We have a girly girl!

Lately, Lauren has definitely been exhibiting her attachment to all things frilly. She wants to be in Mommy's makeup drawer while I am getting ready in the morning, and gets great pleasure from using my makeup applicators and brushes (sans makeup, of course). So it was a stroke of pure luck when our neighbor Megan (age 6) offered to give Lauren her Disney makeup table this past weekend. I have never seen Lauren's eyes light up as much as when she saw it waiting for her in Megan's garage. She immediately sat down and started to play with it and refused to leave for at least 15 minutes, saying "I'm not finished yet." Even when we tried to explain that we were taking it back to our house and Megan was giving it to her, she refused to budge from the little plastic stool for fear that she would never see it again. Eventually she relented, and now it is prominently displayed in our living room aka giant playroom. She runs to it when she first wakes up in the morning and "reapplies" her makeup several times a day. I don't want Lauren to become obsessed with beauty or feel she needs anything else to make her beautiful, but girls will be girls, and it's just so darn cute to watch her pretend to put on her lipstick and nail polish. Here she is in all of her feminine glory:




Megan also gave her a plastic ballet bar, and Lauren is also putting that to good use, making sure to instruct as to the proper way to do a leg lift:



Nanny Kristen has been diligently working with Lauren on learning how to dress herself, and Lauren is now an expert (or so she thinks). It's difficult (and quite amusing) to just sit back and watch her try to put two legs into the neck of a shirt or put a pant leg over her head, but she's learning and feeling so proud of her new independence, and we are equally proud of her.



While Lauren is still sleeping in her crib and has no desire to transition to the bed yet (which is fine with us), she loves reading with her Daddy in her bed every night before she goes to sleep. It's a precious sight, and one I couldn't resist capturing tonight: