Nearly 11 Months Old

Just some photos from the last week or so. Lauren is still crawling like crazy, and into everything. She can't stand very well, but she's working on it.

She likes to go to the back door and bang on it, especially when Miller's on the other side.

One of her new hobbies is undoing things. Anything.

Trapped upstairs! At least Miller is keeping her company.

See prior caption re: undoing things.

It might not get any cuter than that baby asleep in her dad's arms.

Lauren's first head injury! She was practicing going down stairs on the one stair up to our TV room, supervised, but twisted weird and smacked her head on the squared-off molding. So it doesn't look bad here at all, but let me tell you, it instantly swelled up and scared the crap out of both of us. You can't see the depth in this picture, but it was raised and looked like a worm. So we went in to her pediatrician (who was on call for the group's Saturday hours) and had him take a look. He looked at us sympathetically and told us she would be fine. And peeked in her ears: no infection for the first time in months!

First Spaghetti

So we're a week and half or more into Lauren's tubes and the results are dramatic. No more ear infections (confirmed at an emergency trip to her pediatrician last weekend after a bump on the head, photo to follow), she's moving a lot faster, and, the biggest difference: SHE'S EATING. Didn't she eat before? Yes. But nothing like this. So much so that her teachers at school can't quit commenting on how she now eats more than any baby she's ever seen, and we're seeing it at home, too. Tonight she had spaghetti for the first time, and loved it. She ate as much as I did, people. I'm not exaggerating. And ate an entire avocado as an appetizer. It's insane. And it's showing in her buddha belly. We couldn't be happier, we had no idea that she was in so much pain that it was affecting her eating. She's also learned to drink out of her sippy cup, we've been holding it for her for so long, and then on Thursday night she picked it up, tipped it, and drank out of it like she'd been doing it her whole life. She's doing new things every day, and life with Lauren keeps getting better.

Yes she's naked. This may be our first rodeo, but we're not stupid.

Now that's what I call a spaghetti grease beard.

Fancy.

Lauren Has Tubes!

This morning at 6am we headed to St. Luke's for Lauren's ear tubes. She was an absolute doll smiling at everyone in the waiting room, which was amazing considering the fact that we woke her up an hour and a half before she usually wakes up and hadn't eaten. Around 6:30 or 7am we went into pre-op to answer some questions with the nurse.

Once we straightened the nurse out that Lauren did not have hypertension, cardiac problems and herpes, and confirmed several times that Lauren did not in fact smoke (someone else's information in her chart, true story), we were ready to talk to the anesthesiologist. Once we straightened out with the anesthesiologist that Lauren didn't have a raging fever yesterday (confused with someone else, true story), we were, needless to say, a little hesitant to let them take her away. But away she went, with no tears (from Lauren that is).

Everyone had told us "it will be so quick!," and "don't go to the bathroom or you'll miss them coming back to get you!" Not so much. Granted, it was only half an hour, but since we'd been told it would only be 10-15 minutes, it seemed like an eternity. Lauren had a lot of fluid, or "glue," in her ears, and it had to be cleared out. But the tubes are in and now we're holding our breath and hoping that this is the magic bullet.

Coming out of anesthesia was ROUGH. That was not our baby. But once we got her back home and she slept a little she was our little Lauren again. She is a little wobbly, both from the anesthesia and from her balance being off b/c of the work on her ear. She is already making different sounds, and the doctor warned us that she will be a little sensitive to noise for awhile because she had such hearing loss with the glue and infections. We can tell that she's testing out sounds that she didn't know she could make before, which is really fun. Sean and I both took the day off to hang out with her, and we're glad we did.

So there it is, we all survived. We're really glad that we had the procedure.

Current Goings-on

Last week we were teased with some delightful weather. I believe it was Tuesday, Sean called me at work, said that he was grabbing Lauren early, and to meet him at home, stat. I knew what was about to happen, people. A walk. Outside. I shut down my computer, dashed home, ran upstairs to change, threw a hat on Lauren, we put her in the stroller, grabbed Miller's leash (and Miller) headed outdoors, and aaaahhhh...bliss. It smelled like spring. It was still a little cold, but people: IT SMELLED LIKE SPRING. In foolish celebration that evening I put away all of our winter coats. The next morning, I sheepishly pulled them back out. Damn you, warm weather teaser. Oh well, Lauren didn't seem that thrilled anyway.

So things they have a-changed at the Power House. Lauren is very mobile. She crawls everywhere: away from us, towards us, towards electrical outlets, towards random foreign objects strewn about our floor that she decides belong in her mouth...it's really fun. And terrifying (see electrical outlets and random foreign objects). Like all babies of the modern era, she loves to play in the dishwasher when it's open.

We cleaned off the bottom shelf of our kitchen island of all breakables and it's now filled with Lauren-friendly objects like spatulas, whisks, colanders and bowls.

Another new favorite: crawling to the window to look out at that great big exciting world all around her. We're thankful for our low-to-the-ground windows. Miller often joins. Lauren squeals and claps in delight, Miller barks at any dog within a 20 mile radius.

This is a really fun stage. Lauren eats a lot of what we're eating, which is fun, and let's be honest, easier. We didn't have a date night babysitter this weekend, so we said what the hell, we'll have a date night and take Lauren with us. So we went out to eat on Friday night and she was a pretty good companion. A little squeal-y for the candlelight atmosphere, perhaps, but she was enjoying herself so that's OK. In case anyone is wondering, she had hummus and pita as an appetizer, and green curry for an entree. Oh, and Cheerios for dessert. I'm not kidding, she really had curry and hummus. And loved it. Last night she had roast chicken, pureed parsnips, and roasted garlic for dinner. Again, not kidding. And again, she loved it all. While it might be inevitable that we enter the chicken nugget stage at some point (please no, please no, please no), right now she's our little international eater. A baby foodie, if you will.

Saturday Errands

We live a glamorous life, the three of us. For instance, yesterday we ran errands. Not exciting, you say? Perhaps you should know that one of our errands was to Petsmart. Right, I thought you would change your mind. Lauren thought the fish were OK and she smiled at the rats. The birds, however, were her runaway favorites. It didn't hurt that the parrot (waiting for Matt to correct me on type of bird...) in the last few photos was showing off for her. Watch out Uncle Matt and Aunt Jo, when Lauren starts to talk she might just request a visit to see her feathered cousin Murray.

I'm with you, Lauren. The KC pet store doesn't have the most amazing selection. Betta fish don't exactly dazzle me, either.

Eeeeeewwwww.

Dad helps Lauren spot the bird.

These pictures don't do it justice. She was a huge fan.

More Crawling Video

Apologies again for my videography; this time I blame a light that's out in the hallway. You see, with a mobile 10 month old, things like light bulb changing take a backseat. But we wouldn't have it any other way. In this video, Lauren displays two endearing characteristics: the pitter patter of her hands as she crawls, holding a baby doll like a real baby, and snot shoelaces. But wait Alison, you said two endearing characteristics but then listed three. Let's get real people, the snot shoelaces aren't endearing. OK, they kind of are. They may be snot shoelaces, but they're my daughter's snot shoelaces. I stand corrected. Three endearing characteristics.

Please note that we did not buy Lauren the baby doll playing a supporting role in this video. In fact, we had our minds set to not encourage such traditionally gender-specific play things. But, much to my chagrin, at a play group Lauren latched on to this thing and held on for dear life. Read: screamed bloody murder every time I tried to release the poor doll from her grasp. So much so that our play group hostess insisted that we take it with us. She explained that they had bought it for their two little boys when their third little boy was on the way, to teach them how to hold a baby, but now they didn't need it anymore. My gender-specific play thing fears were confirmed. I hid my horror at Lauren's attachment, graciously thanked our hostess, and exited with said baby doll. I am learning that these are the things you accept as a parent. I am also learning that Lauren is who she is. She likes to hold babies. I like to hold babies, I can't blame her. And besides, I have to admit it's cute when she picks her up and pats her back just like I do to Lauren. Next up: a princess canopy bed with pink lace. God help us.

Lauren Has Earned Tubes

We predicted it, we were waiting for it, and now, finally, after seven double ear infections in seven months, Lauren has earned tubes. We saw an ENT on Friday and he said that she's a great candidate. He thinks that her quality of life is going to be much better after the surgery, and we're excited to finally end the streak, which has included Lauren often being on antibiotics 20 of 30 days of the month since she was about three months old (she often had to take back to back rounds).

Lauren will have the surgery next week, and we're told that it is a very minor procedure and that she will recover quickly. And be a much happier baby for it. She's a great baby anyway, but we're looking forward to her feeling better soon.

Lauren Crawls

Lauren turned 10 months old on Thursday, and she is on the move. She has been crawling for a little while now, but in the past couple days it has moved from crawling on occasion to crawling everywhere. I had the flu yesterday and was the videographer here, so I apologize for the bad camera angle, but I was on the couch and I wasn't moving. You'll see at the end of the video that she pulls herself up on the couch. She isn't "cruising" yet (walking from piece of furniture to piece of furniture while holding on), but I'm sure it's not far behind.

Lauren Eats a Pear

So Lauren's new favorite thing is to eat straight from the pear. I'm pretty sure this is not recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, but we do it anyway. We save it for dessert, and then she goes nuts. She usually eats an entire pear at one sitting. Girl loves some fruit. Also one of Lauren's favorites: clapping for herself. You'll see both on this video.