I heart New York!

Last week we spent five days and four nights in New York. All together we were a group of 14 so doing anything together usually resulted in 14 different opinions, but overall we had a great time. Lauren was awesome on the plane ride both coming and going and she seemed to enjoy everything we did. She had a couple of meltdowns, but they were typically caused by lack of food or sleep or a combo of the two. Here are a few pictures of the trip:

Our hotel was in the fashion district located in mid-town Manhattan. We were within walking distance of Time's Square, Macy's, The Empire State Building, Rockefeller Plaza...all kinds of cool places.



Here's Lauren enjoying our view. It wasn't very picturesque, but she likes to people watch so it suited her just fine.



The main reason we went during this specific time frame was so we could attend the Sen Gennaro Italian Festival in Little Italy. It was pretty cool. Lots of street vendors and awesome food.

The second night we were there Patrick, Dad, Uncle Jon and Jonathan went to a Yankee game. It was the 4th to the last game at Yankee Stadium. Maybe I should have let Patrick take my camera with the extra long zoom lens....

While they were at the game, the rest of us ate at an Italian restaurant near Radio City Music Hall. Then we walked back to the hotel, taking pictures of everything we saw along the way. Poor Lauren was so interested in her surroundings she didn't go to bed until 11 p.m.

The next day we all took a double-decker bus tour of the city.

Empire State Building:

Times Square: Ground Zero:

ELMO!

Canal Street in China Town. Definitely one of the highlights of whole trip! We have some hilarious purse stories.

Later that night it was the girls' turn to go out. We went to see Grease on Broadway. It was awesome!

Lauren fell asleep playing on the bed while we were at Grease so rather than move her, Patrick let her sleep there. She looked so comfortable, but yeah, I moved her when I got home. She didn't wake up, Bebe was exhausted.

The next day we saw some more of the sites and had an *interesting* bus ride -- don't ask. However, I did get this picture of Lauren and Uncle Jeff in front of the Brooklyn Bridge.

We decided to take our already spoiled child to the F.A.O Swartz toy store. Here we are in the cab headed there.

Patrick finds the Lego Chewbacca to be the most interesting piece of art in the city.

Lauren's fascination with taking off her own shoes leads her to help the doll by removing its shoes.

Holly, Patrick, Lauren and I went to Central Park after the toy store and we hiked a good three miles (up hill) in jeans -- thanks Holly. We had fun and after we all took showers, the guys and girls split once more. The guys went to the ESPN Zone to watch the Auburn/LSU game -- what else would you do in New York?? and the girls went to Tavern on the Green for dinner, yum! Mom stayed home with Lauren because Bebe would NOT have been good since our reservations weren't until 8:30 p.m.

Finally here we are headed back home. Lauren was once again excellent on the plane, she passed out almost immediately.

Sidewalk Chalk!

Yesterday Patrick went to the driving range and Lauren and I went to Target. While we were there, I got her some sidewalk chalk. Okay, I got me some sidewalk chalk, but I knew she would enjoy it too.

After she woke up from her nap we went "a side" to play with the chalk and Bebe caught on pretty quickly. She doesn't quite have the mad drawing skills that I have, but she was interested.

Later that afternoon Patrick and Lauren were watching football when she decided her feet looked delicious.

Aaaahhhh, she's trying to share with Dadda!

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I posted the other day about Lauren singing a song I didn't recognize, well now Bebe is singing more traditional songs. They sing a lot of songs at daycare and they usually act out the song. Lauren's teacher Miss Emily said Bebe really likes row, row, row, your boat and she often starts rowing before they start the song -- it's true, she does it at home too. When she sings twinkle, twinkle little star you can't really make out the words, but she's got the beat down so it's pretty easy to decipher.

Speaking of daycare, when I drop her off each morning she literally runs over to her friends without looking back to me. Miss Emily said Lauren is doing very well adjusting to their classroom routine each day. She also mentioned that Bebe doesn't like the other kids to take things from her and if they do she scowls at them. LOL, I'm aware of her scowl she gives it to us too.

My butt hurts

So I haven't really exercised since I had Lauren because frankly I don't have time. On weekends when Bebe is awake, I'm playing with her and chasing her around the house. When she's asleep I'm doing all of the things I can't do when she's awake, such as play on the computer, watch TV, chill, clean, etc. Exercise is not high on that priority list.

During the week when I get home from work I make dinner, clean the kitchen, play with Lauren, and bathe Lauren. She usually goes to bed between 7 and 8 p.m., but by that time the last thing I want to do is go run on the treadmill. Come on. I get up at 5:30 a.m. and I work all day. I want to relax at night.

So there is my quandary, when do I exercise??? I think I've found a solution. It's not perfect, but I'm going to make it work. Today I brought workout clothes and tennis shoes to work (along with deodorant, body spray, make-up and my Ipod). I get an hour for lunch, but I rarely take it because I usually bring my lunch. I eat while I read E! online, which doesn't take an hour. So today I ran around the track outside (one of the benefits of working on an Army installation is there are always tons of places to workout).

I haven't been running since 2006 so I only made it about 3/4 a mile before I was walking, but it's a start. If I do it consistently I'll be able to run 2-3 miles easy like I used to. However, keep in mind it was the middle of the day and it's also still blazin hot here, so I didn't want to overheat anyway.

Back to the title of this post. I ran at 11:30 a.m., it's now seven hours later and my butt hurts. Yea for progress!

Go baby, go baby, go go, go baby...

Today is the last day of our 4-day weekend and it's been so nice. We didn't do much other than chill at home. We had intended to get Lauren's pool out this weekend, but Gustav didn't allow that to happen. It didn't rain much, but it was overcast and windy -- not exactly good pool weather. Hopefully next weekend is nicer so we can get one more use out of the pool before we retire it for the season.

Speaking of retirement, we had another dear friend go this weekend. We put away the Excersaucer. Not as good a friend as the swing, but Lauren did spend many an evening in the neglect-o-saucer while I made dinner. However, ever since she learned to walk she hasn't been interested in being held captive in the saucer. So Sunday we cleaned it, collapsed it and put it in the attic with the swing.

Ode to the Excersaucer...

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Tomorrow we go back to work and Lauren goes back to daycare. I think she's enjoying the toddler room more than she did the infant room because it's more structured and Lauren likes structure. She prefers to play with people and be engaged in activities rather than be allowed to run loose. In the toddler room the kids do artwork, go on walks, dance and sing songs. Bebe LOVES to dance and sing.

This weekend she sang me one of her daycare songs. I was making lunch on Sunday and Lauren was chillin' in her highchair with a few toys and some Cheerios. I had the TV on and I wasn't really paying too much attention to her because she was entertaining herself. All of a sudden I heard her singing softly to herself. She must have learned the song at daycare because I didn't recognize it. She was singing "Go baby, go baby, go, go, go baby." I tried to get it on camera, but she would stop and smile whenever I took out the camera.

The next day she started incorporating me and Patrick into the song. There were more verses that included "go Mamma, go Dadda." Her language and grasp of building sentences is growing everyday. Here is an updated list of her current words.

Lauren's vocabulary at 18 months:

Ice cream

Song

A side (outside)

Car

Card

Ball

Elmo

Bite

Home
All done

Eat

Jews (juice)

Cheese

Arm

Knee

Teeth

Doggie

Puppy
Bankie (blankie)

Sassy (paci)

Baby

Nonie

Daddy (granddaddy)

Hoddy (Holly)

Sha (Jeff)

An Da (Aunt Da)

Nana (banana)

Mamma

Dadda

Hey

Hi

Go

Lil' Jon

Bye-bye

Arm

Eye

Nigh-nigh (Night-night)

Shoes

Sock

Tree

Bird

Wa Zat? (what's that?)

Uh-oh

Bubble