Video of Baby Lauren Smiling

Lauren and I went out for coffee today with another mom and her 8 week old baby daughter who live nearby. Before we left the house, Lauren was so smiley and I was able to capture it on video! Enjoy.

Lauren's first big smile!

Lauren had her first BIG smile today! She has been smiling for a couple of weeks, but they were really grins - not those big gummy baby smiles. Today, she gave me a huge smile. It was so cute! I tried to capture it as best I could in a photo, but she gives me the biggest smiles when I make eye contact with her, so it was hard to get a perfect photo. Here are three photos from today. I walked into the living room today to check on Barbara and Lauren and found Barbara laying on the ground reading to Lauren. She was staring up at the book and I thought it was worth a photo!

New photos

Normally I am the one taking the photos of Lauren, so I don't have that many photos of me with her (or at least since Mom visited). Dan took a couple photos of Lauren and me today. She didn't smile, but that's ok - this photo will remind me of how serious little Lauren was/is at this age!

Lauren's Funny Faces

Lauren is very expressive. In addition to her sweet, happy and smiley facial expressions, she has a variety of "grumpy old man" faces that we find hilarious. Lauren smiled a lot today (and big smiles at that, yay!) so I thought I would try to capture a photo of her and me together with the hopes that she would smile. Below are the faces she made as I kept taking photos. I think the last one in this series is my favorite.

 

Earlier today she was making such sweet faces, like this one while she was taking a nap.

Playtime photos

Lauren enjoyed a lot of playtime today. Every day she is more and more aware of her surroundings. Today, she played with several toys for the first time. We've had all of these toys since she was born, she just had not displayed an interest in them until now. It is exciting to watch her explore. You can see the wheels turning! Below are a few photos I took today.

Save the date for Lauren's baptism!

We just confirmed with our church that Lauren will be baptized on Sunday, May 6. She will actually be the first in our family to officially become an Episcopalian! Dan and I will be received into the church by the bishop this fall. We are already "members" of our church, but there is a more formal process for officially joining the Episcopalian faith.

Today I designed two baptism invitations. Even though we are inviting only immediate family, I think it will be fun to have formal invitations for the occasion. I can't decide which one I like best, so I am ordering them both and will wait to see them in-person. Let me know which design you prefer!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

A little smile

I was able to capture one of Lauren's sort-of smiles on camera! She is not a smiley baby (yet), but every once in a while she will crack a tiny little smile. I get very excited when that happens! Here are two photos where you can see she is clearly happy and the corners of her mouth are turned up.

This week we introduced Lauren to a tiger blankie. Because she will not take a pacifier and hasn't figured out how to suck her thumb yet, we need something that will help comfort her quickly (especially when out in public, where she tends to scream if she's not happy). We're hopeful that maybe she will like the tiger blankie. It is super soft. We have been placing the blankie on her throughout the week and she seems to like the fabric, but she's definitely not attached to it yet. We'll see if the tiger is a winner!

 

Doesn't she look like a future world leader in the photo above? She is so serious!

Lauren Photos - 9 Weeks Old

Below are some new photos of Lauren from this week. She has become a little bit more smiley this week (just a little). Last night she smiled at me at least 4 or 5 times after she was done eating. She has not intentionally smiled at Dan yet, but hopefully she will soon! In the bottom photo below (which unfortunately is fuzzy since the camera focused on the objects in the foreground), you can see she cracked a little bit of a smile on her play mat this morning.

Little princess and the pea

Dan and I joke that Lauren is the "princess and the pea" because she is very particular. She knows what she likes and she lets it be known if there's something that does not meet with her approval! Today, Lauren was in full "princess and the pea" mode. I took her to my mom and baby exercise class. All of the babies are 4 months or younger, so frequently a baby will get hungry during class and his or her mom will stop exercising to feed him. Most of the babies then go back to sleep or lay on a mat to play while their mom exercises. Not Lauren! Class is from 11am to noon. From 11am to 11:30am, she screamed and could not be consoled. We walked, bounced, changed positions from front to back, up and down, tried feeding multiple times, I changed her diaper (it wasn't dirty)...nothing worked, she was just unhappy. She was so loud and upset I was afraid we were going to be asked to leave! I also felt like the other moms were probably thinking "that awful mom, she doesn't know how to console her baby." I don't actually think they were judgmental, but I do know Lauren's crying made them feel grateful to have quiet peaceful little babies since one mom basically told me that (in a nicer way) after class. After a while, Lauren fell asleep and I was able to participate in the tail end of the class. Of course, now we are home and she is sleeping peacefully.

On a happier note, Lauren is wearing a really cute Ralph Lauren dress with tights today! I'll take a photo and upload it later.

Update: Lauren pooped all over her new Ralph Lauren dress this afternoon. I don't know why, but she's been generally upset and fussy all day. The more appropriate photo for today is:

Lauren's 2 Month Appointment

We visited the pediatrician last Friday for Lauren's 2 month appointment. She was 11 pounds 6 ounces and 23.5 inches tall. She is in the 95 percentile for height and 55th percentile for weight. She is a tall girl!

She has smiled a few more times since the first smile I saw last week, but in general she is a very serious baby. Her facial expressions are very funny to watch (and serious!). I often wonder what she is thinking. Whenever we're being silly with her and talking to her with a baby voice, she just gives us this look that is the equivalent of her saying "really?" It will be fun to see how her personality develops.

Here is a photo of Lauren looking at Barbara this morning. Barbara had just arrived and Lauren gave her a big smile! I tried to get the smile on camera, but I didn't move fast enough. Still, you can see Lauren staring at Barbara here. She definitely recognizes all of us!

Lauren Smiled Today!

Today Lauren smiled! Barbara was here today and I had just sat down at my desk to start working when I heard Barbara yell out "she's smiling!" from Lauren's room. (She knew I was anticipating this first real smile!) I ran in there and little Lauren was just looking at us smiling! It was so exciting. I wish I had been able to get a photo of it, but it went so fast there was no time to get the camera. After this morning, Lauren didn't smile again today, but I'm sure she will become more smiley in the coming weeks.

Tomorrow we are going into the pediatrician's office for Lauren's 2 month appointment, which means she will be receiving several shots. I am not looking forward to that, but I will be glad for her to be immunized and am hopeful the shots don't upset her too much.