8/31

Just wanted to be as "on" Daddy as she possibly can today.
Lorelai loves to snuggle, loves to ask for hugs and kisses. Our little Monkey is a love affectionate girl.

8/30

Lorelai is a brave explorer, always interested in trying something new and being bold in her decisions. Tonight at Lauren's birthday party, Lorelai tried some meat circles, raw carrots, celery, and crackers. Thank goodness, she didn't recognize the cheese blocks on the table or no one would have been able to eat anything.
To celebrate the occasion, Lorelai wore her Troegs "Home Brewed" t-shirt and tu-tu skirt. When we put the skirt on her, Lorelai's first reaction was to shout out "dance"!

8/29

This is what compromise looks like. Lorelai wanted to empty out the drawers, flip them over, and stand on top of them. Daddy was worried that she would get hurt standing so high in the air on some thin plastic so he convinced her that being inside the drawer was quite fun too. Baby wanted to play as well and they were both most satisfied with the end result.

8/28

Lorelai was most insistent to have her way today. Mama was out late so Daddy spent most of the day alone with Lorelai. She wanted her things, her way... and a few things that were no hers needed to be her way too. At dinner, it was the first time she was not interested in eating anything that was offered. Usually Lorelai is a very strong eater.

8/27

TUB!! Gigi bought a mini pool for Lorelai's enjoyment... and there was much enjoyment had.

8/26

Ninja Lorelai! She is a princess fighting for what's right and the American way.
While Daddy was out on errands today, Lorelai raided her laundry basket and proceeded to attempt to put on every article of clothing that she has.

On a side note, when I came downstairs today, Lorelai came running for the front door to greet me. She held up the edges of her shirt and said "pretty" and "tutu" with a huge grin on her face. Oh! I do so love this girl.Thanks for the pretty pajamas, Nana!!

8/25

Busy, busy day today! Mama and Daddy came and picked up Lorelai at Nana's from the slumber party weekend (and have left over wedding cake). We went to brunch at Faye's to wish Kate and Michael a happy honeymoon and the Rastelli's a safe trip home. After brunch, we hurried to Dylan's 7th birthday party-- it was a Flyer's party! Lorelai enjoyed playing with her cousins, hugging baby Jacob, and eating popcorn and birthday cake (more happy cake!).
Daddy has been teaching Lorelai to walk holding hands too. Daddy said she is almost a pro and showed Mama on the way out of Aunt Cait's house. Brilliant.

8/24

While spending the day at Nana and Pop-pop's for a slumber party, Lorelai helped Nana with her genealogy and pointed out some things that should not be available for "babies" to find. She was gracious in giving them to Nana and quickly stating "Thank you". Smart Girl!!

8/23

Over the river and thru the woods to Nana's house for a slumber party! Mama and Daddy are going to a wedding this weekend so Lorelai is planning to spend the weekend with Nana and Pop-pop, playing with Chris's toys, and eating as many berries as possible.
Today is also the last day for Lorelai to face backwards in Mama's car! Yay!! We are getting so big!

8/22

Lorelai's dolly has a secret to share with her. Shhhhh! Listen closely, little mama.

8/21

Lorelai is... too cute sometimes. She recently learned the words "help" and "empty".
Today, she was trying to play with her toy vanity. The music had been switched off and she realized it-- she turned to Mama and Daddy and said "help!" and kept rotating the spinner until we realized what she needed assistance with.
She also is making good use of the word "empty" by loudly declaring her need for more milk as soon as the level is below acceptable. 
Our little girl is getting so big!

8/20

At dinner tonight, Lorelai jammed as many animal crackers in her mouth as she possibly could. So many, in fact, she had difficulty attempting to close her lips around them. Daddy estimates that it was more than 2 cookies which in a one year old mouth is very full.
Later, we went to Aiden and Taigh Connor's house to play! It was a lot of fun to play with some new kids.

8/19

Lorelai fully believes that the sole purpose of YouTube is to play Stay Puft videos at her whim. She recognizes the website and immediately calls out "Puft!!!" and does not stop until she gets her fix. At the end of the video clip she watches with Daddy, Stay Puft looks up at the Ghostbusters having arrived at the apartment complex. He looks up, opens his mouth and roars. Lorelai does it along with him every time!

8/18

Lorelai borrowed one of Chris's "hats" while playing at Nana's today. She ran all over with Daddy, getting dizzy by spinning in circles. She was very excited to have him home again after his guy's weekend.
Go, go, Power BatGirl!

8/17

Fun day with Gigi!
We went to Maryland to celebrate the upcoming marriage of Allison and Andrew. The party was full of sweets like marshmallows, animal crackers, popcorn, and happy cake with berries! Lorelai and Gavin collected all of the lollipop decor that they could find and played on the outside jungle gym.
Later on, we had dinner with Gigi, Pop pop, Boop! (Great Grandpop), Uncle Spike, and Aunt Erin. Uncle Spike introduced Lorelai to cornbread... which she happily declared to be happy cake as well.
The party girls had a yummy-fun time!

8/16

Cousins Lucas and Christopher were teaching Lorelai how to play with puzzles tonight. They themselves are puzzle masters, taught by their fun-loving Nana.
Lorelai just may be the next puzzle-playing Gallagher. She already knows which toy the puzzle is and can say the word!

8/15

Lorelai found a napkin today while playing. She crumpled it up quickly and attempted to blow her nose. It was adorable. You could hear actual blowing noises and see her wiping the tissue around and everything. Such a big girl!

8/14

Mama and Daddy played Monkey in the Middle today with Lorelai. Guess who was the monkey!!

Lorelai was very into her blankie today. She was dragging it around, dancing, giggling, and playing peek-a-boo all night. So sweet.

8/13

Mama had a job interview at work today. Lorelai and Daddy made make this sign to celebrate. Thank you, baby!!

Later on, Lorelai took her Batman book reading very seriously with Daddy on the floor. We take our Batman VERY seriously.

8/12

We went to watch Daddy and Uncle Spike play hockey tonight. Gigi and Pop-pop (formerly Grandpop, Lorelai's handiwork) came to watch too. Lorelai convinced them to buy her some popcorn by saying popcorn as loud as she could and pointing to the concession stand. Lorelai gets what Lorelai wants.
Oh! And the team made it into the playoffs too!

8/11

Today we helped the kitty cat move from Gigi's house to Uncle Spike's new house. It was very exciting! Lorelai was in the car with kitty and helped him learn about his new home-- where his room is, his food, and his litter box. Kitty even found a few new hiding places!
Later on, baby Sunshine came over to play with Lorelai and the kitty too! Sunshine is 4 months old now and very hug-able. Lorelai proudly said Sunshine's name for everybody and glowed in the clapping that followed.

8/10

Weekend! Mama and Lorelai spent some time, just us girls, this morning watching My Little Pony and looking pretty.

8/9

Today we said goodbye to Nana's brother, Uncle Jack. It was a very sad day for her and Lorelai was more than happy to bring her own sunshine to the day.
Lorelai is so full of sunshine, in fact, that it is bursting out of her skin. She has her very first sunburn-- on her face and arms.

8/8

We had a wonderful day with our cousins at Sesame Place today! And we got to meet Oscar, Super Grover, Bert and Ernie, and Cookie Monster!

Ground breaking news-- we also found out that Lorelai loves pools! She called them "tubs" and kept indicating she wanted to get back in them repeated. Lorelai loved the rides and playing with her cousins and Daddy. We were there all day!

8/7

Mama fell asleep on the nap couch tonight. Lorelai decided it was time to play pretend and she was going to be Mama. Mama's seat on the couch, check. Computer, check. Diet coke, check.

8/6

Ride like the wind, Bullseye!
Lorelai, a motion blur of excitement.

8/5

Lorelai loves this App on Gigi's "book". It sings to her, which in most instances would be adorable if the song wasn't completely ridiculous and unintelligible. Her favorite is The Gingerbread Man. It goes like this: "I can run. Yes, I can. Can, can, can, can, can, can...." Lorelai loves to sing the "can" parts. Of course.

8/4

Lorelai has great taste. This is "mine's" pink Coach bag.

8/3

We always want what we cannot have. Lorelai is always after our Wii remote. While Mama and Daddy were packing up for a weekend trip to Virgina, Lorelai tippy-toed to the charging station and found the remotes. When Mama said "thank you" with her hand out (indicating that Lorelai should give Mama the remote), Lorelai started to hand over the Wii remote, realized her error, and found a nearby toy to place in Mama's hand.
Lorelai is no fool. She was so proud to have the remote in hand, waving it at the screen like Mama and Daddy would.

8/2

Daddy took this picture today. He went into the kitchen to make lunch for Lorelai. When he returned, he found that Lorelai had climbed into her rocketship all by her self-- facing the right way too!! Lorelai noticed Daddy had lunch and realized her error in getting trapped . She was most distraught.

8/1

Daddy surprised Mama by putting Lorelai in her Rapunzel dress today. Later on, Nicky came over to play with Princess Lorelai. They had so much fun playing together with books and a giant ball-- it was adorable. Lorelai has also discovered her sunglasses and has been putting them on and off all day. So sweet.

7/31

Lorelai loves to sing. Recently while trying to avoid a frustrated-kid-in-car meltdown, we found our that Lorelai likes the song "Bang Bang" by Nancy Sinatra. She especially loves to sing the "bang, bang" parts. Now, sometimes we play it to calm her down.

Bang bang, he shot me down
Bang bang, I hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down.

7/30

Happy 11th Anniversary, Mama and Daddy! What a beautiful family we have made!!

7/29

You remind me of the Babe. Babe with the Power. Power of Voodoo...
Lorelai Sassypants strut her stuff all over the restaurant while we watched Daddy and uncle Spike play hockey. Lucas, Jacob, and uncle Ron came up to help us cheer on the Gargoyles. Lorelai spent a good deal of time kissing baby Jacob and eating Lucas' snacks.

7/28

Chris wanted to take out this awesome bouncy zebra for Lorelai to play with this weekend. What a considerate cousin! Lorelai was able to climb on all by herself and bounce up and down. Bouncing is very fun!

7/27

Lorelai. Loves. Balloons.
News flash.

7/26

Mama made Lorelai a book of faces from her family. Lorelai loves the book and insists on reading it often. It turns out that she can recognize Nana, Pop pop, Gigi, Great Grandpop Raudenbush, Spike, Col, Cait, Mo, Devin, Lucas, Daddy, Mama, babies (herself, Jacob, and Nick), Chris and Dylan. Pretty impressive!

7/25

Lorelai had a new, real tooth appear in the back right side of her mouth! She is growing so big, so quickly.

7/24

Lorelai still isn't very keen on hair accessories. Mama bought her a Hello Kitty headband to try to help negotiate a blow, flower, or sparkle one day being put in her hair and actually staying there. Lorelai likes the headband... mainly because it is a portable kitty. Tonight she put the headband on herself and kept it there for a few minutes! Every time I would put away my camera, she would yell "Cheese!" indicating that she thought she was in a photo-worthy situation... which she was. Look at my pretty girl in that headband!!

7/23

Boop!
Lorelai learned this game from her Great-Grandfather Raudenbush. Whenever he sees her, typically to take her out to a buffet for dinner, he holds out his finger and makes it boop with hers.

7/22

Lorelai loves to dance. Sometimes she sings to herself to have a dance party and sometimes she waits for commercials and theme songs. Beautiful.

7/21

We spent a relaxing day in and it was nice. Mama and Lorelai had some great one on one time playing. Daddy told a story from earlier in the week where Lorelai had put her baby doll in the toy drum. She then became really upset that she herself could not fit into the drum as neatly as Baby. Mama and Lorelai played with the drum helmet again and had many, many giggles.

7/20

Despite the heat, Lorelai enjoyed a few rounds of Corn Hole at Kate and Michael's wedding shower today.   There was a dog at the party too. Lorelai slowly warmed up to her but was very excited to point out the puppy every time she came thru the room.
Everyone was very impressed with what an outstanding little girl Lorelai is-- she nearly stole the show!

7/19

Nana, Aunt Col, and Mama went to get sushi tonight for dinner with Lorelai. No raw fish for the little girl but Nana did buy her a chocolate gelato bear. Such a big girl, Lorelai insisted on feeding herself with her own spoon.

7/18

It has been so hot- a heat wave for the past week, in fact. We went to see Gigi and Grandpop tonight where Lorelai demanded some Happy Cake (and got it too- Ha!). Lorelai and Daddy had a good time playing with the wind created by the air conditioner. 

Afterwards, we went over to Uncle Spike and Aunt Erin's new home. They are almost done painting and there is even a special room for Lorelai and the kitty! Thanks, Uncle Spike!

7/17

Lorelai wanted to make musics with Mama and Daddy tonight before bed time. Shake-a shake-a, egg!

7/16

Lorelai has a very fierce hug that she sometimes shares with her family. Tonight, she was so excited to see Jacob, she kept hugging him as much and as hard as she could. She tackled him from behind, put him in head locks, and strained to hold him still all night. Such love, such love.