Growing Up. Again.

I haven't written much about Laura lately, mostly because, as I mentioned before, this new baby seems have taken over my mind, body, and soul. But that doesn't mean Laura hasn't been up to some noteworthy things, too. In just the last week or two, she has:

• Finally started saying her own name. Whenever people would ask her, she would just look at them blankly, I think mostly because she couldn't really pronounce L's or R's. But she will now reply "Raura", which is a step in the right direction! (and is really cute)
  However, she still refers to herself as "Babyou" when talking about herself in most other contexts.
• Climbed out of her crib for the first time. She has only done it once so far, and hopefully that is enough, but it has prompted us to try (for probably the millionth time) to get her to sleep in her Big Girl Room/ Bed again. I am just dreading it this time because there is no way I have enough energy to deal with night wakings at this point in the game, and she sleeps so nicely in her crib still.... so I don't think I'll push too hard. If she doesn't want to, fine. I don't know what we will do when the new baby gets here and his/her room is still being occupied by the older sister, but I figure we'll cross that bridge when we get there. :S
• Used her words to clearly articulate her feelings. Okay, so I guess she has been able to do this for awhile, but yesterday I felt like we had a noteworthy breakthrough:
  We had to leave in a few minutes to pick Josh up from work, and Laura brought her "beads" (pipecleaners) upstairs to play with. I told her we had to leave soon, so we didn't have much time to play with them. I let her take them out for a minute, but then we had to get ready and put them away. I started putting on my coat and shoes and asked her to come over and do the same. She stood by the window and started spitting on the floor. I have absolutely NO patience for spitting; I don't know why, but I just cannot stand it. (Clearly she has already clued into this.) Seething, I went over and reprimanded her, trying to keep my cool. Laura said, "Mommy mad!" To which I replied, "Yes! Mommy is mad! I don't like when you spit, it's very gross. Why are you doing that?" She said, "Babyou mad, too!" *Awwwww* I melted a little. My face softened (I know this based on the look on her face). "Laura! Thank you for telling Mommy you are mad! I'm so glad you used your words to tell me how you feel! Why are you mad?"
  "Babyou play beads. Want." (Whenever she wants something she always adds 'want' at the end of the sentence. haha).
  "Ohhhh. Okay, well I'm very happy you used your words to tell Mommy why you are mad, but right now we have to go pick Daddy up from work, so you can play with your beads again when we get home."
  "Mommy happy."
  "Yes, Baby, you made Mommy happy." Hugs and kisses. <3
• Started singing. Okay, so she has actually been singing for a long time now, but the last little while she has shown a real interest in learning and singing new, real songs with real words. That she didn't just make up. We now have a playlist on Youtube of kids' songs she tries to sing along with. Super cute.
• faces forward in the car now. Yesterday we finally got around to having the carseats installed, and we decided to finally turn Laura's around. I still have mixed feelings about this because I know she is safer facing the back, but I feel like it is so much easier to get her in the seat properly, that it is probably better this way. The belt and chest clip are so much easier to get tight and in the right position when her legs aren't bent up, and when you're in a hurry, that matters. She also has been getting fussy in the car lately, so hopefully she will be happier now that she can see more (= less distraction for me). When we tried to put her in it for the first time yesterday, she freaked out. She wouldn't let me put her in it. We were having the seats put in at the cop shop, so I decided maybe we could distract her for a bit by going to see the fire trucks (attached station). We went and had a look at them for a few minutes (cool!) and then came back and tried again. When we came back she was still quite resistant to this whole, new, forward-facing seat, but once I got her in and we started driving, she realized how cool it is to be able to see out the front. We had to do two loops of the waterfront.
  The only problem I can foresee right now is that the two seats side-by-side might pose a poking and prodding risk to New Baby. Because Laura is facing forward, and the baby will be rearfacing (obviously), she can pretty easily reach into the infant seat. :S It might be handy so she can give back a soother or something, but, it also might be an issue, so we'll see how it goes.
• Speaking of seating, Laura has been opting not to sit in her highchair on a fairly frequent basis lately, too. If we go out to restaurants now, we usually just get a booth and she is happy enough there. Even at home, she asks to sit in the "big chair" if she has a choice.
• She has been really into helping Mommy lately, too. This week we have started getting her to help feed the dogs. We scoop the food (she can't reach it), and she dumps it in their bowls for us. Awesome!
  She has also been helping me make cookies, and Jell-O and birthday cake for Daddy, etc. And she is pretty good at helping pick up her toys, too. I'm so glad she wants to be more involved with things like that now. Hopefully that continues after Baby is here! :)
• This is not so much a recent development, but I wanted to acknowledge it anyway: Laura is fabulous at playing with other kids. She is not a grabby, "MINE!" kind of kid at all, and even though she doesn't have a lot of opportunity to practice, she is very good at sharing and taking turns. She really loves playing with other kids, and is very patient with them taking toys from her, etc. This week we had a little friend over for her to play with, and the little girl taught Laura how to play Ring Around the Rosy. It might have been the cutest thing ever. Laura just wanted to do it over and over again. 
•  Also not such a recent development, but cute nonetheless, is the fact that she associates some common shared items with one parent or the other. For instance, it's 'Mommy's bed', not just 'bed' or 'Mommy & Daddy's bed'. I don't know where she gets that idea. ;) But, even more humorous than that is 'Daddy's Cuck' (truck). This never ceases to amuse me. :D
• Also a less recent development: Laura has pretty much weaned herself. This happened maybe a month to a month-and-a-half ago, she just stopped asking to nurse. I was happy that it was her decision, and I think it mostly had to do with the fact that I am producing colostrum now, but I was still a little sad because I had hoped to nurse her until much closer to when New Baby arrives. (Mostly for selfish purposes - I wanted to keep "toughened up" so I wouldn't have to bother with that again. However, it was still hurting a little to nurse Laura as it was, so not really a big loss, I suppose.)
• Hopefully she wants to lose the diapers next! (Our little stint with potty training served to let Laura learn what it feels like to 'have to go', but she has to choose to do that on the potty now, which is not something we can force her to do. If she is running around without a diaper, she asks for a "bum on" when she has to go now. So at least she knows, and hopefully that will soon transfer into wanting to use the potty instead of a diaper.)