Boo!

We're really getting into Halloween at our house. By "We" I actually mean "ME" since I've been the driving force behind this unprecedented desire to deck the house out in scariness.

I tried to use borrowed/recycled/repurposed materials to spookify our house:

This guy sits near our front door. Made him out of a stuffed jumpsuit, a milk jug (for the head) and covered in mom's old bed sheets. He's creepy and realistic. My Godson, Angel, was afraid to get near him. Ok, Angel's 9 years old, but still...ooooOOOOoooo....scary.

Made these guys using gallon milk jugs, a sharpie and a string of christmas lights. Not really scary..but kinda cute.



The only things I actually bought were a couple packs of faux spider web, a big hairy spider and that stuff set me back about $8 (Rite Aid had a 50% off sale of Halloween decor). It looks a little cheesy but Angel thought it was the coolest.



Angel and I carved the pumpkins that we got from the pumpkin patch. The pumpkin in back has the silhouette of a ghost in a window. Can you tell? Oh well, I tried.




We made cupcakes too. The black sprinkles kinda look like rat turds...but I guess turd cakes are common at our house...

I guess we're ready for Halloween!

Funnies on the Internets

I had the luxury of mindless online browsing for TWO WHOLE HOURS. A sampling of funny blogs I discovered:

From "The Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks"

(Although, in this picture, the quotation marks are necessary)












This is supposed to be a "Curious George" cake. (Again, quotations necessary)
From Cake Wrecks

Just say NO to cupcake cakes!













Ugh..Don't you hate it when people park like this?
badparking.wordpress.com















That's what she said
failblog.org








Browsing over for now...it was nice to have a little free time tonight.

Another Addict

On our way home from the pumpkin patch we stopped at In n' Out for dinner. We got a couple of burgers (Animal Style No Spread with Chiles) and of course, fries. I LOVE In' N' Out fries. I know people that absolutely HATE them, but I really like them. I love that you can watch them peel and cut the potatoes right in front of you and how they taste home made. I like McDonald's fries, but I think I would take In N' Out fries over those any day.

Anyway, I gave one to Lauren and guess what? She stuffed it into her mouth and reached for more...she loves them too!

Welcome to Fast Food Nation, baby. What have we done?!?!

LIfe's a Beach

Here are some pics from Lauren's first beach experience during our trip to Newport. It was pretty windy and a little chilly so we only stayed long enough to stroll a little and build a sand castle. Can't wait to take her again, and hopefully the weather's better next time.

Lesson#1 Sand is squishy between your toes

Lesson #2 Sand is fun to eat!

Lesson #3 Ummm, no it's NOT!

Lesson# 4 Building Sand Castles with Daddy is FUN!

Lesson #5 Tearing down sand castles is fun too!


Lesson #6 Seagulls are silly...and they like potato chips


Lesson #8 I love the beach! I hope we come back again!

Our little pumpkin

It's pumpkin patch time again. Last year, Lauren was too little to really enjoy the experience. This year was a lot more fun. We went to a small pumpkin farm (we actually found one with no admission and minimal inflatable decorations...hard to find those these days). We brought my godson, Angel, with us and he had fun going through the corn maze with Pete and pulling Lauren along in a wagon. There was a baby maze made of bales of hay for Lauren too. She was much more interested in dirt, hay, and rocks than the pumpkins and the maze though! Every couple minutes she stopped dig her hands in the dirt or pick up rocks. I'm pretty sure she licked a couple of them when I wasn't looking. Sigh...strange kid.

Can't this thing go any faster?

So many pumpkins...I want all of them!

OK, I'll just take this one then....

Hey, Hay! This maze is just the right size for me!

Lauren and Angel

I love rocks!

..and Daddy too!

Summer's last hurrah

Summer is fading away and it's Lauren's last chance to wear her pretty summer dresses. I especially like this eyelet dress made of the softest organic cotton. I used to think organic clothing was mostly a lot of brouhaha and didn't want to spend the extra bucks for it. But really, some of the organic cotton clothes she's received as gifts have been soooo nice and soft.

I feel pretty!

She just conked out in this nice and sunny spot. Aww, just like Garfield!

14 Months!

Time for another update! FOURTEEN MONTHS!

Chompers!

Lauren's always been a little behind in the tooth department. She's now got 1.85 upper teeth. Her first upper grew in soon after her first birthday and she got the nickname "Chomper" for having the one huge front tooth...the second started growing in they're almost even now. Her favorite thing to bit into: toes! And no, not her own toes. Weird.

She has a little tooth brush and we brusha brusha brusha every night together.

Bye Bye Boob
Speaking of teeth, Lauren bit me a couple of times while nursing. OOUCH! I stopped nursing, but not because of that though, she actually weaned herself and was no longer interested at right around 12 and a half months. During that last week of nursing, I had a feeling this special relationship was coming to an end. Each time she nursed I sadly thought to myself "Is this the last time?" Finally it really was the last time and she hasn't looked back since. Next step: SIPPY CUPS! She uses them ocassionally for juice and water, but she still looks for her bottle come naptime. A fellow mom's advice on how to wean her off the bottle: COLD TURKEY!!!


Food She Eats (and not enough of it, according to Grandma!)
Canned vegetable soup (carrots, green beans, and peas only)
Graham crackers
Cheese
Goldfish crackers
Milk.

And that's all...when we first introduced her to solid foods she was game...not so much anymore, she's so picky!

Words she says:
"Buh!" (Peek a boo!)
"Tsis!" (Cheese)
"Mumumumum" or "YAdyadyadyadya" (Mama and Dad..but only when she's upset)


Her signs: (she does them a lot more now)
"Milk"
"Daddy"
"Bath"
"All Done/All Gone/Wala na!"

I worry a little that she doesn't talk much yet...but everyone tells me not to worry. So I won't.

Dancing Queen
She loves to dance dance dance. Even when there's no music. Her favorite kind of music? Mexican Dance music. Go figure. Sometimes after dinner we tune in to the Eighties music channel on cable and the three of us dance around the living room to Culture Club and the Eurythmics. She loves to twirl until she makes herself dizzy. Silly girl.

Big Girl Carseat
We finally made the switch to the Big Girl carseat. I will miss her infant carrier, especially when she falls asleep and I can no longer carry her out the car undisturbed. I will still keep the seats rear-facing though as per recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics. We had to get two of them, one for each of our cars. One is new (thanks Grandma P!) and the other is a hand me down (Thanks Ate Tobey!)


There's nothing more to update except that this is such fun fun fun age and we are loving it. I just love watching her learn and discover new things. Through her I remember to appreciate the simple joys like crunching leaves beneath my feet or burying my face in a big soft and fuzzy blanket. When's the last time you splashed around in the bathtub?

Nice to meet ya!

Lauren had a surprise visit from her Auntie Lynn and Lola Vi who came to visit my mom. Lynn lives in So-Cal and was in town for work.

.
(L-R) Daddy, Grandma, Lola Vi, Auntie Sarah, Auntie Lynn and me, and Mommy

R and R

We took a short break last week and drove down to Southern California to visit Peter's family and have a little R&R. After recovering from our colds, we headed down for a weekend in Newport and a visit with Lauren's Great Grandma who recently turned 90. NINETY!!! You go, Grandma!

10 minutes into the trip. Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! Like my pigtails? Aren't they cute?



9 hours later (driving through L.A. during Friday afternoon rush hour) I hate these stinking pigtails!!! I need a drink! Gimme my bottle!

Upon our arrival at Newport Coast, we drove past some car dealerships: Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley. Peter looked at me and said, "We're not in Roseville anymore..." The weather wasn't too great, it was cloudy and cool most of the weekend. Despite the weather, we spent a couple of hours at the beach were Lauren dipped her toes into the Pacific for the first time and helped us build a sand castle. We fell asleep at night to the sound of the Santa Ana winds blowing through the leaves of the huge trees outside our hotel room. We didn't do much, just stayed in, got a little extra sleep, went to the mall. A typical weekend but this time in a much more beautiful and opulent setting.

Checking out the Koi pond with Grandpa at the mall.

Meeting cousin Eddie (who just moved here from Florida) over lunch at a local Seafood restaurant.

We kept our eyes on the wildfires burning throughout So-Cal (they were scarily close to Peter's Aunt's house in the West Hills) and headed out to see Great Grandma Minyang before the long drive back. Lauren also got to see her Ninang Mel and cousin Bennett.

Bennett, Lauren and Great Grandma Minyang

Cuties

Goofies

Spooning

Lauren takes another step towards independence as she learns how to feed herself...with UTENSILS!!! I don't know if I should be happy or sad....

Look at that mess...practice makes perfect. After many attempts she finally connected!


But sometimes it's still more fun to slurp soup straight outta the bowl...

Sick Mama

I think all the running around of the last 3 weeks has finally caught up with me. (Or is it "caught up to me?" they both sound weird to me right now) What started out yesterday as a seemingly innocent sinus headache accompanied with a slight tickle in my throat developed into a full blown cold/sorethroat/cough/fever overnight. I stayed home from work today to get some much needed rest. Unfortunately Lauren's already got a leaky nose so I'm afraid she's caught it, but hopefully her symptoms won't be as bad.

I'm going to sleep downstairs for the 2nd night in a row to avoid exposing her to my germiness...I miss cuddling with her at night. She's been waking up a lot night...either from having a stuffed up nose or from teething. Poor Peter has to deal with it by himself.

Excuse me, I need to cough and blow my nose. I'll be back tomorrow.

(Three Quarters of a) Day in the Life

Another one of my favorite Rookie Mom activities is capturing a day in the life of Lauren on film. To see previous installments click here and here.

Life as it happened on October 1, 2008

7:16 a.m. REally, mom, It's too early to be takin' pictures.

7:20 a.m. Well, if you insist....

7:56 a.m.
Sharing a breakfast quesadilla with Daddy before he leaves for work.

8:14 a.m.
Morning playtime. That's the brush she refuses to use.

12:07 P.M. Crunching leaves in Grandma's front yard.

12:15 P.M. Flying through the air with Auntie Sarah.

"I don't think I'm supposed to eat grass, but I'm gonna anyway...."

3:15 P.M. Learning how to use a straw with Grandma

4:30 P.M. Naptime

5:41 P.M. The game's on, Go Red Sox! (she loves that pink tutu!)

Some friends came over to watch the game so I totally forgot to capture the rest of the night. Oops!