Don't quit your day job

Okay so I am obviously not going to make a living at blogging. Oh how I wish I could because this working 40 hours a week outside the home is just crap-tastic.

Lauren is almost 15 months old and I would say she is finally fun! She walks, laughs, "talks" and is just generally more fun and pleasant than she has ever been. She is so interactive and entertaining now. Daycare is going great. She has fallen into the routine with no interruption whatsoever.

She has been sleeping a lot in the couple of weeks. Today I had to wake her up at 7:10 a.m. and she had a three hour nap at daycare today! She has dropped the mroning nap - mostly out of necessity as it didn't really fit into the daycare's schedule. I think she is also teething right now too - molars maybe? I'm thinking these things combined might be the cause of the excess sleeping lately. When she is awake she's happy and alert, she is peeing and pooping normally and eating too so I don't think there is anything wrong.

We are trying to get ready for Christmas and I'm looking forward to having some family time again. The picture with Santa went well - there were no tears, but there were no smiles either. Oh well, just something else to make fun of her about when she's older.

14 months old and walking!

Lauren has been working on walking for several weeks now, but today I think it is safe to say she officially walking. She is damn proud of herself too!

Working for the weekend

The time seems to be getting away from me and it's been awhile sinceI've blogged. Many things have happened and changed.

The biggest change being my return to work. (insert GIANT sad face here).The week prior to my return, Lauren visited her day care Tuesday 9-11 andThursday 12:30-3 p.m. My biggest concern was napping because she doesn't havethe best record with napping in playpens. Turns out I have nothing to beconcerned about. Lauren has adapted to the entire day care experience like atrue champ. She seems to really enjoy everything about it - the other kids, thetoys, even Kerry her day care provider. Norm and I have so far been very happywith Kerry as well. She seems to genuinely love the kids (Lauren more than therest of course ;) She texts us photos and updates throughout the day and seemsto really want us all to be happy.

My return to work has not been as easy as Lauren's day care experience.I have a very stressful, pressure-filled job and I'm not sure I can handle thatkind of environment any longer. Right now there is no light at the end of thetunnel which is making it even more difficult for me to settle in.
I am finding the most difficult part of the day to be first thing in themorning. Norm is in charge of Molly and George and I have Lauren. I need to getmyself up, shower, dressed and presentable before I can get Lauren up. She isnot at the stage yet where I can get her out of bed and have her play on herown while I get myself ready (will she ever be at that stage?) The problem isthat she seems to be waking earlier and earlier. I plan to get up at 6a.m. butI can hear her cooing at 5:15 a.m.! WTF?? I have had to leave her in her cribwhile I deal with myself. Eventually the novelty wears off and she is screamingand crying. It makes for a very stressful first hour of the day. I am trying tobe hyper-organized by having my lunch made, clothes picked out, Lauren'sclothes laid out etc., but it's not really helping when she wakes up thatearly! I'm thinking we need to try to keep her up later at night - if she wantsto or not.

Norm has been picking her up after work because he can get off work muchearlier than I can. I get home around 4:35 p.m. we are eating dinner by 5 p.m.Lauren is in the bath at 6 p.m. and one of us is walking the dogs while theother is putting her to bed. By 6:45 p.m. she is in bed. I have been in bedbefore 9 p.m. every night so far. It's all very rushed and somewhat rigid interms of the schedule. We may have to tweak it as we go along, but for nowthat's our day.
In other news, Lauren is really progressing with her walking abilities.Her record so far that I have seen is 16 consecutive steps. She is pretty damnproud of herself too. Her face just lights up when she covers major ground likethat.

She is making lots of sounds and raspberries but no real words yet -none that I can identify anyway.

I am finding that she is really starting to be fun. She laughs more, she smiles more, there is more intereactive play between her and us. Even Molly is starting to like her more! Wow! I'm happy, but it's unfortunate that this is happening right when I get to see her so much less.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Lauren's second Halloween has come and gone and for the most part it was a goolishly fun day. She was lucky enough to have 3 equally adorable costumes. In the morning she wore her ladybug costume given to her by her Duchess. Mid day we had some errands to run so she wore her penguin costume that her Uncle Neil picked out, then in the early evening she got to wear her hand-me-down skunk costume. We only went to one house but that was more than enough for her.

Where is she now?

Haven't complied a list lately to remind myself where we are at this point in her life. At 12 months:

• She has 6 teeth - four top, two bottom


• She bites. Me.


• She stands and can cruse around the furniture. She also lets go of the furniture and stands without assistance.


• Drinks homo milk - 4, 6oz bottles a day


• Doesn't smile much - unless she gets caught doing something wrong.


• Still naps twice a day but only for about an hour each time.


• Loves Baby Einstein


• Loves to play with books, open, close and turn the pages, crawl on them, touch the pages


• Can eat her weight in Cheeiros - her weight by the way is 23 lbs


• Does NOT like to sit still or be held.


• Has a mop of wavy hair on her head

Happy Birthday Baby

Dear Lauren,

Today is your 1st birthday! Your dad and I are having a hard time believing this day is here all ready.

The year has flown by, but at the same time you have changed so much. We have spent the year watching you learn, cheering you on and believing you are the perfect baby.

Today you change from baby to toddler. You are not walking yet, but you will be soon. You haven't said your first word yet, but it won't be long until we hear your voice.

You have four teeth and you're working on two more this week. Your hair is starting to curl and we are all wondering where you got that from and if it will stay like that. Your eyes are blue/grey just like your daddy's. People are always telling us how beautiful you are and of course we agree.

Your parents are so proud of you and love watching you grow and learn. You have made this year the best of our lives and now we wonder why we waited so long to have you.

Happy birthday Lauren!

Mommy and Daddy love you!

Nixing the Nap?

I have heard that around the 1 year mark babies drop the morning nap. I am starting to wonder how I will know when that time has come? The last couple of days she is only napping 45 minutes in the morning and afternoon. She has never been a long daytime napper but 90 minutes is usually where she averages. So when the naps start to shorten like this does that mean I should be phasing one out? I kept her up this monring until 11 a.m. (she usually goes down around 10 a.m.) thinking that she would sleep a couple of hours as a result, but instead she was awake an hour later. Hummm. So I put her back to bed at 3 p.m. so she could at least have a litte cat-nap to get her through to bed time. I'm a bit confused by this whole thing.

Note: I desperately want to keep both naps as long as possible, especially since we are moving next week and we could really use the sans-Lauren time.

Way behind

I seem to be failing at this blogging thing. Lauren is 11 months old now and has made some big changes since my last post. Whenever that was.

She can now crawl at the speed of light. She can pull herself up to a standing position and is starting to cruise around the furniture a bit as well. Unfortunately, she has taught herself to crawl up the stairs which her mother is not very happy about.

She is very fond of toast and has recently been introduced to gold fish crackers which she seemed to really like. She has four teeth now - two top and two bottom. Her hair is starting to curl a bit but I'm not sure that will stay since no one in our families has curly hair - well not naturally anyway.

We are moving in 2 weeks and the house is being packed up so things here are a bit messy. We are all looking forward to getting into the new house so we can put up proper baby gates and not worry about safety.

Almost 10 months

Where has the time gone?

I am a bit behind on my posts because we have been buying and selling houses - more on that later.

Around 9 1/2 months - right around the time the For Sale sign went on the front lawn - Lauren taught herself how to crawl. Great. She has progressed from army crawling to actual hands-and-knees-crawling. Unfortunately that system is much more efficient and she is really able to build up she speed now. Great. She also mastered going from laying down to sitting up again unassisted. I was shocked the first morning I walked into her room to find her in her sleepsack sitting on her bum smiling at me!

Needless to say, our lives have officially changed. You think just having a baby in your home would be the biggest change so far, but actually, having a CRAWLING BABY is an even bigger change. Imagine.

We are doing our best to baby proof the house but just when I think it's safe she manages to find something else to get into. We are very much looking forward to moving into our new house where we can put up permanent baby gates, put the TV and components up high and just generally be more baby safe.

Monday will make her 10 month birthday.

This is what I think of crawling

Batten Down The Hatches!

Lauren is just over 9 months old and now the fun is really beginning. I noticed this week that she has started army crawling to get where she wants. Pulling herself along with her hands while dragging her legs and feet seems to be a very efficient mode of travel. Much to our dismay she is gaining ground very quickly and is of course only interested in the things she shouldn't be. Our chrome and glass side table is a big draw for her as well as the solid oak kitchen chairs. Both things that could possible topple over on her stubborn little head. Looks like we're going to have to break out the baby gates soon, and poor Molly and George are not going to be able to escape her as easily as they once did.

On another note, we are currently in the process of selling our house. Sounds simple enough, but not really when you have two dogs and a baby to contend with. We are excited about our new house and Lauren will be thrilled with her new bedroom so everyone keep their fingers crossed that our cute little house sells soon.

It's all happening too fast!

Lauren is 8 months old today and to celebrate she got a tooth.

Her father wants to throw a party, mommy cried.

Today its a tooth. Tomorrow she'll be demanding my car keys.

I want my little baby to stay a little baby.

Stop The Clock

I've decided that 7 months is my favourite age and I'd like to stop the aging process now.

In the last month, Lauren has really started to develop into a much happier and lovable baby. She has a lot of mobility through rolling but is still not crawling or scooting yet - so we're both happy. She is doing much better in terms of daytime napping and her nighttime sleep schedule is still 11-13 hours so we have absolutely nothing to complain about there.

She is generous with the smiles but still stingy with the laughing. Many hours of my days are spent dancing singing and generally acting insane just trying to get her to giggle.

I would like time to stop now so we can stay in this moment forever. Everyone else seems to be encouraging her to get older while I am holding on to 7 months.

One sign of progression is that we retired the playmats this week. They were really only acting a speed bumps in the rolling process anyway so we packed them up and put them away. Not long ago her little 7 pound self was enveloped in the wild pattern of the mat and then all of the sudden .....

Shes outgrown the whale. I guess I can only hope that 8, 9 and 10 months are equally as wonderful and embrace the clock because I'm pretty sure there is no slowing it down.

The One-Upper Mom

In our swimming class there is a mother who can be described as nothing other than a "One Upper."

Everything another kid does/is/has, her kid does/is/has it bigger/better/louder/longer/faster/cuter... you get the point.

Why do mothers do this? How does it make them feel like better moms? How will it help their kids? It wont!

I feel sorry for her kid. She will probably never live up to her mothers expectations of her.

I guess this just goes to prove... I'm a better mother than she is. ;)

7 Months

Lauren is 7 months old! Wow where has the time gone?
Some things of interest (to her mother anyway):

• She has no teeth yet


• She can not sit up on her own but I'm hoping she does soon because she is getting tired of her play mat and laying on the floor so sitting up would give her many more options.


• Her bedtime routine starts at 5 p.m. with cereal and fruit/veg, 6 p.m bath, 6:30 bottle and books and she is asleep by 7 p.m. and sleeps until 7-8 a.m.


• She loves twirling in a circle (while I hold her of course)


• She enjoys swimming and even being dunked under the water.


• She is wearing 6-12 month clothing but according to her Duchess most of her pants are too short. That is up for debate.


• She is still totally adorable.
  

Starfish

Lauren and I started swimming lessons this week. We are starfish. I say we because after one lesson Lauren is all ready a better swimmer than I am. She seems to really enjoy being in the water. And she looks totally adorable in her swimsuit.

She is really growing. I just realized she is going to be 7 months next week. Where has the time gone? Her dad and I have noticed lately that she is much happier. She laughs a lot more and when she laughs she seems to really mean it.

She is not sitting up on her own yet but I'm hoping she will soon. I think it will give her a new perspective and a wider range of toys to play with and options in general.

Butterfly Hell

Against my better judgement we went to the Butterfly Conservatory on Saturday. Back story: I am terrified of all things that fly. Yes, that includes butterflies. Maybe not one butterfly, but thousands, definitely. Here is Lauren and her brave dad. This butterfly landed on Norm's arm and did not leave until he removed it about 10 minutes later. I was having a panic attack.

So you can imagine how I felt when ONE LANDED ON MY HEAD! (and yes, this photo just reminds me how much I hate my current hair cut.)

It was all I could do not to run screaming - after I saved my child from this monster of course.

She was completely oblivious.

I don't even know if she was aware of them. They move so fast I don't think she could really focus on them.

Let's just say that was a once-in-a-lifetime event for me. When Lauren is a teenager and tells me she hates me, my rebuttal will always be "BUT I WENT TO THE BUTTERFLY CONSERVATORY FOR YOU!!!"

Updates

Week 25 has held some excitement for Lauren.

First, she is now taking baths in the big tub and she loves it! She lays on her back and splashes the water with her hands and feet. So cute to watch!

Second, she is now eating green bean! Now my sister would love to tell you how much I hated green beans as a child, and how they became the one food I didn't have to eat (hers was processed cheese, Daxton's was quiche and Aaron's were mushrooms, but this is not a blog about my nutty family) but my daughter is eating them like a rock star! It is very funny to watch her face though - she clearly isn't use to the taste of real food just yet, but she still gobbles them down.

She has definitely been feeling a bit better the last two days. I took her to the walk-in clinic yesterday just to get her ears looked at again and to see about the cough she has now developed but apparently all is normal.

Discouraged

I am getting more and more discouraged and frustrated by Lauren's constant crying and general fussiness. This kid is never happy.

I heard she would get better at three months, then six. When she could roll I'd see a huge difference, when she started eating solid food. Well all of those milestones have come and gone and the crying continues.

I began a napping routine hoping the extra sleep would help her general disposition, but no such luck, she still cries 60% of her waking day.

I have also tried more and more not to go to her as soon as the crying starts, but that only results in her working herself into a crying frenzie.

Will she ever grow out of this or am I doomed to have a crying, bratty kid forever? Will we survive this? Am I horrible for being so frustrated by this?

At least she's cute.

Ooztastic

Today is Monday. The ooz is finally starting to slow. Her ears have been draining since Thursday night. This morning only a little bit in her right ear and the left was clean. I'm hoping we are coming to the end of the ooz. She is stuffy and has a cough - these are new symptoms. And the rash we thought we saw last night is gone today so I think it was just a fluke. Poor baby.

Poor baby!

Monday night Lauren woke up at 4 p.m. and could not be settled back to sleep. I thought she was teething. Tuesday morning we left for Cobourg to visit her grandparents for the week. She was in a terrible mood all day. Tuesday night she woke up at 3 a.m. and again could not go back to sleep. We were giving her Tylenol and rubbing Oragel on her gums. We bought teething rings and did everything we could to help her with the teething pain. Thursday night I noticed she had dried white crust on her earlobe. I thought nothing of it at the time because it was probably dried milk or Tylenol that had run out of her mouth. Then I was taking her out of the highchair after her cereal around 5 p.m. when I saw green slime running out of her left ear! It was clear at that point that this week of hell had not been from teething, but rather from an ear infection! Poor baby! So Grandma, Lauren and I headed to the ER. The green goo coming out was obviously a huge relief for her because once it was coming out she was in the best mood she'd been in all week. The doctor gave her an antibiotic, but the next morning she woke up and the other ear was oozing too! Today she is still oozing and obviously not feeling great but I'm hoping she is on the mend.
At least the day the oozing started was St Patrick's Day so she was festive if nothing else.

Poor baby

Lauren has her first cold. I feel so bad for her. Her nose is running like a tap and she's congested. I can tell by the look in her eyes that she is miserable just like I am when I am at that stage of the cold. She had a bit of a fever this morning so we've been dosing her with Advil to help take the edge off. Poor baby! She freaks out when a Kleenex comes anywhere near her nose and the saline is even worse but we want to give her some relief so we do it anyway. I hope she is feeling better tomorrow.

On another note, yesterday I put my foot down and started a nap routine. I had been trying to follow one book that said naps had to be 2 hours in length, but I was getting frustrated because at the most she will go down for an hour. So a friend reminded me of another book I was given which says naps should be ever 2 hours and as long as they are at least 30 minutes in length that's okay. So we are on day 2 now of naps every 2 hours. So far she is doing well - but that could be the cold/Advil combination - she had 2 naps that lasted 1 hour today and one that was 90 minutes, then a little cat-nap at 5 p.m. We'll see how she sleeps tonight. I hope we are turning a corner.

Food!

Eating cereal is a milestone that I have been putting off because to me it means she is growing up. And I'm not ready for that. She is a week shy of six months so I finally decided that today we would give rice cereal a try. We were expecting a messy cry-fest, but...she liked it, she really liked it! I know the photos don't make it seem that way, but she really seemed to enjoy it. She has eaten it twice today so I guess we're adding rice cereal to our everyday routine.

The last time we were at my parent's house, my dad said multiple times that she needed mashed potatoes. Grandpa's going to be thrilled!

Sleeping Beauty

Although Lauren has always been great at nighttime sleeping, she has yet to master the daytime naps. I can usually get her to sleep for 45-50 minutes before noon, but after noon, the only way she will sleep is if I hold and rock her. I know that doesn't sound like the worst way to spend an afternoon, but it's a habit I think we need to break. By 5 p.m. when her father gets home she is tired and crabby. I think if she were to get in two good naps through the day she would be much happier all around.

On Tuesday I put her down in her crib at 11 a.m. thinking I'd have just enough time for a tea before she got up. Then noon came and went. Then 1 p.m. came and went. At 1:30 p.m. I I was starting to think something was wrong. I went up to her room felt her forehead, cheeks and the back of her neck to see if she had a fever! Shortly after that she woke up. Two and a half hours! Hallelujah!

So Wednesday I had a movie all ready to go, I put her in bed and settled in for my 150 minutes of Mommy Time only to have her get up 45 minutes later. Sigh.

The Beagles don't get enough credit

I can't tell you the number of times we've been asked when we are going to get rid of the dogs now that we have a baby. Like you can't possibly have both.

George and Molly and a pain in the butt in general - and I mean that in the most loving way possible - but they have been excellent with Lauren since she arrived. Considering their worlds have been turned upside down they deserve more credit than they often get. Yes, there are a few issues, and there is no way Sofie is going to live much longer if George has anything to say about it, but so far nothing has happened that would even remotely be close to a reason for them to go.

Molly seems to be the most in-tune with Lauren. She gets very upset when Lauren gets very upset - which as you know is common. She will pace in front of her crib if that's where Lauren is, or come and find us in another part of the house as if we may not have heard the baby is upset. She is clearly concerned and seems as though she is offering her services in any way she can.

George could care less, all he wants is that damn giraffe!

Are we doing something wrong?

This is an old photo but her facial expression is still the same most days.

This kid cries all. the .time and has since birth.

First, everyone told me it was gas, then colic now teething. Really? Is it possible that all of those things have caused her to be so miserable for the past five months straight, or is it just her personality? She is not happy laying down, being held, in her car seat, swing or exersauser. She is just never content. I have been trying to get her on a schedule where she eats every four hours but she wants no part of it. I just don't know what we're doing wrong.

We went out today for two hours. She didn't make a sound. The minute the car pulled in the driveway she lost her mind and continued to do so for the next 90 minutes. I don't get it. I'm sure now, it really is teething, so I've been giving her Tylenol here and there to see if that helps. (it doesn't but at least it makes me feel like I'm doing something.) We're trying teething rings, frozen washcloths etc., but nothing is helping and so far there are no teeth. I really don't get it and I'm starting get really frustrated.

Major Milestone Reached - We have rolling!

Lauren rolled over back to front for the first time on her 5 month birthday. Five months and one day and she has successfully done it several more times. I managed to catch it once on video. We are on our way to being mobile! Looks like there wont be anymore naps on the table for this girl!

5 months old

Lauren is 5 months old today and it is also Valentine's Day. This is not the best photo, but you get the idea. She's cute. She also cries a lot. There is no change there. It's true. When you think you've got things figured out, she changes them on you. I thought she thrived on being in places where there is lots of action, noise and excitement, but suddenly that is no longer the case. Oh well, maybe next week the winds will shift again and we can take her to her first mosh pit.

Attachment

First, how cute is she?

Laure is nearly five months old now - I know right? How did that happen? - and she seems to be getting to a stage where she is attached to me. I can't leave the room or be our for her sight for long without her freaking out. When we left her with her grandparents the other night for a few hours she was hysterical. In some ways, yes this is slightly redeeming, knowing that she loves me that much. But for many other reasons I don't like it. Unfortunately there really is no way around it at this point in time. I spend all day every day with her. She constantly hears my voice, smells my scent (which by the way these days is a mixture of stale barf and diet coke). We play, I sing horrible made-up songs and the number of kisses she gets hovers around excessive. She knows if I say "One, two, three..." something exciting is about to happen. I know she can be fun, but I want other people to experience that too.

I know she is still very young and will probably vacillate in and out of this stage throughout the next few years. I want Lauren to grow up adoring her grandparents just like I did (do) I want her to have sleepovers and go on trips with them and not be scared if I'm not with her.

I know what you're thinking. She's five months old. Get a grip. All right fine. Maybe I`m the one whose too attached.

More remind me later stuff

After Lauren's four month doctor's appointment today I can say with confidence that her lumpy nipples are completely normal. Yeh!

Also, She currently weighs 15 lbs 4 ozs

Okay so that's not a lot of updates, but I still don't want to forget them.

So much can happen in a year

One year ago today, on this exact evening I was peeing on three sticks and we were finding out I was pregnant.

Wow, so much has happened in a year. Most of that time dragged by, but of course the last four months have flown.

I can't believe a year has passed and we have made it through and come out the other side with a beautiful little girl!

I'm going ot spend the rest of the night counting my blessings.

Remind me later

Part of the reason I started this blog was so I could remember things about Lauren and her development later on. There are lots of things I ask people about their children and they can't seem to remember. I guess eventually you do forget everything.

So a few things at the four month mark to jog my memory later on:

• at 4 months she is still eating approximately 4ozs every three hours
• She has naturally fallen into the bed time of somewhere between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. and sleeps either completely through the night waking at 6-8 a.m. or waking at 4 a.m. to get changed and eat and going back to sleep until 6-8 a.m. Either way her parents are thrilled.
• She has not yet learned to roll over and I'm okay with that.
• She loves to stand and is very strong with her next and legs.
• She is adorable and still has big blue eyes, but is extremely crabby requiring constant attention during her waking hours.
• She doesn't giggle often, but I have gotten her to do it a few times by tickling the right spot under her chin while applying baby powder. Her dad has yet to witness this amazing feat.
• She drools and/or throws up all the time requiring many many bib changes throughout the day.
• She has almost outgrown her baby bathtub and the ducky tub which we've only gotten out this week.
• She still loves to lay on the table - especially when we are eating. I can see this becoming a problem.
• We still swaddle her to sleep.
• She is wearing size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothing for the most part.
• She has bumpy nipples. Yes I did just say that. I feel the need to remember this fact so when someone asks me in a panic if this is normal I can confidently say, Yes it is! (I think it is anyway, we're asking about it at the doctor on Tuesday. Fingers crossed on my optimism!)

A reminder to mom

Lauren had a very crabby day yesterday. I'm not sure if she is teething, or had a sick tummy or maybe she is sick of being cooped up in the house all day long. Whatever the cause she was not a happy camper.

I need to remind myself that she really is adorable. Most of the time.

Let's hope today I get my cute baby back.

Bad mom complex

Oh the guilt associated with being a mother!

I often find myself wondering if I'm a bad mom for things I do, think, or say to Lauren.

Like, for example, am I a bad mom if:

* she takes her morning nap on the kitchen table when I read Perez Hilton while lounging on the couch 5 feet away? She can't roll yet, so how harmful could it be?
* I tell her I'm going to throw her out the window when she has been crying without cause for an hour? I would never really throw her out. I'd probably walk out the front door on my own first.
* Want to have someone else watch her for a few hours just so I can be away from her? I'm sure I could find an important errand to run.
* Accidentally put a drop of vitamin D in her eye. Okay that one was pretty bad, but it was totally an accident.
* Feed her curdled milk? Yes, you'd think you could tell, but it is surprisingly difficult to distinguish.
* Don't change her outfit every time the slightest drop of barf or spit up hits it? Seriously, this would be a full time job.
* Don't attend Mother Goose, Mommy and Me, Story Hour classes when she is under six months old because I just don't see the point? I can totally picture it, she'd fall asleep and I'd be stuck singing The Farmer in the Dell with a bunch of zombie-eyed mothers.

Sometimes when asking myself, the answer is yes depending on the situation - or the amount of vitamin D - but other times it's no.

I guess ultimately the goal is to get more No's than Yes's and I'll be well on my way to Mommy of the Year.

Christmas

Lauren's first Christmas season has come to a close and although she really had no idea what was going on around her I think she had a good time. I am always someone who has wished for the next stage, so I am really looking forward to next year when she might be more excited and aware of the holiday.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day evening with Norm's parents. Christmas morning we spent at home eating candy and reading our new magazines - ahh the luxury of it all!

December 27 we were off to Cobourg to visit my family which is always insanity. There were 16 adults - the oldest being 93 - 7 dogs ranging from 3-30 pounds, and one infant. Insanity. Despite her constant crying, Lauren was a big hit. She met one of her uncles for the first time, and saw the others again. She received some lovely gifts and was a great traveler in the car.

We are looking forward to many more Christmas seasons in the years to come.

13 weeks old.

My First Christmas

13 weeks first time in the Bumbo Chair.

Daddy's baby bib the homemade gift from McDonald Family Christmas.

With her dad.

Exhausted from Christmas shopping and visiting Santa for the first time.

Santa!