So Laurel is finally starting to make a little chatter! With a little encouragement, she can be taught:). This video shows a few of her common and most reliable words. "Done!" when she's finished in her high chair. "Da da" is very clear in this video too. Megan taught her to say "Me!" in response to "who's pretty?" She now says it as a reply to any question starting with "who". Also on the tape is a little noise she makes in lieu of words. When asked a question, she make a little noise of affirmation. Not on the tape - she says "pretty" about jewelry. I'll have to try and catch it sometime. She's such a girly girl. Lovely necklaces. She is easily entertained in a dept. store jewelry section:). And she says "pretty" completely on her own with no prompting when she sees a pearl necklace. Loves pearls the best:).
In other Laurel news, I am winning Laurel over to the Mickey Mouse fan club! I've been a loooong time disney fan. She watches a show in the morning on the disney channel that has mickey mouse and friends. Whenever I take her to the mall for her gymboree class we visit the Disney Store. Now she looks forward to it and calls him "ki-ki". She races to the back of the store where the stuffed Mickeys are and grabs one and gives him hugs and kisses:). It's very sweet.
We are making small steps in calming down the mega-mommy/daddy attatchment. She hit her height of clingyness about a month ago and we've been struggling it since. Sometimes she just has to be picked up and held. And sometimes I just don't have free hands. Cue temper tantrum - a big one. We're working on waiting for her to calm down and then I pick her up. Or I offer her just a finger to hold onto so we're connected, but I still can't pick her up. Mostly she's a happy child, sweet and energetic. But every now and then, she gets upset and there's no turning back. I do think her gymboree classes are helping her to get used to being around other kids and walking away from me to play with others. Today I took her to the class and I stood chatting with another mom while she walked off and played by herself. Watching her grown and emerge as a little person just had me bursting! 6 months ago, when we first started gymboree, she wouldn't leave my lap. Slowly, with time, she's become so comfortable and really loves it there.
Laurel had her 15 month appt last week. She is officially 20 pounds! A marker that most kids hit at age 12 months:). She's in the 10th percentile for weight. She's now 31 inches tall, almost a foot longer than at birth. 75th percentile for height. She's still very healthy, but low on iron, so we started a supplement that she gets in her dinner every night. Laurel also got 4 injections - poor baby. So many vaccines are done in stages, it takes several shots to complete the rounds.
I realized I forgot to mention our Thanksgiving events! My mom came out for Thanksgiving and we took a much needed trip away to San Diego. We had a lot of fun together at a couple of different parks. For T-day dinner, we went to George's in La Jolla. We had a gorgeous view at sunset next to the full glass wall. The meal was delicious and best of all - no clean up! Friday, we went to Sea World. Laurel's highlite - Sesame Street Bay of Play. She continues her Elmo obsession and loved seeing all of the Sesame Street characters. She saw someone in the elmo costume and was so giddy! Saturday we went to the wild animal park and the home.
