I wanna be a rock star

Lauren has been sick the past week so I have been behind in posting some of the photos I have of her.

Here are some photos from San Diego where she spent some time with the cousins. Lauren has seen us play with the microphones in multiple games so she definitely knows we put it up to our mouths and attempt to sing.

I don't know what Lauren is looking at, maybe she is just shy when she sings.

Cousins Jordan and Katherine rocking out!

Still not looking at the camera when she is singing...

Auntie Anne showing her the drum set.


Last but not least, the cheese smile once again. This one was for Auntie Joy and Uncle Greg. She seemed to take to Auntie Joy really well and gave her lots of smiles and love.

My little pumpkin

Today was quite chilly so we put on a nice sweater Grandma gave us. It kept Lauren quite warm. She looks like a little girl in these photos. She isn't a baby any longer :(.

Auntie Andi, Auntie June and Uncle Greg came by and had dinner with us. They brought Lauren presents. They were worried Lauren would be scared of the Jack O' Lantern and it's scary laugh. But after Auntie June showed her that his laugh is something to dance to, she didn't mind him at all.

"How does it laugh? Push this button Uncle Greg?"

Big smiles from Lauren and Auntie June!

The dance that Auntie June taught Lauren.

Spending time with more family

Auntie Mona, Uncle Vince and Abraham had us over their place when we were down in SD. Here are few pics from that time. I was pretty bad about taking a lot of pictures. I should have taken more.


At a kaleidescope along the San Diego Bay, Lauren stopped to investigate. She wasn't sure about looking inside this thing.


"How does this work Auntie Mona?"

"oooooh, aaaaaaah"
Lauren really stuck her head way in there...

Eating corn and watching Dora with Abraham and Uncle Vince.

A pic of the corn on the cob after she finished. She did use those few teeth she had to chew some of it off.

Thanks to Auntie Mona, Uncle Vince and Abe for letting us stay over. By the end of the weekend she was calling Auntie Mona "Auntie Moat" and Abe "ABD" because she thinks his name sounds like the alphabet. She didn't attempt to say Uncle Vince's name. But she could pick him out of a crowd, and she did let him carry her a lot.

Playing in the water

Lauren was not quite sure what to think about the water fountains that the other kids were playing in. Though she never completely warmed up to them on this trip she had a good time playing with Auntie Anne and Uncle Greg. Auntie Anne found out that Lauren likes to stick her feet on the water. It was probably really refreshing for Lauren as it seems that either her head or her feet are always hot.

"Is the water going to get me Uncle Greg?"

"It isn't as scary when you just touch it."

Cheesing it for Mommy with Auntie Anne!

After playing in the water, Lauren and the cousins rode on a little Merry-Go-Round. Lauren doesn't seem to want to hold on as the other two older children do.

Thanks to Uncle Greg, Auntie Anne, Grandma Aurora and the cousins Katherine and Jordan for a fun day!

Thanks Auntie June for the cute bathing suit.

A day with Leonardo

The Science and Tech Museum down in San Jose has a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit that we decided to go see. You couldn't take pictures in the exhibit but here are Lauren and Daddy at the end of the exhibit. The exhibit is a little too advanced for Lauren but she had fun with some of the interactive features (engineering recreations on a small scale that she could touch).




In the other part of the museum she got to touch and build with these magnetic tiles. Here Daddy is playing with Lauren and the tiles.

Lauren was tired at the end of this so we left before looking at too much more. We will plan another trip to look at more of the interactive exhibits there... when she is a bit older of course.

Cheese!

Auntie Vincy took these from the trip to the pumpkin patch!

"CHEESE!"

"Don't I look marvelous?"

2500 miles away....

Bethy has gone down to SD with Lauren without me before.... why is this any different?

I'm over in Westford, MA for work, and just a couple days at that, but already know that its going to feel like an infinite amount of time. I'm not sure if it's the fact that she's older now and more interactive/dependent, or that i KNOW that she's across the country... either way, it sucks. Hopefully the next couple of days will go quickly, maybe focus on work.

Grandma came this morning as usual for a Wednesday, Bethy went off to work, and I was being dropped off at Oakland 9ish for a 10:40 flight. I don't know if she knew something was up, but she was clingy to me alll morning. Which I wasn't too unhappy about, more than willing to handle the additional encumberance of walking around with her while I picked up the last of the little bits in my packing.

Getting into the car was a little difficult as she was still very clingy and I had 2 bags, along with her that I needed to load in... once she settled in, with me in the backseat, everything seemed to be ok. She was flipping through a book and babbling.

As soon as I got out of the car at the airport, it all started again... she knew.... and it's very difficult.


I've transitioned to a role at work that, if it were to be designed correctly, will require some travel.... probably here(east coast) at least once if not twice. Down to India once if not twice, and possibly over to EMEA/APAC as well. I'm not sure how this is going to work out.

thanks to Grandma for taking me to the airport.

The Wagon

Lauren loves her new wagon that her Daddy bought her. She sat in it for the first time the other day and she asks for "more" when Daddy stops pulling

Here she is pointing at Grandpa!

Family Fun!

Lauren liked riding with Mommy, even though it wasn't easy for me to get in there. Auntie Juney, can you ride with her next time?

The pumpkin patch

Here are the pics from the pumpkin patch last Sunday. Mommy had to work a little so Daddy took Lauren out to the pumpkin patch with Uncle Micah and Auntie Vincy.

Eric tells me she really enjoyed herself, patting all the pumpkins. She was pretty dirty when she got home though. Thanks Auntie Vincy and Uncle Micah for showing Lauren this place.

"These all look good Daddy, these are all bigger than the ones I have at home."

"I'm really strong, watch me pick this one up!"

"Wait, these aren't as big as the ones over there..."

"Now this is a nice big one but the vine on the top fell off."

"This smaller one is good to sit on."


"Auntie Vincy can you help me pick this one up?"

stay away mr dentist!!!

we had a fun little day today... went down to the tech museum to go check out the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit(not all that).

So we packed up the little girl, plopped in the car, and fought through traffic on 880S down to san jose.... there as an accident or something... weekend drivers.. bleh.

Anyway.. as we were leaving, Lauren saw me with a little tiny apple in my hand.. one that grandma or grandpa had brought over. It was on the counter only because mommy had picked it up from the floor after she had dropped it on the tile. The poor apple had a couple sad marks on it, with a clear not-bruised area where the gap in the tiles were. ;)

anyway... after calling for the apple, I gave it to her as something to occupy her on the drive down. Hopefully she'd nap on the way down. after about 5 minutes in the car I turned around to check to see what she was doing... if she was asleep or not. whaaaat... that poor apple!!! it was probably about 1/4th eaten with lots of little teeth marks all over it.

I had no idea that she was actually going to EAT it.. but she was having quite a bit of fun with it. After another 5 minutes or so, it seemed that she was having a hard time either with the fact that she was chunking off too large of chunks and coughing/choking on it, or that the skin wasn't being chewed well and was giving her problems. Either way, that was that... her first apple experience of actually eating it... and she did a pretty good job. I was actually a little worried that she was going to eat the whole thing... core/seeds and all.

She's now on her way... stay away mr dentist!! or is it doctor... Next doctor appt is tuesday!

Sunday at the Zoo

We went to the zoo with Auntie Dana this past Sunday just to get out and enjoy the sun. Lauren had just awaken from a nap so she was a little grumpy in the beginning. It took her a while before she warmed up.

"HI Daddy!!"
This was not easy to crawl into but Lauren wouldn't go in without me :)

Playing in the Children's zoo.

Out by the tortoise exhibit. The expression on her face is her "Where is it?" expression.

Dana can tell you Lauren spent quite a long time in these white rocks that I think are supposed to be eggs. She kept climbing all over them.

"Hi tortoise!"

"A kiss for the tortoise"
This was the funniest thing. Of course Auntie Dana was laughing at how much saliva Lauren left after the kiss.

Here she is playing in the turtle again without any coaxing from Mommy. She keeps wanting to stand up in there.

So Lauren puts her hands under her chin when we tell her say "Cheese". So now I just tell her to smile and she gives me a big smile without the hand posing.

"Oh... the frog has a nose!"
Lauren of course stuck her fingers in the nostrils. Whenever we see the frog I tell her to show me the eyes and the nose. She sees other kids climbing these frogs so of course she wants to climb them too. She is a little to small yet but she tries.

Thanks Auntie Dana for coming to the zoo and hanging out with us! We miss seeing you!

Lauren went to a pumpkin patch that same day because Mommy had to do some work. Eric will post the pics and story on that one.

Eating Breakfast

It's breakfast time in the Ko household and Lauren has decided she will eat what Mama is eating.



We have been practicing with a spoon when we eat yogurt but she always tries to revert just using her fingers to eat. I try to tell her to only use the spoon when eating yogurt but I guess she translated it to also eating cereal when it is in milk. She has a runny nose which you probably can hear in the video.

Here she is eating yogurt after she was done with the cereal. It isn't as clean but she tries. I follow up with my spoon cleaning off any that is on her face and putting more into her mouth.




The music you hear in the background is a cd that Grandma gave to us. Lauren really likes the ABC song on it. We often play the cd when she is eating breakfast or lunch.

Some words from our sponsor

Lauren is so active it is sometimes hard to get her to sit down and say the words that she knows. I know I should have done it sooner when she was more amenable to sitting and saying the words on cue. But as usual I put it off and now I can't get her to do it on command anymore, but I have been promising Grandma Aurora that I would get it on the blog. So here are some of the words she knows. She know a lot more words but we don't have pictures of all the things she knows. The funniest phrase to here her say is "Where is it?" which is not on this video but I will try to get it at some point in time.

Thanks to Auntie Mona, Uncle Vince and Abraham for the picture cards with the alphabet and numbers. She has fun looking at it and learning the words.

Where did this baby go?

What happened to the little baby in this picture? Gone are the chubby cheeks and fear of grass. I wonder if she will ever sit on the grass and play with her toys on this little beach towel ever again.

I love this picture of Lauren that Grandpa took. She has grown up so fast and its hard for me to see the baby she once was but only recognize her as the little toddler we now have.

With fall starting, I start to think about Lauren and how she spent her time this summer at Grandma and Grandpa's. She loves to just walk around in the backyard visiting all the plants. I wonder if she will be sad when winter comes and the majority of the plants will no longer be there. No more pumpkins and squash to pick and no more apples and tomatoes to point at. Because of the great pictures Grandpa took we will always have good memories of this summer in the garden. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for fostering her love for the outdoors.