The Mouse Family Blog

It seems like Lauren has been teething for the past two months ;) The usual symptoms were there: drooling, coughing (as the drool runs down the back of her throat), irritability and lately - waking up to cry briefly during the night. At our last doctor appointment, the physician noted that all four top front teeth were "right there" just under the gums and ready to poke trough. One tooth finally made it out into the world yesterday - her top right tooth.

Here's a picture that shows off her bottom teeth... it's really hard to see the top one, much less get a picture!

Lauren woke up from her nap this morning and when I picked her up she said "Bob." I replied, "No, it's not Bob, it's Mommy." She responded with "Bob." So for the last hour we've been saying "Bob" to each other. I figured we'd get it on video and share Lauren's love for this unknown Bob person with the world. Oh and she also displays her knowledge of "woof, woof" - the phrase that almost always gets her to look around for Indy (the lazy greyhound asleep on the couch with his legs up in the air). She says "woof" the best she can. Book 'reading' has become a new favorite activity. She sometimes turns pages on command and is getting really good at lift-the-flap books.

Labels: Movies

The Mouse family had a lovely Valentines day. Daddy came home bearing gifts. He opened the door and, please forgive me Jace, but he looked like the quintessential "hallmark holiday" in all its glory. He had a heart shaped helium balloon (for Lauren) a big card with hearts on the envelope (for Lauren) a bag from one of mommy's dream shopping spree stores (Williams and Sonoma) and a dozen roses. We had a few gifts waiting for him and after Lauren went to bed, the adults in the house enjoyed a steak dinner with some red wine then coffee and chocolates for dessert.

Here's a picture of Lauren's balloon, Tinkerbell card (lower left) and another rose we let her disassemble.

Lauren bought you a rose for Valentines Day, but... well...

This isn't a new photo, but I still get a chuckle every time I see it....

We loaded the car and took a family excursion today. We traveled west out of Chicago to the Mississippi River to look for bald eagles.

Success! We found several near a lock and dam along the river. Lauren was a real trooper. We timed the drives to coincide with her morning and afternoon naps. While Jace photographed the eagles, Liz loaded Lauren in her backpack and hiked around a bit. We also got to have lunch at.....Sonic Drive-In before returning home!

There were actually a ton of eagles to see. The only regret is that the trek can only be made in the winter, because the eagles migrate north as the ice thaws. Here is a shot of one of the eagles I photographed.



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Here is another photo of Lauren.

She had her doctor's visit today. She got two shots, but handled them well.
We updated her latest monthly photo with some stats about her development.

Labels: Monthly Photos

It's Jace and Lauren in front of Sue - the worlds largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton. You're impressed, I know ;)

On Saturday, the Mouse family took a trip to the Field Museum of Natural History. We were excited to find out that admission to the Field Museum is free during the month of February! It's a good winter weather activity. We only had time to see half the museum
so we'll be back later in the month. We enjoyed the Egyptian exhibits and saw the majority of the "stuffed animals" - the extensive collections of all kinds of animals, some over a hundred years old. We explored the African exhibit, saw the man-eating lions of
Tsavo and had lunch at Corner Bakery at a table looking out over frozen lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline.

We browsed the gift shop to find the perfect souvenir for Lauren's first visit to the Field Museum... a field mouse of course!

Labels: Movies

Labels: Monthly Photos

Okay, so there's nothing new about that. But I pulled out my SLR this weekend and we used it to capture a few choice shots. She finds delight in a lot of things these days, but nothing gets her as excited as a little bit of rough-housing. Mommy and daddy often feign (I'll call them...) "lion attacks," which she really loves.













Here's a shot during snack time. We still don't know how much bread Lauren would eat if we let her! She seems to have an endless appetite for it.




P.S. -- Yes she is wearing brown. No, she is not a boy. :)

It started snowing yesterday and it is still snowing. Yesterday morning Lauren and mommy ran over to Kmart (for staples you know...like a Disney Princess phone and a Little Mermaid ball) just as it was starting up but we haven't been out since. Poor daddy had to go downtown for work today, luckily he can take public transportation instead of trying to drive. Our streets aren't cleared yet. You can see that the white in the picture of our deck (look between the slats) extends all the way to the building fronts opposite - that is the street. Oh well. If we get bored we can always call Grandma on the Princess phone.