19 Months!

Can it really be 19 months (577 days!) since the first time I laid my eyes on my cheekaboo? Every day is a blessing so I'm thankful for the (at least) 577 blessings that the Lord has given us. We are having the most fun we've had since becoming parents...this is really a fun age. New skills, new words, and new insights into the personality of this crazy, funny, lovable and sweetly silly little girl.

Non-stop action
Hopping, spinning, running, exercising (doing push-ups alongside and sometimes on top of her daddy), dancing, climbing up stairs, climbing down stairs, this girl can't sit still. It makes for whirlwind afternoons and pooped parents, grandparents, and aunties. Most evenings, we spend about 10 minutes dancing around the living room before heading up for her bath. It's a good way to tire her out before bedtime!

OCD?
I wonder if it's a phase common to most kids...Lauren likes to arrange things. No, make that NEEDS to arrange things. She lines up her blocks in a straight line with almost military precision. Same thing with her mega bloks and legos. She doesn't like to stack them up high, she likes to line them up along window sills, coffee tables, and baseboards. If I dump a box of crayons on the floor she will arrange them side-by-side before coloring. Be ready for the stink-eye if you move one of her blocks/crayons/toys out of place. OCD? I hope not!



I love you. You love me. Lauren loves Barney.
Lauren LOVES Barney...stangely, I'm not annoyed at all by the big purple dinosaur. Watching the show from a child's perspective, Barney is sweet and lovable and has good lessons to teach about values, sharing and friendship. We try not to let her watch too much TV, but it's hard to avoid because WE LOVE TV so it's on a lot in our house. We just try to balance it with quiet playtime and outside time. Her other favorite shows: Curious George and anything with animals.

Busy litte bee
Thankfully for her grandparents who take care of her a couple of days a week, Lauren can entertain herself. She plays with her blocks, scribbles in her notebook and puts together simple puzzles with little supervision. She's learned to climb up and down the stairs safely and unassisted. Good for them, but sad for us...it's just reminds us that she's getting to be a big girl now.


Big Girl!
She's feeding herself, picking out her own clothes, entertaining herself..and growing so fast! She's growing about an inch a month! She's still a little small for her age (25th percentile) but in other ways she's growing leaps and bounds. And of course, like most moms, I think my kid is in the upper quadrant percentile for smarts!

Peter marking her height on the door.