Lauren J :: End of Kindergarten interview

Who was your teacher? Miss Ringgenberg, Miss R for short

What did you like about Miss Ringgenberg? When she makes a mistake on words she says, "help me sound it out! Like c-a-t." If you don't know how to spell a word and it isn't on the board she writes it on a post it note and gives it to you. She has all the colors of the rainbow post-its. She lets us have bonus recesses if everyone is on purple or pink (a behavior chart that shows they are all behaving really well) and if everyone is on pink (best behavior) we get a prize from the prize jar. The prizes are candy, gumballs, McDonald Happy meal toys, etc.

What did you like about specials? I like gym and I like art and I like library because we get to watch movies sometimes. There are tiny animals in the forest and their parents died because of the gas and so did this little girl except they got this special medicine to help her be alive. That was one of the movies. We played a fun game in gym called running test line. Basically there are two lines on the gym floor and you run from one red line to the other red line and if you don't get there in time you have to stop. Whoever gets to 100 your whole class gets gatorade. If you don't make it you have to sit down and watch. The person who usually won was Addilyn, Owen H, Brandt, Easton or Mason because they were the fastest in the class. Once I won. but it was very hard because you have to run so many times to get to 80 (if you get to 80 the individual gets a gatorade). In art I enjoyed playing with clay. We made lollipops out of the clay. I made a heart out of clay and when it dried up I painted it and gave it to Ms. Phillips (art teacher). At music I am always the first one to raise my hand and we did London Bridge is falling down and I got to make a tunnel and everyone else went through my tunnel. Mr. Klemm (music teacher) will call your seat number and give you a command like move one arm or move one leg to the ti-ta rhythm.

What did you do for lunch? At the beginning of the  year we had to sit down on a chair in the cafeteria and we are supposed to talk to the person across from us not next to us. We couldn't turn our feet or faces to talk to the person next to us because it would get too loud. When the rules changed it was better. (There were some weird rules in the cafeteria this year that parents complained about and then changes were made). I would like to buy lunch on corn dog day, or when they would let you choose yogurt and crackers, and also on days with chicken nuggets but never on stuffed crust pizza days. When I packed a lunch I would usually have an orange, squeezy applesauce, starbursts, sometimes grapes, pretzels or goldfish, and banana muffins or bread when my mom would make them.

Who were your best friends? Daphne, Stella (off and on), Caroline, Saffi, Chloe, kind of Charlotte, and all the boys in the class. I sat at the BLUE table at the beginning of the year with Mason, Kaely, Quinn and Jaxon. Then I sat at the ORANGE table with Brandt, Owen C., and Chloe. Then I sat at the ORANGE table again with Owen H., Easton and Addilyn.

What did  you enjoy learning about in kindergarten? I enjoyed learning about animals. We got to make crafts about them. I enjoyed a lot learning about doctors because then one day we had a special guest come in and he showed us x-rays and we got to touch an actual bone from a dead animal. We had to wash our hands after. I like to read books with pictures and use my imagination. I liked to illustrate stories too.

What were some of your favorite books that you read this year? Tuesday (wordless picture books), Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon and a book about flowers and bugs called The Grouchy Ladybug.

What did you like to do at recess? I liked to play tag and this game called four square. I liked to play gymnastics or the talent show with Daphne. Sometimes Daphne would chase me and call me mommy. Sometimes Stella would make me be the hamster when she was mad at me so I couldn't talk. Some of the girls in Mrs. Warner's class would tell Easton to kiss me but that was very embarrassing! (Easton has a twin sister who was in the other class and her friends would chase and tease him about Lauren).

Tell me about your field trips. The first field trip was to the pumpkin patch. My mom didn't get to come to that one but on the rest of the field trips she did. On the last one to the farmstead she brought my baby brother too. At the pumpkin patch we got to ride on a carriage because we couldn't pick the pumpkins at the patch because it had rained the night before and it was very muddy. (They picked pre-picked pumpkins). When I came home I painted the pumpkin. It was getting close to my birthday and my mom bought a lot of pumpkins to paint for my birthday party. The next field trip was to high school Environmental Science Lab. We got to touch a lot of animals.  I held a tarantula and a snake and it was so big and fat that Mason and I held it together so we wouldn't drop it. When someone else was holding it it got stuck in the bench hole and the high school kids had to pull it out. When we went to Wonderscope my mom got to ride the bus with me and there was a ginormous rock climbing thing and I beated my friend Jacob J and I got to ring the bell twice because I won a lot of times. The last field trip was to Deanna Rose Farm. When we went to the bird area the peacock showed it feathers and made a loud sound and it got everyone's attention!

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a teacher when I grow up and a lego person (a person who builds with legos a lot of the time). Maybe I can be a person who teaches legos. I don't know, maybe you could decide! I want to have a studio downstairs (in the basement) for all my lego stuff.

What is your favorite song? At school we learned "What a Wonderful World," and I like it because it is beautiful and I learned the hand motions and sign language. It was hard but I still did it. We sang it for our parents for Parent Appreciation Day. In music my favorite song goes like this, "My parents took me to the party and they all walked around with fancy cups of tea..."

What are you looking forward to doing this summer? I'm looking forward to going to the pool and I want to have some playdates with my friends.

What will you remember most about kindergarten? All the things that I just said. :)

lauren :: 4 years

I never thought I'd be celebrating the 4th birthday of my sweet daughter, Lauren, on the Day Marty travels to the future in all the times I've watched Back to the Future Part II.

Lauren is a fun, creative, imaginative, gentle, nurturing, mischievous, goofy, confident, shy, funny little girl. She entertains herself for long periods of time playing with dolls, Little People, animals, magnets, etc. If she can role play with it, she will play with it. She loves to dress up in her dress-up clothes and accessorize. She likes to sing and dance. Sometimes she makes up songs and sometimes she sings songs she's heard before. Today she was singing about Pete the Cat and his groovy buttons. Yesterday she was singing "skidamarink a dink a dink," a few days ago it was the theme song from Sofia the First and before that "I am a Child of God."

She loves water and swimming. She swims like a mermaid with her hand behind her. We'll have to work on that next summer. She loves to swing and is very proud of the pumping skills she developed this summer. She enjoys exploring and getting dirty. She likes to take a couple laps around the driveway in her tricycle and then fish out a few pieces of the chalk she's stashed in the back (we'll come back to the stashing) and sit down and doodle on the driveway for a bit. She hasn't been terribly interested in learning to write letters until recently, save the letter L. Our driveway is often marked with L's large and small. Will is her best frenemy--they have so much fun playing together until they don't. They have an ongoing game of "house" where he is 'Mr. James' and she is 'Sister James.' I have no idea where they came up with those names.

Lauren loves babies. She is a nurturer and takes great care of her stuffed animals and dolls. She has six cousins who are younger than her (not counting Weston who is a month younger and basically the same age) and she loves and dotes on each of them. She loves Elliott with her whole heart. I often have to intervene and limit the kisses and hugs she can't stop herself from giving him. She regularly tells me that he is "soooo cute," and "the best baby EVER!" When she is hurt or upset she often cries for "Elliottttttt!" and a "hug" from him is all she needs to feel better.

She is stubborn and determined and doesn't bend easily. But also quick to share and compromise. She has a very giving heart and is generous with Will. But that doesn't mean she doesn't love her stuff. She loves her stuff. She's sentimental and holds onto things for a long time. When I'm tidying up around the house it is not uncommon for me to find things she's tucked away for safekeeping. She also likes tearing things (like paper) up into teeny, tiny pieces. She calls this a "comcom day." Again, I have no idea what this comes from, but when she says it I know I will find tiny scraps of papers or tissue piled up somewhere.

She loves her friends and all of Will's buddies and remembers the names of almost everyone we meet. But she's become too shy to actually talk to people at first. Even when seeing friends we know well and she is excited to see, it takes a few minutes for her to feel comfortable enough to leave my side.



People often comment on her hair. It is still very blonde and depending on the lighting, very striking. We went for a family walk after dinner recently as it was starting to get dark and Will, Lauren and Anthony were "racing" ahead of me and Elliott in the stroller. Lauren was the easiest to see as her hair glowed under the streetlights. (Will was wearing a hat.)

When I think of Lauren I picture her cute face with a silly expression on it. She brings life and laughter to our home. Lauren is a joy. She's grown so much this past year, I'm excited to see what her fifth year of life has to offer.

swimming lessons 2015

I signed the kids up for the second session of swimming lessons (out of 3) our outdoor city pools offer (June 29-July 9). Both kids were very excited to start and had a great first day. Will's class consisted of two boys. After Wednesday of the first week the other boy transferred to a class at a later time, which meant Will basically received private lessons. Lauren's class had three girls and one boy.

In the afternoon after their first day of classes Lauren had an allergic reaction to nutella and wasn't quite herself the rest of the week. I had to bribe her to attend and be willing to hold the boy in her class' hand when they played Ring Around the Rosie.  Thankfully that only lasted two days, though she still asked for a treat after class each day.

Lauren feels very comfortable in the water and was willing to jump in and put her face under water from the get go. She did very well with kicking, blowing bubbles, and assisted floating. She doesn't really like using her arms to stroke forward or backward and propels herself along with strong kicking and minimal arm movement.

Will didn't enter this session of swimming lessons with the same level of confidence as Lauren, but he made a ton of progress. In fact, I think the money we invested in his lesson may have been the best money we've spent all summer. By the end of the session he was doing bobs, swimming with his face under water, jumping into the pool without an adult catching him, and attempting to float and "shred" (tread) water. Before he started lessons he had no interest in putting his face under or going more than waist deep in the water without an adult. It really worked out nicely for us that he got to have a lot of one-on-one time with his teacher, Sarah, because she was able to tailor his lessons.

This is the third year I've signed up for the second session of swimming lessons. For one, it is typically a bit warmer by late June. Second, because the 4th of July is in the middle of the session, the lessons are slightly less full. Also, since we live so close to the pool (less than 400 feet) it doesn't take much travel time to get there, so we've done 9:30 classes and those are much less crowded than the 10am classes appeared to be.

Unfortunately, this year it ended up being pretty cool. At least three of the eight days the high temp was below 70. The kids swam in a light mist of rain two or three times too.

All in all it was a great session. The kids had fun, are more confident in the water, and most importantly, picked up some new skills.

Proud of their certificates and celebratory tootsie pops.

bedtime contraband

I was reminiscing the other day about how easy it used to be to put Lauren to bed. When she got tired she would grab her blankets and walk upstairs to her room and ask us to put her in bed. She would often sing or talk to her "kids" for awhile, but putting Lauren to bed was generally a fast and pleasant experience. We are making up for that now.

A few things have changed: 1-we took away her pacifiers, 2-she's transitioned from her crib to a toddler bed, and 3-we started keeping more toys in her room after her birthday and Christmas. Apparently the freedom of the toddler bed paired with losing the relaxing effect of the pacifiers and the toys in her room are proving to be too much of a temptation and she can't help but play once she's left to herself. It was her "after lights out" shenanigans that caused us to move her back to her own room after about a month of sharing with Will. For the most part he is a rule follower and her nighttime sneakiness was driving him crazy and keeping him up much later than before they shared a room.

   How can wearing a crown to bed be comfortable?

I went to check on her and she had two tubs stacked on her bed. Who knows if she actually played with them or just planned to play with them and fell asleep before she got around to it.

Sleeping in the hallway with a few of her kids and books. 

I guess she'll never get lonely with all these trinkets in her bed.

We've started taking the toys out of her room and putting them up high in her closet where she can't reach them, but she still manages to smuggle things into her bed. We basically have to do a bed check every night at bedtime to make sure she isn't hiding something under the pillow or blanket. What drives me the most crazy is that it's almost like she wants to get caught. She gets this sly smile when I lift up her covers and find a handful of duplos. This girl is keeping my brain active!

lauren at 2.5

It's been awhile since I've blogged specifically about Lauren. In honor of her half birthday yesterday I'm dedicating this post to her.

Lauren at 2.5 is the sweetest little girl you could ever imagine...

...as well as the most stubborn girl on the face of the earth. Basically life with her is the best of times and the worst of times. Thankfully the good times far outnumber the bad.

Lauren is really blossoming. She talks a mile a minute. She is busy, busy, busy. She loves her babies. She is always "hungwy" and if I leave the cupboard unlocked she will help herself to whatever strikes her fancy. Her favorite food is a "hogdog" from Costco. Seriously. She wants to do everything Will does and doesn't let her shorter limbs and less-developed skills stop her. Anthony and I joke that she has a Stockholm Syndrome-type relationship with Will because he is often doing something to intentionally make her life more difficult but there is no one she would rather play with than him. She loves to climb and swing, but is more cautious when it comes to sliding. She is incredibly gracious and says thank you for everything, but only says please when forced. She likes to give directions. If something happened to me, she would keep things running. Lauren is a songbird. When she isn't telling us what to do she is singing. She's a soloist and does not like it when other people try to sing with her. We regularly hear her singing in bed for over an hour after bedtime. Speaking of sleep, she still naps. She loves her bed and her pacifier.  I am a little embarrassed that we still let her use it, but I love the fact that she sleeps so well and takes a regular nap so clearly I'm not that embarrassed. She is incredibly friendly and considers everyone her friend. She gives great hugs and there is no one I would rather be around when I am feeling sad than her. She is so sweet and nurturing and I am excited to see the person she is (hopefully) growing up to be. This winter was a bit rough for me, but I can honestly say that Lauren has been one of the most constant sources of sunshine in our house.

A few pictures of Lauren being Lauren:

 Telling me to go away when I caught her sneaking popcorn.

Feeding Baby Addy a bottle on one of our walks.

Showing me the "powers" she has in her hands.

Riding Will's tricycle while his back is turned.

Enjoying a carousel ride at the mall with Mom.

Putting on a brother/sister music show at Memaw's house.

Saying hi to the cow at Wonderscope.

Eating her most requested food.

Dressing up.

She's a pretty great girl. I'm so glad she's ours.

happy birthday, lauren!

feeling 22 (months that is)

Because Lauren routinely feels happy, free, confused, and lonely in the best way (and because many of our recent posts have been Will-centric) I wanted to record some memories of Lauren on the cusp of her 3rd year. In the words of Taylor Swift, it's miserable and magical at the same time. Oh yeah.

First off, it is really hard for me to believe that Lauren is the same age now that Will was when she was born. He seemed so grown up, and she's still my baby. And yet, when I look back at things I recorded about him then, their behaviors and abilities are very comparable.

She's been cutting her two year molars and I teeth for what seems to be all summer. As such she has developed an affinity for her pacifier. She chews on it all the time. Until this summer she only ever got it in bed. I've gone soft and let her have it other times too occasionally.

Speaking of teeth, brushing teeth is one of her favorite activities. Mentioning that it is time to brush teeth is a good way to soften the blow of bedtime.

Still loves to climb (and check herself out in the mirror).

She is quite confidant. At the pool she would just walk away from me to wherever she felt like going.

She's a go-getter. She feels confidant that she can handle anything Will is doing.

At Deanna Rose she didn't want to ride in the wagon, she wanted to pull it. The entire trip improved when she got over that.

She doesn't like to be told no. The way she reacts depends on who has wronged her. She reacts the worst when I scold her, but anytime she is told no she narrows her eyes at the offender and can maintain a stink eye for several minutes. I'm a little concerned for the day when she has more words to put behind her feelings.

In short:

Lauren loves...
...reading Caillou books
...fake laughing
...going to the pool
...singing I Love to See the Temple
...dinner (she doesn't eat much at breakfast or lunch, but at dinner she puts it away)
...her doggie, blanket and pacifer
...dumping out toys
...taking her shoes off and switching them to the wrong feet

Lauren dislikes...
...brushing her hair
...the word "no"
...sippy cups
...hugging when it wasn't her idea
...Will getting something she didn't get

It's hard to sum up Lauren in words. But she is pretty wonderful and I'm glad she's my girl.