Happy Birthday Lauren




This post is a few days late, but happy birthday to my sweet baby who turned 3 years old on August 24. We celebrated with a family party on Saturday afternoon. All the grandparents were here as well as both uncles. Unfortunately Aunt Jen and Parker didn't make it because Parker had been sick. My grandmother was unable to come, too! This was the first party of Lauren's she has missed. At 92 years old her health continues to fail, but she is one tough lady. Lauren missed her at the party.

Lauren requested a pink cake for her birthday. I made a chocolate cake with pink icing and we had her favorite Neopolotin ice cream. She doesn't watch tv or really any animated movies, so she had no request for special decorations. We have been singing the M-i-c-k-e-y M-o-u-s-e song lately so we used Minnie Mouse and friends plates and napkins and decorations. Instead of party hats we used mouse ears. We all enjoyed those.

For her birthday she had asked for a new baby doll. We shopped several weeks back at Toys-R-Us and she picked out her favorite doll. I tried to pursuade her choice, but in the end we went with the one she really wanted, one that cries and you stop her crying by putting a pacifier in her mouth. She has proudly named her Rebecca. She got a set of bunk beds for her doll (and bunnies), a changing table/bath tub, and a new stroller for her new doll. She has been quite the little Mommy since her birthday. Uncle Bill gave her a cool new 200 piece set of wooden blocks (we think she may be an engineer when she grows up because she really likes to build and she pays such close attention to how things go together and how they work.....must be her Daddy's genes!) Uncle Dave and Aunt Jen gave her a very cute puppy that came with a posh little carrying bag! Daddy and I started her a charm bracelet for her 1st birthday and we add an engraved charm each year. This year was a heart shape that says "Big Sister". She is the best big sister and her lttle sister absolutely adores her.

She and Allison also received polka dot bean bags from Granny and Pawpaw. They were a big hit.

This picture says it all about how Allison felt for the party.

Allison woke up on Saturday and was quite fussy and just wanted to be held. Bill had her outside playing after breakfast and he said she was about to fall asleep in the swing. Well we found out she had a fever of 102. She felt pretty yucky for the whole day. Both grandmothers were blessed with some unusual snuggle and cuddle time because Allison wanted to be held most of the day.

Allison's fever spiked to 104.8 Saturday night. That is the highest fever either of our girls have ever had. She and I only slept a couple of hours Saturday night. Fortunately the fever came down with tylenol and motrin, but she didn't get better until Monday morning. But all is well now.

A Major Milestone

Today was Lauren's first day in preschool. It's going to be tough going to school on Thursdays because she didn't get to sleep until after 10:00 last night. Ughhh!!! But she still woke on her own around 6:50 this morning. No matter what time that girl goes to bed at night, she still wakes up early in the mornings, usually somewhere between 6:00-7:00. We have a rule that says she cannot get out of the bed until the clock has a 7 at the beginning. (For a while she was getting up at 6:00 and playing in her closet.) She will still test the rule and try to get up before 7:00 on some mornings, but for the most part she does pretty well. If she does wake up early she will either sing her favorite songs or tell her favorite stories. Right now her favorite song is "When the Saints Go Marching In" and her favorite story is "Jack and the Beanstalk".

Back to preschool....(I kind of got sidetracked) Lauren walked right in to class and was able to complete a scavenger hunt of her room, finding her name for the attendance board, finding her cubbyhole to put her backpack in, locating the bathroom (which she needed to use), find her name on the behavior Stop Light, and then find a center to play in. She chose the house center which included a kitchen with table and chairs, a washer, dryer and iron (she sees Mommy doing lots of laundry), and dolls. She took up housekeeping complete with a table full of dolls. She is really into dolls these days.

After some free play, her teacher called the group together to read "The Kissing Hand". We painted our hands together and left hand prints on a large cut-out heart. Very cute idea!! Then it was time for parents to go. As I predicted, after I kissed Lauren and said goodbye, off she went and she didn't even look back. Walking out of her room, I thought this isn't so bad....but the closer I got to the van without my little girl.....the tears started coming. Thank goodness for my sunglasses. It was a very lonely drive by myself to pick up Allison who was at the mall enjoying time with Grandma. Luckily I had scheduled a doctor's appointment at 9:30, so I didn't allow myself to cry too long. When I picked Lauren up after school ,the paint on her arms and the dirt on her clothes from recess told me that she had a great first day of school. Her eagerness to go back on Tuesday and meet all her new friends tells me she is going to like school!!

For many years I have prepared for the first day of school, but I have always prepared to receive students as they came through the door for the first time. I find myself in uncharted water being the "Mommy" of the precious little one entering school for the first time. When I taught first grade I had several children through out my years who would cry when they came in the classroom for the first time. I also patted many Moms on the back and assured them that I would take care of their little one. Tomorrow I get to take Lauren to her first day of preschool. I feel like I have prepared more tonight just to take her to preschool than I did when I was teaching a class full of children. As I said before this "Mommy" role is so different than my usual role as the teacher. Lauren is so excited to go to school and meet new friends. We are blessed to know her teacher from our church, so everything should go smoothly tomorrow, right?!
Today I actually got Lauren to take a nap (which she doesn't do these days) and I was so excited that she slept 2 hours. Before she went to sleep I was reading a book called "Peek-A-Boo, I See Who?" The book describes different Bible characters and then asks "Peek-a-boo, I see who?" On one page it was talking about the lion's den and the man who prayed to God while in the lion's den. I asked Lauren if she knew the answer and reminded her of a song on one of her cd's about him, and she proudly answered "Dandelion"!! I love that little girl!:)

I didn't get my pictures on the first post, so here goes another attempt at including pictures. This blogging is still new to me!:) Here are the summer pictures for the first post.

Well I never imagined that I would become a blogger, but I guess I caught the bug!! I have really enjoyed reading my dear friend Cindy's blog and I guess I credit her for inspiring me to attempt this feat!!
I'll start by telling you a little about our family. Those of you who know me, know it took me a while to find the right man to spend the rest of my life with. But when I found him, I knew he was it. We were married on December 26, 2003. Lauren blessed our family in August of 2005, and then Allison came along in May 0f 2007. That's quite a bit of change for someone who had been single for such a long time!!:) I thank God every day for my wonderful family!!Enough about our past, let's get to the present!!
This is a big week in our house. Lauren starts preschool on Thursday and then turns 3 years old on Sunday. We are celebrating her birthday on Saturday with a family party. She's very excited about both of these milestones.
Allison is 15 months old today. She is finally walking. We thought since Lauren started walking at 10 1/2 months that Allison might walk earlier. We thought she would be chasing Lauren all around. But Allison was perfectly content to crawl wherever she needed to go. She was pretty fast on all fours! It has been a very hot summer carrying her around outside while Lauren played. But she is now upright and going everywhere!! Just in time for our beach trip in September! :)
Here are a few of my favorite summer pictures of the girls.