Lauren update

I haven't done one of these in a really long time. She's kept me so busy that I have a hard time keeping up with the weekly pregnancy blog and this post is very long overdue.

My sweet sweet Lauren. There's a few words that come to mind when I think of her. Easy going, laid back, spirited and stubborn. They don't really seem to go together but they seem to fit just perfectly with her. She wasn't always the easy going child. She definitely had colic the first 5 or so months of her life. Since around 10 months she's really started to come into her own. Her personality shines through and boy does she have a personality. She's shy at times yet very outgoing once she's warmed up. She talks non stop and often sings when we're in the grocery store or out in public. She has very little fear. She'll try anything at least once and most of the time if it involves injury (mild of course) she just picks herself up, says "I'm ok" and moves on. She tells it to you like it is and I often forget that she's still so little and not yet 2 and a half even. An example:
Dan's been taking her swimming once a week and she's been improving greatly. When she falls over we give her a few seconds to try to get herself to stand up (an important skill in our eyes) and 99% of the time she does this on her own now. She still doesn't like getting her head wet though so a few weeks ago she fell, went under water for probably about 5 seconds, stood up on her own and carried on playing. When we were getting changed I commented on how she was such a good girl and she didn't cry when she went under water. Her response: "I cried under the water".

She tries my patience and tests boundaries often. I know this is a normal part of toddler development but being pregnant means my patience is already slightly lower! If there's something that she wants or has her mind set on it takes a lot to distract an move away from it. She's been fighting a cold for the past couple days so the past few nights she's slept in our bed because she'll wake up multiple times throughout the night upset that she's having trouble breathing. Last night she refused to go to sleep. She kept trying to delay, she wanted to read another book, she wanted water, she had to pee. No to the book, we already know the water trick so have a cup handy on the bedside table, she's wearing a diaper so go ahead a pee. Then she brings out the big guns. The we absolutely have to get out of bed for this. "I need to poo". Are you sure? Yes. Promise? Yes. "Ok, but if you don't have to go you'll have to go back to your bed by yourself. Do you still need to go poo?" Yes. So off we go to the bathroom. She sits on the potty for 5 minutes pretending to try to go. Finally I ask her again if she needs to go poo. "No mummy". I then explain that she'll have to go to her room for 5 minutes because I asked her a few times if she needed to and she said yes. She lied to mummy. So I placed her in her bed in her room. The first to minutes she cried, calling out my name. Then she stood at the door for a minute banging it saying "mummy, let me out" the last minute or so was the worst. She moved away from the door and just kept yelling "mummy" in a really angry tone I'd never heard from her before. I went in a minute early and found her sitting on the chair at her desk. I went to go talk to her, remind her why she was in her room, give her a hug/kiss and tell her I loved her before brining her back into our bed. Lauren had other plans. She wouldn't look at me. When I came into the room she simply got off the chair, walked past me, opened the door, walked into our bedroom and got into bed. She was PISSED! She didn't want Dan to cuddle her though, she still wanted me so I decided not to talk about. We cuddled and she fell asleep within minutes. This morning I asked if she was still mad at me and she said no, that she loved me. I reminded her that no matter she does and even if I'm mad or she's in a time out I always love her.
Most of the time she's such a sweet little girl but every once in a while I catch a tiny glimpse of what our lives with her as a teenager will be like. I wouldn't change her personality for anything. She fits into our lives so well that I'm scared about this next baby. Lauren's set such high expectations and has always been ahead with milestones (incase it wasn't obvious with the earlier story, she's been potty trained since September).