Update!

I had pretty much forgotten about the existence of this blog, so imagine my surprise when I randomly ran across the address tonight! What a joy it has been to reread all of the funny, sweet, and maddening things Lauren has done over the years, and I would like to get back in the habit of writing here. Lauren is now 8 and is the most amazing little girl. She's so bright and curious and keeps us on our toes constantly. I get comments quite often about how people pretty much read my Facebook only to see what Lauren has said recently! She has the most amazing questions and quirky little thoughts; I'll have to share some of them here. Andrew is nearly 4 and is coming into his own as a growing little person. He's the sweetest, most loving little boy and is all about his mom. Or "Mister Piggy," as he calls me these days. He loves trucks and trains and will enthusiastically point out all of the larger vehicles as you drive down the road. I'll come back in the next couple of days and do a deeper update on both kids, mostly for my own record-keeping. They're growing so fast, and I would love to be able to remember this time!

Lauren has had so many cute things to say lately, I can barely keep up!

-Her new thing is "voila!" which comes out as an enthusiastic "WA-LA!!" Not sure where she heard that one.

-We were putting her tub toys away and she said, "The truth is, this is my favorite one." To my complete lack of surprise, it was the pink one.

-Yesterday we were trying to get Lauren to clean her room. I was downstairs when Lauren came down to join me. After a few minutes, Jeremy came down as well. It turns out that she was hiding out downstairs, trying to avoid the cleaning. When we fussed at her for not doing as we'd asked, she starting telling me that Daddy was being "mean" to her and that "he told (her) to leave the house!" She is quick on her feet when she needs to be!

She still cleaned her room, by the way.

-She's all into telling knock-knock jokes right now, but they're not so... complete. They go something like:

L: Knock knock!
Me: Who's there?
L: (She looks around) Car.
Me: Car who?
L: Car... stinky feet! Don't touch the potty!

-She also tells everyone now that her name is Machine-La. Not sure where that came from, but it's her new name.

-She also is alternately into Friendship Day (complete with banners hung in the living room), her "first Easter hunt!", and going to Disneyworld. Sometimes she talks about all three at once. Between that and her new nickname, it makes conversations with other people quick interesting.

I'm really enjoying watching Lauren interact with the world. She is so creative and cute and way more outgoing than I was at that age. I think she's going to be great in kindergarten!

Kindergarten Girl!

Yesterday Lauren and I got the paperwork all ready and went down to her future elementary school to get her all ready for Kindergarten. Can you believe it? She's now all registered and will hopefully begin full-day K in September.

If the school doesn't change things up, she'll have a very young male teacher named Mr. Villalobos, or Mr. V. I've heard really good things about him and think that Lauren will do well with a male teacher, so here's hoping things stay the same.

I tried to make a big deal out of all of this yesterday by talking it up and taking her for a special lunch. I think she's getting pretty excited. About an hour after we put her to bed last night, she got up, saying she couldn't sleep. I marched her back up to bed and told her to close her eyes and think of something. I suggested swimming, but she cut me off saying, "No. I want to think of Kindergarten." Isn't that sweet? She stayed in bed, too.

Speaking of swimming, Lauren is really doing well there. She just finished her first round of her P2 class and already has been promoted to P3. After three rounds of P1, I wasn't sure she'd make it out in just one, but she did! She's close to swimming independently; she can do a few strokes after her teacher gets her started and kind of pushes her off. She can also float front and back and can turn from one to the other. I'm really excited and proud to see how her skills have developed over time!

Not the star of the show

Today we had Andrew baptized at Holy Rosary. Lauren got to come up to the front of the church with us and hold the candle. The priest asked each family in turn to name their child in front of the congregation. We said Andrew's name and Lauren immediately turned to Jeremy and said, "Wait! You have two kids! You forgot one!" He tried to quiet her, but she kept saying it louder and louder. She finally settled down, just short of going down and telling the priest herself.

She also got upset at the end of the service, after we had lit the candle as part of the baptism. She asked to blow it out, but in our haste to get back to our seats, Jeremy ended up blowing it out himself. She LOST it, doing the whole arching and crying thing down the aisle. She spent most of the rest of the service underneath the pew, crying to herself.

You take the spotlight off her for one second and see what happens!

Honestly, though, she's been fantastic about sharing everything with her brother. She has surpassed my expectations. I think today we just didn't quite prepare her for what would happen and she was surprised. She's the most loving, sweetest big sister ever, and Andrew is a very lucky little boy!

He can't hear you...

Lauren does not understand that the baby monitor is a one-way affair. Tonight the baby had started to fuss and I found her with her mouth pressed up to the receiver, shouting, "Don't' cry, Andrew! It's okay!"

It's sweet that she wants to comfort him, but her earnestness cracks me up a bit.

Lauren and Andrew

From the moment we sat Lauren down at a special lunch at Red Robin and let her know she was going to be a big sister, she's been in love. At first, she was in love with the idea of being a big sister. We got her a "Big Sister Lauren" t-shirt that she wore with pride and she told everyone she was going to have a baby sibling soon. She was so happy and excited.

Of course, she thought she was going to have a baby sister and that's what she told everyone. We kept trying to soften the potential impact of the baby being a boy by adding, "or brother" every time she gleefully told someone, "I'm going to have a baby sister!" In April, an ultrasound confirmed without a doubt that we were, indeed, expecting a boy. Jeremy and I knew it wasn't going to go over well, so we held our breath as we sat Lauren down that night. We let her know that we saw the baby in a special picture and that it was a healthy baby brother. "No," she said, "it's a baby sister." She insisted for a couple of days that we were wrong, but she came around. She even came up with a name for the baby: Nut.

We have no idea where that "name" came from; we had simply asked her what she thought we should name the baby and that's what she said, instantly. No question. And she stuck with it, too, much to our chagrin. She told anyone that would ask that her brother's name was going to be "Nut!" Most people just sort of shrugged and smiled conspiratorially at us, but a few asked her if she meant "Nat." They evidently don't know four-year-olds that well.

I knew Lauren was excited to have a brother, but I have to admit I was even bowled over by the wave of love she seemed to feel for him instantly. When Grandpa (John) brought her to the hospital to see him, she was beside herself with excitement. She kept exclaiming how "cute" he was and just seemed entranced. We were off to a good start.

Ever since then, Lauren has been a model big sister and clearly just loves her brother to bits. She's constantly asking if he's awake and if he's happy and is constantly maneuvering to give him hugs and a "sweet kiss." She's almost a little too lovey with him; I'm worried that she's going to smother him with kisses one of these days or crush him with a hug. The poor babe got his first cold at two weeks from all the kisses Typhoid Mary was giving him. He's a trooper, though, and we just keep up a constant stream of, "Okay, Lauren, that's close enough. You don't have to make him grab your hand. Okay! Ten kisses is enough!"

She loves helping to take care of him and has been fantastic about helping. If you think about it, it's pretty amazing: she was the only child and the light of our lives and now she's sharing the spotlight without complaint. We probably did a little too much for her before he was born, but now she gets in and out of the car on her own, dresses herself, and feeds the dogs without help from us. She's becoming quite the big girl before our eyes and she's done it with grace and without jealousy.

The best part, of course, is seeing that bond between them as siblings. It seemed to be there pretty much from that moment at Red Robin and just gets stronger every day. He smiles and coos at her as she lovingly picks the sock lint from between his toes. He stops crying as she leans over him, screeching soothing things in an attempt to sound like Mom. She constantly tells us things to say to him ("Hi little man! Hi handsome man!") and asks us to make him talk to her. And today for the first time, she said, "Andrew, I love you!" totally on her own. It absolutely melted my heart.

They're 4.5 years apart, so I can't imagine it will always be this easy, but I do hope that they always love each other this much.

Back in the saddle...

I am horrified and yet unsurprised to find that it's been over a year since I updated this blog. I have this tendency to start things and not finish them and I'm afraid I've let this be one of them.

It's too bad, really, since this last year has been one of great change for us. On January 6th, to our great shock and amazement, we found out that we were expecting another baby. On September 8th, Andrew John Schumacher graced us with his presence and we've never quite been the same since. He's a sweet, lovey baby and we all are nuts about him. Watching Lauren become a big sister has been the most incredible experience: they've had this bond from day one that just can't be replicated in any other relationship. She's been a huge help and has never once acted jealous. We lucked out.

More about that in another post. First, a catch up of all the wonderful things Lauren's been up to in the last year. We traveled to NC for Christmas and in April went to Tennessee and Kentucky to visit family. Otherwise, we've just been busy at home. She continued to take ballet until the summer and then opted to start taking soccer. There's no sign yet of any incredible Pele-like talent, but she's having a great time and is learning some good skills. She is now on her third session of swim lessons and is doing really well. In the last few classes it's really clicked and she now puts her ears, forehead, AND eyes in with abandon. I'm hoping she'll be promoted to the next level soon.

Right now, she's all a-twitter about Christmas. Last year, she got it to the extent that she knew who Santa was and that there would be presents and seemed pretty excited about it. This year, she's taken it to a whole new level. She asks me multiple times a day when it's going to be Christmas and when we'll be getting out the decorations. No answer seems to satisfy her and unfortunately, she doesn't seem to understand how months and days work just yet, so I can't get her to understand that we still have a way to go. Tomorrow I'm taking her and Andrew to meet Santa, so we'll see how that goes. Strangely, she hasn't really gotten swept up in the whole gift-getting, commercial aspect of Christmas. She doesn't have a list of things she wants, unlike many kids I know. She's learned about the "reason for the season" in Sunday School but doesn't seem too convinced about that either. Frankly, I'm not sure just what she thinks the holiday is about, but she likes it. As long as it has lights and special cartoons, she likes it.

One cute thing she said the other day was a couple of days after we spent a whole car trip making up songs about "Lauren the pink-nosed reindeer." Evidently, her nose is sparkly and has hearts and butterflies. Andrew's is yellow, but I don't think it has any extra. Anyway, as I was getting her out of the car, she wedged herself in front of me and said, "Follow my nose!" Sometimes her memory for things astounds me.

One thing about the last year: Lauren has definitely decided what she likes and what she doesn't. Lauren has developed an obsession with construction and, more specifically, the television shows on HGTV starring Mike Holmes. She just seems fascinating with "building" and all the processes that go into it. She was even a "builder" for Halloween, with a pink Mike Holmes crew t-shirt, a pink hard hat, and a pink tool belt. Between that and the incredibly complex, symmetrical things she builds out of blocks, I'm thinking she might be headed for a career in engineering.

She also likes, in no particular order:
Bob the Builder
Dinosaur Train
That commercial for State Farm with the "discount double check" where the cheesehead bangs on the window
Chicken nuggets
Corn dogs
Telling us, "I win and you lose." We're trying to let her know that a) that's not sportsman-like and b) you have to be competing at something to win and lose. The concept is lost on her.
Her Skechers shoes that light up
The stories of Richard Scarry
Her baby brother - I'll dedicate a whole other post to that
Being a drama queen - ditto
"Designers" aka Project Runway
Telling me we need to go to Subway or Little Caesars
Same with Starbucks for her "chocolate coffee" (I swear, we don't eat out that much; she just remembers everything)
Headbands
Running, especially if she can "win" (see above)
Winnie the Pooh
Complaining that the dog is bothering her (they usually are)
Snuggling
Cranberry-Raspberry juice
Using her hands to eat veggies (I swear, I try to get her to eat with a utensil like a normal human not raised in a barn)
The iPad, especially for Angry Birds and "The Monster at the End of the Book"
Really any pop music
Blowing bubbles
The color pink

I think that's the basics, but it's by no means a comprehensive list. She definitely knows what she likes and what she doesn't!

That's enough of a year-in-review for now. Next up: Lauren and her baby brother!

A flair for the dramatic

As Lauren is getting older, I'm seeing more and more of a tendency towards being a little dramatic. I call it her "Drama Monkey" mode. If she's the least bit sad about something, she adopts this droopy body posture and sad face and walks around the house, sighing. It's hysterical.

Never was this more evident than last night. She and I watched the movie "Annie" which she really seemed to enjoy. I tried to explain parts along the way, and I think she got the gist of the movie. I made sure to make it clear that it was a happy ending. After it was over, though, she went into "Drama Monkey" mode. She was so limp with sadness that I had to carry her upstairs. I kept asking her what was wrong, but she'd only sigh, "I'm sad." I asked her what she wanted for dinner, but she just kept burying her face in the couch as she sagged up against it. Finally, a good tickling from Daddy set her back right.

The other day, she was standing on the two dining chairs (as she's not supposed to) and somehow fell down between them. Her quote to Jeremy as he asked if she was okay? "I need a band-aid. My ankle fell off."

My little love

Yesterday, Lauren and I were snuggled on the chair while Jeremy watched football. Out of the blue, she said, "I love you, Mama." My heart melted into a little puddle. It's the first time she's ever said it without me saying it first. Boy, was that sweet!

Yesterday was Halloween and she really enjoyed herself. We got her dressed around 5:30 and went out to the neigborhood for about 45 minutes. She really seemed to enjoy it, but still seemed a little tentative about the whole deal. She was good about saying her thank yous, but forgot 'trick or treat' a few times. Once she just said, "Candy!" and reached for the bowl the person was holding. I understand the feeling. :)

A girl after my own heart!

Today I brought Lauren and Jeremy each a doughnut for a Sunday morning treat. Lauren cruised through her orange-iced, black sprinkled cake doughnut and quickly began eyeing Jeremy eating his apple fritter.

"Can I have a bite?" she said.
"What do you say, babe?" asked Jeremy.
"Two bites!" she said.

I like how she thinks!

Also, she asks for a little cup of water every night before bed. The other night, I was nearly out the door when she remembered to ask for her water. "Can I have some water?" she asked. After a moment, "I mean... juice?"

Nice try! She did get the water, though.

Leaps and Bounds

I've been getting worse and worse about writing these lately. It's not that Lauren isn't saying cute and funny things constantly, because she is, but I'm letting life intervene a little too much. I value writing these things down and need to make it more of a priority!

Right now, Lauren is really loving Halloween. She received a gorgeous hand-painted lamp with a Halloween witch motif from my stepmom Suzie the other day and just loves it. I decided to take the inspiration and do some decorating this weekend, so we have all kinds of pumpkins and witches and skulls and fake spiderwebs all over the main rooms of the house. She loves the decorations and tells everyone about them and has even taken to pointing out decorations when she sees them on our drives too and from daycare. I think this is going to be a good year.

She is going to be a butterfly, by the way. I took her to the store and let her choose what she wants to be, and that was it. The wings are nearly as big as she is, but she just had to have them. Many pictures to come, of course.

The other thing she's really excited about is that I found a Tigger template for our pumpkin. She's still really into Tigger and Pooh, so this was right up her alley.

She can sing the entire Tigger song now ("The wonderful thing about Tiggers..." one) and is so cute. I might have to try to catch it on video, with the only problem being that she tends to bounce out of the room when she sings it!

Leapfrog

Lauren's overall favorite book in the world is the Richard Scarry blue book that I had since I was a kid. She just loves looking at all the different details on the pages and pointing out different things to ask what they are.

Yesterday, she pointed to the playground picture and asked what the two animals were doing. "Leapfrog," I told her. She pointing to the bunny hopping over and said, "He's leap" and to the cat, "He's frog." I thought that was pretty clever!

Lauren's Day

Lauren is having quite the vocal day. I'm constantly in awe of the things she says and today is one of those days where it feels like she's just so articulate the whole day. Of course, this is all through a child's lens, so some of it is pretty funny.

- First example, the very first thing she said to me this morning: She was wide awake when I went in at 6:45 and I had heard her talking for a few minutes. I was greeted with a huge smile. "Mommy?" she said, "Did you hear me tooting? I was tooting and tooting and tooting!"

- This afternoon she was playing outside and was out of view for a minute or two and then suddenly came walking back. In a very unconcerned tone, she said, "Mommy, I think the bee might have done this to me." She walked up and she had a huge bee stinger sticking out of her ankle! I told her she'd been stung by a bee and we pulled out the stinger. Aside from a little puffiness at her ankle, she had no other symptoms, so she seems to have weathered the first beet sting of her life! I was just amazed that she didn't cry and really wasn't upset at all. The way she told me was just so... adult.

- We were standing outside and suddenly this huge sphere comes hurtling out of the sky. After a moment, I realized it was a squirrel when it got up and ran back up a tree. We both laughed and then she starting telling me about it, "The squirrel fell down, out of the tree, and then he hit the ground, and then he was dead." She was outside with me a few weeks ago when there was a dead squirrel in the yard, so I was waiting for it to pop back up. Here it was! She didn't seem bothered by it, though, and went on about her business.

Miss Personality

We've been very busy in the last almost-month with the end of summer and beginning of school and Jeremy being out of town quite a bit. Along the way, Lauren has done and said many cute things:

-Right now, she's sitting and repeatedly calling Jeremy on my cell phone. He's at the Husky game and I'm sure she's driving him nuts, but she really wants to talk to him. Every time he answers (and she's doing all the dialing herself), she says, "I'm back" and launches into some description of what she did today or what zoo animal she is. It's really adorable.

-Speaking of zoo animals, we went to the zoo last week and had a wonderful time. Lauren was excited see all the animals and was buzzing between all of the exhibits, never staying long at one. She was most excited to see the giraffes, but probably spent the most time watching the elephants. She rechristened all the animals "Baby Lauren" which was pretty cute. If there was more than one in the area, one would usually be Daddy or Mommy or perhaps Sarah or Jeremy. The cute little one was always her, though. Of course.

-Lauren and I went camping a couple of weekends ago while Jeremy was out of town. We found a little farm outside of Carnation where you can camp on the edge of their property and then take part in some of the farm activities. She was so great in helping set up the tent and was just dying to get inside and hang out. I pretty much had to convince her to come up and see the animals, though she was interested once we got there. She just kept asking when we could go to bed! Finally, after making the poor child eat s'mores (I know... how terrible!) we made our way to the tent and read with the flashlights. After two stories, the lights went out and she was asleep in just minutes. She slept like a little log and woke up happy in the morning. We ate breakfast and visited the animals again and then broke camp. She was sad to go and talked about it for days. It was a great time and I can't wait to take her again.

-Her new thing right now is really wanting to be "Baby Lauren." She wants to held like a baby and often likes to baby talk. She also asks to wear a onesie and asked me to get out her bouncy seat. I think she's sensing that she's on the cusp of getting older and is trying to find a way to stop that from happening. Or maybe she just doesn't want to use the potty. Who knows?

-Her catchphrase of the moment is, "Is someone saying something?" in this very cute, sassy tone. It's adorable.

-She's loving Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now, especially the episode where Pluto rescues Goofy. She's adopted Pluto's way of saying, "Yeah yeah yeah." Very cute.

No, it isn't

Lauren loves baths, but hates having her hair rinsed. I'm always trying to keep the water out of her eyes and as gentle as possible, and she just hates it. She gets really amped up and squirms around and only makes it worse. Bathtime is otherwise fun, but the hair rinsing isn't my favorite part.

Tonight, I told Lauren that I needed to rinse her hair. She said, "No, Mommy. That's not a good idea."

I thought that was putting it mildly, but articulately!

Take me out to the ballgame...

Today Lauren and I joined Jeremy in Burien, south of Seattle, to watch a softball tournament he was playing in. The first priority for Lauren was to get on her white and pink Cardinals jersey, pink shorts, pink Crocs, and pink Mariners hat. (I should mention that that hat was purchased for her when she was 3 months old and while it still fits, it doesn't fit well.) She found her pink bat and pink glove (sensing a trend?) and away we went!

As the team got ready for the team, Lauren was very proud to walk around and show off her outfit and gear. A couple of times she even showed us a couple of practice swings, which frankly looked pretty good. You just had to be out of her way, as her eye was on the imaginary ball. She had a bit of a difficult time when she realized she wasn't going to be able to play, but she enjoyed watching and cheering and picking dandelions, so it all worked out. The ice cream during the second game helped tremendously. It was one tired little girl that finally wound down and went to bed tonight!

It's all worth it

Lauren has been an absolute angel lately. An angel. That's not to say that she hasn't had a tantrum or drama moment here or there, but she's been so loving and sweet that those tense moments just melt away. She's very taken right now with giving the biggest hugs and saying, "I missed you!" even if she hasn't had the opportunity to miss you. I got several of those this evening even though we spent the entire day together!

She also gave Jeremy and I both a huge hug at the same time while saying, "I'm just so happy to be with my family!" Awww...

It makes me smile because I know that she must feel very loved to be able to say those things. And she is!

Cutie Pie Redux

Lauren has said a couple of cute/amazing things lately, and I wanted to share them:

- We were walking in downtown Edmonds, and she pointed up at a house and said, "That's the 'merican flag." I had no idea she knew that! Must have picked it up from Miss VJ.

-We went blueberry picking and had a blast. She got a little tired at the end and didn't want to walk back to the car, but only because she did a lot of great picking in the hot sun! She ate and ate and picked and picked... it was so much fun.

Anyway, I made a bunch of muffins that night, including regular-sized and mini. The next morning, I picked her up and showed them sitting on the counter. I asked her, "Do you want the mini muffins, or...?" and she interrupted, saying, "These are Minnie muffins. These are Mickey muffins. These are Donald muffins." I love seeing her sense of humor!

-Today, she put all her babies and stuffed animals in her bed and was singing to them. I said, "You're a good mommy!" She said, "No! YOU'RE a good mommy!" Awww...

-Finally, she's been really great at saying "I love you too" lately. It's sweet, especially since I think she's starting to understand what it means.

Mom Time

Lauren and I have been spending a ton of quality time together lately, since Jeremy is out of town for work. He was gone last week and now this week and then also next. Then, he'll be home for two weeks and then gone again. Luckily, Miss Lauren has been super cooperative and just a good girl in general, so it's not been too hard.

One cute thing was yesterday when we were watching a replay of So You Think You Can Dance. We've watched and rewatched the same episodes again and again and she's beginning to request them by her own little names. Yesterday, she was sitting on my lap and said, "Mommy, tie your shoes." I was barefoot, and so had no idea what she was talking about. She said it two more times after that and I just didn't know what she meant. Finally, she said, "My-my-my-my-my tie my shoes!" The lightbulb came on and I realized she was talking about a dance to "Boogie Shoes" by KC and The Sunshine Band. It's one of her favorites. I love that she figured out how to tell me what she wanted!

We did have a scare on Tuesday, when she had another of her febrile seizures. This was her third and came out of nowhere. She wasn't coming out of it very well and had pretty blue lips and so I called 911. We ended up going to the hospital and getting her checked out. Other than a high fever, she was fine in just a couple of hours. It was actually a little funny: she went from totally zonked out sleeping to being very irritated with the whole hospital thing. She really wanted to take off the monitor on her finger and kept asking to get down. Typical Lauren: ready to be busy and do her own independent thing!

I don't know if it's because of that scare or being home with me, but she's been really affectionate. She keeps giving me hugs and saying, "I missed you!" She's also been giving lots of kisses and hugs and being very sweet. Today, she gave me the biggest hug and said, "I love you soooo much!" It really feels like she's doing more than mimicking too; it seems she really means it! I love it.

Narrator of her own story

Lauren's newest little speech quirk is that she likes to add "says" to sentences as she talks. For example, she'll say, "Let's go outside says Mommy." It's a little like she's narrating a story for me. It doesn't always make sense, but it's cute.

She also loves to add "new" to nouns. This started after my friend Laura had a baby and Lauren got to see pictures of the new baby. Now it's "Do you like my new shirt?" and "Here's my new cat." Again, it doesn't always make sense, but it's adorable.