Spending time with Uncle Kenny

Watching some Dora since she is done with dinner.

Playing with the clown/balloon ornament that she loved on grandma and grandpa's tree.

"Is this apple real?"

Watching the sword fighting scene from the Princess Bride.
She was busily playing and then as soon as this scene came on, she sat and watched it.
Yes, she is sitting too close to the TV.

We don't see much of Uncle Kenny since he is all the way on the other side of the United States. Lauren seems to remember him from the time we saw him in November in Las Vegas. Thanks Ken for spending time with Lauren and spoiling her with all your love and attention.

Random pictures

Playing in my new kitchen. Thanks Auntie Anne and Auntie Joybee.

Showing some love to the reindeer. Thanks Auntie Dana!

Kicking it at Grandma and Grandpa's house at the Christmas Eve party.

"If anyone was still wondering, I still can get my toes in my mouth."

"Touching ornaments on the tree... hmm am I supposed to be touching these?"

Christmas Day photos

We spent some time at the grandparents on Christmas day. Here are a few photos of that day.

Lauren and the boys.

Uncle Greg helping Lauren spell her name with the alphabet puzzle from Uncle Kenny.

A family photo!

just another couple days with the family....

We haven't really gone out of our way to introduce the whole concept of Christmas to Lauren yet. Partially out of the fact that its a very marketing driven machine that she doesn't need any earlier influence to, and partially because she'll grow into it as time goes by and it'll be a big enough beast without us helping it.

That being said, it's been really nice spending time with her, having her run around, and seeing her interact with so many people over the holidays(you know of this likely).

She has actually been QUITE good for the past couple of days. been eating lots, yesterday(Friday) she pooped I think 4 times... and they were all quite sizeable. She has been tired at times, but nothing that was unexpected, or even surprising given the amount of exposure to different people and situations that she's had to deal with.

Thank you all for spending time with us, and her... she has enjoyed it immensely as well.

Here are a couple pictures of her and some of the fun that she's had.....


After a little bit of finaggling I also created a Facebook account so that she can be tagged in pictures as well... if you aren't her friend, add her!!

A party with some friends

Every year we like to host a small party with friends. Thanks for everyone for coming out to celebrate the holidays with us. Lauren had fun seeing everyone and running around with Soph and Hann. She was having so much fun she didn't want/take an afternoon nap. So by the end of the day she was really tired.


A pic of us all!

Lauren trying on Uncle Der's slippers.

Lauren putting her pants back on after a diaper change. Yes, it is backwards and not all the way up but she at least she got her legs in the holes and attempted to get her pants on! She walked around like this for a while before Mommy put them on the right way.

Stomping around in Daddy's slippers

Lauren loves to put on everyone's shoes.
Here she is stomping around in Daddy's slippers at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Learning to share

Soph and Hann come over to play on occasion and Lauren is learning to share. She doesn't really get this concept yet as illustrated below.




This picture looks innocent enough but to those who were there we know that Sophie was on the toy first and Lauren climbed on in front of Sophie. :)

Sophie got tired of sharing so she left the toy for Lauren to play with all by herself.

She is very curious and is always interested in what someone else has even if she has the same toy in her hand.

Shape Sorters

We all remember the shape sorter of old, the red and blue ball with yellow shapes that you have to pull apart to get the shapes out. Lauren inherited that shape sorter from her dad and uncles but it resides at papa and ama's house. They say she is getting really good at it. I unfortunately do not have a video of her doing that shape sorter.

She also has two shape sorters at home that she plays with a cookie jar and a pail. Eric is still trying to translate the HD video of the cookie jar shape sorter but here is her with the pail sorting her shapes. It is funny to hear her attempt to say the shape names but I wasn't able to capture it on this video. She will say "pus" for plus, "sur sur" for circle and "sar" for star. She does not attempt the word triangle yet but I will try to help her with that one.

Time with mom and dad

We had some free time so we decided to go to the zoo since it is so close to where we live. The day was beautiful and Lauren got to spend some energy running around and getting some vitamin d. The zoo wasn't too crowded so Lauren ran free.



Posing with Daddy on top of Froggy.

"Weeeeeeeeee!"
Didn't you know the frog substitutes as a slide?

Climbing through the turtle shell.
"I am getting to be a pro at this!"

After our walk through the zoo we went and picked flowers.
Lauren picked many flowers as you can see. Some had stems while others didn't fare so well.

Spelling my name

Ok, she can't really spell her name but she can say the letters in her name. She actually knows a few more letters but she doesn't seem to be learning them in alphabetical order. We take it as it goes and encourage her to keep learning.



We are super proud of her even though she wants to keep pulling the letters off of her door :).

I haven't been posting as often as I like, but she has been growing a lot in the past month, both physically and mentally. I will post a few more videos of her in the next few days.

Some more Las Vegas Pics

Lauren would play peek-a-boo from behind the curtains with me so here is a shot of one of those moments.


"Boo!"

On the night we went to watch the volleyball match, Lauren was tired because she did not take an afternoon nap. So she was squirmy squirmy.

Here she is in the Florida Gator colors!

Squirmy squirmy with Grandpa.
She took a nap after the first game, but she is still not used to staying out so late.

Squirmy squirmy with Uncle Kenny. It was nice to see you and your team Uncle Kenny.

More pics form the park...

I'm done with that one, what's next Grandma and Grandpa?

"I think I need a hat?"

Not so squirmy with Grandpa this time. A nice smile in front of the cactus garden out by the Ethel M factory.

Lauren looking at the straw people as Auntie Donna and Grandpa look on.
Auntie Donna pointed the straw people out to Lauren and she kept wanting to go and see them. I think it was because they were her size.

A trip to Vegas

We took a trip to Vegas during the Thanksgiving weekend to go and see Uncle Kenny's team play UNLV. Here are a few pics from that trip.

"It gets kind of dry here so I need to make sure I drink enough fluids!"

At the Ethel M factory

Auntie Donna showing me the little straw people.

"Hey, I'm bigger than they are!"

Of course Grandma and Grandpa know how I love to run in the park!

Lunch at Fudruckers with a "sundae". I really liked the cherry on top!

"I can walk in Grandpa's shoes without falling."