"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".