Tuesdays with Lauren

I was up early this morning. Being the patriotic, good citizen that I am, I decided to vote before picking up Lauren for Bible Study. My polling place is just a couple of miles from their house, so I gave myself 20 minutes. After all, it was after 8:00 and most early voters would already be at work, right? And for pete's sake, I live in the country, how long could the line be? Answer: Too long. I debated whether to turn around and go straight to get Lauren, or take my chances that the line would move quickly. Twenty minutes later, I'm calling Trista 'cause it's time for me to be there and I still have 20 people ahead of me! So Trista brought her to me, and she got her first taste of democracy in action. The nice lady gave her an "I Voted" sticker, which she refused to put on her clothes. No, she wanted to stick it to my ballot. To appease her, I dug through my purse and pulled out a couple of "get well" cards that I planned to mail today. She happily stuck the sticker to the back of one of the envelopes. No harm done...either Roy or David will know that I voted today. She watched as I slipped my ballot into the machine that slurped it right out of my hand. Cool. She decided to try the same thing with the "get well" cards. No, no, no, no!! Whew...that was a close one. I can see the headlines now, "Voting Comes to Halt in Oklahoma--Illegal, Under Aged Voter Sabotages Machine--Grandmother to Blame."

After all that, we were still only a few minutes late for BSF. Lauren's teachers were so happy to see her. Did I mention that she's the only girl in a class full of boys? I think she gets a lot of special attention.

After her nap, Lauren begged to watch the Bear DVD. It was Jacob's favorite when he was her age, and she loves it just as much. It's a music DVD, with children singing and acting out the songs. She sings along with it, but when I sing she says, "No, Nana, don't sing." She must have a good ear for music.

Relaxing on the couch.

Singing "Wheels on the Bus"

See the foot? Don't ask me how this is physically possible.

Her favorite saying right now is "I do it...by mahself." You have to be very innovative to distract her enough to get her buckled into her car seat. Otherwise you could sit there for hours. She is quickly learning good manners and now not only says "Thank choo" but follows it with "You wecome."

Lauren loves Gwacee and Otis and likes to stick her hand through the fence to let them lick it. Gracie pretty much ignores her, but Otis is very cooperative.