Laurel sings

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

Mother's Day 2010

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

Getting ready for NYC again!

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

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