Photo shoot gone horribly wrong.

Thought we'd share some pics we tried to take of Wren last weekend. She looked so cute in her little dress that we thought we should take some photos in the front yard. Apparently it wasn't meant to be.

First, she had a hard time sitting up in the grass:














Then, she fell asleep.:













So then we decided to lay her in the grass, which, as you can see looked ridiculous:
















So we tried to sit her back up, but she just fell over:















And then she puked on herself. So we stopped.

Last weekend

Sorry, haven't been on the blog lately. Wren has been keeping us on our toes! Here's what's been going on...
Great Aunt Jody and Uncle Jeff stopped by for a visit last Friday afternoon:














And Mother's Day was an all-day blast! It started with Ara's first Mother's Day breakfast at home (I made her favorite Swedish breakfast of crepes, unfortunately they tasted more like charred flour). We went to church after breakfast - the high school boys sitting in the pew behind us were flirting with Wren so we had to take a picture - then we had brunch and dinner at the grandparents. It was a great day!

Don't eat the baby!

For comparison's sake we put the babe next to Manni on the couch. Manni's still the largest.

It's hard out there for a pimp.

One second she's looking all cozy and cute in her hooded sweatshirt and the next second she's flashing gang signs. I think we're in trouble.

bathtime

not sure why mike didnt add these two pictures to bathtime blog, they crack me up... in the one she looks like the grinch, and in the other totally blissed out on being washed up....

Finally. Seriously.

Wren's little dried-up-bloody-umbilical-cord-stump-thingy finally came off today. Ara says "NO" to saving it in the baby book. Think I might auction it off on Ebay...any takers??

a lunch date...

Today Wren had a lunch date with Gramma Shell! She also visited her office and sat pretty (well slept pretty) as co-workers oooh-ed and ahhh-ed. She slept through lunch too. And the ride there and back. I think that bath this morning must've wore her out!

hose 'er off.

Wren had her first blowout diaper this morning! Poop everywhere. So today's sponge bath was critical. Not quite her favorite thing to do, but if you stick your pinky in her mouth she usually calms down...

a visit from the DQ angels...

Auntie Jill and soon-to-be Uncle Greg just left our house after a great visit. Wren was in pretty good spirits (there was a point when Greg was holding her that she got a little fussy but I think it was because Wren knew he didn't have breasts she might be able to eat from...) and Ara was definitely in good spirits when we opened the gift they brought us - a DQ gift card! Ara's eyes lit up like they do when I come home from work. Wren seemed content in Jill's arms, and Jill seemed content holding her, even when she got puked on!

she's just so cute

trying out the kangaroo pouch.

friends are family

"uncle jon" gets a chance to hold Wren. Maia is a little jealous. Jon gets a mild case of baby fever.

gail, dave, alex and gabby

More visits from the family, complete with pasta for our freezer and peanut butter cookies. only Auntie Gail was brave enough to hold Wren. Everyone else watched from afar....

May Day

Wren's first May Day. Again, she slept through most of it. I think she will probably enjoy it more next year. Her friend Maia was with though, and Maia had a great time. And the sun was shining, so everyone in Minneapolis was happy.

more church pics

First Sunday at Church

Wren made her first appearance at AHP on Sunday. It was a huge success. She pretty much slept through the entire service, and every pass off of everyone taking turns holding her. The African community swept her out of our arms without hesitation or permission (didn't bother us, made us laugh, but so different from the hand washing, fragile and delicate handling, and polite "may I hold her?"that we are used to) They bounced her around and tossed her from person to person, the African grandmas whacking her feet and smacking her cheeks to get her to "wake up!" She got turns with Dede, Juliette, Loveline, Nancy, Mary, Dick, and David. She was also a hit with the row of High School boys sitting in the pew behind us, all grinning and waving at her during the service and greeting times. After the service Great Grandma Larson was waiting in the parking lot to say hello, and brought Wren a little bird house, a wren house of course, to be painted with her birth date and "Wren's House" and hung up in our yard.

dave rosati

all morning mike has been yelling, "wren looks like dave! like dave!" dave is my uncle, by marriage, not blood, and according to mike my daughter looks just like him....

Passed the test!

On Friday afternoon, Wren participated in a study at the Center for Neurobehavioral Development at the U of M, where I (Mike) work. The study is run by my coworkers (and good friends) Neely and Emily, and it examines recognition memory processing in infants. They recorded Ara speaking into a microphone, and then played back her voice and the voices of strangers to Wren. They collected Wren's brain waves/EEG on a machine to measure how she reacts to hearing her mom's voice vs. a stranger's voice. She did really well having the device on her head, and her results are pretty good! The screenshot with the red and blue lines was sent to me by Neely, and it basically shows that Wren can differentiate between her mom's voice and a stranger's, and that hearing Ara's voice makes her brain more active. I love my baby.