I realize this is two posts in one day, but I couldn't resist it. There are so many cute pictures from Halloween, I didn't want to have to pick just one. So I'll keep the writing short and sweet. This picture is from the pumpkin carving. Laurel had a good time pulling the pumpkin-guts out of the bowl and onto the table.

Last night was Halloween. We had a whole day of events planned...but it was one of those days that didn't turn out quite right, and we ended up rushing around to do only some of the things we had planned to do. We DID get to buy and carve a pumpkin. I DID manage to finish Jon's costume. And we DID go to a Halloween party, and of course we trick-or-treated.

The nice thing about having a young toddler, is that they don't really care about the trick-or-treating part. So we didn't have to spend all night walking from house to house getting as much candy as possible. She can't even eat the few pieces we got...so instead they sit there on the counter staring and me and Jon tempting us to eat them. (I swear a Kit-Kat woke me up last night and begged me to eat it)

I found a monkey costume at Old Navy a few months ago, and couldn't resist it. But rather than just be a monkey, I figured I could jazz it up by making her Curious George. What did I do to jazz it up you ask? Absolutely nothing. Her costume is the same as when I bought it off the rack. Jon however had to dress like a Miami Vice wannabe with a giant foam hat. Luckily a lot of people got it. He was the Man in the Yellow Hat. Sadly a few people didn't get it, and though Laurel was a bear and that Jon was just strange. (He didn't appreciate that) But he was a very good sport about it.

This weekend we headed up to Cloudland Canyon for a camping trip. It was the perfect fall-leaf weekend to go up there. The leaves we're bright red and yellow and orange. However, we didn't realize how cold it was going to be. When we got there at 3pm it was already 46 degrees. I don't know what it ended up dipping to in the middle of the night, but it was cold. (The kind of cold where you hold it all night because you can't bear the thought of having to leave the safety of the tent)

Not that the tent offered any protection from the cold, but it did offer a little against the wind. And somewhere between 10pm and midnight the air mattress completely deflated, leaving all four of us on the frigid ground. (Yep, all four. Jon, Me, Laurel and Roger) The funny part was, although you are on the ground, the bed isn't really completely deflated...so every time any one of us would shift the others would get popped up like popcorn.

On top of all of this the baby (who went to sleep very quickly around 8pm) woke up screaming at 10:30pm. Then again at 10:40pm, and again at 10:50pm. I tried everything. Sitting up, laying down, putting her in her pack-and-play. I even tried nursing her. (Which was a miserable failure. Laurel has been weaned for 3 weeks now. Only three weeks. So I assumed even if she couldn't get anything, she'd at least be comforted by it. Not so much. She looked at me like I was crazy. She wouldn't even try it!) After I got her back to sleep she slept on and off until about 7:30AM. I slept NONE. So when daylight hit I tried my hardest to wake everyone else up so we could get off the ground and go start a fire and have some hot coffee.

Once we had warm breakfast in us the weather mellowed out and we packed up and spent the rest of the afternoon hiking before heading back home. The hike was beautiful, but tough, and the waterfall at the bottom of the canyon is the picture posted above. And I learned a good lesson about not camping in the cold weather with a baby.

This weekend we had all of the kids. It was crazy, but fun. Laurel has really grown to enjoy her time with her aunts and uncles. She can even say Abby. Of course she calls both of the girls Abby, but she'll learn.

We all went to an organic farm on Saturday. The event was pretty laid back, but fun at the same time. The kids were good about trying most of the things. They had everything from gourmet foods to pomegranates to fermented beet juice. (Apparently fermented beet juice is supposed to be refreshing. It isn't.) There were arts & craft, organic chocolate and plenty of plants and animals to see. The kids loved being chased around by a duck.

Laurel just likes being free to roam around. She stays in the backpack as long as you need her to, but once you let her out, she doesn't want back in. This is a picture of her and me on the grass listening to one of the bands.

Laurel has been growing and changing so much lately. It's scary. She's almost walking, she talks constantly and she has an unbelievable temper. We've also been introducing her to a lot more recently, hiking, camping, etc. Throughout the fall we have a lot planned, more camping, pumpkin picking, Halloween, and two Thanksgivings. (Yep...twice the turkey for me this year) So even if I don't have time to write that much, I will try to keep up the pictures.

The picture here is from Laurel's first official hiking trip. As you can see she found it very tiring. We didn't know how she'd do, so we started with a fairly short 2 mile hike. We first tried the jog stroller with the big fat bike tires...but that didn't go well (too bumpy). So we heaed back to the car to try her in the snuggly. (too small) We hadn't tried the snuggly in months, not realizing that she had outgrown it. So, finally we tried the good-old Maya wrap (just right). At first she was mesmerized by the sun coming through the leaves, then she was irritated by the leaves brushing into her, then she was lulled by the constant rocking motion...and before we knew it she was out like a light.

Since then we found a cheap hiking backpack at used it camping and hiking, and she loves it. (I'll put those pictures in later) We have also taken her to some dirt trails around town and let her play in the mud and the creeks. It turns out she loves mud. Loves to play in it, loves to eat it, pretty much loves everything about it. Mud has lots of minerals, right?

Today's blog is not for the faint of heart. But still, I thought this picture and this event needed to be recognized. (If only to show how gross...and funny parenthood can be)

So, a few days ago Jon and I were playing with Laurel on the floor of her room. Being the regular little scamp that she is, I realized it was about that time in the day for a dirty diaper. Now, bear in mind I didn't smell anything, so while it should have been dirty, I didn't really think it was. So without hesitation I reach to grab the back of her diaper and take a little peak. But when I did, I realized my finger sank into something warm and squishy. And when I pulled my finger back out..."warm and squishy" stayed on board.

Being the calm and rational person I am, you would have thought my first inclination would have been to go wash my hands. Instead, I ran and grabbed the digital camera so that I could savor this mommy-baby moment in time forever.

It's been so long since we've posted again. Laurel is a crawling fool now. She can get from her room through the living room to the kitchen in about 60 seconds. (Which means watching her just got a lot harder) Although, it's more fun now. She'll come find you wherever you are, and when she does she's smiling from ear to ear.

She can also pull up to standing on just about anything. At first it was just her crib. Then it was the coffee table. Now it's cabinets, your leg, the dog...or anything else she can get a good grip on (Unfortunately for Roger, he does not appreciate his ears being used to hoist Laurel up).

Last Saturday I brought Laurel out to see her daddy at work, which is where the picture came from. We rarely go visit him at work, since it's so far. So I thought it would be a good chance to get some fire truck pictures of Laurel and Daddy.

Tuesday was an important day in the life of Laurel Dorman. It was the day she said her first word.

What is it you ask?

Was it momma? (The one that gave her life?) No.

Was it Dadda? (The one who takes care of her day in and day out?) Nope.

Maybe it was bye-bye, this seems like a pretty obvious choice. Wrong again.

It was Roger. Yes, I swear...Roger. We didn't believe it at first. We had to hear it half a dozen times before we finally believed it. For those of you that don't know, Roger is our dog. Our big black oaf of a dog. Of course the word comes out something like 'Ah-jeu' but you definitely get the drift of what she means when she says it. So here's a picture of the Rog to commemorate this occasion.

Today was Jon's birthday. Laurel and I decided to let the "guys" take him out for a beer and some wings. So Laurel and I dressed up like boys and took daddy to Athens for a whole bunch of wings. (I had no idea Laurel would make such a cute boy!) The picture is of Laurel and Jon at the wing place. Jon and I ate more wings then I care to mention, and Laurel ate some cheerios and babyfood. (Actually she ate the off-namebrand cheerios that I lovingly mock Jon by calling cheepios.) Get it? Cheepios...like cheep cheerios...I slay me.

Anyway, after the wings we walked to Big City Bread for dessert. I had only been there once, and didn't realize how far of a walk it would be. I also didn't realize it was going to be over 90 degrees. Yipes. It was hot. By the time we got there we were just happy to be in the air conditioning. I got a white cake filled with blueberries and lemon curd with a cream cheese frosting and Jon got a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse on the inside and covered in chocolate ganache. They were great. They were so rich we couldn't even finish them. (Ok, that's a partial lie. Jon couldn't finish his, I totally finished mine)

After walking back we were so drained from the heat and the huge amount of food we consumed we pretty much just hung out for the rest of the day. Hooray for lazy Saturday afternoons. (And hooray for Dish Network for having hour after hour of mind numbing movies!)

This week Laurel learned to tie her shoes. No, really...look at the picture. You can't refute evidence like that. This has been an easy week. And while there have been no huge jumps in development, you can tell she's getting stronger and smarter everyday. It's the little things. I was thinking this week about when she couldn't sit up by herself. We would sit her up and she would just slump forward. Now, not only can she sit up, she's sure of herself doing it. She's got the feel for her range of motion, and feels comfortable moving into different positions. She's a natural yogi I think.

Tomorrow is her daddy's birthday. We have big plans for him...but we can't tell you what they are just in case daddy reads the blog tonight. But in the next post we'll put a picture of the days events and tell everyone how it went. In the meantime, it's bed time for babies.

I guess I should apologize AGAIN for taking so long to post. I thought I would be better at doing them more often, but like everything else (cleaning, dieting, etc) good intentions don't always materialize. But, once again this means we have more to tell.

Since the last post, Laurel can now say "uh-oh." She spent an afternoon in the Target dropping Jon's sunglasses on the floor and looking at him innocently and saying "uh-oh." She can also stand for long periods of time. She isn't venturing in any direction, but she'll stand forever. This proves once again that my kid, so far, is a lot like her father...she gets comfortable and doesn't like change.

I feel like a lot more has happened this week, but now that I'm sitting down to write it, nothing much is coming to mind. She's still sleeps all night. How lucky are we? We went to the doctor this week and found out that she's in the low percentile for height and weight. The doctor wasn't concerned, especially since she looks so healthy. The funny thing is, she seems to have taken it to heart. The same afternoon after we left the doctor she started eating like a champ, and hasn't stopped yet.

The picture is of her eating a tomato-pasta-beef baby food mix. She painted some of it, and mommy painted some of it. (It looked like fun, how could I resist?) Lesson learned however, the orange-red sauce all over her face stained. It's been two days now and there is still an orange tint to her eyebrows.

It's been over a week since our last post, which is good because it means there's more to tell. Laurel still isn't crawling. It doesn't seem like she ever will. I don't say that to be self defeating, it just seems like she doesn't want to crawl. I've never seen anyone so content to be in the spot she's in. I will try to tempt her by moving an exciting toy slightly out of reach, she'll look at the toy and then look at me as if to say, "no thanks, I'm not in the mood." Then she'll settle down into her little piece of the carpet and play with whatever is at hand, even if it's just her own foot.

The progress we have made this week: she waves to anyone and everyone, she claps and makes an "ay" sound (we think this means yay...but we're partial to thinking Laurel is a genius too), she's also started eating more variety of solid foods, including fruit puffs. (Which is dangerous because as the Dorman's will remember...Jon likes them too.) We certainly can't afford to buy enough fruit puffs to feed them both.

She actually just started eating them last night. But she started with a bang. She still won't put them in her mouth herself, but if I'm holding one anywhere in her visual area she will find a way to get it in her mouth. (This is how I found out she really liked them) I had given her a couple of broken pieces to see if she liked them. I was sitting there next to her with one in my hand, not really paying attention and all of the sudden she nose-dived into my hand and ate it the whole fruit puff. I guess they really do tell you when they're ready to move into different foods!

She's also got a new game she plays. She will make two little fists and then scrunch her face up and tense up her body. Then she'll release all the tension, smile big and wait for you to laugh and mimic her. This will last pretty much as long as you let it. It had Jon and I laughing at the dinner table for quite a while. I'm not sure what you call this game, but I found out it's good for releasing tension.

Oh, and of course the biggest event of the week...drum roll please. Laurel now sleeps through the night...in her crib...alone. I never thought that would happen. (Well, actually I didn't want it to happen) You'd think I'd have slept very well this week, but instead I just sit and wait for her to make noise. But she doesn't. So I spend all night turning the sound up on the monitor to hear her breathing. (Of course when you do that, it's so sensitive it picks up everything) I about had heart a heart attack when the dog layed down on the ground in the living room...it sounded like an earthquake. After that I turned down the volume a little.

So...I hadn't planned to post today. It's been a long day. Yoga, work, baby...I'm tired, the baby's tired. She was so tired and fussy I thought maybe a bath would cheer her up. (You'll see in a minute why I changed my mind about writing today) Normally baths DO NOT cheer Laurel up. She hates them, at least until recently. She hated taking baths in her baby tub. So, silly me, I figured she'd love playing in the big tub. So the other day I fill it with rubber duckies (a whole family) and a beach ball and then put her in. She screamed and cried through the whole thing. Then I had an epiphany...the sink. I've seen others do this (on TV), so I thought, what the heck. Well as it turns out, the TV is always right. She loved it. So she and the duck family now take their baths in the kitchen sink.

Which leads me to tonight...Laurel was so fussy, I thought maybe a bath would help. I filled the sink, added the rubber ducks and put her in. As I supsected, she had a blast. So she's playing and I'm sitting on the counter next to her. Suddenly I realize the splashing has stopped, and she's giving me this strange look. After a moments pause...a loud sound comes from below and then the bubbles followed. This is a first for us...the bath poot. She looked at me with this confused expression...I laughed. That was it, once I laughed, she laughed. Then I laughed more, then she laughed more. Then she burped, which was then followed by two more poots and a lot more bubbles. Laughter again.

I can honestly say that tonight was the funniest moment in the life of my baby. (Now you understand why I had to write today)

Today Laurel learned to stand, with help from Daddy (how exciting for me). We taped the whole thing for Mommy, Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, and Uncles to see. She has been very interested in water glasses today. We have been able avoid any wet disasters, but just barely.
I added too much cereal to her sweet potatoes this morning...she made it very clear that this was unacceptable!!
Today's picture was from our fun time this afternoon. I sat her on the couch next to the shoe box from her Mommy's new running shoes. Of course, the paper crinkled and the cardboard made fun sounds. She was having so much fun, I let her sit in the box. She played like that for a while until Roger woke up and startled her. Oh well, all fun must come to an end sometime.
She took two naps in her crib, but is getting fussy tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to keep her busy until bedtime...sleeping tonight will be nice.

I'm sitting here writing at the end of a very long day. It's one of those days when you're so tired you just can't sleep. It's also been one of those days that makes you realize why you became a parent in the first place. I probably took a couple dozen pictures today. Pictures of her eating yogurt (I had to post one), pictures of her taking a bath in the sink playing with her rubby duckies. It was a good day. We've had some questionable ones of late. Between her stomach virus, cough and teething we've had a couple of days where she'd scream and scream and there was nothing we could do to fix it. That's a first for me. Nursing fixes EVERYTHING. (At least it used to.) Now I have to learn to be a little more creative.

But...as I said, today was not one of those bad days. It was great. Laurel smiled and played, she's learning to balance on her own two feet and eat more and more variety of foods. I've gotten over the hump of being sad that she's growing up. Now I can't wait to see what's next.

I (Laurel) had a good day today. I got to stay home with my daddy and play all day. First I napped on daddy's chest for a couple of hours, then I played on the floor in my room. Then daddy fed me sweet potatoes with cereal and I slept again. When mommy came home daddy and I showed her how I could put the balls in my dragon toy. Mommy was so proud of me! Then we all went shopping for shoes for daddy. But daddy still couldn't find anything he liked. (We've tried five stores now!!) When we came home I ate banana yogurt for dinner. I used to hate yogurt, and I'd make funny faces everytime mom and dad gave it to me. But now I love it, and I ate the whole yogurt myself. Yum.

Today I have picture of my tooth so that grandma and grandpa can see how big I'm getting! (Hi grandma, grandpa and great grandma...I love you!)

In the past month we've seen Laurel go from not being able to sit on her own, to being able to sit up and play without any support. In the past week she's learned to wave, and clap, and put the balls of her toy into the proper holes. To see a day-by-day transition the way you can at this age is incredible. Jon told me that she could put the balls into her toy, but until I saw it last night for myself, I guess I really didn't believe it. After she amazed me with that, I took two balls and clanged them together. She then picked up a second ball and did it herself. Then she and I, each with a ball in hand started clanging ours into eachothers. It was like comedy night. We both laughed and laughed at the punchline of our own personal joke.

The simple pleasures of parenthood.

Today is my day to stay home with Laurel while Jon goes to work. As I'm sitting on the floor playing with her, I realize how much she's changed. She's getting so big so fast, it's sad. When we first brought her home she was so small she didn't even fit into her swing. Now, her legs hang over the edge and she fights to stay in a constant sit-up position so that she can see what's going on around her. I'll miss these days. In a way I already do. She's changed so much just in the past month, everything is different. Suddenly she can sit up on her own and play by herself. She likes eating food now (she gobbles down apples and bananas like they're going out of style).

She's sleeping right now, which is good. But part of me can't help but watch and wait for her to wake up so I can play with her again. Everyone keeps telling me how this is the the perfect age, and in a few months I'll wish I could have this back. I guess people equate the baby being mobile with being miserable. But I can't wait. I can't wait to see what she has to say and I can't wait to see her crawl and walk. Of course now it sounds like I want her to hurry up and grow more...which I don't. But I guess the excitment of her growing up counteracts the sadness of her changing so quickly.

Laurel's been teething over the past few weeks, and while she's cute as ever, she's been really clingy. I called home this morning to see how she was doing, and Jon said that whenever he tried to leave the room she would raise up her arms. What's a daddy to do?

Not that either of us mind spending 24-7 with her. Though it does make you wonder whether we should be making her spend more time playing alone. I'm sure there is some study out there about the importance of independant play. But I say a happy baby who knows mommy and daddy will do anything for her is even more important.