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:

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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!

Laura is One Year + Six Months!

The bagooz is a year and a half today! Yikes, awfully close to 2...I think that months 12-18 have been my favorite so far. It's been so interesting to watch her development and language change, and see what she learns as she goes about her life.

Height: ? Can't say we've measured lately.

Weight: 20 lbs.!!!!!!! When we were at the doctor last week (emergency visit for ear infection), Laura weighed in at just over 20 pounds. She did have her shoes and coat on, but I'll take it. We've been waiting forever for her to gain weight.

Likes: pacifiers, throwing things, multi-grain Cheerios, yogurt, treats aka "num nums" with mom (bars, cookies, ice cream), pictures of people she knows, spinning in circles, directing mom & dad to do things, playing outside, puppies, scribbling with mom's correcting pens, sitting on the kitchen counter "helping" cook, stacking things, finding people's bellybuttons, babbling in Laura talk, saying "no" - it is her only response word, she says it even when she means yes!

Dislikes: eating most things that are good for her, ear infections, being denied pacifier access, dad getting in her face when we get home and she just wants "mama love" time

Any new tricks?: the spinning is pretty funny, and when she practices walking backwards. She's also working on position words like up, down, on, off but doesn't always apply them correctly. Last weekend, twice she completed some little task she was trying to accomplish, and then proudly announced "Yay!" and clapped for herself. Laura delights in manipulating switches and buttons such as the garage door opener, doorbell, and bathroom light and fan switches.

Dozinky Days (Year 2)

Laura,
The weather couldn't have been more different from year 1 to 2. Last year it was hot and sunny. We wore shorts and t-shirts. This year was cold, cloudy, and rainy (with a few drops of sleet). You wore a jacket, stocking hat, and that might not have been enough to keep you warm.

Laura very interested in Andrew. We need to teach you about invading someone's personal space.

Lilly doing a great job of keeping your ears warm. Not a big fan of keeping your hat on.

Laura picking up a piece of candy. In fact, she had a sucker for the first time. The weirdest thing about the parade was 3 groups threw out Mr. Freeze. Probably the worst giveaway this year.

Chatty Girl

If you have been around Laura lately, you would have noticed that she has been a chatty girl. It is quite clear that she is trying really hard to say new words but all that comes out are random sounds. Sure, she can say "mama, daddy, baba, papa, eye, bye, and nigh, nigh" to name a few, but she is trying new words that I have no idea what they are. When I tell her that I have no idea what she is saying, she gives me an evil stare.

We have been practicing saying people's names and she has done a pretty good job repeating them back. When I say "good job" I actually mean "good attempt." Oh yes, today, Laura strung together multiple words. Unfortunately those words were, "Daddy, no, no, no, no." That's what I get when I trapped her underneath a table.

Laura is working on spinning and walking backwards. When a song is playing, she gets that excited face where her eyes get really big and she makes an "ooooohhhhh" sound. Every once in a while she will spin and of course, she will want you to spin with her. As for the walking backward trick, I don't see this often, unless I catch her when she thinks I am not looking. Sneaky!