9/20-24/10--Daddy's Birthday!

 Happy 34th Birthday, Dada!  We celebrated Eric's birthday this Wednesday and gave him lots of hugs, kisses and a fishing kayak.  He was very surprised about the kayak!  No pictures of this, but I let pajama-dressed LEB walk in the living room and carry the paddle with balloons to him...he knew immediately what was outside on the back porch!  

 Lauren wore her special birthday dress and practiced "serving her guests" in the play  room.  This is a new thing for her: place the triangle, square and circle-shaped desserts in the matching shape on the plate then balance them while walking.  On this night, she would get so upset if the desserts fell off the plate.  She would start whining and start trying to put them back on the plate and then start walking again.  It was almost like she was embarrassed that she couldn't do it right every time.  Poor baby.  It was so cute though. 

 

 That night, I secretly planned for Grandma, Pa, Lance, Sarah, Gabe and Stacie to come down and go out to eat with us.  Eric was surprised again!  Yay!  

 We went to Longhorn's Steakhouse while Miss Heather stayed at home with Lauren.  I think Eric had a fun adult dinner with family and enjoyed being able to visit with everybody.  They definitely made him feel special.  

 Watching TV in the morning.  Lot of concentrating. 

Lauren can maneuver herself fairly safely off of the sofa and recliner.  If she wants to sit on a piece of furniture, she'll walk over to it and pat it while looking at you and wait for you to come hoist her onto the chair/sofa.  Big girl. 

 A playdate with Duncan!

 "Duncan, would you like some tea?"  

"I'm tired now.  I think it's my nap time..."

We will see you when we return from Gainesville this weekend!  

9/13-19/10 Playdate, Golfing and Chipley

 This is the last week of being 14 months old and Lauren has a lot to say about it!  She babbles all...the...time!  And she knows exactly what she is saying.  She'll use hand gestures and changes her facial expressions while she is babbling non-stop.  

She likes playing with her Little People Barnyard, can put together all of her puzzles (2 of them have 3 pieces, 1 has 8 pieces and 1 has 9 pieces).  This has impressed us so much!  We had no idea this could be done at such a young age.  She is constantly doing things to surprise us, too, especially in the past few weeks.  When she gets ready to eat dinner in the afternoons, she'll go over to "her" cabinet, get a bib, hold it up to her chest and walk towards the high chair nodding her head as if to say "yes, it's time mommy."

Miss Heather has been continuing to work on sign-language (she has known "food" and "more" for a while now) especially "thank you", "please", and "thank you".  But wouldn't you know it, this week she learned "poop" instead of all the niceties.  Oh well.  In Lauren's world, poop is very important.  :-)  Yes, we are still on daily Miralax. 

 Pictures from her play date with Duncan

 She still LOVES books (Aunt Nan and Aunt Cee, this should make you proud!).  She will go pick out a book off a shelf and come back to me, sit in front of me and nod her head (this means, "start").  Recently, she'll turn around and back up to sit in my lap.  I love this kind of reading so much better.  :-)

 Miss Heather says that LEB's favorite toy is still the kitchen set.  I think I know what Lauren will ask Santa for this Christmas!

 Checking out the grill

 Playing in her cabinet

 On Wednesday, Eric and I took Lauren for her first golf outing.  She did so good!  We just went to the driving range (were the only ones there so that made it even better) and putting green. 

 "Okay, let me watch Dada."

 "Hum, let's see.  You put the ball down..."

 "Okay, Dada.  I'm listening.  Head down..."

 "Oh my word, I hit it!"

 Taking a break

 Her favorite thing to do: chase our balls and put them in the hole for us!  

 Afterwards, we went to David's SnoBalls for a cool after golf treat.

 so so good

 One day this week, I took Lauren to my Elderly Outreach Placement for JSL.  It was at Glencove Retirement home and we played Bingo for one hour with the residents.  The only problem: mommy dressed the baby in her squeaker sandals.  Those poor residents thought it was cute for about 5 minutes, but then got a little annoyed.  Many of them kept checking their hearing aides to see of the squeal was coming from them.  Oops.  Note to self...no squeaker shoes to elderly outreach. 

 We had a sad death in our family and went to Chipley for the funeral on Friday.  Lauren stayed with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Lance during the funeral and then we spent the night with Gigi and Pops that night.  Lauren had a fun time playing with Aunt Sarah's puppies, Coco and Betty, and then had fun playing outside at Gigi's.  

On Saturday, Lauren spent the day all by herself with Grandma while we went to FSU to a ballgame.  She got to visit with aunts and uncles and be with Grandma all day long.