The Max Reeper

I have a confession, I allow Laurie to watch cartoons in the car while we run our errands. Most of our errands are relatively short, so the same cartoon plays over and over and over. (Back to that in just a minute.)

Lately, Laurie has been playing "Book Store", she totes her books from our desk chair to her table and back. She flips the pages of a book and smacks each with a building block. Then rides around on her stick horse saying "Max Reeper, Max Reeper outside the door."

Uh huh, that's a little creepy. Who is outside our door? She repeats the same thing over. Our conversation is this:
Me: So, you are playing Max Reeper?
Laurie (getting angry with me): No, no, no, no, not max reeper, MAX REEPER.
And I have to turn away to keep her from seeing me laugh.

She continues her play and I watch more closely. And yes, that is Anna Fair's curly noggin.






























































Finally, while riding her horse again, she shakes her fist in the air and says, "Max Reeper say 'Take that book back!'" There's the ah-ha moment.

The current cartoon we are watching in the van is a Backyardigans episode, "The Masked Retriever"- librarian by day, over due book crusader by night. Complete with book stamping and horse chase.

Laughingstocks of the Dog Park

Our two year old is opinionated. And once she's made up her mind, there is no changing it. Sunday, we decided to take a walk in the dog park (the McGowen property at the end of our neighborhood, that we lovingly refer to as the dog park) Laurie loves to stroll in the dog park, though you never know what new thing she is going to insist on. Stroller, no stroller, riding, no riding.

So, when she insisted on taking Baby Rose, I caved. When she insisted on bringing her in the shopping cart, I caved. With her baby blanket and play food and purse, I caved. You get the picture. In my mind, it just didn't seem worth the fight I knew would come. So this is the little shopping diva we were proudly strolling with. I would love to know what everyone we passed thought of us. I am sure they were laughing.

Big News at the Barbour House

It's official. Laurie is potty trained!!! What an amazing day it is! I won't say she has no accidents, but we are close enough that I want to proclaim it to all who will listen. We even took the show on the road to Natchez this weekend. She stumbled a bit getting used to a new potty, and I am pretty sure my dad may never recover from the accident we had on his couch. But by the time we left, she was making me proud.























In less big news, Anna Fair is seriously on the move. And she is picking up speed with each passing day. She is into everything; and every morsel, toy, trash, leaf, gross thing you can find goes straight into her mouth. FYI, this was Daddy's knit onesie. Isn't she precious?
















While we were in Natchez, I looked up to find Laurie very helpfully feeding Anna Fair her blueberries. After my initial panic, I realized Anna Fair was doing quite well eating them, so I loaded her up and she loved them. Since then, she's tried out watermelon and peaches. Her food repertoire is expanding!

Happy Birthday, JG!

Our sweet cousin, Jane Gray, turned 7 this week. We were so excited to attend her party. Since Laurie saw my wrapping her gift, she's been telling me we need to put it under our Christmas tree for Jane Gray. And of course, wondering where her present is.

Jane Gray's ice cream party was a hit with Laurie. First we colored.
















A little love for Meg.















Then we ate lots of ice cream and cake. Yes, our dress does have ice cream cones smocked on it.














And finally we showed off our mad hitting skills. Perhaps Daddy needs to work on this with us.
































Laurie gathered up her fair share of the pinata candy and started eating it immediately. She even has the purple tongue to prove it. Thank you for including us, Jane Gray!

2 Videos for Your Viewing Pleasure

Anna Fair is working on her crawling prowess. She uses an interesting combination of moves that I like to refer to as the crawl and scoot. It involves crawling forward on her hands a few paces and then scoot and dragging her legs the rest of the way.



Next we have Laurie's ABC recital. She likes to recite them anytime we see words. Or numbers for that matter. I caught her mid-way while she was reading Richard Scarry's Schoolhouse book. We love Richard Scarry. I got her to start over and that really threw her off her game, but I think we recovered nicely. Note that her D sounds a lot like an E and N is generally dropped altogether.

Hanging With Meg

Meg came over for a play date this morning. Laurie enjoyed having some company over and I enjoyed seeing them interact. I learned a few lessons in parenting. Like, having 2 of everything is a must. 2 purses, 2 strollers, 2 dolls, 2 pots. If we didn't have 2, it ended in tears for someone. Meg, I promise next time you come over, we'll work more on sharing.

The girls were sweet to love on Anna Fair as well. Anna Fair wasn't so sure she needed that much attention.














































According to Laurie, they needed to stroll to the dog park.














Again, and again.














Laurie does not tolerate anyone else playing with Baby Rose, but we do have a second doll for Meg to play with.
Meg: What my baby's name?
Me: How about Baby Lily? (and a few other names)
Meg: Uhmm...nooo.
Me: (with thought I came up with what I knew would be a winner) How about Baby Olivia?
Meg: (with a huge grin) Yeaaah.














































You know it's been a successful date when you get such a sweet hug at the end.

Fancy Nancy

The girls and I attended a super fun Fancy Nancy party at the bookstore Tuesday morn. Laurie loves Nancy Nancy, Fancy Fancy. In typical Laurie fashion, she cruised into the bookstore and stormed right up to the kid area until she realized there was a crowd there. Then it was put on the breaks and where is my mamma?!!?? She finally warmed up and enjoyed the story time. We also thoroughly enjoyed making a beautful butterfly, coloring and donning a little perfume to fancy ourselves up. They even gave us a bag full of Fancy Nancy goodies. We couldn't be more splendiforous!

What's Up With Anna Fair?

Our sweet baby grows more and more. Laurie seems to get so much more attention, but well, that's because she's so much busier. But Anna Fair is working hard to catch up. I tell people all the time that I still think she's an infant. Only to be shocked when she starts talking and crawling. Where did this big girl come from?

Her eyes are getting more and more brown. Which I love. Laurie looks so much like Will. The more AFB looks like me, the happier I am.
















She has such a funny sense of humor. AFB smiles all the time. A big huge, open mouth, two sweet teeth showing smile.
















If not smiling, she puts everything in her mouth. Including her thumb. And trash off the floor. She loves the attention. After doing something particularly cute, she looks around the room to see who is looking. And sooo vocal, AF blows raspberries and babbles so much. She has Momma down pat, though I am not so naive to believe she knows how to use it. In the last few weeks, she has gotten really attached to momma. Drop off in the nursery used to be so easy, but now I get to listen to her whaling as I walk back down the hall. :(




































She is not afraid to make a play for any of big sister's toys. Big sister is working on sharing. My favorite, I am dead set on having at least one girl that will let me dress her hair up.
















I don't know that I would say she is crawling. Ok, definitely not crawling. But if Anna Fair is dead set on getting something, she can manage to get from point A to point B. It may not be pretty, but it gets the job done.






























While snapping photos of AF, Laurie asked me to take one of her and Baby Rose. With her mouth open wide, screaming CHEESE! Who taught her that? "Cheese" doesn't really make for a very pretty smile.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

I love me some babies in my bathtub!

Anna Fair has graduated to the big girl bathtub and we are all rejoicing. Laurie was getting difficult about bathtub time, but she comes in a hurry when she takes baths with Baby Anna Fair! (or is it because she thinks she's missing out on something?)

Caught in the Act

While Laurie was at Bear Camp last week, Anna Fair took the opportunity to love on Baby Rose every chance she got. Does she want Baby Rose because she is so cute? Or is it because Laurie likes her? I don't know, but I do know that Laurie would have blown a gasket if she knew what goes on while she is away.

Happy Fourth!

What a fun weekend! Pony riding, ribs and fishing in Yazoo City. Then swimming and boat riding in Natchez. Who could ask for more?

Teddy Bear Camp

Laurie attended Teddy Bear Camp this past week. It was a nice break in the middle of the summer and gave her a much needed outlet for all that fun toddler energy.

She loved it too. She came home the first day talking on and on about Sookey Bear...Sookey Bear...Sookey Bear. Couldn't for the life of me figure out what she was talking about, but Laurie is a persistent talker, she insists that you understand her. I finally got around to reading the flier they sent home, Smokey Bear...ok, gotcha. Though I have on good authority that when Sookey Bear actually came to visit that Laurie hid and wanted nothing to do with him.

Laurie came home with her very own Polar Bear on Friday and we have promptly named him after the neighbor's puppy, Jimbo. Laurie painted matching t-shirts for Jimbo and herself, but refused to wear her shirt to their teddy bear picnic as it was "dirty."