There's a Method to my Madness

A while back Jenny gave me a wonderful little sampler of Method products. She is definitely a Method Maniac - I am also a fan of Method, though mostly the soaps and baby shampoo as I love that they are natural and smell yummy. Oh, and currently also loving the little dishwasher orbs.

One thing that bugs Jenny - sometimes when I receive cute gifties, I "save" them rather than "use" them (thus the adorable, unopened bag of toffee from her London trip circa 2001 that she repeatedly mentions how delicious it would have been had I eaten it when she'd given it to me 8 YEARS AGO!!)

And the Method gift pack was in danger of the same fate, I mean, it's too FREAKIN CUTE to use! I want to display it, not use them up! But a few days later, Little Miss got it in her head that she wanted to clean the sliding glass door (not sure what triggered the desire)... and the adorable little - and most importantly NON-TOXIC - bottle of Method cleaner was perfect for her little hands! (I sure as heck wasn't going to let my 3 year old get her hands on old school window cleaner!)

So I let Lauren "play" (clean) and I invoked my get-her-to-love-cleaning psychology... that I'm assuming will have her, in a few years, dying to clean the entire house... with something along the lines of, "ok, I'm only LETTING you clean because you've been a good girl" to go along with my usual, "no, you're not allowed to use the vacuum! Don't even THINK about touching it!! Now run along and put on a bunch of tattoos while Mommy vacuums and drinks her coffee."

Then grabbed my cam and got video as she cleaned and professed her love for Method.

Took her a bit to get the hang of spraying, but she loved it. She cleaned that one spot on the window about 20 times before I finally had to take it away from her, of course, ending with a, "if you're REALLY good tomorrow, you can clean the muolding with the wood cleaner..."

President Obama

What an amazing day, President Obama. I was very moved by his speech, the man can speak! I know Lauren is only 3 (almost) and she won't remember, but I am doing all I can to try to get her to understand. And what's the best way to do that? SING!! So I taught her this song:

Anderson Cooper and the Great Puppy Debate

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Road to the Doghouse - Puppedential Debate

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Ok, this is one of the freakin funniest things ever. I LOVE The Daily Show!

Lauren Acts

Happy New Year! Perhaps this will be the year I become a stage Mom and Little Miss pays the bills with her acting skills. Or perhaps not =)

Lauren dancing with santa

Whoa! The little one is channeling her inner Elvis!!

Baby Bumble Bee Song

I taught Lauren the Baby Bumble Bee song, and she was singing it quite sweetly. We tried to get in on video, but then she got very quiet. So I asked her to sing it loud... here's what we got:



She says, "Bumble Bee Song! Won't my Mommy be so proud o me cause I'm throwin up my baby bumble bee. Won't my Mommy be so proud o me cause I'm throwin up my baby... do it loud. (me: you do it loud). YOU do it loud!

I wanna have...

The other afternoon, in the car after picking Lauren up from daycare, she started saying what sounded exactly like, "I want s e x, Mommy. I wannna have s e x". I almost passed out, until I realized she was talking about her favorite little fruit snacks - "I want snacks, Mommy. I wanna have snacks!" She's a repeater too (aren't all 2 year olds?), so she kept saying it over and over. Then I found it to be quite funny.



The next morning, when she was asking again, I said, "no, Lauren, no snacks, you're going to have breakfast at school." To which, Hubby said, "It's ok Lauren, Daddy doesn't get snacks either."

Isn't he HILARIOUS. NOT.

Go Tiger Woods!

Now that Lauren is at that stage where she repeats almost anything, I had some fun today getting her to cheer for Tiger Woods during the Masters golf tournament. She is saying, "go Tiger Woods, go Tiger Woods, get a birdie, get a birdie, get a hole in one!"



I am still working on, "whatchyou talking bout Willis?" and "may the Schwartz be with you".

Delayed no more

Lauren gave us a scare last week with a 103 temperature. Looks like she had the one day flu I had the week before, but she was feeling mostly better by Friday. On Friday, she had her 2 year developmental follow up appt. They track preemies for research purposes. They had her do various tests, like stack blocks, point to a dolly's various parts, find hidden toys, etc.

She was still pretty subdued, so she barely said a word, but she warmed up to the tests.

After the session, the doctor came to tell me that in the 8 years he had been doing these tests, you could count on one hand the number of kids doing as well as Lauren. I about burst in to tears. It's just such a relief to know that given such a rough start that Lauren is doing so wonderful.

We are truly blessed.

Then tonight I come home and she and Daddy both have has pants on her head as hats - her idea. Will her genius be used for good, bad, or ridiculous. You decide.

(oh, and just to be clear, the doctors did not imply that Lauren was a genius, just very caught up developmentally. But hey, that's a parent's job to assume their kid is a genius =)

So the video shows what Lauren did NOT do for the researcher,

Fire Insurance for Ladybugs

Since she was little, I've sung the first verse of the "Ladybug Picnic" song to Lauren - not remembering all the words from my early days planted in front of the tv watching Sesame Street...

But then I realized, HELLO, this is 2008, EVERYTHING is on YouTube, EVERYTHING!! Sure enough, I found it.

Well, Lauren is obsessed. Every night, grabs my hand and pulls me to the computer, "adybug icnic Mommy, adybug icnic".



I also know ALL the words only TOO well now and can rattle off the entire song when needed.

Oh, and you can just imaging how excited she gets when we actually find a LIVE ladybug in our house (because, apparently, they are making babies in my walls or something... something I choose not to think too hard about and am only thankful to GOD that it is ladybugs and not bees... for if it were bees, I'd be moving out... "Honey, I'll be at the Hyatt, let me know when our bed is set up at whatever new house you buy in the next 3 days.")

Birthday Video

Jenny created this video montage from Lauren's birthday.

Lauren officially LOVES cake and LOVES birthdays! Between the pink piano from Jenny & Aaron (HOW FREAKIN CUTE IS THAT?!!) and the music class at Hochstein she starts next week (Music for Tiny Tots), by this time next year she will be my Mini-Mozart.

TEE NA!!

Somewhere along the way, Lauren picked up on the fact that my name is "Tina" and decided to address me this way. I always reply with the correction, "Mommy", so she knows it doesn't thrill me... so now she does it to get my goat...

and I finally captured it on video... Jenny says it looks like "Lauren TV"...

In the video she even gives a very stern look - one I must give her when she calls me "Tina"... the things kids pick up is scary!

Now I don't really know my ABCs

All that crap about blogging more and making lists and I've still been horrible about both. Today I am actually in Orlando for the PGA golf show for work. Met Omarosa and she is so nice. Can't say I'm shocked because I know that they edit the crap out of TV.

Lauren turns two in a couple weeks, the girl is cracks me up. I finally captured video of her singing her ABC's (somewhat) but gets stuck in a loop at the end - qrstuvwy tuv wx tuv wx tuv (and so on)... This particular time, I thought she was going to go on forever, but then she noticed the camera and asked, "I see Lauren Clark?" which she says when she wants to see pics of herself.

I fear that my child is showing "unique" tendencies. Really I don't fear it, I revel in it. I want her to be unique, creative, funny.

The other night, just after I got home and peeled off my high heeled boots and put them in to the closet, she walked over to the closet and said, "Mommy, boots" as she pulled them back out. I said, "no, honey, Mommy doesn't want to put on her boots now", but as she repeated, "boots", I realized - she didn't want me to put them on - SHE wanted to put them on.

She's been pretty obsessed with shoes since she was very young - it was one of her first words. If I start saving now, maybe I can buy her a pair of Christian Louboutins for her high school graduation.

Here is video of her after she had just put on one of my shoes.

Oh No, Stinky Butt

Ignore the video but listen to the audio. Lauren's new favorite thing to say when getting her diaper changed (or to Mommy if Mommy is laying on the floor), "OH NO, stinky butt". She learned this in part from me, who throws around the word "stinky" when changing a poopy diaper, and from her daycare teacher, who says to the kids, "who has a stinky butt?".

Elefant

On Sunday I took Lauren to the Strong Museum of Play for their Halloween festivities. She looked so cute in her "Leetle Elefant" costume. For the first couple videos I forgot to turn the camera, but this one's too funny not to share - because she was an Elefant on the go. I'm not sure where she was going, and I don't think SHE was sure where she was going, but she was determined to GO.



I also think she was intrigued by the fact that she suddenly had much more belly than normal.

She also did some shopping at the Mini Wegs and obviously already has the hang of it. Went right for the pasta like a good little Italian girl.



Her favorite part was seeing the "Elmos" - both the displays at the museum and the other kids dressed as Elmo. I find this funny because she barely watches any tv yet learned about Elmo at daycare (and via the decor on her diapers) and just LOVES him!

Dancing at the Pumpkin Patch

Finally got some video uploaded. Lauren can't resist shaking her hips as soon as she hears music. The waving arms thing is something they do at Daycare. (Sorry the video is sideways, I wasn't thinking when I was recording.)

Recently, when something leaves her sight, she puts her hands out and says, "where'd X go? where'd X go?" Apparently the songs verse, "whoops there goes another rubber tree" begged her to ask the question, "where'd it go? where'd it go?".

Last week Lauren and I went outside to play. This hat was a little small, but still fit. It is so cute, I will continue to put it on her for as long as I can squeeze her little head into it.

While we were out, I also caught a bit of video - Lauren singing the alphabet, sort of. She's done this a few times now, at first I wasn't sure - I thought, "did I just hear her what I think I heard?" and then one morning last week she sang, clear as day, "now I know my ABCs, YAY!". So I caught a bit of the elusive spectacle on video, but like a "Bigfoot" video, it still doesn't feel like absolute proof.

I'm sure that in hearing the alphabet 10 times a day for her entire life, it will soon be a staple of her repertoire and I will be able to capture definitive proof.

Lauren's New Glasses

After a very rough Friday - where she had to get a shot of antibiotics in each leg - Lauren was feeling better. We did pick up her new glasses - NOT the style I'd prefer, but what she needs for now. It has been a battle of wills getting her to keep them on (and yes, I am being defeated by a 19 month old).

She thinks it's fun for a minute, then says, "glasses, all done" and rips them off.



Then I take them, put them back on and say, "glasses on"... and the scene repeats until Mommy gives up.