37/38 month update

Right now as I type this, Lauren is sleeping next to me in bed with a 102.7 fever. Well, I think and hope it's a bit lower now that she's had Tylenol. Poor little girl is sick, we don't know what it is but probably just a virus. She has been so polite to me tonight, so sweet. This morning we didn't know she was ill and dragged her around town. She had a little meltdown and screamed, "I'm feeling CRANKY". Well, 102.7 would put me out of sorts, too!

She's come so far in the past few months. She really seems like a 3 year old and not a toddler any longer. She loves to come back from places and tell the complete story of her day, and she's a great storyteller. Yesterday we went to an Angels game with Ryan & his Uncle Bud. I told her, "see those guys down there in the white shirts with red hats? They are the Angels, Uncle Bud's favorite team." She had a twinkle in her eye and responded, "Well...MY favorite team is the guys in the black jackets!" (umpires!)

Physically, she can climb around on the playground more and do more things on her own. She can put her own shoes and socks on. She's been doing that for awhile, but now she gets the right feet sometimes! And takes the initiative when she knows we're about to leave, to sit by the door and do it herself.

The biggest advances, though, have been the sleeping in her own bed (on a mattress in the floor in our room next to our bed, but still) and wearing underwear most of the time during the day. In fact, because of her illness I've been having her wear diapers today and she's really fought it.

She likes being an only child, but sometimes she tells me "Someday I am going to have a brother AND a sister. And they'll be little babies at first but then they'll grow into big people. They won't be dogs or pets, either. People!" This clarification is because we always called Jake, the dog, her brother.

She had her first enemey at school, a little girl, M., whom she tried to befriend. When M. didn't want to play, she pulled M.'s hair. Then M. bit her and got in trouble and had to bring her an ice pack. Then M. also had some food allergies so Lauren couldn't share a snack she had wanted to share with the whole class so she felt irritated at M. This was back in April. But now, the two of them play together really well and when I picked her up at school, they hugged each other good0bye. When we went out to the parking lot, Lauren came up with the brilliant idea that we should try to race our car with her mom's and follow them to their house and see where M. lived so we could get her to come out and play. I explained the concept of "stalking". ;)

Every month (ok, 2 months) when I write this, I finish the post and then remember about 5 really big deal things Lauren actually spent much of the month doing that I neglected to post about. Oh, here's one: her favorite food these days is penne pasta with pesto. She also likes to eat extra sharp Cheddar, Regiannito, Jarlsberg, and cheese with strong flavor. She will eat Meunster and Mozarella but that's about as mild as she'll go. She likes pesto so much that she will, if allowed access, spoon it directly out of the food processor bowl.

She's getting much better about remembering to say "please" and "thank-you" on her own without prompting. It's nice to hear "No thank you, Mom, but thanks for asking". And in fact, I am "Mom" most of the time now. Not Mamba anymore like when she was 1, not Mamma or Mommy, but just Mom. D-Daddio still gets his old name, but sometimes "M'Daddy" or just "Dad". "Papa" has become "Poppy" and "Ammy" is sometimes "my Gwamma". My mom is still "Nonna" but sometimes "NoNEEEEEE".

We have been reading some books from my childhood, and let me tell you, those Sweet Pickles books are pretty strange. How did I ever like them so much? :) She finally likes to play with Legos. As with a lot of things Lauren does, she seemed to go from barely doing it to doing it as if she had practiced every day, with no time in between. Today she effortlessly got out the Legos herself, made a tower out of them, and when she was done, disassembled them and put them away. I'll post a pic of it....