Merry Christmas!

We won a dollhouse!

The Simple Living Media network had 25 giveaways at the start of the month. I entered just about every one, and we won a furnished solid wood dollhouse made by Melissa & Doug. It retails for $150! M&D's products are all over Madison-- in the kids' corners of the local coffee shops to the homes of the kids that are in our playgroup. Their toys are intended for open-ended play, and from what I can tell by the toys I've seen around, they are well-made. We have a little wooden puzzle by them that LE has enjoyed gnawing on and clapping the pieces together like symbols. What's great is that Michaels craft store sell some of their collection, which means that you can get them for 40% off with the popular Michaels coupons.

Moving right along...

Like I said, we won the dollhouse! It arrived yesterday, and Mindy, LE, and I put it together today. LE pulled the stairs out of it about three times, but other than that, she's shown close to zero interest in it. It's just as well since it's intended for kids 3+, and she'll be interested in it some day. In fact, I'm almost certain she'll love it some day.

While I was assembling it with Mindy, I was thinking... Oh! I could paint the walls inside! Oh, this bed needs me to make it some pillows and a comforter! What about a little yard outside? Put up a little hanging artwork and... and then I realized. My house needs paint on its walls. I have a few paintings that I have left unfinished. What about our yard? So, maybe it's a good thing she's not quite ready for it because it's probably going to take me a couple of years to get to her dollhouse's "needs."

I want her to like it just today, though. I stood her up and had her hold onto the third story for dear life stability.

She just knocked off the stairs again.

Then she sat down, looked back at me, and thought... wait a minute! I see something much more interesting than an all wood, pepto pink and fuchsia furnished house without dolls...

Alright, so maybe she's not quite ready for the dollhouse yet. I know a few little 2-3 year old kiddos that would love to come play with it, though. For now, LE is content babbling to her sock for 10 minutes at a time (like she was doing when I wrote this post) or waving around a page that she tore out of a book.



{Sorry about the poor lighting. I didn't want her to see me but that didn't work out.}

LE at 8 Months

Here's what's going on in LE's life at 8 months and some change:

• Crawls around like a pro
• Pulls up on everything
• Kneels
• Bounces on her knees
• Laughs at everything and laughs really hard if you laugh with her
• Loves peekaboo
• Babbles
• Drools when she is concentrating on something or excited
• Breathes through her nose and bounces when she's excited
• Loves Cheerios and any food that we're eating; prefers finger foods to spoon fed foods
• Cries before going to bed
• Naps twice a day

The Havercamps lent us a couple of their son's toys since he has outgrown them, and they are perfect for LE's age. She seems to really like playing with the activity table.

I got myself up! Now what?  

I know! I should try to eat it!

That's a pretty standard reaction-- she tries to eat everything. Here are a few very short videos that show some pretty typical Lauren-isms.







Thanks to Nanny for the cream colored outfit and to Christi for the green outfit!

New Home Initiation

We woke up this morning to a find a few inches of snow covering our home and everything outside. It's our first real snow of the season, which is a time when everyone is still eager to shovel the snow. Ok, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration. It's more like, if you are ever going to be eager to shovel the snow, now's the time.

John and I have lived in condos or apartments up until now, so the snow always got cleared away for us. This is sort of like a rite of passage into new home ownership in the Midwest. I insisted let John take the first turn at shoveling since inevitably, there will be plenty of opportunities for me to have get to shovel us out when he's traveling.

This weekend is also the busiest Christmas tree shopping day of the season, so we went out with everyone else to search for the perfect tree. Luckily, Madison has a lot of tree farms, and one just so happens to be 2 miles down our road. 

LE was thrilled that we opted to go tree shopping instead of having nap time. Can't you see the excitement on her face? 

View of the Christmas tree farm

We arrived at the cute farm, and did you know that trees are expensive?! Holy smokes. We are looking just for a tiny tree-- one that can sit on top of our table-- and we weren't going to pay big-size tree prices to get it. We took a quick walk around and then promptly got back in our car. After going to another place that had an if-we're-desperate tree, we ended up buying our little guy at the grocery store. Lame-o, but cheap-o and just the right size-o.

Also, did you know that everyone likes to go to Target today, too? Oh, and don't bother going because they are sold out of all of the good lights. I'll speak on behalf of all Targets everywhere.

We got our little beauty home, plopped her on the table, and decorated her with every ornament that we own and a string of lights from Janet (aka Nanny) from last year. It looks cute and is just right for us this year. I can't imagine having a full-sized tree with LE pulling up on everything and Sweetheart (our cat) who likes plants. I'll pass on that, thank you.

Hi! I'm cute and apparently can't eat without spilling on my shirt. Why didn't my parents put a bib on me?
How about you just ignore that, ok?

And here's our little tree all jazzed up, one of my favorite ornaments up top (sock monkey from Gamama a couple of years ago), and our first and only present under the tree (thanks, Cindy and Dave!).

How was your Saturday? Are your decorations up?