Merry Christmas!

Like all of Lauren's other firsts, I had a picture in my head of what I wanted her first Christmas to be like. It didn't quite turn out that way, though. It took longer to get the contractor in to work on our living room, so I couldn't do any decorating and then I got a horrible cold two weeks before Christmas so I had to miss a party and since I'm nursing I was limited in what I could take, so I was just barely surviving for over a week and ended up doing most of my Christmas shopping on the Saturday before Christmas, something I did NOT want to do.
So there weren't any decorations besides the Christmas tree and I didn't finish the cute unwrap a Christmas book every night thing, but we managed to get all the gifts bought and wrapped and had a nice day. Lauren slept pretty well Christmas Eve, which helped!  After she went to bed we picked up all of her toys so she wouldn't have any distractions from the new ones. She almost got the hang of opening up presents, but not quite. And she got bored before she was even halfway through!
After her morning nap my family came over to exchange presents and she got fairly overwhelmed with that, but once we were done opening presents she settled down and enjoyed playing with everyone. One of my brothers then came with his new puppy, a Pomeranian/Jack Russell mix, one of the most adorable dogs I've ever seen and Lauren couldn't get enough of him, it was so cute!
We were able to recover quickly from having a house full of people and I'm already making lists of how to make next Christmas better!

A New Living Room!

When we went to Utah in July we asked my brother to house sit. He was more than happy to, until a couple days after we left when the shower started leaking into the living room below. There wasn't too much water, so he cleaned it up and the next day used a different shower. Same thing happened, only this time a lot worse. He sent us this picture of our living room ceiling:

We aplogized profusely that he had to deal with the problem and immediately got on the phone with our insurance agent to report the damage and find out the procedure for getting money to repair it. We ended up waiting until we got home to deal with all of that, instead of trying to do it all over the phone and making my brother deal with letting people into the house.

We had a couple of plumbers come give us estimates and chose one we liked. He found a small leak in the drain pipe, caused by the shower not being sealed properly when it was put in. At some point someone discovered this and just put a rag in to soak up the water. So he fixed it and we were excited to use our shower again. And then the next day after we showered water was leaking through the ceiling again. So the plumber came back and discovered that it wasn't that leak that had caused all the damage, but a nail that had penetrated intothe main drain pipe when the floor was put in. So the whole time we lived here, who knows how long before that, water had been pooling in the ceiling every time we showered! It was amazing that there wasn't any mold!
So here's what the ceiling looked like after looking for and fixing the two leaks:

It took us a lot longer to find a contractor who was reasonably priced and we felt comfortable with. Then it took awhile before we decided exactly what we were going to do. There was a TINY bit of damage to the floor and we couldn't decide what to do about that. We finally decided to do nothing. So then it took awhile for the contractor to have time to come do the work. Luckily that gave us plenty of time to pick a new wall color, because that was quite a process!
Here are the walls covered in samples:

We finally picked a color and got a start date scheduled. And of course it took longer than we anticipated. Lauren and I spent the first couple of day away from the house to avoid the dust and fumes, but that got old, so the last two days we spend holed up in the master bedroom.

Here's what our kitchen and dining area looked like for a week:

                                                        Lauren thought it was very weird.

The new ceiling is up!

 

And the painting is finally done!

 

 

We're still working on moving the furniture back in, we left most of it out to leave room for the Christmas tree. It was such a relief to have it done and we're so happy with the new look!

 

 

Just a funny side note, about a week after the plumber came to fix the drain pipe, our garbage disposal broke and we called him again to come fix it, we joked about just putting him on retainer. Then about a month after that we ran into him on my family's farm in Joppa, turns out he and his wife board their horse there!

9 months!

I think I've done a pretty good job enjoying each phase of Lauren's babyhood. There are definitely benefits and downfalls to each age and it's easy to hope to get to the next one quickly - "I can't wait til she can sit up", "I can't wait til she can feed herself", "I can't wait til she can sleep in her crib", "I can't wait til she can talk". But for every one of those I've said I've thought of something that I love about the phase she's in - "I love snuggling next to her at night", "I love when she reaches for me to hold her", "I love her sweet little baby babbles". So for the most part I don't feel like time is going too fast or too slow, I love watching her grow and learn and look forward to what she's going to learn next month. But it is pretty amazing that her first year is 2/3 of the way over! So much happens in the first year, they learn so much, and it's almost over. It's crazy! I'm happy that I've remembered to do all the "first" things and take all the "first" pictures that I've been dreaming about for years, even when it annoys Chris!
This month she:
- weighs 15lbs 8oz, which I thought was low, but I guess she's just a busy girl, burning a lot of calories!
- is 26.5 inches long
- FINALLY sleeps in her crib at night and for all of her naps
- still isn't sleeping through the night, but there are some nights she goes for longer stretches
- is pretty much out of all of her 6 month clothes and wearing mostly 9 month and some 6/9 month, which is amazing to me that she caught up in size with her age! I didn't think that would happen for years!
- wears 12 month size socks, she's going to be a tall girl!
- eats chicken with vegetables or apples or rice, although she's still not crazy about it
- crawls like crazy everywhere
- can pulls herself up on just about anything and sometimes tries to stand without holding on
- can crawl up the stairs
- went on her first road trip to upperstate New York and did great
- impressed the doctor at her 9 month checkup with all of her skills, she's right on track developmentally! Amazing for a girl who was born early and small and the OB's were so worried about!
We love her more and more every day, even the days she drives us crazy!

The downside to her being so mobile is it's almost impossible to get her to sit still for pictures! This is the only one where she's not screaming because I won't let her get up.

Lauren's First Thanksgiving!

My sister invited us to her house for Thanksgiving, if we were up to the six hour drive with an 8 month old. We decided to go for it and I'm so glad we did! I was a little worried my mom would be upset about not seeing Lauren on her first Thanksgiving, but she was okay.
We drove up Wednesday and Lauren did beautifully! We ran into major traffic and Lauren's naps got messed up, but she handled it well and slept the whole night once we finally got to bed!
My sister and her husband let us have their master bedroom suite so we'd be more comfortable with the baby and it worked well since it's closed off from the rest of the house and quieter.
On Thursday my sister's mom and her third husband drove up for the weekend. We ate at a normal dinner time, instead of earlier in the day like a lot of people do on Thanksgiving, but that was fine. My sister had told me ahead of time that if we came up we weren't allowed to help with anything, that it was a vacation for us, so I took advantage of that and let everyone else do the cooking! We mixed some mashed potatoes and gravy for Lauren to try. She wasn't sure about the texture, but liked the taste.
Friday we took a walk and then my sister, her mom and I went to run some errands. Everyone took turns playing with Lauren and she was great about letting other people hold her and play with her. She did end up sleeping in bed with us, but I'd been expecting that. Luckily my sister and her husband have a king size bed, so there was plenty of room!
It was a really nice visit and I hope we can do it again soon!

My sisters' mom's husband brought up a bunch of

oysters this is my first bite ever. Not something I'd

be excited to eat again, but they weren't horrible.

The guys playing pool

My sister cooking

Eating Thankgiving dinner

Lauren's Thanksgiving shirt, handed down from

my friend whose baby is exactly a year older than her.

Us sister with our babies!

We tried to take a cute family picture, but Chris kept looking drunk

Lauren loves seeing horses!

Losing Weight!

For several years now I've struggled with my weight. Not so much the number, I try not to fixate on that, but how I feel and how my clothes fit. It's been a big adjustment because growing up I never had to worry about it. But gradually I was having to buy bigger sizes and I liked pictures of myself less and less. But it's hard to stay motivated and work out when I'm not used to having to. After the failed IVF attempt I got into a good groove and felt really good. I never weighed myself, but I was fitting comfortably into all my clothes and getting compliments, so that's all that matters! Then I got pregnant and had no energy. I was lucky, I only gained 29 pounds the whole pregnancy and all but two of them were gone by my 6 week post baby checkup. I felt really good for awhile after that. But then I settled back into old bad habits and it got colder and we couldn't walk outside as much. I never weighed myself, but I started feeling frumpy and uncomfortable in my clothes and in pictures. 
A couple of days ago a friend at church suggested we do a holiday weight loss challenge - we all pitch in $20 and set a 6 week timeline to lose weight. I'm not sure how many people signed up, and it's not usually my kind of thing, but I did. It got really "official" when one of the women from church offered to do all of our weigh ins at her nutrition club. So today I went and got weighed and measured. I didn't know what to expect from my weight, but I was still at my pre-baby weight. I'm not sure realistically what I should aim to lose, so I'm just going to enjoy working out and hopefully feel better in my clothes and in pictures.
I've been pinning workout ideas on pinterest for awhile, so now I get to actually use them! Since the most I've done in 8 months is push a stroller around the neighborhood, I'm going to start off slow and gradually add things. So I'm starting with a slightly modified version of this:

8 Months!

Lauren has now been out of my belly longer than she was in it! Because of the IVF, she was conceived and in a petrie dish for almost a week before she was implanted in me and she was born eight months to the day after she was conceived. She seems to be enjoying life and is getting the hang of lots of things! Except for sleeping on her own, we're still having lots of problems with that. She's been in her own crib for quite awhile and I've tried many different tactics to help her sleep, with nothing working so far. I try hard not to, but a lot of times I give in in the morning and bring in her bed with us, just so I can get a good hour or two of sleep. I'm not sure what the problem is or how to help her, I keep reading different books and getting different opinions, but I've tried pretty much everything at this point. I have a very spoiled and stubborn girl, who just wants to sleep with Mommy.
Other than her sleeping issues, this month she:
-has her two bottom teeth (and is pretty good about not biting me while I'm nursing her, most of the time)
-wears all 6 month clothes and 6/9 month sleepers
-has added oatmeal, yogurt , peaches and mixed veggies to her diet
-sits by herself
-has started trying to pull herself up and can sometimes get on her knees
-army crawls
-fed herself a Puff for the first time and liked it
-says "mama", but only when she's mad and calling me to come get her
-waves bye bye
-tries to clap when we do
-went to her first birthday party (and accidentally got into some icing!)

I don't know how much she weighs because when I took her to get weighed last Thursday she was way too squirmy on the scale and we couldn't get a good reading.

Lauren's First Halloween

I had lots of fun dressing Lauren up in cute Halloween outfits! We took a picture out in the leaves next to a pumpkin and sent it to all the relatives as a Happy Halloween card. But my favorite was putting on the onesie and hat I bought on clearance last year before I knew she was a girl.

 

 

Then we added a skirt with leggings, cute socks and a cute hair dazzle, from who else, Catherine Washburn!

Then came the cute butterfly costume that I found at Old Navy only a few days before Halloween, already half off. We went to my parents house to show her off, then into the city to visit my Grandmother. She was a pretty good sport about wearing the costume and showing off how cute she is, especially since she was so tired!

 

The Saturday before Halloween was the trunk or treat at our church. We just went to see friends and show off our cute baby! Lauren seemed to enjoy seeing all the kids dressed up.

 

 

 

These are what I think look like her "drunk" pictures, they're super cute,

but I managed to catch her eyes in mid blink.

 

 

I refused to be one of those parents that took their child trick or treating before they're old enough to eat candy, so it'll be lots of fun to take her next year! And I can't wait until tomorrow to shop the clearance costumes and shirts for next year!

One of My Favorite Mommy Moments So Far

I had trouble sleeping last night, which had nothing to do with Lauren, so we didn't do much today. I took one nap with her and should've taken another one, but I didn't. Just as she was waking up I started feeling sleepy - of course - so I sat her on the floor to play and lay down on the couch next to where she was playing. She hardly ever plays well on her own when she can see me, and today was no exception.  So I pulled her onto the couch with me and read her a book. She curled right up with me while I was reading, it was so sweet! My brother is staying with us for a few days, so he took this picture for me. I need to remember to lie down and read with her more often!

32...Eek!

I've always loved my birthday. I love getting to do special things, I love being spoiled, I love not having to make excuses for buying frivolous things for myself, I love that it's all about me. What I'm not loving so much anymore is my age going up. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm not old or anything,  but I really don't care to be over 30. I will say it doesn't bother me as much now that I have Lauren.
Having Lauren meant I couldn't be completely spoiled, I had to actually take care of someone else! But Chris took the day off and we took Lauren to the zoo. Then the next day Chris watched her so I could get a pedicure and go to lunch and then my mom came out to watch her so Chris could take me to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Sakura.
A couple days before my birthday I found a pin on Pinterest of a list of free things to get on your birthday. That's how I got the cake. I also got a free cookie from Panera and $10 off from Victoria's Secret, which I spent on the two shirts I wore to the zoo.  I love my birthday!

 

Lauren and I in new clothes! Mine from the birthday coupon used at

Victoria's Secret, hers is just a 6 month outfit she's wearing for the first time.

 

"Mandatory" sitting on the turtle at the zoo pose

(I totally had flashbacks of taking a picture of Bekah and Briella on this turtle!)

 

Daddy was watching the elephants, apparently

Lauren thought Mommy was more interesting!

 

My discounted cake from Dairy Queen - YUM!

7 Months!

This month she:
-weighs 13lb 13oz
-can pretty much sit up by herself
-is soooo close to crawling, she just needs to figure out how to move her arms and legs at the same time
-is in the process of learning to sleep in her own bed
-has waved bye-bye a couple times, though we're not sure if it's just coincidence
-is still wearing 3/6 month clothes, except for sleepers
-is eating apples, watermelon, squash, carrots, green beans
-does not like peaches
-is learning to drink from a sippy cup
-won't take a bottle anymore
-got a new, bigger bath tub and now takes bubble baths
-went to the aqaurium for the first time and loved the turtles

 

Attacking her bear and doll after deciding she was done taking pictures.

 

Another Thing Checked Off My List!

For years now, but especially while I was pregnant I had a "list" of things I wanted to do as a family, and more specifically, pictures that I wanted to have. Things like pictures with the baby on Mother's and Father's Day, a family picture at the Fourth of July parade, pictures with friends and our babies. Sometimes I've made Chris grumpy in my quest to check these pictures off my "list", but then again, anything involving pictures usually makes Chris grumpy!
The most recent picture/thing to do I've checked off my "list" is the community fair where I grew up and where my parents still live. In my memory we've gone almost every year since I was in elementary school, but my mom isn't sure that's right. For several years now my dad has had a photography booth at the fair, so going has become a real family event - helping him set up, keeping him company during the day, helping him take it down. It's always fun to hang out with my family and help out and see old neighbors and friends and fairs are always fun in general. So I couldn't wait to take Lauren! She had a great time looking at everything and see her uncles and grandparents. She skipped a nap she was having so much fun and then crashed on the way home. This was her first time wearing sunglasses and she didn't seem to mind them at all.

 

Hat, check. Sunglasses, check. Binky, check. All set to walk up to the fair!

 

Hanging out with Unlce Shoopa

 

Hanging out in grandfather's booth, watching everyone walk by

 

 

The mandatory family picture!

 

 

 

The picture grandfather took just before we left, of an exhausted baby!

 

 

I Finally Did It!

For months now I have been finding great idea after great idea on pinterest, but not doing anything with them. I started one declutter challenge once, but never finished it, so I don't think that really counts.
Finally this week I tried not one, but two things I'd pinned!

Source: via Catherine on Pinterest

I made this for dinner one night. It was easy and everyone liked it. Chris even raved about it, which he rarely does when I cook! My favorite thing about it was not having to defrost the chicken, it goes in frozen.

Source: aspottedpony.com via Catherine on Pinterest

A girl I used to work with tried this awhile ago, so I knew it worked, I has just never gotten around to trying it. We did a photo shoot on Saturday morning and I don't have much time to do my hair, so I decided to try it. It was harder than the tutorial made it out to be, isn't that always the case? 

This is the picture I took when I first let my hair down, I had to do a little work to it to make it picture worthy, I'll have to practice some more so I can just get up and go!

I'm so proud of myself for finally using some pins, if I never use any of them, what's the point of pinning them, right?

6 months!

This month she:
- weighs 12lb 14oz
- has started laughing at just about everything, especially when we tickle her or when she "hits" Daddy or Uncle Ian
- tried squash, carrots and sweet potatoes (the sweet potatoes upset her tummy)
- swam in an outdoor pool for the first time and loved it
- has learned to hold her breath when going underwater
- loved visiting the horses on our family farm and laughed hysterically when one sniffed her foot
- loves Dr. Seuss books
- likes watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
- has started sitting on her own for short spurts
- has started sleeping in her own bed again, with some success

I probably should have stuck with laying her on a blanket for her month pictures to better show her growth, but I'm so excited that she's starting to sit up I couldn't help myself!
And this first picture is just too funny!

 

I can't decide which one I like better!

Summer Reading

As a stay at home mom of just one baby, our days get pretty monotonous, so I'm always looking for fun and interesting things to do. Especially things that are good enrichment for little Lauren. At the beginning of the summer I discovered Lauren could enroll in the library's summer reading program. I just had to read 25 books to her. It was fun to make trips to the library and fun to get lots of different books to read and see what kinds she liked.

Surprising Mom

I just realized I forgot to post this! You'd think I was busy with a baby or something, haha.

Thomas was upset he couldn't surprise our mom at Christmas, so he decided to surprise her when his training was done. Originally his training was supposed to end July 7, but then it was decided that there wasn't any point in coming back for two days after a three day weekend for the 4th. Apparently he found this out early on, but didn't tell anyone at first. He had to tell our dad because our dad is retired and plays on the Internet all day and was always looking at Thomas' company's website, so he would've seen the change in date. He told Ian so there'd be someone to help him plan the surprise. He wasn't going to tell me, but our dad forgot and told me. But that's ok, I love planning surprises!  We came up with lots of fun ideas and put a lot of work into setting it up, it was so much fun! Thomas had an overnight flight so Ian picked him up at 10am and took him straight to his unit to check in. Meanwhile our mom had spent the night at my house and was helping with the baby. There was a lot of texting going on to make sure we got the timing right because we didn't know ahead of time how long Thomas would need to be at his unit and I kept worrying my mom would think I was being rude or that something was up. Finally the boys were in place so I "randomly" suggested to my mom that we go to the family farm because I needed to pick up something from my aunt. Ian and Chris were waiting for us and indulged me in taking Lauren to see the horses, to make it all seem natural. Then I suggested we take a walk in the formal garden and take some pictures. We took these first to keep things natural.

Then it was time for the surprise! We got mom in position, Chris gave the code word to Thomas, and click!

I said we better preview the picture and make sure we like it. So Chris shows my mom the picture and we all smile in anticipation and she says, "It looks fine." What?!? We all ask if she's sure, Chris has her look at it again and again she says it looks fine. So I suggest we take another, "just in case". So we get back into position, Chris gives Thomas the code word again and zooms in.

We have her check it and again she says it's fine! At that point I just started laughing. Chris started to have her look at it again, I started to say, "What's behind us?" when Thomas, who was hot and tired of hiding, just walked out. Then the jumping and screaming and crying and "What are you doing here?" finally began.

We then showed her the pictures again and she felt a little silly, blaming it on the dark screen and the fact that when someone asks you if you like a picture, you really only look at yourself. My only regret is that we didn't think to record it! But otherwise it was perfect!
And then Lauren finally got to meet her Uncle Shoopa!