Heard around the house

Here are a couple things that Lauren's said lately.

Yesterday, we were driving and the song "BINGO" came on the CD. Like any good mother, I clapped at the appropriate spots. Well, when it got to the point of clapping the whole B-I-N-G-O phrase, I clapped the 5 times. (Rest assured, we were stopped at a red light, so there was no driving safety issue.) Lauren then hollered up from the back, "Mommy! Put your hands on the driving thingy!" with grave concern in her voice. Yes. Those were her exact words.

The other day, Lauren was "resting" in bed (That's the phrase we use when Lauren doesn't want to take a "nap".) reading her books. I could hear her "reading" her books, but I couldn't actually understand what she was saying, except for an occasional "Don't get angry" and "Stay in bed." When I went upstairs to tell her she could get up, I asked her what she was doing. She said that she was reading Belle and the Beast, but Belle disobeyed the Beast, so the Beast spanked her, and then Belle got angry. Belle got another spanking and had to stay in bed. My thoughts: So this what her life would sound like if it was a story. :)

Lauren has been so frustrated lately because Ryan says Mommy and Daddy, but not Lauren. "Daddy" represents "Lauren", "Ryan", sometimes "Mommy", and the cashier at WalMart, and just about any other stranger. (With one exception. We were out and there was a guy that kinda looked like my dad with one minor difference: He was black and my dad is white. Ryan leaned over and said "Grandpa!" Oops!) Anyway, whenever Ryan sees her and calls out "Daddy", she promptly replies back, "Say [L]auren!" except that she is hit or miss on her "l"s. She can say them in the middle or end of words, but not at the beginning. So what she says is "Say Wauren!" so then I tell her that her name is Lauren, with an emphasis on the "L". She then repeats "Wwaaauuren" and we go back and forth like this for a while until Ryan pipes in with "Daddy."

There's a bunch more, but I'll save them for later.