Lauren Has Somewhere To Be

Just a short video Sean took this weekend of Lauren on a mission in a Lowes hardware store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4IImVMuDXA

Practice Makes Perfect? Uh oh.

Ladies and gentlemen, Lauren is walking on a regular basis. And Lauren isn't content to just walk, no, she's already bored with that. Next up: opening the door and helping herself to the great outdoors when we have declined to do so for her. Consider yourself warned: use the deadbolt. Consider yourself warned again: she WILL melt down when you use the deadbolt and she's not able to get outside on her own. So use it sparingly. Like when you're not keeping a close eye on her. Also, keep a close eye on her. At all times. This baby is a piece of work. But I have to hand it to her, she practices until she has it down. She did this all night, but this is the most we could upload in one video.

Lauren Goes Shopping (and Learns How to Walk)

So up until yesterday, Lauren still wasn't walking much. In fact, she had kind of regressed since she took her first steps a few weeks ago. To be honest, Sean and I really didn't care, but her teachers at school seemed concerned because they have three crawlers moving into their room soon and they need the older kids to be walking.

Anyway, we thought we'd help the teachers out and I found this shopping cart online. As those of you who have visited our house know, we don't have a lot of extra space, and Sean has banned all unitools (you know, things that can only be used for one purpose). So this shopping cart will serve as a walker now, and much-needed storage for the toys Lauren likes to distribute throughout the house, and later she can use it more as a toy (play kitchen coming soon to a Power House near you).

The shopping cart arrived last night, and by this morning Lauren was walking from point to point by herself, without the cart. Amazing. Her teacher said that she walked almost everywhere today on her own. Money well spent, I suppose. Added bonus: she thinks pushing the cart around is the greatest thing ever. Her dog lovey is a frequent guest in the cart, as is her sippy cup. Next project: teaching her how to turn the cart so we don't have to follow her around pointing it in the right direction all day.

Lauren's Ladybug Scooter

Sean and I bought Laur this ladybug scooter for her birthday. When I was in London with my friend Kakee she bought one just like it for her granddaughter and I've thought of it since. At first Lauren just kind of pushed it around and wasn't able to actually scoot on it, but now that she's walking a little better she's able to ride it around. And is very happy about it, as you can see.

Lauren Walks!

So we've been really busy. Sean and I have both been busier than ever at work, and to top it off we hosted the summer party for the Lathrop associates at our house on Saturday, which involved a lot more work than we anticipated. So poor Lauren has not had the full attention of both parents to which she has become accustomed. Perhaps in an effort to get us back on board the attention train, she walked for the first time on Friday, in the midst of the craziness.

I got to school to pick her up and her teacher came to the door whispering for me to go into her old crawlers room and watch her in secret from the Dutch door there. So I did, and sure enough she stood right up and walked to Ms. Carolyn. I started crying, it was so moving. And her old teacher Ms. Chrystal was crying, too. It was such a great moment. I can't believe she's not my little baby anymore. She's a big girl now.

She did a lot of "finger" walking this weekend (holding on to Sean's and my fingers), but not a ton by herself. But I have a feeling we're really in for it now.

Fake Smile

Lauren isn't an overly smiley baby. In fact, we refer to her as our serious baby. She smiles, don't get me wrong, just not all the time. I take this as a sign of intelligence. Kind of like hey people, I'm not your monkey or your clown, I'm not going to go all googoo gaga just because I'm a baby. You have to earn my smile. Note: I take everything Lauren does as a sign of intelligence, so this doesn't mean much, except to me.

Anyway, this weekend we were at Grandma and Grandpa Power's house in St. Louis, and Lauren started fake smiling. I mean full out cheese, it was clear she didn't mean it, smiling. It's pretty hilarious, or at least to me, as is clear from my cackle at the end of this video.

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 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.

Lauren Loves Bananas

Apologies, it's been a little too long since I posted. In an upcoming post I'll give you Lauren's 9 month stats. That should keep you on the edge of your seats.


This video is Lauren eating finger foods! This is a big development for us, she is now much more interested in finger foods than in baby food; I had no idea that the baby food stage would be so short. We still try to get some in there because most of the finger foods never make it to her mouth, but she's typically not happy about us coming at her with the spoon. She wants to do it herself, but she's not quite there yet. Her pediatrician says that she has an excellent pincer grasp for her age (the grasp needed before they can start on finger foods). Our little baby is an excellent pincer! We're so proud!


Lauren's runaway favorite finger foods are these organic apple puffs that are kind of like Cheerios (but puffier), and bananas. The kid loves bananas. She can often go through a whole banana at one sitting, which seems like a lot, and it is, but please remember that Miller ends up eating about half the bananas off of the floor, and the other half is stuck to Lauren's face and the rest of her body, and then often to Sean's and my work clothes. She also eats carrots, broccoli, a little egg this morning, grapes, grape tomatoes, sweet potatoes...we're introducing more and more every day. It's really fun to watch.


Lauren displays some of her other tricks in this video, like clapping her hands, making noises with her hand against her mouth, and loosely signing the word "finished" from American Sign Language. We've really only taught her "more" and "finished." She pretty much just claps for more (the signs are kind of similar), but finished she has down.


I know I say this every time, but Lauren is really a blast right now. More about her current goings on in my checkup post. Wait for it....

Finger Foods

We recently introduced Lauren to finger foods, as she has moved up at daycare to the "Crawlers" room (she's not crawling yet, but she likes to watch everyone else do it), and they have finger foods there. We started with bananas, which she's getting better at, but they're slimy and hard to pick up. The easiest for her to pick up is Cheerios, which she loves to get into her mouth, but as you'll see from the video, she isn't a huge fan once they're there. She does occasionally swallow them. She doesn't have any teeth yet, so she just kind of gums them down. She's a pro.

Lauren Claps Her Hands!

Lauren learned how to clap a week or two ago, and now she does it all the time. In fact, she claps when I leave after I drop her off at daycare in the mornings. I'm trying not to take it personally.

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.

Peekaboo

This afternoon we realized that Lauren understood the concept of peekaboo. I mean, she has giggled when we did it for her for quite awhile, but now she's actually peekabooing (yes, I made that a verb) us. It's so crazy to realize that this tiny little baby understands such things and can play along (even, apparently, under protest). I know I've said it before, but she is more and more fun every day.

Lauren Tries Sweet Peas

Lauren is a very good eater, and up until sweet peas, had liked everything that she tried. Carrots took a little getting used to, but she never hated them. Sweet peas, however, do not look like they will be liked any time soon.

Lauren is now eating cereal and fruit at breakfast, vegetables at lunch, and vegetables and fruit at dinner. Her pediatrician said that we can introduce meats as well, but we haven't gotten that far. Each week we introduce a new fruit or vegetable, but only one, so that if she has an allergic reaction we know what has caused it. So far, Lauren's repertoire includes: peaches, sweet potatoes, carrots, applesauce, prunes, and (kind of) sweet peas. Although we're holding off on sweet peas for now. While I'm sure it's not the sweet peas' fault, Lauren was up ALL NIGHT last night, and so out of an abundance of caution we'll bring those back in a couple of weeks for a Round 2 try.

Funny story: Lauren's teachers at school told us to get her some prunes to get the mail moving, if you know what I mean. Sean and I, always thinking "little good, more better," proceeded to feed her prunes for days. Multiple times each day. After several impressive blowouts (picture it coming out of the end of her long sleeves) the teachers figured it out and told us to limit her prunes to once or twice a week.

Lauren is a Thrill Seeker

I took this video from our back porch, through our back door. Lauren can see her reflection in the window and loves to feel like she's about to crash through the glass. She also likes to get to the edges of beds and couches and hang her head off, then ultimately she tries to push herself off and crash to the ground. Luckily we've learned that we can't leave her alone, so, much to her chagrin, we've caught her on her daredevil attempts thus far. Let this be a warning to all of you.

Miller is So Over Lauren.

Lauren is as crazy about Miller as a six month old can be about anything. Miller could probably do without Lauren; he's not crazy about his new status as second-class citizen. Mostly he tries to be where Lauren is so that he can get some attention, but ignores Lauren (see video). In Lauren's defense, she isn't in the eye poking or tail pulling stage yet. In Miller's defense, even if she was he would still take it.

Last night we took them both on a long walk. It was the first time we had Lauren in the Baby Bjorn for a walk instead of a stroller. She LOVED it. She thought it was the greatest thing ever that Miller was coming. She laughed, she screamed, she kicked her little legs. Maybe it's the screaming that turns Miller off. We think it's pretty cute, but can see where it might get annoying in the future. Perhaps some of her screams are at a level where only Miller can hear. That would make sense.

This is for You, (Great) Aunt Jane

This is the hedgehog that Aunt Jane painstakingly knit and felted for Lauren. Besides Miller, the hedgehog is her favorite animal. It's nothing personal, Aunt Jane, Miller licks her, which she loves. And which Sean and I hate. I mean, it's cute, but the dog eats his own poop. We wash our hands every time we even think about touching her, and then she gets licked by the dog who eats his own poop. Such is life.

4 Months Old!

Lauren is laughing all of the time now. Incidentally, the blankie she is laying on is one that my mom made for me when I was a baby.