Professional Pictures

I still need to upload some Thanksgiving pictures, but I wanted to get these 2 posted because they are so cute! We had Lauren's first professional pictures taken in November and I have been anxiously awaiting their arrival. I only got these 2 emailed to me and am waiting for the rest to arrive on a flash drive in the mail.
Thanksgiving was great. Lauren had a great time with her cousins and they played non-stop from when they got up till bedtime. She loved the Thanksgiving feast we had and also enjoyed meeting some of my brother in laws family.

Playing Around...

Playing the "close the door to the den" game. This girl LOVES to shut doors! She is just starting to be able to pull down the handle to open doors too.
Lauren has a drawer which we call "Lauren's drawer" with plastic items in it that she can get into in the kitchen. She was playing in her drawer and let me snap this cute picture.

We had an 18 months doctor appointment with our Pediatrician here in town yesterday and she also was impressed with how well Lauren is doing and we don't even have to go back until May for her 2 year appointment. I can't even comprehend how fast that is going to come. How can she already be 18 months old...it's AMAZING. She is rapidly expanding her vocabulary and recently tried to say "basketball." NO it was not perfect, but it was certainly an attempt at it and my mom heard it too. She is very quick to let you know if she is unhappy about something (quite the pouty face) and when you ask if she wants something she will say "no" if she doesn't or come get whatever it is you are asking her about. She runs to her high chair and tries to climb in it when she is hungry and will go to the refrigerator when she wants her cup out of it. She loves to walk videos of animals with her dad on the computer while sitting on his lap. She has also become VERY ticklish. It's really fun to make her laugh so hard while one of us holds her and the other one tickles. I remember HATING when my dad and sisters would hold me down and tickle me, but now I understand why they did it. It is so fun to watch your child have a huge smile on their face while laughing uncontrollably.

We (my parents, Lauren, and I--Adam has to work--BOO) are heading up to Washington to my sister Kelly's for Thanksgiving tomorrow and we are looking forward to having a great time with the family. I hope to get lots of pictures to post! I'm sure Lauren will love being around her cousins and will have a blast. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Lauren's First Snow!

We got some snow here in town late last night after Lauren went to bed and luckily it was still here when we got up. We got her all bundled up and took her out in it. She seemed to love it at first and then got cold, so we went back in. It was about 24 degrees when we were out. Brrrrr!
And...that was at 9am!
In the video she is attempting to say "snow" but she wasn't really getting the "sn" in front so it just ended up being "no." And yes, "no" is her absolute favorite word right now. ;)


Lauren is still a wonderful sleeper (12 hours a night) and wakes up around 8 or 8:30am. She definitely likes to take her sweet time to wake up and loves to play in her crib for a bit before we get her up. Take for instance yesterday...we went in at about 8:20 to get her up and when we walked into her room she said "no" and ran to the corner of her crib not wanting to get out!

Little Girl in Big Slippers

Lauren and I were playing yesterday and she decided that she wanted to wear Daddy's slippers. She actually stayed in them long enough for me to snap a picture.

We had Lauren's appointment up at St. V's last Tuesday and she 100% shocked the Doctor and Phsyical Therapist. They were extremely impressed by how well she is doing and even said that most ex 25-weekers do not do this well. They said she is closing the gap between her actual and correct ages. They were very impressed with her walking (running is a better term) and her language. We will go back in June to see the Doctor...the Physical Therapist said she is doing so well that she feels she does not have to ever see her again! How AMAZING is that!!!! We did talk about just getting through this Winter as far as Lauren getting sick. So we are being cautious about taking Lauren out again. It's hard because I feel like I don't take her out enough sometimes, but I couldn't forgive myself if she got sick or had to be hospitalized.

Last week at work one of my co-workers asked if since Lauren is almost 18 months old and doing so well, does it seem like any less of a miracle. I had to tell her absolutely not. I still get tears in my eyes every single day about what a miracle Lauren is. I could be sitting here with no baby at all or one with a lot of medical problems if things would have gone differently. I don't know how she did it, I really don't. You pretty much can't even tell that she was a micro-preemie anymore. She will always have her "reminders" (scars) but I think those will always keep us all humbled by what we experienced. I know that she is doing wonderful, but I am cautious...who knows how things will be when school starts as far as learning disabilities.

Alright...someone is making a mess in here, so I better get off the computer. :)

Water Bottle Fun

I let Lauren have one of my water bottles to play with to see if she could take out the straw and put it back in. A very good way to help with coordination according the the doctor at St. V's (but I will post about next.) Adam showed Lauren how to get the straw out and then into the bottle. She mastered it pretty quickly!
She got so excited when Adam was showing her, it was so cute.
Here is Lauren trying all by herself.

Lauren the Ladybug!

Lauren was a little ladybug for Halloween. Isn't she cute!


Here she is sitting by a door. She actually didn't mind having the costume on at all and wore is from about 3 till bed time.

Typical Girl

My friend Meghan scored some clothes for Lauren from one of her friends who was getting rid of her daughters clothes she had grown out of. Needless to say Lauren loved going through the clothes and sat right in the middle of them. She pulled out a couple of shirts that she loved because she made me put 3 different shirts on her.

Another Beach Day

On Saturday, October 16th the 3 of us headed over to Lincoln City to have a beach day. We had lots of fun and Lauren had her first Halibut Fish & Chips from Tidal Raves in Depoe Bay. It was really windy on the beach, but we got Lauren all bundled up and she had a wonderful time picking up rocks.

Due Date Party

Lauren's original due date was 8/29/09. We wanted to have a "due date" party for her to celebrate her being an adjusted 1 year old. We just had a small party with our parents and Lauren had a great time getting a few more presents and she really enjoyed her cake this time. Lauren loves watching Mickey Mouse on TV, so I had a friend make her a Mickey Mouse cake.

She recognized Mickey as soon as she saw him.
She really wanted at him!
Look at that grin! She is such a little sassy pants.
Family photo time!

KFC Mashed Potatoes

About a month ago Lauren tried KFC's mashed potatoes for the first time. She really enjoyed them and wanted to eat them all by herself. She didn't want to look at Daddy for a picture, but you can tell how happy she is to be feeding herself!

Auntie Sara Visits

My sister Sara was here in July for a visit and then again in September. Sara & Lauren got along so well and we wish she was around more often. Lauren still needs to meet Uncle Steve (Sara's husband.) I know that Lauren will love Steve because he will play all sorts of games and sing endless songs to her. I should also mention that my sister is also an amazing singer. Steve and Sara actually recorded a song for Lauren called "Lauren's Lullaby." I will try and figure out how to put it on here sometime, but its amazing and makes me cry every time I listen to it. They are truly 2 of the most talented people on this earth. We are actually planning on getting a little radio or something for Lauren's room because we listen to music every night before bed and we turn on the mobile for her when she goes in her crib, but sooner or later the crib will be a toddler bed, so the mobile will need to go.
Great-Grandma Kleinschmit! Lauren LOVES Great Grandma! We had the pleasure of having some of the family come over to my parents while Sara was in town.
Lauren and papa!

Dog Beds...

Sorry for all you out there who are not dog lovers. Adam & I both are and it has rubbed off on our daughter. She loves kicking the dogs off their beds and sitting on them or rolling around. Here are a few pics...
Sadie & Lauren just hanging out.
Sadie was making whining noises when Lauren was rolling around on the beds. I think she was concerned that she might get hurt. Sadie actually is seeming more protective over Lauren than Cooper.
And kisses! I know some of you are totally disgusted right now. It's all good they just love each other!

I Love.....

I love this little smiling face...
I love this tiny little hand...
And I love these tiny little feet!

Sorry it's been so long since I last updated. Just busy living life and as you all know time sure flies, especially with a little one.

Lauren is doing AWESOME! She is talking up a storm. Who would have thought, right?!?!?! She says ball, duck, hi, dada, mama, "mo" for Elmo, mmm for yum, no (shakes her head side to side when she says it, so cute) and lots of other words that I can't think of right now. She is a full fledged walker...CRAZY! She's practically running. And I will add that she is walking with flat feet. :) She weighs 23.5lbs and is about 30 inches tall. She is wearing 18 months clothes in most brands, but we all know how different sizes can be from brand to brand. Lauren now has 4 teeth! 2 front bottom ones and then she got one of her upper laterals and is now getting one of the upper front two. When she just had the lonely one tooth on top we nick-named her "snaggle." So nice of us...I'm sure she will appreciate that someday. She loves eating all kinds of table foods and has moved on from breast milk & formula to just whole milk. I got her off of the bottle right after her 1 year adjusted (so at the beginning of September) and the doctor was impressed that I was able to do it so quick. I am super paranoid about bottle rot and just her teeth in general so I didn't want her hanging onto the bottle for too long. Lauren is so much fun and continues to have a fun loving personality. She laughs....A LOT. Just ask anyone who is around her. I think she's going to be a class clown. She's a huge teaser too. She will tease Cooper with his ball and run away with it. And she thinks it's funny to run away from me when its time for bed or has something that she shouldn't. We are lucky and she still likes to take about a 2 hour nap everyday and sleeps from about 8:00-8:15pm to 7:30am. She did have cold about a month ago that I gave her. She's already gotten her flu shot for the year, but probably will not get the RSV vaccine since she's been "too healthy." Since it is so expensive (just under $2000 per shot and there are usually 5 or 6 of them) they don't give them unless the child qualifies. I'm a bit scared of her getting the virus (it's a bad respiratory virus) because she still could end up very ill and hospitalized, but that just means we have to continue to be careful with where we take her etc. I did speak with the doctor about all this and she said because she has been doing so well that we can start to treat her like a "normal" kid, but that still means not taking her around people who we know are sick.

I will post some more pictures tonight...hopefully. Lauren just woke up from her nap, so I better go get her!

Some Videos!

Lauren LOVES this toy! It plays music and shoots balls out and she plays with it everyday. She is talking so much now and one of the first things she said was ball. Listen really carefully when the video first starts and you can hear her "ball" really quietly. Sorry I'm so loud on it. :)




Lauren loves to dance as you've heard me say a million times before. Here's some proof! And sorry about the kink you're going to get in your neck since it's sideways, I don't know how turn it around.

Beach Time!

We went to the beach with a group of friends a couple of weeks ago. It supposed to be 80 in the valley and 70 at the coast. It was gorgeous all day long at the beach, but the only bad thing was it was very windy. All of us adults were also too worried about the kids getting sunburned that we kept reapplying their sunblock and never put any on ourselves. We all got fried! I had on capri's so I had a nice line and then red shins and feet. Poor Adam got burned from his knees down. Lauren was great though, no burn for her. :)
This was Lauren's first time being able to crawl around in the sand. I'm pretty sure she liked it. She wasn't quite sure what to think at first, but she had a great time with all of our friends.

Smiling at Daddy. Look at that red hair! Adam says she's "strawberry blond." Hahaha

Talking to Dad

NICU Reunion

Lauren, my parents and I went to the St. V's NICU reunion on June 6th. Adam had to work so he couldn't go. We had a great time and it was nice to see some of the doctor's and nurses again. It also tugged at my heart a little bit, seeing them and all, but I am so glad that we went. They were all so glad to see us and didn't even recognize Lauren because she was so big.
Here we are in front of the Giraffe isolette. This was her $30,000 crib! Most people think that preemies go right into this bed, but they don't get to until they are stable. Lauren was in an open crib for a very long time because of her apnea/bradycardia spells.
Lauren, Marty and Audry! These were 2 of Lauren's amazing Nurses. Marty (in the middle) was Lauren's very first Nurse. She made Adam & I feel so comfortable with the care Lauren was getting. She said Lauren was sure a fighter being so early & small. They were both at the desk when we arrived and remembered us. Well--they recognized me because Lauren had changed so much. Audry and I caught up like old friends who hadn't seen each other in a while. I guess when you spend as much time in the NICU as I did that's bound to happen. We also saw Dr. Kaempf, but he was surrounded with people so I didn't ask for a picture. I will get one next year though for sure. We also saw some of the other families that we spend time with in the NICU. Lauren is doing so well and it was apparent on this day. We are so lucky that she hasn't been re-hospitalized or have any ailments. We still don't know about learning/speech disabilities, but we will cross that bridge if/when they come. Sometimes I think why were we so lucky to not have any issues like Cerebral Palsy or feeding tubes etc? I don't have an answer, all I know is that we are so lucky.

Cuteness

Here is Lauren dancing. This toy is great! It plays all sorts of fun music and ABC's. She loves to dance. She can now dance on command. We ask her "can you dance?" and she shakes her hips and head from side to side. She gets really into it sometimes. I need to get it on video and post it. She just makes me smile all the time!
Yes her shirt says "how cute am I?" She is too cute for words if I do say so myself. :)

More Birthday Pics

Lauren playing with a balloon before the party started.

Lauren and her boy BFF Diego

Tissue paper is so much fun!

Actually helping open a present. This lasted about 5 minutes.

We had the A/C on because it was really humid out. The balloon flew when the air turned on and Lauren loved it! She was laughing at it and now she loves to go to the vent when the air turns on and stick her face in front of it and let it blow her hair around. She's too cute!

Lauren's First Birthday

Lauren is 1 year old! I can't believe she is a year already (well, now 13 months today or almost 9, however you want to look at it.) The day before and her birthday were both hard days for me. Not that her birthday wasn't a WONDERFUL day, just lots of feelings about how my life changed the year before. I had feelings of such happiness & joy on her birthday but to be honest I also had feelings of guilt and sadness. Guilt because it was me who was so sick that they had to take her way too early to make sure that I would live. My liver was on its way to rupturing and neither of us would probably make it if that happened. I try to tell myself there's nothing I could have done, but I still feel guilty. I think that feeling no guilt would be abnormal. Hopefully you guys understand what I mean. I felt sadness because emotions of her first hours came flooding back. It is so hard to see your child literally fight for their life. I remembered how it felt to first see her--so tiny. There was no way I could have ever prepared myself for how small she really was. I remember how sad I was that she had to fight so hard to stay with us, but incredibly happy that she was fighting so hard. It was kind of a catch 22...I remember wanting her to fight so hard to stay with us, but I didn't want her to hurt or if it was too hard for her to fight, it would be okay if she had to leave us. Mommy & daddy would be okay. No one should ever have to say goodbye to their child and we are lucky that Lauren was so strong. She is one amazing little girl. I look at her now with all the admiration in the world for her. She has taught me about a new kind of love, for both her and Adam.

Now for some updates:

Lauren weighs about 20lbs! She has a big girl car seat and is still rear facing until she is 1 year adjusted at the end of August. Mainly keeping her rear facing is because her bone density isn't that of a 1 year old, it's that of a 9 month old.
She's been sick a couple times now. :( Once around Mother's Day and currently she's on the tail end of a cold. She has never had any breathing problems thank god. Hopefully she will be over this one soon. Unfortunately she did manage to get Adam sick this time. She got me sick last time.
She is eating table foods now. What a big girl! She still has no teeth though. The doctor always says "they are so close." She's eating fine without them though. :)
She saw the Developmental/Behavioral doctor at St. V's at the beginning of the month and she said she is doing great. I'm not the biggest fan of the doctor (I don't think she does well with adults, that's why she works with kids) but that's the only one they have up there. The Physical Therapist also isn't too high on my list either. She freaked about Lauren getting on her toes and pulling herself up with her upper body. She ended up talking about how "we will have to put her in braces if she doesn't stop that." Our pediatrician isn't too worried about the tip-toe issue because she can stand flat footed. We do some foot/ankle stretches to make sure her muscles aren't too tight to please the physical therapist. It's really hard when you have different people telling you different things. The doctor also wants to send her to a pediatric dermatologist because of the spot on her left arm that every doctor has told us is a hemangioma. She said "I'm just not convinced that's what it is." Keep in mind this doctor saw the same spot in December and agreed it was a hemangioma like everyone else. I'm not mad at the fact that she's not convinced that's what it is, I'm annoyed at the fact that she tried to deny ever saying she had seen it before. I just want to know what it is. Anyhoo--now for some fun pics because I know that's what you all really want!

The above picture is from Lauren's birthday party. Kathy was saying something very important!
Family picture! She was getting a little tired of the cake I guess.
Yummy frosting!
Lauren checking out the candle. I'm a bad mommy and completely forgot to get a picture of the cake and food. Next year I will do better! It was all really cute though!
Daddy and Lauren before the party.

Pictures Pictures

Here's another picture of Lauren being happy as usual.
She was so proud that she stole Cooper's ball from him. Poor dog...
Her we are watching Dora the Explorer again. She actually watches the show and it cracks me up every time. I know kids shouldn't watch too much TV, but it's cute and it helps me get a few things done without having to take a break every 2 seconds to check on her or remove her from somewhere she shouldn't be.

I think those are all of the most recent and cute pictures. Lauren is still doing really well. Only the 1 cold and she is starting to walk along things and try to move from object to object. She also seems to try and let go of what she is holding onto and stand, but she just ends up on her bottom. Good thing there's a fluffy diaper there right? I think she is about 19 pounds. She just had a growth spurt and grew out of a bunch of her clothes and all but 1 warm sleeper so I had to try and find some fleece sleepers for her. Let me tell you...fleece sleepers in spring are not the easiest thing to find! Thank goodness for Nordstrom! :) Too bad I hate going in there--haha yeah right, I love that store and Lauren will too I'm sure. We don't go back to the doctor until after her 1st birthday which is May 20th. I can not believe she is almost 1 year old. I need to get things going for her birthday party. YIKES!