Lauren's First Haircut!

Recently, we decided it was time for Lauren to get her first hair cut. She has what we affectionately refer to as a "reverse mullet," which means that the hair in back never grows, but her hair in the front keeps getting longer and longer. Because we're not "bow" people, nor "ponytail on top of the head" people, and barrettes are a choking hazard, we had no choice but to finally cut Lauren's hair, or more accurately, to trim her bangs.

Sean's stylist had been asking if she could give Lauren her first hair cut, so off we went to Skyline Salon. Lauren is fancy.

Above, Sean's and Lauren's stylist, Emily

Sean took holding duties so I could take my place behind the camera.

Lauren did GREAT. No tears. Some attempted grabbing at the scissors, and head swinging, but no tears. Small victories.

Lauren, post hair cut, again able to see. Hello unobstructed world.
Let's be honest, how cute is that baby? Are you kidding me?

Our Best Friend Miller

This post is overdue. As most of you probably know, a little over two weeks ago we had to make the very hard decision to put Miller down. He had a rough winter, and we were holding out hope that it was just his arthritis, and that it seemed worse than usual because the winter was so long and so cold. But then spring came, and no relief. We called the vet on a Saturday morning to try to get him in, but they weren't able to get him in until Monday morning. By Sunday night he had very labored breathing and Sean took him in to the emergency room. We expected that he would have to stay overnight; what we did not expect was that the vet would tell us that Miller had cancer, that it was very far progressed, and that he might not make it through the night and was in a lot of pain. When Sean asked what the vet would do if it was his dog, he answered without a second thought "put him down."

It was a very hard decision for us to make. It was well after midnight, I was home with Lauren, and wanted to be there. And I didn't want Sean to be there by himself. But after much discussion, we decided it was the right thing to do, whatever that means. Sean sat with Miller, and we finally ended his pain.

Sean had Miller from the time he was just a little tiny puppy, 8 weeks old. He was with Sean through so many formative periods in his life, happy and sad. Miller was his constant. I only had the pleasure of meeting Miller in 2005, and then living with him since 2006. But I felt like he had been my dog forever. He was our child before we had Lauren, and for several years our family consisted of just the three of us. He was smelly, and gaseous, and annoying when food was around, but he was also sweet, loving and always there for us. When Lauren came along he was just as we'd hoped he'd be: tolerant and loving. He was Lauren's favorite person in the house; yes even to the exclusion of Sean and me.

The first week was especially hard for us, because it all felt so sudden, and because we weren't used to walking into an empty house. Lauren was confused, and looked for him everywhere, and pointed to the landing where he used to meet us when we came home, and asked "dah?" Luckily an infant's memory is short, and she has stopped looking for him. We said at first we didn't know which was sadder, her looking for him, or when she stopped looking for him because she'd forgotten that he was ever with us. I don't know if I can answer that question yet. And I like to think that she still remembers him, but has figured out that he isn't around anymore.

We are still having a rough time of it, but it is getting better, as all hurtful things do. Some day soon we hope that all we remember are the good times, and we are thankful for the years that he was with us, and the fact that we are much better people for having him in our lives. For right now, we still feel a little cheated, and miss him, and want him back so badly.

Here's a little tribute to Miller's and Lauren's life together, in pictures. We will miss you always, sweet boy.

Before Lauren's arrival: little did Miller know his world was about to be rocked.

Just as we'd hoped: Miller guards Lauren on her 2nd day home.

Miller, looking great and like he would live forever, on Lauren's first walk, 1 week old.

Miller was Lauren's constant companion on the floor.

It was a little more work to take Miller and Lauren with us everywhere,

but Miller was so appreciative.

Miller wasn't photographed as much after Lauren's arrival, but here he manages
to sneak into the shot.

Lauren and Miller enjoyed similar pasttimes, like looking out the window.
Lauren squealed, Miller barked.

Similarly, neither Miller nor Lauren enjoyed the baby gate.

I wish you could see him in this photo, it's too dark, but rest assured that when Lauren first ate spaghetti, and really any time that Lauren ate, Miller was close by.

In the morning, we bring Lauren to our bed to feed her. As soon as she was done eating, she would crawl to the side of the bed to look at and laugh at Miller.

Until we meet again, Miller Lorenzo Power. We love you always.

Trip to St. Louis

I've been a little slow on the posting lately. Many apologies. Sean and I have both been swamped at work, and since the weather has been nicer we are now spending our weekends outdoors, when possible. And several weekends ago we headed over to St. Louis to see Grandma and Grandpa Power for Easter. It was a long drive over, as we stopped in Jefferson City to pick up Sean's new bike from his favorite mechanic, and then at H&M outside St. Louis, which ended up being a bust, but hey, when you're in the "big city" (why don't you have an H&M Kansas City? Why?) you stop to shop. Lauren wasn't too happy about the trip. And by "not too happy" I mean that she screamed, at the top of her lungs, for over two hours. Miserable. Finally, 30 minutes from Grandma and Grandpa's, she fell asleep. Of course.

When in St. Louis, there are some things we must do. The first: get a "South Loop" pizza at Pi in the Loop. It's President Obama's favorite pizza place in the US, and he's from Chicago. It's that good.

If it's good enough for the President, it's good enough for Lauren.

As usual, it's not about the food for Lauren, but her surroundings.

The weekend we were in St. Louis, it was GORGEOUS. The weather was perfect. What to do on a perfect weekend in St. Louis? The St. Louis Zoo, people. It was packed. And amazing. I don't understand how this zoo is free.

Lauren was pretty into the bird cage, pictured above (with Sean and Grandma Power). She liked to point at the birds in the trees.

The day at the zoo ended as it should: with a nap. Looking at animals is exhausting.

We had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Power's house for Easter. They watched her for us a couple of times so we could zip out to do, what else, more shopping, and she loved the great expanse of carpet in their house. Lauren isn't quite to the Easter egg hunting age yet, but we're looking forward to it for next year.

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.

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.