Hair goes wild

Grandma was wondering what it would look like if we left Lauren's hair to go wild - here's a shot of her this morning with all her curls. I scrunched and twisted last night...I think she looks pretty cute! I fixed the bangs before taking her to school today, though - didn't want anybody to think nobody loves her.

New tricks

She's still not crawling, but the girl can get around! She scoots around on her bum very well, and can get to all the things she's not supposed to touch in record time. Here are some of her latest faves - playing with her learning farm (she loves to try to crawl through the gate) and standing up (only for a few seconds before she tips over) at her musical table.

At the doctor's office

We had our 9 month appointment a few weeks ago, and Lauren's doing great. They asked us to guess her weight, and we thought 23-24 pounds - turns out she's a svelte 21! She's 28 3/4 inches long...all in the normal (around 80% percentile) range for her age, except her head circumference, which remains off the charts! She was very brave for more shots and had a blast playing with the paper on the exam table and with the tongue depressor!

High five!

Lauren can high-five! And she loves it. Other tricks are playing peek-a-boo with anything in sight (usually our curtains), and saying "Mama" and "Da-DDY!"

She loves to eat!

Lauren is growing increasingly independent with food - she really loves to feed herself and sometimes pushes the spoon away when we're feeding her. No surprise that our little one loves to eat!

Late Christmas/New Year's Eve with Bridget

Bridget, Lauren's former nanny and babysitter extraordinaire, dropped by on New Year's Eve to celebrate a belated Christmas with Lauren - our original celebration was made impossible by the Great Blizzard of '09. B spoiled all of us, and Lauren loved being kissed and cuddled and raspberried by her old friend.

Another one for Uncle Stef...

Lauren got a cool new music set for Christmas, including a drum. You might remember that when we announced that we were expecting the little pumpkin way back in October 2008, we said it was because The Rent Seekers needed a new drummer (the job has since been filled by a bard who wrote "Rockin' Baby" for L)....and it looks like our prophesy about the little drummer girl might be coming true! Lauren loves playing with her drum...not to mention eating the mallet.

More Christmas Fun!

We had a great time in St. Catharines with Lauren's grandparents and Uncle Andrew and Aunt Tamara. Lauren loved to put on her breakfast, lunch, and dinner show in her fancy highchair, and loved the Mum-Mums that Santa brought her. She also spent lots of time playing with her cool new train and hearing all the new books she got for Christmas. It was a great, relaxed visit - perfect for those of us trying to get over the cold that's plagued us since November!

Lauren's First Christmas

We had a very merry first Christmas with Lauren! We had Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with all of the Hemsworths and then were off to the Madar house for Christmas afternoon and dinner. Lauren was spoiled with love and presents, as were Mummy and Daddy. Thanks to everyone for making it such a special, memorable first Christmas (even if Daddy was knocking on death's door from a horrible cold/sinus infection).

Lots of visits in the Great White North

We had a great visit to Canada for Christmas! The first stop was Pickering, where we visited our whole crew of friends from back in the day - it was so fabulous to introduce Lauren to everyone! We also got in some great visits with Uncle John and Gwen (and Summer!), Matt, Andrea, Justin, and Evan, and Jenny and Sean - thanks to all of you for taking the time to visit with us. And, of course, we got to visit with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jason, Auntie Alex, and Hailey too. Uncle Kevin, Auntie Erin, Avery and Ewan didn't arrive until Christmas Eve...more pics of that and of Christmas in the next post.