Mornings at the Creperie

Not that we need any more proof that the Westside is the Bestside or anything, but a creperie just opened a block from our house. A CREPERIE. I will admit that most of my crepe eating while living in Paris occurred at road stalls, where the crepe was wrapped in a piece of paper and you ate it on the go or sitting on a bench or the curb. But I did have my fair share of restaurant crepes, and this place by our house is fantastic. Amazing coffee, great crepes, and fantastic baked goods, all baked in house. I'm in heaven. As is Sean. So, every weekend day since it opened, we bundle ourselves and Lauren up and head to the creperie for coffee, breakfast, and newspaper reading. Heaven.

Above, Sean walks a bundled Lauren over to Summit Street.

Below, Lauren takes in some reading while she waits for her cappuccino. Decaf, of course. We're not bad parents.

After crepes and coffee, play time with Mom and Dad.

Back at the house post-crepes, Lauren sits off her food coma and watches Miller zoom by.

Lauren Meets Santa

I'm not going to lie, part of me was hoping for the screaming child on Santa's lap photo opportunity. But Lauren was cool as a cucumber, and was pretty into Santa's beard. We waited until the last possible second (ok almost) to take Lauren to visit Santa on Christmas Eve. Luckily she got her order in on time. And no tears. Better luck next year.

Lauren's First Christmas

We had a great first Christmas with Lauren. She was more into it than we thought she would be; of course she didn't care about the presents as much as she did the wrapping, boxes and bows, but still, she was kind of into it. We started our tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve. Sorry Aunt Jane, it was yours! I know how you hate the Christmas Eve present opening tradition! But maybe the fact that it was Lauren's first present opening experience will make you feel better about it. She loved the bows. And the crinkly wrapping paper.

She also thought the hedgehog ornament was pretty cool.

For Christmas, I gave Sean the best present of all: baby Lauren. Not sure what the facial expressions below mean.

I was feeling motherly and went out and bought stockings at the last minute. Thank you, World Market. One for Sean, one for me, one for Lauren, one for Aunt Arie, and one for Miller.

Our tree was kind of bare ornaments-wise, but I figure that's what baby's first Christmas is all about; you start out with nothing and then build on every year. Luckily my family must know me because we received ornaments from Aunt Jane and Grandma and Grandpa Power. The tree is much less Charlie Brown now.

A soft blocks set from Grandma and Grandpa Power.

Lauren's favorite present: The cardboard box.

Santa brought Lauren an alphabet blocks set with different styles of typography. Santa is so thoughtful to our design scheme.

(Great) Aunt Jane made Lauren a book that told her all about the hedgehog that she knitted and felted for Lauren. It was very, very special, and Lauren seemed to know that Aunt Jane had put a lot of hard work and thought into it.

Below, Sean gets creative with wrapping.

Lauren eats her Christmas breakfast of oatmeal, yogurt and applesauce. Yum.

Check out the snow outside.

For Christmas Eve some of Arie's friends were supposed to join us for a make your own pizza party, but the snowstorm kept them at home. It continued to snow all of Christmas day, and is still snowing. We had our own make your own pizza party and went to sleep early since I, with the worst timing ever, came down with a cold the afternoon of December 23rd.

On Christmas morning we had mimosas with freshly squeezed orange juice (thank you Arie) and opened presents. For Christmas dinner we made filets, which is a tradition I could get into. Hope that everyone's Christmas was as wonderful as ours; Christmas as a mom is so much better than Christmas as a kid. I think that surprised me.

Family Photo Shoot with Aunt Arie

December Cuteness

This is just a random smattering of December photos where Lauren is looking generally adorable. Enjoy.

This is Lauren being amazing while we waited for a table (for an hour and a half) at Waldo Pizza. We're still not winning any parenting awards, so because we forgot to bring her a toy she played with a beer coaster instead. Perhaps appropriate since she later pulled Sean's beer over onto herself, and because we didn't have a change of clothes (again, not parents of the year), she sat in a beer soaked dress and tights (happily) during dinner. What a trooper.

Below, Lauren getting really close to crawling.

We took Lauren to the Andy Warhol exhibit at Union Station last weekend. While she thought the art was just OK, she was pretty pumped about the spinning lights throughout the exhibit.

Christmas trees outside the Warhol exhibit.

Union Station is really cool around Christmas, we discovered. Lauren enjoyed the train exhibits.

Here are some still photos of Lauren's Christmas program at school. This is Ms. Tina, one of Lauren's teachers.

Ms. Brenda, Lauren's other teacher, is holding her off stage below.

Dad holding Lauren after the program. Lauren still upset over the head bonk sustained during said program (see post below with video).

Lauren chilling in her crib

Christmas Program

So today Lauren had her Christmas program at school. What does a 7 month old do in a Christmas program, you might ask? Not a lot, except look amazingly cute. As you can see, Lauren was sitting unattended, so in addition to looking cute she also fell over and hit either the floor or the wall with her head (we didn't see the landing). So besides feeling a little nauseous when I heard the thunk, and the tears of Lauren (I held mine back) afterwards, we had a great time.

The "babies" are in Santa hats (including Lauren), and those are the kids in Lauren's actual room, then the "crawlers" are in the elf costumes, and are in the room next door to Lauren. If you're having a hard time picking Lauren out, she's the one who sneezes. Someone kept getting in her light, but she was a total pro and didn't have a diva meltdown about it. That's our girl.

Return of the Laughing Baby

Sean and I were discussing tonight what a fun stage Lauren is at right now. She makes some noises, but she doesn't talk back...she sits up unsupported but she doesn't really go anywhere...it's charming. Not exactly video worthy, but charming. So I apologize to those of you waiting on the edge of your seat for videos, we're doing the best that we can.


For our video fans, back by popular demand, the laughing baby. Once again, the subject of Lauren's laughter is Miller. He is, without question, Lauren's favorite person in the house. Sean is patting himself on the back for teaching him tricks like "turn around," as it is Lauren's absolute favorite. Unfortunately, with the amount of treats we're giving him to induce trickery, he's getting unfashionably fat. We have deferred vet appointments for fear of the gasp when he steps on the scale; 115 pounds at the last visit made us cringe but compared to today that was svelte Miller.

Lauren's also content to watch him play with his toys or lick himself. Sneezing sends her into hysterics. Good, cheap fun. Miller is a bigger fan of Lauren now that her face is often covered in baby food. It's a win win.

7 Months Old

Lauren turned 7 months old on December 4th. Neither Sean nor I can believe that she is so old. She is sitting up on her own really well, which makes her seem like more of a person, and less of a baby. She loooves being on the floor, and although she's not crawling yet, she rolls wherever she wants to go. In fact, this week she rolled down the two stairs that lead in to our TV room upstairs. Sean was there to watch her/catch her if necessary, but she rolled down them just fine on her own. Scary. Needless to say, childproofing will begin soon.


Lauren continues to be a good eater, although she has had ear infections lately and hasn't been as interested in solid food. Still interested, but just not wolfing down like she does when she feels well. Some new foods are squash, green beans, turkey, pears and bananas. She is generally a fan. I think that applesauce and peaches are still her favorites.

The photos are above are from our neighborhood restaurant, Blue Bird Bistro. We went there this weekend for breakfast, and I must say it's a lot more fun now that Lauren can sit in a highchair and have breakfast with us. She likes to wave her arms around and try to knock the spoon out of our hand, and also likes to look around while we try to feed her, so she usually wears more than she eats, but that's a baby's privilege.

Our motto with Lauren has been take her where we go, and I think it has paid off because she's a pretty good baby in public. I know people, this won't last forever. I heard enough "you have no idea what you're in for"s during my pregnancy alone to last me a lifetime, so please, just smile all knowingly and let me live in the present, which is with an amazing little baby who is so good I could have a dozen just like her. That's right, I said that. But please understand that that statement is conditional on the baby as she now exists at 5pm on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009. And also, please understand that I am currently not with said baby. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all of that. Above, Lauren gets some cheap entertainment on the check out belt of our local grocery store.

There she is. Our favorite Lauren. All tuckered out after a day of playing. This Lauren competes heavily with sitting up and laughing Lauren. They each have their special qualities, their own benefits. But there just isn't anything sweeter than that sleeping baby at the end of the day.

Thanksgiving with Guy and Merle

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Guy and Merle's place on the Plaza. Guy and Sean work together, and Guy and Merle are here from Australia, but will be leaving to go home this spring. So Guy is this amazing cook (Merle's also not too shabby), and was excited about learning about and preparing a traditional Thanksgiving feast. (Remember people, Australians don't celebrate Thanksgiving.) He did such a great job of making a traditional meal that was also new and different. The crowd favorite was the dressing with mushrooms, and he made a mean turkey.




Merle did the table, which was gorgeous. We each had our own turkey place setting, which Lauren was particularly excited about, and our own chocolate turkey, which I was particularly excited about.

Guy carved the turkey beautifully.

Guy and Merle had bought a highchair while they were at Ikea in Minneapolis (Merle was pregnant at Thanksgiving but has since had her baby! Welcome Maggie!), but then figured out that little Maggie will not be able to use it before they move back to Australia, so not only did Lauren use a highchair for the first time at their house, but we also got to take it with us. What a party favor! She did a great job in the highchair. In fact, she loved it. Now she sits in them at restaurants as well and thinks it's the coolest thing. She doesn't look so thrilled below, but I promise, she was. I think she was a little dubious about the squash, that's all.



Merle is crafty, and made Lauren the cutest little turkey headband. Lauren was clearly the most festive Thanksgiving participant.

Aunt Arie was there, too!

Lauren dazzled everyone with her tricks, like spitting out baby food, making raspberry sounds, and standing up on the couch. At the end of the night we watched as they turned the Plaza lights on from Guy and Merle's balcony. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thanks, Guy and Merle!