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!

Happy Cake Day!

I come by my love of cake pretty naturally.

Happy 4th anniversary, Mom and Dad!  I love you (and cake)!

Get Me to the Church

I got a new aunt this weekend!  My Uncle Matt (who is really my cousin, but uncles are more fun) got married to his sweetheart, Melissa.  We have loved Melissa for years and years, and now she's officialy part of the family!  Welcome, Melissa, we are so glad to have you!

Before the wedding, my mom painted my toenails for the first time.  I was so excited to have pretty toes just like all the other girls!  And what better occasion for pretty toes than a wedding!

 I got to wear my new party dress to the wedding ceremony so I could see all the ladies in their beautiful dresses. Mine was the prettiest dress, but Melissa's was right up there!

After the beautiful ceremony, I headed down the road to Uncle Taylor's for a sleepover.  I changed into playclothes and said bye to Mom and Dad.  Taylor and Julia (I love her!) took me for a walk through their new town.  We let Dolly slide down the slides, since they weren't too hot for her bottom.

 We also got to see a statue of the Hadrosaurus - a dinosaur discovered in Taylor's town!  I love dinosaurs, so this was a big treat.  I would have liked to have played with the dinosaur for longer, but for the heat.

 So we headed back to Taylor and Julia's for a snack in the a/c and some great playtime.  I had a great time with them!

And while I wasn't there to witness it for myself, I'm pretty sure my mom and dad had a great time at the wedding reception.  Mom came to pick me up in the morning and told Taylor, Julia and me that there was some great dancing all night.  I was slightly jealous of the dance party I missed, but I'm pretty sure I had way more fun with my Taylor and Julia!  We all had a really great weekend!

Playdate

So... my photographer hasn't had a chance to upload the two entire pictures she took of me this past weekend.  I was trying to hold off on posting about my weekend till I had the cute picture to include.  But oh well.

My mom might not be the best photographer, but she is a pretty good social coordinator.  She emailed the moms of some of my friends last week and arranged a playdate!  Sarah and I were born down the hall from each other on the same day, so even though we don't go to school together we are pretty tight.  Audrey is one of my besties from school.  We even look fairly similar with our blonde piggies!

The girls showed up with their moms around Noon, and we splashed in the kiddie pool, got pushed on the trike, and slid down the slide for a while.  Then my mom had the "bright" idea to turn on the flower sprinkler.  Terror ensued.  We were happy, Mom!  Why on earth would you mess that up with a sprinkler?!  That woman is crazy. 

After the sprinkler fiasco, we moved inside for snacks and puzzles.  The moms ate salad while we toddlers enjoyed goldfish crackers - we each got our own snack-cup to eat from!  I had a lot of fun with my two friends, and I'm pretty sure the moms did too.  I hope we have another playdate soon!

WtP: My first movie!

Mom and Grandma took me to a big Egyptian pyramid to see Winnie the Pooh on Friday.  They say it was a movie theatre... I was very impressed with the sphinx at the front door.  When we got inside the theatre, there were big, red seats that kept folding up on me.  Mom and Grandma finally put their purses on the seat to help weigh it down, which was fine by me, since they both had lots of snacks in their purses for me to munch on! 

After waiting for about eighty million years (or twenty minutes), the movie finally started!  Within the first few minutes, Grandma was humming along to the familiar music and Mom was laughing out loud at the cuddly characters.  Mom was really impressed with the animation, and how closely it stuck to the books.  She has also firmly resolved to finally get past the first two chapters of Winnie the Pooh, in which she usually loses her commitment and puts them off till another day.  To that I say, what about your "Summer of Classics" reading challenge, Mom?  Doesn't WtP count for that?

Anyway, I was pretty interested in many parts of the movie.  I was also very interested in snacks, squirming, and the little girl sitting behind us.  I could see her through the crack in the big, red chair.  She had a big bucket of fluffy white snack that looked yummy.  Mom says I'm too young and could choke, so here's a chicken nuggest instead.

Mom was really impressed with the clever animation, which highlighted letters and words in the font that is so memorable from the books.  Pooh and his friends literally walk across pages and paragraphs, as the narrator reads the words shown on the screen.  The animation was really simple, but it really made the connection between the original books and the animated feature.  At least, that's what my mom says.

At one point, a little girl next to me screamed with fright when the Backson loomed out of the woods.  But she was laughing hysterically soon after.  I didn't think it was scary.  I knew it was a farce the whole time.  Mom says the movie is very appropriately rated G and that it was the perfect length for a family outing.  Just as I was getting a little too squirmy for Mom's taste, the movie ended!  In a most satisfying manner!  With no creepy woosels or heffulumps or anything!

My favorite part was when Pooh started dreaming about honey.  All his friends turned into little, happy honey pots, and then he starrted swimming through the honey!  I watched this whole part without even reaching for one snack, it was so great! 

My mom says I was really well-behaved, considering my age.  I was squirmy and snacky, but I am only an eighteen-month-old! If you are thinking of seeing Winnie the Pooh, please do!  And if you were thinking you'd see HP7 instead, see both!  WtP is definitely worth the movie ticket!

Another Great Weekend!

I must be the luckiest kid in the whole world.  It seems that almost every weekend, I get to see at least one set of grandparents.  This weekend, my mom and I hopped on one of those plane things and flew up to see Grammy, Grampy, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Parke and Aunt Torie!  There was a "baby shower" for Aunt Sarah, which means I'm going to have a cousin real soon.  I can only imagine how awesome it will be to have a cousin and partner in crime. 

It took a little longer to get on the plane than my mom anticipated.  We actually tried to get on, waited around, waited some more, and then went home to sleep in our own cribs.  THEN we finally got on a plane very early the next morning.  I'm pretty cheery in the morning, so I wasn't phased by the early flight.  After we got off the plane, we hopped in Grampy's big car and drove up to Aunt Sarah and Uncle Parke's!  I love their house - they have two dogs, a pool, and a petting farm all right there!



So excited to be in Maine!

I hung out with Grampy and Uncle Parke while Grammy, Mom and Aunt Torie went to Aunt Sarah's shower.  I hear the food was delicious, the setting was gorgeous, and the company was delightful.  All I know is that I had a blast at the pool and didn't get knocked over by any cows! 

I <3 Grampy

 After the shower, we all drove back to Grammy and Grampy's for some good times playing with dollies.  My mom had a lot of dollies growing up, so I got to play with a bunch of hers.  I really liked the smaller one with long brown hair.  She was really easy to carry all around.

Dolly, Laura and Grammy

 The next day, we all went to another petting farm!  Drumlin Farms is where Aunt Torie used to go for Pollyfrogs & Frogs when she was in preschool.  She was really excited to show me around the place. 

This rocking horse has a real saddle!

 I especially loved the tiny, puffy sheep.  They are all babies (like me) and super cute - also like me!  Grampy fed one of the sheep some grass, even though there were signs all over the place asking us not to feed the sheep.  Of course, once I saw Grampy do it, I just had to give it a whirl.  I'm a rebel.  But it was totally worth all of Mommy's worries to feel that funny sheep tongue on my hand. 

Sheep!

After the petting farm, Mom and I had to get back on a plane.  Just like before, it took a long time waiting at the airport before we could get on the plane, take off, and land back in Maryland.  I was a little wound up and Mom was a little cranky.  But we finally made it - and when I saw Daddy waiting for us at the airport, I was pretty excited! 

I love all our weekend adventures, seeing grandparents left and right, but I'm pretty excited to kick back and relax at home this weekend.  I'm pretty sure my mom feels the same way!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July, everyone!  What a fun holiday for we American toddlers.  Hot dogs, pools, bubbles, fireworks... it just doesn't get any better!  I took my mom and dad to Grandma's and Grandpa's to show them the great time they missed last weekend.  We hung out in the pool for hours!

 Mom says I'm a bathing beauty.  Dad says I'm a little fish.  I just think I'm cute.

 I really love chasing bubbles (bub bohs) all around the yard.  I just can't understand why the bubbles always disappear just as I reach to grab them.  Chase, chase, chase, POP! and they're gone!

 Mom said we had a real treat coming, so we hopped in the car and drove to Grandma's work to see something called fireworks.  We had to wait till the sun went down, and then we had to brave the bugs that came out.  But wow!  Were those fireworks worth the wait!  My silly parents didn't get any pictures of the actual fireworks because they were too enthralled looking at them.  But they did get a couple cute pictures of me watching the colors burst in the sky!

But just like with the bubbles, I just couldn't reach the fireworks!  Mom tells me they would be too hot to touch anyway, but that didn't stop me from reaching out to them!

My mom is right: fireworks are awesome.  I hope I get to see some more sometime!

June Recap

June 2011:

• Laura is really starting to talk.  She says "peas" and "thass" very regularly when asking for things.  Sometimes she even says "dat oooh!" for thank you.  She's also still whining to try to get things without actually asking, but we're getting better about forcing her to use real words.  She has also become very fond of the word "no."
• Laura says "bub-boh" for bubbles, and often asks us to blow some for her since she can't quite work the wand. 
• Laura is still cheers-ing us often (cheeyaz!) and also says "chee!" to smile at a camera. 
• Laura loves talking on the phone.  Complete with hand gestures.
• She uses similar hand gestures when reading books.  The gestures are killing us!  Super cute.
• Laura recently made herself a chair out of waffle blocks.  Seriously.  She found a platform already assembled, and then asked us to add a bigger block as a back.  She carries the "chair" all over the family room, sitting strategically to watch tv, read to her Lamb and Baby, or talk on the phone.