Girls will be girls...

A few months back, our landlord gave the girls these tutus that she made. They are super cute and fun for dress up!  Lauren had a blast dressing up.  Kaelin, wasn't having too much of it, that is why I have only one picture of her, and clearly her expression shows enthusiasm. Haha! 
I just love playing with these little girls.  Love them to pieces!

New Play Area

I have recently been trying to to more activities throughout the day with the girls.  They just didn't have enough room on their high chair trays to color.  It was just too tight of a space for both crayons/paints and the paper.  They were getting frustrated and so was I.  My parents had given us a child size table that my siblings and I used as kids.  My mom suggested after we moved here that we put it in the corner of our kitchen.  At first I wasn't too keen on having it in there. I thought it would make our kitchen too crowded.  The other day though, I had a wild hair and decided to give it a try.  The girls and I made a trip to Hobby Lobby that morning as well and picked up a new chalk board and a magnetic cork board.  With a 40% off coupon, I only spent $20 for both! 

Lauren woke up early to color.  

Lauren learning shapes and learning to glue.  She had a lot of fun!

Displaying her artwork.

I printed out  pictures of our immediate family members along with our names. I backed them with magnets and voila, we have a learning board for Lauren to learn our names. 
The first day was sort of a disaster with the girls crumbling and tearing the paper. A quick trip to staples, a purchase of laminating pamper and we were set.  They are nice and sturdy now.  She has already mastered our names and I can hold up a name and she'll say "That spells "Mommy"

She is too smart for her own britches.  She gets every single one of them right every time now.  Her brain is such a sponge and she catches on to things very quickly...now if only she caught on so fast with potty training.  :)  

Beat the heat

With temperatures over 100 degrees and heat index even higher, we are getting cabin fever and trying to find ways to beat the heat.  Today both of the girls were up at 5:30am.  We decided to load up and go to the park while it was still cool out.  We had the park all to ourselves. The grass was cool and dewey and the girls had a blast.  We went to a park we had never been to. Lauren loved all of the new playground equipment.  Wherever we go though, she has to always ride on the swings.  She loves to swing.  It's so cute to hear her say "Weeee!"  After we played for a bit, we took a walk on the trails in the subdivision.  We came home had breakfast and played for a bit before the girls took a nice long nap.  Only bad part about being up so early is that it feels like 3pm but is only noon! 

Lauren 18 months

Big, beautiful brown eyes and a smile to make your heart melt. 

 

An uncanny sense of humor for such a little girl. 

 

A sweetness about her you cannot resist.  

My sweet Lauren Grace is 18 months old.  It hit me at her last well check when they said that I didn't have to bring her back for 6 months for her 2 year well check.  No way...6 months isn't that far away.  18 months.  It seriously seems like yesterday that she was born, and yet I have another little bug that is growing just as fast.  I just can't believe it sometimes.  Some of Lauren's favorite activities this month are coloring and playing outside.  I purchased Crayola Color Wonder markers but she loses interest very quickly.  They take a few seconds to to actually show up and by the time they do, she's lost interest and either thrown them on the ground or tries to put them in her mouth.  So, needless to say we are done with those for a while.  She actually prefers to draw with a plain ol' pencil.  I'm just fine with that.  

Another activity is playing outside.  The weather has been warming up (I say that and now it's snowing..ugh) ...The weather WAS warmer the last few weeks and Lauren was able to go outside for a few days.  One day, her uncle Jordan took her for a wagon ride, and yesterday I took both of the girls for a ride and to the park.  She gets so excited when I say we are going outside that she will run and get her shoes and hand them to me saying "Shoe, shoe".  She'll then stand in her room and point up to the coat rack and say "coat"...then she'll run around saying "side, side" (outside).   She just LOVES it!  I don't blame her.  Last year I was so pregnant and it was so HOT in Kansas that we rarely went outside.  I look forward to our daily walks and trips to the local park this summer.  It's only a few blocks away!! 

Playing Mommy...

 

Lauren LOVES to play with her Dolly(s).  This is actually Kaelin's dolly that she got for Christmas from Daddy but we're still working on that thing called sharing ;-)  Despite that, this video is adorable.  Lauren is always walking around with her dolls and this morning I gave her a bottle to feed her with for play time and she knew exactly what to do.  She is just like a little mommy!  She is the best little helper ever.  I never imagined that at her age she would be helping me throw things away, get diapers and burp rags from their room and bring them to me.  Helping me load the dryer during laundry.  She is just an amazing little girl and I am so blessed to have her as a daughter.