Velez Family

fun conversations

2012-01-31T00:09:00.000-08:00

Laurel is growing up in so many ways now. We're having real conversations and it's really fun!:) She is asking questions, her curiousity at a peek. She wants to understand why things happen - and this covers everything from where the rain comes from to some more complicated topics like babies and mommy's "monthly". I do my very best to explain things in reality, not just make it up. I do try to glaze over some things I think she's too young for yet. I was talking to mom not that long ago about how to teach or not teach things like hate, prejudice, gossip, etc. Most children at her age just don't see that - like skin color or gender differences. We'll cross that bridge I guess when we come to it!

In the meantime, we're having cute conversations like this one from friday:

We were at the studio and she was helping me with tape to wrap up some wedding invitations.

L: mommy, what are these for?

me: well someone is getting married and these papers will go out to all of their friends and family to invite them to their wedding.

L: oh, i want to go! can we go to the wedding?

me: no, we don't know these people, i am just doing work for them. but maybe we'll go to your wedding someday. that will be fun!

L: yeah! I want to get married!

me: ok, who are you going to marry?

L: I'm going to marry daddy!

me: ok, i'm sure he would like to marry you (again, to explain later:))

L: yeah, i love daddy, i'm going to marry him. when did you get married?

me: oh a long time ago, before you were born. i was 25.

L: 25?! that's old! :)

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-30T00:16:00.000-08:00

This year we had an intimate Thanksgiving at Megan's apt. That's Audrey in Megan's kitchen, trying to get more food - she can never get enough!

We all brought over a couple of dishes and had a relaxing afternoon. Alex watched some football and we played with the kids.

The next morning, we packed up for 2 nights in Big Bear with the Velez branch, at Christy and Mike's cabin. We stayed with the girls in a room on the first floor. Alex's parents with Cyndy, Rob and family, rented a house right across the street. They held their Thanksgiving for us to join them on Friday, so that was nice and a great treat to have another round of excellent food! A couple of Mike's kids were there, along with Mike's mom. The cabin is very cozy and i enjoyed just relaxing and pretty much doing nothing else. I think I barely stepped out of the front door! Alex took Laurel with the cousins up the street to sled in a patch of snow. The ground wasn't bare, but the covering was sparse. It was Laurel's first time in the snow:). She loved it - and I also realized I don't have enough cold weather gear! No water resistant mittens at all. Both nights, Laurel stayed over with the cousins. A treat for her, pretty much her first sleep over that wasn't down the street at Grandma's or Aunt Meg's. Granted, across the street from us, but in bed with other kids, in a house she isn't used to. We heard she did just fine! Audrey was pretty good most of the time. She didn't nap super well, so she had trouble at dinner time and was pretty fussy during thankgiving dinner. But as usual, ate really well!

Disney Halloween

2011-10-22T00:26:00.000-07:00

Halloween is quickly creeping up on my favorite time of year. No shopping and weeks of preparation. No long hours in the kitchen or wrapping presents. Just lots of fun with little people in costumes and of course - candy. I thought it was fine as a kid, I did look forward to it. But it was pretty much one night of the year, no big deal. As an adult, I'm managing to drag it out all month long for my kids! And Disneyland is a great help:). Tuesday I took the kids and met up with some friends to do the Mickey's Trick or Treat party. The park is always decked out, the candy is flowing big time and there's characters everywhere. This was our 3rd year going and I just love it. The candy "trails" were all over this year and moved quickly. We even got on a couple of rides. Laurel looks so cute in her costume and her recent obsession with pigtails looked great with the ensemble:). I also brought some face paint and tried to give it a go!

End of summer camp

2011-08-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

For about 2 months this summer, Laurel has been attending a summer "camp" through the mar vista parks system. Not sure if I've mentioned it. It's play-based, so they spend time outside on the play ground, make crafts, play with toys and dress up clothes, sings songs, etc. It ended up being a good decision to try this out with her because she's going to be continuing in through the school year. Most of her little school friends from her 3 year preschool have other arrangements for 4 year. Plus, the cost is a fraction of the cost of the first preschool. I do like the intimacy of the first one, and it was around the corner from the shop. But with the change of kids and the pricing, we decided to move her to the same school as her camp. Not much will change during the year from the camp, it will run on the same basic schedule. The class is larger, about 20 kids instead of 10 or so. They also do very little academic prep, so I'll be trying to continue that at home. I really believe play time is important since every year after this will be devoted to academic learning, and some day, working. Laurel enjoyed her summer and finished it off with a mini concert with her class. It sure is sweet to see the little ones sing, even if they're mostly disctracted and wandering off at times:).

Playing together...or at least near each other

2011-08-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

Laurel and Audrey are really starting to play together...or at least next to each other and tossing toys back and forth. Audrey will usually want what Laurel has, but Laurel is pretty good at sharing. Laurel thinks Audrey is pretty fun and usually announces proudly when Audrey is doing something new. "Look! She's reaching for it!", "Mommy, watch! She's trying to stack the blocks!" Audrey is more possessive of the toys than Laurel. Laurel will share easily but you can't take anything away from Audrey without hearing about it! She's a feisty one and is really starting to show some new colors. Audrey plays very well by herself as well. She loves to sit infront of the basket of toys and touch and explore. Laurel will play with the baby toys too just to spend time with her:). It's so nice right now!

my birthday

2011-08-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we celebrated my birthday. At my age (generally not an old age, but not an exciting one either!), birthdays come and go and there's not much pomp and circumstance. I was actually more focused on Laurel's birthday, still to come on the 31st. She is focused on her birthday too, to say the least! My birthday was pretty chill, spent the Saturday afternoon at the studio, but in the evening we went to Huntington Gardens. I love the gardens, so peaceful and it's such a nice atmosphere in late afteroon. The early evening gets cooler too, so it's a nice chance to picnic in the gardens - the only time they will allow it (member only summer evenings). Here's some pictures of our picnic - both girls being sweet and cute as usual!

(that is audrey's "snorty" face:))

All day during my birthday, Laurel was asking when it would be her birthday. "Mommy is your birthday over yet?" "After the presents is your birthday over". She knows hers is the next birthday we'll be celebrating at home, so she's been asking about it constantly. Even toy she sees in a commercial is something she wants for her birthday! She decided she wants a Strawberry Shortcake birthday party. Appropriate since she still insists on being called "regular strawberry shortcake"! I just took her to party city to choose decorations and we're all stocked up. I also went to Carter's and toys r us for her presents. All set! Her party will be at a local park so that the kids can play on the playground and we have access to picnic tables.

whew! busy summer!

2011-07-14T22:56:00.000-07:00

The summer is flying by, as it tends to do - and we're busier than ever!

In June, we started a remodel at Copper Willow. We've been in our space on washington blvd. for about 1.5 years now and after some time in there, we wanted to move things around so we had more space and the space we have it being used well. So one thing led to another and we added a door, a window in the front wall, painted the floor, added retail space, furnishing, decor, and an office. Yes one thing did lead to another. And we just had our 5 year anniversary, so we're planning 2 celebratory events as well. I will need a long nap:).

The girls are enjoying the summer too in their own ways.

Audrey is wearing her super cute sun suits and little dresses and knocking everyone's socks off. I can't count the number of people who fawn over her every single day. The second they get a glance at her in the carrier or in my arms, they gush:). Such a sweet baby, or how adorable, or she's so pretty! And she is:). A very cute and pretty baby for sure. And very playful - she loves to sit (up right on her own now for a couple of weeks) and play with toys and explore and enjoy time with her sister. Laurel doesn't necessarily play with her, but sometimes next to her and hands Audrey things to examine. Audrey is not going to crawl afterall. She'll sit and play like Laurel used to, but not go anywhere until she takes off walking:). If I try to put audrey on her belly, she fusses and rolls over. Audrey is changing up her taste in food. She used to eat baby food from the jar and then came down with a cold (caught it from Laurel!) and her appetite has decreased. And she's gotten suddenly picky. She didn't want to eat from the jar anymore, so i started making my own food. I have a great food processor and started blending foods and she liked it at first and now jams her hands into her mouth and over her face so I can't get any food in her mouth. She seems to just want to eat off of our plates but she has no teeth except for those 2 from months ago - so I'm not sure how she expects to eat! But she does happily eat whatever small pieces I can tear up or mash for her. Regardless of her eating, she's growing healthily - bigger and longer than Laurel at this age. She's fitting 9 months perfectly and even some 12 month clothes are fitting just fine.

Laurel has been attending a summer camp at the neighboring rec. park. She's met some little friends and seems to enjoy it. I will be volunteering 3 times during the session to "co-op" with other parents. She mostly plays, does some crafts and games, and plays outside on the playground. All things I want her to do over the summer. We've also been playing constantly with friends. I've gotten to know a few moms from her school-year pre-school and they are very active ladies. They are always out on play dates and going to parks to play. We've been tagging along a lot and I haven't had a chance to breathe, we've been so on the go! Audrey tags along of course:). Laurel continues to wear her pretty summer dresses and regardless of the temperature outside, she will NOT let me put her hair up. Laurel's biggest change seems to be intellectual - she is in the "why" stage - big time. Pretty much anything we talk about results in a long chain of "why". I do try to be patient, but I have definitely used the "because I said so" and "because god made it that way" phrases a lot:). She has also jumped into a cooperative play phase. She wants to play with me or anyone with her figurines and dolls. She went through a phase of playing lots of educational games on the computer and her iphone and now she has rediscovered her doll house, castle, princesses and pet shop animals. At one time she wanted to be in her kitchen constantly and then another time, dressing up a lot. Always changing:). She hasn't change physically all that much. Her feet are going to be small for her eventual size - like me. She has maybe grown a 1/4 size or a 1/2 at most since last year. We finally replaced her sandals from last year with a nice versatile pair of sneaker styled sandals.

Alex has recently started working for his Dad in Orange County. He has chosen to commute every day (1 hour or more in traffic each way). Life for me hasn't changed much, I am with the girls all day every day as before. But he gets home a little later, by about 8 pm. It wasn't his first choice of course, but a career change is needed and we'll be trying this for a few months to see how it goes.

Fourth of July

2011-07-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

This year for the 4th, we went down to OC for what turned out to be a beastly hot day. We went to Mission Viejo's street fair and sweated it out. The kids didn't care too much but my tolerance for that is low now! We spent the afternoon at Alex's parents' for a bbq and the kids ran around the back yard playing with the sprinkler and water balloons. I bought some little water guns for them to play with too. It was a really fun day, and a nice break from work and the every day run around. When the kids have each other, it's easy to sit back, relax, and just watch them play. We went down the hill to their local park and camped out on blankets for the fireworks. It was a great day:).

Camping - Sequoia 2011

2011-07-02T23:29:00.001-07:00

Laurel and Audrey took their first trip camping in Sequoia National Park last week. An adventure for all! We left on Sunday, June 19th and drove to the park all packed up in the Camry. Megan and I alternated in the back , squished between the 2 carseats. Alex stayed home to work - also not a camper:).

Both girls were great car travelers. Audrey is so easily entertained now - quite a "handsy" baby - touching and reaching for anything. Just throw a few books and toys in her car seat with her and she's good to go! We spent a lot of our drive singing songs, playing "i spy" and just chatting. Mom needed to drop Molly off for boarding just outside of the park, but we made it into our camp site in the late afternoon. We spent 1 night in Lodgepole and had to move after that. We had reservations at another campground that were canceled due to slow snow melt. Our 2nd and 3rd nights were spent north, just inside Kings Canyon. The 4th night was back down in Lodgepole. The packing up was really the hardest part, otherwise, moving from place to place wasn't too bad - but not preferable!

Laurel handled the camping pretty well for her first time! She was super excited to put up the tent. The bubble guppies cartoon has had a camping episode on and Laurel had been counting the days until we were on our own camping trip. She helped us put up the tent and bounced around all over putting everything away. Food went immediately into bear boxes. She was also excited to roast marshmallows but after one taste, she wasn't really interested. Laurel is easily deterred from eating things because of the potentional mess and stickiness. Once i decided to hold it for her, she was willing to eat it, but she'd rather go without all together than get her hands sticky! Knowing her need to be neat and clean, I figured the dirt would be much more of a problem, but it really wasn't. She threw a fit over not being allowed to wear dresses and she was a little afraid of the dark. The first night she constantly asked what the various noises were and nervously shines her flashlight around. She quickly settled in and got used to it. I ordered her a tickerbell sleeping bag and brought her fleece little mermaid blanket. The nights were quite cold, we had to bundle up. But Laurel stayed up later than normal, so she was out the second her head hit the pillow (her lady bug pillow pet!). She also slept in each morning.

Audrey was a real trooper for beign just 7.5 months old. She napped on the go, she ate on the go. The days were warmer than I had expected, so I tried to carry her around by hand instead of pressed up against me in her carrier. I bought her a tiny pop up tent that went at my head in the tent. She went to sleep in it just fine with her music player, blanket and baby. But we had trouble getting into the tent ourselves to go to sleep after her. She would wake up and act frantic and ended up sleeping with me all night. It was definitely not comfortable and I realized I wasn't a teenager anymore when my body screamed at me every night from sleeping on the hard ground. I'll know better for next time!

Laurel enjoyed the sightseeing but was always anxious to get back to the campsite. I'm pretty sure she thought we'd just be in the tent all day and night:). Our 2nd and 3rd nights spent up north, we met a family that had a 3 year old boy and a 10 month old girl. Laurel and the little boy hit it off and they played each night. It was nice for her to have a little play time and run around. The campsite those nights was spacious and really lovely. Towards the end of the trip though, she started to get tired from all of the walking. She really kept up for a while, but she started to get a cold and all of the walking was wearing her out. On the 3rd day she crashed and we had to take some time out of the day to let her nap. On the last night, our neighbors were a german couple with a 4 year old girl and a 1 year old boy. The little girl was so infatuated with Laurel. It was quite enlightening to watch them play - not speaking each other's language.

The park on the whole was a great introduction for her to camping life. Fairly easy activity, reasonable weather, and bathrooms we could deal with:). No showers, so on the 3rd morning, Megan and I held her over the large wash sink and cleaned her hair and body. Audrey received a sponge bath on the 2nd night. Each day we took different walks to see the great sequoias. Laurel was excited to point out the large trees and collect pine cones.

We drove home after a detour to visit a cave. The drive was later in the day and Audrey was so tired. We had a great time! Laurel crashed on the drive home too and we came back to LA in peace:).

Disney summer

2011-06-29T23:31:00.000-07:00

We made our final squeezed in pilgrimage to Disneyland before our passes were blocked out for the summer. I took Ryder along for his birthday - and he's a star wars fanatic, so he was able to have his glory in the Star Wars training academy. Laurel ran around with her friend Kalia, and Audrey was a trooper as always:). She so entertained by the older kids and by just looking around, she really needs little maintenance!

Last Day of School

2011-06-23T23:39:00.000-07:00

Laurel had her graduation from 3 year old preschool and here's a few pics! They sang a few songs and had on cap and gown and everything! So cute to see the little ones like this:).

Tap!

2011-06-04T23:40:00.001-07:00

Today Laurel had her first tap recital at the Mar Vista Parks. She's been taking a little class every friday afternoon with her friend, Kalia (pictured above). They just love each other:). They danced to "sing sing" and it was so cute! They are just getting to the age where she can follow instruction and actually "perform". The 2 year old dance class cracked me up - they were struck frozen by the audience and just stood and stared:). Laurel's little class wore sparkly black and silver outfits. Laurel was a great performer - which i was nervous about - i've watched her on occasion and she gets the sillies:). Or she gets afraid that she can't find me and doesn't want to do the show.

7 months!

2011-06-04T00:05:00.000-07:00

Here's Audrey at 7 months! Growing like a weed - wearing all 6-9 month or 9 month clothing. Her hair has really sprouted lately and she's getting longer and longer. She still has just the 2 teeth, but she chews and chomps down so hard, there's probably something else working its way out. She is much stronger on her stomach, can really arch back on her hands - but like Laurel, really dislikes tummy time. She immediately rolls back to her back. Audrey is also starting to be more stable in a sitting position. I can't rely on her sitting without tumbling, so i usually sit very closely or give her a small amount of back support. But she's getting stronger and will sit alone very soon. She holds herself up fine in the stroller and the high chair. Audrey is eating well too - making her way easily through her 2nd stage foods, and eating a lot (usually at least 1 small tub of baby food each sitting). Her little temper continues to flare:). She's going to be spunky. Nothing can be snatched our of her hands without complaint and she gets mad often. she's going through a mommy-attached phase and whines and cries whenever I come into the room. She stops immediately when i pick her up:). It's nice to be wanted though, so most of the time I secretly like it. She plays well with toys and is fascinated with electronics. Any toy is immediately dropped when a phone or camera comes into view. She is making lots of baby babbles, working her way through her "d" sounds. She squeals and giggles and is learning to clap! Audrey has also learned to kiss - just in response to a kiss noise, but she really sucks her lips in and creates a good smacking sound:). And she's pretty proud of herself too!

Whoa, teeth!

2011-04-13T23:39:00.000-07:00

Audrey, at a little over 5 months is cutting not one but TWO teeth! She hasn't been drooling too much, but she's started to gnaw on her fist and complain. She likes to munch on Alex's ears and head when she is up on his shoulders. Just yesterday her first cut through and her second one is bulging beneath the skin. They're her bottom middle front teeth. I can feel the first one by touch already! wow, over achiever:).

Starting solids at home

2011-04-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today we had our first rice cereal at home. I dug the high chair out of storage and got it all ready for her. Audrey sits up in it so well and loves the play surface the tray provides. I enjoy putting her in it so she can be entertained while I clean up or take care of Laurel or start dinner - whatever! She's very good at self-entertaining. The tray doesn't fasten as well as it used to - there's a tiny rubber animal stuck in the arm that Laurel shoved inside when she was smaller:).

Audrey is going to be a good eater - she open her mouth and takes the spoon in like a pro. Little spit out, but not a huge mess. She follows each bite by sucking her thumb, just like Laurel did, to help swallow the food. So she ends up with a messy hand and the mess gets all over her face that way:).

Older sister is also entertainer

2011-04-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to a video I put up on facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150171332391648&comments&set=t.1009258399&type=1

Laurel is so entertaining for Audrey - it's a delight to watch. Laurel loves to try to get her sister to giggle. She jumps around, squeals, makes spit raspberries, tickles, whatever it takes! Audrey will stare at her, completely entralled. Sometimes she just smiles and sometimes she giggles hysterically. Audrey always shows her pleasure by kicking and waving her arms around excitedly. In the car, she leans forward to look at Laurel, who sings to her or chats or shows her toys and books while driving.

milestones

2011-03-25T23:55:00.001-07:00

Milestones are starting to come fast and furious for Audrey. On March 15, she rolled from back to front - and started moving her legs to scoot forward! She did it a few times on her own and it only happens sporatically. She's put down a lot more than Laurel was - she has to compete for attention with the big sis, who can be quite needy at times! We rely a lot on her floor play mat and she is a great self entertainer. And that can lead to exploration! This one may crawl - time to clean! Yikes.

Yesterday, she had her first cereal with Grandma V. I wasn't planning on starting her quite yet, but she's almost 5 months old already! Alex said she seemed to like it and could bring the mixture into her mouth from the spoon. So I bought our own box today at the grocery. Time to get the booster/high chair out of storage! wow.

Audrey continues to grab at everything, extremely curious and eager. She's starting to grab and bring things to her mouth for a slobber:).

It's much easier to get her to laugh and giggle. We used to really have to work for it! But now she smiles all the time, is easily amused and loves a good tickle or funny face. Laurel can really get some great laughter out of her, which is so sweet to watch. Laurel can jump around and act silly and Audrey thinks it's a riot!

And so we now celebrate St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

In the long list of holidays to constantly look forward to, we're Irish now:). lol. Laurel was very excited for all of the green and I bought her a little sachet filled with chocolate coins - her little pot of gold! She really wanted to decorate, but I don't have much of anything! She likes to put the window stick-ums up and put up her own art. so we made some art and she brought home some cute pieces from school. I'd much rather decorate with her cute pictures than store bought things anyway!

Next up - Easter. I'm going to be facing the challenge this year of starting to explain the religious side of Easter. I tried to take a stab the other day and I really struggled to speak on her level, without mention of dying and making it sad. So we're talking mostly about wearing a pretty dress, hunting for eggs, the Easter bunny...and I'm hoping I'll figure out the rest along the way:). Easter is late this year, so we have a whole month ahead still to wait and plan. Her school is doing an easter egg hunt (after a 2 week spring break after next week - whew!). Audrey has her first Easter dress - a pink one. Laurel's is purple, her newest favorite color.

4 months!

2011-03-02T22:50:00.000-08:00

At month number 4! Time sure flies with the second baby. Audrey is growing so fast and progressing so quickly. Like the blink of an eye. We had her 4 month appt. today. Poor thing had to get shots. I so hate doing that to her - she smiles at the nurse right beforehand - doesn't suspect a thing! She was measured and weighed - 13 lbs, 40th percentile - 25 inches, 80th percentile. Growing, Growing! I can only imagine she'll keep going full force because she continues to eat twice during her sleep time. She's well out of her 0-3 and 3 month clothes and fits her 3-6 perfectly. So she'll never make it to 6 months in those clothes. Time to pull out the 6-9, wash and size up the needs for that age range!

yes i am this cute

2011-02-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

Audrey can now sit up in her bumbo! This is a super cute outfit of her - love it:).

spending time in the OC

2011-02-21T23:50:00.000-08:00

Just recently, Alex's company was closed. So, changes are going to come, but we're optimistic and going to see what happens. There's possibilities in the works and Alex received a nice severence package. This allows him to be at home with us, working on his reel as much as he can. But also gives him some time to take the girls down to visit with family in OC. We're about an hour away, which means we can see them often, but time tends to pass quickly and before we know it, it has been a month, sometimes more! And when babies are growing, a month is a long time! Laurel is crazy for her cousins and asks for them all the time. They all have the best time together and I wish she could be around them more regularly. But visits like these will have to do for now!

Valentine's Day

2011-02-20T21:06:00.000-08:00

Finally another holiday! Much to Laurel's delight:). She is now constantly focusing on the next holiday at hand. Megan happily informed her that the next holiday is St. Patrick's day - one that isn't really "celebrated" in our household. We have no plans to drink a Guiness, even Alex, and no plans to be Irish anytime soon:). But it gives her something to look forward to! So that's what we'll be celebrating in March.

For Valentine's Day at pre-school, everyone brought in Valentines that were put into bags and taken home. Laurel made her very own for all of her friends out of foam hearts and stickers we got at Target. We've been in love with the $1 bin lately - easy crafts and fun gifts for cheap. Laurel received a Valentine bag of goodies from us as well. She doesn't really have a sense of time yet, so she knows these holidays are coming up and then all of a sudden, it's the day! Not sure she knows what to do with that kind of anticipation and final fruition.

Audrey lately

2011-02-10T22:21:00.000-08:00

Audrey's personality is really starting to show herself now. The verdict - the opposite of her sister:). When Laurel was a baby and still now, she has such strong emotions. She laughs hard, squeals loudly, gets so excited, is up for anything. When she was a baby she giggled all the time, smiled easily, was visibly so excited to see us. She had definite reluctance and was clingy, but her personality is big. Audrey on the other hand is going to be the quiet soul. She is so sweet and passive, very calm. Unless she is very tired or very hungry, she is mostly content. Her smiles are slow to develop and her giggles are few. She is patient and can play by herself on her play mat for quite a long time if I need her to. She can work up a chatter but isn't as loud as Laurel was. She enjoys the nursing cuddle but isn't a rocker like Laurel was. Laurel preferred to be held and Audrey is content in her crib. She's becoming a good little sleeper. It's taken some time and the naps are still a work in progress but the night time is forming a good schedule. Audrey still wakes up twice during the night. She goes to sleep around 6:15/6:30 and wakes to eat sometime in the 10:00 hour. Then she has been going down for a long stretch and not waking until about 3 am. Lately she's been waking me up around 7 am with a quiet chatter and hum in her crib. Such a lovely sound to wake to:). Audrey used to wake up earlier in the morning and I was worried that the garage door underneath her room was waking her up. Either she's gotten used to it or it isn't as loud as I thought it was. I am not sure when she'll get around to sleeping through at night. I think by most standards, babies can sleep through the night without eating at 4 months. She doesn't really seem anywhere close with 2 wakings still.

Her naps are slowly starting to lengthen, at least one of the 3 is usually a good 1.5-2 hours. Sometimes the morning nap is the long one, sometimes the mid day nap is long. She still needs three naps, usually one long and two short. Maybe in the next month or two she will take the two short ones and make it into one long so we'll have two long naps every day. She's pretty much calling the shots on her sleep schedule. I really tried to read up and force the issue and I am following her lead now and things seem to be falling into place on their own. At about the time she hit 3 months though, she began to be able to stay awake up to 2 hours in time. I had her on a 90 minute wake schedule before and she started to cry for long period instead of falling asleep so I moved her naps further apart. Seemed to work out!

Audrey is starting to play with her toys, with us. I have a little bag of rattles, spinning toys, little noise makers. She grabs for them and holds them with quickly improving coordination. I have a little toy strand across the handle on her car seat that she plays with in the car too. She puts on quite a cute little concentration face:).

Audrey does chatter with you one-on-one. She doesn't talk much otherwise unless you engage her in a long "conversation". She is learning several new sounds and is interested in the sounds we make. Her little whines and calls from her crib or when she's sleepy sound like a little cat:).

The times when she is actually upset, she has very little patience. And she has no slow work up, she goes from happy to frantic in a snap. If she wails out of no where, she's hungry. If she's overwhelmed by too many faces around her, she will start to put on a very sad pout and then will scream. The other day she was over tired before bedtime and I had her up on my hip and she threw her arms out and her head back and wailed out of no where! Poor thing!

Audrey at 3 months

2011-02-03T22:55:00.000-08:00

Here's my baby bug at 3 months! Such a sweet girl!

call her strawberry!

2011-02-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

Laurel is on the longest play-acting kick she's ever carried out:). She is strawberry shortcake - i am lemon - alex is blueberry - megan is orange - grandma/mom is raspberry. Oh and Audrey is a baby berry-kins. These are all little characters from a remake of the Strawberry Shortcake cartoon that shows everyday on a new cartoon channel. Our living room is Strawberry's house, with the space between the arm chair and the couch being the door. Laurel insists on being called Strawberry and calls us by our coordinating names all the time:). Twice now she's awakened in the middle of the night upset, declaring that her name is Strawberry! She is liking other things as well and makes up complicated names for herself. She likes the Bubbleguppies show on Nick Jr. (a show about little mermaid children) and she likes Word Girl, a super hero on PBS. So sometimes she is Strawberry-Word Girl-Bubbleguppie! So funny:). She cracks me up. And don't call her anything else! I called her a Cutie-patootie the other day and it resulted in a 1/2 hour tantrum. Wow. She can go from 100% happy and lovely to tantrum in .5 seconds!:) So don't call her anything else.

giggle girls

2011-01-24T22:30:00.000-08:00

I feel so lucky to have such lovely, loving little babies in my life. Audrey has started to laugh. Alex caught her on video on Sunday just giggling to our hearts' delight! Laurel thoroughly enjoyed it too - she said with delight "she's growing!". All of the little things are just so exciting. She smiles constantly too. Whenever she's retrieved from her sleep, she gives the biggest grin.
Audrey started sleeping in her crib Friday night. It's gone pretty smoothly so far. She's had to cry now and then when she's put down at night, just to get her acquainted with her room and used to putting herself to sleep. Her naps continue to be short but she goes down very easily. She will only stay awake for 90 minutes and then instantly becomes cranky and tearful. So whenever she wakes for the day, we start the clock and she goes down every 90 minutes after she wakes throughout the day. The challenge is that she still naps for only 45 minutes, so right now she takes 3 or 4 naps. She really needs the 4th nap, in the late afternoon, but sometimes she resists, like today. Then the next couple of hours are long, she's overtired. Laurel is great help though. She loves to get down on the floor with Audrey on the play mat or on with Audrey's play toys. I bought a sleep soother from Target that has little rainforest characters and plays soothing music with outdoor noises. Laurel was just as excited about it and climbed into the crib with Audrey to watch it together. The soother has been a nice part of our wind down routine for naps and bed. I'm not sure it's making any changes in her naps of course but I know it's entertaining and sounds nice.
Audrey holds up her head very well now and we've taken several walks with her facing out in the carrier or the wrap. She likes to look around and is perfectly content, even to fall asleep and I hold her head up! Audrey cries much less in the car. She does strain to sit up, she'll be so happy when she can do that on her own! Audrey plays with the toys on her car seat and is pretty content until she nears her 90 minute awake mark.
I passed down a batch of newborn clothes to a friend the other day. I knew it would be sad, but it struck me as I was doing it, just how big of a moment it was. My heart pounded, I was shocked by the emotion that poured out - literally! I had myself a little cry:(. But I wanted to continue passing down the clothes while it was needed so I didn't get myself into a situation where I was keeping things I didn't need. I did keep a few things for sentimental reasons.

I have plans to take Laurel to Disneyland this week with a friend from her school and her mother. We could really use the mommy-laurel time! She's rocky emotionally and is the sweetest girl when we have a chance to connect and spend time together. I don't want her to feel like she isn't my priority anymore. The other night we had the best time putting a blanket over the dining room chairs and creating a little tent to play under. We got down there with pillows, books, puzzles, etc. and it was a lot of fun! Our outing will be my first large patch of time from Audrey, so I am crossing my fingers go ok for my Mom while she watches her.

oh the sleep

2011-01-15T21:38:00.000-08:00

Audrey has reached the age of ultra awareness...or wide awakeness...or something that means it's hard to get her to sleep! She continues to go to bed just fine, but is waking up too much at night. She wakes up early, well before midnight which is when she used to whimper only a week or so ago. She's then taken to waking up at 2, 4, 5 and then 6! whoa, too many times up. I can't tell if she's hungry because she will suck on her thumb and fist ferociously, but then only nurse for a short period of time. I think it's my proximity to her at night that maybe she senses me or hears us toss and turn. Laurel isn't the quietest sleeper either, so when she comes in at night I'm sure that disturbs Audrey as well. I tried to put her in her crib for the first time tonight and she wailed for almost a full hour with me picking her up and patting her. I am hoping she was just overtired because we're also having nap struggles. I checked my blog posts from when Laurel was this age and Laurel was having nap struggles but not as bad in retrospect. She at least was taking a long morning nap. Audrey can't seem to take any nap for longer than 45 minutes. 45 minutes is definitely not long enough. Today was a rotten nap day for her and though she was still smiley and pleasant, she had zero tolerance for trying a new sleep location! I've been reading a book about sleep and they say not to keep a baby up for longer than 2 hours and that most babies at Audrey's age will find 90 minutes to be the sweet spot. That's mostly true for Audrey as well, but I can't keep her asleep. That's the bigger problem. Sigh. I was so hoping to be better at the sleep obstacles with this baby. It's also difficult to get Audrey to settle down when she can hear Laurel laughing and running about. I think Audrey is afraid of missing out on the fun:).

Laurel at 3.5

2011-01-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

I've spent a lot of fractured time talking about Laurel now that I have two babies to write about! I want to make sure I'm still painting clear pictures of what they are like at various ages. One, for me to remember when I've forgotten, and two for them to know what they were like.

She's almost 3.5 and we've reached more of a 'testing threes" rather than terrible twos. She is very headstrong, constantly testing the boundries and limits of our patience. Once upon a time, she did what was asked of her on the first request, now we have to get to punishment threats before action is taken most of the time. No comes out of her mouth a lot like she was a baby again. Compromise is used a lot to get us all on the same page for cooperation. All in all, she is still a cheerful, funny little girl that is stocked full of energy.

Her day starts around 7:30 or 8, sometimes earlier if she wants to bounce out of bed to visit with Audrey. Audrey comes into bed around 6 and sleep nurses for about an hour. Laurel loves to look at her and talk to her. Laurel doesn't like to eat much of a breakfast. She still prefers warm milk in the morning, yes in a bottle. That's the one baby thing we still allow and it's only in the morning. She has given up thumb sucking and is only semi-attached to her blanket, so it's progress. She watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while we get ready for our day too. If it's monday, wednesday or friday, we get ready for school. I pack her morning snack, Alex gets her dressed in the outfit she picked out the night before. We still help her brush her teeth but she uses the potty on her own.

If it's a school day, she is there from 9-12 and I usually pick her up walking from the studio down the street to her little school. She likes to walk on the tall curbs like a balance beam and pick little flowers for me:). She has a couple of good little buddies at school that she pals around with and talks about at home. She likes to ask me where they are and what they're doing. If it's not a school day, we start the day a bit more leisurely, waiting at home while Audrey takes a short morning nap. Sometimes we have a lazy day at home, other times she might come with me to the studio, run errands, go to the park, or ride her tricycle to grandma's apt. a few streets away. On Wednesdays she spends the afternoon after school at Grandma's. She has a closet and bookshelf entirely dedicated to Laurel's toys, games and books. Laurel loves to play at Grandma's. She helps herself to her activities and Grandma gets down on the floor with her and plays all afternoon long. Sometimes they do crafts on the table or run some errands as well. Laurel loves doing crafts. Either drawing, coloring, gluing, putting together store-bought knick knacks, etc.

We're usually home by 5 or 5:30 if we go out so that we can get started on Audrey's bedtime routine. Audrey is in jammies, rocking and nursing by 6 so that we can be in the cradle by 6:30. Sometimes she is ok with sitting on her own in the living room. Laurel plays games on my computer or her iphone or watches a tv program while she waits. Other times she is hungry for attention and wants to sit in the room with me. That's when i have to be rather fast with Audrey's bedtime. Fortunately Audrey lays down easily on her own with little fuss. Then I have exclusive Laurel time. We usually do whatever she wants until Daddy gets home. Up until recently, Laurel had a late bedtime. We would all eat as a family and she would be in bed with stories and a loooong struggle to go to bed at 9 pm. Her naps have become more difficult to arrange now that the baby is in the picture. Most of the time she can completely go without. Only if she has rigorous activity or lots of walking and excitement does she want a nap. To make sure she's getting enough sleep and is a pleasant person during the day, her bedtime was moved up to 8 pm. To accomplish this, she and I usually eat together one-on-one before Daddy gets home. Every other day is a bath day. Alex does most of the bath with her, which consists of play time, and i tend to step in at times to wash her up. Laurel hates getting water in her eyes and can throw a good fit in the tub over it. It can be quite exasperating! She still loves the idea of going to the pool at the Y, which we haven't done since October, so I'm trying to negotiate a better bath time that helps her with being in the water at the Y. She went yesterday with Grandma and had a great time and put her head in the water multiple times!

Bedtime, now around 8, consists of 2 books she picks and then Daddy lays in bed with her to read and wait until she falls asleep. It was just before she turned 2 and had a lot of sleep problems that we started laying with her until she fell asleep. That's one reason the nap has had to go away because I can't lay with her and the baby at the same time. One will always disturb the other. The bedtime at 8 with no nap is easy, she is usually asleep within 15 minutes after book reading. I do miss the nap time for me to have some free time, but I do not miss the struggle to lay down and take a nap. The naps got to be so short - half hour to 45 mins, that it didn't really feel worth the struggle. Her earlier bedtime allows Mommy and Daddy to have more chill time together.

She has always been a good sleeper at night, every since maybe 4 months old, she would sleep through the night. Once we moved her out of her crib though, she's always climbed in with us. Somtimes it's early, midnight or so, and sometimes it's 6 am. But she always starts out the day in our bed. It's been the extremely rare day that she wakes up in bed at her normal time and comes in just to tell us she's awake. Lately I think she's come in around 3 am, which is when Audrey wakes up too. Not sure if she hears Audrey cry or if it's a normal wake up time in her body too. I run a fan in each of our rooms for white noise since we're in an apt. and there's elevators and door noises.

Laurel likes a lot of things little girls like. She likes to play with her princess castle and little toy houses with figurines and tiny furniture. She's gotten very good at playing by herself and pretending. When she has friends over, she likes to play restaurant in her kitchen and she serves us food and gives us money from the little toy register. She has several tubs in a storage unit filled with dress up clothes. She's gotten lots of costumes collected in her short years and loves to get in and out of them. She used to wear them constantly all day, on top of her clothes, just as part of her daily look. But they've been reduced to just play again. She loves to draw and paint and create. She was taking a little art class at the Y for a while that was great for her and she really enjoyed it. We'll start it again in the spring. When it's just us, we work puzzles, create, play with play dough, hang out in her room. When her friends come over, they like to play hide and seek, which is entertaining since our apt. isn't exactly huge hide and seek territory!:)

She likes to wear dresses still but has a few shirts and pants she prefers as well. She loved the holidays when she could wear festive, poofy dresses. She likes her hair down all the time, just a little ponytail at the top front of her head, maybe with a bow or a hair clip. She likes her "curlies" to be easy to feel and see. We used to negotiate her veggies by telling her they would create her curlies. She likes chapstick and putting on sparkly make up, at times when we're not going anywhere! She mostly wears a pair of sparkly pink keds that my Aunt Peggy bought for her. She also likes tights. She doesn't like to wear a jacket, but it's a must during the cold season. And the second she gets to a home that she's going to spend time in for a while, she takes off her shoes and socks. She loves being barefoot. She's growing out of her 2-3 yr underwear and we have started to buy the next size up.

This year seems to be the year of "why?". Laurel is starting to use that as a reply to just about anything. I am waiting to use the phrase "because I said so". It's just around the corner, i can feel it! Laurel is only just starting to understand what why means when I ask her that question. She is an emotional roller coaster sometimes and is easily set off into a crying spell. I will ask her why she is crying and she will say some variation on "i'm crying cuz that's why i cry". Someday soon she will connect an incident with the crying and we'll make some progress there too! She likes to make a lot of chatter, whether it be random noise or long strung out sentence thoughts. She is picking up new words from school. She used the word "cool" not long ago and "awesome" just last week. She picks up song lyrics easily and has an amazing memory to recall all sorts of things. She is beginning to want to know how things work and why they are the way they are. She doesn't drag explanations on and on, usually just accepts it with an "oh", but we are answering more and more questions all the time. As a parent, I'm feeling a lot of pressure to make sense for her!:) A few weeks ago, she asked Grandma where Daddy was and she said "at work". Laurel asked "Daddy loves to go to work?" lol! She went through a phase where everytime Alex was leaving she asked him if he was going to work, even at 9 pm taking out the trash. He started to say "stop sending me to work!" Funny:). I like to propose exciting ideas and activities to her. She will get giddy and say "oh wow! that would be lovely!":)

I feel like I could describe her forever. She is such an interesting little person right now. Challenging for sure, but she's gotten so much spunk and humor in her. It will be interesting to see how some of her phases develop!

Firsts for the New Year

2011-01-06T16:02:00.001-08:00

Now that Audrey has hit 2 months, she seems to be knocking out firsts left and right! I think this is one of my favorite times. Every little thing is exciting. She had her first real giggle today. She's been so close for the past week but had a few actual giggles in response to some chatting we did this morning and some swinging in the afternoon. 2 nights ago, she put herself to sleep for the first time. Laurel was a little clingy at audrey's bedtime and I couldn't have quiet to put her to sleep. So I put Audrey in her cradle very quickly so that I could come out and sit with Laurel for a bit. I figured I'd go back in when Audrey fussed. She never did! Last week she officially started sucking on her thumb (left) and she rubs the side of her head with her right hand. It puts her right to sleep. She did it again today for nap. I was about to put her down and Laurel had to use the potty. I put Audrey on my bed, ready to swaddle, took care of Laurel, and when i got back audrey was putting herself to sleep! Kind of nice:). Yesterday, Audrey reached for a pillow case that was next to her on the bed with a bright red and white pattern and grabbed it. She's gaining more control of her arms/hands and she is reaching a lot. Not reliably grabbing, but enough to entertain herself on the floor laying on the play mat. She reaches for the hanging toys. She's also very entertained by the hanging toys on the handlebar of her car seat. There's a lady bug that squeaks that she's just in love with:). Her first smile was of course a while ago but it's coming regularly and always in response to us. She's such a sweetheart!

2 months!

2011-01-03T16:28:00.000-08:00

We had our 2 month check up today. Audrey measures 11 lbs, 2 oz and 23.5". I looked back at Laurel's stats and she's actually the same size! I think Audrey feels bigger but time is flying so fast, that I may just be surprised by the sizing even though she's on target. She also had her first shots and that's always so tough. She flashed her sweet smile at the nurse before the shots were given and the nurse felt so badly:(. But she did very well after she cried. But still, I hate the shots, it hurts me just as much!

Jingle Bells

2010-12-22T21:28:00.001-08:00

Here's Laurel singing with her preschool for the parents on the last day before Christmas break. Such a sweet sound, brought tears to my eyes they were so cute!:)

The holiday season

2010-12-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

The holidays are definitely in full swing around here! We put up our xmas tree right after thanksgiving. Forgot to mention that around the actual time. Been so focused on baby and functioning our daily life that, yes, we did put things up on time! We used our first ever artificial tree, just a small 4 footer. Comes pre-lit and everything, no dropped needles. Nice! I remember being disappointed when our trees in my childhood home went to artificial, must later - once i was out of college i think!. But as an adult, i really appreciate the fake tree:). Laurel picked out a Sleeping Beauty ornament at the disney store and she sits atop our tree this year. She was very enthusiastic about decorating. She has been that way for each holiday this fall She hung ornament on top of ornament, crowding all of the bottom branches, but she had a lot of fun doing it:). She's also helped me start on some wrapping. Audrey's room isn't really occupied yet, so it's turned into xmas prep central! Wrap, ribbons, etc cover the floor. Laurel is in charge of the tape and picking out packaging labels for each gift. She also picks out the paper for each person.
We also got our elf on the shelf right after thanksgiving as well. After much encouragement, and rejecting names like "chair" and "tv", Laurel named him Beepbo. He keeps watch over her in various locations each day and brings a tiny gift in her advent calendar each morning. Laurel is somewhat into it. Most days she doesn't remember until I point him out. Maybe next year she'll be more excited for his "visit".
We had a run in with Santa at the mall, just a quick lap sit. Last year she wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole and this year she's very excited. She was still reluctant to sit and wouldn't talk with him, too bashful. But she did sit on his lap! We'll bring her back again right before xmas to have a better photo opp.
Things continue to be busy at Copper Willow, printing holiday cards and getting items ready for 2011 wholesale. I'm definitely feeling behind. Planning for the holiday event last weekend and having Audrey come along has put me far behind. But again, I feel lucky that she's an easy baby. She comes to work and sleeps in the carrier. She has a good schedule of about 1.5 hours of wakefulness and then she is ready to eat again and jump back into the carrier. So when things get really tight on time, I know she is going to be easy to deal with. Eventually she will be bigger and it won't be so easy, but we'll figure out a way to make things work then. Audrey's hair is starting to grow back in already. She was pretty much bald on top and a nice fuzz is growing in fast. Unfortunately, at the same time, her skin has broken out in a bad case of baby acne. Pretty much all over her face and patchy across her scalp. I keep her baths mild so that there's no irritation, but she definitely has sensitive skin. She will get rashy reacting to heat as well. Poor baby. But it doesn't seem to bother her, so we'll just wait it out. She's already growing as well, most of her newborn things are starting to be too short on her. Wow, time flies!

holiday pictures

2010-12-06T23:29:00.000-08:00

Copper Willow hosted a holiday shopping event this past weekend. Whew that was a lot of work for me! I'm exhausted. But it was a fun weekend. We had a silhouette artist in who cut silhouettes of both Laurel and Audrey. What a treat:). I also had Kara, our resident photographer at the studio, take pics of the girls for our holiday card. Here's a nice shot. Audrey had to come spend the weekend with me at the event. She's not taking to the bottle too well and she is quite attached to me, crying really hard for anyone else. If she doesn't have a good morning nap, she has a rocky day.

1 month!

2010-12-01T19:26:00.000-08:00

We've made it to the one month mark:). This I remember to be full of wakefulness and struggle with sleep for Laurel, so I am hoping to have a change with Audrey. So far, Audrey is definitely waking up more, but as long as we have a good morning nap, she does ok for the rest of the day with naps. With no pacifier, she likes to nurse to sleep, then we prop up on the chest for a burp and go to sleep. Sometimes she wretches around for a while but when she's out, she's out, slack jawed and all. Audrey is also losing her hair, big time:). All of the top of her head is balding and fast! On our way home from Thanksgiving, she twisted and turned so much that her hair jumped ship. She'll be growing a baby mullet before we know it. I don't know how quickly the hair will grow back in but it's quickly receding. Audrey is also starting to coo and every now and then make some smiles. Some of the smiles are wide mouthed and some are a genuine ear to ear grin. But there's no predicting it, so no pics of the smiles yet. Her coos come out sounding like "hi", which is fun, we're having very early conversations. I say hi, she said hi back, lol. We're on a good night time routine, again helped by good sleep during the day. We start our bedtime around 6:30 with nursing and rocking, sometimes a bath prior. Audrey's skin is sensitive and so is her body temperature, so she doesn't like bath at all. I'd hate to put her through it every night the way she screams:(. Some nights we don't have to go in at all and some nights we have to rock her repeatedly to get her to stay down. But she definitely knows her bedtime and starts getting craking between 5:30 and 6 pm. She's still waking twice at night, sometimes with a feeding around 11, sometimes not. Occasionally she's gassy in the morning, but not consistently and so a normal morning has her waking around 7. If she's been gassy, we're both in and out of sleep all morning long.

Laurel has gotten so much better with the baby crying. That's a huge relief. If we're in the car, she will be nervous about it and point out that she's crying, but there's not much I can do about it! Audrey does cry pretty much every car ride, so I really don't look forward to running errands and try to stay close to home. At least for now until Audrey gets better with her car seat. Laurel is always on spit patrol. She will point out a spit up very quickly and run to get a towel and rag off Audrey's face. Laurel is getting good at occupying herself when she has to. While I put Audrey down for bed, Laurel plays games on her iphone and watches shows on tv. She's become very independent, gung ho to do everything herself because she's a big sister now. She can hoist herself up onto the potty and wipe all by herself. I tried to hoist her up the other day and she complained about doing it herself, got down, and got back up on her own. Laurel is a little better at helping herself to her toys and playing a bit by herself. She wants to look at Audrey all the time and asks if she's awake. She likes to squeeze her "cheekies" and kiss her on the head. Laurel continues to go to school and is doing very well. She's made some little friends and is really enjoying their company. It's helpful to me that she goes to school right around the corner from the shop. I can just walk to pick her up. Audrey comes to the shop with me pretty often right now because she sleeps in her bjorn carrier and falls asleep. It's not the most convenient position, but i can press with her strapped to my front. Laurel is very sweet, she picks flowers for me on the walk from school:). Laurel is starting to draw with more recognizeable figures. She drew a huge circle with a circle inside and a tiny stem - the circle inside was the bite on an apple! She also can draw large circles with eyes, stick legs and arms and a string of hair. Laurel is able to put on her own clothes - after whatever battle takes place to choose an outfit! Most of the time she wants to wear dresses and I had to put away all of her summer ones so she wouldn't pick them from the closet to wear. She's picky about shoes still, but she's able to put some things on herself so it helps get out the door! Her conversation is more inquisitive, asking what things are, why things happen, where things are. She asked me when she would get boobies! I told her not until she was older, to which she replied - when I'm 4? She asked Grandma the other day where her Daddy was. Grandma replied that he was at work. Laurel said, Daddy loves to go to work? Grandma said, well, I'm not sure he loves it, but he likes it ok. All in all, she's becoming quite the independent free spirit - which also comes with some stubbornness. We've taken to bargaining on how many bites of food she has to eat before she's done, or what kind of clean up has to be accomplished before the next action of play. It's an interesting transition:).

Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T01:01:00.000-08:00

I of course forgot my camera! My brain is missing lately:). Will add some photos later when i snatch them from someone else.

For Thanksgiving this year, we started out with a lazy day. Up in the morning to watch the parade - which Laurel was interested in for about 5 minutes, despite my enthusiasm! Oh well:). The day flew by and it was time to drive down to Christy and Mike's. They had our family as well as Mike's over, so it was a full house. They put on a very nice buffet dinner and we sat around and chatted for most of the evening. Laurel as usual was running a muck with Amber:). We were joking that the two of them will be trouble some day - quite the pair! Audrey was pretty good in the car on the ride down. I was anticipating lots of crying but she fell asleep. She doesn't like her car seat, just like Laurel as a baby. She slept a lot on me, which was good, she is getting much more aware and active now, which makes naps touch and go. The drive back was a headache though, there was an accident and the drive took 2 hours, rather than 45 mins. Oye! Audrey cried on and off on the drive back and she twists her head back and forth when she cries. I had a hat on her and i think all of the movement pulled out lots of the hair that was already thinning and falling out. Now she's balding on top:).

sisters!

2010-11-22T22:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a cute shot of the sisters "playing". It's really just Audrey gazing at Laurel in awe and Laurel playing with Audrey's "cheekies". Laurel loves to see when Audrey is awake and her voice gets all high and squeaky when she talks to her. She tries to tickle Audrey and Audrey just watches her and stares. I can tell Laurel will be a source of entertainment down the road for sure:).

week 3

2010-11-19T22:00:00.000-08:00

So far, 3 weeks with a new baby and a 3 year old has gone pretty well! We've managed ok with daddy away at work during the day. Of course it helps emensely that Grandma is around the corner and Aunt Meg is off from work for a short while. Both are over the assist whenever they are free and I'm ever so thanksful! Mostly to keep Laurel entertained. We're slow to get started in the morning and I don't want to her watch more tv than she has to. This week, we got out a little more than I expected to, and I even put in some time at the shop. Laurel had a Thanksgiving lunch at her preschool, though she didn't really eat any of the Thanksgiving fare. But it was still fun to see the kids and other parents gather for the holiday. Thursday, we met up with her class at the library for a story time in the meeting room. We ran a little late, doing my best to get out of the house on time just takes longer than usual! Laurel got her first library card and we checked out a couple of books to take home for naptime reading. Audrey has spent a lot of time in the baby bjorn, handed down by Leora. Much more comfortable across the back than the jeep carrier we used with Laurel. Audrey falls right to sleep in it, just like Laurel did. Again, something about being bound tight to Mommy's chest. She's been a good sleeper at night still and I'm going to get her on a night schedule soon. She is definitely looking to go to bed earlier, her tired cues kick in right around 6:30/7pm. So we'll be trying that to see if she goes down easily. I decided to get her thrush medication filled. She's had a white coating on her tongue that hasn't grown but hasn't gone away either. The doctor wasn't positive that's what it was, but gave me a prescription to take home just in case.
Audrey is starting to be more aware - she follows well, keeps her eyes very wide open. She likes to make a little "o" shape with her mouth and is trying out facial expression. She's fun to watch. She takes your face in very attentively and really watches how your face moves. She's not mimicking yet, but she's exploring her own face as well.
So far she's been pretty similar to Laurel. I think my one wish is that she'd take a pacifier. It's a love/hate object - when Laurel had it, it was a blessing to be able to put her to sleep with it...but then we were constantly running in and out of her room to pop it back in when it fell out:). Audrey wants nothing to do with it and instead likes to linger at the breast and that's definitely an asset Daddy doesn't have!

2 weeks

2010-11-15T22:36:00.000-08:00

We've hit 2 weeks! Everything is going very well. Basically tired, but not horribly. Audrey continues to sleep and eat very well. She's having a little more wakeful time, but not a lot. She's sleeping a bit more predictably during the day, late morning and during laurel's nap in the afternoon for a long stretch. She's starting to show signs of wanting a bedtime, so we'll start to work on that soon. We went to the doctor and weighed in at 8 lbs, 9 oz! Putting on weight, growing like a weed:). When measured, she came up as more like 21 inches, not 21.5 like mentioned at the hospital, but oh well. Alex is back to work as well. I think he's looking forward to a little break from the home responsibilities. He was such a great help though, entertaining Laurel, cleaning and taking care of the house.
Audrey's skin has been flaking off and I can't tell if her hair is holding on or thinning a bit. She'll be out of newborn clothes quickly. I had a 3 month outfit that I know Laurel didn't wear this young, fitting Audrey pretty comfortably! She's making great eye contact, follows very well. Her neck is also very strong, she'll be trying to hold up her head before we know it!

2010-11-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

Christy and Mike came to see the baby today. Angie and Joe came up as well and they all brought food and cooked us a fantastic meal! Our apt. is "cozy" so we all sat closely for dinner and then spent some down time afterwards together. Audrey loves to sleep on other people - particularly women (maybe because of the padding!) but it gave me a nice rest to hand her off to someone else for a while.

Laurel's 3 year check-up

2010-11-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

Laurel had a doctor appointment to check in after 3 years. She's 32 pounds and 38 inches tall. All in all, a healthy girl! I asked about a couple of minor things that I've always wondered about - like the webbing at the corner of her eyes (just the way she's made), and the little bump on her leg (birth mark).

I ended up coming back to the doctor later in the day because Audrey's umbilical stump was bleeding. The scab had fallen off over the weekend, but the inside of her new belly button was oozing. The doctor looked at it and determined that there wasn't anything of concern, no infection. But he did cover it with a bandage so that it could clot.

one week old

2010-11-08T22:15:00.000-08:00

On Friday, Cyndy and the girls came for a visit. Laurel was at school for the morning, but was beside herself with excitement to come home and see her cousins. Alex said she was content to play at school when he showed up, but when he mentioned that the girls were at the apt., she ran for the car! In the garage, she was saying - hurry daddy, hurry! The usual giggles and excitement bubbled up when they all saw each other and then they ran to play in Laurel's room. Sierra was interested in holding the baby often, but each time she sat with her, Audrey filled her diaper:). As per usual, Audrey was a good baby, little complaining, happy to sit with her Aunt.

Audrey's first week thus far has been going pretty well. She sleeps a lot, poops constantly, eats very well. We had a couple of fluke nights where she slept for a huge stretch of time - 5-6 hours. I've gotten a decent amount of sleep too, so we're faring pretty well. Mom has cooked for us and I've made a short trip to the grocery. That trip ended up being too much for me physically, still very exhausted. Laurel and Alex have been taking daily outings together. They've walked for ice cream, gone to the movies. Laurel has gotten to be much more loving with Audrey. She's tolerating the crying jags better and better each day. Laurel herself is still a bit more obstinant and stubborn that usual. She's talking back and pushing the envelope. But we're hopeful that it's a phase as she gets used to the changes in the house.

Family of 4!

2010-11-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

We welcomed Audrey Grace on November 1st at 7:01 a.m. She weighed in at 8 pounds even and measured 21.5" long. She's lovely and our first couple of nights have gone so well. We stayed 2 days/nights in the hospital and went home Wednesday. So far, she's a pretty easy baby:). She is very alert, only cries for the usual reasons, and sleeps very well! Laurel was very excited to visit her new sister in the hospital. I cried like a baby myself when I saw them first meet each other:). My babies! She is mostly enthusiastic about the baby, wanted to hold and kiss her at the hospital. We did have a difficult jag where the baby cried and Laurel sobbed because the crying upset her. On our second day, Laurel didn't want to come into the room and was very emotional. Since we've gotten home though, she's gotten a little better with it and just gets wary around Audrey when she cries. Audrey is enjoying her swing, but mostly loves to be held. But her most favorite thing so far is milk:). Mine has just come in and she can't get enough!

My last entry on Audrey's pregnancy blog is her birth story:)
http://babycrowd.com/jr/online/velezbaby2/

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

I'm actually writing this well after Halloween, but am back dating it to be on Halloween so the posts are in order:). Audrey's birth came the very morning after, so we have been occupied;).

On Halloween, Laurel donned her Jessie costume yet again and we went Trick or Treating with the Mauck family in their neighborhood. I waddled around 7 days past my due date:). Laurel was gang busters about visiting the houses until we went up to one or two that had particularly scary decorations. After that she was very apprehensive:(. But once she got her candy, after much encouragement to approach, she was more than eager to go on to the next one. Watching the little ones go up to the door and say trick or treat was just too cute for words! I really enjoyed being the parent walking them around.

Laurel has really loved Halloween this year, much to Alex's delight. It's his favorite holiday:). She is so sweet how excited she has been. She's always so eager and easy to please. Her enthusiasm has been so endearing. She's game for anything and is so fun to be around:).

Baby Shower

2010-10-13T22:55:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was Alex's birthday and my baby shower. Christy hosted both on Alex's birthday at her house. The shower was small, just a few close friends and family. Some husbands and friends of Alex's came after the shower for a bbq. It was a really nice time with friends:). The kids all got into the backyard pool, which was so cold! Eventually they all ended up clustered in the hot tub which was just warm.
For the shower, we played some games, one being selecting the best baby sculpted from play dough:). I got several things I needed off of my registry and lots of sweet new baby clothes. It's nice to have some things new for this baby since I have so much that I've saved to hand down. I thought Laurel would want to take part in the shower and open gifts, but she was too busy playing with her cousins and friends. She's turned into such a social butterfly. She knew everyone at the shower of course, but even when we go to the park or Grandma takes her to the library or elsewhere, she always looks for other children and wants to befriend them:).

Disney Halloween

2010-10-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

Halloween started early for us this month. We wanted to take part in the Disneyland trick or treating, but earlier in the month, not knowing how I'd do with all the walking. Laurel decided she wanted to be Jessie for Halloween. She is so very excited this year. She wanted to choose yet another princess costume but after showing her all of the options online, she picked Jessie. I let her put it on when the package came and she didn't want to take it off:). She makes the cutest little Jessie ever!
Grandma came a long and we met up with Rob, Cyndy and the girls in the park. The lines for candy were long, but the rides were open and we were able to jump onto a few that normally have huge lines during the day. Laurel as usual, was thrilled to spend time with her cousins. They squealed and ran about together. They are so cute. The park put on a fun Halloween parade and a really nice fireworks show. As usual, Laurel was so sad to leave "Mickeyland" and her cousins:(. But I'd had my fill of walking and needed to waddle back:).
She is now asking for more Halloween and points out pumpkins and decorations on stores and houses wherever we drive. Anything Halloween gets a "yeah!", "ok!" and "lets do it!" from her:). Her enthusiasm is contagious. This is going to be the most fun I've had on Halloween yet. She will be having a little party at school at the end of the month too.

Starting Preschool

2010-10-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

Our baby has officially started preschool! Laurel started at 1st Class Pre-K and everything has been fantastic. Her teacher is young and the kids call her Teacher Sugar. I stayed for her entire first day to see what they do and Laurel had a great time! I think her time at the Twispp program really helped with her independence - she didn't need me there at all. But I was curious to watch her first day. The kids all show up around 9 am and play either at the tables with set out activities, or on the carpets with play things. At 9:45 they clean up and they are moved to the alphabet carpet and they each have to find letters that the teacher assigns them. They go over the day of the week, month, season, weather, etc. They have a snack and then they have story time and other carpet activities. Around 11 they go outside for playtime on the playground and then come back in at 11:45 and wash up for lunch. Some children stay until 1 and eat lunch on site. I pick up Laurel at 12, so she can start on her lunch, but we wrap up and leave. The best part is that her little school is right around the corner from Copper Willow. Until the baby comes of course, I can work during her school hours and get so much done! I am just happy that she likes the school and will be able to make some new little friends. I'm so proud of the growth she's made!

Laurel turns 3!

2010-08-31T23:20:00.000-07:00

Today is Laurel's birthday! We just got back from eating out for her birthday and opening presents. Making a prompt post while I can before I let too much time pass. :)

On Sunday we went to Disneyland for a big celebration. I made appts. for Laurel, Amber and Sierra to have their hair and make up done at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and then lunch at Ariel's Grotto to meet the princesses. It was a great day! Laurel had a lot of fun and loved being all dressed up. Aunt Cyndy and Uncle Rob got her a very nice sleeping beauty costume complete with crown, purse and gloves. Laurel opted to have her hair put up with pink hair extensions and pink bouffant. She doesn't like the idea of a bun in her hair because she is too concerned about the status of her "curlies". She loves her curly hair! She wore her fancy hair and makeup all day with her Aurora costume.

The lunch was a lot of fun because so many princesses were there. They posed with Ariel upon entering the restaurant and then Cinderella, Belle, Snow White and Aurora walked around the room for pictures. Laurel is loving Aurora the most right now, maybe just because she wears Laurel's favorite color - pink! When Belle came around, Aurora was after her and she ran up to Belle and said "look there's Aurora"! So funny:).

We were able to ride on a couple of rides and got some dole whip ice cream. The park was quite busy because most kids started back at school this week. I was pretty exhausted from walking around the park all day. The baby weight is really taking a toll on my muscles and feet. So by the time evening arrived, we were ready to head home and get cleaned up. We thought Laurel's hair definitely needed to be washed out!:)

Today we had a pretty chill day. Laurel went to her gym class and she got a birthday sticker. Otherwise, I asked her what else she wanted to do and she just wanted to spend time at home. So we hung out in her room and she made me food in her kitchen and played with her castle. After a nice long nap for us both, we got ready to go out for dinner. We met up with Ryan, Leora and kids for pizza. Grandma and Aunt Meg came along as well. I baked and decorated a cake in the princess theme - Aurora of course! Laurel was very excited for her birthday all day. She enjoyed even singing to herself and announcing that she was 3! When we got home from dinner, we opened presents. She got lots of new things for her play kitchen, some new costume wear, the leap frog reader, and some other little toys and clothes. It was so hard to get her to go to bed right after! We'll have to open presents earlier in the day next year so she has time to play.

She is definitely looking and acting like a three year old. There was a two year old boy in her gym class today and she looked so much older than him. She's thinned out a little bit and her cheeks can't be described as chubby anymore. She's verbal and active and makes funny comments. She's a very entertaining little person!:)

To Georgia!

2010-07-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

We've recently returned from a relaxing visit to my aunt and uncle's home in Georgia. This is something I hope to do annually if we can. Living in a city, I really want my children to know life in a less urban setting. It's very fortunate that we have familiy in a nice rural setting about an hour outside of Savannah. I really love their company and know Laurel and the baby will really enjoy knowing them as they grow up. Laurel was last there just before she turned one and though she didn't remember it, she warmed up quickly!

We went for a week with mom. Laurel was a great traveler as usual. She watches videos on the little player, does stickers, colors, etc. She fell asleep at one point on the way there, so that makes life a little easier. And after 2 years old, we have to buy her a seat, so I didn't try to cram her onto my already crowded lap. The trip back was just as easy and we were delayed on our flight out, so she fell asleep then too because it had gotten so late.

The trip highlight for Laurel was easily the pool. She's a water baby for sure! There were plenty of floaties for Laurel to hang on to and jump into - she liked to jump off the side of the pool into one of the disk shaped floats. She made some great progress in the pool, even blowing little bubbles at the surface. Just near the pool, some birds had made a nest and the babies had hatched, so when we were outside, we'd peek in and see the little mouths gaping open:).

We of course ate lots of great food, Aunt Peggy is a great chef. Laurel helped on occasion and even had her own little apron made for her! On one comic instance, she helped make a really nice peach/blueberry pie. We were taking pictures of her with the "masterpiece" and she lost her balance and everything fell onto the floor! We also made some very creatively decorated sugar cookies:). The peaches in the pie were from a peach-picking we did shortly after arriving. We picked a ton! Laurel was a pro at the picking and later instructed me on how to do it right "mommy, you have to twist and pull!" Got it:). We ate those peaches all day everyday for the rest of the week!

Laurel also had some great time with animals. We visited a farm with goats, chickens and sheep. Later in the week, we went to a friend's who train horses and Laurel came out of her shell and road one! She didn't want to get off! I was so shocked that she was so bold, usually she's so shy to new things. Laurel also enjoyed some time with the cats. Occasionally she got out of control and over excited with them, but they were very chill and patient with her squealing. She also liked to watch the hummingbirds and other birds that frequented their feeders.

Overall, Laurel stayed on about pacific/mountain time:). So we stayed up later and woke up later. I went to bed with her though, so I got nice long nights of sleep. Laurel enjoyed the snuggle time, she's such a cuddler! Laurel enjoyed some down time in the evenings. coloring and doing puzzles. Aunt Peggy set us up with lots of kiddie things so Laurel was very well entertained. Plus she loves to wrestle and Uncle Don was a good sport to humor her on a nightly basis. So, it was a great visit and went by too quickly, as good times do! Hopefully we'll go again soon.

Moving on from toddler school...

2010-07-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

Lately Laurel has been disenchanted with her toddler school. She's been going Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11:45. Overall, it's been a fantastic experience for her. I am so grateful for the amount of progress she has made as a result of the school. At 18 months she was terrified of being separated from us and cried and was so clingy and dependent. You'd think that would be ideal and as much as we love her, we knew she needed to grow as a little person. I'm sure I posted about it back then, but the transition to leaving her alone was rough. She cried and was so sad. It was a long process for me to leave her alone. But she made friends, became social, learned to follow instruction, sit and listen, etc. Even now, I find her doing something out of a school habit, like tucking her socks into her shoes when she takes them all off. I've caught her reading and book and turning it around to show her "class" at home:). Some of her favorite songs to sing are from that school.
Anyway, lately she hasn't wanted to go and has gotten upset. With preschool approaching in the fall, we decided it would be a good time for her to have some summer fun and a break from school before starting up with bigger kids in the fall. She is also aging out as younger kids are coming into the class, she may be a little bored.
The last few times I took her to the school were sad for me. I didn't like to see her unhappy again and also I was recognizing that she was getting older and isn't a baby anymore. The early years have gone by so fast for her! I think I'm going to be that kind of mom that cries at each stage of life:).
These are some pictures of her last day of school, which was a field trip to the beach - turned out to be a chilly day, but she still had a blast!

Laurel sings

2010-06-16T17:29:00.000-07:00

Sometime in May Laurel made a huge language leap. She'd been speaking in phrases just fine but now the sentences are flowing and she babbles and holds up full on conversations. It's so much fun! She used to say something and I would comment. Or I would ask a question and she might make a comment. Now we go back and forth and she has opinions and questions. Laurel is also developing personality with her comments. She can be stern and ordering or excited, mischievous, sad or just plain happy. She will even declare that she's so happy or that she's sad. Occasionally she will be mad and even fold her arms on her chest:). When she's ordering she will point at you and reprimand. It's hard to keep a straight face! She can never hide her excitement over doing something she wants to do and even giggles with glee. I always used to look forward to when we would hear a lot of chatter, well sometimes the chatter doesn't stop. She has tons to say from the back seat of the car and always interrupts her bedtime books to make comments.

Laurel also started singing her songs independently. Sometimes when we sang she would sing along but now she will burst into song all by herself. Abcs, itsy bitsy spider, slippery fish, twinkle twinkle, 3 little monkeys, etc. Three little monkeys is especially amusing because she sings it with such gusto! I will have to get some of her other songs on video. And she doesn't like to be interrupted. She has to finish her song if she's started it. Much like the disney cds in the car. We don't get out of the car until the song has finished.

Saying good bye to the baby potty!

2010-06-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

Laurel is officially doing her poops in the potty! A big milestone for her because she was so apprehensive and scared of it for so long. She's been great with the pee for a while, even perching herself up on the big toilet without a potty seat on top. Much like getting started on the pee, it just took a good push. We told her she had to make all of her poops in the potty before she could go swimming. And ta da! Every now and then she asks for a diaper but we tell her no and she accepts it and goes in the toilet. At first it seemed like she really held onto it and waited as long as possible before reluctantly doing her #2 in the potty. But now she will sit and sometimes it just pops out and she's surprised and pleased with herself. She loves to run out to whomever will listen and say that she has peed and pooped:). She of course gets tons of praise, so who can blame her?

baby girl!

2010-06-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Laurel at our 20 week ultrasound:). She came along for the big news that she's going to have a sister! I didn't think I'd care either way, but I was so excited to find out we're having another girl. Laurel and she will be so lucky to have each other. The news is still just 85% confirmed by the doctor, so we'll have another look at our 22 week detailed ultrasound. But for now, we're on cloud 9!:)
Laurel decided to try out the "stirrups"!

Memorial Weekend in San Francisco

2010-06-04T15:22:00.000-07:00

Over Memorial weekend, the three of us drove up to San Francisco for a quick visit to our old stomping grounds. We drove up late Friday night and checked in at about 1 am. We all shared the king bed together, nice and cozy:). Laurel has had quite a spring for little colds and was snotty and cranky on the drive up. Though we were constantly blowing her nose, she seemed in pretty good spirits. The weekend was very busy for tourism, so we stayed out of the city and decided to take some public transportation. Saturday we took BART into the city and then rode a trolley car over the middle of the city down to the Fisherman's Wharf area. Normally an area I really liked visiting, it was so crowded and not very easy to navigate. We did make it over to the sea lions and grabbed some ice cream on the pier. Shopped a little and ate at Ghirardelli Square. We rode the F train around to the BART station again and made our way back out to the hotel. I picked the hotel in favor of a pool since Laurel is really enjoying water right now. She calls the hotel a "hotel-o". Not sure why:). The pool temperature was too cool for our liking but we endured it and got out when Laurel's teeth were chattering, even if she was upset to be getting out.
On Sunday we decided to drive in and visit Golden Gate Park. We walked around Stow Lake and saw lots of turtles and ducks. Laurel really wanted to ride the paddle boats, but once again it was a crowded day. We walked over to the newly renovated Science museum in the park. It was closed before Alex and I moved to LA but has been refurbished and was a lot of fun to navigate. Laurel really enjoyed the butterflies in the rainforest and the fish and creatures in the downstairs aquarium. We capped our day with a visit to Japantown and ate at our favorite Japanese restaurant. Oh and more swimming in the cold pool:).
Monday, we had the intentions of getting up and running into the city for brunch and to check out the Golden Gate Bridge, but our fog-free luck ran out and the city was socked in. So we headed home early. All in all, a fun weekend and Laurel was a trooper with her sniffles.

Laurel's time without Mommy

2010-05-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-05-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

Looking back through the blog, I realized I've skipped Easter! Guess that's what happens when life gets busy! Easter weekend was quite full for all of us. Mom, Megan and I had been practicing every Thursday for weeks now to sing at the Hollywood Bowl on Easter morning.
Friday evening we dyed eggs with Laurel. We did the same last year, but the older she grows, the more hands on and excited she is to do holiday activities. Alex picked up some egg coloring kits and one included Disney princess stickers, so that was an instant hit! We dyed about 18 eggs, some being dropped along the way:)...and she wanted to do more and more!
Saturday we had rehearsal at the Hollywood Bowl and the performance on Sunday. Laurel and Alex came to the Bowl with us for the early a.m. call time. They spent time running laps around the arena. After the service, we drove down to Orange County for the afternoon at Alex's parents' house. They hired the "Paella Man" to come and make a huge serving of paella for everyone. The biggest pan I've ever seen! Laurel ran around with Amber and Sierra as usual. Amber has declared Laurel to be her best friend. They have little tiffs throughout their play, but they're sharing a great bond as cousins. We also had the pleasure of meeting Mike's family and having the two families mix before Christy and Mike get married in June. All around it was a really nice day. Unfortunately Laurel had been working on a cold, so she was sniffly all day and her poor little nose was red. In pictures, her nose is flared a lot, to keep the snot from running out! She hasn't yet mastered blowing out of her nose. When she smells a flower, she blows out, not in, but that hasn't carried over yet to blowing her nose.

It was also around Easter that we announced our second pregnancy! I am keeping a blog again for this baby - http://babycrowd.com/jr/online/velezbaby2/. We planned for the kids to be 3 years or more apart, so this one is right on track, due around October 24th. We waited until towards the end of the 1st trimester to announce because of the bleeding and minor trauma I had with Laurel during her 1st trimester. Around the 11th week with this one, I also had some minor bleeding, but experience gained me some composure and I went on with life as normal. Laurel is starting to understand that a baby is going to be in the picture, but until I actually "show" more, she probably won't grasp the idea. Anyway, I'll be keeping my baby posts on the other blog so I have them to save for the 2nd baby!

Our little character

2010-04-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

I hear a lot of people complain about kids at the age of 2, even 3. I definitely have some moments where I can see complaining about some of the things she does, but the rest of the things about her right now are just priceless! I'm actually really enjoying this age. I'm finding that as kind of a relief. I'm sure there's more difficult behavior to come - we haven't hit a temper tantrum stage yet - but right now, I'm having a lot of fun with her.

She's started to sing! Laurel has the sweetest little voice and I just love listening to her. She's initiated her "slippery fish" song for a while now with the first few words. But now she can sing along with most of it. I will find her playing or wandering around singing "twinkle, twinkle" or "itsy bitsy spider". her words will go something like this...
"itsy spider...up water spout...down rain, wash spider out...up sun and dry rain...itsy spider up spout 'gain". So cute! The other day she sang for Mom and Megan and abbreviated it to "itsy spider - watch out!" It was so funny we were laughing for the longest time. Laurel seemed proud of herself that we found her so funny. Laurel also sings some of the words to the mickey mouse theme song. We listen to a

Disney collection of movie and tv songs in the car. So she can officially spell her first couple of words, she just doesn't realize that's what she's doing. M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E, mickey mouse - donald duck! - mickey mouse - donald duck!

She's become a good grocery shopping helper. She knows she gets a reward in the end - m&m's at the checkout - but she's made the task a lot more pleasant than it used to be. She sits in the cart seat and helps put fruit into the bag and tosses boxes back into the cart. She also loves to help at home. She's always eager "I help, mama!" When we get home with the groceries, she runs and finds her step stool and I had her things that go in the cupboard and she sets them up on the counter for me. I'll open the fridge door and tell her to put this or that where they belong. The same applies to cooking. She gets that step stool and stands up so she can somewhat reach the counter and likes to help stir, dump in the measuring spoons and cups full of ingredients. Sometimes the meals take little work and she wants more cooking action!

Laurel is a super love bug. She is more cuddly now than she was last summer. She has accomplished her running and walking skills, is working on her expert chatting skills, and has more time for cuddles and loving. She gives spontaneous kisses which always make my day. Sometimes she grabs our faces by the cheeks and lays a big juicy one on our lips. Those are real heart melters. When she's happy and content, she'll reach over and grab my arm and kiss my hand...or my elbow, whatever is closest! She's even walked up and kissed our rears if she's feeling lovey and that's the highest she can reach! Her hugs are super fierce and tight and she loves when we do the same back. She calls them "everyone kiss" or "everyone hug" and she means alex and I both taking one side of her and hugging and kissing her cheeks at the same time. She's an excellent morning cuddler. She comes into our bed at night still and so in the morning, loves to squish up to one of us for morning cuddles. It's the best feeling. And of course, she's learned "I love you" and knows what it means, so we hear that spontaneously now and then.

Laurel has gotten so funny! She makes funny remarks and does silly or quirky things. Sometimes she doesn't even mean to be funny, she just cracks me up anyway. Right now she wants to go up and down the stairs without any assistance. To the point where she will furrow her brow sternly and order me to wait at the bottom of the stairs. She will use vocabulary that I've never heard her use before. Last week she didn't want to wear the shirt that was picked out for her, so I asked her to pick something else out. She really wanted to wear her pink minnie shirt. She giggled with excitement when I put it on her and then said, "oh I'm so gorgeous!" I cracked up! There's so many in this funny category that I will definitely need to start writing them down on a regular basis!

Potty training - for real this time!

2010-04-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

Over the past year, we've had lots of potty interaction. We got her little potty last summer because she was expressing an interest, but she wasn't ready to make that leap yet. The interest turned into a fear of it, so we let it go all fall. Eventually she was ok with sitting on it again, but was nervous about doing anything into it. Finally, we had a major breakthrough!

Laurel got another cold over the weekend, but it was really very mild, mostly snot. But the snot was heavy, so I kept her home from school on Tuesday. I'd heard that not only do the kids have to be ready, but the parent has to be ready too. Ready to help with the progress, deal with the messes, find potties in public in emergencies. I'm not sure I was actually ready before, it all sounded exhausting! But when she was home, I woke up that morning and thought - that's it, I'm done with diapers. I don't want to change them anymore. So she got up in the morning and I told her we were done with diapers and it was time to pick out panties. There was a little whimper, but before I knew it, she was in panties and fine with it! I put her potty in the living room and we had a low key day. She was in just panties and a shirt and she sat on the potty a lot. And she peed!! There was so much excitement. She likes to see the potty process the whole way through. So she pees, we wipe, we carry the pee in the little bucket to the toilet, pour it in, flush, wash hands - the end! I was just shocked by how easily she accepted the potty-only option.

We are on our third day now of potty use! She had one accident yesterday when she was playing outside and I think waited until she couldn't hold it anymore and completely soaked her panties, pants, socks - and shoes!! She was very upset. Otherwise, she will sit when I ask her and she is taking less and less time to start a flow. She's also decided that her reward choice is to watch Donald Duck (50's-60's era) shorts on you tube. So it's been easy to say, time to pee-pee and if you go, you can watch a Donald! Instant crowd pleaser.

Before I had Laurel is used to think bribery was not a good idea. But it really works for Laurel. Her personality type means she's cautious and says "no" before even trying something. So I've stopped looking at it as bribery, but instead believing I am rewarding her for good behavior, following instructions, trying new things. She embraces reward and praise and I enjoy making rewarding her. She's been such a good girl with the potty, I am so happy to finally have tackled this with her!

Busy Spring!

2010-03-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

I've been just swamped at work this spring. Good because things are sailing along well, but bad because we are overloaded and have gotten behind. Orders came in from the Gift Show in New York in abundance - that was Beginning of Feb. We've had some great custom work as well. Between the two we're starting to need to reassess our need for hired help. So things should get interesting. I'm usually reluctant to hand over my work to someone else, but I also need to realize I can't do it all! That's been a tough one.

My mom has been a great help. She is working in the store and takes Laurel a lot of mornings for me. It's nice to have the extra time to get things done in the morning so that I can really appreciate my time with Laurel in the afternoon. Laurel is always a good sport and loves spending time with everyone. The attachment she had as a baby is long gone and she really enjoys other people now. She loves being at Grandma's apartment and she's lucky that my mom has sent up a fun environment for her there. Laurel loves to feed the fish and the hamster and tends to the dog a lot. Molly is very patient with her now, at first being afraid of a tiny person! Laurel is very loving and gives her kisses. Grandma has tons of puzzles and books and keeps a cupboard stocked with creative games and toys. A lot of the time I have no plans to leave her at Grandma's, but Laurel will request to go there.

Laurel is doing really well at school and her teachers have even commented on her progress. She is talkative, follows directions, very active in her gym time and is all around happy with fun to be around. I was told she is "awesome to have in class", by one of her teachers. Makes me so proud she is doing so well, but it also means she is growing up so fast! She has no trouble expressing herself to us. The sentence structure sometimes misses "and", "in", "on", and other conjunctions, but she knows more than enough words to completely express herself. We are working on saying "no, thank you" when refusing something instead of getting upset. Her regular please and thank you is coming without prompting, so she's turning into such a polite little girl!:)

Potty!

2010-02-10T20:34:00.000-08:00

Laurel is using the potty! Not all the time or even everyday, but she has used it and we are so excited! We've all be sick for a long time this winter. The nastiest cold bug I've ever experienced has just been cycling through the people in our home. Laurel brought it home mid January and Alex immediately got sick. I then got it shortly after and it stuck with me for what seems like forever! It would fade and then rage on with new symptoms. Anyway, being sick left us at home a lot with little desire to leave. Perfect time for potty. Alex and I were home with Laurel and she agreed to panties. She just wouldn't pee on the potty so we dangled stickers and candy in front of her and so she sat and sat. Finally she peed and we almost held her down so she wouldn't stand up! But finally having an official bladder emptying on the potty seemed to relieve her apprehension. We of course had much rejoicing:) - singing, dancing, saying bye to the pee in the big potty and a whole strip of stickers! Laurel is decorating her potty with lots of stickers of Ariel, Mickey and other Disney characters. But otherwise, her potty inclinations seem to be dependant on what she can get, not because she wants to use it. So we still use diapers a lot. Hopefully though she will make the full transition soon. She just has to decide she doesn't want to wear a diaper anymore! She really doesn't make any accidents in her panties, so we are so very close!

Moving Copper Willow!

2010-01-29T22:31:00.000-08:00

My January has been consumed by a big move in my business. Last fall, Leora and I decided it was time to think about moving. We were outgrowing our space and as a whole, the old space wasn't up to snuff. After viewing lots of spaces and even going through some bidding on a couple, we landed a space in the arts district of Culver City. Not a super busy area as of yet, but just down the street from the super busy downtown area, so hopefully the trend with travel that way. We signed our lease around Christmas and immediately brought in a contractor to ammend some walls and paint. We moved out of the old space by the 18th, which was very strenuous. We had movers relocate the machinery of course, but we really had so much stuff otherwise! Lots was donated, recycled or trashed. Lots still left over from the old owner. The set up of the new space quickly followed so we could honor a "soft" opening (no publicized) for Feb. 1. The space is looking great! Still lots of details remaining like some lighting and painting, signage, some shelf stocking, etc.

My mom has been a great help during this process. I've had to be at the shop constantly, so she's pitched in a ton of free time to help with Laurel's care. Mom is also one of the vendors who will be participating in our co-op retail space. She's going to be making paper floral arrangements.

Laurel seems to like the space a lot. Lots of room for her to run about and right now, too many things for her to make mischief with! I've been keeping her out for the most part because our heating unit is being replaced and it's been very cold.

We've had a ton of rain. Both during the move and mostly during the set up of the new store. The temparatures and moist weather have made the experience less that comfortable. In one of our many outings to the "mickey store", I bought Laurel some Minnie rain boots that she just loves to wear:).

Laurel is breaking out of her Disney-only clothing rule. She loves dresses, red and green ones especially. If it's not something Disney, she will wear a dress. If it's neither of those, I have to find some feature on the shirt or about the pants that is so pretty and cute that I can gush to her about! Laurel's favorite non-Disney things are those passed down to her by her cousin, Amber - 8 months older. If I tell Laurel it is Amber's sweater or shoes, she loves to wear it!
Laurel is still resisting the potty, so we're just waiting it out. But in food, she's made some acceptions. She is now enjoying peanut butter - especially on apples. She just loves it. She doesn't like to hold the apple with peanut butter because she doesn't like to get the peanut butter on her fingers. She's a clean, non-sticky girl. She doesn't like mess, gunk on her hands, and therefore won't touch things that she knows will mess her hands. Laurel's motor skills are advancing nicely. She is becoming very confident on stairs, eagerly using the hand rail to go up and down and insisting on doing it herself. on some stairs she will even slowly stomp up the stairs without using the rail at all. She's quite proud of herself:). Laurel's vocab has made some great leaps too. She's been working on her 3+ word phrases all of January but only recently starting talking about how she feels - I am tired, I am hungry for dinner. Also things that she wants or needs - I need napkin, I want tv on, etc. She just seems like a sponge lately!

Laurel is becoming a great little friend to other kids at her play school. She talks often about her friend George and my mom saw her playing and holding hands with some other tots when she picked Laurel up one day. Kids seem to be drawn to each other, so whenever we go anywhere and she runs into someone else her size, an interesting interaction occurs. They talk and giggle, sometimes shy, but then they play and get silly.
When playing she likes to push baby dolls in her stroller, play with her characters in the castle, serve and play tea, do puzzles, read books, color and paint. Her favorite thing is stickers still, lots of sticker books litter the house. She also likes the potato heads and play dough.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-19T18:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was pretty chill. We didn't travel much this fall at all now that most of our loved ones are located on the west coast. As Christmas came closer, I realized I had shopped for pretty much everything in needed and was ready way ahead. That was nice. Copper Willow's schedule though has been hectic. All in good ways, but all at the same time! Our holiday album was only in a few stores this year, it's debut season, but was a hit! So there was lots of busy-ness in custom-land. We've also decided to move! That's a big deal. We found a spot on Washington, in what hopes to be an up and coming area of Culver City, in the arts district. Our contractor has started and should finish up after the new year for a mid-Jan move for us. It will be quite a project as we still haven't fully gone through everything left over by the previous owner! But the new space is bigger and should be a really nice paper and printing haven for our little business.
In the midst of all of that, Laurel had gotten ready for Christmas. Presents slowly started collecting under the tree. She helped me wrap by putting some tape on, picking bows and scribbling her name on the tags. She even remembered which presents are for who, just by the wrapping!
Christmas Day started at Laurel's usual wake-up hour, 8 am. (Over time her 7/7:30 wake up got pushed later and so did everything else. She goes to bed around 9:30 and naps around 1:30...she's a night owl). Mom and Megan were with us in the morning to start with Laurel's stocking and breakfast. We then went for the presents and after all of that was finished, there were many naps taken! After everyone arose, we drove down to Mike's house in Yorba Linda. Christy and Mike got engaged a few weeks prior and so there was a lot of celebrating and toasting for multiple occasions!
Laurel was great with opening presents with great appreciation. Her Disneyland princess castle was easily a hit. She also has a tricycle, some new clothes, some new dress up items and some games and play figurines. The present opening in Orange County was a flurry of excitement and flying paper as usual. The kids were the best part, I think we could have all just watched them as a present:).

Getting ready for Christmas

2009-12-12T21:16:00.000-08:00

Now that Laurel is too and much more aware, we are talking about Santa and Jesus. She attends sunday school at church frequently and is slowly getting used to chatting about more religious ideas. My mom has a little nativity scene up and Laurel already understood without much explaining that the baby in the manger is Jesus, the same one we talk about at church. She loves the little figurines and thinks they're fun to play with, but they're more delicate and so she gets upset when she knocks the angel off of his perch.
We got a tree from a nearby vendor and brought it home to decorate. If i were Laurel's age, I'd think this was pretty strange, but she just dove into decorating it and loved to handle all of the little ornaments. She played a tune on one of them so many times that it broke. She thinks all of the angel ornaments are her babies:). Her first ornament hung was from our visit to Disney World this year. She likes to look at the lights on the tree and we hung lights inside the condo since we're in a complex and not a house anymore.
We have also started to wrap presents and she loves to help with the tape. I put a little piece of tape on her finger and she puts it where i tell her on the package...most of the time! She signs her name with a scribble on the gift labels and sticks them on the top. Together we write her name, she likes to see and hear me tell her the letters. She has a great memory because she knows for whom each gift under the tree is for. Every now and then she'll go over and point to the presents and shout out who is getting them.
Without much help, Laurel has also learned who Santa is this year. She understands he is coming and will bring her presents. But she won't go near him with a 10 foot pole at the mall! Maybe someday we'll get a seated picture with Santa. I guess a large hairy man could be intimidating!
We still have lots of presents to wrap and cookies to make before Christmas arrives. I'm sure Laurel will be a great helper for all things.

Thanksgiving 09

2009-12-02T21:10:00.000-08:00

Here's some quick pics from our Thanksgiving at Mike's house. Christy is living with Mike while Angie and Joe's house is being renovated, so we had the privilege of visiting his home for the holiday. They put out an amazing meal in a beautiful setting. The kids had fun with each other as usual!

Laurel likes...

2009-11-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

Now that Laurel is a little over 2, packed with personality and likes and dislikes, I thought it would be fun to make a long list of things she likes and doesn't like around each birthday. A little late this year, but here goes the "Laurel likes/dislikes at age 2" list.

Laurel likes:
Mickey, Minnie, Disney, princesses, Ariel, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, Disneyland, Disney Store, babies, milk, her blanket, pasta, clothes with disney characters, to have to jackets zipped, dress up clothes, shoes, princess shoes, her thumb, lollipops, gummi vitamins, peas and corn, bread, watching movies, coin operated riding toys at the mall, french fries, cuddles, stacking anything, jewelry, older kids (ryder and sierra in particular), animals, beach, playground, climbing, jumping, green dresses, to feed us or a baby doll, apple juice, monsters inc., to play in her kitchen, to dance, to sing songs

fav shows: dora the explorer, mickey mouse clubhouse, handy manny, ni-hao kai-lan, smurfs, olivia, go diego go. she still like some sesame street, but seems to be moving on.

books we're reading right now: olivia, go dog go, corduroy

songs she likes: 6 little ducks, old macdonald, wheels on the bus, slippery fish, abc's

she can count to 13 with some help, name the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue purple, white, brown and black, point out circle square, star and heart

Laurel does not like:
trying new foods, sleeping with socks on, a dirty diaper (potty training around the corner!), having her hair fixed up, having her hands dirty, to sleep in her toddler bed all night long,

The Halloween Recap

2009-11-02T22:59:00.000-08:00

Laurel had a great time for Halloween this year. Of course, we all did since she enjoyed herself! On the 29th, we went to Disneyland with Ryder, Leora and Grandma. Laurel wore her Minnie dress, and sometimes the ears after some protest. The park puts Halloween on after hours in California Adventure. There's trick or treat stops all over the park, some dance party spots, a handful of rides open and a parade. Laurel always gets a thrill over seeing Minnie and Mickey and had a great time with Ryder.

On Halloween, we all went down to Orange County to trick or treat with the cousins. We met up in Rob and Cyndy's neighborhood and caught up with them on their candy route. Sierra was dressed as Jasmine, Amber as a fairy for the Tinkerbell world. Each of the girls had a light up pumpkin "wand" to light the way. Laurel carried her green pumpkin for candy and attached herself to Sierra at every opportunity. Sierra guided her around to houses and helped her to the door. Laurel is just crazy about her cousin! Amber and Laurel walked about hand-in-hand when Sierra was too far away. Laurel was a little afraid to go up to the doors and talk to strangers. But with the help of cousins and Grandpa, she made it up to several houses and brought home a nice collection of sweets. Afterwards, we went out to dinner with the Grandmas, Grandpa, Christy and Mike. Laurel is now crazy for candy and loves her "M's", especially the peanut ones.

Laurel's 2 year check up

2009-10-28T00:10:00.000-07:00

At the end of last week we had Laurel's 2 year check up. It was postponed twice, but we finally made it in! After much crying and screaming, Laurel finally had her weight and height taken. Maybe she remembers some unpleasantness from her last appt., but she was very scared this time around. She settled down in the exam room while we waited for the doctor. As usual, she enjoys playing with the exam tools and lights. She pretends she is a doctor and shines the light in my mouth:).
In total, she is progressing really well! Physically she is at least on average or above. She continues to be a head on a stick, but the stick is filing out! She is 50% on weight at 27 lbs. Her head is 90% and her height, at 35.5 inches, is 70%. The legend that you double the two year height would put her around 5'11" when she is done. We shall see! Everything else in her exam was on target and some of her behaviors are ahead. She can count to 13, which is definitely ahead. She is starting to string 2 and 3 words sentences together. Just 2 words is typical for her age. She knows more than her primary colors and can recognize at least 1/2 of the letters of the alphabet.
She also received a flu shot..tis the time of year for yucky bugs. Someday I will look back and read this post, so to add, she also had an H1N1 mist vaccine. I am debating going back and getting it myself but it has been a mad house in the city for everyone scrambling for the swing flu vaccine.
One of the things the doctor didn't ask about that I also think is pretty advanced - Laurel is learning to pretend! After our trip to Disney, she became a true Disney addict and has been carrying around her large stuffed mickey. She tells him to sit or to stand. She leans over and walks him infront of her as she walks. Today she practically dumped lemonade all over him at the mall when she tried to give him a drink of her juice. I think it may be time for a baby doll! She is also starting to get excited about playing hide and seek. She is pretty good at being the seeker. She will count frantically and then go looking. Her hiding needs some practice. It's all I can do to get her to sit quietly and not give herself away! Megan will count and she will stay quiet, but then when she says "ready or not, here i come!" Laurel gets over excited and jumps up giggling.

On a school note, Laurel moved up to the next class in school. The school has been downsizing for cutting back in this economy. So the classes rae now in 2 groups. She has been in the younger of the 2 groups, but her teacher thought she was ready for new kids, new challenges and more advanced play. Today was her first day in the new class and she did great! Laurel is definitely adapting to change easier and isn't so shy and timid as she used to be. I can leave her so easily now, she has really grown emotionally.

Laurel goes to Disney World

2009-10-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

From October 11th through the 17th, Laurel, Alex and I took a trip to Orlando to visit Disney World. Laurel is all about Disney right now, to my great pleasure! She is also free to the Disney parks until she is 3, so it's really the perfect time to take her. She knows lots of characters, loves the princesses and really enjoys the rides and shows. So we scheduled the trip and has a blast! It also turned out to be a heat wave, so we did have to fight some humidity and uncomforable heat, but Laurel was always a trooper and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

We flew out early in the morning on the 11th and Laurel was a peach on the flight. She played with sticker books, watched movies and took a little snooze and we were there! We rented a time share that had lovely grounds, nice pools...and a free shuttle to the parks! Once we arrived, took a taxi to the resort, we checked in and got some groceries. With the exhaustion of the trip, we all dove into bed, despite the time change.
We spent Monday in Hollywood Studios which we thought would be similar to California Adventure but really only had 1 or 2 sites in common. Laurel really enjoyed the live shows, one of the Little Mermaid and one for Beauty and the Beast. She also had fun playing in the Honey I Shrunk the kids play area. We had a picture opportunity with Mike and Sulley from Monsters, Inc., but she was quite shy. Thankfully, a lot of the activities were indoors, so we were able to escape the heat.

We spent Tuesday at the Animal Kingdom. That park is usually one of my favorites because it is so beautifully laid out and is a nice time in the outdoors...but in the heat, not so much! We took in the safari ride and strolled through some of the animal walks, but ultimately found ourselves ducking into gift stores to escape the heat. We stayed long enough to watch the Finding Nemo Musical, which was broadway quality, and then shuttled it to Downtown Disney. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Laurel was startled by the animatronic animals at first but then seemed fascinated. We took a really relaxing water taxi down the river to one of the Disney resorts and hopped a bus to the Magic Kingdom for the after-hours Halloween fun. Laurel dressed as Minnie Mouse and ultimately...fell asleep:). Laurel was always very good at choosing to lie down in her stroller for naps, but the naps usually lasted only 40 minutes or so. On this night, she was exhausted. We had thunderstorms nearly every day, so we had to duck out of an evening storm when we first arrived. After the rain let up, we strolled around the park and did trick or treating, people watching and took in an awesome Halloween parade. The night was capped with fireworks and then we had to hurry to make our shuttle back to the resort.

We took Wednesday for a mid-week break and just hung out at the resort. We chilled in the condo for the first part of the day, I spent most of the time reading the new Dan Brown book. After Laurel's nap, we ventured over to the club house pool, which was heated, and we all had a great time swimming and relaxing. A warm rain even came down while we were in the pool and everyone stayed in. Laurel was learning to blow bubbles in the water. She's a fish ready for swim lessons! There was a pier off of the pool area that went out into a neighboring lake. Laurel enjoyed buying fish pellets and feeding the fish in the lake.

Thursday was my favorite day, but I really love Epcot. We weren't sure Laurel would like Epcot as much, but we found lots to do and had a really fun time. Laurel is a little interested in dinosaurs, so she liked the ride in the Energy building. The Seas building was modernized to include a Finding Nemo ride, so of course she loved that. But she thinks fish are awesome, so so was content looking at the aquariums and watching the manatee and dolphins in the larger pools. At a little before 3, we had reservations in Norway for a princess lunch. We were greeted by a photo with Belle and later were visited by Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White and Ariel. Laurel was shy with Belle when we first arrived but opened up and was hugging the girls as they came around. She was so excited to watch them make their way around the room and come closer to our table. It was so sweet to watch her. We rode some of the rides in the countries and strolled in and out, enjoying the cultures. We left after the evening's lights and fireworks show.

Friday's trip to the Magic Kingdom was my least anticipated but one of the best times we had on the trip! Laurel loves everything about the Magic Kingdom, from the characters sightings to the fun rides, great parade, etc. There was a lot of cross over with Disneyland, but some of the rides varied in layout or was completely new to us. The weather had cooled and wasn't nearly as humid, so we were all comfortable, energetic and so was Laurel. We made excellent use of the fast passes and found ourselves constantly occupied with rides and activities and waiting in very short lines. While waiting for the parade, Laurel had fun chasing bubbles that some of the "cast members" were blowing for the waiting crowd of people. Here she is spotting Mickey in the parade!

On Saturday afternoon, we flew back. Laurel was great on the plane once again. We returned having had a great time, but we miss our vacation time already!

Vegas and a Road Trip! Part 1

2009-09-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

Laurel and I went on a road trip from September 7 through 14th. This was some of Laurel's longest times in the car and she was such a good girl! On Monday, Megan, Laurel and I drove to Las Vegas to meet the Ondercin relatives who vacation there every September. We may be turning it into an annual reunion of sorts. We stayed at the Flamingo and had a room with a shared door into the room where Dad and my Grandma slept. Our days were fairly "scheduled", pool time in the morning, lunch/snack, upstairs for nap, afternoon activity after nap, meet up for dinner, clean up and bed time.
The pool at the Flamingo was very nicely laid out, very pretty...but freezing! Laurel loves the pool and always wanted to go in. We had to drag her out when her lips were turning blue and her teeth were chattering:).

I later found out that I left both my swim suit and Laurel's in the hotel room! Argh!
Laurel loves to jump into the pool. She is becoming more and more fearless. Most of the time she waits for me to hold hands and then take the leap...most of the time, so we have to be very aware! After our pool time and nap, we went out on the town for some afternoon fun. One day we went with Marie down to MGM Grand to see the lion and ended up staying around the area to go into the M&M store and walk through the Rainforest Cafe shop. I bought her some sticky tree frogs which became another character on the trip.

We then went across the street to eat in New York, New York at a mexican restaurant. Laurel has fun with wiki sticks:).

Another afternoon outting took us to the Mirage for Sigfreid and Roy's Secret Garden - aka the place where you see the white tigers. Plus other large cats, dolphins and some birds. The habitat was really nice, and the animals could be viewed from an extremely close distance! As usual, Laurel growled at the cats and really enjoyed looking at the dolphins. She's an animal lover for certain.

Laurel took a liking to the Bellagio fountains, just like me. We could stand there for show after show! We visited the conservatory at the Bellagio as well which is a visit I always make because of the beautiful flower display. The rest of the time for everyone else was spent at the tables or machines. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed on the gaming floors, but sometimes I was able to make it out during Laurel's nap or at night if someone else decided to stay in the room. Grandma would occasionally decide not to pull a late night and so I went down with Megan and Dad to try some tables.
Laurel had a great time getting to know family. As usual, she was shy, but eventually warmed up and even gave her own names to them. Judy was "Jewey", Grandma was "Gee-Gah" and she said Marie pretty well.

Laurel also became a little paparazzo on the trip:) Anytime she could steal the camera and take "artistic" shots, she would! Here's some of her funnies.

Laurel turns 2!

2009-09-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

Our baby is now a 2 year old! We had a very full weekend of activities and celebration.

On Saturday the 29th, we went down to Laguna Beach for the day. We stopped at the printing museum's print fair which was very interesting (of course for me!) and then continued on to the Sawdust Festival. Pretty much a large collection of artisans and craftsmen in a very rustic and wooded setting. Lovely! We watched a very intricate glass blowing and then walked down to the water. We had dinner with Alex's parents and then came home to a startling view on the 405 of the fires that are burning the hills near Glendale.

On Sunday, the 30th we had a more official celebration of Laurel's birthday since her actual day was on a weekday. In the mid afternoon, we went to the Long Beach Aquarium for some time with friends and family. Rob, Cyndy, Sierra and Amber met us there, along with Ryan, Brigitta and Lauren. About half way through, Ryan and Ryder joined us. The kids had a blast together. Mostly calm, but eventually ran about, giggling, squealing, being kids. Laurel had a wonderful time. I made an aquarium themed cake and we all went across the street to Bubba Gump's for dinner. Alex's parents, Leora and Delaney joined us for the dinner. It was definitely noisy having 5 little children and a baby at the table, but it was a lot of fun.

On Laurel's actual birthday on Monday, Megan and I took her to Knott's Soak City for some water fun. She loves the pool so much, so we hoped this would be a hit. There was a small section meant for tiny kids that she didn't actually like. She did really like the wave pool, so we spent more of our time in there. We also did a couple of laps around the lazy river. We saved a slice of cake from the night before and sung to her once again at dinner...and then it was over! She's 2 now!

Reflecting on the past year, she's changed so much. She went from barely walking to running. Making baby talk to knowing countless words and knowing everyone's names. She's out of her crib and off of the changing table. Out of a baby tub to a large tub filled with bubbles and the letters and numbers she's learning. She went from unbelieveably clingy to enjoying her time away from me at school. Her hair has grown from slight wisps to beautiful soft curls. Her play has grown from playing next to another child to interacting, tickling, chasing, and calling after them. She's learned basic manners but also learned to throw a temper tantrum. She's grown tastes for certain foods, colors, movies and activities. Toys have been replaced with coloring books, sticker books, puzzles, story books, dress up clothes, and make believe. She went from sleeping well to deciding she wanted sleep options and now sleeps on a mattress on the floor...for now:). Her constants continue to be her blankie, sucking her thumb, and loving elmo and shoes. Imagine what the next year will bring!

Late Summer update

2009-08-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind! Lots of changes, news, etc. The end of July and beginning of August were consumed by our packing and moving. A little at a time proved to work ok until that last week when we were running around throwing things in boxes. Just ran out of time:). Also seemed silly since we were moving right up the street, not a mile away! We were counting the days until we were out of that house. Living in "limbo" was becoming irritating - boxes and piles of stuff everywhere. We were able to retrieve the keys to the new apartment on the 1st and starting bringing boxes up every night. The weekend of the 7th, we moved the big stuff. Lots of generous help from friends made it work all in one day. We still had lots of remnants that were picked up the following week. The apartment filled up fast and even now we're still moving things around and putting things in their new home. We're definitely enjoying the new place - especially the washer and dryer and dishwasher! I didn't realized i missed those appliances so much! We are having to adjust to life in a building again. Consideration for neighbors, some noises, elevator use, parking in a big garage, etc. It also takes me 5 more minutes just to get to the car than it used to...walking out the door, locking up, walking to the elevator, waiting, in the door, a key in to take us to the garage level, out of the elevator, into the car, backing up, opening the garage door...and finally out! We are also noticing this apartment to be cooler than our poorly insulated house. We get wonderful breezes in the windows from the west.

My 30th birthday was the highlite of the next week. Though still moving some things, unpacking and living in clutter, we did manage to have some nice outtings and fun. Anne took me out on Wednesday for a surprise mani-pedi and lunch. On Thursday, we went to Disneyland for the afternoon. Alex got me a season pass for my birthday and so Mom, Megan, Anne, Laurel and I went down to the park. They gave me a huge button to wear that declared it to be my birthday, so lots of people were greeting me and that made the visit even more fun! That night, Megan organized a surprise dinner at a nice restaurant in the Marina. It was a really lovely night! Megan gave me tickets to a U2 concert and I nearly jumped out of my skin! I've always wanted to see them in concert. Leora and Ryan got me an amazing purse and Leora took it upon herself to clean our house without my knowing. What an unbelieveable gift that was!

My mom sold our home in Maryland. (The house I grew up in.) So in her prep for her own move to California, she came out our move and the week after. She helped occupy Laurel when we needed it and in the inbetween times, we looked for apartments for her. Towards the end of her visit, we finally found a wonderful apartment she would be happy with. It's 5 blocks away and a little more than she was looking to spend, but it's gorgeous and I think she'll be very happy there. The weekend after my birthday, and only a weekend after our own move, I ran home to Maryland for 4 days to go through my childhood possessions, memorabilia, books, old pieces of artwork, etc. We did take time to chill, go see a couple of movies and watch some tv. But the rest of the time was spent going through belongings. In a way, going through all of those things served as therapy and helped to ease the separation. It was still an emotional time and there were tears as I walked out of the house for the last time. But there is a lot to look forward to in the future, so I am looking ahead.

Laurel stayed here with Grandma and Grandpa Velez. She's been acting like a 2 year old for Alex and me, but it sounds like she was on her best behavior for the Grandparents! She played well by herself, ate very well, slept well and enjoyed lots of time with family and her cousins. Alex stayed here for work and did go down to OC every night to be with her. I came back on Wednesday and it was so great to see her, I missed her so much!

Laurel is growing every day. I feel like she looked a little different after being away for only 4 days! Her language continues to blossom. She mastered counting to 10 back in June and has continued on to 13. She started learning to recognize her letters in June as well, so I bought her a set of foam bath letters for her to play with and stick to the walls. She can recognize and name nearly all of the letters now and all of her numbers. Her new room is painted half sky blue and half rolling green hills. She wanted green for her room paint and the room was already blue. So we decided to do an outdoor scene! I found large butterflies for the walls and some flower decals from target. Her dressers are set up and the glider is in the corner. The closet is very full with clothes, toys, and lots of items stored for a future sibling. We set up her crib again with the hopes that she would use it. She has yet to spend the night in the crib, but will go to sleep on the mattress on the floor. Everynight she goes to sleep in her room and at about 2 or 3 a.m., she walks down the hall and climbs into bed with us. With the apartment is such disarray still, we're not worrying about it, but as life comes to order, so much her sleep habits. We'll figure it out. Her potty training was also put on hold when her sleeping became problematic and our move happened. She still knows about the potty, but we haven't asked her about it in a long time. I do continue to see her making growth in that area despite now actually using the potty. She is waking up from a full night's sleep dry more often than wet. She is very uncomfortable in a poopy diaper and wants it off right away. Her pees don't really bother her, but she will still point it out. We'll tackle the potty again soon.

Laurel's next milestone is turning 2! We don't have a party planned but will probably go on an outing the weekend before her birthday and meet up with family. Off of our bedroom, there is a fenced in patio that we're planning to outfit with outdoor play toys. Probably a slide, maybe a sandbox, etc. That will be our birthday gift to her. Otherwise, she continues to do well in her school, is playing well with others. She's learning thank you and please and we're working on public manners like not touching, indoor vs. outdoor voice, waiting her turn, etc.

July milestones

2009-07-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

(Laurel on her potty after her first pee and her reward lolli!)

Laurel has recently tackled some milestones - for better or worse. After we returned from Iowa, we broke out the little potty. Starting at the beginning of the month, we started "using" the potty. Laurel does like to sit on the potty, so we've been fine there. The first day was filled with pee accidents, as to be expected. Sometimes it would bother her and sometimes she didn't get and just let it out:). The second day was pretty much the same, but more "uh oh" comments when it would happen. We decided not to apply any pressure on the issue, if she wanted to go that would be great, and if not, that's ok too. Fortunately it's summer and it's been getting hotter outside. So running around nude has become the preferred dress code for Laurel. It's really helped and over the past week, I've noticed that she has become very good at holding her pee. She knows she doesn't have a diaper on to catch the liquid and knows not to let it loose on the couch or while she's playing. The trick was to get her to pee in the toilet. She also got very good at knowing when she was ready to pee. Several times recently, she's said she has to pee, goes to the potty...and sits...and sits. Then she gets up and pees on the floor:). The final trick for her was to figure out how to let the pee out while sitting on the potty. And finally today, July 22, it happened! And not once but twice! I think it startled her at first. But she's made the connection and so we're hopefully this trend will continue. I haven't stressed using the potty while we're out in public, but we may have to start that soon too. But while at home, the pants are off, the little potty is in the living room and she's free to use it when she wants. We're thrilled at the progress she's made so far!!

Today also marks another step in Laurel's growth - climbing out of the crib. Starting at the end of last week, Laurel has had a distinct aversion or fear of her crib. She doesn't want to be in it and just screams and screams. So the naps have been brief to not at all, and the night sleep has been difficult. She's been a dream sleeper up until now so we've been baffled. She's gotten up in the middle of the night crying and has come in with us. We were letting her cry it out tonight but after climbing out of her crib in desperation, we know that she's moving up to being a big girl. It's sad to think of giving up her last bits of babyhood:(. We'll be transitioning to the toddler bed and perhaps even into the full bed when we move. Keeping her in the bed will be the next challenge.

We are slowly packing for our August 7th move up the street. Not far at all, but have to box everything up none the less. I know Laurel is sensing the change and it may be stressing her as well. Lots of new things in her life right now!
Right now, we're having a visit from my Dad and we're having lots of day outings. I'm using the car rides to encourage some sort of nap out of her during the day. Hopefully she'll come back around to a normal schedule once we're settled in our new place!

summer flying by!

2009-07-03T23:06:00.000-07:00

A long overdue post - we're already into July! Time is really flying by, especially when it's the loveliest time of the year. Here in LA, it's beautiful 70's weather, heat wave probably around the corner:). We've been enjoying a lot of time outside. Laurel has become a huge fan of any park, playing with her sand toys, riding on the swing or the slide. Her ears perk up at the slightest mention of the park and she can't wait to run out the door. We've also taken up some of the simplest activities - blowing bubbles and drawing with sidewalk chalk outside. Whenever we're outside, Laurel always takes note of the planes flying overhead. She loves to gaze at the sky and point out the planes as they fly by...as well as the moon, the sun, the birds:)...

The larger part of the summer for me has been consumed by Copper Willow projects and shipments. Still mailing boxes for orders taken from the stationery show and sending out supplements for our stationery and wedding albums. Alex's company has made the official move to become a part of Activision and we're able to take advantage of some great benefits. He's been placed under the guidance of another lead animator but has been given the opportunity to pursue his interest in the technical side of animation and placed as the lead technical animator.

Laurel continues to attend her school 2 times per week and is doing amazingly well. She doesn't really get upset anymore and is usually occupied in other activities when I arrive and doesn't rush right to me side the second she sees me. We're already looking ahead to pre-school. We'll be touring a co-op style school in Westchester, near the airport. It means parent involvement, cheaper rates and a more play oriented school. I think it will be a good style for Laurel. She would be on the list to start in the fall of 2010.

Laurel's vocabulary is flowing non stop now. She made these leaps in June: She's repeating pretty much repeating anything we say - I must post a video! She is also recognizing numbers and shapes. She can point out the numbers as well as count from 1 to 10. She also knows several of her letters and is working on pointing out her colors. She can recognize and say heart, triangle, square and star. Some of her more common place words have been replaced by longer words - for example, done is being replaced by finish, fishy is now Nemo. Laurel is also working on multi-syllable words. Sometimes the second half of the word still drops off, but she can say Dorothy (elmo's fish), Monster (for Monster's Inc.), bubble, elephant, alligator, zebra, etc. And about mid-June I caught her singing a song to herself! That couldn't have been cuter:). She loves the slippery fish song they sing at school and it has hand movements. I was watching her in the rear view mirror in the car and she was singing it with the movements. My heart just melted!
Laurel continues to enjoy the Pixar movies and Elmo. She did make it to the movies twice so far! The first time was for Up, which was not very animal oriented and didn't hold her attention for more than maybe 45 minutes. After her attention faded, we spent the rest of the time walking laps around the theater:). Today, she went with Dada, Ryan and Ryder to see the third Ice Age movie and watched the entire thing! She was mostly interested in the squirrel but understands more language and recognizes the animals types.

Next on tap for Laurel progress will be potty training. I wasn't sure we'd do this so early, but she seems to be ready. She always points out when she's pooped and will tug at a wet diaper. She understands the potty and what happens. With a little dedication to the cause, I'm hoping it won't be a big struggle! We've been waiting for a time when we don't have anywhere to be so that we can stay home and put some effort into it without distraction or need to leave the house.

Our most recent time away was for George and Amy's wedding in Iowa/Illinois. George is a friend from grad. school, Alex was in the wedding. Laurel was very excited to be on the plane and did a great job on the flights there and back. She as occupied with lots of new little items that I bought at Target, plus some snacks and the dvd player. Our time away was occupied mostly by wedding related activities, but we were able to get to a small zoo on the last day. Her favorite thing was an inflatable obstacle course for the kids. We could really see the influence of her school - she is much braver than she used to be. We were worried she'd be timid, but she dove right in to every acitivity on the trip. The hotel also had a pool and she's turned into such a little fishy! And she was a dancing fiend at the wedding reception and we couldn't keep her off the dance floor!:)

Up next for the Velez family - moving! We were able to find a nice little apartment just up the street from our current house. Just out of Culver City, back in LA. We'll have about the same amount of space but we'll be able to save about $600 per month. We're excited about some of the littlest pleasures - washer and dryer in the apt., dishwasher, a new fridge, new couches, air conditioning! We'll be moving in the 2nd week of August.

Laurel's latest

2009-05-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

Laurel seems to be growing and maturing in leaps and bounds every day. Her language has made immense progress in just the last month. She has become a little parrot and mimics a lot of what we say. Usually she repeats the last word in our spoken phrases. She still picks the syllables that are easiest for her to say and doesn't say the sounds at the end of the words. She is also picking up on her colors very easily and even learning the firs letters of her alphabet! Laurel has recently started singing! We've been singing her Itsy Bitsy Spider which is her current favorite. She loves to do the finger movements and I've caught her singing it to herself. She also likes to "drive" the bus when we sing The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round. We've also started singing Old McDonald and she gets excited to hear about the animals on the farm because she knows her animals so well now. Her favorite animal right now is Molly:). Mom's little dog has been with us for several weeks now, during her visits and keeping her inbetween. Laurel loves to walk the dog, is excited to see Molly when she comes home, asks about her, and insists on bringing the dog in the car and checks on her all the time.
We continue to struggle with eating new foods. I've discovered that if I offer Laurel something she really likes, like strawberries, she will try a new food - after much crying - but she will try it. Sometimes she likes the new food and sometimes she spits it back out, but it's progress!

to nyc and back

2009-05-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

From May 15th until the 21st, I was in New York for our yearly exhibition at the National Stationery Show. This was my first time away from Laurel for an over night. I was very sad to leave and missed her so much! Good news is, she had a perfectly great time at home without me! She came to the phone when I called, but was easily distracted away by her playtime. I know she asked about me while I was away, but she was mostly her same cheery self! So while away, we stayed in New Jersey and commuted in by bus. We did have our token baby on the trip, Leora brought Delaney and her parents came as well to babysit. The show as a whole was really nice! We didn't have high expectations due to the economy. We met our goals and were able to breathe easier. The booth came together smoothly and we even ran out of promotional materials and had to print more! The buyers were very enthusiastic and mostly frustrated by the fact that they couldn't spend more money! So many people were just looking and the orders that we took were low amounts, but that was expected. As before, we really enjoyed face time with our clients and chumming around with our fellow artisans, some of whom we only see that one time every year!
Upon return, I was so excited to see Laurel! I almost think she grew while I was away! Reports tell me that she had some good days at school and that they figured out a key factor in keeping her happy all morning. Keeping her shoes on! She makes it through most of the morning's activities but then gets upset when they take shoes off and go to play in the gym space. Last Thursday they kept her shoes on and she was great! Laurel still gets upset when we drive up to the school, she recognizes the route we take. And she definitely in a fit when we leave her. But she quickly calms and joins in with the class and the teachers are so thrilled with her progress!!
Mom came to stay with Laurel for a couple of days. Alex had some unexpected time off from work and was able to be with her while i prepared for the show and the first couple days that I was away.

Mother's Day 2009

2009-05-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

For Mother's Day we went to Huntington Gardens in the morning. Just for a short time to take some photos. Laurel loved the koi fish in the ponds as usual and it was just gorgeous weather. Afterwards, we drove down to OC to the clubhouse in Alex's parents' neighborhood. They have a really nice playground for the kids, a barbeque area and a few lovely pools. Laurel was very timid and scared at first, but we started out in the water very slowly. The kiddie pool was very shallow and she was willing to sit on the first step in the water. Soon after, we were on the steps on the big pool. Before we knew it, she was playing in the water and jumping into our arms from the side of the pool. It was such a joy to watch her learn and grow!

I dont' seem to have a pic of her actually enjoying the pool:).

We love fishies

2009-04-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

We're getting our first pet in the Velez household - fish! Laurel has taken a liking, no...a loving...to fish. She watches Finding Nemo at least once per day. The infatuation has the impact of her Elmo obsession. She asks for it first time out of bed and anytime we come through the front door. She asks to sit on the couch and watch "fwishhies". Just like Elmo, we have to leave the house to get away from the fishies! We went to Disneyland last week. Alex's company is the middle of a transition and he's had some unexpected time off. So we took the tot to Disney and she had a great time! She's been twice before, but each time we go she seems to pay more and more attention to the attractions. She particularly enjoyed the Finding Nemo ride - of course. And she's starting to develop a fear of things that are naturally on the scary side, like the dark Pirates of the Carribbean ride. She danced to the music in the parade and finally met Mickey and Minnie in person. Being a weekday, the park was much less crowded, so we were able to get some photos. Laurel stared at them dumbfounded like she was meeting a celebrity and couldn't think of what to do in their presence.
Laurel continues to go to her little school and we continue to work on the separation. She can go without us something for a short period of time. But I still wait for her in the parent room for them to call me in when she gets upset. Someday...sigh.
She is learning new words almost daily.
"shar" is shark
sky has a very soft s
mah-yee is molly, my mom's dog
"wat" is rat (the little rat in ratatouille)
she copies a lot of words when you say them but then doesn't say them again. but she's slowly increasing the vocab. she's also asserting herself more. probably a terrible two preview, minus the tantrums. she will drop to her knees and refuse to walk if you try to encourage her to do something that she doesn't want to do. we shall see how that progresses.
We have potty training on our horizon. We bought Laurel her first potty! She does sometimes point out to us that she pees and poos. So we're taking that as a cue that she may be open to the suggestion of a potty. She often accompanies us to the bathroom and she's aware of what we grown ups do. Laurel has also moved out of the baby tub and into the big tub for bath time. She seems to like the play space a lot more and is enjoying some new tub toys.

I will be going to NYC in a couple of weeks for our annual trip to the National Stationery Show. I can't believe it's that time again already. It really snuck up on me this year. But we also have a lot of custom work that we haven't had in the past, so we're feeling a bit spread thin. We have 2 new everyday lines of cards and notes and 3 new lines of holiday plus a custom holiday album. I'm really excited about some of the designs and hope we have a positive outcome. The show is looking to be a real question mark with the economy.

Easter 2009

2009-04-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

We had beautiful weather for our Easter holiday this year. Megan and I decided to sing in the Easter choir for Bel Air Pres. this year. The choir was almost 100 people strong and made for a very enjoyable experience. We sang for Palm Sunday, Maunday Thursday and Easter morning. We had rehearsal at the holiday bowl on Saturday morning and sang for the service on Sunday. After the service, we drove down to the Velez house in OC for a family gathering, egg hunt and lunch. We had our own egg hunt and egg dying on Saturday. Laurel didn't understand the egg hunt at first, but once she got it figured out, she was searching for the eggs every time we went outside! she says "Eeee?" for egg. We also dyed eggs and she found that really interesting. She wanted to see the eggs while they sat in the cups being colored. She liked to help using the egg scoop and we had to repeatedly dye several of the eggs over and over again because she kept asking for more.

the latest with laurel

2009-04-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

Laurel had her 18 month appt. a couple of weeks ago. She is 23 lbs and 2 ft., 8 inches tall. The 2 year measurement will be the one that really tells us something about her adult height. But for now, she's in the 60th percentile for her age for height. She's usually 75% but the doctor looked at her chart and she tends to have a growth spurt followed by a plateau. This is a plateau, so soon we will have another jump in height! Her weight is low as usual - the 25th percentile. And her head circumference is 75%, so she's still a little head on a long stick:). Her torso is definitely long for her age. She's now wearing 24 months for any shirts that snap at the crotch. Her pants are still 18 months since she's narrow at the waist. She's still fitting her size 5 shoes and continues to be infatuated with her little pink crocks! She has to have them on from the moment she wakes up in the morning to when she goes to bed.

Laurel starts a baby play school tomorrow. She'll be going 2 times per week, Tuesday and Thursday mornings. She was definitely becoming bored with the play sessions at Gymboree and is becoming more aware of the kids around her. She is now looking to actually play with them. Her way of approaching other children is to offer to share something with them, or pick up something they tossed aside and give it back to them. So I think the play school will be good for her social skills and allow her to play with people her size, in a way that will be a learning tool. Hopefully it will help her language skills and we're also going to work out attachment issues. Because she takes so very long to adjust and warm up to anything, I'll be going with her for several weeks, but hopefully she will learn that when I leave, I do come back.

Her language is expanding, so that's been fun. No 2 word combinations yet, but there's total comprehension and some response now. For my memory:), I'm going to try to make a list of everything she has learned to say between 12 and 18 months. She didn't really talk before her 1st birthday, so we're making progress!
"No" - of course!
"Yah" - yes
"duhn" - done
"moh" - more
"poon" - spoon
"toe", "mou" for mouth, "eayah" for ear, "noh" for nose, "eye", "behyee" for belly
"dohr" - door
"buh buh" - bye bye
"mo-mo" - elmo of course!
"baby"
"heyah" - hair
"me"
"book"
"cat"
"gee" or "doh" - for doggy, the syllables aren't together yet:)
"car"
"beep"
"pitty" - pretty
"good guhl" - good girl
"boon" - balloon
and she makes the noises for cows, ducks, sheep, horses, pigs, dogs, lions, and a cat says "cat"!

In addition to talking, she's developing her own hobbies - like wearing our clothes and shoes. Her shoe obsession actually drives her to insist that we take off the shoes we're actually wearing so that she can put them on. I've given her the bottom drawer in her small dresser for dress up clothes. They're basically clothes and jewelry that Megan and I have grown tired of and Laurel find pretty. Laurel still loves to shop and has started to pull clothes off the rack and say "oooo" and pull them over her head! She also enjoys taking rides around the neighborhood in the little push car that we have. She sits in it and "drives" it and I push and steer from a handle that comes up from the back. She's also gotten more familiar with Copper Willow. She recognizes the parking lot and asks for Elmo, knowing I usually put the video on when we're there. I've collected a lot of her toys and some books at the shop and I put out the basket and she plays by herself with Elmo on in the background while I get some small tasks finished. She loves the swings at the swingset is starting to recognize the nature around her. We take her for "nature walks" and point out the flowers that are blooming, seeds that have fallen, etc. She loves it when I blow dandelions and she can watch the little seeds float about. She continues to like balloons and ask for them whenever she sees them. She's become a lot more playful and says "tick-y, tick-y" and tries to tickly us. She wrestles with Alex and he pretends to be asleep and reaches out and grabs her. She squeals and is so thrilled! But best of all, she remains a cuddly girl and gives lots of kisses and hugs...and of course loves her blankets. Some things don't change and that's just fine by me:)...until someday she'll have to give up that thumb, but it's cute for now!

18 months!

2009-03-06T22:27:00.000-08:00

Laurel just reached another milestone - turning 18 months old! Today, we went to Sears for a little photo shoot. Typical to her personality, she was timid and scared at first but once she had a chance to warm up, we got some great shots!

Getting into 2009

2009-02-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

Laurel has really started showing some new and fun personality traits just recently! These photos are proof:). She has always been girlie, loving jewelry and such. Now she loves to dress herself up. Putting on hats, hanging shirts over her head, putting on our shoes, etc. She's even hung underwear around her neck! She's collecting purses, just likes to carry them around. In the car once, i turned around to see her wearing one as a hat (see the quick pic!) She's just been so funny lately:).

We also took Laurel to the beach last week. It was the first trip where I was determined that she would walk in the sand. She didn't like the loose sand much, so we carried her to the shoreline. Then she wore her little crocs as she adjusted. Soon she was running about, thrilled with herself! And off with the crocs and much fun was had. Tide was low and she loved to splash in the small pools of water. It was so exciting because I just love the beach.

Laurel has been fairly out of sorts this past week. In addition to having a cold, she is cutting 4 molars. So, we've had many cranky episodes. But for the most part, a real trooper.

She has added a couple more "words" to her vocabulary. "ca-ca"is cracker, "bubba" is bubbles, "tit" is sit, and "beep" when the milk is done in the microwave. Still no "hi" or "bye". But always "mo-mo!" for elmo and she will grab the remote and try to put it on herself!

the better-late-than-never holiday re-cap!

2009-01-14T23:04:00.000-08:00

We're half way into January...time to look back on Christmas and New Year's!:) Better late than never, right?
Christmas for our family was held at Alex's parents' home in Orange County. We got a much needed break, spending 3 nights away at their house. We attended church in LA at Bel Air and drove down afterward. Laurel didn't sleep very well while away, everything was a little too unfamiliar. She's spent many afternoons, but not nights, at their house. She wouldn't sleep in their crib, or the pack n play we brought. So...she ended up in our bed...and we didn't sleep:). She's a mover at night! She's always in her crib at our house, so we don't really witness the rolling and kicking and flinging about of the blanket:).
Christmas day was full of family and gifts. Everyone from the Velez family was over, including our 2 nieces. The house was filled with lots of conversation, laughter and little kid squeals - lovely!:) Our niece, Amber, turned 2 on the 26th and we spent that afternoon at an indoor play gym. On the 27th, we braved Disneyland - on a holiday break and a weekend day! It was swamped, but we had such a great time with Rob, Cyndy and the girls, that it really didn't matter! I've always been a fan of Disney, and Alex has enjoyed it in support of me...but he's really taken a new shine to it now that he can see the joy it brings to Laurel. She had a ball!

We returned home that night and Alex had the next week off. My dad came into town and only after a couple of days, we all got sick! On the 30th, I woke up flu-ish, but took in a lot of dayquil so that we could go to Pasadena to see the Rose Parade floats under construction. The lines were long, but it was really interesting to see how everything was put together - some petal by petal. Laurel's favorite was of course the Sesame Street float with Elmo! I succumbed to the flu that night and felt poorly for a few days after. My dad came down with it right after I started to perk up. Alex has an afternoon of ill feelings, but seemed to pass over it quickly. Laurel was a champ and carried on with her play, not getting sick at all.

New Year's Eve and Day were very chill, just hanging at home...mostly because of the sick. My dad stayed a bit longer because he was ill and we were able to have some nice dinners, rent some movies, and went up for a day to Huntington Gardens. Now we've returned to regular life - Alex back to work, calligraphy and Copper Willow for me. Copper Willow has brought in some excitement since the New Year. We sent out new catalogs and have been getting a steady flow of orders from brand new clients. We've had a couple of wedding invitation inquiries and soon, our new products will be sold at the New York and Seattle gift shows at the end of the month. Leora also had her baby last week, on the 7th. Delaney Reese was born 8 lbs, 4 oz, 19 in. So I've been running some things back and forth to and from her house to help out and to bring her the Copper Willow items that she needs.

Laurel continues to grow and progress in her learnings. She has a lot of new toys from Christmas, one being a little Elmo pull-out sofa that she loves to sit on. She enjoys pushing her little grocery cart and her baby stroller. No baby though, she prefers to sit in it herself:). She also got a set of big legos from Aunt Megan and she just loves them! They're played with constantly all day. I'm pretty sure Laurel has gone through a growth spurt. When Megan got back from Maryland (for the holidays), she said Laurel felt heavier and her hair was longer. I know her feet are bigger, we had to move into a size 5 from a 4 this week! Her hair is longer, but she refuses to leave a barrett or hair tie in her hair...I see a hair cut coming to help keep the hair out of her face. Laurel continues to go to gymboree every week and moved into the next age group, 16-22 months. Just last week, she finally learned a motor skill that she skipped and has avoided - crawling! It's kind of a strange half-crawl, but she started crawling through some play tubes that we have at home and at the gym. Laurel's comprehension is quite complete right now. I told her to get me some socks today and she marched off to her room and started pulling socks out of the bin in her closet. She loves to brush her teeth with her new elmo tooth brush and will run off to the bathroom when I tell her it's time to brush her teeth. So she understands a lot. She still says very little, but we'll get there:). "Uh-oh" is still her most predictable word, besides "Mo" for Elmo. Oh and "no, no", of course. She's learning her animal sounds and knows "Mmmm00" for cow, "Grrr" for Lion (she refused "roar"!), her version of a bark for dog, "Ba" for sheep", a quacking noise for duck, and we're working on horse. I think I mentioned before that she likes to shop and likes jewelry, but now she's enjoying putting necklaces on and carrying a purse:).

starting to make some chatter

2008-12-15T22:54:00.000-08:00

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.

family photos

2008-12-01T20:55:00.001-08:00

Time again for family pics! We took some photos in the park recently for our holiday card. Here's a couple of shots. Laurel had a rough morning, but chippered up in time to run amuck in the grass.
(I haven't uploaded a video in a while because I can't find my little point and shoot camera that I usual capture quick videos with...will try to get my video camera videos online.)

history!

2008-11-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is a family blog:)...but our little family witnessed a historic event last night that will impact us all! So I had to take a minute to write about the election of Barack Obama!

We are so proud to be Americans today after electing an African American president last night. Alex and I both support him 100% and now we are waiting with great anticipation for his move into office in January. What a huge step our nation has taken! We are so moved by Obama's election, I am so excited for our future. And we can of course think of no one else but Laurel and what this means for her future. Oh the possibilities! I feel so honored to be around to witness this event and will never forget where I was on November 4th, 2008.

On the flip side of the coin, we are still fighting against prop 8 in California as the ban was passed last night. With one great step against discrimination, there is one huge set back.

But as Obama says, Yes we can!

the littlest mermaid

2008-11-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

Laurel dressed up as a tiny mermaid for halloween this year. Auntie Megan made it for her, with a little help from Grandma O. when she was here. Laurel looked so cute! She helped answer the door for a few trick-or-treaters and then we went up the street to a friend's, Brigitta. Her daughter, Lauren, just loves Laurel. Ryder also came by with Ryan and they 3 little ones went to the neighbor's to have an official trick-or-treat moment. Otherwise, we didn't want the candy!

Earlier in the day, I took Laurel to the park in her daytime Halloween outfit. She just loves the swings and will softly say "vweee!" while she swings. We also strolled around the park so that I could take photos of her.

A little Laurel update:
Laurel seems to be putting on weight and growing! She feels a lot heavier and is just eating and eating! She loves cheese, graham crackers, grapes and peas...yes, peas. Her elmo obsession keeps getting stronger and stronger. She understands that the remote turns the program on and she will pick it up and point it at the tv. When nothing happens she will bring it to me and impatiently shove it into my hands. Laurel loves balloons too. They give them out to the kids in Trader Joe's, so whenever we go, she just jumps out of her skin over them and isn't satisfied with just one...no, she wants them all! She loves shoes and jewelry, always drawn to beads and gems in the store. She carries our shoes around and tries to put them on. She will hand you everything, right now she likes to share:)...we'll see how long that lasts:). She has a little tea set and knows how to "stir" her tea with her tiny spoon.
She's not talking much, still. I do get worried about that. She seemed to collect a few words about a month or more ago. Then for some reason, she stopped saying them and almost regressed. She now calls everything Da-da, including me, much to my joy. She only just started saying "da" for "done" when she doesn't want to be in her high chair eating anymore. Alex thinks she said "pretty" tonight, but we'll see if that happens again.

pumpkin patch

2008-10-09T23:27:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, we went up to Moorpark (hour away) and visited Underwood Family Farms for some fall fun. The farm has lots of do with kids and families and we had a lovely afternoon! Grandma O. was in town and we went with Megan as well. The farm had some great barbeque and pie for lunch. We also took Laurel into the little petting zoo pen, watched an animal show, took a tractor pull ride, got frustrated in a corn maze, and of course picked out a pint sized pumpkin for our pumpkin! Laurel loved the tractor pull. We sat at the very front of the wagon and she was able to stand on the bench and hold onto the front wood panels. She got such a kick out of it! She was kind of neutral about the animals, more interested in observing them than petting them. The farm also had several large haystacks for climbing and she loved going up and down...she has a love for steps.:)

fall 2008

2008-10-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been almost a month since my last post. yikes. Time got away from me again! And lots to report!
The beginning of September started off nicely with a trip to San Diego. Laurel and I drove down the first friday of the month and met up with my childhood friend, Katy, for her mom's wedding in La Jolla. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, but it really always is gorgeous in San Diego! Leora came down on the train with Ryder and we met up with Katy and her husband, John, for dinner in Little Italy. It was really nice to relax and chat. The kids were their usual handful, but it was a really nice evening catching up with them. Saturday morning, Ryan and Alex drove down to meet us and we spent the afternoon/evening with Jason and Jennifer. We attended their wedding in New Orleans in May. It was our first time seeing their new apartment. They had a barbeque with lots of yummy food! Sunday, after checking out of our hotel, we spent the day at the San Diego Zoo. And yes, it's just as amazing as you've probably heard. Easily the best I've ever been to. I've been there before, but not in a while, plus it's nice to revisit with a toddler and experience everything "new".
Laurel was very flexible on the trip and we got to experience napping in a stroller (with much resistance from her) and even a day without a nap at all...which I do not recommend! She was getting more and more confident on her feet and would toddle around on occasion. She has very little fear, of course never having experienced the consequences. We went down to the waterfront in San Diego to see the tall ships and she would charge right up to the edge of the dock and probably would've kept going if we didn't pull her back. She wants to explore every nook now that she can move at her own will.
The rest of the month was filled with studio time, gymboree classes, some time at church and a few weekend outtings. Alex and I bought a membership to Huntington Gardens. Wonderful botanical gardens. Laurel loved the koi fish in the pond in the sculpture garden. We've been to the beach and the promenade a handful of times, giving Laurel as much time on her feet as we can. She likes to walk, then gets excited or anxious and turns to be picked up. Then she squirms to be put down and we do the whole thing over again:).
Laurel has been taking a little gym class at Gymboree at the mall. She loves the little shaker toys that they have and enjoys playing with the rubber balls and running around in the open space. Once she becomes accustomed to a place, she feels more secure about walking on her own and will just take off. She loves to walk around and grab clothes in a department store. It's so funny how fascinated she is with the fabric and how she will "hug" a bunch of jeans hanging from a rack. She is definitely a girl and LOVES jewelry. She likes how bangles and pearls sounds when hey jingle together and she likes to study the little crystals and jewels on necklaces and earrings. She's very patient and gently, poking and prodding at everything very meticulously. We can almost see the wheels turning as she takes in the little details. Even today, she was walking around, holding my keys and held them against her leg, all the while, looking down, watching how the keys would jingle as she took a step.
I've been attending a mommy group at Church for the past month. It's been really nice to share time and conversation with other moms. Megan has watched Laurel while I go to the group, but once I did bring her along and stayed with her in the Nursery while she played. I'm hoping she will get used to the nursery at some point! I've also started teaching 3rd grade sunday school and our bell choir has started up again.
Let's see, other Laurel tid bits: She's not talking much yet. I'm waiting for her to grasp on to words and doesn't seem to be in any rush. She has her own "language" and loves to babble and make all kinds of noise and "words". We do believe she knows a lot of words and understands a lot of what we are saying, but doesn't repeat anything. Laurel is continuing to expand her solid food tastes. She will pretty much eat anything off of our plates now. Even if she shows a distaste in the beginning, she will eat it if encouraged and will eventually like it. She is still skinny and petite. She needs the length of the 12 month clothes, but the waste band on all of the 12 month pants are way too large. Laurel love to read! We have a book shelf in the front room that has her books on the bottom shelf. She will walk up and sit herself down and pull out the books, page through them, talk to herself as she "reads". It's very sweet. I've gotten it on video and will try to get it up online. She will also bring books to us to read to her. Laurel will bring anything to us actually, sometimes just to show it to us. :)
Alex's game was just announced as well! Check it out! http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/7-studios-teams-with-numark-quincy-jones-for-scratch-game

more bday pics up online

2008-09-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded all of our pictures from Laurel's party in the park!
http://foofnik79.winkflash.com

Laurel's 1 year check-up

2008-09-08T22:55:00.000-07:00

Laurel had her 12 month check-up today. She was measured too, which is always exciting for me to see how she's grown in numbers. Laurel is 30 inches long! 75th percentile for her age. Her head measures in the 50th, but didn't get that number. Her weight is low for her age, 18.5 lbs, 10th percentile! But again, the doctor remains unsurprised. She believes she's growing like her parents, long and lean. We of course had to endure the 12 month shots. Laurel got her first of 2 Hep A shots, an MMR, and a Chicken pox. But the pox isn't supposed to be 100%. She was pretty chipper throughout the general exam and was walking about the exam room. But it's like she knew danger was on the horizon when I layed her down on the exam bed. One in each thigh and another in the top of her butt cheek. There was much screaming and it did take her a while to calm down, but she seemed to take the shots well through the rest of the day.

I'm putting up the rest of our photo shoot from a few weekends ago. Slowly, but surely! View at:
http://foofnik79.winkflash.com

Laurel is one!

2008-08-31T23:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it's officially a year since we became parents. And what a busy, wonderful year it was. We are so very grateful for our baby and everything that has come with her. So to celebrate, we had a fun picnic at our local park! We invited some friends and local family (plus grandma o.) over for a barbeque and some cake and socializing. It was a beautiful afternoon and Laurel was so very cute as usual. And to top it all off, she is officially walking on her own! She's been practicing and is now confidently toddling about all by herself.

For the party, we made a character cake shaped like Elmo's face. Each child also got a cupcake with a candy Elmo on it and their name. We barbecued hot dogs and burgers, ate potato salad, deviled eggs, chips and dip, shrimp cocktail, and fruit salad. Laurel was very excited to eat her own cupcake. She took some huge bites and got a decent amount of frosting on her fingers and mouth:). With the party came some great gifts as well. She's well stocked on wardrobe items, lots of cute things came from the grandmas! She also received lots of Elmo-themed gifts. We are now the official owners of a Tickle-Me-Elmo, which is funny because I can remember the craze for them when they first came out 10 year ago! She also has a toddler-sized basketball hoop, a tea set, a musical drum, an elmo purse with Elmo-themed contents, a small rocking horse, and some money in the college fund.

Overall, a great success, exactly what we wanted to have for her! Happy Birthday to our little girl!

One year photos

2008-08-27T23:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of pics from our photo shoot in honor of Laurel's first birthday. She was so cute and happy during the session, we couldn't have asked for better shots! I'll try to put the rest up online when i can:)...

August quickly passing

2008-08-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

We're over half way through August! Nothing makes time fly faster than when you're watching someone grow. Laurel will be 1 year old in just 2 weeks. I can't believe it! Of course with that milestone, we took some professional photos of her and of the 3 of us. We hired Holly Port again, the same photographer who took our maternity photos and Laurel's newborn pics. She is does such a great job and makes it all so casual and relaxed. Her photos should be to use by the end of this week, so I'll pop some of the best shots up on the blog!

My 29th birthday was this past Wednesday. Last one before 30! We had a nice day, just doing the usual with the biz and Laurel. In the evening, the girls the live next door came and sat at the house while Laurel slept. Alex, Megan, Anne, Leora, Ryan and I went up to Gyenari, where Megan hosts a few times a week, for dinner. They have great food and it was sooo nice to get out of the house and have an adult dinner:). Several of my gifts were clothes, which I sorely needed. Most of the money I spend is on Laurel! I also received some money which I put towards the purchase of a nice digital SLR camera. I found an excellent deal on ebay. I can't wait for it to arrive!

Alex gave me a trip to Disneyland for my bday. We went yesterday. On our way, we stopped at Alex's parents' house and left Laurel with them for the day. It was a very nice visit for them. Usually Alex and I are around and Laurel would prefer that we hold her. Without us around, she was much more comfortable and actually preferred Grandma, which I think was much to her delight! Cyndy and the cousins stopped by too, Sierra just loves Laurel. It's very sweet.

Disneyland had gotten even more expensive. It's really ridiculous. $94 for a 1-day park hopper. Fortunately, I belong to a discount club and got the price down to $68 per ticket. Oye. But we had a great time! We're not as young as we used to be though, we were just exhausted by 9! But overall, it was a great day. Soon, we will always bring Laurel with us, so this was nice to have a grown-up day of adult rides.

Laurel updates:
-She has increased her vocabulary. She says "go, go" to walk. She loves to walk as usual and is getting much faster. She really took off in her gymboree class the other day and walked across the room without me! I don't think she meant to let go, but once she was going, she didn't know how to stop. So there was a small crash at the end, but she walked so far! She still says "nigh, nigh" for sleep. "Na-na" for banana, "mo-mo" for Elmo. She can say "Jake", Alex's mom's dog.
-Laurel likes to go for walks and push her own stroller. The stroller has a basket underneath and she can hold onto the rear bar and push. She also thinks it's funny to tilt her head to the side and have you do the same. We've gotten into the habit of having "chase" sessions at night when Alex gets home. We chase eash other around the house and she just squeals! If you crouch down and say "I'm gonna get you!", she squeals and runs the other way.
-Laurel's body is really changing. She's gotten much leaner, eventhough she eats a ton! She's going to be a long, skinny person. Her feet are larger too, she's moved into 3/3.5 sized baby shoes.

couple more vacation pics!

2008-07-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

back from Georgia

2008-07-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

Grandma O. was out for a wonderful week recently. She spent lots of time with Laurel and we got some good family hang-out time. Mom, Megan and I also went and saw Julie Andrews at the Hollywood Bowl.

We took kind of a last-minute trip to visit my aunt and uncle in Georgia last week. Mom was planning on going there from her visit here and so Laurel and I tacked on a trip too! We got back Monday night and left the previous Monday. They live about an hour outside of Savannah in the glorious country. I tell ya, it was a break that the doctor ordered! We relaxed by the pool, played with Laurel, ate amazing food courtesy of my aunt and just did a lot of nothing! Couldn't have asked for a better time away. Laurel was as usual a real traveling trouper.

Going, we took a red-eye and she slept for the few hours we were on that flight. She also got her first kiss from a little boy sitting in the row infront of us:). She thought it was the best thing to stand on the lap tray and hold onto the seat in front and just flirt her little heart out. He was grabbing at her arms to play and his mom said he was being too rough and to give her a kiss. Well he did!:) It was very sweet. Upon arriving in DC, we had to catch a connection to Savannah. The airline troubles are definitely causing a lot of confusion and delays. After sitting for a bit, an attendant announced that our flight was down-sized and that we had to line up to see who got the seats. What?! So mom got in line and came back to say that she had a seat, but Laurel and I did not. That is just not ok! I had a baby with me and mom had a dog, so it's not like we could just hang out for hours. Then, they changed our gate, so everyone hauled their stuff down the corridor and got into lines again to find out about seat assignments. Mom once again went up and was told we'd have to wait to see if a seat became available. Luckily, someone did give up her seat and so we were ready to go! The flight back was similarly troublesome. Upon checking in in Savannah, I was told my flight became delayed and I might not make my connection DC. Once again, I played the baby card and got us transferred to a flight on Continental. FYI, the troubled airline was United. Anyway, we got back and forth and that's what matters in the end!

Laurel was cute as can be on her trip. She's popping out teeth like mad and actually handles it very well. She has her cranky moments, but she doesn't complain as often as i surely would! I give her some tylenol and we have some teeth gel...oh and she loves to chew on the rubber cap on the tylenol bottle. Soon, she'll have 8 full teeth. Just before Georgia, her top two broke through. While away, the two out from that and the next two in line on the bottom made their way through. Laurel also loved having animals around. There were 2 cats and a dog to catch her attention constantly. She's very gentle and just holds out her little index finger for a lick and them moves on. And yes, she does move! She now walks confidently only holding onto our finger with one hand. This leaves her other hand available for touching and digging and throwing, etc. Laurel likes to pick up a ball and throw it, then chase it, pick it up and throw it again. She is now "speaking" by saying just the first letter of things. The dogs were "Duh" and she called for them loudly all the time:). She loves balloons and they are "Bah"s. Her blankie is "Blah" and Elmo is "mo-mo". Love that last one.

But now we're back and getting to be on west coast time and back to work. August though is shaping up to be busy! We'll be visiting Alex's family in OC this weekend. The following weekend, we are going to a barbeque. We have family pictures scheduled for the 17th. Alex and I may be going to Disney on the 16th for my birthday. I know we have something on the 23rd/24th weekend which is currently escaping me. And then Laurel's birthday party on the 31st!

some other recent pics

2008-07-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

We went to the pool last week and here's a photo of us. Aunt Megan came along and we did a little swim session. Laurel was a little cold, so we were in and out. She had more fun touching the tiles on the side and making hand prints with water on the floor than actually being in the water. We kept telling her it was a "big bath". :)

The other picture is of Laurel giving out "kisses". She knows what a kiss is and will kiss you back if you ask her for a kiss. She will also give you a kiss at random when she is particularly happy with you:). Her kisses are all open-mouthed, but they used to include tongue, so we're getting better!

Oh and side-note, Megan and I went to see Wicked...fantastic! Highly recommended.

The video is bath-time. She finds spashing most interesting when we do it, not when she splashes.

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

Last night, our little family of 3 went with the Bradley family to the Culver City High School to watch fireworks. We had so much fun! The stands and football field were filled with people and we brought blankets and had a picnic. Laurel just loves her little friend Lauren (16 months older). And Laurel wasn't frightened by the fireworks, actually quite fascinated. It was a great show. Laurel also went down to OC during the day to visit and attend a street fair with Grandpa and Grandma Velez.

We also got great news that my business partner Leora is expecting a boy! She is due in very early January and just found out the gender. Our godson, Ryder, will be a big brother before we know it!:)

Copper Willow gets big press!

2008-06-27T17:03:00.001-07:00

A couple of new updates to our list of editorial press on Copper Willow!
A trendy online blog about all things wedding has written about us:
http://www.stylemepretty.com/2008/06/wedding-invit-4.html

We were also on the cover of the premiere issue of a new trade magazine. It was released at the stationery show in NY and I keep forgetting to put this link up!
http://verysupercool.com/2008/05/14/stationery-trends-premier-issue-spring-2008/

And much to our excitement, on the stands right now is a nice bit about us in In Style Magazine! Check out the July issue (with Anne Hathaway on the front), in the What's Hot Now section!

Here's the other mentions we've gotten lately -
http://www.copperwillow.com/press.htm

baby summer fun!

2008-06-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

Laurel has a lot of exciting activities going on this summer! And a lot of recent adventures to report. Mid-month, we went to Disneyland with the Mauck family. We had a blast! Laurel went on a lot of rides with us - Peter Pan, Snow White, Monster's Inc, Finding Nemo, etc. Really calm, kid friendly rides, that Alex and I have grown out of, are now really fun again! Alex said it's the most fun he's had in Disney. Ryder really liked all of the Pixar rides in California Adventure because he's a fan of Monster's Inc. and Cars.
We also took a trip to OC to visit Grandpa V. for father's day and had a great barbeque!

Last week, we had a visit from Grandpa O. in the midst of his work travels. He helped watch Laurel so I could work a bit at the shop during the day instead of the evenings. We went out and bought "Rock Band", a band simulation video game which was fresh on the shelves for the Wii system on Sunday. Laurel loves to bang on the drums. We also took a trip to Home Depot (which got us out of the heat wave) and bought some baby proofing items. Laurel isn't walking on her own, but it should be any week now!

On Tuesday, Laurel starts a Mommy and Me Music class at Gymboree. I think I'm more excited about it than she will be! We also went over to the town's public pool to see about swimming classes. They're full, but the open pool hours are perfect, right in the middle of the day between her naps. So today, we went to target and bought some little swimmers diapers and a tiny bathing suit! Again, mom more excited than baby.

Laurel had a 9 month well-baby check up. She is 28" long (65 percentile), 16 lbs, 15 oz (20 percentile) and head circumference of 28 cm (65 percentile). So basically a head on a stick:). But the doctor isn't worried about the weight, I was a skinny baby. She also had a TB test (fine) and a glucose screening (prick for blood on the finger). No cries for either! Her blood screen showed low iron levels, so she gets supplements everyday. I was told it is normal for breastfed babies. Formula includes the supplement.

Laurel is now feeding herself every bit of food and loves adult foods. She's putting all kinds of baby snacks into her mouth. She loves the sweet potato puffs by gerber and the little freeze dried fruit bits. (mom sneaks some too!)