Lauren A.K.A.
Mood:  silly
Topic: Lauren
For quite a while now Lauren has been going by different names depending on how she feels at any given moment. When pretending she is a kitty, she usually opts for "Little Kitty" or "Baby Kitty", but when she exists as a person she actually has a long list of aliases. The ones I can remember include:

Carnation (from the Kevin Henkes book entitled Chrysanthemum)

Calley - this one has been around for a long time and I think has been her favorite because she always goes back to it

Colleen - this came up after we attended a co-worker's wedding...the co-worker's name? Colleen

and within the last week or so, Jasmine - probably from Aladdin.

The most recent aliases, however, appeared Friday night during dinner. She was no longer just Jasmine, she was Hot Jasmine. Then Hot Vegetable Soup, Hot Chicken Breast, and Hot Vegetable Jasmine.

She cracks me up :-)

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Lauren
No offense intended for anyone named Mary, but with all the contrariness going on in our house, I'm beginning to think we should have named Lauren Mary.

Sure, some of it is the normal, obvious stuff where we want her to wear mittens and she won't.

Some of it is probably subconscious to Lauren like when she said she wanted to wear underwear to bed, but I pushed the diaper and now that I want her to wear underwear, she insists on a diaper(I know, I know. I should've gone with the underwear at a time when she really wanted it, but we didn't yet have a waterproof mattress pad).

Then there's the stuff that actually takes some thought on her part. MIL had been over to play with Lauren yesterday and while they were playing I noticed Lauren being rather bossy and mean to her Grandma. I don't know how many times I had to tell her to please be nice. So after MIL left I decided to have a little talk with Lauren. I tried to get across that she should be nice to people she's playing with, that people don't like to be yelled at. Here's our conversation:

Me: You should be nice to Grandma. Don't yell at her when she comes to play with you.

Lauren: She likes when I yell at her.

Me: No she doesn't. People don't like to be yelled at.

Lauren: Yes they do.

Me: I don't think so.

Lauren: You like it when I yell at you.

Me: No, I don't.

Lauren: I like it when you yell at me.

Me: No, you don't.

Lauren: Yes I do.


And she know what she's doing. She knows exactly what she's doing. And I know that she knows because she's grinning through the whole thing. And you know what - this makes me very happy, very happy indeed. It means she's inherited my humor gene - Gotta love that ol' fashioned, good natured teasing!

Huh?
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: Blogs
Funny how you can start out a post about one thing and it just morphs into something else. I started today's other post about the need to be opposite, with a definite negative bend, and it ended up about me being happy with Lauren's sense of humor.

I wonder, is that confusing to the reader? Sometimes it gets confusing for me because I set out to make a certain point and then realize I've lost it. I've lost it and moved on to another altogether. Sure the two themes are connected, but still. I'm always tempted to change the post back to its original intent and then post a second with the subsequent idea. This time I decided to leave it, so you tell me - is it confusing?

Man Declared Dead Found Breathing In Morgue
Mood:  surprised
Topic: Yowza!
Here's a link, but I don't think it will remain as long as this post...N.C. Man Incorrectly Declared Dead

Can you believe it? Oh my God - just imagine. That was my first thought, then a dream I had had about my mother a couple years after she had passed away flashed to mind. We were in the hospital and had just experienced her death. They had taken her body away and as we stood around talking, she was brought back in - alive. Not just lying there close to death's door, but alive, much more alive. She sat up, talked to us, got dressed. The doctors were amazed and the family was so grateful and relieved. But the dream continued on. In about a half hour she died again. I remember feeling upset that I had to relive the death, but I had known her being alive wasn't going to last.

Can you believe it though? He's in critical condition. What about the family - first hearing he's dead and then the police showing up saying he's not after all! What if the medical examiner hadn't noticed that subtle breath? I hate to think.

Someone's got some splainin' to do on this one.

It Gets Me Every Time - Part II
Mood:  special
Topic: Lauren
The other day, while Lauren and I were talking, the subject of my mother came up. I mentioned that sometimes I really miss her and wish I could see her. When I made that comment I expected the conversation to move toward where she was and why we couldn't see her. But no, I was "gotten" again (see It Gets Me Every Time). Instead of the expected conversation, Lauren said she could be my mom.

2B Or Not 2B
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: Bonus Features: Chocolate vs Cone and False Advertising
Topic: Lauren
It's almost 3 months later and I had just about given up on any progression in The Plan when, lo and behold, Lauren informed me that she succeeded in step 2B - her very own special step, added to the poop training plan for her benefit - and we had to go get a celebratory treat.

The story I heard from DH is that maybe she succeeded and maybe she did not. He is not sure because he didn't actually see it. We are no longer permitted in the bathroom when Lauren is doing her duty. We have to stay in the hallway and the bathroom door has to be just about closed - sometimes we are even instructed to sneak away into another room LOL!

Well, we really had no choice but to believe her because if we did not, we could very well end up, heaven forbid, back at step 2. Besides, up until now, she's been very truthful with us. So off we went in 4 degree weather to get her treat - a chocolate ice cream cone.


Chocolate vs Cone
Little did we know the DQ closed at 8pm. The open light was lit as we rounded the corner, but by the time we entered the parking lot, the drive thru was blocked, the light was off, and the doors were locked. And DQ is the ONLY place around that actually has CHOCOLATE ice cream cones. Uh-oh...disaster approaching...what did we mean "no chocolate"?! We quickly tried a distraction move by suggesting we could substitute a McDonald's triple thick chocolate shake for the cone. It had its drawbacks true - triple thick - would she be able to get it through the straw? We'd have to get a spo... wait a cotton pickin' minute...what did we mean "no cone"?!


False Advertising
Ten minutes later we exited the McDonald's drive thru with a vanilla ice cream cone for Lauren and two triple thick chocolate shakes, one for mom and one for dad. Lauren was in heaven because she had her cone and mom and dad were left wishing they had had a cone as well. Triple thick? Yeah, right.

Time To Wash Up
Mood:  silly
Topic: Lauren
No it's not time for Lauren to have a bath. Well, it is, but that's not what this is about.

This is about that poor little boy who went to see baby Jesus - Lauren sang me the song about him yesterday. They told him to come, rub a dub; He was so poor he had no gift to bring, rub a dub; so he played his drum and the baby smiled at him, rub a dub. She did add a line to the song (not in any version I've ever heard) that he was joined there by three men in a tub - must have been the wise men - so at least he wasn't poor, dirty, AND lonely.

Actually, now that I think about it, perhaps it would be a good idea for that little drummer boy to join the deer and the antelope out where they make their home. That would be, of course, in the rain.

Pass the soap please :-)

It Gets Me Every Time
Mood:  special
Topic: Lauren
Sometimes I swear my daughter is really my mother come back in a new body.

As mentioned in Another Whole Year Passes, I found out I was pregnant with Lauren the day my mother died. After Lauren was born, she was so much my mother, I could not, and still can not, believe it. From the day she was born, her hands and fingers are the spitting image of my mother's. She moves her feet in the exact same way my mother moved hers - rotating in little circles. When Lauren was 9 months old we snapped a picture of her playing in her MegaSaucer and she looked so much like my mom, it was uncanny.

Well, it happened again over the weekend. We put up our Christmas tree and for the past two days Lauren has been pointing out her favorite ornaments to me. She picks my mother's ornaments that I now have. They were my mother's favorites as well.

A Senseless Tragedy
Mood:  sad
It's been over a week now and I just cannot get her out of my mind.

Last week Tuesday, a young woman jumped from the roof of a building located a block away. She worked there as a security guard and it happened in the early morning.

She fell 41 floors.

She was 25 years old.

She left behind a one month old baby.

My immediate thought was post-partum depression. I wonder if she was getting help or if she was suffering in silence. If not, I wonder if just one person would have said one little thing, she would have sought help. I wonder if anyone noticed anything at all.

And now, for some reason, not a single day goes by that I do not think of this woman and her child. I feel so sorry for her family, especially that little baby.

Awww...Part II
Mood:  crushed out
Topic: Lauren
Wow! This morning I rated three hugs and four kisses! Nothing tugs on you more than your sleepy child wanting you to stay home next to her in a nice warm bed.

I should have stayed home...