Lauren Turns 2 !!!

Lauren turned 2 on Saturday, September 27th. We celebrated her birthday at Papa and Grandma Laws house. Grandma bought a pretty ice-cream cake and spoiled her with wonderful presents. Lauren is the 2nd granddaughter in the family (there are a lot of grandsons) so she gets pretty lucky when holidays come around.....both Mommy and Grandma can't resist all of the cute girl clothes and toys that we're totally not used to buying.

Shopping for Lauren's birthday was such a joyful experience for me, seriously! There's just something about shopping for a little girl after years of only buying race cars, Legos and weapons. I was finally able to get her all of the cute things I knew she'd been wanting but I hadn't gotten for her yet. I'm pretty strict about not buying the kids anything from the store unless it's their birthday or Christmas. As a result I never have problems with the kids whining or begging for things they want. However, Lauren is now entering that age where she's starting to see things in the store that she likes and wants. "Training" her has been especially painful for me but I know I need to be consistent and not treat her any differently than her brothers. Every time we'd go to Wal-Mart she'd pick out the same toy cell phone at the checkout by the rack of candy bars and gum. She LOVED that phone. Several times I've had to calmly pry it out of her little hands while she threw a screaming fit-not fun. She also likes to grab purses and carry them on her shoulder. Recently we were at the Dollar store and she had this adorable little kid size handbag on her shoulder marching up to the check out line. Now THAT was hard! She looked so dang cute and I wanted to get it for her SO bad, but I also didn't want to sabotage my efforts to teach her. Boy you should have seen the looks of the people in line as I dealt with that fit. I knew they were probably thinking I was either really poor or the world's meanest Mom, (after all it was only a dollar). But, I didn't back down and boy was she devastated......

So, back to the shopping thing. I had SO much fun going back to the Dollar store and buying her that little purse, then going to Wal-Mart and getting her the little cell phone. I also bought her her very own pair of sunglasses (she LOVES to wear mine) and her own little pair of pink dress heels in a kid size, (she's always clomping around the house in my heels). Then, of course I had the supreme joy of buying my daughter her first little baby doll. The poor girl has grown up playing with matchbox cars and Lincoln Logs but I could tell that she was ready for a baby. I found the coolest little baby that makes life-like cooing sounds and gurgles. She even says "Ma Ma" in the sweetest little voice. The sounds are very realistic and the cool thing about it is its motion activated so it will stop making sounds when she's not playing with her but if she even walks by, the doll will start moving her little arms and turning her head and cooing for MaMa! It is so cute and so much fun.

I was so excited for her to open her presents and very pleased at her reaction. She was so excited when she opened the purse and cell phone and was absolutely mesmerized by the baby doll. She carries her around with her all the time. Even now, several weeks later she is constantly caring for her little baby and will wrap her up in blankets and feed her her bottle. It is so precious. Several times we have been driving in the car somewhere and she'll say (with a concerned look on her little face), "Baby, Mama.....My baby's cying (crying)."

Papa and Grandma got her some adorable brown and pink velvet outfits and a pink Radio Flyer inchworm ride-along. She loved her cake and overall had a wonderful time.

Things to remember about Lauren at 2 years old:

-Lauren is very affectionate and loving. She gives the tightest squeezes and Koala hugs around our necks all the time. Her little kisses are so sweet with such perfectly puckered lips. But she can also be very choosy about when and to whom she gives her kisses to. It's pretty cute to see her turn her head with a furrowed brow and say, "No" to the requests from her brothers or even Daddy when they ask for a kiss. She does not like to feel obligated to show affection and will usually be most giving when unprompted to do so.

-Lauren loves to "talk" on the phone. She is too cute holding a phone (or anything that looks like a phone) up to her ear and has these little mini conversations. Here's a typical dialogue for one of her phone conversations: "Hello?,........uh huh,.......(chuckle),.....uh huh.......(indecipherable gibberish).....(giggle),.......no,....uh huh, yeah.....bye bye." It is so fun to listen to her. She gets embarrassed easily though and if she knows your watching or listening to her she'll stop and hide her face.

-Lauren loves her Kitty. We have had a kitten for a year now. We're actually on our third one.....the first one died of an undiagnosed illness (the vet was retarded) and the second one got hit by a car. So Lauren carries that kitty around with her everywhere. We keep her claws clipped and she is the best little pet. I've never liked cats but when the mouse traps weren't doing the trick we sucked it up and bought a cat. Who knew that they could keep the mice away AND be a wonderful snugly companion for my daughter. She carries her around under her arm and rolls and wrestles with her on the floor. What an amazing little kitty to put up with so much! I have to say I have a place in my heart now for cats.....at least ours anyway.

-Lauren is a great eater. The only thing that I can think of that she doesn't like to eat is green peas. Once I tried to trick her to eat her peas by feeding her a bite of applesauce with some peas underneath it. 10 seconds later peas came dribbling out of her mouth one by one after she had sucked off the applesauce. I had to laugh!

-Lauren is such a good sleeper. She is starting to move away from needing naps during the day but at night she goes down to bed like clockwork and we've never had any issues of her not going right to sleep when we lay her down in the crib. Aaron usually puts her to bed at night while I'm reading to the boys. We have the same routine for bedtime and naps. I turn out the light and turn on her music maker (Fisher Price-Rain forest sounds). Then we rock her in the chair for a few minutes. Usually after a little while she'll point to her crib and we'll lay her down tell her goodnight and walk out of the room. Sometimes as I'm closing the door I'll hear....."night mom." Amazing!

-Lauren is really starting to talk now. Her first sentence was "Sorry for biting you Ben." Her very first words were "Da Done" (all done), "Hi", "Mah" (for Mom.....sounded like a little goat bleating), "Uh, Uh" (as she shakes her head for no), and Dah (for Dad). Her other words for things include "Whaa" (water) "Andy " (candy-or anything that's sweet & yummy), "Hone" (phone), "Oggy"(doggy), and "Coo, Coos" (Blue's Clues- a kids show recently introduced to her -she LOVES it!). She now (at 2yrs) speaks in 3-4 word sentences and is learning new words everyday. It's so cute to hear her say different words for the first time. She'll sometimes point at something and say it in a questioning way until she's certain she has it right. It is fun to hear new words coming out of her mouth for the first time. The other night at dinner something happened and she belted out, "What the....!" The boys say this all the time and about died laughing hearing it come out of their 2 year old sister.

-Something else special about Lauren is how much she loves her Daddy. It's been so wonderful to see Aaron get the much deserved hugs and snuggles that he's longed for. She loves and snuggles Aaron much more than the boys ever did at this age. She will lay her head on his chest while Aaron takes a nap or come up to him with her arms outstretched and say "up Daddy, up," whenever she wants to snuggle or be held. When he gets home from work she'll come running to the door with this happy little face exclaiming wildly, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" I love that my daughter loves her Daddy so much. I am so grateful for the bond that is emerging between them and I feel so thankful that my daughter will have the kind of relationship with her father that I would have loved to have had. We can't choose our parents but I'm so grateful that we can choose what kind of parents our children will have. When I think of the kind of father my daughter will have it fills me with deep gratitude and happiness.

Every time I think about what my life would be like without you Lauren I can't imagine how it ever was before you were here. I have loved having my three little boys and they are the sweetest most precious sons a mother could ever ask for but having a little girl has opened up a whole new part of my heart. I suddenly can look ahead to the future and my thoughts are flooded with the prospect of sharing countless "mother & daughter" moments. You have enriched my life in so many ways and because of you I know that there are many more warm wonderful memories ahead on my life's path. Thank you for being the sweet, lovely and feisty little Lauren that you are.

Happy Birthday.