Lauren at 16 Months

Please forgive me, it's been so long since I posted. And I started this post back around September and just never got around to writing anything, so now I don't have much fantastic information to report about what was happening four months ago, but rest assured that Lauren was being adorable. I know that most of you are in it for the pictures anyway.


In September we went down to Tulsa to finally clean out the storage unit that we opened after my Mom died. It was actually a fun weekend spent with family, and reliving many (mostly funny) memories of Mom. While we were at the storage unit Lauren spent the day with Grandma Kakee and Kakee's grandkids Dillon and Ryder. She had a BLAST. It's hard not to at Kakee's house. Above she's having a snack at Kakee's kid-sized bistro table.

Ah. Warm weather. I remember warm weather. This is at the playground at the school behind our house, which we visited often in warmer weather, and still visit on occasion all bundled up with our new (getting less new by the month) dog Stella. Lauren moved from the slide to the jungle gym around this time, and you'd be amazed how long she can hang there.

Aunt Arie is a showoff.

I love this photo. I had high expectations for Sean and fatherhood and he has exceeded them over and over. I am a very lucky wife and Lauren is a very lucky daughter.

Dia de los Muertos

One of the many perks of living on the Westside is the annual Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival about 20 steps from our yard. If that. We took Lauren to check out the festivities.

Capoeira (Brazilian fight dancing, I believe) performance.

Lauren checking out the performance. OK, she was scoping out a dog.

Lauren had to sit on the edge of the sidewalk just like Sean.

Eventually Lauren's shadow outshone the dancers. At least in her mind.

Sean's big score: street food.

The playground behind our house was in view from the festival. The playground won.

Lauren at 15 Months

Well this is embarrassing. I haven't posted since August. And while this may post as an August entry because I started it back in August, I'm actually typing this in October. This is just a little smattering of 15 month photos for you.

Lauren's still a good eater, depending on the entree. Pasta, applesauce and teething biscuits are her faves. Otherwise, she's just eh. I'm told she eats a lot at school.

Lauren has become very good at opening things. Too good.

She also likes to play the harmonica. Then she wants us to play the harmonica. Trust me, you don't want to play the harmonica after her. It involves a lot of saliva.

Here she is with a maraca. She's a one man band.

Lauren Learns How to Slide

So we've been sick for the last two weeks. All three of us. Coughs, sore throats, congestion, you name it. This morning we woke up, and for the first time felt like maybe we could leave the house for a few hours. You know, a little fresh air, a little vitamin D...so we thought we'd introduce Lauren to swings and slides. She has a tiny little slide at school, which she tries to go down head first, so we thought maybe she'd like something a little bigger. And she did.

We thought that she'd be really cautious. We were wrong.

She acted like she'd been doing this her whole life. No help, please.

This makes it look like she was hesitating. She wasn't. She was just checking out the other kids.

She liked to twist as she was going down and end up on her stomach. Although as you can see in the picture above her eyes were closed, so maybe she was a little scared.

And then, when sliding and twisting wasn't enough, she decided to climb up the slide. And did a pretty good job of it, too. Little daredevil.

Here she is on an even bigger slide, but she wasn't able to climb up to this one on her own because it involved a rope ladder, so we stuck to the yellow slide most of the time.

Lauren was pretty jazzed about the swing at first, but she didn't like swinging high. We'll work on that one. No underdogs for this girl for now.

We had a great day at the park, and then we all got sweaty and headed back for the air conditioning. It was nice to get some fresh air. Besides the slide, Lauren's favorite part was all of the dogs being walked around the park.

Nikita

This morning's early morning activity: visiting Nikita, the new polar bear at the Kansas City Zoo. There was a wonderful break in the heat and we got there when the zoo opened, as did a good portion of Kansas City. Everyone wanted to see Nikita. Fortunately, Nikita is a bit OCD, and so Sean figured out her pattern and staked the perfect spot.

Our favorite part was the swimming.

The back float.

Lauren was both fascinated and terrified.

Nikita comes in for a smooch.

Deanna Rose Farmstead

You all know that we love Lauren, right? What we don't love is the fact that she's recently started waking up around 4:30, then again at 5:30, and is up for the day by 6. Until the very recent past, she'd been sleeping until 7. Let me tell you folks, the weekends are long when they start at 5 or 6am. So what are two sleep-deprived parents of one very hyper young toddler to do? Scrounge to find early morning activities in Kansas City, that's what. This past Sunday that was the Deanna Rose Farmstead, for our first visit. And let me tell you, it's the best deal in town. $2 per person admission and Lauren was free. It's set up to be like a turn of the century barn, with a petting zoo, a dairy barn (with daily milkings), ponds, etc. And it's fantastic. It's a loooong drive from downtown (it's in South Overland Park), but was worth the drive because it kept Lauren busy for awhile.

Aunt Jane, I cannot believe that I didn't get a picture of Lauren with the cows. Actually there was one particular calf that she was crazy about. She went up to him and said, in the sweetest little voice, "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" She also waved at him, and couldn't quite figure out why he wasn't waving back.

So Lauren LOVED the goats. Loved them. And her little friend from school had been at Deanna Rose the weekend before and fed the goats, so we got some goat food to let Lauren feed them. You probably won't be shocked at what happened next: Lauren ate the goat food instead. Disgusting. But she won't eat vegetables?

What are you staring at, goat?

A wink and a smile.

Lauren, who has only been successfully walking for a few days, took off in a dead sprint to get this cat. Sorry Lolo, this is the closest you'll ever get to a cat on my watch.

Practice Makes Perfect? Uh oh.

Ladies and gentlemen, Lauren is walking on a regular basis. And Lauren isn't content to just walk, no, she's already bored with that. Next up: opening the door and helping herself to the great outdoors when we have declined to do so for her. Consider yourself warned: use the deadbolt. Consider yourself warned again: she WILL melt down when you use the deadbolt and she's not able to get outside on her own. So use it sparingly. Like when you're not keeping a close eye on her. Also, keep a close eye on her. At all times. This baby is a piece of work. But I have to hand it to her, she practices until she has it down. She did this all night, but this is the most we could upload in one video.