"Row, row, row your boat..."

A couple nights ago Lauren dumped all the stuffed animals out of this laundry basket where we keep them stashed and Daddy helped her put it on the couch and lift Owen into it with her. Then she commenced with the singing!

Love at first bite

Owen had his first biter biscuit tonight and, as you can see from this picture, the two of them got along great! He cut his first tooth last week and has been wanting to eat REAL food ever since. Very advanced, our boy is! He also had an egg yolk today from my fried breakfast egg. We make a good team, I only like the whites, so now he can eat the yolks for me!

Marching band

Lauren was marching around the house this morning banging two of her building blocks together like cymbals. I heard her say "ouch" and then she came running to me. "Ow, I hurt my finger. I gotta be careful what I'm doing with these blocks. See ya later, mama!" And with that, off she went again!

Go Bubba Go!

Well, he's done it - Owen has started crawling at 6.5 months! He's been army crawling for about a month, even popping up on his hands and knees and rocking. But two days ago he shot all the way across the living room floor. And just today he pulled himself up to standing at his new piano! Lauren started clapping and said, "I'm so proud of you, brother, I'm so proud!" It was pretty cute.

"Click it really good...or something"

This is a direct quote from one of the support guys on Adam's team, who was talking to a customer about her computer. And I used to wonder why he worked such long hours - um, yea, to train people like that!

My very own little Cookie Monster

Adam had a couple of his cousins and a brother over on Thursday night while the kids and I were out and they made a huge batch of nachos using a cookie sheet. I was just in the kitchen putting away some clean dishes and the kids were in the living room watching a movie. Lauren must have recognized the clank of the cookie sheet as I moved it. She ran into the kitchen, stood on her tiptoes to see the counter, and said, with a HUGE grin on her face, "Mama, are you making cooooooo-kies?"

Merry Christmas

We hope this post finds you all happy and healthy, celebrating the holiday with your families. Having just lost my grandpa less than two weeks ago, I especially want to reiterate the importance of telling those close to you how much you love them.

Binky face rocks!

Last night was the first night Owen slept on his belly. He's been rolling over since he was three months old, but he's always been a back sleeper, happy in his crib wedge. Lauren fought sleeping on her back almost from the day she was born. I lost so much sleep with that girl, checking on her to make sure her face wasn't smooshed in the bed and constantly flipping her over. Owen was so darn cute this morning when he woke up on his belly with binky face - an indentation of the binky on his cheek where he had been laying on it.

Pop goes the weasel, er, I mean cookie

We are going to a cookie exchange tomorrow night at a friend's house. Everyone brings two dozen cookies and you take turns choosing off other people's trays. You leave with two dozen cookies, but they could all be different - how yummy does that sound?! So today Lauren and I made oatmeal cranberry coconut cookies. The recipe said it would make four dozen. I don't know how small those people made their cookies, because I just barely got three dozen out of the batch. I scraped the mixing bowl at the end because I wasn't sure how many cookies I had. When I pulled the last batch out of the oven, the final cookie I had put on there was as flat as a pancake. Must've been all the butter at the very bottom of the mixing bowl in that single cookie. As I was pulling the cookie sheet out of the oven I said, "Oh no, what happened to that cookie?" Lauren took one look at it, threw her hands in the air, and exclaimed, "Mama, it popped!"

Splish splash I was taking a bath

We just made the move tonight to get Owen out of the infant bath tub and into a bath ring seat for the big bath tub. He absolutely *L*O*V*E*D* it! He was mesmerized watching his hands under water. Of course, Lauren was in there with him, trying to "help" me wash his hair. But they had a blast together. It's so much fun to see them actually starting to play with one another!