Just a dusting? "NOOOO!"

The title is a Lauraism. She knows when Dad or Mom asks a silly question. When we ask one, Laura will respond with a silly, "Noooooo."


Oh man, it has been a long, long day of shoveling and snow blowing. Laura, other than the Halloween Blizzard of '91, this blizzard is the largest snowfall I have ever been a part of (at least that I can remember).

According to Channel 11 news, we have accumulated 21.5" of snow! 21.5 inches! Unfortunately, you did not partake in any outdoor fun. Instead, you held baby and piggy and looked out the entry window.

It's not officially winter (December 21st) and we have had 4 snow storms dropping over 8".



I must thank Papa George for giving me his snow blower four days before this storm. I wouldn't have survived without it. Great timing!

Oh Christmas Tree...

We have two Christmas trees, a big one and a small one. Here is a picture of Laura decorating her tiny (fake) tree.

When we play in the tv room, where the trees are, Laura will run to her tree and point at an ornament and say, "Ho-ho" for Santa, "Ainhel" Angel and "star" for star.

She likes to play with the ornaments on both trees but is slowly starting to grasp that it's for eyes only.


It is shopping season
Laura is doing her best Mom interpretation. Although, I can't explain why she is sans shirt.

Anyways, Laura will put on her purse and say "Bye!" I always make sure to place an order, "Laura, buy Dad some ____." She replies with a nod and says, "Yup!"

Still waiting for those Cheetos!

Happy Birthday to Mom!

Happy 31st to Mom. She has done a wonderful job with Laura and I couldn't ask for a better wife and mother for my Peanut!

Video: Jumping, singing and tricks, oh my!

Laura is 1 Year + 8 Months!

Height: ?

Weight: 21 lbs. (unofficial estimate)

Likes: Coloring with markers, play-doh, playing babies, treats like "emma-emma" (M&M's), her cousins, CJ the daycare boyfriend, pacifiers, Ring Around the Rosie, Christmas board books from the library, 5:30 every day when "Fresh Beat Band" comes on, putting coins in her bank

Dislikes: Eating meat, constant suspicions that Daddy is trying to steal her food, us telling her to eat a particular food, sock fuzzies between her toes (she does an inspection every time we take off her socks)

Any new tricks? Laura can fill in words to songs now that are familiar to her, she is attempting to name colors and quantities - although she pretty much will always say "blue" and "two," she has learned about jumping (HILARIOUS! We have a good video of this that should be posted). Our favorite thing is just how conversational she is becoming - we can carry out negotiations, give directions, listen to her boss us, hear her requests for items (sucker? sucker?)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Time to reflect and say, "We are thankful for..." Not on my list...Minnesota football teams, yuck!

This Thanksgiving was a lot of fun because Laura was looking forward to it. Well, sort of. She was super duper excited to see cousins Lilly and Andrew. When either Mom or I had mentioned Thanksgiving, Laura's eyes would get wide, body shaking and say "Illee, Illee, Illee." The holiday doesn't mean turkey, stuffing, or any food to her. She thinks it means being with family.

Uncle Matt and Mike are in Italy right now. Hope they are having a wonderful Thanksgiving. Grandma and Grandpa M are in Wisconsin celebrating Thanksgiving with the White family and Great Auntie Carol.

Once again, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Humpty Dumpty

Boom = Fall

Snow and Other Details

First snowfall of the year! 10 inches of that heavy, wet snow...perfect for making a snowman, or should I say, "Papa with a hat" snowman.

Laura was interested in the snow this morning...I thought she'd be concerned and calling out "Oh no!" but she was more intrigued. Lots of looking out the windows this morning - and had to check all windows, as though a different window might have a different weather scenario. However that interest ended when the technicalities of encountering said snow came up. Daddy went out to shovel, and the mittens he put on FREAKED LAURA OUT. I had to take out my entire mitten stash and show them to her, putting them on and pulling them off until she was "okay" with mittens.

Also, the boots. She loves the fact that they're "Lilly's boots" but won't put them on. Ditto for snowpants. So, Daddy shoveled the driveway while four pink-coated neighbor girls played in our yard, building snowmen and snow chairs for Laura who would not get dressed to go out.

In non-snow related news:

A) I can't believe I forgot this in the 19 month post, but another word we hear way too often around here is "mine." EVERYTHING is Laura's. I think she also uses "mine" as an equivalent for "I can do it."

B) They have been working intensively on names and name games at daycare, and Laura loves talking about all her daycare buddies. Sometimes when I pick her up, she wants to walk around the room, pointing at each kid and naming them for me. Her favorites are "Baby Ah-na" (baby Audriana, who she is always checking out and trying to "help" with) and "CJ" (Her boyfriend. They tried to smooch when she had to go on Friday.)

C) Yummies. I have created a sugar-crazed monster. It's not like she gets treats 24/7 around here but if they're in the house, she knows about it and does not forget it. I made cookies Wednesday night and within 5 seconds of waking up Thursday a.m. the first thing Laura said was "Yummy." Tonight she threw a fit about me melting chocolate chips because she wanted to eat them, and when I was spreading the chocolate on the scotcheroos she was literally shaking in anticipation. She knows where the leftover Halloween Dum-Dums are, and I've heard her ask for a sucker probably fifty times this week (actual suckers she received: 2).

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is over! Laura seemed to enjoy Halloween this year. On Thursday, they had a costume party at daycare and she kept her leopard outfit on almost the whole day. She came home with some fun treats, including a coloring/sticker book from Carla - a big hit!

Saturday morning we headed to Minneapolis for a visit with Uncle M & Auntie K. Laura is always a little edgy around her uncle but she did enjoy all the decorations and calmed down enough to play trains with Auntie K. Someday she is really going to love our Halloween visit there!

Today Mike's family came over for lunch and a cousin photo-op. Laura was tired and crabby by the time we were ready to take pictures, so she is a leopard with a pacifier in those photos. Thankfully she took a great nap so she was ready to roll for trick-or-treating. She was excited to go out to the houses, but I had to carry her everywhere!

Laura would knock on the door (and call out "Knock knock knock!") but we have not managed "Trick or Treat" or "Thank you" yet. Luckily she was not completely on stranger danger alert and was still friendly enough that she would say "Bye!" after she got her piece of candy. We hit pretty much all the houses on our street, and when I would ask her if she wanted to go home yet, she'd say no. Unfortunately some joker at the last house looked out and saw I was holding a little kid, and kindly put on a Jason/Friday the 13th mask before opening the door. He thought it was a riot, but I ended up with a sobbing kid. Poor bagooz. Everyone else was nice though. Once we got home, Laura enjoyed a sucker and a pack of M&M's before bedtime, and that was her big fun for the night.

You can check out more pictures of our Halloween weekend on this Smilebox:

Customize your own free photo slideshow

Laura is One Year + 7 Months!

Height: 31 inches

Weight: Flirting with 20 lbs.

Likes: Treats "nummies" of all sorts, stickers, coloring with markers, reading books, watching "The Fresh Beat Band" on Nick Jr., being a backseat driver (yells "GO!" every time we stop at red lights)

Dislikes: Not being with mom, strangers coming to the door (Halloween could be a long night), eating most anything (makes a ppbbbtt noise with her mouth when she doesn't want to eat something), visits to the doctor's office

Any New Tricks? Laura can do a somersault by herself, she can identify lowercase i,o, and e, she dances along to the "Elmo Slide" video on youTube, she can finally say "yeah" instead of just "no"

Laura Having Fun in the Fall

Now that Laura is a little older this fall, we have been able to take her to some fun "big kid" fall activities (although I do find that most kid activities are not really kid-friendly yet for 1.5 year olds).

The first thing we tried was a little fall celebration here in PL at Lakefront Park. Right away we saw balloon animals (nope) and jumpers (nope), but settled on checking out the pony rides if Laura was cool with it. She saw the horses and was excited to ride up until I put her on "Rocket." She quickly got over her fear and seemed to enjoy her little ride. After that we hit the playground until Daddy got fed up with the behavior of certain unsupervised kiddos there, and we had to leave.

We also made a trip out to Emma Krumbee's in Belle Plaine for some B family time with Mike's parents as well as Laura's cousins, aunt and uncle. Laura loved cruising around out there in Lilly & Andrew's wagon. She also rode the little train with her Daddy [insert Laura's "Thomas the Tank Engine" whistle sound here] and suspiciously eyed the goats at the petting zoo. There was a little track with some covered bridges where (bigger) kids could ride some John Deere trikes around. Laura acted as sort of the "billy goat gruff" of the bridge, planting herself in the middle yelling "NO!" at the big kids while they barreled toward her on the trikes. Mom had to intervene, pulling her off the bridge in time. We went on a hayride, too. A good time was had by all!

Last weekend, just the girls went out to a pumpkin patch to meet up with another teacher and her daughter. Laura proved to be sort of hostile/unfriendly, therefore decreasing our potential for future playdates...no smiling, chatting, etc. although the younger baby was clearly enamored with Laura. Also, she insisted on wanting the largest pumpkins that Mom couldn't even pick up. Of course immediately after we left, she resumed smiles and friendly chatting (we were headed to Target, after all).

In general, she's been super fun right now and trying out all sorts of new words. Thankfully, one of them is "Yeah." It is good to have a positive alternative to "No," which she was using even when she meant yes. Also, she is further proving she shares my genes by her love of all writing utensils, but in particular washable Crayola markers. She can scribble with the best of 'em!