The Mouse Family Blog

Here is a picture (albeit a badly exposed one) of Lauren and Jace on the roof of our condo building. The lights in the background are the Chicago skyline. If Jace had been taking this picture instead of Liz, it would have come out much nicer. We really like the view from the roof and this was Lauren's first time being up there.

Labels: Movies

This is Lauren trying to play off my question...'What is that stinky smell?' Lauren, you might be super cute, but it was definitely you, stinky. Your pants might look like flowers but they don't smell like flowers.

Yeah! I decided to give the movie theater another try. Amanda (due to give birth in just a few more weeks!) joined Lauren and I for Mom's Movie Magic. I was thrilled to see that the movie theater had printed out signs and hung them on every entrance door and at the ticket purchase window stating that "Babies can be babies..." at the first showing of each movie on Tuesday. And it worked. No one in our showing of Ratatouille complained. In fact, there was a mom's group there and they had no qualms about treating the theater like their personal living room. Their rug rats toddled or crawled all over the theater, spilling popcorn and making noise. By comparison, the 2 minutes that Lauren cried before she fell asleep were nothing. Amanda and I are really looking forward to more Mom's Movie Magic!

Lauren Mouse - welcome to the world of super toys! Jace found Lauren an Exersaucer on Craigslist (somebody else's baby had 2) so last night while Lauren slept, Daddy was banging away upstairs with plastic parts and an instruction manual. This morning, like Christmas day, Lauren was introduced to the fully assembled and battery filled glory of the Exersaucer. I used a few rolled towels to make sure she didn't tip forward or backward in the seat, but other than that, she's been good to go. First Mommy played with all the toys and rocked it a little to see if Lauren liked it, or if it was too much. Take a look at the pictures...she likes it! She doesn't have enough coordination to bounce it up and down yet, but she has been able to turn the seat about 180 degrees and check out the toys that she can reach. She is also making cooing sounds to some of the toys. Her attention span started to run out at about 10 minutes, which is about as long as I'd keep her in there. I don't want her to get overstimulated and fuss through her next nap. At any rate, the Exersaucer is a hit. The model we have is the Evenflo Smart Steps Exersaucer.

Last night Lauren went with mommy and daddy to the bowling alley (it was a smoke free, family-friendly bowling alley). Jace's work had a bowling event and Lauren got to meet some other babies and kids, co-workers and their families. Lauren got this new toy parrot (I think it's a parrot) as a gift. She seems to love it. The body has a melodic rattle sound and the rings on the legs clink, the legs are stretchy, the wings crackle and it appears to taste good. Lauren couldn't be more delighted. The adults got door prizes... Jace scored a mini Atari game and Liz got an electric bug zapper (can't wait to try that out!) and the bowling was fun too. Special thanks to the Moyers who gave Lauren a wonderful monogrammed tote from Lands End. It's Lauren first monogrammed item!

Lauren is not so good at napping. Sometimes she 'should' be ready for a nap but she doesn't seem to be a bit sleepy. Here are some pictures of a wide-awake Lauren in her crib.

Yesterday (Aug 2) Lauren turned three months. Here she is, pictured with her heifer. There is no doctor appointment this month, so we weighed her on our home scale. We estimate that she weighs about 16 pounds!

Labels: Monthly Photos

Our friends the Poganys recommended this and gave it to Lauren as a gift. The Bumbo allows the baby to sit up before the baby is able to do this on their own. The baby has to be able to hold up her head and then the sitter will do the rest. Lauren is happy to sit for 5-10 minutes then she starts to do "stiff baby" to try and get out. Stiff baby is what I call it when she makes her body rigid and resists bending at the waist. Oh and look at those CHEEKS! You also see Lauren doing one of her other favorite things to do these days, holding onto anything that comes near her hands...most often it's a burp cloth since she's become a bit of a spitting up fountain.

I haven't posted anything recently, but that doesn't mean that Lauren hasn't been photographed ;) Here are a few pics from last week.