22 months old

Mary Lawton is a lovable, whiny, funny, fast, singing, silly, busy girl. She often tells us she's a "bid durl." A few days ago I asked her what big girls like to do. She told me play and church. I would add to that:

• Saying "I don like that, Mommy! No! Daddy do it!" or, "I don like that, Daddy! No! Mommy do it!"
  
• Playing with play-doh

• Cleaning. She goes to the cleaning supplies cabinet and helps herself to a paper towel and the Febreeze. Then she says, "I clean! I clean den!"
  
• Stickers

• Changing her baby's diaper
• Preparing to sit on the potty. She likes pulling down her pants, removing her diaper, and walking around without a diaper.
  
• Singing the ABC's
• Counting to 10
• Being sassy. She sits in timeout about once a week for offenses such as throwing food or trying to hit me.

• Going to bed. She tells us she wants "my own bed." This almost makes up for the fact that she didn't sleep well until she was 18 months old.
• Doing everything by herself: "I do it!" We just say ok, let me know if you want any help, and leave her alone until she decides she wants help. "Hep! Hep peeze!"

We're so lucky to have a healthy, smart girl filled with hugs and, when we're really lucky, big, loud kisses.

That's my girl.

all smiles, all the time.

We're 0 for 3 in school pictures. I don't know why they even try.

A little morning peace

We had a rough morning. Mary Lawton woke up sweet and happy, but the tide turned. We somehow made it into the car to go to work/school, but the crying and whining didn't stop. She didn't want her mittens. She did. She didn't want a blanket. And then we couldn't agree on the musical selection: "Dummer boy! Mommy! Dummer boy! No! I don like dat [song that is not Drummer Boy]!" I turned off the stereo. Then about 5 minutes into our drive, she fell asleep.

Peace. Quiet.

Not even 2 going on 22

Mary Lawton knows our names and lately is referring to us by our names. Things like: "Hey, Jiffer. How you doing? You ok?" A couple of weeks ago all 3 of us were at Target, and Mary Lawton was off with her daddy. I heard a familiar little voice calling, "Jiiiifuuuur! Jiiiifuuuur! Weh ah you? Jiiiifuuur! Weh ah you?" I was sure Sweet LJ put her up to it, but he promised he didn't.

Yesterday she said to her daddy: "Hey, boy. Hey, how you doing?"

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing.

After a few years away, I returned to the kitchen to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. It was for just the three of us, so not really a big cooking deal, but we had a lovely dinner. We spent the week leading up to Thanksgiving writing down on little cards the things we're thankful for and dropping them in a bowl. During dinner we took turns reading them. Hopefully, I'll remember to do this again next year and make it a tradition!

Mary Lawton seemed pretty happy to be eating from a real plate and fancy cup.

She commented several times on the leaves on the table.

After dinner we headed to Bruce and Jan's house for dessert, football, and love.

So many blessings. So much for which to be thankful.

Baby's first Bruster's dirt sundae

My, oh, my. I've never been around a Mary Lawton as quiet as she was the night of her first Bruster's dirt sundae (vanilla ice cream with Oreo crumbs and gummy worms. I tossed the gummy worms.) A girl in heaven. November 12, 2010

November 24, 2010

And before you jump to any conclusions, remember that if you sit there long enough, something will come out.

Just a sweet girl

For the past couple of months, we've been letting Mary Lawton sit in the "big bed" (our bed) for books at bedtime. I thought it was becoming a ritual, but she seems to be losing interest. Anyway, I took a few pictures one night. She was kind of posing for these.


Then she practiced her ABC's. This was about a month ago. She's even better now.

And as we prepare for Christmas, Happy Halloween!

We had a jam-packed, over-the-top fun Halloween weekend.

Friday night we went to the Fall Festival at church. Mary Lawton was a little overwhelmed, but she wore her costume most of the time we were there and played some carnival games. My favorite part of the night was when she "won" prizes for the games, like the ball toss, and then tossed the prizes through the holes, too. My second favorite part was when someone asked if I made her costume, and when I said yes, she said, "I can tell. It looks too good to be store-bought." Score!

Saturday night we went to Carol and Frazier's pumpkin carving party, even though it looked like Sweet LJ and Mary Lawton were coming down with colds. Mary Lawton stayed up until 9 PM--an all-time record--and she was perfect. She loved the pumpkins, expensive cheese, and dogs at Carol's house. I told her the M&Ms on the coffee table were dog treats. She was happy eating chili and parrano.

By Sunday morning the colds were full-blown. Sweet LJ stayed home with Mary Lawton while I went to Lilly's 3rd birthday party. I didn't want to be the mom who brought the sick kid to a party. I sort of sneaked out because Mary Lawton had been talking about "Lee-Lee's pahty" and singing happy birthday to her for days. She was happy that I brought her a Disney princesses flashlight and stickers and never wondered where I got them.

Mary Lawton took a long nap that afternoon, and we decided to take her trick-or-treating in the neighborhood that night. We met up with a neighborhood group for pictures, then went out on our own to show off our lion to some friends. Mary Lawton loved it. She said "trick or treat!" and thank you a few times and seemed proud of her costume. She had no idea that the treats people were giving her were candy.

Look carefully and you will see a lion after she climbed the hill with Daddy.

"Lion in pine straw"

The neighborhood kids

Loot!

Goodnight.

What we've been doing

• Playing
• Running
• Eating out
• Singing
• Coloring
• Play-Dohing
• Reading
  
• Going to church
• Shopping

You know...so much that there's no time to write about it. Just enough time to live it. I'll work on a few updates over the next few days.

Car conversations

Part 4 in the series . . .

The scene: Pulling out of a gas station on the way to work/school

ML: Dow! Dansee!!

Me: You see a cow dancing? Where?

ML: Church.

The weekend

So sad the weekend is over. It was gorgeous and lots of fun. Saturday morning Mary Lawton and I ran to church for the blessing of the pets, where Sweet LJ and Coqui were waiting for us. Coqui got a very special blessing--what a nice service. (As a side note, I used to run this route frequently by myself. I probably haven't run it in 2 years. I almost died running it on Saturday while pushing Mary Lawton. Hilly. Very hilly.)

At the blessing of the pets. This is the latest outfit I made for Mary Lawton, mainly as a surprise for Sweet LJ. She wore it all day Saturday, but it didn't help her daddy's Gators.

During Saturday naptime I worked on Mary Lawton's Halloween costume, and then we had friends over for dinner. Sunday included church, lunch out, playing outside, naptime and more costume sewing (almost finished!), picnic snacktime, phone call with Biffy, more playing outside, a walk, and a delicious fall chili dinner.

I can't wait 'til next weekend.

Happy October!

Singing

Being silly

Running around

19 months, 2 weeks, 1 day old

Car conversations

Part 3 in the series...

The scene: Passing the turn off that we take once a week to go out for a pizza dinner.

ML, in a singsong voice: da uddah way! da uddah way!
Me: What happens if we go the other way? What will be there?
ML: Pizza.

Just walking down the street, wearing her hat

Mary Lawton is mildly obsessed with bikes, most likely because Sweet LJ is mildly obsessed with bikes. She even likes her bike helmet, which she calls a "hat." This morning, ML and Sweet LJ were playing outside before we left for work and school. This is what I found when I went outside.

Car conversations

Part 2 in the series...

Tuesday, September 21
The scene: Mary Lawton and I are in the car driving away from daycare.
Me: We're going home now.
ML: No home!
Me: You don't want to go home?
ML: No.
Me: Where do you want to go?
ML: da uddah way

College football

Sweet LJ and I went to see the newest local football team, the Georgia State University Panthers, play on September 11. We had great third row, 50-yard-line seats (behind the visitors' bench, but still). Unfortunately, the Panthers lost to Lambuth State.

Mary Lawton got to stay home and play with one of her best pals while we went to the game. We tailgated. Literally. We opened the tailgate and hung out, ate, people-watched, and listened to music. It was awesome.

There were a lot of empty seats, but they're trying to fill the Georgia Dome. Tricky. It was exciting to be at a college game, and--perhaps because I wasn't watching--my mighty South Carolina Gamecocks beat the Georgia Bulldogs while we were at the Dome watching Georgia State. Go 'Cocks!

Labor Day

Last Labor Day, Mary Lawton and I ran our first race together. We planned to run the same race this year, and I even recruited cousins Alisa and Lilly to run with us. As we were walking to the start, I realized I was having trouble controlling Bob. He was pulling hard to the right. The right rear tire was completely flat. Poor Bob.

I registered, anyway, while I considered my options. I could try to run on the flat--it was only 3.1 miles. We could cheer for Alisa and Lilly in their first race together. I could call Sweet LJ and tell him to try to get there asap to fix the tire or stay with Mary Lawton. I could ask a race worker if he had any duct tape to tape the flat tire around the rim, so at least the rim would have a little protection.

Sliding down is for babies

In the end, the nice race worker found me some duct tape and taped the tire to the rim. Soon after, Sweet LJ met us at the race after his bike ride--which he'd planned to do all along--and bravely tried to patch and pump the tube using his bike supplies. The tube was completely blown out, though, and too big for all his patches. I ran with Alisa and Lilly while Mary Lawton played with her dad on the playground, and they cheered us on as we finished.

Post race

A couple of clowns

It was a lot of fun, although I did miss running with my little Shorty. Thanks for the good times, Alisa and Lilly!

19 months old

Things she does:

• Looks for the moon
• Points out airplanes, trucks, and trains
  
• Climbs in the rocking chair with all of her babies and "wocky, wocky"
• Wants to be outside all the time
• Continues to be obsessed with bikes
  
• Tries to distract us if she knows she's in trouble. Last night she was holding a Tide stain pen she took from my purse, and I asked her if she took it out of my purse. She froze. Then she waved at me and said, "hi, Mommy! Hi, Daddy!" and tried to show me some pictures on the table.
• Says "thank you" with more and more regularity.
• Wakes up wanting to read books.
• Sings. Here she is eating breakfast this morning. She didn't want to wear a bib--she wanted to lay a napkin over her shirt.
  

Mary Lawton, every day with you brings more laughter, smiles, and love. So much love. We are totally, 100%, head-over-heels in love.

A dinner for Daddy

A couple of weeks ago, Mary Lawton and I took Sweet LJ out to dinner to congratulate him on his new job and to celebrate his successful run as an entrepreneur.

I was worried how she might behave in a decent restaurant, because it's so hit or miss with her. She was perfect. She even ate some calamari.

Then when we got home, she was just really, really cute.

Congratulations, Sweet LJ. We know you'll do great.

Dressing up

Lately Mary Lawton is loving her hooded baby towels. She calls them her "hats" and wants to put on her hat as soon as she gets out of the tub. She wears it around the house until bedtime, walking very slowly so as not to step on the edge of the towel.

A few nights ago she also wanted to wear her firefighter's hat.

She took a break to pat Coqui.

and p.s. to all the haters - She is allowed her paci only at bedtime and usually only in her room. This night must have been an exception.

Sweet LJ is a machine.

Sweet LJ competed in his 2nd aquabike last Saturday, which consists of the swim (1500 meters) and bike (22 miles) portions of a triathlon. Mary Lawton and I did not attend this one, because it was nearly 2 hours away and started at 7:30 AM. We needed our beauty sleep (one of us in particular).

We're so proud of you!
My good-lookin' hubs.

Picture it...

My favorite stress reliever during the workday is to take a short walk and watch my girl play or sleep or eat in her classroom. I feel so lucky she's right around the corner.

This week has been rough. I walked over today for a break and got to see her and a classmate dressing up in kid-sized safety glasses/chemistry lab goggles and fire fighter hats. It's just what I needed. Sorry--no picture.

Thanks for the laugh, Shorty.

18 months old!!

Mary Lawton started this milestone day off with a big bowl of oatmeal and a trip to see Dr. M for her 18 months well visit. She continues to be "long and lean" according to the doc.

Weight: 22 pounds, 6 ounces (25th percentile)
Length: 33.5 inches (90-95th percentile)

Don't get me wrong when I say this--she's not exactly chubby (but she does have cute thigh creases and dimples at her elbows)--but I can't imagine that 75% of kids her age weigh more than she does.

More and more she makes us laugh out loud. For example, last night in the bath, we had this conversation. She was a mess.

Me: We have a very dirty girl.
ML: Yes, you do.

She just moved up to the Toddler 1B classroom, even though technically her birthday falls too late to be in that room. Her teachers thought she was developmentally ready to move up and would be bored staying with the young one-year-olds. We were thrilled. I'd rather her be the youngest kid in the class than the oldest.

She continues to be sassy, willful, and stingy. We have to remind her more and more to say please and thank you and to use her words, rather than whine and demand, and that not everything is hers.

She's stringing together more and more phrases and sentences like:

• Where's Daddy?
• I do walk. (which means I want to walk.)
• No more
• What's that?
• Open this. (Yesterday she tried out, "open top.")
  

She loves to sing. Her favorites are:

• Wheels on the Bus
• Itsy-Bitsy Spider
• 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
• Thumbkin
• ABC song
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I think because it's the same tune as the ABC song. She merges them into "A, B, C, D, up above..." and that's about all she knows.
  
• If You're Happy and You Know It
  
• Here's a Ball for Baby (one of our family favorites that was passed down from my great-grandmother)

She can only sing a few words of each song. Usually she initiates it with the hand movements, and we have to sing while she moves her hands.

Love you, Shorty Shortcakes! We look forward to finding out what each new day with you will bring. We can't wait!