Lauren has FINALLY started politely asking for things instead of demanding them. What was formerly, "I want a Cereal Bar!!", yesterday morning became, "Mommy, may I please have a cereal bar?"... in the sweetest voice. Imagine my dismay when I did not, in fact, HAVE a cereal bar to give.

Yesterday Daddy took Lauren to the new Wegs on Calkins. Today when I picked her up from Daycare she said, "Mommy, I want to go to Wegmans and get a cookie." The marketing genius of this free-cookie per kid idea finally truly hit me. I believe Lauren will be asking to go to Wegs every day. And I had half a thought to make it a routine. Wegs, cookie for Lauren, Brie and Bread for Mommy... sounds like a nice idea to me.

And a note to TRISH: fun things to do with an 11 month old in Rochester - I recommend the Zoo, always safely fun (there is a creek she can dip her feet in)... the kids go crazy for Strong Museum - especially the mini Wegmans... and a nice walk along the canal at Schoen Place, feeding the ducks, followed with a Ben & Jerry's ice cream, is good too. Very near Schoen Place is the Pittsford Dairy - I havent' been there this year but Jenny goes often and I believe they have cows in front for the kids to pet. Good luck, I hope it is a very nice visit for you! Direct Message me on Twitter if you want to ask more.

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!

Just sent this to Jenny. She finally got me to read Twilight... then I read New Moon... now I'm 10 pages away from finishing Eclipse... and will be running out tomorrow to buy Breaking Dawn.

Lauren learned to sommersault a while ago and loves to do so, she also loves jumping. So when the Olympic Gymnastics came on, she was enthralled. She said, "Mommy, she's wearing her babysoup (bathing suit)" - she demanded to have her bathing suit on, then started sommersaulting around. She copied other movements (arms in the air) and at one point just dropped from standing to sitting position (this was pretty damn funny).

I got a little nervous that she'd try a no handed cartwheel or something, but she stuck to sommersaults (probably did at least 20).

I guess it is certainly time to enroll her in a gymnastics class!

Taking a walk down to the river. Before the bee attack.

How lame am I, I barely blog anymore - none in July. Twitter like crazy, but blogging seems to take so much more time.

June flew by... we announced the Kodak Challenge and I went to the Buick Open and the AT&T National golf tournaments.

FINALLY ate at a Melting Pot, Shruti had urged us to go there while in Chicago 2 years ago, but I insisted on The Cheesecake Factory (before we had one in Rochester). Well, let me tell you this, the Melting Pot immediately jumped to the #1 spot of "Restaurants that if I were ridiculously rich, I would charter a plane weekly to get to a city with a Melting Pot." They have one in Buffalo, and Shruti, Jenny, Denise and I went last weekend... they are thinking of opening one in Rochester. We begged, pleaded, and are about to bombard the guy with email weekly, urging him to open here ASAP.

Other than all that, my little one is at a very fun stage. She says things like, "OMG" and "Hello Mommy Honey, you want some dinner?" and "I no like to go to cool [school]" (though I did get her English corrected to say, "I DON'T like to go to cool"). She daily makes requests to visit people, "I want to go to Jenny & Aaron's house". Definitely a fun stage, except when she doesn't listen (she may grow up with the nickname "Brickwall").

So this post has no pictures and is lame, so I'll try to do better next time.

Lauren has become an all out Mary Poppins addict. She will actually sit in front of her mini-dvd player and watch the ENTIRE thing (if Daniela only knew what a lifesaver this gift would be when she got it for me while I was on bed rest in the hospital, pregnant with Lauren!!).

She attempts to say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but basically says superalishus, it's a start.

Honestly, I never though a non-animated film would hold her attention, I could not have been more wrong.

She also managed to pick up on our conversation last week where I said, "he drives me nuts"... next thing you know, "drives me nuts, drives me nuts". Miss Repeater in action. Hub got her to say, "Mommy drives me nuts".

LLC spelling her name

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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.

new Glasses

new Glasses
Originally uploaded by tostina.

Lauren's new glasses - Disney.

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".

Well, as I search for a playset for Lauren for the backyard, I'm starting to see what rich people can do with all that money - this castle is $7400!!

Now I don't want to sound like a bitter, self-righteous middle class person, but seriously, if you spend $7400 on a castle for your 3 year old, you should question your morality. OK, so you're not killing anyone or cheating on your wife or anything, but when there is so much famine and struggle in this world, it just doesn't seem right.

Now if you build it yourself, and it costs a couple grand in supplies, that's different. Then it teaches your kids more than just "Mommy & Daddy can buy me whatever I want".

ok, off my soapbox now. will continue to look for a playset that does not cost a few months' salary (or even a week's salary for that matter)

My favorite golfer, Adam Scott, defends his title starting today at the Shell Houston Open. As of this moment, he is in the lead with three birdies through five holes (if you don't know alot about golf, just know this - that's REALLY GOOD!)

He also did this PSA comparing surfing to golf. Adam Scott in a wetsuit is not a bad thing.

On that note, I think there is a missed marketing opportunity within golf right now. There are many rather good looking guys on the Tour and while Natalie Gulbis "gets it" over on the LPGA, I'm still waiting for the "Hot Men of the PGA" calendar to come out.

Orange Monkey Face

As Jenny pointed out on Sunday at Sprague's Maple farm, while we were eating pancakes with fresh maple syrup, fresh maple syrup is more expensive than oil, and we probably ate over $30 worth of the stuff that morning. Yummy delicious amber goodness, but not cost effective as an alternate fuel source.

Also doing my best to raise Lauren as a goofball. I think she has inherited my silly side. Daddy is not very silly, but then again, he did show up at Jenny's halloween party one year wearing spandex leopard print pants and a mask (and some strategically places socks). So he's definitely got a silly side.

Added my twitter stuff over on the right, so maybe my blog won't be so lamely out of date.

Lemme see... quick updates...

GOLF GEEK - becoming a golf geek as I work on the PGA Partnership team... went to Miami for one day of the CA golf tournament last week... sweet ocean breezes...



LITTLE PICKER - when I went to get Little L out of her crib this morning, she had picked the little hemangioma (booty mark) over her eyebrow and there was dark red blood smeared across her entire eyelid and on her hand. It looked like she had started to make herself up as a clown. Mommy almost fainted, she wasn't fazed.

OMG - then, on the way to daycare, as we drove by an accident with a car off the road, she exclaimed, "oh my goodness! oh my goodness!". She is funny.

Photo Shoot

Originally uploaded by tostina.

Took Lauren to Portrait Simple tonight to pose with a bunny. She was actually pretty scared of the bunny, clinging to me like it was an alligator or something. But we did get some seriously adorable pictures. I put them up on my Gallery page too - http://www.kodakgallery.com/tina

NOT me

So even though we have the same name, and she also likes Mika, and she also uses a Mac (I heart Mac), and she loves Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves and I like Robin Hood - Men in Tights, this is NOT me: http://www.tinamclark.com

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,

My Movie selection ran the full spectrum this weekend. Friday night we FINALLY watched Superbad, which was supergood. Wrong. Hilariously wrong.

Then last night, Shruti took us to see a Bollywood film - Jodhaa Akbar. It was in Hindi with English subtitles and was over 3 hours long, which flew by, because it was fantastic. It had a great story and was visually beautiful... and then there were the stars, Hrishik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, who were both also visually beautiful. I'd have to vote Hrishik as having the 2nd most beautiful green eyes I've ever seen (Hubby has the first).

Oh yeah, added all his other movies to my Netflix Queue! Hrishik Roshan film festival, coming soon!