The Girlies...September 2011

Shoo, September was a busy month!  Labor day weekend was pretty low-key, which was nice after a busy August.  Lauren started school on September 7, then Brad went back to Michigan for the Michigan-Notre Dame, which he said was the best game he has ever been to (and it looked that way on TV!).  The weekend after that, my mom came and Brad & I got a way for a babymoon in New York to see "Jersey Boys" (which was awesome!), and the weekend after that, Brad headed out to California for his good friend Brian's wedding.  And now it's October!  Time to start focusing on getting ready for "baby brother" as Alison calls him!

In the pack n play together.  So exciting!

Only Lauren puts on her soccer gear with a dress!

First day of school

First day of dance!

LAUREN

Lauren is in Miss Julie's class this year, and she is enjoying making new friends, getting to know old friends better, and learning how to write her letters, do math, and read!  She is always talking about playing with different friends, which is great because that means she gets along with everyone!  One day I asked her who her best friends at school were and she said "Everyone!"  I think she misses seeing Julia and Ashlin every day, but she has seen them a couple of times at lunch bunch.  She amazes me with her reading ability!  She is really starting to be able to read a lot of words, before we know it, she will be reading books to Alison!

1. "That's dreadful!"  I am not sure where she picked this up, maybe Eloise, but she says this A LOT when I say no or she doesn't get something that she wants.  It doesn't help that the first time she said it, Brad and I laughed pretty hard!

2. "Oh Graham crackers!"  Another thing she says when she drops something or something doesn't go just as she thought.  The funniest thing is when Alison repeats after Lauren!

3. Calling Alison "Ava"...we have a neighbor, Ava, who is 7 and the girls love to say hello to her.  When Brad and I got back from New York, Lauren was calling Alison Ava (and Alison was referring to herself as Ava, too!)

4. Coupons...she still LOVES to clip coupons with me, and she has an organizer where she keeps them all and she pretends to go shopping with them.  She also loves to cut up all the ads from the Sunday paper and she what is on sale.

5. Counting...she is starting to count a lot, and she learned how to count by tens at school.

6. iPod...she found my old iPod, and she loves to pretend to play music and make phone calls on it.

7. "Cut up milk,"  one of the funniest things she said lately was when Alison stopped drinking whole milk, she said "Now she drinks cut up milk like me!"  I love the way her mind works!

8. "Peppa Pig"...a new show on Nick Jr.  It comes on Monday through Friday at 2 PM, which is perfect because I can put Alison down for her nap and then lay down while Lauren watches TV for 30 minutes. I think she likes it so much because it has 4 short stories, so she feels like she is watching more TV since most shows only have 2 episodes.

9. Squinkies...we are trying to get LAuren to stay in her room all night and not come in our room in the middle of the night, so I bought some squinkies as an incentive for staying in her room, but she has only gotten two of them in the past two weeks, so I am not sure what our next approach is going to be!

Lauren is such a good mommy to Alison.  And Alison loves to put the paci in her mouth!

10. Dance...Lauren is taking dance at a different studio this year, and she is liking it so far.  I like it because we can watch them on TV from the waiting room!

11. Playing with Alison...they like to play house and school.  I love hearing Lauren talk to Alison about what to do; she is always calling her "sweetie!"

12. Snoopy....she is obsessed with Snoppy, which is not that easy to find, but I did find a couple of Snoopy halloween things at JoAnn's.  And I hope to record the Halloween special for her!

ALISON

Alison is enjoying having her own activities to do while Lauren is at school; she has playgroup with 6 other girls her age on Wednesdays and gymnastics on Fridays.  She is talking A LOT, and she repeats pretty much anything she hears.  I am amazed at how perceptive she is about things, and I love to see her little mind working to figure things out.  She is a Mommy's girl most of the time, but she does have her Daddy moments every few days.  

1. Playing on the computer...she LOVES to come into the study and play on the computer, which is not such a good thing because she pushes random buttons on the keyboard, and it sometimes does crazy things to the computer.

2. Michigan song...she went through a phase where I had to sing the Michigan song everytime before she went down for her nap and to bed.  I am convinced she's going to be able to sing the whole fight song before football season is over!

3. Reading magazines...she loves to look through magazines, her favorite is this birthday magazine that we got that has a lot of characters in it that she recognizes.

4. Lauren's shoes...she loves to put on Lauren's shoes!  As soon as she sees a pair of Lauren's shoes, she takes hers off and puts on Lauren's.

Here's her favorite crayon, can't believe it's not lost yet!

5. "I a pirate!  Argh!!"  I need to get this on video because it's hysterical!  She especially does it when she sees Captain Feathersword.

6. Gymnastics...she LOVES her gymnastics class.  Her favorite thing to do is swing on the bars and walk on the balance beam.  She also gets excited to get her stamps on her hands and feet at the end!

7. "My favorite crayon"...her favorite crayon is this purple crayon that was a twistable that came out of the plastic part.  She has named it her "favorite crayon," and one morning, she had been coloring before Lauren got up and when she heard Lauren coming down the steps, she ran out of the playroom to get it to make sure Lauren wasn't going to take it.

8. "My favorite song."  Her favorite song is #3 on the VBS CD and she requests it quite often.

My little techie girls!

9. Squinkies....I got some squinkies for Alison as well so Lauren could see them, and she loves the two that Lauren got the most of course!

10. Laying in Lauren's bed...the two of them love to get in Lauren's bed after they have their PJ's on and pretend to go to sleep.  I am hoping that works well for when Alison moves into Lauren's room for good in a couple weeks or months!

Lauren's bed is so cozy!

11. iTouch...Alison has become just as obsessed with playing the iTouch as Lauren!  She definitely doesn't know how to play the games as well as Lauren, but she does like to pretend it's a phone and call people.

12.  Baby brother..she loves to say hi to her baby brother.  It's so cute, she will lift up my shirt and say "Hi baby brother!" and then give my belly a kiss.  I hope she loves him just as much when he's outside of my tummy!

13.  Picking out her clothes...she is already starting to have an opinion about what she wears; not every day, but some days.  And she is obsessed with this pink summer dress that she wants to wear every single day.  

14. Flip flops...she loves to wear flip flops, and who can blame her!  I am impressed how well she does with them on, she gets her toes in the right place and everything!

15. "Goodbye Song"...she loves to get to Lauren's classroom in time to sing the good-bye song.  It's so cute to see her standing next to Lauren and singing, clapping and jumping!  And Lauren is so happy to have her there with her.