Lauren Grace 2 1/2

I like to do updates every once in a while....all the things she's doing and saying at 2 1/2. Lauren pretty much talks all the time and says just about everything. She is really into Dora right now but still likes Strawberry Shortcake and Curious George. Her favorite thing to play with is Polly Pockets but she still likes to occasionally feed her baby a bottle and use her kitchen. She is a pretty good eater....favorite foods are pizza, chicken nuggets and corn dogs. She likes to be outside. Her favorite thing to do outside is look at and smell the "plowers" (flowers). My favorite things she says right now are "you have to lay down with me a little bit" this is at bedtime of course. She is not very good at bedtime but the rest of the day makes up for it because she is so delightful. "I sleep good" she says this when she wakes up even if it is 4:00 am. " I want to wear my plip flops" (flip flops). She does a pretty good job at wearing the flip flops. "Mommy be quiet Im on the pone (phone)". She gets that from me (haha). The thing she probably says the most is "I do it"...she will not let us do anything for her....she has to do it. And if I help her she has to start over and do it herself. The potty training is not going great. She has got the peepee down but not the poop. She comes up to me and says "mommy I have to poop"...which means she already did. So I take her to the bathroom to clean her up and she says "it's ok" I say "no it's not...stop pooping your pants". I say "you are stinky" she say "NO mommy YOUR stinking". Then when its my turn to go to the bathroom she has to have a play by play. The other day she asked me if I had diarea.....which I didn't. We had bible school last week and she had a great time. Every morning she would say "We going to bible school?" I would say yes then she would say "Im going to play with my prends (friends). I say yes and you will learn about Jesus...She says "Jesus loves me" I say yes he does. She has also been very demanding lately. Yesterday she told me to "get out of the way so I can see the people". In the car the other day she said "mommy I want banana bread" I said we don't have any. Aunt Mindy makes her really good banana bread and we ate it all. Well she wasn't going to stop she starting getting louder and louder demanding banana bread. I finally ignored her and she stopped. But when we got home I asked her what she wanted for lunch and she says banana bread....here we go again...she doesn't forget anything. Thank goodness Mindy came to the rescue...we now have banana bread. Mindy likes to take her out for ice cream a lot too. She came home the other night and was so excited..."I have ice cream I have so much pun (fun)". She still loves cuddling and kisses which mommy loves too. I just love this age she is so personable and independent...I am loving every minute of being her mom...well maybe not to poop training but everything else.

more play dates

We went to the library's wet and wild show. Lauren and Holden didn't really like the water so they just played in the parking lot. It was really cute they were just getting ready to hold hands here in this picture.

This was the other night when nick stayed the night....they actually got along!!! They were rocking and having a good time in the chair together. Nick in his batman jami's and Lauren in her tinkerbell jami's.

When it was time to leave the library Holden offered Lauren a ride on his cool stroller. Yes they both fit....they are so cute and tiny.

This was our statefarm play date. Lauren loved the baby pool. She didn't like all the spray stuff.....it was to carry (scary)...big surprise.

an outdoor bath

We got lazy one night and didn't want to go inside for bath time so we gave her an outdoor bath in a pitcher of warm water. She loved it....probably not our best parenting moment but she was clean for bed so thats all that matters right.

spa weekend

My mom, my sister, and I met Kathy and Tracy in Pana for a spa day. Kathy is a long time friend of my mom. Tracy and her sister Lindsay were childhood friends of ours....well I don't know about friends...I was the youngest so I was not always treated the best, but I got them back, I made them sleep in the sofa sleepers and I got the nice full size bed all to myself. We had a blast. We probably haven't all been together in 15 years. We laughed a lot, ate a lot and talked a lot and drank a lot.

zoo trip

This was a trip from hell....excuse my language but there really isn't any other way to describe it. Every year for my nephews birthday I take them on a "date". Well I decided to take Nick to the peoria zoo to see the giraffe's....he was sooooo excited so just because it was raining didn't mean we couldn't go. Well I wanted to take Lauren too so I took my mom with me for reinforcement......thank goodness. I couldn't have done it without her. So the start of the trip was in the car.....2 children 19months apart sitting way to close to each other for 45 minutes in the car....need I say more. Nick was way to loud and Lauren was way to winey....by the time we got there my mom and I were ready to shoot ourselves. We get there and it is spitting rain so we think...ok it's just a little rain we can do this.....well not so much it poured the whole time. We just kept saying we need to find these damn giraffe and get the hell out of here.

This is us saying....thank goodness the giraffe....take some pictures and lets head for the door

This is us outside the zoo before we went in.

Notice Lauren screaming.....yep you guessed it....Lauren is scared of the lion.

Now by the time we are leaving my mom and I have decided this was not a very fun day we didn't even see the whole zoo....but the kids of course didn't know that and they had a ball.....Nick is still talking about his great trip to the zoo.

So my mom and I get into the car to go home we had just bought some stuffed animals and puzzles for the kids so we say if you touch each other or say anything to each other on the way home you loose your animals. So we had a pretty good drive home.....and a good laugh about the whole day

Play dates

During the summer all my work friends plan a play date once a week. The first one took place at Ashley's house. The kids played in the yard, we cooked out and had a great time. It is so nice Lauren is at the age now that she can just go off and play and I get to sit and talk to my friends. She plays so nice with others and never seems to get into any trouble.

She loves to swing and play with all her "prends" (friends).

She was so excited to see this Dora car.....it made her whole day....she loves Dora.

fun at the park

If mommy has sunglasses on....Lauren needs her sunglasses. Lauren loves to go to the park but she doesn't do a whole lot. She will climb on the equipment and swing but she will not go down the slide or on anything else....it is too carry (scary). Can you see a trend in my blogs....yes Lauren is scared of everything!! She is also very observant....she is sitting here with me while I do this blog and she says "look mommy I lost my shoe"

She does like to run and she is pretty fast!!

I can't believe how grown up Jay is getting

summer is off to a good start

Lauren riding around in her big yellow fish. She is pretty good in the water. She is a little timid but once she gets going she loves the water. She does not like to jump in though..."it's too carry (scary)".

Nick on the other hand loves to jump in!!!! He is a crazy man in the water. He begs Amy almost every day to go to mimi's pool

Jay has become a great swimmer....as long as he is not trying to splash his brother!!

Lauren learned this at swim lessons....she loves her kickboard...she still hasn't quite figured out that it is easier to swim in the horizontal position.