Sunday, December 14, 2008

"No, but thanks!"-a 32 month Lauren update

This update's almost half a month late. The above quote is one of her favorite things to say lately. "Lauren, do you want to take a bath now?" "No, but thanks!" "Do you want some more milk?" "No, but thanks for asking!"

The biggest news in her life this month is that after Thanksgiving, Lauren decided on her own to give up her pacifier, or "passo". One day I was about to give it to her and she said "I'm all done with that. I don't need it any more." This was great news, I'd been wondering how to wean her from it. By this point, she only used it in situations where we'd want her to sleep. Right before bed, in long car trips, before a nap. Whenever she'd wake up in the night, if I'd give her the "plug" (another word we call the passo), she'd usually go right to sleep. So it's been a difficult few weeks when she wakes up in the middle of the night and now that she doesn't have the plug, so wants to get up and have food or milk. Or talk. Or any number of other activities.

I posted about Lauren's imaginary friend Pinky. Well, Pinky now has her own imaginary baby sister, Leaky. Sometimes Pinky and Leaky get into fights and Lauren has to tell them to apologize to each other. Lauren would like to have a real sibling and when we were at a children's store recently, she brought me a baby swing and said "buy this for the baby sister I want you to get in your tummy". We're not even planning to have another child for a few years if we do, and I reiterated that to her. I pointed out to her that also, you can't plan gender. She was horrified at the possibility that she might someday end up with a brother. (Can't say I blame her! Oh, okay, he's not so bad at age 30, but Uncle Peach in his younger years...)

Lauren likes school so much that every so often, I will go to pick her up and she will tell me "go back to work!". But when I posed the scenario of her staying there all day, she told me that she wants to take her naps at home, then go back to school after she wakes up.

She has a new good friend at school, Jack, who has come over to the house to play. They are about the same height and he's a month or two older. They like to play together in the sand outside and pretend they're making pizza. I find it hilarious when they boss each other around. And then sometimes do the opposite thing on purpose. "Lauren, come up here!" "No, I want to go DOWN here now."

Sometimes when she gets home from school, she sings songs she learned there, and tries to play games or get me to be kid in the class. She calls me "my friend Mommy".

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

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Do-Gooding

So, we sold a baby item on Craig's List last night. We felt bad for the people who were buying it, since they had a preemie baby in the NICU, and they had travelled a great distance from not the best part of town, so I gave them a few baby books and some other items for free. (Plus we had a really cheap price to begin with.) When they were leaving, Ryan said "We should have given it to them for free". I felt a little bad about it then, so when they were walking out, I asked them if they wanted some other things (which I was going to take to the consignment store where I'd get credit for other children's clothes & toys for Lauren). Ended up giving them a big pile of stuff. Then when they left, I walked them out and saw their brand new Mercedes.

Maybe I am particularly sensitive to this since at the moment, we have only 1 working car that is 13 years old and Ryan is borrowing one from his family member, but I feel like if someone has the cash to drop for a $80,000 vehicle, they should not be buying secondhand baby things on Craig's List. Actually, not even to this instance exactly. In this instance, the people never asked for free things, we just gave it to them. But another time I sold another baby item for at a low price and this pregnant lady came to buy it and said "I only have this much, is that okay?" after having driven all the way from Encinco. At the time, I was new to selling stuff and had put the cheap price to sell it quickly, not thinking someone would try to pay even less. Flabergasted, I just said "Um, okay". And helped her carry it out to her car, another brand new Mercedes.