I am clearly a little behind on my monthly recap for October. What can I say about Laura? She has us cracking up all the time. Her funny personality is greatly enhanced by her growing vocabulary.
Even Laura cracks herself up. She'll be babbling to her toys (I wish we knew what she was saying) and then will just burst out laughing. Then she shakes her head and says, "Siddy Wara." Daddy, Mommy and Ries are also "siddy" quite often.
In October, Laura started singing songs. Some of them are clearly her version of actual songs, like "Rock-a-bye Baby" and "ABC's." Others are completely made-up and totally hilarious. These songs are usually about something happy. "Happy Colors" was her break-out hit, and was followed a few weeks later with "Happy Tractor."
The song "Happy Tractor" was initially inspired by a fear of tractors, thanks to a ride on the back of "Poppa's" ride-on mower. Tractors were evil scary things, till a ride on a happy tractor at the pumpkin patch.
Laura is getting much better at interacting with characters on TV shows. Instead of just watching, she'll repeat the phrases the characters prompt. In particular, she'll yell for "pack pack" and "map" during Dora.
Whenever someone is drinking a mug of something hot, Laura blows and says, "coppee! hot coppee!" I think she learned this one from Mam-ma.
Laura took a stuffed tiger from Uncle Andy's childhood room. Laura just wouldn't leave without "Catty," who is now one of her best friends. Every now and then, Laura will be holding Catty and we'll hear her mutter "Not An-ny's Catty. Wara's Catty."
Laura was able to visit with her Brammy and Bimpy (and the beloved Pippi) for a weekend. She loves seeing all four of her grandparents, and we get a kick out of the names she has come up with for them!
Laura loves talking on the phone - real or pretend. She'll walk around with the pretend phone up to one ear, and a finger in the other ear to help her hear the pretend conversation. She mostly calls Audrey, Poppa, Brammy and Pippi. The conversations are hilarious! "Hi! Hi! Hi! ahsdkhfakhdgkah hakghdkjdfhakl askdjhf! BYE!"
We have been trying to Skype with Brammy and Bimpy when we can. Laura thinks it's pretty neat technology. Sometimes when we're simply talking to someone on the regular phone, Laura will stare at the screen trying to see the person at the other end of the line!
Laura asks for help by saying "My hep!" This translates to help me or I need help. Instead of longer phrases, Laura usually just says "My ___" to get what she's after. It gets the job done.
We had a lot of fun dressing Laura up for Halloween. She went to school as a big, pink poodle, and refused to take her costume off after their parade. At home, she dressed up as Boots the Monkey from Dora the Explorer. She loved going house to house with her pumpkin basket, filling it with "pops" and "can-ee."
