OK. So I lied...

I thought I was done shopping, but apparently I was, until now, unaware of the pull that one-year toys have on parents. Books, clothes, puzzles etc. It's like a sickness. Truly. I am now done and will only be buying Christmas presents from now until December.
Unless...

Pictures/18 days and counting

Today Lauren and Daisie had pictures made and let me assure you, pictures went SO MUCH BETTER this time. Daisie doesn't like pictures in BIG studios. Private ones are fine. She did very well today at Sears. It is very hard to believe the girls are about to be 1. How?
Birthday shopping is getting out of hand. There are so many neat things and I am trying to not buy everything lest I leave no gifts for anyone else to give. I am done shopping. Since I put it in black and white, I must mean it. Maybe...

Meltdown...

Today we had our first public meltdown. We were at the store and Lauren, clever little devil that she is, decided that chewing on the strap, ment to hold in a baby, was the ideal chew-toy. (Kinda' makes her sound like a puppy. Sorry.) I disagreed. When I took it out of her hand the first time, I got an irritated grunt in return. As I did the second and third times. By the fourth time, I decided to unbuckle her, fasten the straps where she could not reach them and continue shopping. Little did I know that this was the breaking point for my normally wonderful shopper. She WAILED!! and Wailed and wailed!! I always wondered if parents were even the slightest bit concerned by what other shoppers think. Trust me. They are. But what do you do? I gave her something else to play with and all was well.
Truth be told, the meltdown was just a warm up for what is to come, but I will hopefully be ready...

Books & DVDs

Besides the standard "Good Night Moon" and "Monster at the End of this Book", we have started to read some others on a more regular basis. "What Floats", "Who Lives in the Pond" and "Water, Water Everywhere" all by Baby Einstein. She wants them read over and over and over. She smiles and talks and waits for you to read them again and again. I know I am repeating myself, but I am getting used to it. I am getting used to it. Also, she has a favorite DVD. Couch tate tot from the beginning. She likes Baby Galileo. She smiles and stops to watch the WHOLE thing. Amazing...

Scary!!

The little barrettes that people put in babies hair are DANGEROUS! I am talking about the barrettes that are metal and shaped with one end wider than the other and they snap and bend closed. Speaking as someone who now has experience having to beat a child on the back to make her breathe, two times in fact to get her to make any type of noise, made her spit up and then realized she choked on something I put in her hair. I am telling you, the barrettes are cute but so not worth a trip to the ER with a hysterical mother (that would be me). She had to have a chest x-ray to be sure the barrette was not in her lungs. I didn't even realize that was a possibility. I am glad I called the pediatrician. Although, before I talked to the nurse there, I was a lot calmer. John had to come home from work. I hope nothing like that ever happens again. I know it will, but a mom can dream can't she? The worst part, but really the best part; she was sitting in my lap when it happened. She just got really stiff and I looked at her and that's how I found out. What if she had been down the hall? What if...

How amazing!

I can ask Lauren where my nose is and she points to it, she says, "Itty" and "Oggy" (or what I imagine that's what she says) when the cat and dog walk into the room, mama and dada are also common. This little person who grew inside of me is now her own person. WOW!!! Walking won't be far behind then there will be no stopping her. Like there is stopping her now.
She is so fast and strong willed. The other day, she was beating the cat and I said, "Lauren stop hitting the cat." She looked straight at me and did it again. John said, "Lauren NO!" She burst into tears. That was the first of many times. Seriously, she had the saddest look on her face. I promise I will try to not let that sad face sway my discipline efforts, but seriously. Who teaches babies to cry so sorrowfully? Tugs at the heart strings I tell 'ya!

Baby "food"...

No matter how much I try to clean, pick up "stuff", and keep Lauren safe, she finds EVERYTHING and promptly puts it in her mouth. Leaves, sticks, fuzzies, fur, hair, pens, cords, the cat... EVERYTHING!!! I knew that would happen, I didn't know however how angry it would make her to retrieve the items out of her mouth.
That leads me to stress about our upcoming dental appointment in just a few months. June to be exact. Unless the dentist has some sort of magical trick, I have no idea how he will get her to open her mouth for a cleaning and flouride treatment. I bet I will be a very important part of that. I am not looking forward to holding her down for the appointment. John holds her for vaccines. Maybe I can get him to go to the dentist as well...

RANT ABOUT A RESTAURANT...
Warning: This may be lengthy and has little to nothing to do with Lauren. Read at your own risk.

While out to dinner on Friday night with John, Lauren and Rebecca, the most odd things happened. We were asked to wait about 5 minutes while a table was cleared, which was fine because who doesn't want a clean table? There was another party right behind us with four adults and a baby about Lauren's age. When we sat down, our waitress took our drink orders and said that they were short staffed so she was sorry things were taking a while. We ordered and got our appetizers within about 10 or 15 minutes after we ordered. Not too bad. The table next to us said they had to wait a while for food as well, but they were eating. After 45 minutes of waiting, Lauren needed changed. We went to the restroom where there was not a changing station. When we got back to the table we had our food and so did the table next to us who came in about 10 minutes after us. The party that came in behind us with the baby still had no food. I really didn't notice because I was too busy noticing our food was old. We didn't complain to the waitress simply because of how long it took to get our food in the first place and Lauren was loosing patience. I don't blame her. A man from the party with no food got up and went to the kitchen window where the cook/dishwasher, I'm not sure which, promptly told the man to go sit down. A minute or two later, their food came out. The man must have said something to the effect of "we should not have to pay for this", which I tend to agree with. The waitress must have repeated this in front of the cook/dishwasher. He then came out of the kitchen and said, "If you aren't going to pay for it, then just don't eat it. There are orders in front of yours and we are really busy tonight." So? He then returned to the kitchen. One of the women at the table told the waitress that they had ordered fries not chips. The waitress apologised and said maybe she could get them free dessert or something. Everyone in the dining room was mumbling about poor customer service and how ridiculous the way that the c/d had treated that customer. The c/d then returned and said, "I don't know what your problem is. We are really busy. There are orders ahead of yours". The customer said, "That table came in after us and they already have their food." The c/d said, "Well, maybe they ordered something different than you did. I don't know." Anyway, the customer handed the c/d his plate and got up to go. When the customer tried to walk around the c/d, the c/d backed up on purpose and the the customer couldn't get around. Since they bumped into one another, the c/d dropped a couple of plates. The c/d then said, "See what happens when people get mad?" The woman at the table with the baby said, "I'm going to take my baby and go." To which the c/d said, "I wish you would."
Ass.
The c/d never even took in to consideration that there were also other children in the room. Including Lauren, four other children and then the baby at the table. Family dining? I don't think so.
I had never seen anything so blantly rude and unnecessary. What happened to the customer being right? Anyway, we were not sure we would ever go back anyway and then it happened. Mother called about an hour later and said a woman who works there called her and said we had paid the wrong ticket and therefore we had under paid. Our total was $45.91 with tip we paid $60. We ordered 3 cokes, a pound of pork, a 3 appetizer platter, 2 orders of potato skins, 1 order of mushrooms, 1 house salad, 1 order of mushrooms caps, and a grilled cheese. I thought the ticket seemed right. WRONG! We ended up paying the ticket for the table with the problem. Our total was $64.13. WHAT???? I told them to take it out of the tip and I was not paying the additional $4.13 for their mistake. They were lucky we weren't complaining about how long it took to get our food and that it was old when we got it. I assured her that there was not to be another charge on my card. She assured me that their wouldn't. I will be watching my statement. What if the woman had not known who we were? She wouldn't have been able to call us. I was ticked and so was John.
I didn't include the name of the restaurant here, but if you e-mail me, I'll tell you the name. It is in Princeton on south Main St.

Baby Einstein

If there is a baby in your life that needs entertaining, I highly recommend these videos. They calm even the savage beast of a teething almost-eleven month old. She stood for 13 minutes in front of the TV, then she crawled over to me and sat in my lap for the rest of the video. Baby Galileo. GENIUS!! I don't know if there is a "baby whistle" like a dog whistle that keeps her attention, but there is something. Props to Baby Einstein. They are a disney company. That probably explains it.
38 days until she is 1 year old. How is that possible?

So...
Sleeping is not going so well. We tried the "let her cry a little bit and then go in and reassure her, sit next to her and she will go to sleep." That is not true for our child. She cried until she almost vomited twice and when I finally did pick her up after probably 20 minutes, it took almost 25 minutes to calm her down. That sucked. Won't do that again for a while.
A trusted friend recommended limiting her naps after 4 or 5 o'clock. We'll give it a shot. I don't know how well it will work. I think she said we should try giving it a month. That is how long it takes to establish a habit. She is fairly educated so I feel like we should at least try.
John and I are a lot like walking zombies. Lauren is well rested after sleeping side-ways in our bed for almost the last two weeks. Now, before my mailbox is bombarded with "the dangers of babies in adult beds", fear not. I don't actually sleep when she is there. We do put her to bed in her own bed, but the last three nights at 3:03 a.m., WAH!! WAH!! How do I reset her internal clock? Push two buttons at once like on a watch? Change her time zones? How?
She is still the light of our lives and growing so fast. Will it ever slow down?