Sunday, May 31, 2009

This just says it all

If you didn't know Lauren and I could only give you one quick tidbit that would sum up her personality, it would be her answers to the question, "what do you want to be when you grow up?". She wants to be "a lion tamer AND a helicopter pilot". She also thought it was funny to answer, "a grown-up!"

Memorial Day

 
Posted by Picasa

"See, I do know how to do Legos by myself!"

 
 
Posted by Picasa

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....

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

A Little Whine with your Cheese

Just had to vent here. If you are contemplating parenthood, spoiler alerts below. You may want to avoid reading this because I will use the words poop, diarrhea, and diaper.

We have this not-swine flu thing at our house right now. Which means I have not been at work since...week before last? I usually go in to the office on Wednesdays and work from home on Monday/Friday mornings except the 2 times a month I have to co-op at Lauren's school. And then check in for few minutes here and there on other days for quick things. Anyway, last Monday I had to bring Lauren to the doctor because she had a little fever, a rash on her trunk, and was whiney. Which for her, could mean ear infections. She gets them every few months. This time, no ear infections and the diagnosis was "just the tail end of a cold or virus" and she was cleared to go back to school. Wednesday she went to school, but I stayed home, was completely weak and fighting a sore throat. But I had so much to do from missing Monday that I couldn't quite relax and sleep so I didn't fight it off.

We haven't been altogether better since. However, Lauren got worse, had a fever over the weekend and more sore throat/coughing/runny nose/eye discharge and missed school again yesterday and went back to the doctor. Add diarrhea to the mix. The doctor gave us albuterol to help her breathe, and told me that she is okay to go back to school today (which we would do except Tuesday/Thursdays she is not at school). Now, though, the leaky diarrhea diapers are starting. See, this is the part you might not want to read. I am exhausted from all of this Lauren mommy-daughter time. I am grossed out by the 6 diapers I changed and the 4 loads of laundry with hot water and bleach washing all of the towels and sheets and 3 pair of her pants that it leaked on. I have to still deal with the spots on the carpet. I want to throw up, it is that bad.

Also because of being sick, Lauren's sleep schedule is shot. She went to bed at 6:00 p.m. last night, then woke up at 10:00 and stayed up until 3:00 a.m. I tried everything to get her to sleep but nothing worked until then. Then we woke up at 8:30 a.m., so of course that is only 5 1/2 hours of sleep for me so you might imagine (if you didn't catch it from the tone of this post) that I am CRANKY.

And through it all, my fantasy. Nothing complex or expensive. I am dreaming of the very-soon day when I can go to my office, sit at my computer and do some work. Where it smells pleasant, the people are nice and I am paid to be there, and thanked regularly. Where no one pulls my hair or poops on me or even discusses their bodily functions. I am hoping this day is tomorrow. Because I reeeeeeeeeally need Lauren to be all better and back in school or I may go insane.