Back to Basics

You may have heard about Irene.  I have heard lots and lots about Irene, and I think people assume I have met her.  Apparently, she stopped by the house overnight this weekend, but I must have been asleep because I don't remember meeting anyone named Irene.  She can't have been a very nice person though, because she stole our electricity!

Well, without any TV or refrigerator, the folks and I have decided to get back to basics a little bit.  We have played and played and played till our sides hurt with laughter.  We have ridden pretend ponies:

 And taken walks to see the damage Irene left behind (seriously, this woman is up to NO good!):

We've had candlelit evenings.  We've read LOTS of books.  We've played pretend.  We've had playdates at friends' houses.

We don't have power, which means we don't have a microwave.  My mom has been feeding me a rather strange assortment of foods.  But we're making do.  I hear it's a blessing we have hot water, for which we thank something called "Natural Gas."  We'll get our electricity back sometime, but I'm having just as much fun without it!

Last night, my dad was talking about the TV.  I looked over at it, pointed and said, "OH, yes!"  I had completely forgotten about the TV!  Sorry to my friends Dora, Diego, Elmo and Cookie Monster - I guess I don't need you that much after all!

Words With Friends (and Toddlers)

Laura's mom here, to give a brief update on the word explosion in our house!  There must have been vocabulary in the air on the Cape, because Laura has taken off at repeating (and remembering) new words.  For a while, she has known that Riesling is a Dog (her first real word), and she would sometimes repeat the name, "Ries" (said as "Eese), but mostly just called the poor thing "Dog."  After spending the week with two dogs, Laura has really started to understand the concept of names.  Both are dogs, but hers is "Ries" (with the R in front!) and the small fiesty one is "PiPPEEEE!" 

Following the name concept, she spent all week calling her Grammy "Ammy."  Which is adorable and made my mother pleased as punch.  Grampy, as yet, does not have a name.  Laura had a little trouble pronouncing Taylor, Torie and Julia, but definitely made some attempts.  She came closest with "Dare" for Taylor - and she adores her Uncle Taylor!  Laura has also, on a related note, named her best lamb "Bah."  Fitting.

It seems that everyday she is repeating a new word.  You can see the gears turning in her head, as she mulls over a word and then practices the sound on her tongue.  Sometimes she gets the word right on the first try.  Other times, she'll say the word with her own personal style before she gets it the way she likes.  She will always repeat a request for us until we decipher what she's asking.  When we guess correctly, her face lights up and she says, "YESH!" and nods her little head. 

Laura is even starting to string words together.  Most noteably, "whats dat?" as she points to something.  She also says "app-el-juice" with equal emphasis on each syllable.  And the other day as I was carrying her in an odd (and uncomfortable) fashion, she shouted "NO GOT!" over and over in response to me saying "I've got you, I've got you."  This is one smart cookie we are dealing with! 

And according to her check-up yesterday, she is perfectly healthy.  I knew that already.

Cape Escape

Boy, do I have a lot to blog about!  A week ago, my mom and dad were running around the house all frantic.  Bags were piled up at the door.  Mom was yelling about things she didn't want to forget.  Ries was running around so she wouldn't be forgotten.  I was eating some hastily prepared dinner while wearing my jammies.  That should have been my first clue that something was up.  And then they shoved me in the car with Riesling.  Ries was excited to be in the car; I was irate.  This car ride was seriously cutting into my playtime.  So I might have been a little whiney.  Which might have caused my parents to stop driving in Delaware.  Where we might have picked up a fellow traveler of the cicada variety in the backseat of the car.  Which might have caused Ries to freak out.  Oops!

Once we got the cicada out of the (moving) car, I fell asleep and slept for a long, long time.  When I woke up, we were at a strange, foggy house in the middle of the night - and my Grammy, Grampy and Aunt Torie were all there to see me!  Confused?  Yes I was.  But very excited! 

We spent the whole next week playing at Grammy and Grampy's house.  We went to the Band Concert:

We cooked and ate and ate and cooked:

We played at the beach, and splashed in the water, and dug in the sand:

We watched the fish come in at the fish pier:

Down they go!  Down the chute!

At least four seals bobbing by the pier

We also did a whole lot of other fun stuff, BUT my mom's camera is broken so there is NO documentation whatsoever!  I mean, it's been a welcome break from the papparazzi, but still.  I had a blast playing with Grammy, Grampy, Super Grammy, Aunt Torie, Uncle Taylor, Julia, Riesling and Pippi.  I mean I had A BLAST.  I can't wait to get back to the Cape!

Lazing About

Whew, guys.  It's been a crazy-busy-fun summer, and we're only just halfway through!  We have a lot more planned ahead of us, but this past weekend was a welcome respite from the busy.  We spent Saturday chilling in our jammies, just playing and being silly.

Tug of War with Daddy

Mom and I ventured out of the house (in play clothes; we're not heathens) on Saturday afternoon to get some supplies she needs for a Christmas Tree project.  Um, Mom?  It's August.  Why are you already starting on Christmas trees?  I think Grammy's Christmas illness is contagious.  But I guess that's not such a bad thing to catch.

On Sunday, the family headed to my friend Julia's house for a little pool time.  The skies looked threatening before we left our house, but I had a feeling it would clear up by the time we got there.  I was right!  We played and splashed in the pool, then played and ate in the cool shade of Julia's (and her parents) screened in porch.  My mom kept saying, "Next house... next house..."  I think she wants one of those screened porches!  It was a lot of fun seeing Julia with her mom and dad for a few hours. 

If there's one thing I've learned in all my eighteen months, it's that one should try to get out of the house a little, even on lazy weekends.  It's so much more fun to spend the day at home, after getting a little fresh air somehow!

Adventures in Plumbing

My mom stepped in a puddle of water on Tuesday night, right in front of the dish rack.  I told her to investigate the problem, but she just threw a dish towel onto it and walked away.  When she stepped on the same spot and felt a cold, wet towel under her toes on Wednesday night, she came to her senses and checked out the problem.  A cracked drain pipe.

Before

Mom made me stay in the family room while she investigated under the sink.  I guess she was worried that I would try to play in the puddle or with the various household cleaners stored under the sink.  I was happy enough to stay out of the way - Sesame Street was on!  I did, however, suggest to Mom that she post about the drain pipe woes on Facebook, as perhaps someone out there would know how to fix it.  Lo and behold!  Several great friends had suggestions for fixing the leak! 

Grandpa came out yesterday to help me solve the problem.  I held the flashlight and talked him through the tricky parts.

Don't worry, I have a flashlight!

I made sure to peek at Grandpa's work from time to time, to make sure he was doing everything properly.

See that, Grandpa?  I'll point it out to you.

And, voila!  The sink is fixed!  I'm a really good plumber.  I wouldn't be surprised if they make a video game based on  my life, where I leap through drain pipes and over carniverous plants in the name of saving Princess and Toadstool.  I bet that would be an awesome game.

Showing off the fruits of my labor

Thanks to everyone who sent suggestions to my mom!

Family Reunion

I've been spending a lot of time with my dad's family lately, so I firmly suggested to my mom that is was time for a visit with her family.  She took it to heart and had Grampy arrange things with Aunt Alice and Uncle Peter.  I packed my things and flew up North for the weekend!

We stopped in Concord for a brief overnight visit.  Once we were all coordinated, we hopped in Grampy's big car and drove up to Vermont.  Land of green mountains and cows.  Moo.

Checking out the sweet ride at Grammy's

Our first order of business in Vermont was to meet up with Grampy's whole family for a wine tasting!  I hear the grapes were nice and grapey with some fermented grape flavor to them.  I stuck with the milk in my sippy.

Cheers, y'all!

After the wine tasting, Mom, Dad and I visited Uncle Tom & Aunt Denise (Daddy's family) for dinner at their house.  They made really yummy beef tenderloin and veggies... and I got to have a whole cupcake!!  I forgot to bring my sippy and mom was starting to get worried when Aunt Denise brought out the coolest sippy ever - it's covered with Vermont animals!  I love using it!  Aunt Denise is a lot of fun and let me run all over their house, playing with all my toys.  Uncle Tom is really silly and has a very loud laugh. 

Back at Uncle Peter's farm, I got to meet Boo!  Boo is a really fun dog.  She says "rrrrrrruf!" and like to play.  Sometimes she gets a little too playful and knocks me over, because she doesn't understand that I'm too little to just push her off.  It gets a little scary, but I L-O-V-E her anyway.

Sit, Boo!

Uncle Peter and Aunt Katherine had a big tent set up overlooking the cow pasture.  We spent a lot of time under there, enjoying the fresh Vermont air and staying cool, out of the hot sun.  I liked running around to see the cows, chickens and piggies.

Chillin' with my Grammy

On Saturday, we had a lovely memorial for my Great-Grandpa who passed away a few weeks ago.  Everyone said lovely things about him.  I chose to enhance the service with song.  I thought it was tasteful, but Daddy did take me over to say hi to the cows a few times.  After the service, the mood got light again and we all went to the river for a dip.  The water was super cold, but the tadpoles and polliwogs we saw didn't seem to mind!

Mom with Aunt Betsy

 It was a great weekend, and I was sad to get back in the car to head home.  Partly because I didn't really want to spend another four hours in the car... but mostly because I had so much fun with my family!

Mom, Uncle Peter, Aunt Torie, Grammy, Aunt Alice, Grampy, Uncle John, Aunt Betsy, Uncle Kyle, Me, and Dad

I am so glad I got to spend such a great weekend in Vermont!  Thank you to Uncle Peter and Aunt Katherine for hosting us.  I'm so glad everyone could make it.  What a great idea I had!

July Recap

July 2011:

• I keep expecting an explosion of words any day.  Laura is adding many words, but is taking her time doing so.  She's gotten quite good at the word "NO!" and even forgot "yes" (yeshhh!) for a while there.  We made sure to get that one back in the vocabularly!
• Laura asks for cack-ahs and joose when she's hungry (animal crackers and juice). 
• Laura is in love with all things shooz (shoes) and sometimes cocks (socks).
• Laura makes an excellent chicken noise "ba-ba-ba-BAHBAH!" (speaking of cocks), and uses it as her go-to for animal sounds, next to rrrrruff! for barking.
• Laura can point out most of her body parts when prompted and says the "ice" for eyes, "toes," "nose," and "ee-ahs" for ears.  She's very fond of her belly button.
• Laura is finally calling me "Mumma" instead of Daddy! This means a lot to me!
• Laura has started singing.  No, the songs are not in English and the tunes are nothing I can recognize, but they are pretty amazing.  The songs usually come with intricate hand gestures and head bobbing.
• Laura is an exceptional dancer!