Bloody Nose

Jake the dog has had a bloody nose for the past few days. What does this mean around my house? Lots and lots of laundry. Lauren woke up at 5:00 a.m. today (I know, fun) and when we went downstairs to play (so that Daddy could sleep longer), Jake jumped his bloody self onto the bed and managed to bleed on the blanket, comforter and top layer thingee...I don't know what they're called but we have the kind of comforter that's in two pieces. It has a thick layer and then a thinner one, kind of the thickness of a tablecloth, that you throw on top. Anyway, there is blood on every. single. layer. So in addition to getting ready today for the visit of Lawyer Dave (for the mediation hearing for my lawsuit), I will be doing lots and lots of laundry. The same items that were all freshly laundered two days ago due to the same bloody dog.

But it could be worse, at least I have a working dryer. A few days ago, Lauren shoved her plastic Mr. Noodle and Elmo figurines down the lint trap and then, luckily, told me about it right away or I shudder to think of the melted plastic mess that would have ensued. I spent an hour trying to fish them out with various kitchen utensils, then gave up and line-dried everything (or since we don't have a line, threw things over the railing.) Finally bent a hanger to get them out later in the day.

And yes, I do still also have a "real job" to do. In my "free time" between 12-2 a.m.

2 year vital stats

Went to the doctor yesterday and Lauren is (with heavy cloth diaper on) 32 pounds, 9 ounces. She is 35 1/2 inches tall. According to the doctor's projections, she will: outgrow her car seat by age 3, and be 5' 11" tall as an adult! And everytime I tell anyone the height thing, the first question I get is "how tall are you, anyway?". Truthfully, 5 foot 8 and one half inches, but my license says 5' 9" because the DMV rounds up. And Ryan is 5' 11". No, you're not getting our weights! :)

Lauren figures out the DVD player

Today I was on the phone with my lawyer, who called with some questions at the moment when Lauren & I were putting on her shoes to go outside & play. She said "outside, outside!" (which sounds like "outshyeed, outshyeed") and I told her "not now, I'm talking to Davey, we'll go outside in a few minutes". Then she got down, I thought she was reading her books or something, and I proceeded to talk to Dave while looking up dates in my calendar, phone #s, etc. So I wasn't given her much attention.

After I hung up, I looked over and found her sitting on the couch, watching Elmo! She had gone over, figured out how to turn everything on and hit play, and then climbed back on the couch and was sitting there watching by herself! I asked her about it and she was nonchalant. "Yeah, I turn it on."

Chores, already

more pix from 2 year birthday party

Pigtails

My mom did Lauren's hair in pigtails last week.

The Line

I'm wondering how long I should do this blog about Lauren & her adventures. As it happens, the most interesting stuff can later become the most embarrassing things to her. And even the sweet, touching moments, I feel myself wanting to keep to myself. When she wakes up all warm and cuddly and says "my momma, my honey" it just makes my heart melt and it's great, but not in a way that other people necessarily want to read about. In the same way that I don't share "Ryan wrote me this really sweet email today..." and then the contents.

I could go on and on about how cute it is that she says "twoc late" instead of "chocolate" and she thinks that she should say "yes" in "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus" because after all, he did say "pweas". And that "pink makes me happy, I wuv pink". So maybe I will still write some of it, I almost can't not. But you don't get to know about some of the little private sweet stuff that she comes up with, like, okay, here's one one last time. Today we were lying down and she started talking about how she has, according to her, "Daddy's eyes, no, but brown eyes, I have brown eyes, Daddy's hair, Daddy's hair blonde, Daddy's lips, Daddy's nose." I asked her if she looked like anyone else and she thought about it for a minute and said, "Nonna's knees, Papa's feet." And then I asked her if she had anything like Mama, and she said "Ummm...Mama's ears" and then, thinking she might have hurt my feelings, she quickly added, "Pretty ears. Pretty Mama ears."