Please?Okay!: A 27 month Lauren update

What frequently happens when I write these monthly Lauren updates is that "the fans"(Ryan & my parents) tell me "oh she's been doing that since before this month. Which may be true, but if I haven't written about it before, it goes in that month. So here're some:

Lauren likes to demand/order things. "You will pick me up." "More pizza." "I want ice cream." I respond, "are you asking me?" (or sometimes just give her a raised eyebrow look) and then she says, fast and all in one breath, "Please?OKAY!" to answer for me.

She is saying absolutely everything, though she still has her Boston accent so other people have a hard time understanding some words. My parents were watching her and thought she was asking for "tacos! Please?OKAY" but she was really saying "crackers". She will tell me she wants to wear "Joss shut"and that means her Curious George shirt (see top picture in previous post). She has definite clothing/style preferences and if tired, tantrums if they're not met, such as when "Joss shut" is in the laundry. The yellow Beastie Boys T-shirt in the second picture was also her choosing. ("What are the boys' names, Mommy?") As was the pairing with my pearl necklace. (Real pearls that I only wear on special occasions but which Lauren would love to wear/ruin while, say, splashing in mud puddles)

She loves to have conversations, and wants to keep the dialog going even if she has to repeat herself or say "I don't know" or "I think about it" or "you tell me". "Daddy, do you know about rocks?". "Mommy, do you have a golf story?". She decided to become a cook when she grows up, but then changed her mind and said "doctor". Did not like it when I suggested she could be both, ("I don't have time"?)and switched back to being a cook.

She's very into pretend games now and she'll hand me, say a plastic cup, and say "this is penne pasta. I make it for you." or "this is cake. It's Daddy's birthday." She will say "My name is 'phia, my mom is Barbara..."and list off Sophia's family members. She still loves to sit in the driver's seat and pretend to drive the car, and one day she insisted she would really drive. I told her she was not old enough, and she said "I got my license, see?" and held up my parking wand for the garage at work!

She can count to about 18, say the alphabet (sometimes she gets stuck, though and says "ABCDEFGHIJK...we do it again!...ABCD..."), and recognize shapes. We were in my mother's bathtub and she said of the tiles, "these are squares" and they were. :) She's known her primary colors for awhile now but she asks me questions about the difference between teal and aqua.

She's given to bouts of declaring "I don't want to be little" and "no, no taking me!" when I try to pick her up against her will (usally for a diaper change). But if I don't carry her and she wants to be carried, she'll say "carries, please pleasey please Mamma. Hooooooooooold me" in a pitiful voice. Sometimes she'll shake her head furiously and say 'I'm NOT cute, I'm NOT." She likes to boss everyone around, and when we drive, she'll suddenly shout out "turn RIGHT. No, no, this way" and get indignant when we drive straight anyway. If you ask her her name, she will laugh and say "heiny!" or pretend to be someone else or say "you tell me!"


For transportation purposes, L prefers "carries" or if she must be in a stroller, "carseat" which is the Sit & Stroll. But minor miracle happened a few days ago. After months of shunning the bike, citing a fear of the helmet (we then got her a new Elmo one, which she would wear but still wouldn't get on the bike), she finally asked me to take her on a bike ride. We went on the bike path over to Noodles (baby & kids resale store) and she said we were "two ladies wearing helmets" and that she wanted an umbrella because there was so much wind, so she could fly like Mary Poppins. We also looked for ducks on the creek next to the bike path and when we found some, she said "thank you, Mommy, showing me ducks. Thank you taking me on the bike. You a good mommy. You my best friend." It was the prefect way to spend our last Monday morning together. Next week, she starts nursery school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.