A sleeping toddler lies next to me as I type this. An infant no more. She's really becoming her own person, ever developing her personality. Ryan and I were remembering the story of her birth and it's funny, now that I know her, I can look back on it not just as "the baby" being born, but as specifically Lauren, with her Lauren-personality. For example, he told me that at one point during the labor-I did not ever know this before-the doctors were worried because her heart rate slowed down. Now I can picture her trying to find her way out of the birth canal and getting tired, taking a big deep breath and resting, the way she sometimes pauses now, puts her head down and shuts her eyes for a few seconds to rest when she's crawling across the room before bedtime.
She had been sick in March off and on with ear infections and bronchitis, but this past week she's been fully recovered (knock on wood!) and now she has an appetite! She eats 2-3 jars of baby food a day. This from the little girl who used to eat 2-3 bites a day! She loves to eat strawberries and bread. I make her teething biscuits, which we call "cookies". At her party today, she was offered tres leche cake and tried a bit, but gave me a sort of horrified look like, "what is this shit?!"and went back to gnawing on a crust of bread.
She will read books by herself now, especially touch and feel books, which she touches everything on the page. She has some "glittery fun books" and she likes them a lot, too. If I ask her to point to things such as "hat", "puppy", etc., she will do it, and she will laugh with glee like "I'm so smart!". Today in her bath, I asked her to "get rubber ducky" and she was on a mission. He was on the other side of the bathtub and she had to swat away lots of toys to get to him, and sort of swim/crawl to get there, but she did!
At night I give her choices of which pajamas to wear and lately she's been choosing a Snow White nightgown handed down from Karen. It's a little bit long on her, she doesn't trip or anything but put it this way, she won't outgrow it for awhile. I'm not sure if this portends a future love of Disney princesses (as Karen has) or long dresses or just the color sky blue but it's interesting to me that she always picks this to wear to bed.
She loves to talk! And she has long conversations sprinkled with real words, which go something like this "Say! Tee Tah toda SHLEE! And the epi conaVEE!" and make no sense but she will look quizzically and raise her voice like a question and wait for you to say something. She does say certain new words that I can understand, like "up" to be picked up, and she will copy me when I talk to Jake. She loves to order him around-"get off" when he jumps on the bed, and "sit, jakey!" just to see if he will. She loves to say "oh yeah!" when she likes something, and she claps her hands in appreciation more now, not just when everyone else is doing it.
I sing "Sing" to her ("Sing, sing a song, sing out loud, sing out strong. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la", etc.) and she did the coolest thing. In the "la" part, I stopped right before the last one and she sang the next one and even got the right note! But she hasn't yet repeated the trick, just like she sometimes says one word absolutely perfectly and then doesn't mention it again. She does do the "la la la la" thing but she hasn't finished my song again.
She's taken a few steps by herself but mostly still prefers to "cruise" or crawl to get places. She can now climb up and down the stairs by herself, and we make a game of it. I pretend to chase her and almost catch her. She laughs excitedly and gets more and more giddy the closer to the top and sometimes she collapses with giggles and can't go on. I can only hope that she understands the concept of "do not do this unless Mommy is right here to catch you if you start to fall".
Alex and Suzy gave her a doll for her birthday and I'm really curious to see if she becomes attached to it. Right now she likes "Little Man", who is one of the Little People toys, a tugboat captain. Little Man takes baths with her and travels in her suitcase and is also kidnapped by her, taken to other parts of the house. She will scream and cry if Little Man wants to stay in the bathtub without her, but then if she has a bath without him, she forgets he exists. Other than Little Man, most of her toys are interchangeable right now, but I know that soon the day is coming when she will want one certain toy all the time. I'm wondering what that first beloved toy will be!
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