Good Luck, Lauren . . .

See what I did with the title of this post, all you Disney Channel fans?? Get it? If not, that's ok too. So, one of the outcomes of having 5 kids is that everyone tries to guess our ratio of boys to girls. When I tell them we have 4 boys and 1 girl, they ALWAYS say: "Oh, poor thing!" I suppose there is some truth to the fact that it is a little sad that Lauren will never have the experience of having a sister among all these boys. She will also never have the experience of having a cat (I am not a cat person); she will miss out on dating until she is 25 because God gave her 4 brothers to see to that; she will never have the experience of riding a motorcycle while I am alive. In other words, there are many things that our family dynamic will preclude her from taking part in. The same goes for the boys. When people show such sympathy for my only daughter, I am quick to tell them not to worry about Lauren! She already tries to play the only girl thing for sympathy, but truth be told, she has plenty of advantages her 4 brothers do not! For instance, she has her own room (which she does not keep as clean as her mother would like!)whereas the boys all share a room (with the exception of Declan,for now). She has a bevy of girl cousins that give her hand-me-downs she does not have to share with anyone; There are many situations where being the only girl comes in handy for her. As for her parents, I believe God had very intentional reasons for giving us only one girl. She takes the cake when it comes to tantrums. I have her tantrum dance down and will present it at her wedding, along with the song she usually makes up to voice her discontent and clapping to add more noise to annoy all of us. As you can see from the pictures, most of which she took of herself WITHOUT permission, she has a profoundly silly side. But as with all aspects of her personality, she can go from girly to goofy instantly, happy to tantrum in no time, sick to playful in a wink, loving to obnoxious before you know what hit ya. I guess our lives would be uber boring without our super cra-cra Lauren (that's how the kids talk now-a-days! See, I'm down with what's in!) Luckily God sprinkled her with extra sweetness to balance out some of these other moods! She is a PROLIFIC note writer! Doug and I have stacks of notes she has left us everywhere you can imagine just telling us she loves us! That's something you don't get from 4 boys! If we all survive adolescence, she will be a great Mom and loving and fun wife! So, I guess instead of wishing her luck with 4 brothers, I should wish us luck with 1 Lauren!