Vol. 1- Lauren

Me:

I am Lauren Daniels

DOB- 7/30/1982

I’m 28 years young J

Born in Milwaukee-raised in Wind Lake, WI.

            Current location: Waukesha, WI.

My Offspring:

SAWYER MICHAEL (5 years old)

Funny Story: This is tough, there are so many funny stories, the nice thing is that they continue through life and there will be many more ahead. This just happened recently: When the weather was awful and after we had that huge snow storm the temp dropped to below zero and  my water pipes froze. Only in the shower. IDK why, but it did. Anyway of course I was whining about it all day. I was upset that I couldn’t shower for three days and Sawyer knew it. One morning (day two of frozen pipes) I told Sawyer that if this continued much longer I’d have to wash him up in the sink like a baby bird (I was standing in front of the kitchen sink as I said this). Sawyer was doing what Sawyer does…playing and using his “man-a-nation” and I continued to wash my hair in the kitchen sink. As my ears are covered by my fancy towel up-do, I hear Sawyer calling me…MOM, MOM, MOM! I followed his voice towards the bathroom and my son was stark naked and in a sitting fetal position in the bathroom sink…maybe not too funny, but I was laughing hysterically and he looked so cute…Wow, this is hard (I can’t think of any, and there’s been tons…)

He’s been busted twice: naked with his cowboy hat on playing the air guitar…this was age 3 and 4.

Fav Products: lavender oil- it really, really relaxes kids, best place to put it is on the bottom of their feet. My fav things just happen. For example: houses out of cardboard boxes, monster feet out of boxes, fishing poles out of sticks and ribbon…Sawyer and I really enjoy doing things together- we’re a great team. One of our fav things to do is date night, but we also enjoy free things: painting with side walk chalk, collecting garbage from our area parks, taking adventures through the woods surrounding the pond across the street, collecting cool/magical rocks.

Advice: For the mom’s that struggle with your kids destroying the house as you’re picking up and cleaning and 2 hours in- you think why in the world am, I still picking up toys? I used RED duct tape put it across the carpet in his bedroom doorway…his room can be as messy as he wants now…but when things venture past the red duct tape their free game for mom to toss in the garbage. The best part: My house hasn’t felt “trashed” since the red duct tape arrived.

What makes me an awesome mom… If I were to reflect on my parenting thus far and share what I feel I’ve done right (that’s pretty awesome, right?). I’d have to say communicating, my word usage didn’t change because I was talking to a child (Sawyer’s vocabulary and the proper use of the vocab, amazes me). I’ve always taken time to explain things to him. I rarely say “because, I said so” I like him to know why, because when I’m asked or told to do something, I want to know why. So I give him the same courtesy. He is expressive and in-tune with his and feelings of others, he’s a pretty compassionate kid. He’s inquisitive and loves to learn how to do “new” things…I’m hoping this gets him excited about learning (in his future)?

Describe being a mother in one word: REWARDING.

And it is in so many ways, being loved unconditionally, being wanted and needed…seeing your tough times and hard lessons pay off “the kids light bulb moment.”

To be honest: Sawyer saved me. Not that I was on a path of destruction or anything , that wasn’t the case, but if it wouldn’t have happened when it did, it could have gone that way. I changed to a better person when I found out he was coming, I had to.

Thank You so much Lauren for being my first momma octopus. You have always been an inspiration to me and its truly an honor to have you and Sawyer featured on my blog. Love you.