Thursday, October 28, 2010

A visit to Missouri

Laura, Nana, and I took a trip to Missouri last month to visit my grandparents and aunt (Bob, Gigi, and Auntie to Laura). We had a great time and have tons of pictures to prove it!

Laura had so much fun playing with Bob and Gigi. They had found a lot of toys so the whole house was filled with new things for Laura to learn and explore. She loved putting these foam numbers over her head and around her waist...they became like necklaces and skirts.

Auntie, Bob, and Gigi even made a playhouse for Laura out of an old refrigerator box. It had a table and chair, a basket full of toys, curtains on the windows and even a sky light! Laura played so much in this house sometimes it was hard to get her out. I'm sure she is pretending to talk to Nana on the phone...one of her favorite pretend phone conversation companions!

My grandpa uses oxygen a lot during the day to help him breathe and at first Laura was very hesitant to go near Bob when the oxygen machine was running. So then my mom had the great idea to let Bob give Laura's babies oxygen. That solved the problem immediately and Laura would run over to Bob and say "Baby needs air, Bob!"

I just couldn't resist adding this picture...she looks so sweet and so long!!

Auntie is a recently retired librarian, so Laura has been stocked with books since the day she joined our family. Laura loves to be read to but is usually very specific about what book and who is doing the reading. If you offer to read "dis book" (the one she has picked out) but you aren't the person she wants to do it, she'll say very forcefully "NO, ntie (auntie) do it!!"

I'm pretty sure that Laura was performing for us here. She loves to sing and dance, but only when she is in the mood. Don't ask her to perform on demand or she will get shy and run away!
This looks like Laura and Nana are playing some version of Laura's favorite game, "Doe (g0) night-night, Nana!" Laura tells Nana to go to sleep, my mom closes her eyes and pretends to snore and after just a few seconds Laura yells, "wate (wake) up, Nana!" My mom quickly opens her eyes, lets out a little scream and then they both laugh. This can go on for hours:)Auntie found this vacuum at a yard sale and Laura loved it! We quickly put her to work doing all the floors and rugs!
This is a front view of Laura's playhouse. What you can't see since the "door" is closed is Auntie is sitting inside helping Laura poke her head out of the skylight. Every few minutes, Laura would then come out of the house and dance for a while. Auntie was getting a little tired of sitting in the box so at one point, she tried to sneak out and sit on the couch. Laura saw her about 1/2 way to the couch, pointed at the box, and said "Get back in that house, ntie!" We all laughed so hard we nearly cried!!

Thanks to Bob, Gigi, and Auntie for such a great visit!!

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