Bible School Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our adventures at Bible School last week. I have to tell you, you wouldn't think that it would be that big of a deal to get home from work, eat a quick bite of supper and then get the kids over to the church (a whole 1/4 mile away) to start Bible School at 6:00. Maybe it wouldn't have been a big deal for a Mom more organized than me, but by the time Friday rolled around, I felt like I'd had a good beating.

The good news is that Joshua had a great time. And that's why we do the things we do, isn't it? Lauren was along for 4 of the 5 nights and was a real trooper.

Enjoy the pictures!

During story time with Miss Sarah teaching using her very cool "space apron".


A ping pong ball race...

A spirited water game outside. The kids LOVED this one!

I've been meaning to post this.

Wow...has this ever been a wild few days.

This is one of those weeks where I'm testing the theory of whether or not you can actually have it all. Can you work, feed your family (including nursing a baby), get everyone to Bible School from 6-8 each night, get the kids cleaned up and in bed obviously with some help from Daddy and get up to start it all over again the next day?

The answer so far is yes....you can do it. But it isn't pretty! So, I've been well intentioned about getting an update on the blog, but to this point, it hasn't gone further than that. So, here you go...the recap of the last few days.

The weekend was a great one. Daddy is in super study-mode gearing up for his big exam on Monday. I know we haven't been making it easy for him. It's certainly not on purpose, but there is a definite limit on how quiet we can be with a 3 year old and an 8 month old and the yelling that is necessary to keep said children from killing themselves or each other. I really feel for Jason and how he's having to stop and start with his studying. I know I couldn't be doing what he is doing by working the hours that he is and then having to come home and stuff his brain full of information to pass the test. It'll soon be over, and I know he's looking forward to a well deserved break and more time to play with the kids and do some of the little trips we want to do this summer. So, to assist in the small way I could, I took the kids (yes, both of them) to the mall on Saturday. Joshua wanted to ride the carousel and it was too stinking hot to do anything outside. Our maiden voyage to the mall as a threesome went relatively well. Lauren seems to enjoy the stroller now, and she even travelled well both to and from. This is progress!

Sunday we went to church while Jason studied and then spent the afternoon at home doing house things that needed to be done. Joshua learned the joy of squirt guns and, I believe, shot everything both living and dead on our property at least three times. I know this because of the number of times we filled up the water gun. Somewhere mid-afternoon as the heat and humidity reached unbearable levels, we noticed that the house was warm. Our thermostat is usually set to 73. It was 75. But the heat pump wasn't running. 75 quickly turned into 78, then 82, then 85, and finally reached 90 (in the cool part of the house) when I stopped looking. Clearly, something was wrong. So, we all spent the rest of the day crabby and sweating. It was grand. Sleeping on Sunday night was icky at best and flashed me back to the hot summer nights that I tried unsuccessfully to sleep at Edgewood Place with no a/c. Sorry Dad, but I let the kids have fans on them through the night, lest we had concern of heat stroke. Monday brought the arrival of the air conditioning man, Brian, and his magic tools. It was a cool (actually felt chilly) 72 when I got home Monday after work. The best $134.60 I've spent in a long time.

This is the view we get most of the time. Below is the view I like the most!

Monday evening started the annual adventure that is Bible School. Things are going much better this year than they did last year. It's amazing what the difference between age 2 and age 3 makes in terms of behavior, listening skills and ability to not make me lose my mind. It's a good thing because Lauren has been in my arms for the entirety of the Bible School experience so far. This year, I've gotten the recipes for the Bible School snacks ahead of time and have been making the same thing for Joshua to eat with the other kids rather than bringing him fruit snacks or cookies that are safe for him during snack time. It's been a lot of extra work, but it does my heart good to see him sitting down to eat a snack that looks JUST like the ones that everyone else has. The ladies that are working with the snacks have been so kind and helpful and I'm beyond grateful to them.

Last night, I was asked to help teach the 4-6 year old class and had a blast doing it. Let's just say that it's not my calling to be a teacher, but it was super fun to do it for a short period. Jason came along last night to occupy Lauren for the 20 minutes of our lesson time and did an awesome job. He had walked her until she fell asleep for a much needed cat nap. When she awoke, she spent the remaining hour eating puffs (which she can now get from pincher grasp to her little mouth with ease) and smiling at everyone.

We'll be back at it again tonight, and tomorrow and Friday. Joshua is having a really good time, so whatever amount of rearranging and juggling is necessary is totally worth it, in my opinion. I definitely remember Bible School as a kid. I remember the fun we had and the songs we sang. I don't remember the work that went on behind the scenes by my mom and the other people at the church who made it all happen, but now that I'm doing it, I realize that it must have been the same for them. I hope all Joshua remembers is the fun he had and the things he learned! I'll try to remember my camera tonight to take some pictures.

Dressing little girls...

This post is brought to you by the Baby Gap "crawler dress" that took me four tries to put on Lauren this morning.



Dressing Lauren is sometimes synonymous with wrestling an alligator. I recall this with Joshua, but as with many things, my memory doesn't seem to have the ability to recall the extent to which something happened. Yes, I remember he would wiggle on the changing table. But I do not recall him flipping himself from his back to his tummy mid-diaper change 47 times as Lauren does. I recall him being fascinated with the diapers and other items on the side of the table, but I do not recall an incessant need to throw everything off of the changing table and remove the cover each time we use it. This is, for the record, how a clean diaper has gone through my washer not once, but twice already since Lauren tossed the stack into her laundry basket beside the changing table and I missed taking one back out.

Add to this wrestling match the fact that I worked with the most complex piece of baby girls' clothing this morning, and it was almost comical and definitely bloggable. (Mostly it's out of exasperation that I find myself thinking about a topic long enough to piece together a blog post. So here we are.) I've had this little outfit in Lauren's closet for months thinking that it was ingenious. I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing Lauren in cute little dresses, but it just doesn't seem practical as a crawler to have her little knees all boogered up due to the friction on the carpet. But this seemed to be the answer to the whole dilemma. It's a little dress with attached leggings, but they're only attached in the front, leaving the back open to make diaper changes easier. Perhaps that's true, but getting the thing on was nigh upon impossible. We managed on the fourth try, but the look on Lauren's face was enough to caption the whole episode. "Seriously Mom. Either get it together or pick a different outfit!"

Now that she's in it, I'm in love with it. But it was touch and go there for a minute.

Dear Gap,

Kindly attach some instructions to your adorable crawler dresses. Indicate whether I should start with putting the baby's head, arms or legs into the outfit first. Doing so will allow Mommies to appreciate the ingenuity of your creation without having to first catch their breath after dressing and undressing their wiggly alligator, I mean daughter, 16 times.

Regards,

Megan

I should say that, in my experience, boys clothes are so much easier in just about every regard. There's nothing fancy about it---- no straps or cap sleeves to hide onesies under, no button up backs or tying nonsense to deal with. If you wonder what goes with a shirt you have, you're just about guaranteed to get by with a pair of khaki shorts or denim shorts (honestly, why I continue to buy anything else is the definition of stupidity). The other observation I have is that with little boys, there is no need to accessorize. I'm finding that not to be true with little girls and I know it's only going to get more intense as soon as she has enough hair to do anything with (barrettes, bows, etc.). Even shoes are a little insane...and I may have a little girl's shoe obsession due to the cuteness of such things as Pedi-Peds, See Kai Run and Shoo Shoos. Just saying. Joshua has two pairs of shoes---- one pair of sneakers and one pair of church shoes. That's it. Lauren has....well, let's just say it's more than that.

Snoot faces are rare these days, but here's a charming look at one. Don't you especially love the drool on her chin? I've been saying this for 5 months, but I think she might be teething (finally).

That's a better face, sweetheart!

And although it has literally NOTHING to do with the post above, here's a picture of King Joshua this morning. See his crown, his robe and his scepter while he's sitting on his throne? We had some DirecTV work done this morning (I don't even want to talk about it) and were without television. Although Joshua doesn't really watch the tv when it's on, the escalation in his imagination was mind blowing this morning. It was really fun to watch.

Since when am I a zookeeper?

Moms are multi-talented and our job descriptions include some of the strangest things. But I can now add zookeeper to my list of titles because Lauren is officially, without a doubt, a MONKEY!

You know of the exersaucer incident, right? Well, thankfully, there is no "incident" to report, but that's only because I was sitting right beside her as she scaled the side of the pack & play this morning. I had the nerve to put her there in order to put on my makeup before leaving for the office, and had tired of pulling her off of the stairs after 6 times. (And the little stinker was getting up three steps in the amount of time it took me to get to her...all of 10 feet away). She made it quite clear that she wasn't interested in being contained.

I sat to watch her just to see what she was doing, but it wasn't longer than a couple of seconds until she was up to her belly leaning over the edge ready to fall out of it. She pulls herself up like an overhand chin-up with her arms and then scoots her feet along the side of it to pull herself up. Had I not been watching I'm sure she'd have flipped herself right over the edge.

So...OK Mommy geniuses, I have two questions:

The first... Now what am I supposed to do? She's going to be the kid who has to have the tent over her crib isn't she?

And second... At what age do I enroll her in gymnastics lessons since I'm pretty sure she's going to be an Olympic gymnast with these kinds of moves?

I believe I would like to amend my prayer requests when I was pregnant with Lauren. I asked God for a good eater and a good sleeper, and for the most part, my prayers were answered. But if I could, I'd like to add that I'd like to have the baby that is content to sit on the floor and play nicely for more than 3 seconds at a time.

On second thought, I wouldn't change a thing. And this I'll-stop-at-nothing insatiable desire to explore her surroundings just might prove to be a pretty special character trait in our little girl. But goodness am I exhausted.

Another weekend down...

Another weekend has come and gone. More laundry done. A little tidying of the house. A whole bunch of chasing of the children. I can hear the theme music to "Days of our Lives" playing as the soundtrack to this little blurb....."Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives."

Sometimes I use the camera as my memory jogger about what we actually did all weekend long. So here you go....yet another weekend review in pictures.


I snapped a picture of Joshua with his driveway art because I was so proud of his drawing. His skills have really improved in the past several weeks. This particular masterpiece was a picture of Joshua and Grandma. He spent a good chunk of time sitting at the table on Saturday drawing pictures of characters from his books, too, and they all were recognizable. What progress from the scribbles and odd shapes we've been seeing for the past 3 years. I just love watching his face light up when he knows he did a good job on something. What a sweet boy he is!

And if that face doesn't just warm your heart, I don't know what could. Lauren is getting spunky....and seems spunkier each day! I couldn't resist snapping this when she was eating her breakfast on Saturday morning.

We spent much of the weekend playing on the floor. Lauren no longer is satisfied to be held if she's not sleeping or nursing. There's too much exploring to be done and she's attempting to set some kind of world record, I swear it. I actually caught her letting go of the couch once she had stood herself up on several occasions over the weekend. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see her take off and walk across the living room if it happened one of these days. Unbelievable.

This was the view at one point. Talk about giving Mommy a heart attack! Don't worry...and please don't alert Children and Youth on me. As soon as I snapped this picture, I ran over there and got her off of the steps. But it was her newest "mountain" to climb and she insisted on going right back over to the steps every time I pulled her off of them. It's just about time to break out the gate, but it breaks my heart to do that to poor Joshua. The steps are one of his favorite play places, and all manner of imagination happens there, so I hate to block him off from it. But it's not going to be long. Needless to say, not much else got done other than keeping both eyes on Lauren at all times this weekend!

Here's one overheated Joshua from being outside playing on Saturday afternoon. It's not sunburn---- just red cheeks and red ears from being hot.
Occasionally we'll get a sweet playing moment like this between the kids. But not very often. Let's just say it's photo worthy when it happens.

And, in other random tidbits, we were visited by a one-man-band yesterday after church. I have no idea where the idea came from, but Joshua gathered up all of his musical instruments and brought them to us yesterday afternoon requesting our help in turning him into a one man band. He giggled so hard when Jason was trying to set him up, and then marched around the house banging and clanging away. It was short lived because the weight of all those instruments had his neck very sore after a few laps of the house. But it was comical and very cute while it lasted. I do believe we caught Lauren rolling her eyes at her brother, though. See what I mean about the spunk?

In other milestone news, Lauren also learned to clap this weekend and can do "So Big!" when you ask her how big she is. It's cute.

Hope your weekend was great!

Where does the time go?

I can hardly believe it's been as long as it's been since I've blogged. But there's been good reason. Here are a few highlights.

After having been to Lewistown on Memorial Day weekend, a trip which included a stop off at the Toyota dealership for a little recall work that my Highlander needed, we returned exactly one week later due to some engine lights that were on. It turned out to be nothing, but Joshua had an opportunity to experience the waiting room of the service department. He was quite pleased to find small water bottles that he could drink from like a big boy. Lauren, as you can see, slept almost the whole time. When she did open her eyes, she was less impressed with the small water bottles than Joshua had been.

What was supposed to have been an overnight at Nana and Pap's with just me and the kids turned out not to be an overnight at all. After supper Friday night I decided that I was exhausted from chasing Joshua, correcting Joshua, helping Joshua to play nicely with Brooke and Lauren, and didn't think I had the strength to deal with an overnight of Joshua and I sharing a bed while also dealing with Lauren and her I'm-going-to-wake-up-at-least-3-times-every-night-just-to-prove-who's-boss antics. Joshua still can't manage not falling out of the big beds at Nana and Pap's, so he requires a night time chaperone. At least at home, I can spend the wee hours up with Lauren without also waking her brother (most of the time anyway). So I sincerely hoped that I hadn't offended my parents or my sister by going home early and worried about that most of the way home. But it was good to get back when we arrived prior to bedtime.

The rest of my good reason for being absent involves Lauren's recent developmental milestones. Honestly, in the past 2 weeks we have made progress that is almost too much to believe. And frankly, I'm not liking how quickly the time is flying by!

She is pulling up to stand with ease at everything. She doesn't seem to care whether things are nailed down or not, and just stands up like a pro against doors, furniture, toys, tool boxes, book bins, pant legs, and on and on and on. She is fearless and fast.

Beginning last Friday/Saturday, I'd say we officially have a crawler. She can go the entire length of the house in about 5 seconds, making it impossible to take your eye off of her for even a millisecond. The only thing working in our favor right now is that she has also taken a turn into some serious jabbering in the past couple of days, so there's a soundtrack of ma-ma-ma-ma-maaaaa and ba-ba-ba intermixed with her normal raspberries and long vowel sounds to indicate which direction she's heading. I'm beginning to learn the volume of said sounds that indicates she's within the danger zone of the dog's food and water. Learned that one the hard way when I looked around the corner to the kitchen and saw her with an entire bowl of Watson's water in her lap. She looked quite pleased until I plopped her right into the bathtub at 8:00 in the morning.

Occasionally, she'll get herself trapped under the chairs. She crawls under them and then sits up but can't lay back down without banging her head against the rails. Would it be wrong to admit that I've left her there momentarily while I finished washing a dish or filling up Joshua's sippy cup because I knew she couldn't get out?

Any free time we may have had at home is now gone because our full time job when we're home is to referee between the children. Joshua is not loving Lauren's new found mobility and doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that she can now help herself to whatever of Joshua's precious treasures she wishes to chew on. There has been a good bit of grabbing, pulling, growling and smacking going on in recent days and we've just about had it up to here. I had honestly forgotten how exhausting this stage is, but I'm definitely still supporting my previous declaration that the crawling stage is not my favorite.

As of yesterday, we also started trying little pieces broken off of Gerber Puffs and she seems to enjoy them. No choking or gagging, so I'd declare that a victory. None of this food exploration seems to be affecting her appetite or interest in nursing as we're still working that into the routine an average of 5-7 times a day. Sadly, 2-3 of those are coming during the hours that most of the world is enjoying a little shut eye. I'm convinced that she's either growing (6 month clothes are just about too small) or is really working on those teeth...or both. Between nursing and three good sized baby food meals, she's certainly eating well and appears to me to be growing.

I'll do my best not to let as much time pass until my next post!

What do the Dugans do on a LONG weekend?

You travel to Nana and Pap's house and spend your first day playing with your cousins. Lauren's first wagon ride was a hit!

You smile and giggle with your silly Aunt Libby! We really missed her on Saturday at the party!

You camp out on a thick pile of blankets in Nana and Pap's garage to stay out of the hot sun at the family party and let everyone ooh and aah about how much you've grown and how big you are now and how they can't believe you're really 8 months old already. You smile and coo and wave and act totally sweet to everyone, as long as they don't try to touch you. And you totally rock the cool little skirt with this outfit and make it one of Mommy's new favorites on you!

You help Daddy and Noah churn some homemade ice cream like a big boy...

And then gobble it up as if to prove you have Richard blood!


You enjoy a "shower" in the summer rain...without your shirt on (of course) and giggle like you've never had such fun in all your life. You try to catch as many raindrops on your tongue as possible.

And then...if you're Lauren...you learn how to do a whole bunch of things at once to celebrate your 8 month birthday.

Over the long weekend, she has learned to crawl (4-5 crawling steps at one time before she falls to her belly to scoot the rest of the way to what she wants) and has perfected sitting up from a laying down position. To make matters more interesting, she can also now do this...

She starts on her knees.


Gets those arms to a good gripping point...



And up she goes!

And then, we try to climb everything. She's only been pulling up to stand for a day or so, and now she's not even content to do that anymore. She's already trying to figure out how to go up and over just about everything. This monkey is going to keep us on our toes for sure!

Good News...Bad News

We had a great weekend...mostly full of good news. Let me fill you in.

Good News: I managed to get the house completely cleaned, all in the same weekend, for the first time in the history of what my mind can remember without straining. Jason did a lot of playing with Joshua outside on Saturday, which in combination with Lauren taking two good naps (longer than it takes me to get out of her bedroom, I mean) meant I could be dangerously productive. It felt so good to have clean bathrooms, empty garbage cans and no dust on the stand by our television at the same time as having clean sheets on the bed.

Good News: We managed to skirt the issue of the Disney DVD vault by finding a few copies of the Disney movies that Joshua is obsessed with currently. The whole ordering online process was a bit sketchy, even for the person who has done her fair share (and then some) of ordering online, so I fear that the videos may be bootlegged copies or in some other way illegal. But when Peter Pan and Snow White arrived in our mailbox on Saturday, you'd have thought it was Christmas morning for Joshua. This is the stuff of great bribery. And, as we've made no bones about in the past, I have absolutely no problem resorting to using it as such.

Good News: Our church's special day of community service called "Be The Church Day" was a success. The projects that were being done all day throughout Milton were pretty impressive--- a handicapped ramp being built onto someone's home, some landscaping for folks who needed assistance, a clothing/food distribution, a one day Bible School at one of the low income housing developments and a roadway cleanup. Because Joshua and Lauren would have been a real challenge on any of those projects, I signed up to help with activities for the children back at the church and was assigned to help Mrs. Mabus (yep, the same one) teach the little ones about what they could do to "Be The Church" to those around them. Mrs. Mabus had big plans--- we planted flowers (dirt everywhere), we made homemade play dough (flour everywhere), we made homemade stress balls (salt everywhere) and a few other activities that kept the kids occupied for 4 hours. I was beat. Joshua was beat. Lauren had had it up to here with other kids. But we had a great time and were happy to be a part of it.

This was one of the kids' craft projects before the rest of the gang arrived. We had our hands full for sure. There were 10 kids there ranging in age from Lauren to fourth grade.

This was Lauren's vantage point for most of the morning. As long as I kept interchanging toys for her, she'd sit there and play or roll around and try to empty out the diaper bag while I worked with the bigger kids. She made it without a nap all morning long, which led to 2 nice naps in the afternoon once we got home.

Good News: Lauren is so close to crawling. She's up on all fours most of the time now, and we've seen her take one crawling "step" (if that's what you'd call it). She hasn't let this lack of actual crawling skills slow her down one bit, though. She's off to the races as soon as you put her down on the floor most times. Her main interests are Joshua's tool bench and anything else she can get to and put in her mouth that will make him mad. Let the refereeing begin!

Bad News: While at church last evening, we discovered a way to really interrupt things. Lauren had been in a bit of a mood as soon as the service started. I reached the useful end of everything I had with me to entertain her by the time the slide show of the day's photos had finished. So I was standing in the back of the church swaying and bouncing with her, hoping she'd close her eyes and let me make it through the service. Suddenly there was a horrible crash.....at which point I realized everyone in the sanctuary was looking directly at me and the vase of flowers that used to be sitting behind me, but was now a pile of 8 million pieces of glass on the floor behind me. I swear, that girl has Go Go Gadget hands....she can swipe absolutely anything out of your hands in a millisecond. She practices this skill when you are holding her and trying to take a drink of something, or when you're holding her and trying to mix cereal (can't tell you how many bowls I've cleaned off of our floors), or when you're holding her and trying to get something out of the pantry (all of the spices get pulled off the rack). Needless to say, we quickly gathered our things and high tailed it home. And I owe First Baptist Church a new vase.

And he surprises us once again!

I'm experience parental pride in a new way lately. I'm proud of my kids all the time for a million different reasons, but it's been such a new experience to feel proud of Joshua for growing into an independent, kind, responsible little person. And at least to date, I haven't seen that in him the way that being a part of nursery school has put on display. To see him with his classmates, playing nicely, listening to his teacher, cooperating and helping others...it just does my heart good. And last night was certainly no exception. In fact, I think my heart grew about three sizes just watching Joshua's Preschool Program.

I had visions of Joshua high-tailing it off of the stage as soon as he saw a bunch of eyeballs staring at him up there. Honestly, as we sat waiting for the program to begin and more and more people kept shuffling in, I thought we were doomed.

The K5 kids started off the night with their little program about "Growing God's Way". They read passages, they remembered their lines, they acted out little parts, they sang a few songs. It was precious....and more like what I remembered programs being like when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, actually. They showed off their counting skills- by 2's, 5's and 10's. They taught me a neat little saying about vowel sounds that I'm pretty sure my mom would have flipped over, being the English enthusiast that she is.

And then.........and then it was time. I moved into position in the front row to snap some photos. All of the nursery school parents sat there with bated breath just wondering how this was all going to go.

They filed in so nicely. Hands at their sides. They took their places on the bleachers and stayed put. They waved as soon as they saw faces they recognized.

They belted out "I Am A Promise" like it was their job! They did motions, sang mostly all of the words and charmed the pants off of the audience (figuratively speaking, of course). The pictures don't really do it justice like the video does. But trust me when I say I could have just eaten him right up.

When they were done singing, each of the kids had their name called and they got a certificate from Mrs. Mabus. My camera wasn't functioning wonderfully when it was time for Joshua's, so our picture is a little fuzzy, but he was thrilled. And he did a super job following instructions.

After their part was over, the teachers quickly whisked the little ones off to their classroom for some playtime. The K4 group did a bit more of an extensive repertoire of songs and got their certificates. And then it was time for the K5 (Meadowbrook's Kindergarten) to graduate.

They processed into the auditorium to Pomp and Circumstance while wearing their caps and gowns. I'm a bit concerned that I actually teared up while watching them march in, all grown up and ready for 1st grade. I can only imagine how I'll feel when it's my own child doing it. There's been no shortage of making fun of me for my emotion ever since, so feel free to join in the fun if you're so inclined. It was adorable!

Lauren hung in pretty well through the whole evening. Her schedule was off yesterday, making it touchy for her eating. She was hungry through most of the program, but I was able to hold her off until we got home. Although it made for a difficult evening with a very scroochy baby, it did push her bedtime back until after 10. That doesn't sound great, except for the fact that the first peep I heard out of her was at 5:27 this morning! That's the first all nighter she's pulled in MONTHS! Too bad Josh was up a few times....but that's beside the point. On top of that, I have to tell you that she was so close to crawling last night I couldn't even stand it. With just a little support under her tummy, her arms and legs were going perfectly. I also heard her first babble sound last night.......and it was "MMMMMMMMMMMM.........MUM!" Amazing.



Happy Weekend all! Summer vacation at our house starts today, so I'm already dreaming up ideas to keep Joshua busy. If you have any great ones, I'm all ears!

Not to be left out...

Joshua surely has been commanding the attention of the camera and the blog posts lately, hasn't he? I guess that's what happens when you have major life events like field trips and field days and the end of nursery school going on. Tonight's Preschool Program will be blog worthy, I'm sure. So stay tuned for some photos from that adventure tomorrow.

But, I wanted to share some Lauren pictures with everyone. To say that we're entering into the "exploratory" phase with her would be an understatement. I seem to recall that this took MUCH longer with Joshua...that we enjoyed the "put him down on the blanket and he'll stay where you put him for long enough to pee" stage much longer than we have this time around. I can't say for sure, but my memory is foggy. For whatever it's worth, Lauren seems to be on a speed course to conquering a million milestones in one month. Although it's fun to see her do things and get so excited with herself, it also has my head spinning a bit. She's dangerously close to crawling. I would categorize her current progress in the "inchworm crawl" category. Her butt goes way up the air until she's almost on her knees, but then she comes crashing down to her belly. In the midst of this action she scoots at least 6" forward. She can get to anything she wants by doing a combination of this and rolling. And she's FAST!

Last evening I watched her as she pulled herself up in her crib as though it required no effort at all. She was sitting there while I changed clothes and without so much as a grunt or even a deep breath, she got up to her knees, grabbed on to the side of the crib and then stood there smiling at me as if she had just climbed Mt. Everest. Shouldn't we crawl before we start pulling up?

She spends a great deal of time playing with toys on the floor. She loves to tip this basket over and cover herself in an avalanche of things to play with. Sometimes she'll even hold onto the basket, fall over and hold it on top of herself. We don't generally encourage that. When she's playing like this I see such concentration and resolve to accomplish/get/explore/devour whatever she wants. I pray that that tenacity will continue throughout her life. She doesn't quit until she has what she set out to get. That's a character trait that will serve her well as she grows.

Given the little exersaucer incident last week, we've now resurrected the pack & play and set it up in our living room. It resembles a baby jail but we choose to call it our "safe spot". To date she has not managed to weasel her way out it, although that's not to say she hasn't tried. She isn't a fan of being in there unless she can see exactly where I am while she's in it. But it is escape proof enough that if I need to do something like drain pasta or cut something or, Heaven forbid, go to the bathroom without her in my arms, I can do so. I don't ask for much.

And, I was almost as excited to get out my beloved Floppy Seat as I was the day we got out the exersaucer. If there was one piece of baby gear I adored with Joshua, this was it. (This was before I fell in love with the Miracle Blanket.) But, now that Lauren is a pretty sturdy sitter, I thought we would try the Floppy Seat for our grocery trip last weekend. Normally I've been doing grocery shopping late in the day on Friday with NO kids because I can accomplish in 45 minutes what would take me no less than an hour and a half with the kids along. In my life, faster is better. But my work schedule didn't allow any hooky playing for groceries last week so Lauren and I went on Saturday while Joshua and Daddy played at home. We had a ball. She loved looking around at all the people, smiling and cooing at anyone who would look at her. She's a charmer for sure.

Despite all of this, we are still toothless at our house. How funny would it be to have a walker with no teeth? At the rate we're going on both accounts, I'd say it's not out of the realm of possibility.