This sentence in an e-mail I got at work amused me:
"Please try to sort your worms according to size/shape, and then
preserve just a few representative worms from each family."
(This is in the context of an e-mail about rule changes to stream
critter sampling protocols, and of course, the "family" that
they mean is the level above genus, but I thought, "Man, there's a
sentence you don't see every day.")
Laurel lost her first tooth!
I've been wiggling her loose teeth off and on as the dentist told me
to - well, OK, actually she said to do it regularly. 
Anyway, Bob noticed that Laurel was really rubbing her tongue
over her teeth tonight and thought she might need some help. It didn't
take much at all to get one of those middle bottom teeth out! The one
next to it seems like it's close behind - I bet it'll be out within the
next couple of days. And there are probably another four that are loose!
Even though we've been warning her it was going to happen, Laurel looked
really worried when the tooth came out, but we were able to reassure
her. We figure the tooth fairy needs to bring her something, but we're
sort of wondering how much. And I'll need to figure out how to help her
spend it...
Laurel isn't inclined to open her mouth right now so I don't have a
picture of her minus a tooth, but here's a picture I've been meaning to
post of her showing off the sandals she picked out:
This was taken at Lakemont Park in Altoona, where we stopped on our way
to Pittsburgh. I'd had this goal of going there because the oldest
roller coaster in the world is there (the Leap the Dips, built in 1902),
and with no time that we had to be in Pittsburgh by, we finally went. We
even took Laurel on the coaster! And took her on enough rides that it
was worth buying wristbands for all of us! (Of course, the bar was kind
of low there - like four or five rides. But still...) That was actually
probably the highlight of the entire trip, but it went well overall.
In other news (as long as I'm here), we had to stop giving our kitty her
pills for a few days because they were making her nauseous, but after a
few doses of Prevacid she was much better and we were able to restart
her. It set the clock back to zero though as far as the 2-3 weeks we
have to wait for her to get a blood test and see if we can go for more
permanent treatment for her, though. 
For a cat, she's really being very patient about it, but I'm still
counting the days.
In happier news, I finally figured out what to do for a vacation. Would
you believe, I found a house in the Berkshires for a week for $750?
No, it's not handicapped accessible, but hey, neither is our house.
(Speaking of which, we have an appt next week to talk to someone from
our bank about what we can afford remodeling-wise.) I figure the
butterfly conservatory, the scenic train, and just taking walks around
the towns should be hits with Laurel - but the coolest thing I found
(that sold me on the Berkshires) was this bike trail where you can rent
this thing called a "Duet": http://www.frankmobility.com/duet_standard.htm
I hope Laurel is half as enthusiastic about this idea as I am.
Oh, and one more piece of good news - Laurel slid back into the oral
feeding groove more easily than we were afraid she would! Her sitter,
who as I think I've said before is a champ at oral feeding, has gotten
her to eat a jar of baby food at a sitting several times in the last
week. At this rate, hopefully it won't take too long to catch back up to
where we were!
So mostly good news around here - once I get past this horrible proposal
deadline that I have at work this week (33 pages double-spaced by 5 PM
Friday - and I've written 7 so far!). But back to the beginning of my
post...I can't believe my baby lost her first tooth! How the heck did
THAT happen...
How worried should we be? We think Laurel must have swallowed a tooth. Her sitter caught the second one a couple of days ago, but tonight when I was giving her a bath I realized that there were three missing from the bottom! No report from the sitter of another missing tooth, and none to be seen, so we're thinking there's only one place it could have gone...