Daddy’s little princess.  If Helen can launch a thousand ships, Lauren can launch 10 thousand. 

She’s taken to using our curtains as a veil.

Peyton decided his car needed to be washed (like daddy).  Lauren didn’t care how dirty it was; she just wanted to go for a ride (like mommy).

If ever a man was proud of his sweet ride…

Lauren used to be afraid of dogs.  Now she basically lays on top of our pets.  Tonight at bedtime she wasn’t interested in saying goodnight to Daddy or Ji Young or Peyton; she wanted to kiss “Be-wa-wa” goodnight.  Problem is, Bella kisses her back.  And did I mention that Lauren still kisses with an open mouth?  Yeah, we’re working on it.

Lauren loves her Be-wa-wa.  Other new words: ball (bah), bear (bah), baby (bah-bah).  oh, and no.  And mimi – gimme?

On her last day visiting with us, Grandma took the kids to build-a-bear.  Of course Lauren picked out the sparkly teddy bear, and since she’s the princess, she needed Cinderella clothes for her bear.  Peyton chose a light blue fuzzy bear and Karate clothes; his bear’s name is (you guessed it) Mario.

When we got home, I couldn’t resist trying the little Cinderella clothes on my little darling.  How cute!

But a little short

I wouldn’t call her the wicked stepsister, but the shoe didn’t quite fit.

Notice the curled-up toes on the left foot? 

We FINALLY made it down to Sears to get Lauren’s 1 year pics taken: here are a few of my favorites; to see the rest of the “roll,” go here.

Here’s the promised post on Peyton’s first fillings.

To bring all my irregular readers up to speed, Peyton went to the dentist about a month ago because he had a spot on one of his teeth.  He was a great helper with opening his mouth and lying still, but alas, he needed fillings in between all of his molars.  The dentist recommended we floss, so we’ve been diligent in adding it to his bedtime routine.

Because Peyton did so good in the dentist chair, we thought his follow-up fillings would be simple.  I was of course terribly worried about how in the world they’d give Peyton a shot – his last shots at the doctor did NOT go well.  However, the dentist quickly eased my fears: he said kids seem to tolerate the cool of the drill much better than the fear of the needle.  The hardest part was over – or so we thought. 

We reminded Peyton daily beginning a few days in advance about his appointment.  I took Lauren with me – I thought Peyton would be fine, and Lauren had a low-grade fever and an awful time when I tried to leave her with a sitter for his previous appointment.  He had a great morning; we didn’t have any trouble with getting dressed and out the door, but once we got into the chair, Peyton changed completely.  He was on edge – he didn’t want to wear their sunglasses (to protect his eyes from the light), and he HATED the bite block – it only lasted about 3 seconds before he pulled it out and shut down.  The dentist didn’t push, so we discussed the options: see a specialist right away, or try some anti-anxiety medication and one more appointment at our regular office. 

I chose the latter.  While we waited for our next appointment, we talked a lot about the dentist and the tools he uses.  We “practiced” with his sunglasses, the bite block, and of course a pretend drill.  We also did a bit of reinforcing (aka bribery and extortion).  Videogames are for big boys who get their teeth fixed, so Peyton couldn’t play or watch until his next appointment (1 week after the first appointment).  Candy, soda and sweets rot the teeth, so boys can only have candy when they are willing to get their teeth fixed – otherwise the candy will just make those teeth worse and worse.  But big boys!  Big boys who get their teeth fixed get bubblegum (in the car just WAITING for Peyton’s teeth to be fixed), sweets, root beer floats; and big boys who get ALL their teeth fixed at 4 appointments get a brand new VIDEOGAME!  Any one they want!  Peyton even reminded himself of these rules – “Mom, are icees sweet?  Oh man, then I can’t have any until my teeth get fixed…”  We also set up a playlist on Daddy’s ipod with all Peyton’s favorite songs. 

The night before the appointment, we ran through the dentist’s routine one more time.  Peyton seemed apprehensive – he finally admitted that he didn’t like the “doctor’s silly glasses.”  Of course!  The magnifying lenses scared him – that’s why he shut down.  So we talked about why the dentist wears them and what they do and how Peyton could close his eyes and listen to his music or he could count the horses on the picture on the ceiling.  He went to bed and it seemed things might go alright.

Don’t forget the meds.  The pharmacist said 2 ml didn’t seem like enough to have any effect on him, but the dentist checked his weight before prescribing, so I trusted him.  It was just supposed to help him relax, that’s it.  Just give him 2 ml 30 minutes before the appointment and he should be just relaxed enough to make it through a 20 minute appointment.

O.  My.  Goodness.  I might as well have given him a bottle of wine.

The medicine was a hallucinogen, but with such small dosage, it shouldn’t have affected him.  I gave him his meds just before we left to drop off Lauren at the sitter.  He wanted to get out to say hello to Miss Jenn.  It could have been the snow, but he fell flat on his face on the way to the door only 15 minutes after I gave him the drug.  When we got back into the car, I told him to buckle up.  We only had a couple minutes to get to the appointment, so I pulled out of the driveway and looked back at my happily grinning son who hadn’t moved.  “Peyton, buckle your seatbelt, honey!”  He just stared at me, his grin unchanging, but his eyebrows were slightly furrowed as he thought to himself, trying to figure out what I wanted.  “Peyton, buckle up!”  He reached backward, still grinning at me, still absently looking at me, his hand slowly trying to locate the seatbelt.  I pulled over and got out to buckle it for him.  He started giggling.  He talked to me a bit, but I don’t think he actually said anything.  When we got to the office, I carried him to the sidewalk because he was so slow to understand and carry out my instructions.  I set him down just outside the door and opened it – in slow motion, he looked up, crouched down as low as he could, his legs spread wide as though he was trying to get under a limbo bar, and cautiously watched the top of the doorway while he waddled in.  I believe he thought the ceiling was going to come down on him.  So I picked him up again and carried him to the counter. 

The nurse, who had been with us at the failed appointment, asked “How we doing this morning?”

“Loopy.”

And Peyton started laughing hysterically as he tried to stand up by himself, half crouched over, half tripping over his own feet even though stationary.  I tried to hold him up, but he was tipping and laughing and nearly tumbling around the waiting room.

Thankfully the nurse let us put him in the dentist’s chair so I didn’t have to attempt to keep him from falling over.

And he did great.  He was still unable to walk after the appointment, and he happily hugged the dentist in his drunken sort of way as we walked out of the building. 

Of course we went straight to Daddy’s work to tell him how good Peyton did…and to let Peyton recover from his upset tummy and sore head (hangover?) before he had to go to pre-school.

Hopefully the last dentist appointment will be his last experience with drugs/drunkeness.

Maybe I’ll get the video camera out for the next appointment.

Well, we’ve got a new doggy.  Daddy & Peyton have been checking pups on Craigs list for months.  I suggested we read through more information on the breeds and take a breed quiz to see what kind of dog would be best for our family – after all, we’ve given away 3 dogs already.  We didn’t think a new puppy would be a good idea – especially with Lauren so little and our questionable history on training a dog.  We knew we’d need an indoor dog since we don’t go out much in the winter.  Really dominant dogs don’t seem to work out well for our laid-back pace.  After more checking in and searching and researching and reading, we dropped an email to coppercanyonlabradoodles.com – they had a page dedicated to rehoming dogs, so I asked to be put on the list. 

She had a cocker spaniel – poodle mix she was ready to rehome in a month.  She bought the dog to breed her, but because the dog has very sensitive skin, the breeder didn’t think it responsible to put a bad gene into the breeding pool. 

So last Thursday we kept Pixie overnight while her owner was on a trip from near-Victoria (Canada) down to Marysville.  Lauren was only slightly afraid, and after a day she was in love.  Peyton was SO happy to have a puppy, and James and I were impressed with her obedience, her calm nature, and her patience with the kids…not to mention her non-shedding non-allergenic coat. 

And here we are, 5 days later, and Pixie’s sleeping on the floor.  We’ve trained her to use only a small square of the backyard for her toilet; she sits when we tell her to sit – even if the cat’s walking down the hallway.  She doesn’t chew the kid’s toys (which is good, because Lauren’s favorite activity is throwing toys out of the toy bins and sitting in the bins, as in the pic below).  She doesn’t scramble to lick up all the food Lauren tosses over the side – in fact, if we tell her to sit, she sits, no matter what.

So here she is – her name was Pixie, but since Peyton agreed to open his mouth for the dentist (more on that later he has the privilege of renaming her.  Her name is Bella (but we’ll see if it sticks).

As you can see, Lauren adores her – she loves to gently pat Bella’s head and say “hi!” in her cute little voice, and Peyton has spent much time training Bella to sit and stay and of course follow him around

This must feel really cool because Lauren does this ALL the time.  I don’t think she learned it from anywhere; I think she just thought it felt kinda fun in a toddler sort of way.

And she loves being neked, but because it’s so chilly she doesn’t get to run around sans clothes very often.  This video was taken just after bathtime – brother is still in the bath.