Three Pictures

Picture #1: I mentioned a few posts back that Lauren was becoming a big Dora the Explorer fan (we got a book from the library that she loves, “Do-dah”!) and we were going to take her to a Dora appearance in town. Our health club had a season’s opening for their outdoor pools, very kid-friendly, with a jumping castle, Dora temporary tattoos – the works. When we joined the back of the HUGE line to see Dora, Lauren peeked around the other kids and said, “Do-dah, Do-dah!” and pointed. But when it was Lauren’s turn for the at-least-eight-foot-tall Dora to wrap her in a hug for a photo op, Lauren shrieked and grabbed Nick and me. We still got our photo of just Dora.

Picture #2: Nick purchased a hammock for my birthday last summer, and this year, he found a stand for it on sale. We’ve been putting Lauren to bed, lighting a bug-repelling candle, and sit down to chat on these summer nights. As you can see, Lauren is also a fan of it. We put her in and she shouts, “Rock-a! Rock-a!” like we say in the rocking chair.

Picture #3: Couldn’t resist snapping a picture of Lauren this morning after we got her dressed. Sundresses are a fun part of baby girls!

Swimming Lessons

Imagine a cute picture of Lauren in a two-piece pink swimsuit here. (The two-piece is a hand-me-down; I’m not condoning toddler bikinis!)

The more horrible things get at work, the more I put my head down, try to take things a day at a time, and feel more eternally grateful for the little things Lauren does. Without going into too much detail out here on the wide world Internet, my boss was let go. She worked from her home office 2,000 miles away, but the absence is felt. Up in Eagle River, where I found out, I worried that our two-person team (my co-worker L and me) would be dismantled. We were assigned a new boss. Then I found out I have to take six Fridays off unpaid to save the department money. Fine, whatever; the state employees have to take an eight-day furlough and Fridays off during the summer is not such a bad thing. Then I found out one of the magazines wants me to write shorts for them, and since I took an HTML class in the winter, I could start utilizing those skills. So maybe back to full time? Finally, the customer service part of L’s and my jobs might disappear with a new vendor, but the company has “no plans” to lay anyone else off, so they are just shifting around duties right now.

It was with all this turmoil in my head that I found myself at our health club’s warm-water pool with Lauren at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday night. Ten babies, ranging from 6 months to 22 months, splashed the water to the rhythm of the singing teacher, learned about getting the sides and back of their heads wet, learned to move their arms under the water, and played with brightly-colored ducks, rings and Noodles. Lauren smiled so big and laughed, flashing all six teeth, and was praised by the teacher for being brave. By the end she was so tired she let me strip her clothes off her without squirming and wrapped up in a big fluffy towel.

Words of the week: doggie, birdie (sounds like buuurdie) and ELMO. We can’t get enough of that little red guy.