Gosh, I don't know where the time goes anymore! Since I've been home on leave I hardly know what day of the week it is or what date it is on the calendar. The days have a way of all running together and the weeks are just flying by.

We've been busy with fun stuff like Gymboree play classes, story time at the book store, play dates, the park, mornings at the zoo, the mall play centers, shopping, etc. This fun, carefree life all goes away on May 11th when I go back to work full-time. At that point I will definitely know what day of the week it is, because I'll be counting the days until the weekend!

I'm just now starting my quest for daycare, since Joe just got a temporary job through June. All along the plan was to have him stay home with Lauren until he found a permanent job, so I feel like I'm getting a late start on this. Today I checked out a Chinese daycare we have close by and I have an appointment with Tutor Time on Thursday. I'm going to check out Kindercare next week and we also have a few locally owned centers I'd like to check into.

For the month of April, my focus will be on getting Lauren ready to be separated from us during the day. Up until now, she has always been with one of us (mostly me) so this is going to be a challenge. I'm going to start by leaving her with family for very short periods of time and building up the time slowly. Also, the center we select needs to work with us by letting me leave her for short periods of time several times before she's there for the whole day. I'm not sure who this will be harder on...her or me. I'm betting me!

Well, here's some pics from the past week...

Momma, stickers are fun...do you want one?


They have fun stuff to play with at Gymboree...


Warm chocolate chip cookies are yummy...


I had fun holding hands with Aunt Stephanie and Emily at the Arts Festival...


Josh gave me a horsey-back ride...


and he likes to pick me up and carry me...


he takes good care of me...



Also, I tried my hand at making some fun hair clippies. They aren't perfect or fancy, but I think they turned out kinda cute. Look, Stephe, they actually have a little bit of bling...are you proud?


In April we are taking Lauren to Disneyland as our last hurrah before I go back to work. Before you say it...I know she's too young, but the trip is honestly more for us than for her anyway. I've been waiting a gazillion years to take a Disney trip with our own child and I'm not waiting any longer! ;) I made these hair clippies with our trip in mind...

Happy Birthday, baby!

You have brought us more joy than we ever imagined and we are so grateful to have you in our lives.

We had a little get together over the weekend for Little Missy's birthday (click images to enlarge)...

Hmmm...what's that momma?


Oh goodie, it's the Target ad. Let's see what's on sale this week...


You said we can go, momma? Yay!


Momma and I picked out these two swimsuit ensembles, each on sale for $9.99. Will it be the bright patterned bodysuit...


or the three piece one with the board shorts?


Or maybe keep both?

After an exhausting morning of shopping, it's a hotdog, macaroni and cottage cheese for me...


Look momma...all done!


Update: Here's Little Missy modeling the suits. The body suit is a keeper...


The other suit is darn cute too, but the pants are a little big and the top rides up a bit. For a skinny minnie she is getting quite the tummy.

Practice makes perfect...

Here's a video of Little Miss practicing some names and words with Grandma yesterday. You'll have to excuse the noise in the background, as I'm cooking and using the salt and pepper grinders. I think her cousins will be happy that she is starting to say their names now!

The front of our house appears to be a friendly enough place with flowers (ok, some weeds too)...


and other cute things...


But wait...what's that sign up there on the left?



What? Don't ring the bell? Well, after Little Miss was awaken from a restful nap more than a few times, a momma has to take drastic action.


Once time is spent getting her into this condition...


I decided that nothing is going to wake her anymore! Ha!

Lauren is finally done with her 10 day course of antibiotics and her MRSA boil is gone. The pediatrician said this is the best case scenario since the boil never got worse and no other symptoms developed. Let's keep our fingers crossed that no other boils surface in the near future! It was SO nice to put her to bed tonight without the struggle to get the medication down!

I have no pics today, but I wish I had my camera out earlier today. Lauren was so smiley and happy when we were playing this afternoon. It's so great to see her personality develop. I think my mom described it the best by saying she's like a beautiful flower and as she blossoms her petals open up to reveal her true self. I like that and it seems so true. Those of you who are still waiting will find out for yourself someday...I just wish it was sooner for you all rather than later! :)

Thank you and random facts...

Thank you for all the great tips on giving Lauren her medicine. Today we have found that laying her down on Joe's lap with her head hanging over a bit and me squirting small amounts from the dropper WAY back against her check and then pressing her checks together into a pucker has been working pretty well. Something about having her mouth puckered doesn't allow her to gargle the medicine out. As soon as she swallows, I go in for the next squirt.

Here are some random facts about Little Miss:

When I'm sitting she pats me on the arm and says "momma" to get my attention. The first time she did this my heart just melted.

She says "bye-bye" all the time in the sweetest voice I've ever heard.

She waves and blows kisses.

When I'm holding her she sometimes leans in and puckers her lips a little bit for kisses.

When I'm carrying her on the way out of the house, she loves to get a treat for furbaby Lucy and feed it to her. She always waves at Lucy and says "bye-bye" before we leave.

When she's in the car seat and I turn the radio on, she starts swaying back and forth to the music and sometimes claps her hands too.

After her bath, she needs to be wrapped up in her towel and held for about 10 minutues before putting her diaper and PJ's on.

She loves to get a squirt of lotion on her hands and rub them together.

Her favorite food right now is broccoli and she will almost always pick that off her plate first.

She's a very good eater and eats way more than you think she could based on her size.

Now that we have her on a good sleeping schedule, she's usually out within 10 minutes of putting her down in her crib.

She can point to and say two body parts so far..."nose" and "tummy".

She doesn't like hair clips and will pull them out as soon as she's aware they are in.

She will finally let us rock her to sleep and hold her for more than a few minutes when we are sitting. This really shows how comfortable she is getting with us.

She likes to be carried around a lot and we gladly comply.

If Joe takes her in the stroller when he walks Lucy in the evening and I'm here on the computer, she will run in to find me with the biggest smile on her face.

She sucks her thumb a lot and if her cousins ask if they can have some, she pops her thumb out and offers it up.

She calls grandma "ma".

Sometimes when she plays with Joe's cell phone, she chatters away and then cracks herself up so much she tosses her head back with her hands on her face. It's really cute.

When I hold her she loves to touch the skin on my neck, face and chest and press her face against mine. It's the sweetest thing ever and it just makes me melt.

It's been a crazy week...

Over the past week, my dad and step-mom have been in town from NY. It was SO great to see them and REALLY nice to have them staying with us and getting to know Lauren. I've learned quickly though, that nothing goes as planned when you have a little one.

The Friday morning my dad got in, I noticed something that looked a bit more serious than diaper rash on Lauren's bottom. After some advice from a friend and suspecting that it may be a boil infected with MRSA, which is an antibiotic resistant strain of staph infection, I made an appointment with the pediatrician. She took a sample of the fluid from the boil, sent it off to the lab, and prescribed two different antibiotics to try and fight off the infection. It took me all afternoon and trips to four different pharmacies to finally make it home with the meds. After two days on those meds and a fever scare, I got a call back with the test results. Yup, it's a strain of MRSA and the pediatrician had to call the infectious disease specialist at the hospital to figure out how to treat it. It turns out there is only one antibiotic that can fight it and Lauren has been on it for four days now.

The struggle to get her to take this med is absolutely heartbreaking. After the first day of trying to get her to take it and trying to think of every possible food or drink item to disguise it in, it's come down to having to literally hold her down and forcing the dropper into the back of her mouth. It's takes every bit of me and Joe to hold and dose her. The trouble we are running into is that once I drop a little of the med into the back of her mouth, she won't swallow and gargles it until it comes out. Even if we spill a little water into her mouth after each little bit, she manages to gargle some of it out. Getting her to swallow is nearly impossible. We have been laying her down flat with her head on a small pillow. Joe holds her body, while I hold her head and squeeze med from the dropper into the back of her mouth as she is screaming on top of her lungs. Any suggestions or ideas would be MUCH appreciated, as we have six more days of three doses a day and it's emotionally draining on all of us!

On the positive side, she seems to be feeling good and is eating and drinking normally. She has been having a great time with the family since my dad has been here. Here are a few layouts of my favorite pics with her cousins that I did for her scrapbook (click to enlarge)...





Here are some of my other favorite pics from the week...











Well, my dad and step-mom flew back this morning and all is now quite at the house again. It will be nice to get Lauren back on her regular schedule, but it's so sad to say good-bye not knowing when we'll see them again. We had a great visit and it was so much fun to watch Lauren with my dad and laughing and playing with her cousins all week.

Asian baby doll...

A couple of you asked about the doll in my last post. Yes, it's Playful Patti by the Berenguer doll company. We received her as a gift while we were waiting.

She is a really cute doll and I'm sure Lauren will have fun styling her hair when she gets into that. If you search the dolls name, you'll find lots of sites that sell the different styles...seems the price ranges from $12.99 to $16. This place is closing them out for only $9.95 and you can see the different styles here.

Happy shopping!

My favorite time of day...

is when Lauren just gets up in the morning or after her nap. That's when she lets me hold her close and snuggle. It's such a wonderful feeling to have her in my arms. I think about how far she has come since our China trip and how very lucky we are to have been matched with this incredible little girl. She has been doing this thing lately when I hold her...she touches my neck or lays her hand on my chest around the neckline of my shirts. I think it's a comfort thing for her, as she is usually sucking her thumb when she does it.

I'm half way through my maternity leave right now and the reality of heading back to work full-time is starting to creep into my thoughts. Since Joe hasn't found a new job yet, he will be home with Lauren for a while until he finds something. Knowing that she probably won't need to head to daycare yet makes me feel better about going back to work, although it's still going to be hard. I'll definitely be missing out on my favorite time of day during the week, so I'm cherishing every moment I get right now.

Lauren is changing and coming out of her shell more and more each day. At the mall play center she used to just stand back and watch the other kids, but now she gets right in there. She loves play cars and steering wheels.




She also loves to walk her little baby stroller around the house and backyard...


although half the time the baby ends up kicked to the curb...


Just over the past week she has learned to rock her baby dolls and feed them with a bottle. Today she started giving her baby a hug and kiss too. It's so cute to watch her do new things.

On Saturday morning Grandma and I took her in for her first hair-cut. I wanted to get those long pointy side burns trimmed and just shape it up a bit. She hated every minute of it and screamed from the time he started spraying her hair down until she got out of the chair. My poor baby!!