Tub Pics

Bathtime is one of my favorite moments with Lauren. She absolutely loves her baths, and I caught some of it with the camera tonight.

This is a look of pure joy!

Lauren taking advantage of my hands being full with the camera. Standing in the tub is NOT allowed but she saw an opportunity, and took it. But it made for a cute picture!

This is Lauren reaching out to give Chad her rubber ducky.....I hope her sharing spirit continues!

Getting ready to dunk in the bball hoop behind her!
This will be my last post for awhile. Chad & I leave Wed for a conference in Florida, so I'll post some pics when we get back! Have a great week!

Great Bday!

Thank you for all the bday wishes! I had a wonderful day! Nothing too fancy, but a day at home with my little girl and a trip to the mall with both Lauren & Chad tonight - it was exactly what I wanted! I got a wonderful gift this AM - getting to hear the baby's heartbeat again at my Dr appt. It was a little slower at 147-153, but still strong and amazing. I finally gave in and accepted the anti-nausea meds my Dr. offered, and I'm anxious to see if it actually helps. I keep thinking one of these days I'll wake up and feel good, but the meds won't hurt in the meantime!

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This is why I had such a great day.....

Isn't she just the best? I love that she talks with me now. Our conversations are quite interesting though.....

• Me: "Lauren stay out of the shower!!"
• Lauren: "Why?"
• Me: "Because you'll get wet!"
• Lauren: "Why?"
• Me: "Because Mommy just got out of the shower"
• Lauren: "Why?"
• Me: "Because I needed to get clean!"
• Lauren: "Why?"
• Me: "Because it feels good to be clean....don't you like to get clean in the bath?"
• Lauren: "No!"
• Me: "You don't?"
• Lauren: "No!"
• Me: "You always seem to love your baths!"
• Lauren: "Yeah!"
• I do think she understands a lot of what we say. She can't always respond appropriately, but she sure tries!!!

Love her!
I'm so tempted to find out what this next baby is, not because I care about decorating the nursery or buying gender specific clothes, but because I can't wait to find out if Lauren is getting a brother or sister. There are definitely pro's to each, so it doesn't matter, but the suspense is getting to me much more this time.

I don't take many pics of Bailey anymore, but here's a cute one from today. She's been a very good girl lately, and Lauren tells her "Good Girl" all the time! They are becoming good buddies. Lauren feeds her snacks, lets her out of her kennel (even when she's not supposed to), throws toys to her, and chases her around the house. Bailey was majorly de-throwned when Lauren was born. I can't imagine how she'll feel after another baby!

Best of Friends

Our college friends were here this past weekend, and oh did we have fun! We forgot for a few days that we're all old and not in college anymore, so everyone's pretty exhausted today, but it was well worth it! Kim & Adam brought their daughter, Grace, who is 10 weeks younger than Lauren, and they had so much fun playing together. Most of this consisted of climbing up on the fireplace (see previous post re:climbing) and chasing each other around the house. It was fun to see them play together! Most of the pics I took this weekend were of the 2 girls. Rob & Annie also came from Minneapolis and Tim & Abby came from Des Moines, and it was so good to see everyone again. We already made plans for another reunion in April!

Grace & Lauren playing on the fireplace. This was taken moments before we left them in the care of the guys and us girls left to get pedicures. It was my 2nd pedicure EVER, and it was so heavenly that I'm thinking this would be a good new habit for me! (P.S. Notice you can still see the ow-ie on Lauren's nose)

The girls in their matching pj's, which we didn't even plan. Can you believe that Grace is taller than Lauren? If you knew Grace's Daddy, you would be surprised to see how tall she is! (Sorry, Adam)

Say "cheese!"
"Cheese" is a relatively new word of Lauren's, and I know it's my fault that she knows what that means! Can you say too many pictures?

One of the only pictures I took of the adults. Rob brought his Band Hero for the Wii with him, and we literally spent hours playing this game. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I believe the guys are rocking out to Taylor Swift in this one.....and when I say "rocking out," I mean it. There was dancing, throwing drum sticks and lots of drinks involved. On Sat afternoon, I heard the guys start the game up again, and I'm pretty sure the first song they picked was "Any Man of Mine" by Shania Twain.....This game is also why some didn't make it bed until 4:45AM on Sat AM and 2AM on Sun. (Me = 1:30 ish both nights, and yes, I played the pregnant card, but hey, 1:30 is GOOD!)

My Monkey :)

Lauren has officially earned the title of "climber" at daycare. She is climbing all over the furniture, up the stairs, and everywhere else she doesn't need to be. Therefore, she's had lots of new bumps and bruises lately.

At least she looks cute while she's getting into trouble, right?!

Here is Lauren dancing her heart out to Elmo on TV! I know I shouldn't even allow her to even get up there in the first place, but it was too funny, and at some point, you just need to pick your battles, or else I'm saying "no" to her all day long!

Mischievious grin - Yes, Mom, I know you just told me to get down, but I'm gonna get back up there anyway.....

Getting a little braver.....not really a good thing.

You knew this was coming, right? The ow-ie picture? I don't know if you can tell or not, but Lauren has a big strawberry on her nose. I think it's a rug burn from falling down the 1st two stairs, but it could've been from falling off the couch too. Hard to say, but you'd think she'd have learned her lesson? No! In fact, she's made it into time out twice this weekend for the same naughty behavior!

The next 2 pictures aren't naughty - they're cute! Here she is putting her lipstick on. We put this on several times a day, and actually she puts it on me much more than she puts it on herself. I'm glad it's not real makeup or we'd both look like clowns. :)

Making "smacking" noises with the lipstick! I'm wondering if girls are inherantly born with this instinct to even out your lipstick and smack your lips together?

Missing Daddy

Lauren & I are having a blast sharing "girl time" the last 4 days, but we are definitely starting to miss Daddy. Tonight I got really excited when Lauren ate a whole piece of ham. Am I crazy, or just a mom that worries that her daughter doesn't eat enough to keep a bird alive??? :)
Chad is skiing with some friends in Vail, CO and will be gone til Monday night. I had a temporarily lapse in judgment and thought a guys-only vacation to Colorado sounded like a great idea. Well.......that was before I had to figure out child care for Lauren round the clock, plus
still not feeling 100%. THANKFULLY, my sisters and parents came to Lauren's rescue. Laurie & Cody babysat on Tues and Thurs, Erin overnight on Friday, and my parents were here Sat & Sun. So, Lauren definitely got plenty of love & attention, and I must say, I also love my time with Lauren while Chad is gone. She is so much fun these days! A few pics from our fun week....(and I didn't get a single good one of her and the fam)

A rarity.....Lauren crying. Actually, these were more like alligator tears.....:)

Videos of Lauren

Here are a few quick videos of Lauren I took today. She received the cutest pack-and-play for her babies and matching baby stroller for Christmas and has taken a sudden interest in her "babies." It's so cute to see her pushing her babies around in the stroller! I think part of it is because we've been talking about babies so much lately, especially the one she's getting in July! Here is one of Lauren giving her baby a kiss!

Lauren's vocabulary is quickly expanding! Here are a few of her favorite words! I think it's cute that "Cody" is one of these words. Is it b/c it's an easy word to say (and also very close to "cookie" :) or is it because she loves him so much????)

Oh, and we forgot the most important word we've been working on! GRANDMA! We haven't been able to get past "Ga-Ga" so this is as good as it gets for now!

15 Months

Lauren turned 15 months old a few weeks ago. Crazy, isn't it? I took her in for her check-up and shots today and discovered that Lauren is no longer very fond of Dr. J. It was borderline embarassing watching her carry on while he looked in her ears, mouth, etc. I suppose I can understand b/c he does order shots for her pretty much every single time we're there! She got 3 shots today, so there were no smiles for the nurse either. All in all, she checked out great again though! She has lost weight since the last time we were there, but that's pretty normal for a kid her age who is so active. Her umbilical hernia is still not gone (he was hoping it'd be gone by 1 yr), so we'll keep an eye on that. But we are still so thankful that she is a very healthy little girl! And I did reward her with a stop and a few treats at Laurie's house on the way home!

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Here are the stats from today:

Weight: 21 lb (21%)

Height: 31.5 in (78%)

Head Circ: 47 cm (83%)

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Laurie & the rest of the city are home from school again today. The news said our snowfall is around 30 inches so far this season. The wind chills are something like 20 - 35 below. The snow was cute and fun for awhile, but it's starting to get old. There is simply no where else to put it. Chad is getting a lot of use out of the snowblower he got for Christmas, that's for sure!

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And last, but certainly not least - baby update! The baby's heart rate was 158 at my appointment last week! What an amazing sound that was to hear! I am very ready to start feeling better, but that should happen soon I would think. However, pregnancy really IS the best reason ever for feeling like crap!

Happy New Year!

Well, 2010 is off to a great start! I hope you all had a Happy New Year! Lauren turned 15 months old and has a check-up later this week so I will post more then. She is really having fun with her new toys she received at Christmas! Back in November, Chad & I went "Santa" shopping one afternoon at Toys R Us, and I'll admit, we lost our heads for a minute. I forgot what it was like to be in a toy store, and we had a little too much fun. We got Lauren this huge slide and basketball hoop, came home and put them together, and then once we brought home all the other gifts Lauren got, decided we didn't have room for the big slide/bb hoop. So, we got all ready to return them, and decided to let Lauren go down the slide just once, and she LOVED it. Needless to say, we can't return it now! She loves it too much!

This is after one trip down the slide - priceless!

I'm warning you - Lauren flies down this slide and hits her head, so you will wince when you watch this, but this is what she does every time she goes down the slide, and apparently, she thinks it's funny!

Peek-A-Boo

We went over to the Backemeyers' for a play date and dinner tonight, and Lauren & Annie got to sit at their very own table! It was so incredibly cute!

After dinner, the girls found their way onto Annie's new big girl bed and started jumping on it. We heard them laughing and this is what we found! I'm not sure how they got here all on their own, but it was so cute! It won't be long and we will yell at them for jumping on the bed, I'm sure!
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A few random cute ones from this week:

Crazy new hat that mom makes me wear

Playing with her baby - I love these leopard pants from Margie!