Photos from Lauren's First Days

Ready to Meet McBaby Girl #2!

We have reached our final countdown, and now we are counting down hours. I can't believe that by tomorrow we will be a family of 4. This pregnancy has flown by, and I am trying to remember what it's like to have a newborn again. You'd think that I would remember it, as it was only 14 months ago that Claire was a newborn. Amazing how your mind just moves on, you know? Here are some pics of sweet Claire, our first baby girl, getting a picture of how big her little sister will be.

We head to the hospital this evening, and we they will prepare me for induction tomorrow morning. I am nervous, but excited at the same time. I didn't have an epidural with Claire, and I am hoping I can do the same with this one, however, like before, I am just going to go in with an open (but determined) mind. We have such wonderful support from our family, friends, and church family, and we feel so blessed that God is trusting us with another sweet gift of a child. The next post will probably be our announcement, so stay tuned!

Let's hope she's as excited about her little sister as she was about this watermelon... ha!

Our Little Walker

Well, she is officially walking. I would say January 11 was the day I would call her a "walker." Although, she does still prefer to crawl quite a bit (only because she is lightening fast as a crawler). I don't know how we'll keep up with her now, but it sure is fun to watch!

Claire... Meet, Claire.

Christmas 2010

Sorry this post is so late... Better late than never! This will probably be the last post before our new baby girl arrives. So exciting! Here are some highlights from our Christmas holiday this year. It was so wonderful to see Claire interact with family, friends, gifts, and all things Christmas. It will be so much fun to see both our girls at Christmas, next year!

We started out the holiday season with the annual cookie party at the Kolendo's house. We've been doing this for 4 years now (I believe), and it was fun to let the kiddos join us for a bit. Claire had her first Christmas cookie with Daddy (fitting) and LOVED it! We had a blast.

Thanksgiving... Belated...

Well, it was quite a week! Mark and I shared a camper with his brother Keith, his wife Kim, and baby Brooke. The weather was wonderful except for Thanksgiving (bummer), but we enjoyed being outside most of the time.We really liked the travel camper we had, as it had heat (until the last morning), a restroom, shower, and tiny kitchen. Much better than a tent, I will say!

We ate lots of yummy food (well, small amounts of it thanks to Gestational Diabetes- ha!), visited with friends and family, and endured some interesting events. Kim and I worked on the meals we were bringing to Thanksgiving (broccoli salad and stuffed mushrooms) and the boys helped with the Turkeys (there were 3 of them, and they were deep fried- yummy).

The picture below is right after Mark took Claire away from Grams. She was very unhappy. She became really attached to Grams this week! I love it! :)

Claire got to sit in a camping chair for the first time and she just looked so cute. We really had to bundle her up because it got quite chilly.

Now for the "events"... Claire also learned how to nap somewhere other than her crib (or shall I say we learned how to get her to nap somewhere else). Sometimes it was in someone's lap... other times we had to practically hold her and lay with her.

I was stung by a yellow jacket (in one of my lady lumps... boo), I got a UTI the day after thanksgiving and had to go to urgent care (didn't want to wind up back in the hospital for another kidney infection), and then after the best day of camping (Saturday- games, great food, perfect weather, family nap time), I fell going down my in-laws' camper and sprained my ankle. Nice. Apparently your joints are loose when you are preggo. Luckily Mark's brother, Keith is a pediatrist and made "rounds" to his mom's camper to check it out. 3 weeks later I am finally able to walk on it with a boot or brace. Whew!

Let's just say it wasn't in our top 10 most relaxing weeks of the year, but we did have a good time, we learned a lot, and it was great to see Keith, Kim, and Brooke, the rest of the family, and our friends. We felt blessed that we were able to share the holiday with them, even if it was crazy!

We'll see if we make it camping next year. We may camp in our living room with our girls next year. I mean, girlie living room tents and fireplace marshmallows are cool, too. Right?

Brush, Brush, Brush Your Teeth...

Our big girl with her first toothbrush experience...

Now that Claire has 5 teeth, we thought it was time to start introducing a toothbrush. She seems to really like it for now. We'll see how long it lasts! It blows my mind how big she is getting!

Sweet girl! Here's hoping she has excellent oral hygiene from here on out... none of that "pretend" brushing. A mom can hope, right?