Reading to Kitty

Lauren loves to read books and she loves to have people read to her. At night we read at least 4 to 5 books before she goes to bed. I guess she thought that kitty should also get to enjoy books. Notice that she put a throw over kitty. She told me she thought that he was a little cold. She can be so sweet!

Sweetheart

Valentine's Day was fun. About a week before Valentine's Day Lauren and I worked on getting her Valentine Cards and gift bags ready. She wrote who the card was to and signed her name on about 35 cards. She did such a good job. It took a few days to get through them all be she did it.

Valentine's Day morning she got a Valentine's Minnie and Mickey Mouse. It is so much fun to share this day with my sweetheart.

My Little Princess

Lauren and I went to Disney Princesses On Ice. Lauren thought it was so neat to see all the princesses ice skating. Most of the little girls dress up to go to these programs. I asked Lauren if she wanted to dress up and if so what princess dress she wanted to wear. (We have most of them.) She decided that she wanted to be Snow White. I thought that was and interesting selection because I don't think she has ever watched the Snow White movie. We started it one time and she got bored. It is a pretty dark movie. However, I do think that she looks like a very pretty Snow White. The show was pretty good and all the little girls looked so cute. After the show we met up with a few other families and went and had dinner.

A few days after the show we got a flier in the mail for the Nemo on Ice show. Lauren is now begging us to go to that show also.

Zoo Visit

On President"s Day Lauren and I decided to have a Lauren and Mommy day. We went to a small zoo in our city. It is not the big, main city zoo but a little zoo. It is a really neat little zoo. You feel like you have gone back in time at this place. Some of the fun things we were able to do was feed the giraffes, feed the parrots, take a little train ride, a boat ride and the sky ride. It was a good day and Lauren loved it. We just found out that Lauren's preschool is going there for a field trip in a few weeks. Lauren is excited about going back.

New Years Revisited

2007 was a year of highs and lows. Lauren really grew up during 2007. She went from being a littler toddler to a little girl. She now can do so much on her own. It was so fun to see her learn things. She learned to write her name and started to learn to read. She can dress herself and button, zip, snap and tie by herself. It is so great to see her becoming this little lady. We went to Disneyland for the first time and she just loved it. We remodeled her room and it went from her toddler bed to a big girl bed. She now has a pretty purple princess room. All of that was so fun and the highs of the year.

The lows of the year was losing my father. My mother passed away 14 years ago and 2007 was a hard year for my father. He was sick most of the year and was in and out of hospitals and care centers. He had a hard year and I know that he is better off but we aren't. We all miss him. He was a good man. It is strange not to have parents living. I would love if Lauren could have grandparents but that is not meant to be. It is a loss for her.

We look forward to 2008 and all the new adventures that we will go through. The big one will be when Lauren starts Kindergarten this fall. I can't believe that she is going to be 5 this summer. It is going to be a great year!!

Well, we spent New Year's Eve with my brother, his wife and S. We wanted until the ball dropped in NY and then all screamed Happy New Year and then we went home. Lauren thinks we were up until midnight and we will continue to do this until she calls me on it. We were home and in bed before midnight ever came.

Christmas 2007 remembered

Breakfast with Santa

Having fun outside.

My new Kitty!!!!

I can't believe I got a Kitty for Christmas.

Dance class at school.

Cookies and apples for Santa.

Opening presents

Santa!!

Christmas Time

Zoolights

We are off to the Rockettes.

The girls in our matching outfits.

I love Christmas.




Christmas time was so much fun. A four year old is a great age for all the magic of Christmas. She still believes in Santa and was worried that Santa would want more apples then what we left for him. It was great fun to watch her enjoy all we did and we did a lot. The new kitty was the best gift she received.

Lauren and family

I wish I had started this blog a few years ago. I have forgotten so much about what Lauren was like when she was one, two and three years old. It is hard to remember what she liked at what age and what she could do. Time passes so quickly and it all seems to blur together after while.

Lauren and I have been a family since August 2004. She was just over one years old when she was handed to me. She is from China. She is the joy of my life. When I adopted Lauren she was so little and was so scared. She only weighed about 17 pounds. She could not walk, crawl, or even hold her own bottle. I think that if I hadn't feel t so scared myself, I would have been much more worried about her. I remember all the people who said "they catch up really fast" or "within a few months she will be where she should be". That is not always true. It took about 2 years for her to finally catch up. By the time she turned three she was a "normal" 3 year old. I think that deep down I was a little happy that she was delayed. I wanted to see her first steps (I just didn't think it would be when she was over 20 months old.) I wanted to hold her and feed her a bottle. I got to do all of that and I am thankful that I did. She will be my only child and I wanted to see everything about her.

Now she is 4 1/2 years old and she is a great little girl. I am so lucky to be her mom. The picture at the bottom was taken in January 2008. She is holding her Christmas Kitty. She loves animals. I don't! In fact I lived quite happily without animals in my life for many many years. But I have a daughter that LOVES animals. She is not a doll girl but a stuffed animal girl. Ever since she could talk she has been asking for a pet. I promised her one when she turned 5. Santa decided to surprise her about 6 months early with a kitty for Christmas. (Boy, I must really love this little girl!)

Lauren is watched each day by my sister. It is a wonderful arrangement and one that came as a surprise to me. When I was planning on adopting Lauren I was looking into daycare centers. When my sister found out she was a little upset and asked why she could not watch her. So for the past almost 4 years Lauren has gone to her aunt and uncle's house each morning. My sister has 3 children and they love Lauren. That might not be true all the time for her 8 year old male cousin (G). G and Lauren fight like brother and sister at times and then they play together so sweet at other times. The other 2 cousins are 2 females. B is 11 years old. B is a free spirit and Lauren just adores her. Lauren wants to do whatever B does. B will do things with Lauren but then she gets tired of her and wants her to leave her alone. E is 13 years old and she just loves Lauren. E tries so hard for Lauren to love her and want to hang out with her. I think that Lauren sees her more like another "mother". It upsets E so much that Lauren prefers B over her. It is a little strange because E is so much nicer and does so much more with Lauren then B. But Lauren still wants to be with B more. The third picture is the girls from this Christmas.

Lauren has another female cousin (S). S will be 2 in a few months. Lauren loves to be the big cousin. S is my brother and his wife's first child. I hope they have more because I love that Lauren has a lot of cousins. Since she is an only child having cousins is the next best thing to brothers and sisters. I have another sister that lives out of state. She is married and has 3 boys (ST, J and D.) ST is the oldest and he is turning 16 next month. J and E are about two weeks apart and D and B are about 3 weeks apart. They usually visit all of us in the Spring over Easter. Lauren had a grandfather but he passed away last September. He lived with my sister for the last 8 years of his life. So Lauren got to see him everyday. It feels strange not to have him around. He was sick the last year of his life but he was there and there times when he had good days. My mother passed away when ST was just 1. It is sad because my mom wanted to be a grandmother so bad. She would in her glory with all of these kids now. The second picture is of Lauren and S. The first picture is of all the cousins from last Easter. That is Lauren's family.