Discovering Herself

Here are some things I caught Lauren doing today. First, she still loves looking at books. Second, she loves looking at herself in the mirror (How vain! ha ha) I often hear her talking and laughing when I'm in another room, so when I go to find her she is usually at this mirror talking and laughing with herself. She is a character!

Egg Hunt to Goose Egg

It was a great Easter weekend for us. Jason's mom and sister, Elaine, came up to visit. Plus, we were able to get together with a bunch of Jason's family that are already up in this area. It was so nice to be around all of them. The pictures above are of Lauren participating in a fun egg hunt, thanks to Uncle Randy and Aunt Joleen. Also, a picture of Aunt Elaine and Lauren.

To end our great Easter weekend, Lauren had to go out with a bang! She slipped and went head first into the door frame at our place. Thus, the goose egg on her head.

She Loves to Slide

It is the cutest thing to see Lauren go down a slide. She gets so excited! We'll sit her down at the top. She'll immediately lean forward on her own, and down she'll go. Today her shoes kept getting caught on the side of the slide causing her to go out of control a bit. The first picture sums that all up perfectly. It may have frightened her a little, but she loves to slide anyway.

Lauren Elaine

These pictures were taken today. I thought I'd do a post on Lauren. This month she will be 17 months old. That is hard to believe. She is growing up so fast. She is so much fun. Lauren's personality is definitely developing. She also understands a lot and is starting to talk more. Here are somethings she has been doing as of late.
To name a few, Lauren can say da-da, momma, baby, I do, no, hey you, hi, moo, daw (dog). The most shocking thing happened the other day. I pointed to a school bus (which she knows from one of her books) and said what it was, and she said "bus" like she has been saying it for months. Then she was eating some apple and she pointed at it and said "apple." I was very impressed.
It is amazing how much she understands. I think it is from the many hours that she and I look at her books. She will now take my finger and point it to objects and wait for me to tell her what it is. We can tell her to go get one of her toys specifically and she will bring it to us. Lauren is starting to understand some shapes. She knows hearts and stars. Plus, she knows stripes, flowers, and leaves. She loves animals too.
I can also tell that Lauren is going to be our oldest. She always wants me to follow her around. She wants to be the leader. So I spend a lot of time walking behind her around our couch about 30 times a day...or more. She'll always look back to make sure I am still there. I guess it is good exercise for me. If I stop, she will get mad! She'll even yell at me in a way. Many of you that know her may not believe me when I say that, but it is true. She knows how to trick those of you who think she is only a quiet and sweet little girl!!

A Good Day

Yesterday the three of us went over to Degen and Ann's house. Lauren was able to play outside with her cousins, Mira and Martin. We actually have a lot of family up in this area. Jason's brother, Degen, and sister, Joleen, live here in Pasco. It has been great spending time with them and getting to know them and their families even more. It was such a nice day that Jason and I took Lauren to the park to swing as well. She liked it, but was afraid to go too high. We saw all kinds of interesting things there. Well, I guess I should say that, Lauren saw all kinds of interesting things. She saw a cat, a ferret, dogs, goats, ducks, and seagulls--which is actually quite an unusual combination of animals to see now that I think about it. It was very entertaining for her I'm sure. We had a good day.