Diapers? We don't need no stinking diapers!

Hopefully, by putting this in print, I'm not jinxing the process, but it appears that Lauren is indeed potty-trained by day. We have quite a supply of night time pullups courtesy of Grandma Barb (who paid shipping to get them here--which, if you know her well, is practically against her religion) so we're good there.

Apparently the problem was just Lauren's comprehension of her own body. She's happy to be a big girl and making Dora proud (her potty seat has Dora on it).
We also have babysitters lined up for this semester so writing will be a lot easier for me. We actually found college gals willing to hang out with four kids ages four and under for an hourly wage within our budget! Praise God! The gals actually work with Annika and Lauren in Sunday school--one of them played pretend for two hours with Annika and Lauren today. Dan and I don't have that kind of "pretend" stamina.

After Megan's birth, we were spoiled with meals from our church. The youth pastor from our church dropped them off so we weren't exactly sure from which family each came--but when you know one particular family has been in the Swedish Covenant church for a very long time, you deduce that the Swedish meatballs came from them. And that the taco casserole came from the family with three young children--one of those tried and true recipes kids like! So it's been a fun game to see if we could figure them out. And they were all fabulous with few dishes!
Uncle John and his girlfriend Cassie came to visit us a week ago--the first official family to meet our latest member. While they were here, we went thrift-store shopping. Dan is so proud of his find--a double stroller from Stroll-Air for under $100 (they retail for $900).

It appears Lauren definitely takes after the Pike side of the family. It's after 11pm and she's still up. She just came out of our bedroom deeply concerned because she didn't turn off the bathroom light. What kind of society do we live in when even three-year-olds figure being environmentally friendly is a good excuse for getting out of bed?

Last note for this entry: Shedd Aquarium had free admission this Tuesday so we went. We found onstreet parking, so besides a babysitter, our only cost for our trip was a quarter for the meter. Lauren found the aquarium amazing. She is well able to project her voice and enthusiasm, too. She kept rounding corners, pointing to different tanks, and yelling, "Mommy, look! Fishies!" And, to see how kid-savvy you are, I'll tell you who we saw, and you tell me what we saw. We saw Sebastian, Nemo, Dori, Crush, the red-eye tree frogs (from Dora--freebie), Bruce, and Flotsam and Jetsam.