Ordinary Days

I'm discovering that it's difficult to blog when we just have an ordinary day, which is most days. Lauren will occasionally come up with little snippets of funny thoughts or do something really cute, but normally, we're just going about our day, boring as that can sometimes be. In writing this, though, I'm realizing that even on those "boring" days, I keep little snapshots in my mind of what she's doing and saying, even when it's not out of the ordinary.

Snapshots I'm seeing right now:

- Lauren "peeling" a play banana to give to me as she gave me a lunch she made in her new kitchen.

- Lauren "driving" to the store. She would get in the big blue recliner and move her hands in front of her as if moving a steering wheel. She'd then get down, do her shopping with the play food and the shopping cart and then get back in the recliner to drive home. She even got a little wild with her driving, bouncing up and down and back and forth, making me and Jeremy laugh.

- Lauren sitting zombie-like in front of the TV watching Max and Ruby or Busytown Mysteries. She actually sits with her mouth open; I figure it's only a matter of time before I see her drooling.

- Lauren sitting out in the living room this morning with the cat after she decided she must play. She woke up really, really early and once I got up, wanted to shower with me. Jeremy was trying to distract her when she decided she must play. As I walked from the bathroom to the bedroom, I could see her out on the floor playing and saying something to the cat. Who knows what they were up to, though I would guarantee he wasn't a willing participant.

- Lauren taking my drinks in the car after my run. She and Jeremy picked me up at the end of my long run so that we could donate blood. I had both a bottle of Gatorade and some tea from Starbucks in order to hydrate. Well, Little Miss thought they were both for her, so I kept hearing, "Have some juice, Mom?" and "I need coffee!"

- Lauren getting really irritated at me for something (who knows what?) and telling me, "No, Mama, stay back!" as she pushed on my legs.

- Lauren sitting in my lap so that I could read to her. She gets such joy out of being read to and gets this huge grin on her face as you read.

- Lauren standing on the couch dancing to the theme song from Busytown Mysteries.

The thing that I'm learning about the "Terrible Twos" is that they're not so bad. Sure, Lauren can whine and cry with the best of them, but really those times are not all that common and I've learned to head many of them off. What's truly wonderful about this age is these little moments of seeing her learn and live and grow and getting to be part of that. That's what makes each day special, even if it's "boring."