Lauren-isms

Some funny things Lauren has said lately:

- When Lauren is watching TV and a show ends she'll say, "Coming up next!" We really don't let her watch much TV, so of course she would pick up something like this. Of course.

- I was watching a biography of Benjamin Franklin and Lauren pointed up at the screen and said, "It's Charles! With new hair!" What is up with her and the Founding Fathers?

- She was sitting behind me last night, playing with my hair. I didn't mind it much until she said, "Where are my scissors?"

- Last night, she spent five minutes with Jeremy saying, "Knock Knock!" "Who's there?" Pause. "A frog!" ... "Knock Knock!" "Who's there?" Pause. "A table!" ... "Knock Knock!" "Who's there?" Pause. "Ella!" So she doesn't get the joke part, but she's trying!

A Crisis in Lauren's World

Lauren has never, ever had separation anxiety. She's not that kid that cries and hangs on my leg and begs me not to leave her. Whenever we arrive at daycare, I can barely get her to stop long enough to give me a quick kiss goodbye, she's in such a hurry to run and play. Whenever we've left her with sitters, she's not at all worried about us leaving and is really cool as she says goodbye.

So tonight it was a total shock when she absolutely lost her marbles when I had to leave to go to book club. I hadn't really told her I was leaving, but I never really have had to do that, as she's never cared. I had her in her seat eating her dinner as I made final dinner preparations and once Jeremy came home I was letting him know what next steps he needed to take with her and dinner. My friend then showed up to carpool and I told Lauren I was leaving. She absolutely lost it!

She started insisting that she get on her coat too, and I kept telling her that, no, she was staying with Daddy and that he'd put her to bed. She said she didn't want her Daddy to put her to bed, she wanted her coat. In order to give her a better hug, I let her out of her seat and she took off for the front door, looking for her coat. Again, I told her she wasn't going and that I'd see her later. She then tried to get between me and the door. Jeremy tried to distract her, but I could hear her screaming and tugging at the door as I was walking away. I felt terrible, but knew she'd be fine once I was out of sight.

Except she wasn't. When I came home, Jeremy told me that it had continued for a good ten minutes with her insisting that she needed her shoes, she needed to "zip up", Jeremy needed his jacket, that he needed to "zip up." She physically moved him to being in front of the door so that he could open it. She said lots of "Pleeeaaassee" and "Open door!", trying to wheedle him to let her chase after me. Finally, Jeremy managed to distract her with some of her play food, though even that she insisted she needed to "put in car" to go find me.

So, I'm not sure what that was all about, but here's hoping it doesn't happen again anytime soon!

Chloe

Lauren has developed a friendship with a little girl at daycare and it's really quite sweet. It's fun to watch her have a friend and not just someone she happens to sit next to as she plays.

Chloe is her name and she's three, about six months older than Lauren. She has gorgeous red, curly hair and blue eyes and is always smiling. She's been going to VJ's for at least the last year or so, but I wouldn't have really called them friends, though I'm sure they played together. It's really just been in the last few months that they play mostly with one another and are so excited to see each other. They insist on hugging every time they meet; the other day Chloe didn't hug Lauren right away and Lauren sobbed like her heart was broken.

Of course, it's not always sunshine and roses between the two. VJ told me yesterday that they fight every so often about toys they're playing with, but that's totally normal. No relationship between two people is always perfect, right?

I talked with Chloe's mom the other day about getting the two together outside of daycare, so hopefully we'll be able to do that. Chloe only comes three days a week and Lauren is always sad when she's not there. We have to cultivate this little friendship!

Editing 2/23:
I have to add this from tonight's conversation with Lauren:

"Lauren, how old are you?"

Long pause.

"I'm two."

"That's right!"

"Chloe's, like, four."

Chloe's always on her mind, I guess.

Snuggle Girl

Lauren has always been a huggy little girl, but lately she's obsessed with snuggling. The first thing out of her mouth when she wakes up in the morning is, "Go snuggle?" When we're getting her ready for bed it's, "Go snuggle?" Depending on how much time we have, we try to give her at least a little snuggle when she asks. This time in which she actually likes us is really short, you know?

In the last few days, though, she's now wanting to snuggle as soon as we get home from work/daycare. We take off our coats and shoes and crawl into our bed and make a "tent", pulling the covers over our head. She loves getting in and out of the "tent" and making me get in and out as well. Then yesterday I showed her a small flashlight we have and brought it under the covers with us. It's a whole new world! She loves shining the flashlight up to make big and small circles on the covers and the ceiling. She loves pressing it up against her hand to see the "red" and putting it under her shirt to see the different colors. I just love watching her curiosity and joy at experiencing all of these new things.

Some Confusion with the Presidents

First, Lauren called the University of North Carolina symbol "President Obama" (which she still does, by the way) and now she's having some confusion about the Father of our Nation.

Last week, at VJ's, she colored a picture of George Washington which then had cotton balls glued on as hair (by VJ, I'm sure). Lauren had colored George brown, and when I asked her about him, she told me it was "Charles, with new hair." Charles is Miss VJ's husband. They are Sri Lankan, so Lauren was close in her choice of crayon color, but the "new hair" is definitely not what Charles is sporting these days. I just thought it was an oddity and laughed it off.

Last night, we went to Valentine's dinner with Jeremy's dad and stepmom and she received a card from them with three $1 bills in it. When we asked her who was on the dollar, she said, "Charles!" It's evidently quite firmly in her mind.

I wonder who she'd say Teddy Roosevelt is?

Growing Girl

We've had a really busy week here, just going about the normal activities. A few highlights:

-After a short hiatus, Lauren's appetite has returned. There were a few weeks where she just wasn't eating much. I wasn't too worried, just figuring that it was part of her growth cycle and that it would return. Boy, has it! The other night, she ate 5 chicken nuggets with "dip" (ranch dressing), about 3/4 of a cup of mixed veggies, and two slices of cantaloupe. Top it off with a cup of milk, and you have quite the dinner for a kiddo!

-The next morning, I could have sworn she'd grown. She likes to sit on my laps in the morning and snuggle while she drinks her juice. The other morning, she just felt bigger sitting in my lap: her head was at the very top of my shoulder and her feet extend way off my lap. I don't know when she's turned into such a big girl!

- I had the same thought yesterday when I turned to look at her in her carseat and she just looked so big! She's certainly looking more and more like a 3 year old!

- Speaking of eating, I was trying to get her to eat some yogurt the other day, but she didn't want it for some reason. Finally, she started trying to feed it to me saying, "It's good for you!" Wonder where she got that?

- Jeremy has had a really busy work week and has been getting home late, just getting a few minutes with her before bed. The other morning, he was leaving for work and was saying goodbye to her. She said, "Bye, Daddy! Thanks for coming." Eeek.

- She had her Funny Bugs class this morning and did pretty well. She coninued to roam around the room and not quite complete the activities as she was supposed to, but she's only 2 and is learning. It's fun to watch her have a good time and explore!

She's Missing Something

I just had the following conversation with Lauren, at dinnertime:

"I want milk, Mama."

"What do you say, Lauren?"

Silence.

"I'm firsty, Mama."

"Lauren, what word do we use when we want something?"

Long pause.

"I want something to drink, Mama."


I could see this wasn't a fight I was going to win, so I just reminded her to say please and gave her the milk. She did say thank you, though.

Funny Bug

We had quite the crazy weekend here with Lauren getting dragged around quite a bit, but I'm happy to report she was quite the trooper.

One fun thing for her was her first Funny Bugs class at Little Gym. The Funny Bugs class is really for 3-4 year olds, but the instructor seemed to think she'd handle it just fine. One HUGE difference between this and Super Beasts is that Mom and Dad don't get to go in with her. She's on her own to follow directions and try things without us. I think this probably made me more nervous than she!

Overall, she did really great. They have a little starting activity where they sing a song and share their names. She appeared to do all of that, though we couldn't hear. Then they get into their "trains" (hands on the shoulders of the kid in front of them) and go into their rotations. Each rotation is made up like a little obstacle course where they have certain skills to do in a row. The teacher demonstrates and then they are supposed to practice one after another. Lauren would generally try to follow the directions, get confused as to where she was supposed to be, and then wander into another rotation. One of the teachers (there are 4 in there) would spot her and get her back on track. I'd say she tried about 70% of the different skills. She jumped, she rolled, she kind of tried the crab walk, and she could hang but not swing so well. In due time.

Mostly, this was just an exercise in giving her some independence and letting her try things on her own. She passed with flying colors, and we just really enjoyed getting to see our little bird out of the nest. Can't wait to see how she does next week!

How To Get Lauren To Do Something

Now that I've typed that title, I'm thinking I should put a question mark at the end, because Lauren is almost three and I haven't found a foolproof way to get her to do something. I normally am not a believer in astrology, but I saw a "Your Child's Sign!" article that summed her up well. It said, "Aries children don't like being told what to do." Boy, they got that right.

What I'm saying is that we have a stubborn little kiddo. If you tell her to do something, she won't do it. If you ask her to do something, she likely won't do it. If you ask her nicely to do something, she might maybe potentially think about it. I've discovered two things that have about a 70% success rate: distraction (aka turning it into a game) and leaving her the heck alone.

Taking the focus off of what it is you want her to do and then making it into a game is a great, great thing. She pretty easily can be convinced to pick up all the blue blocks and then the green ones and then the red until they're all up. Being silly while getting her dressed helps tremendously and tickling her during a diaper change makes it all the more pleasant. I like this one the best.

Leaving her the heck alone works wonders. If you tell her you want her to do something and she doesn't immediately do it, nagging her won't help. Stepping back and leaving her to what she's doing will often lead to her doing what you asked in due time. This is not a tactic that works when you're in a hurry, of course.

If you can't do either of those things, it's a crapshoot. Sometimes it works to tell her, "If you do x, you can do y that much faster." Sometimes it works to pretend you're going to go ahead and do it yourself; she doesn't like to be upstaged. Sometimes it works to just give up entirely and do it yourself. She would tell you that that's her favorite, I'm sure.



A quick funny Lauren comment from this morning:

I was getting ready for work in the bathroom. Lauren was already dressed and was kind of wandering around the house. She came into the bathroom and said, "I'm back, Mama!" I said, "You're back? Okay!" to which she said, "It's a miracle!"

That's right, kiddo. It's a miracle.