Life with Lauren: Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, big girl!

Our beautiful girl is one year old. ONE! It's so crazy to me that a year has already passed, and yet so normal and beautiful that I'm having trouble finding words to describe the day, as well as the past month.

I'll start out with stats, because facts are easy to state. Her weight is 23 lbs, her height is 30.5", and according to the doctor, her head measures 17 cm (yes, cm). Obviously that last reading isn't right, but I didn't really care to measure her noggin. She's a plump girl, and I think she's just perfect. I feel great joy when we go to the doctor's office and there are no problems with weight gain. After watching how much this girl eats, there is no surprise that she is at a healthy weight! She eats pretty much everything, including salmon, which I didn't expect to share with her. She waved her arms, fussed and pointed at my plate (and I was the only adult at home) so I had to be the bigger person and give her some of the delicious, wild-caught salmon, straight from Alaska.   

This is the same basket Lauren was in as a baby for newborn pics. How she has grown!

Lauren is walking all of the time and is into everything. Every drawer and cupboard is her territory, which makes our kitchen look like a wreck. I keep saying we need to install more kid locks, but we haven't yet. Her favorite place to get into is my bathroom drawer (contact solution, deodorant, makeup, etc. are all gleefully pulled out and dropped on the floor) and the baking cupboard (those little bottles of extract are the perfect size for her to cart around). We've just started playing outside as the weather has gotten cooler, and she'll happily walk around the backyard for 30 minutes to an hour, climbing up and down the stairs to the deck, and playing with rocks. We both love the vitamin D and I love how it wears her out. 

Her routine still consists of two naps, three meals plus one snack, and nursing before sleeping and when she wakes up in the morning . She isn't a talker, although I think she says dog. Not quite sure about that. Reading books is still a challenge because of her boundless energy, but we certainly read AT her as she goes about her business. Getting bruises is practically a hobby, with new and creative ways for bumping into things occurring each and every day. Her favorite toys vary from day to day, but consistently she loves Ross (the cabbage patch kid) and a wipes box full of scarves, which she never tires of pulling out and then wrapping around her shoulders. 

As for her actual birthday, we had visitors. Uncle Andrew, Aunt Shelley, Ben and Caleb all came to visit, and we celebrated by eating apple crisp and vanilla ice cream both the day before and the day of. Her father and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary (same day) by going on a breakfast date without Lauren -- woo hoo! (Thanks for watching her, visitors!) She got a few sweet presents -- a slide, a bike, and musical instruments -- and I'm already wondering what possibly she could need for Christmas and where will we store it. (Why bother to store it? They just get torn out of their baskets and strewn about the house.) Our house is going to be overtaken by toys, but they make her happy and our house fun.

Happy birthday, dear Lauren! We can't wait to see how you grow over this next year. 

Giving Thanks...

I'm glad my conscience was clear this weekend: my previous post covered me for the weekend. I had no time to blog while at my parents' house! However, even though my posting was absent for the weekend, I had an abundance of joys.

1.) Lots of giggling with my sister. And boy, did we have time to chit chat. Chocolate covered animal crackers take some time to make! (We were so amusing that we distracted my mom from her first batch of chocolate cupcakes. Whoops!)

2.) Jo and I were roommates this weekend, too. Nothing like staying up for a half an hour talking about the doo-dads of childhood that still decorate her shelves.

3.) Seeing my brother and sister-in-law, who are pregnant with their first child. They are going to be excellent parents. Seriously. And Shelley looks so cute!

4.) An amazing shower to welcome Baby Ben into the world. It was also a lot of fun, with family, church family, and friends to share in their joy!

5.) Spending time with my wonderful parents. I had such a great time that I teared up when I left Fredonia. (True story.)

6.) Sunday afternoon: lunch with my aunt + uncle and my favorite mother-daughter-sister activities of reading magazines, pointing out silly ideas/products (Real Simple wins the prize for that one) or things we like.

7.) Visiting with friends from Houghton! They were really Shelley's friends first, but I got to join in on the friendships during my time there at college and in the year following.

8.) Watching Mama Mia with my amiga Ashley. Ashley has overcome so much in the past 3 years (and I don't say that lightly). Her attitude and sense of humor are remarkable.

9.) Walks around Fredonia. I love small towns. Multiple people at church said, "Oh! I saw you walking yesterday!" So great.

10.) MEAT. My parents have a meat emporium in their basement, and until you've tasted Brautigam Bacon (raised by an uncle) you haven't LIVED! :) Not to mentioned the other cuts of fantastic meat that I brought back with me. We're set for a few months now. Not only do they give it to us (so kind) but it's all raised locally (well, local to Fredonia). I'm fairly sure that the farmers, 4-H students, and nearby meat processing plant all provide conditions that are much more humane than the industrialized meat farms, so my conscience doesn't have to suffer either.

I had a wonderful, fantastic weekend, but I was also so happy to come home to my sweet husband Dan. I missed him this weekend, but we were able to celebrate his birthday (the big 2-7!) together when I returned home. Excited to enjoy another piece of blueberry buttercream cake tonight for dessert.