The Mouse Family Blog

For the last year or so, I (Liz) have had a regular craving for Big Macs. About once a week I make it to McDonalds. Yesterday morning I decided to let Lauren have a go at a happy meal. She's tried a french fry or two passed back to her from the front seat on car trips, but never had her very own. I got her a chicken nuggets meal. She only ate 2/3 of one nugget and a handful of fries, but what she really loved (yes, in addition to the honey mustard sauce) was the prize. She got a Hello Kitty watch. After she woke up from her afternoon nap she immediately asked: "Where's my watch?" And she can slide it off an on herself and has told me several times: "It has a kitty on it." We'll probably get her a happy meal again in the future... I enjoy eating the extra chicken nuggets and fries :)

Here is Lauren's version of getting dressed by herself... pants on head. The second shot showcases her lovely new smile when you point a camera at her and say cheese.

About Christmas time, Lauren started to receiving Highlights Magazine. She *LOVES* it. She has us read it to her, cover-to-cover, several times over, then "reads" it herself.

Just one question: whom do we thank for this wonderful gift?

We had quite a few surprise accomplishments today.

1st: Lauren *loves* the easel that cousins Sophie and Zoe got her for Hanukkah/Christmas! We've had it for several weeks, but Lauren hasn't been that interested in it. Frankly, neither were we, given Lauren's penchant for wanting to carry the crayons around the house and use the chalk to "put on make-up." What made the difference? MARKERS! Aunt Mara had sent some to go with the easel, but we simply hadn't been brave enough to try. Lauren loves them, as you can see. We even caught moments of her wanting the markers over Thomas the Train, which is really saying something.

2nd: It turns out that Lauren is quite adept with the markers. With some coaching from Liz today, Lauren has become a real pro at taking off the caps and putting them back on. Better still, she hasn't asked to carry a single one around the house.

3rd: It would appear that Lauren knows her colors much better than she's been letting on. Either she's been holding out on us, or she snuck out of her crib last night to get pointers from her brilliant cousin Zoe's blog. For months, most everything has been "blue." I guess the markers inspired her to new heights! She seems to have most of the colors down, except for Yellow, which she calls "Gordon" after the name of the train by the same color.

Here's the Christmas video! It started as hours of footage, which I distilled down into as short a video as I could manage. It's all there, including two rounds of gifts in Chicago and another round in Oklahoma, plus Cocoa the pony and outtakes from the fun Lauren had playing with the family.

Viewing Tip: The video is in High Definition, so it may take a 30 seconds or so to begin. You can view the video full-screen...just hover over the lower right portion of the video and click the x-like icon.



I whittled away at four hours of footage, working to make the final version as short as possible. In the end, it's still longer than I'd like -- and longer than most can endure, I'm sure -- but I couldn't bare to loose any more memories! I hope you'll enjoy. To help people jump to the parts that interest them most, here's a timeline.

Chapter Starts at
1. Tree Trimming in Chicago 0:15
2. Presents with Grandma Ann and Papa Clark 1:00
3. Christmas Morning in Chicago 2:20
4. Christmas in Oklahoma 3:30
5. Cocoa the Pony 6:30
6. Playing with the Family 9:22
7. Goodbyes in Oklahoma 12:24


I had fun pulling the video together. It's definitely my biggest project so far. I still have a lot of room for improvement, but I'm also learning a lot. Thanks to Dianna for lending me some of her footage, and Crystal for the great family photos.

Labels: Movies

Call 1-800-Sha-Zham and a team of toddler genies will magically appear in your home to do some cleaning. They specialize in removing camel stains and cleaning flying carpets. Most do not grant wishes or scrub toilets.

We got Lauren some really fun, cute shoes in Turkey. They have curled up toes with little poof balls. They are big on her, but that's part of the fun of dress shoes I think. She put them on this afternoon and declared that she needed to vacuum.