It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Our tree is up! Peter put up our lights and the parol outside. It's the only parol we've seen in our neighborhood so far so it's pretty cool to have something unique in our window. We've definitely caught the Holiday bug. I baked some sugar cookies tonight and rolled them in sparkly green sugar. I started wrapping up presents and decorating the house. I've been knitting away and have become a crafting maniac! I can't discuss much of the projects here because they will end up being gifts and don't want to spoil the surprise.

Christmas is going to especially fun this year with Lauren because, unlike last year, she can appreciate all the sparkly lights, music, and all the holiday trimmings. We sat on the couch today eating sugar cookies and watching TV. Every now and then she slid off the couch to run to the Christmas tree just to admire the lights. I love it!

WTP?!

I made a big pot of beef phở last night to go with the cold, cold, weather. I loaded with thin slices of beef and beef balls (got those frozen from Vietnamese market) We had it again for dinner tonight and discovered that Lauren LOVES pho! She was slurping up the broth straight from the bowl and only came up for air to stuff slippery rice noodles into her mouth. She was double fisting bean sprouts and chewing on basil and cilantro leaves too. I just had to make sure I didn't load it up with Sriracha (hot sauce) first.

HRH said her brothers wanted to open a pho restaurant in Seattle and name it 'What the Phở ? Just so they could answer the phone "Hello? What the Phở?!"

(HRH is my sister in law...short for "Her Royal Highness," It's a title I bestowed upon her years ago...just because of her awesomeness).

Lauren Speaks, kinda...

By the end she was too distracted by the food in front of her. Can you say "Mom, turn off that camera and feed me?!"

Autumn Leaves

On the way to see my cousin, we stopped at the hospital so my mom could get some bloodwork and xrays done. Instead of staying in the waiting room, we went to the hospital courtyard. Lauren enjoyed running around and stepping on the fallen crunchy leaves. So much more fun that sitting in the waiting room filled with sick people.

Reaching for the colorful leaves. So she could taste them. Seriously.

Crunching leaves is FUN!

Cousins

We took a little road trip to see my cousin and her two adorable babies who are visiting from Florida. Lauren met her 3 year old cousin Xavier for the first time and her new itty bitty 3 month old cousin Sean.

Chillin' together while watching Barney

X shared his toys while Baby Sean slept on me. I almost forgot what it was like to carry a newborn. I was overcome by the sweetness of Sean falling asleep in my arms until I remembered the stiffness and sore biceps that came from carrying the equivalent of a 10 lb. sack of potatoes for 30 minutes.

I wasn't able to snap a good pic of him, but believe me, he's so cute you'll want to eat him up.

At least Grandpa Clarence is happy.

Bath Time Fun

We just got this cool little gadget for the bathtub. The folks over at Boon have done it again with this new product called "Flo." It's a protective cover that slides over the bathtub faucet and causes the water to come out with a cool sheeting/waterfall effect. It's not just fun to bathe in, it's the world's coolest drinking fountain.

Now she'll never want to get out of the bath.

I'm gonna try it when nobody's looking. Grownups can play too!

One in 305,788,976

My girl is unique...she's the only Lauren P. in 305,788,976 to be exact. That's how many people there are in the US according to the last census and nobody else in the U.S. has her name. Check out this site to see how many others in the U.S. share your name. It's nice to know there's no chance of Lauren getting mistaken for any other Lauren P.

Thanks to rookiemoms for the link.