Dress Up

Who needs to play dress up in Mommy's clothes, when your own are so much fun? Laurie is in a huge stage where she loves to pull all her clothes out of the dresser, string them throughout the house, and occassionally put them all on. Not that she can quite dress herself, but she can stick one arm in a few shirts and the other arm in a few more, add all of her necklaces and a hair bow and call it an outfit. And she NEVER wears hair bows. If you see any matching outfits, let me know, we haven't matched in weeks.

Morning in the Park

We've been enjoying some really beautiful weather in our neck of the woods and took advantage this morning to have a little fun at the park with our friends. Laurie is getting to be quite adventurous and skilled in park know-how. She still loves to swing, especially when you have a buddy to stare at. But she also slides, climbs, runs through the tunnels, bridges, and stairs. It is so nice to burn off a little energy!

3D Ultrasound

A few pictures from the 3D Ultrasound this morning. Big nose, full lips, strong chin, chubby cheeks...she looks like another Barbour Baby to me! And who doesn't love a little thumb sucking?





























Here is newborn Laurie, see a resemblance?

Coming, New Baby Barbour

This poor child still has no name. She is scheduled to arrive in just 9 weeks. Passing the single digit mark has really driven it home for me, we will have two children. We will have midnight feedings. We will have sibling rivalry. And many more things too. And no name. Will and I are currently bickering over Anna Fair vs Ann Fair. Do you have a preference? Who knew 1 little letter made such a difference? Here is baby Barbour's picture from her last appointment, but we are scheduled to do the fun 4D sonogram tomorrow. I can hardly wait!

Aunt Fair

Laurie loves her Aunt Fair's house. I can't blame her, Aunt Fair is super cool, 3 awesome cousins to play with, and all new toys to strew about the house.

So, anyway, Will and I took Laurie out for a stroll one evening. As soon as we hung a right out of out driveway, I say to Will, "We're heading to Aunt Fair's house." He rolled his eyes in total dismissal. As we continue up the street, I tell him I bet you $20 we go to Aunt Fair's. After much discussion and laughter, pass this street, right turn here, left turn there, wondering through a few random yards, we find ourselves standing at the foot of Fair's drive watching our little 18 month old scoot up their steep drive. Will in total shock, me in triumph. It's a good thing our Aunt Fair loves us and doesn't mind our occasional drop in. And I'm still waiting on my $20.

And here we are swimming from this morning with some fun friends. Laurie is quite the daredevil and has no fear of the pool. Big shocker. I really wanted some fun pics of her splashing in the water, but there wasn't much time from rescuing her from drowning every 2 minutes. Both aren't we cute stomping around the pool with our floaties on? I still can't believe she was willing to wear them!

More or All Done?

Dinnertime is always an adventure. Times have changed so much from her early days when Laurie could barely pipe out 'kook kook' or 'juice.' Her repertoire is littered with all things dealing with food. Eat, more, all done, finished, cheese, please, thank you, cracker. You name it, she wants to say it. I was so pleased that she was finally learning to communicate and we could know exactly what she wanted and when she was finished. That is, that's what we thought at first. After a few odd conversations with her, I realize, she just says whatever we say. So funny, but not quite meeting our current goal.

Our Little Reader

"I don't really need Mama or Dada to read to me anymore, I got this figured out." And she really does, complete with inflection, gestures, and the "Shhhhh" at the end of Pajama Time.

Daddy's Girl

Laurie and Dadda have a new routine. As soon as he walks in the door from work, Laurie begins whining to go outside. First they swing, then toddle around the yard. Laurie has a new trick where she likes to pull grass and bring it to me. I was wondering where she got this until I noticed that while Dadda is swinging her, he is pulling weeds from the grass. You can see our yard still needs all the help it can get.

For the backyard finale, Laurie gets to feed Josie. She loves this, and she makes that poor dog work hard for her few bits of kibble. Some pieces make it into Josie's bowl, some hit the ground or the automatic feeder, and quite a few end up in her water bowl. Poor Josie, we know that she is a very sweet natured dog, but we decided if she doesn't growl at Laurie over the mistreatment of her dinner, she probably never will. It's usually a much bigger deal, but even Josie doesn't win out over a chance to play with the camera.

Audrey Cate

We met our sweet friends, Catie and Audrey Cate for a little play date at Renaissance this morning. First, we took all the books off the shelves at Barnes and Noble, then we headed over to play in the fountains. The girls played so sweetly together, they were really cute. They both enjoyed this one little broken geyser that barely bubbles up. I think the big geysers are a little scary to our small fry.

Laurie loves Audrey Cate, she wrapped her arms tight around her and squealed when her Mommy tried to pick her up to go. We can be very bossy!

Beach Vacation

All the Barbours spent a long weekend at the beach. I especially looked forward to the trip to see how Laurie would enjoy it. You might remember this trip from April when she tolerated the beach or this trip from last August when she didn't like it much at all. But after this weekend, Laurie has definitely given the beach two thumbs up.

I expected her to be tentative at first, but yet again, Laurie showed her true daredevil character and hit the ground running from the second we hit the beach. She had no fear of the waves and ran straight headlong into the water, only to be knocked flat and tumbled to shore. We were so afraid she would hate the beach after that, but she went straight back for more. No fear.

We had so much good help from aunts, uncles and cousins alike, what a fun time! Thanks, Pop and Sherrie for a wonderful trip! In addition to the waves, Laurie enjoyed building and knocking down sand castles, digging sand, throwing sand back in the ocean, playing in the little tidepools on the beach, and running here, there and yonder.

Liddy demonstrated some of her gymnastic abilities, Laurie loved it and tried her best to show off her own talents. They were so cute together.

This video tickles me to no end. I thought I would catch a sweet shot of cousins playing together, but apparently Laurie decided she was ready to call it a day and head to the house. With Meg calling "bye, bye" after her all the way!