too young to be this senile

Becca just asked me if I had abandoned the ide of keeping this blog. Sadly, I had completely forgotten about it.

Since I am here, I will share that I am full of anxiety for Lauren today. She had a bad behavior day at school yesterday, which is rare for her. I am SO hoping that she is having a good day! Her class has a color coded behavior chart, and each child's name is written on a clothes pin. Each clothes pin starts on green every morning. If the child gets in trouble during the day, they have to move their clothes pin down to the next color (green, yellow, purple and then red.) My little sweetie was on RED yesterday! She was so flustered, she couldn't tell us what she had done - and the story that we got was different (and worse) than what Sister Paula told me this morning. So here is hoping that we are on green today. It is hard to discipline a child who is really so well behaved most of the time. I kept finding myself wanting to give her a little present or cave on our punishment.

In other Lauren news, every day is still a battle for her to wear a dress. She has new criteria, too. The dress has to have an acceptable "sponability" factor so that it really twirls when she spins. She WILL wear a knit dress (which is good, since these are cheaper than the smocked dresses, but she DOES NOT like the idea of wearing leggings underneath them. She is learning the difference between hose, stockings and leggings - and has strong opinions on the matter. Shoes are also an issue. She wants to wear her dress shoes with her swirly dresses and panty hose. Which is AWESOME on Sundays, but pretty tough on all the other pesky days.

In Olivia-land, things are exploding around us. Her voacbulary is expanding, and so is her physical abilities. She is starting to climb and RUN. Both of which scare me at times. She LOVES to give kisses and hugs and high fives. She is a definite character. Perhaps more like me than I would have hoped for. :)

I was holding her back the other night and was shocked to see that she has two molars on the top!

In other news, Jan and Shorty gave us their puppy Shadow, which has been a mixed blessing. We all LOVE this dog, but she is dumb as rocks! She isn't potty trained (AT ALL), she chases cars and people, she doesn't come when you call her and my favorite - she will go outside and bark to be let in, but when you come to the door, she runs off. And this can go on for hours! But, she is absolutely precious and very sweet. And perhaps more importantly, I think Calvin is really enjoying having a dog in the house. I worry about him spending all day at home alone. So it warms my heart to see him with a puppy!

We are starting the countdown to Christmas and looking forward to all of the festivities! Lauren LOVES the Christmas decorations - and makes me yell "Christmas stuff!" everytime we pass any decorations.

I'll leave you with the sweetest thing that Lauren said yesterday. She said that she loves Shadow AND Rock, and then said that Rock will always be with us in our hearts.

The Day that Daddy got it right.

So, we were out and about yesterday afternoon, looking for something to do "other" than work in the yard. We thought it would be fun and somewhat educational to take Lauren to PetSmart. What I didn't bank on was CALVIN falling in love with a puppy. A puppy that is up for adoption.

As much as I love all creatures, we *really* do not need another one living with us right now.

Which makes not one damn bit of sense to a 4 year old who's daddy is begging mommy to let us bring this cute puppy home.

For hours after we left the pet store, Lauren was telling me that Daddy got it right and I got it wrong. He *loved* this!

Note to self - leave Calvin home the next time we venture out to places with cute puppies in need of a good home.

Hello, World!

So, one of my tasks as an employee of the imaginary company is to stay up on new technologies. I thought I would take advantage of this space to keep a journal about life in general, but Lauren and Olivia in particular.

Check back regularly for updates. Is Chubbles mobile? What is the fat roll count?

As for Lauren, this is your one stop shop for all of the tales, including regales of her imaginary pet friends: Livy and the chipmunk family, the four puppies (3 sweet and one biter), and the gaggle (?) of tiny penguins.

Oh, and before I forget, I really should share what Lauren ate for dinner last night: 2 bowls of hummus, a hot dog, about 4 marsh mellows and green tea. LOL!

I need to go be anxious now. Jan has been in her surgical consultation for 34 minutes. I need to bite on nails and hit refresh every nanosecond until I hear something. More later.