Long overdue...

I know, I know, this post is LONG overdue. What can I say? I really don't have a valid excuse, so I'm not going to try ...

Let's see... what has gone on in the world of the Rocky Mountain DeMarias in the last 3-4 months? Lauren has grown like a weed - she is now 18 months old (really???) and has turned into such a fun little girl. At her 18 month doctor's appointment, she weighed 24 lb 2 oz (50%) and was 31" (25%). She's a little shrimp! Most people are surprised at how little she is once they see her personality! (oh and her head measured 18.5" which is in the 75%). She really is a little dynamo - she never walks anywhere, only runs at top speed, and is very "assertive" as my friends say (which is a nice way of saying that she's super aggressive and won't let anyone or anything get in her way). One of my friends (who has a daughter the same age) refers to Lauren as "scrappy", which is right on the money!

Her vocabulary has been growing, although she says "doggie" for most things and expects me to know EXACTLY what she is saying. I'm supposed to repeat everything she says, and when I don't repeat what she's thinking (she says "doggie" but means "cow", for example), she gets really mad! Quite a temper on that little one! Her favorite saying these days is "No mommy" (of course), said with a shake of her head and the tone "you must be kidding me, mother!"... already I can see the teenage years before us...!

She has lately become obsessed with the book "Goodnight Moon" and has a lot of fun finding the mouse on each page. She's pretty good, too - she even can find the mouse on the pages where he's pretty well hidden! Now we've moved on to identifying the other items in the book's bedroom (clocks, bunny, playhouse, kitties, etc.). According to my mother, that is something I did when I was her age... apparently obsessions are hereditary!

Speaking of things I did when I was a toddler, I was never a "maternal" little girl, meaning I had a favorite baby doll, but instead of coddling it, I used to carry it under my arm like a football everywhere I went (is anyone really surprised?). Its name was "Blue Baby", assumingly because it was dressed in a blue dress. Anyways, I can see that Lauren is showing similar "maternal" signs. I recently bought her a baby doll (her first) with matching stroller and was curious to see what she thought. As soon as we got home, she threw the doll out of the stroller onto the ground and proceeded to load up the stroller with a stuffed animal, "goodnight moon" (of course) and a ball! I tried showing her what to do with the doll and each time she would take the doll and throw it on the ground... Interesting...

We're headed off to San Diego next week. It will be our first trip since our vacation in Hawaii last November. I'm VERY hopeful that Lauren will behave on the flight and will sleep well during our visit. Regardless, I'm really looking forward to seeing my family, most of which we haven't seen since Thanksgiving. Plus, it will be good for Lauren to spend time with her cousins James and Alexis (I've been working with Lauren on saying their names, and she's starting to get it).

Will post some pictures soon!