Photo Shoots, Bloomies, and a Cheesecake Pose

Today was a very exciting day in the House of Lee. First of all, we had several house calls from visitors, to drop by for hellos and hold her for photo ops. Leading off, our friend from Orange, Sueann, who arrived with a cinnamon creme cake, her own make-up and wardrobe assistant, and an invitation for Lorraine to go out to lunch afterwards...



With my wife off with Sueann, that left me with Lauren for a few hours. So what did we do? We ventured over to Fashion Island (a pretentious local shopping extravaganza that I lovingly like to call "Fascist Island") to finish my Christmas shopping together. And then we hit Bloomingdale's. Man, I have to say, I must have been stopped about 15 times by female strangers who went goo-goo over her. I had no idea that a cute baby had such social stopping power! After a few minutes of me crashing into some Christmas product displays (still getting used to the stroller - I imagine this is what it's like to navigate a Hummer through a supermarket parking lot), we strolled around and I purchased a few more items for Lorraine. Only after I made my purchases did I realize that I may have subjected my little girl to her first taste of the retail infliction, "affluenza". I hope that this doesn't mean she'll be jonesing for some shopping at too early an age. Oh well, let's just put down to O.C. conditioning. Perhaps this will qualify her to be on a future series of MTV's Laguna Beach. Just kidding. Seriously.

After mommy came back from her well-deserved break with Sueann (lunch by the ocean, apparently), Lauren's proud uncle, Johnny (my bro) and his girlfriend, Dawn, both rolled up to our door with their own photographer to shoot a few frames while visiting from San Francisco for the holidays...





Finally, I have my first "Oh Dad!" picture (one that I'll be sure to whip out to others to embarrass her when she's older). This "cheesecake" picture was originally for Sarah (from Charlotte), who gave Lauren a set of these socks as a gift. Lorraine took this picture with the intentions of sending it to her as a thank you message. Instead, Lauren now has her Aunt Sarah to thank for the opportunity to capture this first of many embarrassing lasting images for all to enjoy now and later. Strike a pose!



Lastly, I know that many of you are awaiting an entry from the mommy herself. She's asked me to let you all know that she'll be on the wire soon when she can find 2 1/2 minutes between nursing sessions, breast milk pumping, and her every other day showers. Hey, I'm just the warm-up guy. Bye for now...