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!