The Mouse Family Blog

Isn't she/he quite the looker! What you are seeing is the ultrasound of our second baby (the left side is the head - you mostly see skeleton of cranium, cheek bones and jaw; the blob to the right of that is the torso). Liz is about 14 weeks. We got to see the heart beating and watch the baby squirm around as the doctor tried to get a good look. This baby seems to be taking after Lauren already...very busy. For those of you who like more pregnancy details you can visit the Liz Expecting blog. Readers, this is your warning, you might see the kinds of words that often get said in a gynecologist office - if the word gynecologist makes you squirm, maybe you should avoid ;)

With the assistance of a new step stool, which Lauren can climb up all by herself (both steps!), hands are now much cleaner. The bathroom is also much wetter. Lauren likes to wash her hands in the sink. But sometimes she gets ahead of herself and grabs the towel before the water is turned off. In this photo you can also see how much hair Lauren has. This is the post nap, post pigtails messy look.

Today Lauren and mommy joined Heather and some of our other friends at our church in Chicago to watch the inauguration of Mr. Barack Obama as our 44th president. Lauren enjoyed the lavish snacks on hand... goldfish, bananas, pretzels, animal crackers, fruit, veggies and dips. It was a buffet fit for a toddler. Mommy enjoyed the coffee, cookies and mini candy bars.

What Lauren really enjoyed was running all over the church building, up and down stairs and in and out of Park Cafe and the auditorium. It was easy for mommy to follow the media coverage of the inauguration because our church seems to have a big TV hanging on the wall every 50 feet.

Finally I borrowed the services of a few babysitters that one of the moms groups had brought with them and dropped Lauren off in the nursery to watch President Obama's speech uninterrupted. After we got home, I quizzed Lauren to see if she has gotten any better at pronouncing President Obama's name. As you can see, she answered my questions while multi-tasking and opening some mail.

Belated posting. A week ago Sunday, Liz's cousin Shauta and her family (Jim, Vivien and Max) were in town so we met up with them at the Museum of Science and Industry. Museum admission is free for the entire month of January, so it was a great time to to try it out and see if there was anything there Lauren's speed. In my opinion (Liz's) most exhibits are not Lauren's speed. There was lots of picking up so she could see things and chasing after her if we let her down. The one bright light was the Idea Factory. Not only does it have a gate, it has tons of activities at Lauren's level and things that she loves to interact with...water, balls, tubes, things to climb over. Speaking of climbing, here is a picture of Lauren laying her hands on her first rock climbing wall.

The afternoon at the museum was fun, and then we had an amusing dinner at a nearby place in Hyde Park, Orly's Cafe. The decor (really old southwest murals and overgrown plants crowding the windows) and the service were terrible. The ambient music was courtesy of a CD player that kept skipping (and was left skipping for a really long time...at least 5 min.) We paid them back by dumping not one but two drinks during the course of our meal (once by an adult and once by a child - they who shall not be named). The food was average to good. Some of our party raved about parts of their meal, we all picked mostly ribs, chicken and general southern fare. My parting thought on the restaurant is that unless you are in the area and can't find anywhere else to eat, try to find somewhere else to eat. If you know the place and have a different review, let me know!

This evening Lauren sampled several new and different fruits. She liked them all...you can see that all over her face ;) She tried clementines (small oranges). She also tried black cherries (after mommy cut them in half and got the seed out). And there are also some traces of fruit leather (and old favorite!) one her face too.

I love taking the train to work, but I have limited appetite for
standing on an unheated outdoor platform waitng for it this morning.

You may recall this photo from the Fall of 2008. I've been tinkering with some new ideas and used this photo as a test.

Since many people are moving to computers and digital picture frames to view their photos, it would be nice to have a photo style that can take advantage of the extra capabilities they offer, particularly the ability to play video.

This is a first draft of a technique that adds subtle movement to the photo. The interesting part is how Lauren and the background move independently of one another. It's kind of a like a modern-day diorama, where the items appear to move with you as you shift your viewing angle.


Bath Tub Moving Portrait

This version is still kind of rough, but I'd love to hear feedback. I accomplished this by taking a second picture of the background without Lauren in it, then digitally removing her from the first picture and then inserting both the background and Lauren into a small movie. If any of you budding photographers or videographers out there want additional details on how to make your own, just let me know.

Labels: Geek Stuff, Movies

Our friends Heather and Steve wanted to meet us for dinner on Saturday.  Our first impulse was to meet them at The Boundary, our favorite kid-friendly restraunt in our neighborhood.  But we decided to be a bit more adventurous, and see if we could manage to get Lauren through a full meal at Between Boutique Cafe and Lounge.  Between is just a block from our house and has gained some notariety lately because its executive chef is one of the remaining contestants on the TV show "Top Chef."  Liz and I went there on a date night about six months ago, and were really impressed, so it's been fun to see this chef get some just recognition.

This morning Lauren was watching it snow out the window...

Lauren: Snow falls down
Mommy: You are right it's snowing
Lauren: What's that sound?
Mommy: It's daddy shoveling. Do you see him?
Lauren: I see daddy. He's shoveling snow.
Mommy: That's right it's daddy shoveling snow.
Lauren: Maybe it's Joe. (the neighbor)
Mommy: Oh, maybe it's Joe shoveling snow? I think it's daddy.
Lauren: I don't know, maybe it's Joe.
Quiet pause
Lauren: Snow falls off a truck. (as Daddy shovels some against truck parked outside)
Mommy: Oh really, the snow falls off a truck? I think it falls out of the sky.
Lauren: Snow falls off a truck. Watch out truck. Here comes a big guy. Watch out truck.