Back to school!

With fancy new shoes!!!

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Having a rough time

Our monkey has had a few day care days in a row that she doesn't eat and monday sleep tons today had a hard time doing so. A cold, the teeth and possibly the change is not mixing too well. I also had to leave to be at a "job site" in Beverly Hills by 7 am, which meant I didn't see her this morning. Man was that tough for me, so I'm sure for her too.

But, yes! Do ask me later about this job site. Fancy and fun story!

Tomorrow, if she still not doing well we are going to have to take turns and work half days each. Jeff's got the morning shift.

Let's hope it works out for all of us.
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15 month letter

Laurelita!

You can walk now!!! At about 14 months and a week you figured it out! And you have been enjoying your walking so much. Gaining confidence. Dropping down on your plush-cloth-diaper-butt, and steering us into whichever direction you want. Thank you for taking your first steps in front of us! As full time working parents we were very afraid to miss this important moment!

Your vocabulary is better and better and not that you ever had much trouble communicating, but now its quite efficient. Yeah, NO, abua, wate, etche, cheeeee (cheese, which you also know its called queso), momma, daddah, UP, upanddown or sometimes it sounds like upitown, teee (tunel), whats-tha?, bye, hi, your "eh!" with a hand movement as in "give me", atcha (gracias), ma (more), and eyedoo! Are the one I can now list. You got pointing and clapping down too. Your good bye hand wave is very regal-like and you like to wave to everyone or every car going by. You also know what's yours and when someone takes it you lean your body and neck forward and with a smile you point at it then point at yourself. Its truly adorable.

Your personality is the star, everyone who gets to spend time with you tells us you are a "perfect baby". We really hear it often! You rarely cry. Your mood is always happy and upbeat. We know we are lucky and we enjoy it by the second!

You have your eyes in the ski! Planes, helicopters and birds (no matter if it is a hawk or a hummingbird) you see them all!

Lots of big changes are happening again for us. Mom got an awesome new job that's very close to dad's and much closer to home. That meant you get a new fun and much larger day care that is way closer to home.

Sadly its all coinciding with some serious molars coming out and you even went on a hunger and sleep strike on my day one at work!

Sleep at night has taken a bit of the toll from all the changes. You are waking up one or two times at night. Sadly after us going to sooth you every time you woke up, we have had to go back to the letting you cry for 3-6 minutes (although the first time was close to 30) because if not you wouldn't go to sleep again!

Its also the beginning of meltdowns. You are prone to have a mini one when your hungry, like every morning when you wake up. Daddy usually goes to get you, if I am not quick on my feet and get you your milk at the same time but instead wait to hug and kiss you a bit then leave for your milk: its a meltdown with thick tears!

A truly cute new routine is that you get off the bed (smartly like we've shown you "con los pies primero" "feet first") and you walk to the chair we have in the room. You then throw away every piece of cloth your dad has draped on it. Climb the chair and you LOVE to read 2 books: "mi casa" and "the little kittens" which has big googly eyes on it! You like those books so much they have replaced your "little hoot" nighttime story!

You also love to clean! Clean! Clean! I give you a paper towel or a hand brush every evening while I prep dinner... Keeps you busy until I pick you up to eat!

You remain a very social baby and busy bee! Its non stop monkey action!

I'm finishing this letter as I walk you on the stroller down our street in an effort to get you to fall asleep since you had a bad night with a stuffy nose. So pardon my possibly incoherent copy paste of ideas I have been working on for weeks and any typos. If you didn't know this blog is at least 90% done thru my blackberry.

We hope our east coast family had a chance to 'enjoy' mother nature's display in hurricane Irene without much inconvenience. Growing up in hurricane corridor gives you a different perspective, it was an exiting family staycation!

Happy summer everyone!

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Hot-Huntington

Laurel and her BFF Teven went on a play date to the Huntington gardens. We got to see their "ranch open house" were they are growing an abundance of edibles. And then we had hotdogs and a nice splash time at the children garden.
The up to a 104 F heat, the fun and nap times all collided into the kiddos falling asleep shortly thereafter.
Thanks to Kara and Brian for driving up to our side of town and braving the heat with us! We had a fun time!

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Oh!!! That molar!!!!!

Its giving our monkey such a hard time!!
Poor baby.
Yesterday she didn't eat or sleep at dya care. And spent all day whining. Today we use a theething gel and she was a happy camper again! ...except now for momma.

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No! Uh uh!

Jeff offered her this amazing artisanal lamb bacon we got yesterday and she say : no! Ah uh! It was the cutest no ever!
She is now answering questions very properly. With No! or Yeah!
Like just now, Jeff said: are you hungry? Yeah!
Love this new Laurel!

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one year and then 14 month letters

Dear Laurel Aven,

one year d 2 weeks!

We can't believe its already a year!  We look back at your pictures and just 4 months ago you were a different baby in so many ways!

back in December 2010: on her first taste of solid food!

Long gone are the colicky days, heck we had forgotten all about that (...tricky nature, that's how people have more kids, huh?!).

donut? i cant eat any!

You are so much fun all the time. We love every minute we share with you.

reading Grandparent Kleeger's 1st birthday card

You are enjoying your new found freedom of crawling at super speeds and you've gain confidence on your abilities, its a pleasure to watch. At the beginning of May you started climbing the full flight of stairs, and given the chance its all you want to do!  You bolt towards the stairs! But you are also very careful and you let us know you are going to do this by tapping on the first step with your hands so we hear it and come to your side. You also don't like it if we stay behind a few steps.  You boss us and point to move closer!

For your bday i took you to our first story time at the south pasadena library (finally!) you had a lot of fun! 

+++++++++++ 
life got busy!  so i restarted 2 months later
+++++++++++

Dear Laurel,

The past 2+ months have been the biggest of our lives. Yours and ours included.

I don't think much compares to what we all been thru but I will try to put it in your perspective as much as I can.

When your birthday came around I wrote you a little letter that we planned to work on and make special.  We promise we will find it and post as soon as we can but for now I am going to try to recapture the past 2 months of awesome baby you!

You turned one year old!  A whole year!  I can't believe it was a year already since your dad drove us to the hospital without saying anything about the pint of ginger ice cream I was eating as if it was my last meal on earth.

I will forever remember the first sound of your voice when you came out. I had not yet seen you but my heart flushed an emotional "sooosh!" that no epidural and whatever they made me endure could mask how much I truly love you.

the day we got admitted for your delivery!

 The week or so before your bday we were the lucky receivers of a tv show home make over. You will have awesome tales to tell of stuff you most likely won't remember but are so much of your life!  its amazing to me that we, as people, can't remember those early days as you surely are so aware of your surrounding and you have a good sense of the past.

You are so present and so sensitive we treat you with the up most respect towards your feelings, reasoning and understanding of your environment.  So for the show we had to have you sleep away one night in order to allow for this to happen. We chose to have you stay at your dear care taker Flora. I made you a story book of pictures of what was bound to happen and you seemingly had a blast at your 'pajama party'. 

action!

real action!

ohhh wowowwww!

Our house became transformed from night to day (literally in 3.5 days) and your picture of exploring the floor is classy!

You have been progressively gaining confidence of your walk. But you are not there yet.  One of your favorite activities was crawling up the stairs. You could do that for hours! Now you still love it but you prefer to do it standing with on of us holding your hands. You take such leaps on each step and you are able to go up as well as down the stairs.  

Every morning when you wake up we bring you to our bed to drink your milk, cuddle and play.   We have had to close the bedroom door to keep you inside (so we can stay in bed just a bit longer) because if we don't you bolt to the stairs and without hesitation you will climb it all the way!

she escapes!

You have a good amount of words and you are pretty close to talking but we really enjoy your baby jabber.  The sound of you joining conversations and trying to say things while pointing to what you want is soooo fun!   You also have the cutest mannerisms on how you say no with your head and hand that we find ourselves imitating you!

 

And you can now "feed" yourself!

One of our favorite words you have is "Ohhhhhh! Woooo!!!!"  You can use those repeatedly in all kinds of combinations to show amusement. Its, well, amazingly cute!

Other words you use are: Up, Down, mamma, mami, dah dah, pappa and papi, me, "I dooo" is your I like it, I want it and I do. You also say water (wutter), agua (buabua) and leche (etche).

Your 2 of your front teeth came out and you would make the funniest face trying to massage your gums with your upper lip. 

like that!

Your new favorite game is switching or directing us to switch lights on and off. You like to use UP DOWN on that. But we have been teaching you ON OFF and PRENDER APAGAR, respectively.

my favorite pass time: your car dancing

your favorite food : cheese (cheeeeee)

my favorite moments: your loving kisses when enjoying food.

happy fourth of July everyone!

your such a happy easy going sweet baby!

more? here: enjoy! 

Mon artiste!

Laurel, le très belle artiste avec le crayola!

Baguette!
Fromage!
"oh-hoh-hoh-hoh-hoh-hoh"

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Hanging with Becket

Laurel and I had a very fun saturday afternoon at my good friend and co-worker Ryan's garden. I will miss her in a few weeks when I will no longer be sitting next to her!

Becket, Ryan and Josh's second son, is 4 months older than Laurel. They got along great.

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Kids shouldn't play with

Bags!!!!
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Ring around the rosie!

Ohhhh. Laurel will miss Flora.

But she is going to have so much more fun soon that I bet you she will forget this days pretty quickly!

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Every morning

Laurel walks to this chair and reads books.

If there are any clothes draped on the chair she takes them off! Can't have those there!

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moving closer to home!

Here is our ‘starred’ map of our much more comfortable new daily routines starting on 8/22.

Jeff will drop Laurel at her very cool new day care and I will pick her up everyday…. Jeff and I can even have lunch dates!

Today we secured our spot at the new day care. laurel loves it already! she was so happy there!

she walked all over the place as if she owned it. and she went straight the the water table in the outdoor play area, because she remembered it form last Friday!
that kid loves the water!

Jeff and i ran out in a rush because we were told we parked on the wrong side of the street  (cleaning day) and that we could both get a ticket on our cars and she made a little noise like 'wow?'
and then was as happy as a clam... thats ok.. i can stay here, they will come back later, this is fun!

so, I'm not even worried about the transition.

sooo relived!