Lauren, Lauren, Lauren

So, because this has been bugging me the last couple of days I figured it must be blog worthy.

This past Saturday, we got together with some friends who have a daughter that is around Lauren's age. After about an hour of the kids playing both the little girl and Lauren came into the kitchen crying and upset. I immediately wonder what Lauren has done. Apparently the other little girl had hit Lauren and Lauren hadn't done anything......Really? Imagine my surprise when another mom that was there had witnessed the whole thing and did affirm the fact that Lauren had not done anything.

So this got me to thinking. For those of you who know Lauren you know what a "spirited" child she is. She wasn't the easiest baby and she is a very strong willed child. I saw a sticker recently that said "I am here to live my life outloud!" That is Lauren in a nutshell. While I deal with a lot of spirit with her, I have come to realize that no child is perfect. I am guilty of labeling Lauren or commenting about her liveliness just as much as others but recently I have become more sensitive to it. While I am certainly not one of those mothers who buries their head in the sand, I'm also realizing that everything is not Lauren's fault. It's unfair of me to label her or to always assume she is the one who is to blame.

Since Saturday, I have had the opportunity to "watch" Lauren interact with some neighborhood friends and while Lauren definitely is not the timid type, I have seen other little girls be just as bratty as she can be. I had a friend in California who watched Lauren for almost a year when she was 2 years old. She was always telling me what Lauren was doing wrong, "She pushes the other kids", "She's so loud in the car, my kids have to plug their ears." I got so tired of hearing it. I had the opportunity to babysit her children a couple of times and believe me they weren't angels! However, I had another friend e-mail me just recently asking me how Lauren was because she "missed that spunky little girl".

So here is where I am going with this....I am the first to admit that Lauren is spunky and I will be the first to get onto her if she has done something wrong but I'm also realizing that I need to start appreciating her zest and zeal for life. I hope Lauren continues to "live her life outloud", I hope she goes through life with the same spunk and determination she has now and that I will continue to find joy in her the way I do!