Busy Spring!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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...

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,