What Lauren's been to up

She might be growing red hair, we're not sure. Her eyebrows look like my mom's, and I found an old photo of my mom as a baby where she had Lauren's coloring, so there could be a chance. Her eyes are back to being more denim blue than green, but definitely not the light Grandpa-shade of blue like her legions of aunts, uncles & cousins have.

Her benefactor, Alexa, gave her some more toys and in the batch was a little pink plastic car. She loves it! I have to hold her on it because her feet can't both touch the ground but I push her around on it and she tries to get one foot on the ground like she's riding a motorcycle. She's got great balance. She can stand if I am there to make sure she doesn't fall, but she's been doing that for the past 3 months. She has 6 teeth but thankfully, she does not bite when she nurses. She tried it a few times when she had only a few teeth but I nipped it in the bud (pun intended, hardy har har).

She loves to giggle and she likes to get in on the joke if other people are laughing. (Even at her!) She flurberts my face and thinks it's the most hilarious thing ever. She has long monologues with herself when she first wakes up in the morning and she still wakes up happy every morning (is she really my kid?)

She likes to put her arms up to get picked up, and her latest thing is doing this in the stroller when she feels she's been in too long. Then I'm stuck pushing a stroller and lugging a 21 pound baby at once. I weighed her by stepping on the scale and then doing it while holding her, and subtracting. It was 21.5 pounds more, but i figure her clothes & diaper, plus margin of error, she is probably 21 pounds. We'll know for sure on October 3 when she goes to get her 6-month shots.

I'm a big proponent of shots. I would have her get a shot for every single kind of illness medicine can prevent, if I could. I would take her to the vet and get a rattlesnake shot! Seriously, there are people who are worried about mercury levels in shots causing autism. I'm more worried about her catching a disease before she's been immunized. We are both getting a flu shot. Think of it, when I was a kid, I got chicken pox. I still remember how itchy and miserable I was. Now Lauren won't get it, she'll just get a shot instead!

I am SO EXCITED about our upcoming trip in October to New York to introduce Lauren to relatives. I think about it several times a day and in my head, I'm deciding what to pack, where to go, and how great it is going to be. We'll only be there for 5 days because I have to get back for work, but that's okay, I'd probably miss Jake too much if we were there longer. This might be crazy, or it might just work, but we're taking an overnight flight and I'm hoping Lauren will sleep the whole time, in my arms. We practice now, having her nap while I hold her sometimes. All of our hard work to get her trained to put herself to sleep alone, now I want her to not be distracted by me and to sleep in my arms!

I'm trying to decide which baby equipment we need and I think I'll err on the side of not bringing things, on the theory that we can borrow or buy whatever we forgot. So no lugging a stroller, no car seat (borrowing one there), very few toys (she'll play with measuring spoons or we'll hit the toystores if we need too) but lots of clothes! I've got so many cousins with kids that it shouldn't be a problem if we need equipment.

Another review by Ryan

Another review by Ryan is here. BTW he liked United 93, but someone had already reviewed it.

Who I Wish I Looked Like

I wish I looked like her.

I am getting closer because my hair is getting darker, but it's not that dark yet.

Studio 60 is pretty good, from what I saw of the pilot. Didja know you can get it at Netflix? Also the pilot for Jeremy Sisto's new show "Kidnapped". I wish I liked Kidnapped. I was hoping it would be the new "24" for us (back in the early years we used to watch it with K8 & Mrk) but I didn't get into it. Maybe it will take a few more episodes to grow on me, or maybe it's just not that good.

What new shows do you like? Please comment.

What Ryan's Been Up To

For those of you who wish Ryan had his own blog (hi Esteban), well this will come close:
http://www.oscarfrenzy.com/reviews/black-dahlia-noir-gone-awry/

It's a film review on his friend Dave's website Oscar Frenzy. Be sure and leave him a comment. He may do more reviews in the future.

Blonde hair, green eyes

I looked at Lauren today and realized suddenly that her hair has grown in a lot this week and it's blonde. Half the strands are a white-blonde color and some are yellowish. There's some light brown in back. So she's got highlights! I was sure sure she'd be a redhead. (Maybe her sister or brother will>)

Also her denim-blue eyes are turning green!

These days she's wearing size 9-12 months and she can completely sit up by herself. Her favorite thing is to "swim" in the bathtub, doing the backstroke and kicking. She can stay in the bath for an hour at a time. She also likes music, still a big reggae fan. I played some They Might Be Giants the other day (their new children's album) and it got her giggling.

Suburbs: Sub-par or sublime?

I was going to post this long rant about how I hate the suburbs but I had to self-censor. I do not want to offend my suburban friends here, but I'm against moving there. I think it's a much different experience if you grew up in a suburban town and move back there with a network of friends and family, versus picking up and moving into a new community. Ryan (who grew up in San Jose) is trying to convince me that now that we have a child, we should debark to the suburbs. I don't really want to do this for many reasons. I'd miss you guys! (Those reading this near my zip code.)

Last weekend we took a drive out to Claremont, where, he was told, they have good schools and it's a cute little college town with affordable homes, where he can commute to work supposedly in 20-30 minutes. It was 114 degrees. (It was 86 degrees at our condo when we got back.) We tried to find a nice little lunch place and there *were* interesting looking shops, which were all *closed* because it was a Sunday with school not in session. We found the one open, non-chain Mexican restaurant in town and ate there. (The deleted post contained a long tangent about how I always prefer to eat at independant restaurants with chefs, even bad chefs, to going to chain restaurants where the food is all the same mediocre heated up crap everyplace.)

In my ideal world, I'd have a small, nice, centrally located townhouse in the city, and a bigger weekend house with some acres of wildlife to explore in my free time. I'm not really used to suburbs, having grown up in a small rural town with lots of nature and now living in a densley populated part of town. Things I don't like: every house looking the same, traffic jams getting home in the evening, chain restaurants, having to drive to go to restaurants, shops, etc. If I do have to drive to get to places to shop, I want to drive through beautiful scenery, not through housing developments. I also cannot stand the heat. Literally I faint when it gets very hot.

Ryan wants to move to the suburbs because IHHO, it's safer and for the same money, we can buy a bigger house with a yard. Tract homes do not bother him since he grew up in one and supposedly, it's like when you're friends with twins, you do learn to tell them apart after awhile.

So, dear readers, where does this ideal place exist? Must have charming houses under $600,000, must be safe, must not be 114 degrees, and must not have crowds of people all crammed into one freeway to get home at night, and must have a job for Ryan in driving distance. I think many places like this exist, just not in Los Angeles county, and heck, not in Southern California at all.

Paperbackbookswap.com

Join our club and swap paperback books for FREE - PaperBackSwap.com

I just joined this morning and already people wanted 3 of my books, and there were 2 books that I wanted. I went through my Amazon wish list and Ryan's and entered it book by book so that if anyone has a book I want, they'll mail it to me for free. There are no fees beyond postage mailing my own books to other people. The books I had which people wanted: a cookbook, a book about organizing, and a book called "how to make a new mom happy".

First tantrum in the car

Lauren had her first real car tantrum tonight. Not to say she's never cried in the car before, but the other times it was when she was much younger and I was able to pull over and feed her and it was understandable then because she was eating so frequently. Tonight I drove a friend to the airport. Because Ryan had fallen asleep and Lauren was not tired, I decided to take her. Going to was mostly okay. She likes the motion of the car and we were usually moving. She fussed and cried a little bit when we were almost there, but putting the pacifier in her mouth calmed her down.

I dropped off the friend, and we then proceeded to sit in 30 minutes of stopped traffic exiting the airport. It was so frustrating because Lauren was SCREAMING at the top of her lungs and nothing was moving, no way to pull over and help her. I tried singing all of her favorite songs and that would calm her at first, then she'd remember that she was hungry. I didn't figure out that was the problem until I noticed she'd get more furious a few seconds after I put the pacifier in her mouth. She'd suck at it eagerly and then spit it out with a vengeance. The half hour of stopped traffic was pure hell.

Finally we were able to get on the freeway, which was moving full speed. I got off at the southernmost exit where I knew my way around, pulled into a well-lit parking lot, snatched her out of her seat and nursed her. She was INSTANTLY calmed. She pulled off after a minute or so, flashed me a big smile, and went back at the business of completely draining any milk she could get. Then I strapped her back in, she fell asleep, and is still sleeping upstairs now as I write this.

Lauren's first Dodger game

On Wednesday night, we took Lauren to her first baseball game, Dodgers vs. Reds. We left at the top of the 8th inning but we found out later the Dodgers won. RM gave Lauren a pink Dodger bat which she has in her nursery, but she didn't bring it. She wore a pink Yankies onsie to the game, along with her pink teddy bear baseball hat. She had a great time but she got a little scared when people cheered loudly. At one point she cried until she saw I was smiling and it was okay, and then she smiled and wiggled like she was cheering. In the car on the way home we were all very tired and Lauren got a case of the giggles so we all laughed with her. Mid-giggle, she fell asleep! I think she takes after me-when I'm very tired I can get punchy and the slightest thing will set me off laughing and I can't stop. She seems to be the same way & it's very contagious. Watch out if we're both tired!