Lauren got a new toy today…as she calls it “mishe house” (my house)! She was really excited when we were putting it together and she realized what it was! She played in it all.night.long! Damon didn’t seem to care for it too much, but Lauren really liked pushing him down the slide! =) Here’s a few pics:
Potty news - Lauren had a couple days of potty success at school, but not much since then. However, she continues to potty in her potty chair once every other day or so at home (she did tonight during bath!). No pressure, we’ll just keep offering.
Mother’s Day - We had a really nice Mother’s Day. I hope you all have enjoyed the video that Billy and Lauren made me as much as I have! I usually watch it at least twice a day:). Other than that, we went to the City Market and enjoyed a nice morning. Then we had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen on the Plaza. Then Lauren and Billy napped at home while I ran a few errands I never have time to do. Then we all went for walk with Brody to Sonic and shared some ice cream and then gave Brody a bath on the driveway since he decided to jump in the stinky fountain at Sonic! It was a very nice day. =)
New words/signs - Over the weekend Lauren decided to surprise us and signed and said “black” and “helicopter”. I have no idea where she learned either of them! And this week has been all about “Shane”. She loves to yell for Shane to come and sit with her. =)
Pictures - It’s 12am and I’m finally done uploading pics to the gallery, I hope you enjoy. Make sure to check out Lauren’s 19 month pics, Damon’s 12 month pics, Damon’s 1st Birthday Party, and the Wizards game with our friends (Lauren LOVES her uncle Nate so most pictures are the two of them as she rarely left his side that night!).
Oh - and please leave comments on the site if you want, that way we know someone is actually reading this! =)
Last weekend Billy had a reminder to clean-up his language:).
Billy, Katie and I were sitting at the dinner table talking and Lauren was done eating and was playing a few feet away. Well, Billy said something about “ass” and the next thing we know, we hear Lauren say “ass”. We all looked at her and she was totally playing by herself, not paying attention to us, but then it came again “ass”. She continued to say the word, over and over, as if practicing…”ass….ass….ass”. We were laughing so hard, but it was a wake-up call to clean-up our language before we have a conference called at daycare bc that’s the new word at school!
I gave daycare the go ahead to start potty training and told them we’d follow their lead (since Lauren is apparently wanting to do it and we’re holding her back!).
Yesterday at school, they put her on the potty 4 times and nothing. When I picked her up today, her sheet said she pooped on the potty twice today!!! And she potty’d on it both last night and tonight! Go Lauren!!
Has it really been 10 months since I posted an update?? We’ve been busy having fun and have forgotten to update! I hope you have been able to follow-up along with Lauren’s pictures and watch her grow into an adorable little girl (of course I’m a little biased!)! Here’s an update at 19 months and I’ll try to do a “milestone” post later this week to catch everyone up!
Talking - Everyone that knows me is not very suprised by this, but Lauren is definitely a little talker! She just loves to talk, whether to someone, her stuffed animals, the tv, or to herself! Most of the time you understand what she says, but she does like to tell stories every now and then and you can pick out real words here and there, but mostly it’s in her own language! She’s saying over 100 words and still loves to use her signs. She has 75 signs she uses. When she gives you something, she says “thank you”. We think this started because we always would tell her “thank you” when we handed her something to remind her to say thank you, so now she thinks that’s when you say it. Too funny. She points out every baby she sees (even if they’re older than her!) signing and saying “baby”. She started making a lot of animal noises over the last few months including those for gorilla, cat, and lion. She’s known all her colors since about 16 months and can also sign them all. She’s starting to say and sign part of her abc’s.
Favorite things - She is absolutely in love with Elmo. It started about a month ago, completely out of the blue. My mom/dad bought her a talking Elmo that you program to say their name, etc. and she carries it around with her everywhere, especially in the car. However, NOT in her crib (she won’t allow anything in her crib except for her white blanket and her pink butterfly blanket - the pink one she also likes to carry around everywhere and we actually bought a second one for daycare!). We alternate watching Elmo and Signing Times during breathing treatments (she was diagnosed with asthma at 13 months).
Favorite people - Lauren is definitely still very attached to mommy. Has her moments of preferring daddy though. However, if grammy (my mom) is in the room, noone else exists in her eyes, including mommy.
Singing - Lauren has been singing along with her cd’s in the car for a little while now, but is actually starting to say more of the words instead of just random words with the melody. Particularly, she loves “Do you know the colors of the rainbow” from signing times and will sign and sing the colors during the song and then clap at the right time. It’s so adorable and mommy/daddy like watching her do it!
New signs - her newest ones are mommy and daddy. She spends a lot of time practicing…saying “dada, dada, dada, dada, dada, dada” and signing it at the same time while we drive.
physical development - Lauren is about 22.5 pounds and 31 inches. I could hardly believe she was that tall at her WBV a few weeks ago and actually had the nurse remeasure her! She still seems so short and is still wearing her 12-18 month pants/skirts/dresses but is starting to grow into her 18-24 shirts a little better (bc of her cute little pot belly!). Lauren is getting much better at running. For the first few months that she ran, Billy and I would joke that she moved her arms a lot, but it didn’t look like she was going any faster! Also, she’s wanting to drink from a real cup now (which she does w/o spilling!) instead of her sippy. She’s also sitting in her booster seat at our table now instead of her highchair.
food - Lauren’s favorites are still fruit, veggies, bread/crackers, any kind of sweets, and cheese (when we let her have it as she’s still on a milk free diet). She’s in a huge “grape” stage right now…asking for them ALL THE TIME.
teeth - Lauren got her molars around 12-13 months, but we haven’t seen any new teeth since (12 teeth total). However, on the day she turned 19 months, I felt again and she had her 2 top eye teeth! She’s such a good teether, we never even know she’s cutting teeth!
bedtime - Supposed to be 8:30 and she does fine going down then. But, she’s a night owl like mommy/daddy and likes staying up late spending time with mommy/daddy which mommy lets her do mainly on the weekends. Lauren usually sleeps from 9 - 8 on the weekends (we have to wake her up at 7 on the weekdays). She still doesn’t nap too well at daycare, usually 1 hour, but will nap for 2-3 hours on the weekends.
tantrums - really are infrequent but will generally be over food! she’s very opinionated on what she wants and when!
potty training - We bought Lauren a potty chair at about 16 months when she started showing an interest in mommy/daddy using the toilet. She likes to sit on it and pretend and then flush the big toilet and tell the potty “bye bye”. She’s really started telling us in the last 2 months “I potty” either while she’s peeing/pooping or just after. There have been 2 times she’s actually potty’d in her potty chair and just last weekend, she pooped in it for the first time and she potty’d in it again tonight! I’m in no hurry to make her potty train, but it seems like she’s wanting to, so we gave daycare the ok to start today and her daily sheet came home today that they tried 4 times on the potty but she didn’t go. I just want to let her lead the way and when she’s ready, she’ll potty train…if she’s not ready yet, we’ll stop and just keep letting her use the potty when she wants.
cute stuff:
- Lauren likes to take your keys and pretend she’s leaving, saying “bye, bye, bye”, waving, and walking out of the room.
- If you ask her if she wants to go shopping, she throws both hands in the air and yells “shopping”!! Mommy and grammy taught her well:)
- At daycare last week, she went around to all her friends during nap time and rubbed their backs and told them “night night”
- She has a little mothering instinct. At the store today, a little boy stood up in the cart and she pointed at him and said “uh oh”, very concerned about him!
- She has an incredible memory. Last weekend at my parents house, their cat Chloe scratched her (after Lauren petted her really hard!) and for over a week after, she’d point to her arm and sign “hurt” and then say “meow”.
- Daddy has a motorcycle and anytime she sees someone on a motorcycle, mommy is gauranteed to hear “dada, dada, dada” over and over until the motorcycle is out of sight.
- While daddy washes Lauren in the bathtub, Lauren washes her duck.
- She loves to play chase, and particularly loves to hide behind the glider when you try to change her diaper!
- Has a definite shoe preference, will only wear her See Kai Run sandals and Sketcher croc-type shoes
- As always, has to hug and kiss Brody good night before bed, even if that means going downstairs to find him first.
- Learned to blow bubbles in her bath! This is a huge accomplishment bc she’s pretty afraid of pools/deep water!
Overall, I’m just amazed by all the things she does everyday and can’t believe that she’s actually mine and I get to hold her and kiss her everyday. After my mom’s friend lost her little granddaughter, Kyrie, to cancer at just 19 months, I have just cherished every single moment, including the not so fun ones. I just love that her and I actually carry on conversations now and I know that she undertands 90% of what I’m telling her and she is able to communicate back to me….it’s making me feel that special mom/daughter bond even more. I just absolutely love her a million more times than I could have ever imagined possible and wake up in the morning just waiting for that first sound of her voice so that I can hold her and see her and talk to her again. I love that little girl.
