Lauren's 3-Month-Old Pictures :)

I took Lauren to JC Penney for her three-month old pictures a week ago. We picked them up yesterday. Enjoy!

Love,

Mindy and Lauren

A very busy week!

Chad left on a week-long business trip last Sunday evening, so I took Lauren and we went up to my parents' house in Rice Lake for a few days. Westin stayed with a co-worker of mine because there wasn't any room in my car for him. Can you believe that?? I drive an SUV and had it filled with stuff for Lauren...the bouncy seat, her Pack-n-Play playpen, her stroller, a suitcase that we shared. I can't get over how much stuff we have to take for her when we go anywhere overnight. Wow! Anyways, I took her up there on Monday and we returned on Thursday. It's a five hour drive and is NOT fun when you are doing it alone with a baby. She cried for about half the trip going up there. I stopped twice to feed and change her but that did little to make her happy. For the return trip, I took a different route and broke up the trip by visiting a good friend of mine in the middle of the drive. Being silly...

Another big 'ol belly picture.
Lauren and I visiting her great-grandpa again.
This is Lauren with Mike. I babysat him for many years when he was younger. It was so cute seeing him with Lauren.
When we stopped on our drive home from Rice Lake, we visited my good friend Danielle and her two-year-old son Porter. He is absolutely adorable. I hear he's been telling people that "Minnie came to visit" and that Lauren tickled his neck when we took his picture. I know he's been checking the blog to see his picture, so....Hi Porter! Lauren misses you :)

When we got home Thursday night, Lauren rolled over for the very first time! I tried to capture it in pictures, but that wasn't so easy. Next time, I'll have to remember to use the video camera instead.

She's about to roll!
She's also started grasping objects and bringing them to her mouth to suck on. Let the babyproofing begin...
She's actualy laying on her tummy right now, just before a roll.
Lauren's great-grandparents are celebrating their 53rd wedding anniversary tomorrow. If you happen to see this picture and talk to them on the phone, please don't tell them about this. We're sending it to their Wal-Mart one-hour photo lab tomorrow as a surprise :) They've never met Lauren, but hopefully they will soon!

Chad got back from his trip late last night. I took Lauren to our dinner club get-together at Rob and Carla's without him but we met him at home afterwards. We're glad to have him home!

Love,

Mindy & Lauren

Happy birthday Chad!

As you can tell from the title of this message, yesterday we celebrated Chad's 29th birthday. He spent lots of time with Lauren and I, but also got to do a few of his other favorite activities--organzing the garage and handwashing his car. In fact, he has a new supervisor to oversee his carwashing skills and let him know when he misses a spot :-) Here's the new supervisor:

"Daddy, you missed a spot of dirt by the front tire..."

Laundry day! Here's my two helpers. Now why can't they fold all of that for me?

My sister Karlee lives in San Diego but came for a brief visit this week. The last time she'd seen Lauren was when she was only a week old, so she thought she'd grown a ton. She and Lauren spent lots of time cuddling and playing together while Karlee was in town. My dad had last Thursday off of work so he and my mom came over for a nice visit. Lauren was pretty fussy that day but I think it's because she had an interrupted nap that morning...

Karlee thought it was funny to see our entire family (including Westin and Allie) on the couch at once.

Me and my little cuddle bug~

Lauren is growing so quickly. We are having so much fun watching her as she learns about and encounters new things each day. Now that the weather is finally warming up, we've taken her outdoors more often. She is learning to enjoy a nice breeze rather than freak out and scream when she feels it. That's how she reacted at first. I showed her the geese at the pond across from our house today. That'll be fun next spring when she's old enough to feed them with me.

Lauren's new thing is to coo and make cute noises when I sing to her. It's like she's singing along with me. It's adorable :)

Good night!

Love,

Mindy and the Cuddle Bug

Giggles, grandparents and THREE MONTHS OLD ALREADY?!?!

Hi everybody! We had a very nice weekend visiting with Chad's parents. They drove up from Indianapolis on Saturday and took us out for Chad's (early) birthday dinner. Lauren was very easy-going--she slept quietly through dinner and spent lots of time in her grandparents' arms before and after dinner :)

Lauren is wearing a special handmade sweater, hat and booties given to her by one of her great-grandmas.

Spending lots of time with Grandma.

We realized that we have hardly any pictures of Chad and I with Lauren. Grandma Steighner took this one for us.

I bought this hat before Lauren was born. Since I was convinced that I was having a boy, I almost cut off the little pink bows that are on top by the ears. Glad I waited!

All bundled up for another long stroll with Westin.

Hangin' out with Mommy :)

Westin thinks the nursing pillow is for him!

Today Lauren had to go back to the pediatrician's office for more of her two-month shots. Babies have to get SO many vaccinations nowadays. Instead of inundating her little immune system with so many live vaccines at once, I made the decision to spread them out a bit. So instead of getting 4 vaccines at her two-month appointment, she got two of them and then she got two more today (a month later). At her four-month appointment in May, I'll do the same thing and only have her get half of the vaccines. Then we'll go back in June for the second half. I felt so bad today because she was sound asleep in her carseat when we got to the doctor's office. When I woke her for her shots, she was smiling and cooing at me. While she was literally mid-smile, the nurse gave her a shot and she screamed. It brought tears to my eyes too and I felt horrible for making her go through the pain. Poor girl~

In better news, Lauren learned to laugh! Last night while I was tickling her, she started laughing. To me, that was the best sound in the whole world :)

Looks like Lauren will get lots of time with her Grandma Lucas and her Aunt Karlee this week. She's looking forward to it!

Love,

Mindy and the giggle-bug

A peek at our week!

Lauren and I have had a fun week together at home. She's getting so much better at holding her head up for long periods of time, so I've been giving her lots and lots of "tummy time". This week, Chad was gone two nights for grad school and one night for a business trip so Lauren and I had to entertain ourselves without him. We went shopping at Target and Kohls. I treated myself to a few new pairs of pants. I was proud to fit into and buy my pre-pregnancy size. The long walks are paying off :-)

Here's Lauren trying out her new BebePod seat. It's designed to hold infants in a sitting position before they're able to sit on their own (like a Bumbo seat). This is her very first time sitting in it. I think it was a hit!

Tummy time!

Lauren just recently took a liking to her cradle swing. She likes to look up at the mirror on it and watch herself as she swings.

Tonight, my elementary school is having a pasta dinner fundraiser. Since Chad's at grad class tonight, I'm going to take Lauren and enjoy visiting with families and colleagues that I haven't seen in awhile. I'm looking forward to it!

This weekend, Chad's parents are coming to visit. We hear they are pretty excited to see their granddaughter again :-)

Have a good night!

Love,

Mindy & Lauren

Take me out to the ballgame...

Well, it's been a beautiful weekend around here finally. Sunny and warm--finally feels like spring! We've taken Lauren and Westin for a few nice neighborhood walks. She's almost big enough for us to use her jogging stroller. Pretty soon!Here's my goofy girl showing off another new outfit :)

On Saturday, instead of going to the zoo, we took Lauren to her first baseball game! Here she is with her Grandpa Lucas. He was able to visit with us for a short time before his game started.

Unfortunately, due to the bright sunshine and the cool breeze, Lauren got uncomfortable and was pretty fussy during the game. It was really loud there too, so that didn't help. We ended up taking turns walking her around the stadium, trying to get her to sleep. No such luck. So her first baseball game didn't go over all that well. Hopefully next time will be better :)

Lauren's newest trick is laughing. When I heard her laugh for the very first time, I actually got choked up because it was the sweetest sound I'd ever heard. I was singing a silly song to her and started making funny faces at her. She got all smiley and started laughing. I love it!

This week is looking pretty busy for us. We're going to visit my friend Elbert, in the nursing home, again. We also are going to try to go again to the infant and toddler storytime/sing-along at Barnes and Noble on Thursday. Friday, we're going to have Lauren's 3-month pictures taken at JC Penney. I can't believe she's almost 3 months old. The time has just flown by.

Have a good work week!

Love,

Mindy & Lauren

Mmmmm...Fingers taste yummy :)

As you can tell from the name of this post, Lauren absolutely loves to suck on her fingers. She tries to get all of them in her mouth at once, not just her thumb. In fact, she spits out her pacifier now because she prefers her fingers.
It's a beautiful day here today (50 degrees and sunny), so I took her and Westin for a long walk. It felt so good to be outside in the sun. My goal is to be back in ALL of my pre-baby clothing by the time I go back to work in another month (and NO, that is not the reason why I extended my maternity leave by another month). So I'm trying to go for long walks as often as possible. So far, so good!

Last Saturday, Lauren discovered her voice for the first time. She has been saying "oh" over and over again. It's adorable to hear her as she tries to carry on a conversation with me...with Chad...with Westin...with her mobile...with pretty much anything. She just says "oh, oh, ohhhh, oh, ohhhh, OH!" It's pretty funny!

Lauren's first jewelry item- A bracelet engraved with her name. It's a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Steighner.

I got Lauren a surf-board "tummy time" mat. I think she likes it! The clear compartment with the fish is also full of water, so it's fun for her to watch.

This picture made me laugh :)

Gotta love those fingers!

I mentioned the death of my student's mom in my last message. Her funeral is tomorrow evening and I'll be speaking at the service. They've asked me to speak about her contributions to the school and to my classroom. Hope I can get through it without breaking down while I watch her two little kids as they sit through the service. Ugh. Chad's coming with me because he had also met her and her children several times. Grandma Lucas is coming over to babysit while we're gone...

Looking forward to a nice weekend coming up. The weather is supposed to be nice and I heard that the Milwaukee Zoo has free admission all day Saturday. I'm going to try to convince Chad that Lauren deserves her first trip to the zoo this weekend. We'll see.

Love,

Mindy & Lauren