Laurel's time without Mommy

Laurel spent this past week without Mommy, while I was in NYC for the stationery show. The show went pretty well this year compared to the past year, a pick up in the very down economy, hopefully. It was a nice time for Leora and me to just take care of ourselves and enjoy the city a bit. We ate some good food, did a little shopping and even took in an off Broadway show. The trip went by quickly.
Leaving Laurel this year was harder than last. Last year she didn't seem to notice or care that I was gone. She was very upset to see me leaving at the airport and it made me get sad and teary as I was walking away. I hear she recovered fairly quickly and enjoyed her time with Grandma the rest of the week. She stayed with my mom during the week days and Alex picked her up in the evening to come home. Over the weekend, she went down to Orange County to visit Alex's parents and to play with the cousins. Time with Amber and Sierra is always in demand and Laurel just loves them like crazy. She had some fun party time with them and took naps with Amber.

I was very excited to see her when I got back...needless to say:).

Mother's Day 2010

With my mom out here this year, we had mother's day to celebrate for more than just myself. Things are hectic in OC as everyone gets ready for Christy's wedding, so we decided to stay local. Megan and I looked up some options for the day and decided to go to Malibu. We ate a brunch at Gladstone's and then afterward went to the Getty Villa. I've never been to the Villa before and it made for a really nice outing. As we've done before, we let Laurel play photographer and so here's also some snippets of her "skills":).

Getting ready for NYC again!

We've been working hard in preparation for our trip to NYC with Copper Willow again this year. This year Leora and I will be going alone, no babies and care-givers in tow. Laurel has been spending a lot of time at Grandma's while I work on printing samples and getting things packed for the trip. Alex has also been a great help on the weekends since I've been in the studio almost every day of the week.
Laurel continues to be a trooper and goes wherever I need her to go. At Grandma's she enjoys all of the puzzles and crafts that Grandma has for her. "Puzzles!" tend to be her first request when she walks through the door. Laurel's language continues to expand. She's starting to get chattier and is putting together more sentences. A language surge seems to be just around the corner!

Potty training continues to go well! She has the pee down pat, just need to wait for her willingness to put #2 in the potty. True to her very clean nature, if she has the tiniest of pee leak on her panties before getting to the potty, we have to change. So I've started carrying spare underwear everywhere. She's gotten better at trying public potties - bought her a Dora potty seat that she really likes. Cumbersome to carry around but it means less fuss when out of the house. We have discovered that her panties have to be completely removed when peeing on the public potty because her stream has actually arched out of the potty onto the floor when she first starts peeing. Odd, but everything has a solution!