass, then poured nail polish remover all over the floor and wiped, wiped, wiped! (My house reeks of remover!) It all came up, but I need to mop the floor to remove the chemicals and the smell. I was just grateful that Lauren didn't move so that she didn't get cut. So when I was at Walmart purchasing shoes for Lauren, I bought the same nail polish that was destroyed and some cabinet locks. Lesson learned.

Gnomes

Our lawn gnomes given to us by Grandpa McCaslin for our 1st year anniversary present. At 5 years old, you can see that they desperately needed a paint job.

For those of you who may not have heard the story, when Paul and I were engaged, we decided to visit his grandpa one day. However, his grandpa was on vacation. We decided to steal Grandpa's gnomes which are very similar to our gnomes. We took them to Erie with us and took pictures of the gnomes, using a disposable camera, while they were participating in their events. Once we developed the pictures, I wrote a card to Grandpa with the pictures in order as though the card was from the gnomes. It started something along the lines of, "While you were on vacation, the Misses and I decided to take a day trip of our own. Here is our story, along with the pictures!" The gnomes started their trip in my car, which Grandpa had not yet seen. They rode the merry-go-round, took a ride on a motorcycle, visited a light house, went to the beach (of course they used sunscreen!), and had a picnic. There was also a LOT of smooching!

I sent the card to Grandpa, without a return address, and Gramps was in hysterics for a long time. He took the card and pictures everywhere because he couldn't figure out who had done it. I caved at Christmas that it was Paul and me. Since then, this has become a family story.

Here are the gnomes after their overdue makeover. I didn't do a good job on the eyes. The face in general looks a little possessed, so I made sure you saw the side, not front, view! While this has nothing to do with Lauren, it is a part of our family. Until Lauren came along, Gramps would ask how his grandkids were doing, meaning the gnomes.

Let's have some fun!

Mommy--Not sure when this was taken, but I'm going to assume that I was somewhere around a year old.

Daddy--June 1979, so Paul was 10 months old.

Now here comes the question--Who does she look like?! Or if you're afraid to answer that, what features of each of us do you see in Lauren?

Okay, so I was NOT prepared for this! We were delivering an early anniversary gift to our neighbors, the Workmans, and Lauren was crawling all over the place, playing with the cats and dog. I turned my back, and she was CRAWLING UP THEIR STAIRS!!!!!!!! Tracy and I nearly died. However, we let Lauren continue. She did this THREE times before she tired! That little turkey!! This was all after we saw her crawling and attempting to stand without holding onto anything.

And we've passed the 36 hour bottle free mark. She took ALL of her milk today with her sippy cups and didn't fuss. I'm still feeling a little saddened by this turn of events, but I know that it's a good thing!

A Major Milestone

I just spent the past 30 minutes packing up Lauren's bottles! (I had to erase the dates on the bottles and lids, as well as remove her name labels. My finger nails are shot!) Lauren has been 26 hours and counting without one. I had to call Paul to vent my sadness. I'm quite surprised at my emotion because I've been enthralled with every other milestone (crawling, eating solids, standing up, etc.), but for some reason, this chokes me up!

The only bottle that Lauren had been getting was a morning bottle. However, Lauren's teacher suggested that I try to avoid giving Lauren anything before I take her to school, but if I needed to give her something, put formula in a cup. Today was the first morning without a bottle. Lauren did great, but she had to have something solid until her breakfast arrived, so she had a few Vanilla Wafers to hold her over. I let you know how this new adventure unfolds!!

43 Weeks, More Teeth, 10 Months

10 Months Old 06-16-08 I cannot believe what a great shot I got this morning! Look at her pose! She's just growing up so fast and she's such a sweetie!

06-15-08 Lauren's eating patterns have been very scattered lately. Some days she wants nothing but milk, other days she turns her nose at the milk, and sometimes she eats more solid food than I do. It's just been very strange the past week. Lauren even spent 5 days in a row waking up at 3 AM for a bottle, which she hasn't done in forever. I'm thinking it's partly a growth spurt, and partly teeth!

06-13-08 Just before this picture was taken, Lauren was positioning herself on the arm of the couch the way that Catlyn does as she's ready to fall asleep. Paul told me to grab the camera because it was "too cute" but I was too slow. Lauren was looking at me, ready to shine!

43 Weeks Old! 06-12-08 We just cannot get those hands out of Lauren's mouth! That may be because of the teething.

Lauren in a bucket 06-11-08. Paul sent me to pick up my prescriptions this night. I took my time getting home. In the meantime, Paul decided to take Lauren outside in order to water the gardens. He said that she kept playing with the bucket, so after he dumped the water, he put her inside the bucket and carried her back to the house. He said she just loved it. This was the scene I found as I pulled in. (Note in the background our redneck pool. Since Lauren loves the water, Paul bought one so that we could take her swimming nightly. The water is still a bit too cold for Lauren to enjoy.)

Okay, so let's go over everything that's been happening here lately! As we were getting showered up yesterday, Paul discovered that Lauren's top right tooth had popped through! That makes tooth number 2. He also found a tooth trying to make an appearance on the bottom.

We left the house, and Lauren had her 10 month pictures made. We got a family picture, some of Lauren, and a shot of Lauren and me. As we were checking out, Paul put his finger in Lauren's mouth and, in the 25 minutes that had passed between the 1st and 2nd teeth checks, the 3rd tooth came through!

Afterward, we went to brunch which made Paul ecstatic. Lauren was really well-behaved and ate a lot. (We've reached the conclusion that we are going to need to start ordering her her OWN meal at certain restaurants because she's eating so much of my food that I'm still hungry when all of my food is gone!)

Lauren napped a little, then woke up when she heard me talking to her Papa. She played, played, played when we got home, walked around outside, pushing a lawn chair. (I need to get her a rolling something so that she can push it and walk outside at the same time, rather than getting the lawn chair hung up on a root or weeds.) We tried to get her to swim, but the water was too cold.

We got supper around, and Lauren fell asleep just a few minutes after she'd started to eat. (I have this on video, too!) It was so funny! I put her in bed for a nap and she awoke an hour later. Lauren ate on the patio while Paul and I played cards. The neighbor's cats came to hang out with us, as is customary when we're outside. Lauren chased the cats and crawled all over the patio. Actually, her crawl was looking more like walking with her two legs straight up, but she was bent over so that she could use her hands to steady herself. I'm waiting for her to pop up and take off, and I think it's going to happen soon. I was 11 1/2 months when I took off, but I think she'll beat me with that milestone.

So, I apologize for how long it's taken me to post, and I'm sorry that I crammed 3 major events into one entry! Now that I'm officially done with school for the summer (woo-hoo!!), I'm hoping to have more time to blog.

Lauren's 1st Tooth!!!!!

It's official! On June 7, Lauren got her first tooth! It's on the top left, right in the middle! The right top front tooth isn't far behind! We felt that little pokey thing last night when we noticed a little more white than normal in her mouth. We were so excited! What's even more bizzare is that Lauren was the EXACT age as me when it popped in. My first tooth was June 4. Since Lauren's birthday is 3 days past mine, add three days and you get the 7th! Isn't that unbelievable? I cannot quite get a picture of it. Lauren gives us fits when we try to feel for it, so imagine what trying to hold her down and use a camera at the same time would create!

42 Weeks

Hurricane Lauren 05-31-08. I pretty much let Lauren have free reign with her toys. While I washed dishes, this is what she chose to do. This wasn't even the worst of it!

Here's one for Papa. 05-31-08 "Lauren, grape is your favorite flavor of popscicle. Remember that!" says Mommy. (My dad always wanted the cherry and orange popscicles and told us kids that grape was our favorite. However, I share all of my flavors with Lauren. She likes the idea of popscicles, but they chill her gums too much to enjoy much.)

1st Swimsuit! Lauren picked it out herself. The choices were slim. It was a gaudy white flowered thing or the pink with white polka dots. Good choice, Lauren!

Trying to see the water under her while staying in her float.

Here are Lauren and Harris in their baby floats. Lauren's is not as steady as Harris's and that scares her. She really enjoyed being able to splash and kick when I held her, so we know that she loves the water! I can only imagine what she'll do her first time at the beach!

1st bathtime with Nick and Harris. After we all played in the pool, we decided to take baths to remove the dirt from the day and the chlorine from our skin. We had lots to explore as there were more toys in the tub than kids! Lauren thoroughly enjoyed the noise and novelty of this experience!

42 Weeks 06-05-08. This was Mommy's last day of school with the students! Yea!! And look closely--you can see that I really DO have hair!

I'm cute and I know it! But I want to take off my hat! 06-07-08

Lauren had scratched her forehead when trying to remove her hat. But isn't she cute?

Lauren had her 9 month doctor's appointment last Thursday. She had to get one shot to catch up on her Hib. She weighs 18 pounds, 2 1/2 ounces. She's 27 1/2 inches long. The doctor says that she's good and healthy. I mean, if the child eats as much as her mommy, you KNOW she's got to be healthy!