Weekend fun...

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes when Lauren was sick last week. Her fever broke the day after our hospital visit and she was up and running soon after that. Not much keeps her down!

On Saturday we had lunch at a new McDonald's that has a toddler play area in place of that big jungle gym that they usually have. This is the first one in our area and it was a big hit with Lauren. It has that spongy flooring and a big tree slide in the middle...it's actually pretty cute. Does anyone have one of these near them?


Yesterday we were just hanging out at home and getting ready to do the laundry. Lauren won't let Joe carry a basket in without hitching a ride...


We also took Lauren in for a hair cut this weekend since her bangs where hanging down over her eyes again. I SO wish she would let me put hair clips in! As you can see by the pics, she's not too happy about the haircut although she didn't cry. The car seat helps to keep her busy and I wouldn't go without it. Her first hair cut was in a regular chair and she screamed and cried.

Sick baby...

This past Saturday everything seemed fine until Lauren felt a little warm late in the afternoon. We gave her Tylenol and she started to cool down. By bed time she warmed back up again to 101, so we gave her another dose and put her to sleep in our bed. By 1:30am she was tossing and turning and woke me up. I reached over to feel her and couldn't believe how hot she was! We jumped out of bed, gave her another dose of Tylenol and started running a lukewarm bath. Her temperature was 104.5, which seemed scary high to us! She screamed and cried in the bath and we couldn't get her to calm down. We called our HMO's emergency pediatrician line, but started getting really worried while waiting for the call back so we took her to the emergency room.

They checked her out and gave her a dose of Motrin. She was so good while they checked her ears, throat and listened to her chest. Everything looked fine, but they wanted to do a urine test by catheter. It was horrible holding her down for that...I felt SO bad. She was screaming and crying and she was all sweaty from the fever...my poor baby! Three hours later, we were leaving the hospital with the diagnosis of a stomach virus. She was so much better by the next day.

I'll tell you, as a new parent that first high fever is really scary! I kept thinking she would have a seizure...I felt so helpless. It's so hard when they are sick and all you can do is give the medication, love them and wait.

A visit with Elmo

This morning we stopped by a toy store to see Elmo. It was actually an Elmo impostor, but we weren't expecting the "real" Elmo. ;) Lauren was checking him out while in line, but when he put his arms out for her she wanted to run the other way. Baba scooped her up for a quick photo op and once she sat down on his lap next to Elmo, she went in for a kiss. I guess he wasn't quite as scary in the safety of Baba's lap.



She loved Elmo's Restaurant (the toy on the page above). It's kind of like a kitchen, but with a register to ring up the food sales. I'm going to start shopping for a kitchen for Christmas...she would love that. Does anyone have one they really like? I'd love to hear about it.

Cool rider...

Lauren loves to wear her sunglasses when we're leaving the house and this time she grabbed a hat too, so I had to snap this pic. She's just too cool to smile for the camera...



We did some shopping at Williams Sonoma the other day since we had a gift certificate and a store credit to use up. I was like a kid in a candy store with $150 to spend. I got quite a few fun things including this pancake mold set with a butterfly, ladybug and snail...


I filled up the mold a bit too much and I had a hard time getting the pancake out to flip it even though I sprayed the mold with lots of Pam. My first attempt doesn't look too pretty, but Lauren ate almost the whole thing and she usually doesn't go for pancakes...


I hope everyone has a nice holiday tomorrow. Today we are heading out for a swim day at a friend's house and tomorrow I'm just going to enjoy having another day off. No plans yet, but I'm sure we'll come up with something.