Differences

I have noticed several differences lately between the boys and Lauren. Is it that she is a girl, or maybe the youngest, or is it something else?

Washing hands.
Whether it is before dinner, after playing outside, or after going to the bathroom the boys approach it much differently then Lauren. For the boys my response as they are running out of the bathroom is usually, "Did you wash your hands...with soap." In which they respond with "Yes". Yet the water had only been on for 5 seconds. Or, I say, go wash your hands and they run in the bathroom, turn on the water, run their hands under it, turn the water off and run out. On the other hand, Lauren asks to wash her hands, then she diligently uses soap and then thoroughly rinses her hands off.

Noticing when others are hurt.

Whether I say "ouch" because either someone stepped on my foot, pulled my hair, or I did something to hurt myself the boys don't even acknowledge that I am hurt. They even keep asking for whatever they were asking for. Lauren will stop what she is doing and ask if I am okay, usually more then once.

Eating habits.
While we are eating, at least a little food usually spills on the table or the floor. The boys don't even acknowledge that there is a mess. They wipe their faces with their sleeve or neck of their shirt and they will lean in any messes spilled on the table. However, Lauren will demand that someone get her a napkin so she can clean up the drop of milk on the table. If something is spilled on the floor, she will insist that someone clean it up before she continues eating her food. Then she refuses to keep the napkin for the next spill, so she will be requesting another napkin about 1 minute later.

She's a Very Thorough Hand-washer

Tonight after dinner, Lauren ran into the bathroom to wash her hands. I started to clean up dinner and was not paying attention to her. About 10 minutes later, I started to wonder what Lauren was up to so I started to look for her. I found her right where I last saw her, in the bathroom washing her hands. Yes, she was still washing her hands. She had a solid layer of soap all the way up her arms. I think this is one of the most thorough hand washes I have ever seen.

Wacky Day

When Jordan came home from school a few weeks ago and told me he wanted to be really wacky for "Wacky Day" at school we started brainstorming what he could do to be wacky. He wanted to wear underwear over his pants and he wanted to wear a girl shirt. Well, I met him half-way on that and helped him come up with a few other wacky ideas.

Jordan wore the following to school:

*Shorts over striped blue and green pajama pants

*One brown sock with stripes and one green sock with a square design on it

*Two different shoes

*A girl shirt with hearts on it that was a little too small

*An oversized knitted hat

Utah Trip Part II

Lauren has officially flown more then her brothers now. She is a good little traveller. She was patient as we went through security and loved when the airplane went fast as it was taking off.

While we were in Utah, we got to spend lots of time with my sister and her family. This was my first time to see C in person. He is now 7 months old and a very solid 20 pounds. Lauren was a good helper and got to feed C his bottle one morning. While she was feeding him, she kept saying, "I a helper." It was so cute.

The next day, she decided she wanted to be a baby too. She asked for some of C's formula in a bottle and insisted on sitting in his exersaucer. She probably spent 20 minutes in the exersaucer before asking to get out. (She did not get a bottle of formula.) Then she wanted to sit in his car seat too. It was fun just getting to spend some time with Lauren to see more how she thinks. She is a girl that knows what she wants and will demand it until she gets it. Of course, she can be as sweet as can be at other times.

My sister had family and friends for dinner one night and our cousin was able to come down with with her kids. At one point, the boys were bothering the girls, so the girls decided to have a tea party in the bathroom. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture before most of the boys left, but I managed to get a picture of Malia and my cousin's kids continuing their tea party in the bathroom. They even had food stacked all around the sink.

On another day we got to go to the park and play. Lauren enjoyed the slides the most and insisted that she do it all by herself.

Utah Trip

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go to Utah to see my sister and her family. Lauren came with me and the boys stayed at home with Tim. We had a great trip.




The main reason for the trip was because C's adoption was finalized and he was going to be sealed to Natalie and Travis and then he was given his name and blessing.

It was very special getting to be in the temple to witness the sealing of C to his parents. He is such a blessing to our entire family.

Lauren Turns 2

Last month, Lauren turned 2. She opened a couple presents at home on her actual birthday and then we celebrated again on the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa McKee's house.

Lauren sitting on her new princess couch adorned in her princess accessories.

Enjoying her cupcake.

Opening presents at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Blowing out candles.

Some thoughts about Lauren:
Lauren has been a joy to our family over the past 2 years. She is a sweet girl and likes to help. When it is time to clean-up toys, she is usually the first to help. She has also turned into a very independent girl. She likes to do most things by herself. She wants to climb in her carseat and do up her own buckle (which she is not capable of doing yet). She wants to occassionally put on her own clothes and wash her hands by herself. Luckily, she usually gives up on the things she is not capable of within a minute or so and then asks for help. On the other hand, if Tim or I are anywhere near her when it is time to eat, she demands that we feed her. Now don't get me wrong, she is perfectly capable of feeding herself. In fact, she is often less messy then her brothers when she feeds herself. However, if we are near, she pushes her plate and spoon at us until we put the food in her mouth. Lauren loves "Elmo TV" and although she doesn't get to watch it very often, she asks for it ALL the time. She loves reading her Elmo books and knows the names of many of the Sesame Street characters. She likes playing with her baby dolls and feeding them their bottle. Lauren is talking more and more clearly every week and communicates very well with everyone around her. When we read stories and ask her what color something is, she always says, "Green." If you ask her to point to something that is a specific color, she can point to the correct color though. (I just think green is her favorite color.) She likes singing Popcorn Popping, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Eensey Weensey Spider and ABC's. Her favorite food is probably gogurt. We love Lauren very much!

Catching Up...

I have fallen behind on the blogging. It is amazing how things happen almost every day and I think to myself, I need to remember that and write it down because it is something that took me by surprise or something cute. The problem is I always forget these times before I get a chance to write them down.

There are a few I can remember though.

I was in the car with Colin and Lauren several weekends ago and we saw an ambulance pass by. Colin asked where it was going and I told him somebody was probably hurt and needed help. He went on to speculate. "Maybe someone spilled bubbles and slipped and fell. I think they broke their chin off and died." I tried to tell Colin that probably was not the case, but he was convinced.

This morning I did Lauren's hair as usual in front of my bathroom mirror. Then I put her down on the floor and started putting my makeup on. Lauren looked up at me and said, "Pretty mama". Then she pointed at herself and said, "I pretty." I thought it was so sweet.

Jordan started taking Karate recently. His Karate class is a mix of Karate and gymnastics. So far he is loving it, but I remember in his first class he went to do a somersault on one of the padded wedges and he forgot to put his hands down. He landed right on his head. Since then he seems to be doing better at putting his hands down.

We have also been trying to get the boys to eat what we fix for dinner. The boys are so picky and I have found myself making 3 to 4 meals for dinner to try and please everyone. This was starting to drive me crazy, so this has changed over the past two months. It definitely is not perfect, but the number of meals I am making in a week has definitely decreased. Unfortunately, we have not been successful at getting the boys to eat more, but they do occassionally try something new. Jordan will usually take a little bite of something and manage to swallow it. Colin on the other hand will fight trying it and as soon as it touches his tongue he begins to gag and he runs to the trash can to spit it out. There was one night when we were eating spaghetti for dinner and it was a night that I refused to make anything separate for Colin. Everyone else would eat the spaghetti so if Colin wasn't going to eat it, he would just go hungry that night. We did have jello as a side that night though, so he ate some jello. We would not let him have seconds on the jello though until he tried a noodle (and it had to be bigger then the size of a pencil tip). I finally convinced him to try it with his jello. I put a little slice in the jello and tucked a spaghetti noodle in it. Colin actually ate it. Then he told me he wanted spaghetti and jello for lunch and dinner the next day. Needless to say, he only ate three bites of spaghetti tucked inside the jello for dinner the next night before he said he was done and wouldn't eat more.