Christmas Cousins

Merry Christmas 2013!

How many takes does it take?

How many takes does it take to get a cute picture of a girl with her dog?

Lauren had her first frozen chocolate banana and I wanted to memorialize the event by taking a picture.  As I snapped the picture she said, "By the Christmas tree."  So ok, we moved to by the christmas tree and Bali wanted in the picture.  Posing a girl and a dog is not very easy!  Especially when the girl is holding something the dog wants. 

The outtakes: 

Lauren:  Bayi (that's how she pronounces it) leave it alone!

Hey at least on this one both right legs are up!

Mama:  Both of you look at me!

Bali:  Can I have a lick?

Dada:  Look here, but Lauren you stand up!

Lauren:  I hug Bayi.

Mama:  No, don't look at the ice cream, look at me!

 The best of the bunch:

Good enough!

He's almost here!

Finally braved it to the mall for the annual Santa picture.  Last year was easier since I was still off work and could go during the weekday when it is less busy.  So today we decided it was either today or never.  So Lauren got dressed and we told her that we were going to the mall to see if we can find Santa Claus.  When we got to the mall she was in awe of the Christmas decorations and especially all the Christmas trees at Nordstrom.  Then she proceeded to walk to the mall calling out, "Santa where are you?"

We got in line and managed to keep Lauren busy for the one hour it took to get to the front.  She saw glimpses of him through the trees and when he stood up so that helped make the wait go faster.  She was so excited when she first saw him in person and started pointing and saying, "There you are!"   We got closer in line and she was able to see her her first good glimpse of him.

In line she kept saying, "Ho ho ho!"  She was also singing, "You better watch out", but when it was time to sit on his lap she froze and got nervous.  Her tongue came out and that's the picture for 2013!   Oh well, at least she didn't cry!   

Pigtail Season!

'Tis the season for pigtails around here.  Here she is sporting the various pigtails of this season.

November - Catch up!

Not sure where the month of November went so here is the post with what happened in the month!

School is going well, daycare reports that Lauren happily goes on the bus on a daily basis.  In fact she was quite upset when we picked her up from school causing her to miss her bus ride home.  She loves her backpack and we love the growth she is making.  She has certainly picked up more vocabulary words and surprised us with her knowledge of recognizing letters of the alphabet. 

Her special friend at school is Govanni.  When she sees the letter "G" she says, "Govanni!"   Here is a picture of the two of them together that her teacher sent home.  Her teacher reports that she loves to play dress up. 

Doggy/Puppy is still her favorite toy.  It goes with us almost everywhere and she also brings it to daycare now as her comfort toy.  She also like building "happy birthday cake" with her legos. 

We had a few check-ups with the doctor in November.  Lauren is still seeing the gastrointestinal specialist who is monitoring her growth.  She did slow down a bit in the last 3 months in growth, but overall made great growth in the year that she has been home.  Lauren discovered Mr. Potato Head in the waiting room and he keeps her quite entertained when we wait for the doctor.

Her favorite thing to do is still to be active.  Running, climbing, jumping, and now bike riding are her favorite activities.  She also enjoys going to farmer's market, looking at boats, and getting samples of grapes and strawberries from the vendors. 

With her full schedule of daycare in the morning and school in the afternoon, we said goodbye to her private speech therapist. When Lauren started school in the afternoon she lost her nap time so we made a decision to stop speech, at least for now.  Thank you miss Kimberly for working with Lauren!

And we ended the month giving thanks for many things.   Thanksgiving was celebrated at daycare first, and then oom Ruben's house for our annual fried turkeys.  And yes, Lauren loves turkey!

Finally we went to Sophia's birthday party where Lauren made us all nervous by going all the up the big kids play structure.  There is no play structure high enough for this girl!

Yes, that's her inside the red slide.

Halloween 2013

Happy Halloween..... or not!

For Halloween Lauren dressed up as an owl.  This is technically her first Halloween since we were still in China last year.  Since she still does not get the concept, we went to Becky's house to practice trick or treating. 

On Halloween, because we had practiced at Becky's house, she kept saying "trick o treat Becky!"  LOL!  Unfortunately trick or treating did not last long as she got scared so we went home thinking she might enjoy giving out candy.  That plan did not work well either as one scary mummy monster came to the door and scared her.  So from then on, when trick o treaters came to the door she said, "No open door!"  Instead she amused herself playing trick or treat by moving candy from the Halloween bucket to her Halloween bag.  Oh well... maybe next year!

Our short Halloween walk

The wheels on the bus go round and round......

Someone started school!
Lauren officially started pre-school right before Halloween.  She is going 5 days a week for 3.5 hours each day.  It is a long day for her because she spends the morning at daycare and then goes to preschool and back to daycare for the last hour before we pick her up.  We are lucky that transportation is provided by the school district, so the yellow school bus comes to pick up and drop off Lauren from daycare.

We drove her to school on the first day of school, which was not a happy moment.  She had a hard time separating from us and not happy that we were leaving her.  However her teacher reported that although she cried for the first hour, she was able to calm herself down and participate in the classroom routine by the afternoon.  And of course she finds a little boy to be her friend!

We decided that she should just take the school bus on the second day to see what would happen.  And she did great!  Not a single tear, just smiles all around.  All the rounds of singing, "The Wheels on the Bus" paid off because she was all too happy to get on the school bus.  Her afternoon pre-school schedule means that she no longer gets to take a nap at daycare, so it does make for a long day for her.  The benefit of that is that she almost begs to go to bed by 7pm and is asleep within minutes!

We are excited for Lauren to be in school.  We hope she enjoys school and we are looking forward to seeing her grow and discover new things.