See you later old friend

Today we celebrated the retirement of a cherished family friend -- Lauren's swing. It was a good swing and we used it just about everyday for the first 15 months of her life, but alas, our old friend had become neglected and when he was used, he strained to work properly due to the weight of our well-fed infant.

We received the swing at the baby shower back in January 2007 from Uncle Jody and Aunt Betty. It wasn't the one we registered for, it was better...because it was pink. I remember sitting on the floor of the nursery in our Tennessee house putting it together. I was eight months pregnant, but I still wanted to put it together myself.



Lauren arrived a month later and we put her in the swing the second day she was home. She seemed to like it.

Here she is at about a month old...

Six months old...

Seven months old...


Fourteen months old, with her baby and two sassies...


Finally, here is Bebe in June at around 15 months old...


And let's not forget puppy. Baby swing: fun for the whole family...

Lauren was always content in her swing and many a night it was the only way she would fall asleep. However, now that she's 18-months-old she has more important things to do. She doesn't have time to sit around in a swing anymore. She's got places to go and trouble to get into. So today we took apart the swing and put it up in the attic. Perhaps one day it will come out of retirement, but for now I'm sure it's glad to have a break after 15 long months of work.

Uncle Jeff buys the best toys!

When we were in Birmingham last weekend Lauren started liking Elmo. She has an Elmo DVD and a couple of Elmo toys, but she hadn't ever really showed any interest in the red, furry character until last week. Mom bought her an Elmo book at Costco and while we played with it she started saying "L MOE" -- it's really cute. She drags out the long "O" and says it in a deep voice. So we brought "Tickle Me Elmo" home with us Sunday afternoon (she got him for Christmas from Uncle Jeff, but up until this past weekend Elmo resided at Nonie and Granddaddy's house).

Lauren's Tickle Me Elmo has never worked right. He didn't laugh every time you tickled him and it annoyed us. Jeff assured me he put fresh batteries in Elmo when he bought him, but when I got home I changed them again and low-and-behold, Elmo starting working like he's supposed to.

Here is Bebe playing with Elmo

When we got home last weekend Lauren immediately ran to get her stroller and we put Sassy Bear in it. She had the best time pushing her around the house. She's such a good mother...until she grabs her baby by the hair and throws her on the floor...sometimes we need to call the county.

The next morning when I got Lauren up for daycare she insisted that Sassy Bear come with her. So Sassy Bear rode to school with us. Here's a tired Bebe hugging Sassy Bear before we left that morning. So cute.

So it appears that Uncle Jeff picks out toys quite well because some of Lauren's favorite toys were picked out by him. However, I stand by the statement I made in KB Toys last weekend Jeff. If this thing shows up at Christmas or Lauren's birthday it will live at your house. NO GIANT BOUNCY RING! =)

Not exactly the Children's Museum

Last night mom and I decided we would take Lauren to the hands-on children's museum in Tuscaloosa today. However, Uncle Jeff didn't like that idea and since he took the day off to play with us we didn't make him go to the museum. So rather than develop Lauren's fine motor skills with sensory activities, we went to the Galleria.

First we ate lunch with Aunt Holly at California Pizza Kitchen then we went shopping -- Uncle Jeff wanted to take Lauren to Build-A-Bear. It was SO fun! Lauren picked out a fluffy pink and white bear, on her own thank you. I didn't encourage her to get the pink one at all.

After she picked out her bear it got stuffed at the stuffing station. While there it also got a heart and a lullaby music box so it can play music when she squeezes its hand.

We were then given explicit instructions to give our bear a fluff bath and get it dressed before we picked out a name and checked out. So Jeff, Lauren and I went over to the "bath tub." The bath tub is a wooden tub with a blower overhead to blow away the leftover stuffing. After its bath, we decided the bear should wear pink jammies because it will be going "night night" with Lauren a lot. So it got jammies and it's very own pacifier (or sassy as Lauren calls it).

We also decided "Sassy" would be a perfect name for the bear. Here is Uncle Jeff officially naming Sassy in the computer.
Lauren meeting Sassy Bear for the first time.

Our trip to the mall also included a ride on the carousel. Lord, what a mistake! Lauren H-A-T-E-D the carousel. Here we are before the ride.

Here we are before it got moving. She looks kinda worried, but I'm sure it will be okay...

Okay maybe not so much. This is blurry because we were moving, but still, check out her face!

After the mall we dropped Uncle Jeff off and mom and I took Lauren by the lab to meet mom's friends. I thought she was going to be a nightmare because at this point, it's around 2 p.m. and she hadn't had an afternoon nap. However, when we got to the lab she was soooo good! Every time someone new came to see her she smiled at them and said "hey!"

Later that evening we went out to dinner with everyone at Johnny Ray's and now she's passed out in her crib with Sassy Bear and her blankie. Bebe had a good day.

A Day at the Zoo

Mom and I took Lauren to the Birmingham Zoo today. She's still too little to fully enjoy it, but she had a good time looking at all the animals. However, to her all the animals were "doggie," -- giraffes, monkeys, zebras, etc... -- all doggies, because that's the only name she knows. Here is our day in photos...

Lauren being fascinated by the giraffes. There were tons of them and they came right over to us.

This the new baby girl giraffe. She doesn't even have a name yet.

They guy looked mad, probably because it was so hot. He just wanted to sit in the shade and play with his feet.

Me and baby checking out the zebras.

These two monkeys cracked me up because Lil' Jon does this to us. He grooms me and Patrick when he wants us to move.

So apparently the zoo no longer has elephants, bears or hippos, but they DO HAVE kangaroos and butterflies now. Ummm...yeah, I like kangaroos and butterflies, but I think I'd rather have bears and elephants.

The butterfly house is pretty cool, but it's so not as impressive as the elephants.

We had a good time and we didn't even see everything, but after a couple of hours Lauren was tired and we were thirsty so we left. We'll go back next summer when Lauren is a little older and can fully appreciate the animals.

Weekend Fun

Lauren and I went to Walmart yesterday and while we were there we bought her a potty. They had several to choose from, but I bought one based on the most important characteristic -- it was pink. She's not quite ready yet, but we have it out now to get her interested in it. I put her on it before her bath today and told her to "go potty" and she did -- so it's potty time.

When we got home Patrick had the sprinkler on and Lauren went right for it. She kept trying to grab the lines of water. It was really funny, so Patrick grabbed a beer, I grabbed the video camera and we were entertained for a good 20 minutes. (Enjoy the video and just ignore our conversation about the patio cushions being on sale now).

Here is the finished product... a soaking wet, happy baby girl.

Patrick was working in the yard this afternoon while Lauren was taking a nap. I was on the couch when I heard her saying "Dadda? Dadda?" I peeked in her door and saw this so I grabbed the camera. She was watching Patrick in the yard. He had no idea.

After her nap she decided it was time to vacuum her room. She loves her vacuum -- thank you Aunt Da! When she sees me use the sweeper in the kitchen she goes to grab her's so she can help Mamma. I've been thinking about getting the child a dust buster so instead of pretending she can actually help me out with the housework.

Okay, I must go. Lil' Jon has brought me his pig, which means he wants to fight!

Lauren's new shoes

Lately Lauren has been taking the bottom two rings from her Fisher Price stacking rings and using them as high heels. She started this a few days ago and she does it about once a night now. Here is a short video of Bebe in her shoes.


DISCLAIMER: Please ignore the crazy amount of toys on the living room floor. Hurricane Lauren had just gone through and the National Guard had not yet arrived to help us clean up the disaster.

Care for our small creatures...

Lauren is "transitioning" out of the infant room at daycare this week, meaning she will be spending a few hours each day in the toddler room so she can get used to the people and the routine over there. The toddler room is for kids 18 to 36 months so since she'll be 18 months in a couple of weeks, they are starting to transition her.

She and I met "Miss Emily" today. Miss Emily is one of the care-givers in the toddler room and she has been at Tot Town for over 10 years. She and Lauren hit it off because she gave her a pretzel and Bebe likes pretzels.

The routine in the toddler room is similar to the Infant room, she'll still go outside, play with toys, sing songs and dance. They also do art work. Lauren brought home this masterpiece today...

I'm not sure what it is or for that matter what exactly "tape art" is, but I'm not sure if she got my artistic gene. We'll have to see her future work.

With one baby taken care of I then had to spend part of my day finding care for our other baby, Lil' Jon. Since he can't join us in New York next month I had to find adequate accommodations to fit his pampered pup lifestyle. I started with Google, but since I couldn't find anything I liked, I started calling around. I think I finally found a suitable place for him to stay, but Patrick and I are going to check it out Saturday before we commit. You might ask what on are the specifications of keeping Lil' Jon??? He's so low maintenance. Yeah right.

Here's the deal, Lil' Jon is antisocial when it comes to other animals, especially other dogs. So we have to find him a place that has private rooms. Plus, we don't want him in just a fenced in kennel, he's family. The place we used in Clarksville was awesome.There he had a private room -- complete with french doors, a bed, play time with humans, a TV, pipped in jazz music and a treat on his pillow each night. When I explained I was trying to find a similar situation to my co-worker she was shocked, but she has four big dogs so she doesn't understand.

I finally found a new place that I think will do, again we have to recon it this weekend. It just opened in May so it's new and it's owned by a vet with a good reputation. Lil' Jon will have a "VIP room," which comes with a TV, a window, three play times with humans and of course it's private, no other dogs in his room. I think it will be perfect, but we'll see.

Okay, I'm off to watch a movie with Patrick.