Its Party Time

Lauren has had a very full afternoon/evening. Our neighbors 2 doors down threw a party for both Memorial Day and to celebrate the completion of their year-long work on their yard and house. Lauren adores their 6-year-old daughter Megan and was so excited to be going to Megan's house.



Here's the eager beaver with Mommy on our way over:




They had a bouncy house in their front yard, which Lauren went crazy for. Of course, the kids in it were older and half of it kept falling inward, so we limited her time in there to a few minutes with Daddy:

It was a little cool today, but once there, the sun came out and it got pretty warm (for a while, at least). So I had to run back home to get her bathing suit, and she took a dip with Daddy. Apparently it wasn't quite warm enough, because her pool time only last about 5 minutes. As you can see, it wasn't a huge hit:

What was a huge hit was playing in Megan's room. Seriously, we could not get her out of there for almost the entire party. Of course, she was by herself most of the time since Megan was playing with the older kids, but that didn't stop Lauren from exploring every girlie toy and doll in there. The makeup table was her favorite:

We did coax her back outside for some hot dog, mac and cheese, and olives (yes, she's obsessed with eating all kinds of olives). She finished off with a huge cookie covered in blue frosting, which then induced some sugar-infused behavior:


It was hard to get her to go to sleep by 8 p.m. tonight, since the party is still raging outside and Lauren couldn't stop talking about everything from the bouncy house ("it fall down") to Megan ("where Megan go?). It's 8:30 p.m. now and all is quiet (at least in our house). What a nice way to spend a holiday weekend.

Time to Play

So Lauren has been battling a cold for the past week and a half, and this past weekend, she was finally feeling (and sleeping) better. Of course not until she gave her mom the bug, but it goes with the territory, right?

Uncle Greg was in town for the weekend to golf with Dad and stopped by the house on Saturday after their round. Lauren has always loved Greg since she was a newborn, and this day was no different. She played with him for a couple of hours, wanting his complete attention. She jumped, ran, fell, sang, jabbered, and was sooo full of energy! The rest of us just sat back and let them have their fun.

This morning Lauren had ballet class with Miss Kelly. She wanted to dress up for the first time in her tutu, but wasn't in the mood for posing for photos. Until, that is, Norm turned her into a flying ballerina, and then she was all smiles and giggles.

A Big Day

We got Lauren her own table and chairs yesterday (Paul Frank) and boy does she love them! She sits at the table to color and also eats her meals there. What a big girl, sigh.

Also, tonight, she blew her own bubbles and was so excited about it. she's starting to really smile for the camera as you can see (instead of doing that squinty eyed thing).

I scream, you scream . . . .

Yes, we are horrible parents, having only allowed Lauren ice cream a couple of times in her life. The times when she has had it, it has usually been gelato after dinner, and we paid the price by having a sugared-up toddler racing around the house instead of going to bed. Well, last weekend was brutally hot here (like 99 degrees), so we went to an outdoor lunch and got her a vanilla Dairy Queen to share with her daddy. Of course she loved it (although not as much as she would have loved chocolate, I am sure, but trust me, we're not going there yet). Here are a couple of shots of the wondrous experience.

What will the Teletubbies think?

Well, we successfully avoided it for 2 whole years. Lauren had no interest in Barney whatsoever, even when we passed it while flipping channels. Fact is, I think when she was younger, the purple monster scared her (with good reason, he/it still gives Norm and I the heeby jeebies). Until 3 nights ago, when I was getting ready to put on her Baby Einstein DVD before bed and she saw Barney on tv and screamed "Barney, watch him!!". So, I did the unthinkable and let her watch the 30 minute show, reasoning that she would forget all about it shortly thereafter. Hah. She had to watch it the next night also. Then today, while at work, I called home at lunch to speak with Nanny Kristen and could hear Lauren singing in the background. Kristen said that she had been singing all morning. I asked what she was singing. Kristen said she was alternating between the ABC song and, gulp, Barney. When I came home from work up until she went to bed tonight, she would not stop singing that darn song. Somehow she knows every single word even though we never taught it to her and she only saw the show 2 times! Well, she does change it up a bit, and sings "I love you, I love me (instead of you love me) . . . . ." So she's now defected from the Teletubbies to Barney. We only pray that she grows out of this before her 3rd birthday. No chance in h e double hockey sticks we're hiring Barney to come to her party. As you can see from the above, we had to suffer through Po this year (although she was in heaven and that was worth the price of admission).

Let the blogging begin!

Yes, we are finally joining the masses and starting to create a written, hopefully wonderful record of our lives with our precious Lauren. She just turned two so we admit to being slightly behind the eight ball, but better late than never! We have thousands of photos of her taken on our digital camera, saved onto the computer and downloaded onto memory sticks (but certainly not organized), but we thought this would be a great way for friends and family to check in on us on a regular basis. Plus maybe Lauren can read this someday and realize how much she has blessed us by coming into our lives.