Fruit or Vegetable???

I just thought I'd update some of the recent events in our little family while I had a few minutes. Lainey is sitting at the table beside me drawing pictures with her crayons. She's mastered drawing circles recently and when she draws one she announces it to whoever will listen. "CIRCLE!!"

- Lauren is living her own episode of trading spaces as her bedroom is being redone by Jay. He painted it "ballerina ice" on Sunday for her. It's a light pinky purple colour... quite sweet. We have also decided to get rid of her bunk beds which had been a hand me down from our old landlady. The girls like to jump on the bed and are always bumping their heads on it. Also we already have a spare room and when Lauren does have sleepovers we have lots of inflatable air mattress. We're going to replace her bed with a twin and also refinish the old vanity table in her room from green to antique ivory. Basically it will all be a lot more girly and princessy when it's all done. Once that is done it will be time to move Lainey into her big girl bed from the crib.

- In order to prepare for big girl bed life Lainey is working on the art of stair climbing. She is pretty good at it now but still likes to stop on the way up or down to look around and wave etc. I'm not ready to give her the freedom of a big bed until she can master the stairs. I don't want to lay awake listening for her to fall down the stairs, that's why the sides of the crib are staying up for now.

- Lauren has picked up a new way to test us. She has started to act out by colouring on things she's not supposed to. She started by taking a crayon and colouring on her school library book right in front of Jay. Next I think it was the coffee table and then last night it was on her hairbrush. She waits for Jay and I to be talking or not looking and then does it. Then she starts to cry and shows us. It's one of those obvious attention seeking moves, also a bit of a test to see what we will do when we see. She had her new barbie taken away as a punishment last night finally. We give her warnings and she seems to want to test us to see if we will really follow through. I would think it was a cry for attention but she is always the center of attention, she gets jealous if we talk to each other for a minute or if we watch TV or read the paper. That's what happens when you spoil your baby I guess, it carries on and they expect the attention constantly.

- Lainey is still a huge fan of Max and Ruby but now also Elmo is her best friend too. She has loved her plain old Elmo plush toy for awhile, but Jay had to get the new Elmo TMX. He rolls on the floor laughing and stands back up, then falls down again and on his side and all over the floor. It's pretty cute the first few times as I had suspected. Adults tend to tire of it after the first day. Lainey wasn't too sure the first few times, now she's in love with it. She will tickle Elmo over and over. She laughs and laughs. It's cute, I love to see them happy. Now instead of asking for max and handing me the clicker she'll sometimes bring Elmo over and say "tickle tickle tickle". That's my only complaint on Elmo, little ones have trouble getting him to laugh.

- Lauren is doing well in school. Today is picture day so I really had to make her pony tails tight, they always fall out on her. I also spoke to her teacher for a few minutes. As we discussed Lauren's "instant tears" guess who ran out of the class crying because she had forgotten to put on her inside shoes. Her teacher is great though and said she'll adjust after a bit. I told her she gets it from me and she said she is the same way. She apparently knew what I was going through the first few days since she is the same way, always the first to cry. It's nice to know Lauren is with someone who understands her and her loopy mother. :o)

-Also getting excited about Halloween. Lauren is going to be a Princess (surprise surprise) and Lainey is hopefully going to wear Lauren's old costume from when she was a pea pod 2 years ago. It's actually pretty cute.

- Lauren's class is making soup this week and they all had to choose a vegetable to take in. I took her to the grocery store and she insisted on "baby tomatoes". When I got home I kept thinking that I had at some point been taught that tomatoes are a fruit. She took them anyway. Does anyone know if tomatoes are a fruit or vegetable? I'm not too worried about her flunking JK because of it but now I want to know. :o)