A Couple Weeks Ago

Some body turned 11 months old.  I'm having deja vu.  Oh yes, that was last months post title too. Only instead of the holidays, big sister's birthday got in the way.  Which is a good thing for me, because it's given me less time to dwell about the sudden onset of my baby tuning one. Sigh.

At 11 months, Lorelei is 29 inches tall and 21.5 pounds.

Lorelei is quite a fan of the swing still.  Now when she wants to get in it, she walks right over and starts pushing and hanging onto it.  In she goes, and a few minutes later she looks something like this.  A tough life our little Lorelei leads.

She loves, loves, loves her pacifier.   It's like her crack cocaine that she can't go too long without. We're  wondering when the addiction will end, and how many more months we are going to be hunting for the missing pacifier.  The good thing about them is that it keeps other things out of her mouth. 

She also enjoys bath time (to include pooping in the bath), meal time and snuggle time.  She sleeps on her belly in the crib, and I love how her bum sticks up in the air.  She still loves to dance, give kisses and wave goodbye.  When she's really exited you get the double wave goodbye.  She is a big fan of the ball popper and her sister's kitchen.  She also enjoys unrolling toilet paper and playing with the water in the toilet (when we forget to shut the bathroom doors).

Just tonight she started taking a few steps on her own, so may be she will be walking on her birthday.  

And speaking of birthdays, we've asked that family and friends donate to Heifer International instead of gifts for Lorelei.  She even has her own registry:  www.heifer.org/myregistry/lorelei 

And in case you want to know about the organization, they were featured on KCRW's Good Food program last month.  If you click on the link you can listen to the podcast which talks about the organization (about 7 minutes into the podcast).  Pretty spectacular idea that provides long term solutions for families all over the world, even rural United States.

Birthday Wrap Up

Kelsea, the moment she turned four:

Same picture one year ago (still in her crib).

On Sunday we had my family over for dinner, cake, and presents. Here's a few of Kelsea opening her presents:

New rain gear from Grandma & Grandpa (such good timing!)

Hello Kitty back pack from Aunt Jennie and Uncle Stevie

Jewelry box from her sister

After dinner we had some cake, well sort of.  It was confettii cake inside the cone, with strawberry ice cream, whip cream and a strawberry on top. 

Enjoying the dessert

The following day was a holiday for me and the girls.  While Lorelei was napping, I was able to get a few pictures outside before the beginning of a week long down pour.   

Disneyland

We celebrated Kelsea's 4th Birthday at Disneyland .  I was a bit apprehensive going on a Saturday but it was by far the least crowded I have been since Kelsea was born.  Maybe everyone stays home on the weekend thinking it will be too crowded?  Ha-we outsmarted them!  

Here she is telling us she is 4 as we wait for the Tram (at 8:40 am).  I have to put that in there because I'm super impressed that we made it out of the house on time (for the first time)!

It think she is excited about her trip to the Happiest Place on Earth!

First stop was the getting her birthday button at Town Hall, where Goofy freaked her out by singing her Happy Birthday.  She did love the button and everyone wishing her Happy Birthday throughout the day.

We then headed to the Plaza Inn where we had breakfast in the park with "Minnie & Friends."  Where she was also freaked out by the giant Disney characters.  Near the end of the meal she started to blow kisses and give high fives, but there was no way of convincing her to take pictures with any of them.  At least Grandma did!

Yet, my daughter did go on Space Mountain, Star Tours and Matterhorn.  Go figure?! We also went on Autopia, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (one of her favorites), Disneyland Railroad, the Carrousel, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan's Flight, it's a small world (her other favorite), Jungle Cruise, Teacups, and ended the day with the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthough. I thought it was just the big opening that you walk throught to get to and from Fantasyland!  Who knew there were actual stairs that took you inside?  

Do you notice there are some people missing in the Teacup? Wimps!

One of the things Kelsea was most excited about was having cotton candy.  I believe the bite she is holding is the only bite she ate.  But of course we had to hold the cotton candy the entire day, even though she had no interest in taking another bite.

We also took Kelsea to the Big Thunder Ranch where she pet some goats and a cow.   I have no idea what that expression is about.

We tried to convince her to ride Big Thunder Mountain, but it was after lunch and she was getting tired.  This was her rebuttal to our pleas.  It's my birthday, not your birthday so I don't have to go on it.  Touche!  The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a close second, right?  

We did have a magical day.  Kelsea was terrific, and I love the fact that she is now tall enough to go on all the rides (except Indiana Jones).  I also loved that she was willing to try two roller coasters.  Maybe next time she'll ride the "fast train" and Splash Mountain (my personal favorite). And hallelujah we didn't have to stand in line to see the Princesses!  You have no idea how happy that made us. Maybe my baby turning four isn't going to be so bad after all.

Kelsea's Preschool Party

We had a little party at Little Aviators on Friday, and it went something like this:

Dora jumper (from a company that has $1M liability insurance) - $95

Costco Princess Sheet Cake - $16.99

Thirty-two Princess & the Frog /Spiderman Goodie Bags - $50

Not having to set-up, clean-up or find room for a bunch of                                                                p-r-e-s-e-n-t-s....priceless

And this little girl's happy face is pretty darn priceless also!

A Sneak Peak

at our just turned beautiful FOUR year old

and darling ELEVEN month old

I thankfully just have Disneyland photos to edit!   Check back later this week for the entire Birthday extravaganza!

Ten On Tuesday

So it is Birthday week in the Laughrey household, and to honor our little girl's (I have already been reminded that she is not a baby) forthcoming celebration here are 10 of my favorite photos that our fabulous photographer friend took this past September.  I had not posted them previously since I wanted the photo books I made for Christmas presents to be pictures my family had not yet seen.  Somehow J.J. has magically captured Kelsea's spirit in these photos.  

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6. Even a few with me that I adore...mainly because they are so us

7.

8.

9.  And she sure loves her little sister.  

10. Fiercely. And with no concern for reciprocation. I love that about her. 

Ten On Tuesday

1.  I am not a fan of taking pictures on Christmas.  For one thing the lighting is always dismal.  It's still too dark in the morning during the opening of presents and to dark in the evening when the family gathers for dinner (and usually more presents).  Secondly, I like to watch the chaos and excitement of it all without worrying about getting a decent photo.  I have decided that I too need a fairy godmother (yes, we have been watching a lot of Cinderella), only mine shall follow us around, snapping photos of our lives (and while your at it go ahead and download/edit them too Ms. Fairy).

2.  But for now these will have to do.  Proof that we too celebrated Christmas in 2009.  The tree, jam-packed with presents...luckily these were all leaving the house.

2.  Christmas morning:  We tried to convince Kelsea to get out of our bed and check to see if Santa had come yet, thinking that might buy us a couple more minutes in bed before the chaos of Christmas began.   No such luck.  She was too scared that Santa might still be out there,  so we all got up to see what Santa had left us.

3. I at least got one picture of them in their matching jammies.

4.  Lorelei didn't have a clue as to what was going on, but she did enjoy the banging the boxes and eating the paper.  Luckily she had a big sister to help open all her presents.

5. After it looked like Toys R Us had thrown up all over our house, the girls found a nice lap to snuggle on.

6.  Later that day Kelsea asked me why Santa would go on the roof and give the reindeers their carrots and then come back down the chimney and put the half eaten ones back on our plate.   She was also perplexed as to why she couldn't hear Santa.  Hmmm, she is way smarter than I gave her credit for.  I'm going to have to get more clever or more convincing these next few years.

7.  Later that evening we headed to my parents for a delicious Christmas dinner, and getting a picture of the girls in their matching dresses was difficult to say the least.

8.  Especially when this little one just wanted to go exploring,

9. and walking with Grandpa.

10.  And getting one of all four of us--nearly impossible!  But at least most of us are smiling and looking at the camera. Uh-hem, Lorelei, do you think you could work on that next year?