Leapin Lauren

Balancing things out today.

Lauren's casual reading has improved a lot in the past few weeks. She reads practically everything these days. When we were leaving the shore, an old lady in the neighborhood gave both girls prayer cards. Lauren has been reading hers every time she gets into the car and brought it to children's choir to show the pastors. She loves choir, and is easily the loudest singer even though she's one of the youngest there. She remembers the lyrics quickly, and spends time during the week singing her favorite songs. She particularly likes singing about Jesus.

Lauren is completely rigid about certain things. She had wanted to buy lunch this week because they were having hot dogs. At the last moment, she changed her mind and got a deli sandwich instead because she realized the aid was going to put ketchup on top of her hot dog, and she prefers it on the roll.

Big little girl

Upon returning from vacation, I had to put away all of Lindsay's 18 months clothes because her t-shirts were too tight and her leggings were becoming capri pants. I bought a few things at one of the children's clothing outlets nearby the shore, alarmed that we were going into a new season with a mere half dozen items of clothing. I moved the 24 months/2 toddler clothes from the basement, and was delighted to see that Lauren's hand-me-downs were more than adequate for two or three kids. Lindsay is enjoying her "new" clothes.

Two weeks ago we began teaching Lindsay her colors. Before we left for vacation, the only color she consistently named was pink. It sort of figures, since most of her clothes are pink. Today, she was sorting Lauren's color-coded word building blocks by color. She named all the colors when asked. At the library, we played with a wooden Noah's arc toy, and she named and made sounds for all the animals. She was also pretending to pour the contents of a cup into a pan when playing with the library's play kitchen. She stirred the imaginary contents in the pan with a spatula.

We've regressed a bit in terms of meals, and she's back to grazing and then refusing to sit for and eat a formal meal. Lindsay threw a tantrum today that lasted 20 minutes over not getting to sit in my lap to eat lunch.

She refused to wear shoes today, and since we were just running errands around town while she sat in the stroller this morning, and at church for children's choir, she went without. She complained that she wanted to play with the kids on our pastors' daughters' swing set, and I told her she could, but she needed to let me put on her sneakers.

"No wan seekers."

"Ok. Then you can't play on the swing."

"Wan swing."

She didn't have a tantrum, but she argued with me the entire fifteen minutes that we were there.

Monday after vacation

We got home yesterday from down the shore. What a beautiful week! We had a great time staying with our friends. We rode bikes on the boardwalk, flew kites and made sandcastles on the beach. We enjoyed some great barbecue, a couple really nice restaurants, and even made lobster and steamers one night. It was exactly the sort of beach holiday that would be framed warmly in my mind as a kid, and Lauren had an absolute ball. Well, Lindsay did also, but she won't remember.

Mondays are always tough. But today with a touch of a cold I brought back from the beach, rainy weather, and way too much to do around the house I am feeling less-than-motivated. I keep jotting tasks down on a post-it. It seems I will have to tear myself away from the computer to get them done...

Lauren's eye view

These were taken with Lauren's camera. Incidentally, if you take out a camera and point it at Lindsay, she now says cheese.



No one likes to be woken up to someone taking their picture...

Sometimes

Lindsay has been running a fever since last night's bedtime, so I missed Lauren's spring concert today, and had to cancel her planned play date - and refuse her friends who invited her over. I made a hot dog with rice and beans, hoping this might begin the distraction from all the fun things she wasn't able to do today because sister was sick.

We kicked off Lauren's early dismissal before spring break with a little home mani-pedi. I went upstairs and brought down the shades of pink, some of the top-shelf hotel cream, and a towel.

"Can I pick a different pink for my toes and fingers?"

"Sure. I like them to match, but you can have yours however you like."

She selected petal pink for her toes and fuschia for her fingers.

She waited as patiently as she could manage for the ten minutes or so it takes the "sets in 60 seconds" colors to dry, and wound up with very tidy-looking nails, sans the little flower designs they do in the salon, but pretty none the less.

We spent the rest of the afternoon painting, coloring, cutting, and pasting. We made a morning routine reminder list with pictures. We painted a little wooden birdhouse wind chime purple and pink.

"The assembly was boring, Mom," she said softly, "it was OK that you missed that one."

"I'm sorry I missed you singing." I replied. "We'll go next time."

"Ok," she replied, busily drawing a castle for her princess.

Baptism

I'm getting baptized tomorrow. Here's the play-by-play:

For Heather, who was not baptized as a child, today is a day for you to receive the sign of God’s unconditional “yes, I love you,” and to celebrate that while the sign is coming at this moment of your life, God really baptized you with God’s loving Spirit long ago. God has been with you since the beginning.

Heather, I ask you to please come to the font.

Heather, it was for you that Jesus Christ came into the world. For you he died and for you he conquered death; yes for you, Heather. We love because God first loved us.

Heather, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This is my testimony:

I don’t know how long I had said, “I need to get closer to God but I don’t know how.” I worried that when my daughters were old enough to ask questions about faith, I wouldn’t how to answer them.

The day Lauren came home from school and said, “I want to go to church.” I said, “Sure, we’ll go on Sunday.”

I thought I was bringing her here. I see now that Lauren brought me here because I needed to be here. God is great!