Nice weather...COME BACK!

Wordless Wednesday: Shadow, Lauren's New Friend

Feelings

We have been working on feelings lately. Lauren just loves to show us all the different ways that a person can feel and is really starting to understand what they mean as well. The other day (in my hormonal madness) I started to cry and Lauren quickly ran over to me and signed sad and started saying 'cry, cry'. It just amazes me how she can attune to other people's emotions, especially since the majority of my clients at school are unable to.

This is the sign for 'cry'. You just trace your fingers down your cheeks like you are crying. The really funny about this is that she has now started to tantrum and we REALLY know she is faking when she just signs cry and yells 'cry' at the same time. Sorry Lauren, that isn't going to work!

MAD! Aunt Amanda taught her this face and she thinks it is the funniest thing ever!

Because normally when we tell her to make mad face, she starts laughing at the same time and this is what we get...
Confused

Happy :)

I might be a little absent in commenting on blogs and writing my own posts. My comprehensive final at Erikson is 3 weeks out and I have now entered 'crisis mode'.

Lent and Lauren's 'NEW' Chair

For some of you, Lent officially starts today, others start Sunday, and others have no idea what I am talking abou. I remember last year when I asked people on my blog what, if anything, they were giving up and a lot of people said nothing because they weren't Catholic. Well...neither am I! We are Lutheran and follow many of the same traditions that Catholics do especially around the time of Lent. The point of 'giving something up' during the Lent season (Ash Wednesday-Easter) is experience the feelings of sacrifice and temptation like Jesus did during his 40 days in the desert and to get a small understanding of what God had to sacrifice (his Son). So this year I wanted to do something that would be difficult for me...CHOCOLATE! I seriously eat Chocolate everyday whether it is in my nightly bowl of ice cream, a small treat at work (schools are so tempting with sweets), or dark chocolate-covered nuts/raisins. This is going to be hard for me, but that is the point! To make it even harder, I have decided to really watch what I eat...no more artificial colors/flavors and limit even further my intake of processed foods. I know I can do it and hopefully I can continue to watch what I eat following the Lenten season. Because ultimately, my body is what allows me to discipline to others and I need to keep it in proper working order and feel my best! Kyle is giving up sleeping-in (at my request) and did remarkably well this morning. What, if anything, are you giving up??

Now onto Lauren's chair. My grandma Baker gave us this chair when we went to visit last May. Lauren has always loved it but it definitely needed an overhaul with being glued back together and the fabric washed. I attempted to put the pillow in the washing machine on a delicate cycle and it completely disintegrated...talk about being loved for a long time!
I read in a great book about using empty/clean plastic bags as stuffing in throw pillows and decided to give it a try...recycle, reuse! We saved and saved our plastic bags from cereal boxes, fruit, rice, etc. until we had enough!
And WAH-LAH...Lauren's 'NEW' and improved chair! She loves it and often runs over to it yelling, 'pretty' and 'cute'. Her bears sit in it often and take naps too. I was hoping to find another fabric similar to what it was before but had no such luck. The pictures make the pattern look really busy and distracting but it is not like that in person at all.

Updates and Random Pictures

New shades...I will post more of our outside pics later!

Lauren and I went to the library the other day (minus a monkey harness). I figured I would give her another chance to redeem herself before limiting her movement, especially at a place where she should be allowed to explore her environment. We talked with our favorite librarian about the 'elevator incident' and the Children's Director jumped into our conversation and said it was a blessing in disguise..what?? Come to find out, the dispatcher was incorrectly wired and she actually called 911...opps! They got it reconfigured so the next time it happens, it will phone the right place. So I guess she was just looking out for the library...such a smart little girl! Now onto the picture randomness...

This girl LOVES popcorn. I don't make it often because it is so messy and ends up everywhere that the vacuum can't reach! Story of my life! I think air poppers make it much more fun too!

She was so excited for it to be done that she was laughing, squealing, and running wildly everywhere. I snapped a blurry pic (because she wouldn't hold still) of her excitement. When I showed it to her, she said, "Lauren cry," and signed cry. I said no, Lauren happy but she thought I was trying to fool her. So silly!

Using her chair to get her colors. Getting smart! That cause-and-effect thinking and problem-solving skills are really started to emerge!

We bought her some underwear, aka unners! I think she thought we were saying under where, like where is you under, so she calls them unners. She has her moments where she does really well but I think we will really tackle it this summer when it is warmer out to be running around in our unners. She was signing 'more' here for her breakfast.

Our tree fell over, on our clothesline.

Lauren's bff Jaxon. She is smitten by him. A few days after this hugging/kissing session, they both came down with a nasty cold. Each morning when she gets up she signs 'friend' and says: Jaxson, Lola (his dog), Heather (Jax's mommy and babysitter), and other inanimate objects (ball, bear, horsey).

She is turning into such a little character and became 18 months old yesterday. I can't believe my little baby has been in this world twice as long as she was in my belly! It just cracks me up that she can wake up in the morning and immediately have so much adrenaline. Just this morning, she was running down the hall, signing bike, and yelling bike...pretending she was riding a bike down the hall. I just love watching her little imagination grow :)

More Twins...??

Remember Lauren's first twin?...Little Stuart's Bro. Well, she might have some more...

While washing her hair one night I twisted it into funny shapes and thought she looked a little like...

The Lollipop kids from the Wizard of Oz..scowl and all

I twisted her hair so more to get a better picture and came up with this beaut! When I immediately looked into the viewbox on my camera, my first thought was COUSIN ETHAN!!! I tell my sister, Bethany, that they look alike all the time but she never believes me...see for yourself!

Need a better comparison...what do you think?? (click on the picture to make it larger)

Here is another comparison when they were both much younger...click here!

Escape Artist

Before I forget, I need to document this...

Last Saturday, Lauren and I went to the library as we do 2-3 times per week. We have our little rituals: talk to the front desk librarian, sit in the rocking chair, point to the window clings, stop at the bank of computers and sit on the bench, talk to the big bear stuffed animal, and so on...

Lauren LOVES to sit on these little tiny benches around a table of computers. Luckily, the computers need passcodes to get on them, so she can play on the keyboard and wiggle the mouse to her heart's content without destroying anything. She was plopped on one of the benches while I quickly turned around to grab an "Angelina Ballerina" book I spotted. Our backs were facing each other but only about 6 feet away. I picked the book up, looked inside to see how many words were on the pages, closed the book, and set it back down. When I turned around, my little Lolo was GONE!! Completely GONE!! I hurriedly scanned the area, wondering how she got off the bench so quietly and quickly. I ran to the rocking chair...NOPE...ran to the bear...NOPE...ran around the library a few times...NOPE...ran to the door...NOPE!

I was really starting to freak out! She had disappeared so fast that in my head the only possibility was that someone had grabbed her. I was just about to run about to the librarians when I hear a loud beeping sound. First thought...LAUREN...what have you gotten yourself into! I ran to the side door to see if she was trying to push open the door causing it to beep but nope, wasn't coming from there. I run back to the front desk and quickly tell the librarians that Lauren has disappeared (they all know my little vivacious girl by name).

The sound the librarians tell me is coming from the....elevator! I push the button to find Lauren babbling away in the elevator all excited. Who is she talking to?...oh, that would be the elevator dispatcher. My little curious George thought it would be fun to push the help button. After explaining that it was an accident, and saying goodbye to the dispatcher, we quickly rounded up our books and headed on our way. How the heck did she sneak onto the elevator with no one seeing her though?? So weird!

I never thought I would be 'that parent', but I am seriously contemplating getting a little monkey harness for Lauren. She is so fast, quick, and sneaky that I can't handle that kind of frightening feeling again. Curious to hear if anyone else has something similar?? I don't like the idea of restricting her movement but it might be nice especially when the weather gets nicer and we go for walks. I do need to set some sort of limits with her and this would help her realize how far away from mommy and daddy she can go.

Squirrels

Lauren is watching for squirrels in this video which she has now renamed 'Foofa' from Yo Gabba Gabba. All the talk about Foofa made her think about Brobee (another Gabba character) which set her off into a spin of a few of her favorite things (Jaxson, Lola, Heather, Horsey, and Apple)...ENJOY!

A few more of her favorite things...she has quite the vocabulary! Lately she has been having some 'quiet time' in her room. She will walk in there, close the door, and play for a few more minutes before knocking to come out. I opened the door with the video camera after she had been in there for awhile. She always tells us everything that she did when we open the door and that is what she is doing here when talking about Violet and the chair.

Is it Summer Yet??

We ask ourselves this question often in this house. Unfortunately, without central air...I am sure we are going to dread wishing for its humid goodness shortly. To help get us through the final weeks of winter, we picked up a bag of 18 month summer clothes off of FreeCycle.

Included in our new free belongings...

a swimsuit cover

a 'new' swimming suit...possibly from the 80's? Lauren seemed to enjoy it, diaper and all!

Kia's Trip

Kia took a trip outside to see the huge amount of snow {before it all melted} and to Cedar Rapids to visit Uncle Ryan and Aunt Amanda. Oppsies!

Lauren's hat off, Kia's hat off

What Happened?

Something happened to Lauren's doll...it is a mystery but she doesn't like it! Here is a better glimpse of Lauren's active personality; always on the go!

JEW!!!

Lauren loves juicing in the morning! When she sees me pull the juicer out from the wall, she starts yelling 'jew'. Now she has to help too!Saying 'jew'

I found this little cup with a straw for under $2 and figured it would be a good 'jew' cup.

Stuart Little?

Meet Stuart Little's Jonathon Lipnicki's little sister...
She found my OLD glasses (from 5th grade) and has been wanting to wear them to be like Papa (aka Grandma Cindy). I popped both the lenses out and she wonders around wearing her them.

Day 23 and 15 month Teaser

Day 23 is a picture of your friend as a baby...seriously, not many people have this. I scoured Facebook for a good picture of my friend Kelsey and came up empty-handed so I thought a picture of Kelsey with a baby (Lauren) would be good enough! We miss our bestie who lives in Florida now.

Making homemade bagels...yummy!

Kelsey's going-away party in Chicago, sad night!

Here is a little teaser of Lauren's 15 month professional pics! I know, they were taken 2 months ago...but I finally got them uploaded to my computer. Of course, her true personality came through during the photo shoot and we got some pretty silly ones!

Day 22 and other recent happenings...

We have been rather busy this week but didn't get much accomplished, doesn't that always seem to be happening! My mom and dad were planning on coming to stay with us Tuesday-Friday while my dad was in the area for business. With the "Storm of the Century" approaching, my mom decided to come on Sunday instead. Thank goodness she did, because my dad never made it and she most certainly would not have with the storm! We went to bed Tuesday with the wind howling and snow falling and woke up to about 16 inches of snow. It was a fun day of scooping up snow and enjoying the fact that we couldn't go anywhere.

This is the neighbor's driveway. Can you see the massive amount of snow we got? He plowed the side but a middle section is still there, it was/is pretty deep!

There is a step up to our garage but it looks level here.

Lots of snow on our front bushes

Day 22 is a picture of your town so I figured this would count! This is what our town looks like...a big snowy mess!

And just because it has been awhile since I posted last and all some of you care about is pictures of Lauren...here is a recent one of our little daredevil!