Words Lauren says

Her vocabulary is expanding every day! Here are the words she has said now:

Buddy
Doggy
Hi
Mama
Dada
Light (iee)
All Done (Ah da)
Sock (sa)
Good Girl (go guh)
Amen (a-ma)
open
she signs milk but doesn't say it
balloon (baba)
ball (ba)
There's more but I can't remember them all.

She can point to ears, eyes, nose, and belly. She loves to play with Mommys belly button and point at my freckles.
When reading she takes our finger and points to things instead of pointing to them herself now.
She's climbing the stairs like a champ and can come down on her own now by schooching and slidng down on her but.
She's smart. Maybe I'm biased, but I think she's really smart. :) If she comes up to a step and we tell her to sit down, she sits down. If we tell her to get something, she'll go and get it (books, baby doll, teddy bear, etc.)

She is starting to throw some tantrums which I'm not crazy about, but we try to take the opportunity to teach her to say what she wants which is what is usually frustrating her.

She LOVES to put the cap on things. It blows my mind but she has learned how to put a cap on a bottle of water and actually twists the cap closed. If I put her socks and shoes on the bed and tell her to find her socks, or to find her shoes, she will pick the right one. In the bath, she will wash her belly and her feet when we tell her to. When I ask her how old she is, she will put one finger up. She claps when we sing "If your happy and you know it" and she rolls her hands and marks it with a B during "patty cake".

It's SO fun to watch her learn!

Ear infection, pink eye, viral rash

This poor baby girl. She's really been through the ringer lately. Monday she was diagnosed with pink eye in both eyes, double ear infections and a viral rash that presents as red patches with bumps on her back and stomach. We got her on antibiotics Monday and she seems to be feeling better. She has a cold on top of it all. She got her shots on Monday too, including a flu shot.

She has been acting like she's scared of things lately. She buried her head in my knees when Buddy tried to sniff her last night, and she screamed and got up and ran when I brought out this kitty stuffed animal and teddy bear too. She's been very clingy and holding on to my pants when we are hanging out in the kitchen. I'm wondering if all of this change of moving and being sick has her out of storts, or if it's just a stage she's going through. She was borderline throwing temper tantrums last night for the first time. I think she was just really tired...I hope...

Healthy & in a new home!

Lauren finally got over her stomach virus. It was 3 days of vomiting, then 3 days of diarreah. There was a few random throwing up episodes after the 3 solid days. She lost almost 3 lbs. Poor baby girl.

She's had a cough again the past few days and I've been paranoid that she's going to get croup again. It seems to be going away but there were 2 times where she threw up from coughing hard.

We closed and moved into our house on Wednesday, November 16th. Lauren has been staying with Grammy & Grandpa while Matt and I set up the house. Hopefully she'll be here with us by Sunday. We need to make sure it's baby proofed and cleaned up enough that she's not eating random screws and stuff off of the floor.

She's been SO cute lately. Her vocabulary is increasing and she's such a little mimick. She says: Hi, Mama, Dada, hat, good girl, Buddy, doggy, baloon (baba), bubbles (baba), baby (baba) (see a pattern here?), Ah Da (all done), Up (to be picked up), we even got a Grammy once the other day! Of course Grammy loved that one!

She has also learned how to wash her feet and her belly with her sponge. If you ask her where her belly is she will point at it and poke it and push on it, she's pretty facinated with it. It's hilarious.

She's really learning her objects. She knows what her books and baby are and will go get them. Sometimes she gets books and then comes over to sit on our lap so we can try to read them to her. She really wants nothing to do with hearing the story though, about 15 seconds into it, she just wants to turn the page. She loves her riding toys and anything she can push.
She absolutely LOVES the fall leaves that blow across the lawn. She laughs so hard when they blow across the cement.
She knows who people are and can point out Mommy, Daddy, Grammy, Grandpa, Mimi, Papa, Memaw, Buddy, Sunshine and Chase.

She's doing pretty well at daycare. She's been bringing home some art projects. Her first one was a fingerpainting. They said she would laugh everytime she touched the page and left behind a mark. The second one was a painting made with cookie cutters. It's on Grammy's fridge.

We swtiched Lauren to cows milk about a week ago. She's done well. She had diarreah the first day, and now she's a little consitpated. The girls at daycare said that happens to all of the kids when they switch over.

Croup, 2nd birthday party, stomach virus

Lauren has had a rough go of it since we've been in Michigan. We found out a week and a half ago (Friday Oct. 21st) that she had croup. It was a rough few nights. Her second 1st birthday party was on Sunday and it was fun but she wasn't feeling great. She didn't get into her cake too much. Uncle Bob & Aunt Julie got her a dance with me Elmo that does the hokey pokey and whenever it fell over, she would cry.
She eventually got a shot of steroids in the ER on Monday morning a 4 am. She was finally acting like she felt 100% better on Friday. She had not been eating much while sick. Friday was a good day at daycare. Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch with Grammy & Grandpa and had a blast. There was a petting farm, a pumpkin patch, a straw structure, and a cider mill. Lauren LOVED the goats and other animals and got very excited. She didn't like the larger animals like the ponys and donkeys as much.

Sunday morning Lauren had breakfast then went down for a nap and then threw up her breakfast. She also threw up her lunch and dinner. She was in a good mood otherwise and wasn't running a fever. She slept well through the night but Monday when she woke, she was throwing up still and was very lathargic. We went to the doc and found out it's a stomach virus - she just has to wait it out. She didn't eat much through the day and threw up everything she did eat. We gave 10 cc's of pedialyte every 15 minutes to ward off dehydration. Two more bouts of throw up on Tuesday then on to diarrea. Poor baby girl. Hopefully this is almost over.