(Makeup) Father's Day

True confession: we rescheduled Father's Day. It was the Sunday before the big party at our house, and yard work needed to be done, and it wasn't fair to make Sean do yard work on Father's Day. Most people would then just give their husbands the day off. Not me. Sean and I pulled out our calendar and rescheduled it. So these photos are from our makeup Father's Day. Although Sean could do whatever he wanted that day, he decided he would like to spend it with us (Laur and I did, after all, make him a father in the first place).

So we went to the Kansas City Zoo and it was a whole new world from when we took her last summer (obviously). Her favorite was the petting zoo portion, in particular the deer and the sheep. She went nuts. She laughed so hilariously that people were watching her instead of the animals. This week I read a post by a friend of a friend on Facebook about how dangerous petting zoos are and about how many different diseases you can get from the animals. And then multiple comments to these posts from people about how they would never take their kid to a petting zoo. They have obviously never seen Lauren at a petting zoo--I can't deny her that.

The carousel she thought was just OK, honestly. We had high hopes, though.

Lauren Goes Shopping (and Learns How to Walk)

So up until yesterday, Lauren still wasn't walking much. In fact, she had kind of regressed since she took her first steps a few weeks ago. To be honest, Sean and I really didn't care, but her teachers at school seemed concerned because they have three crawlers moving into their room soon and they need the older kids to be walking.

Anyway, we thought we'd help the teachers out and I found this shopping cart online. As those of you who have visited our house know, we don't have a lot of extra space, and Sean has banned all unitools (you know, things that can only be used for one purpose). So this shopping cart will serve as a walker now, and much-needed storage for the toys Lauren likes to distribute throughout the house, and later she can use it more as a toy (play kitchen coming soon to a Power House near you).

The shopping cart arrived last night, and by this morning Lauren was walking from point to point by herself, without the cart. Amazing. Her teacher said that she walked almost everywhere today on her own. Money well spent, I suppose. Added bonus: she thinks pushing the cart around is the greatest thing ever. Her dog lovey is a frequent guest in the cart, as is her sippy cup. Next project: teaching her how to turn the cart so we don't have to follow her around pointing it in the right direction all day.

Lauren's Ladybug Scooter

Sean and I bought Laur this ladybug scooter for her birthday. When I was in London with my friend Kakee she bought one just like it for her granddaughter and I've thought of it since. At first Lauren just kind of pushed it around and wasn't able to actually scoot on it, but now that she's walking a little better she's able to ride it around. And is very happy about it, as you can see.

Mama

This sweet little thing said "mama" this weekend for the first time. Then I started bawling and scared her and I haven't really heard it since. So maybe she's still not saying it "to" me or "about" me, it was the sweetest thing I've ever heard.