The M Family Chronicles

Lucas

2012-01-29T19:06:00.006-06:00

Meet our brand new beautiful little nephew Lucas. He made his grand entrance early yesterday morning, in Bogotá, Colombia. Isn't he just perfect? Congrats S&M, we are so thrilled for you, and we cannot wait to meet him in person!!

Lions, tigers, bears, and cows, oh my!

2012-01-28T12:49:00.001-06:00

Last weekend, a super long nap foiled our playdate plans, so instead we headed to the Arboretum to run around a bit before meeting some friends for dinner. T is fascinated by the cows, but she refuses to sit on them (I think they scare her a little).

The next day, after another long nap, we headed down to go check out the Austin Zoo. It was a gorgeous day - a little hot, even (can you believe 80 degrees in January?). We saw lions, tigers, and a bear, as well as wolves, monkeys, tortoises (T's favorite, I think), and lots more. It's not quite like the zoos I went to when I was growing up, but it is pretty cool that all of the animals are rescues. The tot was a bit cranky (cutting a tooth), but I do think she liked looking at the animals, some she recognized (and made appropriate noises for), and some she didn't.

{Hmmm, after comparing the top set of photos to the bottom, I wonder why I even bother to take my lens kit anywhere. I'm thinking it's time to upgrade to a better walk-around option... anybody have any recs?}

As for this weekend, well, we're homebound. Taylor has RSV and bronchiolitis (oh, and another ear infection). :( More on all that later... Let's just say for now that it's been a very long and exhausting last day and a half.

16 months

2012-01-25T16:36:00.005-06:00

16 months. One third of the way through her second year. Time is flying by! Taylor is all about doing things herself these days: eating with utensils, brushing her hair, brushing her teeth, putting on sunglasses, trying to put on her shoes. She's a great little mimic! She is even starting to be opinionated about the things she wears, and she has interesting fashion sense: shoes over footie pjs, footie pjs over clothes, ha.

T loves going to playgrounds, and she now prefers slides to swings - probably because she can do it all herself (she says "wheeee" as she goes down the slide). She also likes her play kitchen, play food, and stuffed animals. For the longest time, she wasn't really attached to any of her stuffed animals, but she has two favorites now that sleep with her every night (a kitty and a sheep). We've been nighttime minimalists up to this point, so this is really the first time she's had anything in the crib with her besides a blanket. As long as they don't affect her sleep, I guess! Her most favorite thing in the whole wild world, though, is Elmo. She loves Elmo. We bought tickets to see Elmo live next month, and I think she is going to love it.

4 teeth came in this month (top first year molars and top lateral incisors), bringing the total up to 8. She looks so different with all these teeth! I expect we'll have more before too long; I can feel her gums starting to swell on one side where her lower molar will be.

She's such a fun, sweet kid. She loves to give hugs (she'll run back and forth between Jake and I to hug us) and she's starting to give kisses more frequently. She does a funny little dance when she's excited about something (grapes are always dance-worthy), and she is pretty good at imitating funny noises (fake sneezes and hiccups, in particular). She insists that all doors, drawers and cabinets be shut at all times, and takes it upon herself to close them if need be. She can get a little dramatic and emotional when she's upset (almost always because of frustration), but she's very easy to redirect and calm down. Tantrums are few and far between, and really, pretty mild. Please stay this way forever, sweet girl! :)

Exploring Zilker

2012-01-23T21:16:00.004-06:00

A few photos from a few weekends ago. The weather has been phenomenal, so we've been out enjoying it as much as possible. (I love Texas winters. Love!) I have to say, having a toddler is a perfect excuse to go out and experience all of the local Austin-y things that we have just never gotten around to doing before. And there is a lot to see and do!

First up, the Austin Nature and Science Center, down near Zilker Park. I have actually been here before, and so has Taylor, but I don't think she remembers. Anyhow, we swung by on a whim one lovely Saturday afternoon, and T had so much fun looking at all of the animals and running around on the trails. We got there pretty late in the day and didn't have time to explore the dino pit, so I guess we'll have to make another trip back one of these days.

The next day, we headed back to Zilker Park and took a ride on the Zephyr. To be perfectly honest, T could have cared less about the whole train experience, but she did have a lot of fun at the playground afterwards.

how fast did the train go, T? lol

You should see the other guy

2012-01-22T12:01:00.003-06:00

This, my friends, is Taylor's first black eye. She had a run-in (literally) with a piece of playground equipment at school on Wednesday. Didn't break the skin, but the bruising is pretty bad (worse now than in this photo), and I cringe every time I look at it. (Though, from a distance, it sort of looks like she went a little crazy with my eyeshadow, ha). We have a friend who is an optometrist, and she is going to take a look at Taylor's eye this week and make sure everything is ok. We're pretty certain that she hit her brow bone, and not her eye, but it's best to make sure. Poor Tot. Enough with the bruises, mmmkay?

ETA:

Where did those come from?

2012-01-11T22:44:00.003-06:00

I just noticed this evening that both of Taylor's top one year molars have cut through! I didn't even realize they were coming in - she doesn't even have her lateral incisors in yet! That does explain a few things, like the night wakings and the fussiness. We thought maybe ears again, since she has been getting over a cold, but for once it actually was her teeth. In hindsight, I guess it wasn't so bad.

Tooth count: 6. Making progress. Slowly.

It's 2012!

2012-01-09T22:02:00.001-06:00

Hard to believe 2011 is done and gone, no? We welcomed 2012 with a low key little soiree with a few friends at our house. It was SO much fun! All 4 kids were rock stars and went to bed without a problem, and slept through the probably-pretty-noisy shenanigans of their parents. In keeping with the tradition established last year, we toasted in the New Year twice - once for East Coast Time, and again for Central Time (which, in hindsight, was perhaps not the greatest idea).

one of the few "normal" non-incriminating pics from the night, ha

So what does 2012 have in store for us? That is a good question - we can't wait to find out! A couple trips, for sure - a brand new nephew to welcome, and a niece's first birthday to celebrate, and I think we just might find time to head to a beach somewhere for a little family vacation. As for everything else? That remains to be seen!

While I'm not that big on resolutions, I do have a few things in mind to work on this year. First and foremost, get my spending under control. I've never been very good at managing my money, and at the end of every year, I end up in the same position - with credit card debt. I'll have all cc debt eliminated this month, and I plan on keeping it that way. So basta with the credit cards. Save money for the big ticket purchases instead of charging them.

Secondly, I'm going to start Taylor's baby book. Um, yes, Taylor is 15 months and I haven't even started it. Oops. I just hate the whole scrapbooking/crafty kind of thing, and I simply have not been able to make myself to sit down and work on it. It's high time. Fortunately, I've been a very good blogger, and I have everything written down here. (In fact, the primary reason I blog so diligently is because I know I haven't started that darn book, and at least this way it's written down somewhere.) Anyhow, I just need to sit down and start transcribing and pasting photos, I guess.

And finally, all those gorgeous and expensive family photos we've had taken over the past year and a half? I want them framed and up on the walls in our home. This is long past due as well, but this is a project I'm actually looking forward to. Some of the frames are already purchased and waiting to be hung.

So there you have it. And with that, I think I'm finally all caught up here. Wishing you all a wonderful 2012!

I am not a photographer.

2012-01-04T22:03:00.002-06:00

I am a momtographer. Oh, how I do so love taking photos, but I harbor no illusions about the quality of my photographs. (A photography business I will not be starting, haha.)

Now my younger brother, he IS a photographer. And a really good one at that! He's traveled (and lived) all over the world and has captured some truly stunning shots. It is always a pleasure when he is able to snap a few pictures for me. You may remember that he took some of my absolute favorite wedding pictures (here). Now, it's all about the babies. Below are a few of the pics he took of Taylor and Ashley while visiting us in Michigan. I'm eagerly awaiting all the pics he will take of his own little one, due very soon!

Click here to check out (and like!) his FB page.

Christmas in Michigan, part 2

2012-01-03T19:09:00.003-06:00

Continuing on with our Michigan trip... On the 26th, we celebrated Christmas with the immediate family. The kids opened tons of presents, and Taylor was way more like her usual happy silly self. After the kids went to bed, the adults had a fancy dinner and got to open some presents too. :)

Lots more snow fell the following day - very pretty, especially from inside! I was feeling under the weather, and T was getting pretty overtired from all of the excitement, so she and I took naps while Jake went out to visit some friends, and that evening more of the extended family came over. On Wednesday, my mom and brother drove up from Indiana to visit, so it was a full house. It was a fun afternoon of everybody catching up and watching the babies play. Before the day ended, we got lots of pics of everyone in front of the Christmas tree.

Some random amusements from the week: Taylor discovered her belly button, which she seems to find extremely fascinating. She also discovered that snow is very cold. We discovered that Taylor does not like it one bit if either of us hold her cousin Ashley, haha. And Grandma discovered that Taylor can be put to work with a broom. :P

And then on Thursday it was time to head home. It was an early morning flight, and everyone was a bit (ok, really) tired. I'll be generous and say that Taylor did "ok" on the flight back, but that's really only because I've seen kids do worse. :P It was a loooong trip home, but we made it. It was so nice to see everyone out there in Michigan, and it was definitely a special Christmas, especially for Taylor! We look forward to seeing everyone again soon!

Christmas in Michigan, part 1

2012-01-02T12:07:00.001-06:00

I have way too many photos to put in one post, so here is part 1. :)

We arrived in Michigan on the 23rd; T did fairly well on the plane; the flight was during her nap time, and she had a bit of trouble getting comfy (she's a sprawl-out-on-her-belly sleeper, so sleeping in my arms didn't work too well), but aside from that, she really did well. Once in MI, we headed off to Jake's parents' house, where we stayed for the week. T got to spend lots of time playing with her grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousin Ashley (7.5 months old). On Christmas Eve, we woke up to snow on the ground, so naturally we took T outside for a few pics (she wasn't the biggest fan, ha). After she conked out for a 4 hour nap (!!), we headed out to a nice dinner and then walked around Rochester Hills to look at the Christmas lights.

On Christmas day was the big family celebration, where most of the extended family came over for a big delicious brunch. T did pretty well with all of the new faces, although she was really shy at first. For the most part, she was fine once she got used to people (minus a few exceptions, heh). Taylor and Ashley had the same adorable Christmas dress, completely coincidentally, but it made for some really cute pics! Christmas day wrapped up with two super cute babies in a bubble bath. :)

So, here you go, part 1 (with a quick disclaimer: on the night before we left town, T wiped out in the bathtub and got a massive bruise on her cheek. Ugh! So, hence the nasty bruise you'll see in some of the pics):

Christmas in Texas

2011-12-31T09:13:00.002-06:00

We decided to celebrate our own little Texas Christmas early, before flying out to Michigan to be with the rest of the family. T got all sorts of fun things, spoiled by Grandma, Great Grandparents, Aunt and Uncle, Santa, and parents alike - lots of books, a tot-sized chair, a shopping cart, puzzles, and even a play kitchen. Jake made out with tons of clothes and a few toys, and I got my coveted Kelly Moore bag (yay!). It was fun and low-key, and we stayed in our pjs well into the afternoon.

15 months

2011-12-30T13:44:00.004-06:00

Late and short update! Taylor turned 15 months on Christmas day. At her 15 month appointment, she was 32.5" (95th %) and 22 lbs. 8.5 oz. (49th %).

New words: purple, yellow, apple, Elmo, hi, yeah, boy, car, rabbit, rooster, bear, baby, button, snow, snowball, choo choo, mommy... and more (I'm keeping up the best I can). I think we're up over 70-75 words now? She calls donkeys "dada" (hahaha). She's said "hi teddy," "hi kitty" and "hi Taylor" but that's about it as far as stringing words together. We've been working on numbers - when we say one, she'll say two; when we say two, she'll sometimes say three. We just need to put it all together! I wish I had some videos to show... we've not been good about taking video at all. Will work on that.

T finally got that second front tooth on the top (on the 18th), and I can see two more teeth on top that are getting close. She has found her belly button and is quite fascinated by it. She can walk backwards and spin in a circle, and she likes to play Row, Row, Row Your Boat (I hold her hands and "row" her body back and forth). She loves bubble baths - she asks for bubbles every night. She's still really into stackers, and she loves to wear the stacking rings on her wrists (she received some plastic bracelets for Christmas that she seems to like too). She loves the play kitchen she got from Santa; one day Jake found a day-old sippy cup of milk that she had put in the refrigerator part, ha. She loves giving hugs - to us, her stuffed animals, to the cats, to pictures of cats, to pictures of dogs, and to Elmo videos on the iPad. :) Her hugs are usually accompanied by her saying "awwwwwww." So dang cute. :)

So, I have lots and lots and lots of pics of Christmas that I will be going through this weekend, so stay tuned for more posts coming soon!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T13:19:00.000-06:00

As this posts, we should be well on our way to Michigan to celebrate

Christmas with our family. Wishing you all happy holidays!

Zilker tree

2011-12-22T12:17:00.001-06:00

We stopped by the Zilker tree one evening this week. Have I mentioned how bummed I am there is no Trail of Lights? Well, anyhow, I thought it'd be worth it to stop by and check out the tree, and honestly, it really wasn't. T could have cared less about it (granted, she was tired and cranky), but she was way more interested in running around and checking out people's dogs. Oh well. Maybe when she's older... and *hopefully* the Trail will be back in action.

Pete's Trail of Lights

2011-12-19T21:11:00.000-06:00

I was so disappointed when the city cancelled the Trail of Lights for the second year in a row, but, we found a great alternative down in South Austin! I had heard about Pete's Trail of Lights last year, so I bookmarked it as something to possibly do with Taylor in the future. It was a bit of a drive for us NW Austinites, but traffic was mercifully light, and we got there early so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Taylor loved it. I mean, I'm pretty sure she thought it was the coolest thing she had ever seen - her eyes were huge the whole time. We went around the loop four times or so - T loved running up and down the paths and looking at everything. We ended up spending like 40 minutes in this guy's yard, haha. Anyhow, it was really cool and really fun - totally worth the drive!

O Christmas Tree

2011-12-14T20:01:00.005-06:00

Why yes, I did get this idea from Pinterest. How'd you know? ;)

Ok, even though I love how this turned out, it didn't go quite as planned. I didn't have a good angle to get the whole tree in using my 50mm lens, so I had to use my lens kit (I have a D90, by the way); so, I couldn't set my aperture to f1.8 like I wanted, but to f3.8. To compensate for the decreased light, and apparently because I forgot to change my ISO, I had to slow my shutter speed way down (2"), which is all fine and dandy if you have a subject that can stay super still. A toddler is not a subject that can stay super still. Or even semi-still. So most of my shots had lovely little blurs where the toddler should have been. I was finally able to sufficiently distract her long enough to get a decent shot by asking her over and over to find where the horsey (rocking horse ornament) was. And by letting her eat Goldfish. Haha. I'm finding that photographing a toddler is a study in patience and cunning and possibly also bribery.

Not how I planned it updated

2011-12-11T13:10:00.007-06:00

Our weekend has not been going exactly as planned...

What was planned: date night, gym class, Christmas shopping, a birthday party, Trail of Lights, and a Christmas party.

What actually happened: very high fever and a trip to the ER.

Taylor got sent home from school early on Friday with a 103 fever. We dosed with Tylenol and Motrin, but 24 hours later, she was still running a fever just a hair under 104. I put in a call to our pedi's nurse line, and based on the temp in combination with faster-than-normal breathing and a cough, the nurse recommended we head to the ER to have T checked out. The intake nurse thought maybe ear infection - a diagnosis with which we did not agree, as she hadn't been pulling on her ears and her temp has never gotten that high with any of her many past EIs. Anyhow, 3 hours and many tears later, after being poked and prodded and swabbed and x-rayed, the diagnosis ended up being some sort of nasty virus, with two possibly infected ears (the inflamed ear tissue may just be a by-product of the fever). So, she's back on oral antibiotics, something we haven't had to deal with for quite some time. (In case you were wondering, getting a cranky toddler to take 6 mL [!!] of foul-tasting antibiotics is no easy task. We get to do this 3 times a day for the next 10 days. Heaven help us all.)

So yeah, kind of a sucky weekend (with one teeny tiny exception). Taylor's mood was much better this morning, but it has since gone downhill and she is still running a fever. So I dunno, hopefully it'll run its course soon.

*Monday update*

Saw the pedi this morning, and unfortunately we didn't learn too much more. Her ears are clear, but her throat is very swollen, which may explain the ~20 minute episodes of her arching her back in pain and screaming inconsolably. :( Strep test came back negative, so it appears to just be some sort of a virus, maybe mono. We just have to wait it out - it *should* be clearing up in the next day or two. I sure hope so. T is just plain miserable.

*Wednesday update*

Fever broke over night on Monday. Kept her home on Tuesday, but she went back to school on Wednesday, and seems to be pretty much back to normal! We sure are glad to have our happy little girl back!

Santa

2011-12-04T19:31:00.004-06:00

We like the Domain Santa because he takes time to talk to kids and let them warm up to him before the photos are snapped. He even suggested we take a family photo with him so T could get used to being around him (clearly Jake and I did not anticipate this might be requested of us, ha).

Despite all that...

Santa is a good sport! Last year's pics are here.

Taylor fought the sidewalk...

2011-12-04T13:27:00.004-06:00

And the sidewalk won. Poor kiddo. Her nose was all skinned up, and the inside of her upper lip was black and blue. For once I am grateful that she has only 1 tooth on top; it could have been much worse! This pic was taken a few days after said incident; fortunately, it healed up pretty quickly and it's hardly even noticeable now.

Side note: how freaking hard it is to get a photo of this kid looking at me and smiling! This is the one pic out of like 200. And now, more often than not, when we tell her to smile, this is what she does:

Ok, who am I kidding, it's pretty cute regardless. :) See all those teeth coming in up top (ever so slooooooowly)? That's gonna be fun, really really fun.

Fall family photos

2011-11-29T19:52:00.003-06:00

At the very end of October we had a mini session with Libby Ann Photography. This was our second mini session with Libby - I continue to be impressed by how many great shots she gets in such a short amount of time! I think the last one is my favorite - she captured T's smile perfectly. Thank you Libby!! Hopefully we'll have the occasion to do a full session with you next year! :)

Thanksgiving week

2011-11-28T20:50:00.001-06:00

This was what I had been calling a low-key week, as we didn't have too many set plans aside from Thanksgiving day. As it turned out, though, we ended up doing quite a bit! (Most of the pics are from my iPhone, hence the less than stellar quality.)

Taylor had a Thanksgiving party/lunch at school on Tuesday. I was working from home that day, so I took a break to head in and have lunch with her.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our good friends the T family. Taylor got to play with her buddy/boyfriend E all afternoon - she had SO much fun! Dinner was delicious, and we left that evening stuffed and drowsy. Thanks so much M&L for having us over, we had a great time!

We put up our Christmas tree and a few decorations. We didn't put up everything this year, as we'll be traveling over the holiday. T hasn't shown much interest in the tree - I'm kind of glad, as I was worried she might think the ornaments were fun little balls to play with.

Had a park playdate with Taylor's friend S at Robinson Park. This park is perfect for toddlers! It has a smaller playscape with a little playhouse and slides that were the perfect size for the kids to climb up and slide down all by themselves. T loved it - she probably went down the slide 20 or 25 times.

T got her first taste of Amy's ice cream (Dreamsicle, yum) and we walked around the Arboretum in the dark chasing after a bouncy ball.

We headed downtown one morning to check out the Children's Museum. T loved the slide and the dinosaurs (she seems to think that anything animal-like that is not a cat is a dog; a dinosaur is not a cat, so therefore it must be a dog, haha).

While downtown, we walked over to watch part of the Chuy's Christmas parade. It was a bit windy, drizzly and chilly (perhaps fall is finally here to stay?), but fun!

Finally, we braved the mall crowds to knock out some of our Christmas shopping, and we took a break to ride the carousel.

All in all a good weekend! I'm looking at these photos and I'm just blown away by how much she looks like a kid now. No more baby. :( It's bittersweet. Let's flashback to Thanksgiving last year, when T was 2 months (to the day!):

14 months

2011-11-25T13:54:00.002-06:00

New words include: book, hello, bye bye, mine, what, orange, blue, red, green, dog, uh-oh, up, pop, wheee, two, three/tree (sound pretty much the same), water (wawa), daddy (as opposed to dada), banana (nana), and mmmmm (ok, not really a word, but this is the sound she makes when something is yummy). She can also make some animal noises (moo, ruff ruff, meow, quack, who who), and she can point to her body parts (belly, nose, mouth, ears). She still relies a lot on a few specific signs, but now more than just at the dinner table. She's especially good with "all done" - all done in the bath, all done being stuck in the car seat, all done grocery shopping, all done getting shots, haha.

She's running all over the place now. She likes to walk up and down the stairs rather than crawl (we have to hold her hands for her to do so). She loves being outside - on the playground, in the back yard, going on walks. She loves going down slides and trying to climb up them. She is learning how to open doors; fortunately for us, though, she's paid no mind to our kitchen cabinets and drawers, probably because they have no pulls or handles. She knows that going to the garage door means we are going bye-bye. She can scribble on paper with crayons or markers, although she's not particularly big on finger painting (she has some texture issues). Favorite things are more or less the same - bubbles, books, balls (and her ball pit), puzzles, shape sorters and stackers, and her Cozy Coupe.

Thanks to the *many* birthday parties we've attended this fall, she has finally developed a taste for cake, and, even more so, chocolate (she is my daughter after all!). She continues to be a great eater all around, and she's quite good at using a spoon and a fork.

We're still holding steady at 3 teeth - surely this number will increase soon (#4 is the slowest tooth ever!). She's had 1 ear infection this month - I'd say she's been averaging about 1 per month since she had tubes put in back in May, ugh. Regardless, she continues to be a rockstar sleeper, 7 pm-7 am with a 1-2 hour nap midday (and on the weekends, she usually takes 3-3.5 hour naps!). She did great with Daylight Saving Time - she was off for just a day, and then got right back on schedule.

I gotta say, I love this age so much. She's SO much fun, and I love seeing her learn new skills every day. Yeah, we do experience occasional meltdowns, tantrums, and drama, but she is really such a funny, sweet happy little girl and a pretty easy kid! Happy 14 months, T!

Orange

2011-11-23T22:06:00.002-06:00

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow! We will be spending the day with good friends, and lots of good fun, good food and good wine shall be had!

I have much to be thankful for: my sweet daughter, my awesome husband, our families, our friends, our home, our jobs, our health, and of course our 2 furry felines. I am pretty blessed!

Dinner

2011-11-17T19:19:00.005-06:00

Well, file this under "things I didn't know my kid knows how to do." Color me impressed. (Sorry about the obnoxious camera-clicking in the video.)

By the way, does this kid look sick to you? No? Me neither. She got sent home from school yesterday afternoon with a 102 fever, and she couldn't go in today because she has to be fever-free for 24 hours. I have no idea what the deal was. We gave her some Tylenol and the fever was pretty much gone by the time she fell asleep, and she's been fine all day today. Teething maybe? That's the only thing I can think of. We're still waiting on tooth #4, which is *so close* to cutting through (and has been for like 3 weeks), and I can see 2 more on the top making their way in. But who knows. At least it didn't seem to be anything too major.

(Also - there are a few other new videos up on my YouTube channel, of T playing with Nico and talking on the phone.)

Enjoying our "fall" weather

2011-11-17T18:50:00.007-06:00

As much as I wish that it were a little more like fall around here, there's no denying that the weather has been pretty fantastic. Just a couple pics from my phone as we've been out and about enjoying the lovely days.

I had last Friday off, so after a morning of shopping, I went and picked T up from school early and headed to the park. She spent most of the time trying to climb up the slide. And getting mad when she couldn't make it all the way up. And crying and screaming and trying to twist out of my grasp when I tried to redirect her towards something else. Not embarrassing at all! :P She did have fun though (for maybe 5 minutes, which is when this pic was taken).

Last weekend, Taylor decided that it was a nice morning for a walk, so she headed to the garage door, out the garage and down to the sidewalk, and then off down the street. She had a grand time!

Wurstfest

2011-11-14T19:15:00.006-06:00

We were supposed to go to Wurstfest with some of our friends the weekend before last, but we had to postpone until this past weekend since we all had colds. I do wish we had gotten there earlier in the day, but somebody has decided to take 3+ hour marathon naps on the weekends, so we got a very late start. Traffic sucked and the drive was really long, but once we got in the doors, all was good. Good beer, good food, a nice grassy area where T could run around. She got to ride a carousel for the very first time (she loved it and didn't want to get off), and she loved her first taste of bratwurst (so much so, in fact, that as we were leaving, she kept pointing at all of the skewers of sausage that she saw and saying "more more!"). We headed home a little after 7, as the crowd was starting to get a bit rowdy and T was getting tired. Long and somewhat miserable drive back, but despite that, it was worth the trip!

On Sunday, we went to E's second birthday party. Taylor received her very first kiss, from the birthday boy (nearly twice her age - scandalous!). It was oh-so-adorable. Wish I had a picture of it (now I do - see below. Thanks Lauren!!). She was not so pleased though, haha. :) Happy birthday E, we had fun at your party!

We support our teams

2011-11-13T11:55:00.002-06:00

No matter what. We support them when they win, and when they lose, and even when they lose every game and it's so embarrassing you can hardly stand it. But it's not like we haven't been in this position before, amiright, Jake? :P

Guess that double-zero in the second to last picture turned out to be quite prophetic. Ha. Ironically, you'll see no Lions gear pictured here* - haven't been able to find any reasonably priced outfits for her. Guess everyone's been buying it up this year! No problem finding Colts gear though. Oh, how the tables have turned. Sigh. :( Is it next season yet?

*nor IU, natch.

Randoms, and some news

2011-11-07T19:05:00.006-06:00

All 3 of us were under the weather this past weekend, so all of our plans went out the window, and we pretty much just laid low. Since there's not a whole lot new with us, I thought I'd update with a few things that have been making us laugh lately, and end with some big (albeit not exactly new) news from my family.

Taylor loves to "talk" on the phone. Calculators, too, haha (because they look a little like iPhones, I guess). She'll put them up to her ear and say "'ello." (We recently got our 4Gs's, so T occasionally gets to play with our older phones.)

She also loves to do forward rolls (I guess her gym class is finally paying off). It's funny because she'll try to do it all on her own, but she ends up flopping onto her side because she hasn't quite figured out how to kick her legs over yet. We do have to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't try to flip over on a hard floor. :P

And bubbles. Girl loves her some bubbles. It's her favorite word right now, too. If she even catches a glimpse of the bubble machine or a bubble container or a bubble wand, she wants her bubbles bubbles bubbles!

Finally, I still can't get over the fact that she kinda sorta knows some of the hand motions to the Itsy Bitsy Spider. Have I mentioned lately how cute my kid is? Because she is. Super cute.

As for the big and exciting news, we have a nephew on the way, due in early February! Not exactly new news, but exciting just the same! Congrats S&M! We'll be making plans to go visit late spring or early summer - baby boy will be born in Colombia, but will be coming to the States in the early spring. We can't wait to meet little L!

Fall mini session

2011-11-06T09:23:00.005-06:00

Click here for a sneak peek of our fall family pics taken by Libby Ann. Can I just say how much I love the photographers we've been lucky enough to work with? Because, they're awesome. Awesome. Thank you Libby, you rock!!

ETA: Click here to see the slideshow!

Halloween photos

2011-11-02T19:53:00.002-05:00

Just some pics from our Halloween. T was in the Halloween spirit all weekend - she started doing a new little trick where she'd squat down, then pop up and say "boo!" SO cute. She must have learned this at daycare - we didn't teach it to her!

The weather was perfection all weekend. T did great trick or treating; she stayed out past her bedtime and even got to have her very first lollipop (she loved it). I think we made it to 5 or 6 houses or so. One of them had a spooky setup in front - when you got to the front door, you had to spin a wheel to see what your treat (or trick) would be. T got a can of soup, haha.

Carving pumpkins on Sunday:

Dino costume:

Trick or treating on Monday with her buddy H:

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T07:30:00.006-05:00

Our little dinosaur! I could not talk Jake into a super girly or princess costume for T, so dinosaur it was (she makes a pretty darn cute one, I must say!). The above pics were taken at a Halloween party we attended on Saturday - T had a BLAST. (The beads were not part of the costume, by the way, LOL!)

I'll try to get a few good pics of her whole costume tonight before we head out trick or treating with some friends. It should be fun!

Petting zoos and pumpkin patches

2011-10-27T21:04:00.004-05:00

We've been hitting up some of the local fall attractions the last few weekends, even though fall is just now slowly making its way to Austin. There's something about going to a pumpkin patch in 85 degree weather that just doesn't seem right. Oh well, it is *finally* kinda sorta cooling off - no more 90s in the forecast, anyhow!

So, the weekend before last we went to check out a petting zoo/fall festival thing that was at a nursery near our house. They had horses, goats, ducks, chickens and rabbits. T was a little nervous around the bigger animals, but she sure liked the bunnies. She even got to hold one! There were also lots of pumpkins and setups for photo ops. She wasn't a big fan of posing with the pumpkins, though, and after awhile she decided that she'd just rather strike off on her own, so we let her roam a bit.

This past Saturday, we headed out to Marble Falls to Sweet Berry Farm, where we met up with a few of our friends. It was a bit of a drive, and ooh boy, was it hot and dusty there, but it was a lot of fun. T got to see more goats, more pumpkins (that she didn't want anything to do with), help pick wildflowers, and she even got her very first taste of ice cream (pumpkin ice cream, no less), which she thought was pretty darn good.

And finally, on Sunday, we headed down to Lost Creek for little H's second birthday party. There was a whole little petting zoo at the party, so T got to pet a duck, a rabbit, chicks, more goats, and a sheep. I think her favorites were the goats. Happy birthday H - fun party!

Oh, hey!

2011-10-27T20:45:00.003-05:00

Our patio is finally finished! We meant to have it all done in time for Taylor's birthday party, but a few plans went awry. It's finished now though - just in time for it to be too dark outside to enjoy it after Taylor goes to bed! :P Seriously, though, we're pretty happy with how it turned out. We'll definitely get plenty of use out of it.

Birthday visits from family

2011-10-26T20:23:00.004-05:00

Ok, this post is way late. I forgot I hadn't posted it. I'm doing lots of catching up right now - Jake is in LA this week, so I have my evenings free to catch up on everything. Expect another post or two this week. :)

We were fortunate enough to have lots of family fly in for T's first birthday last month. It's hard having our families so far away - we wish everyone were closer! Just wanted to post a few pics from their time here.

Please note the adorable Colts jersey in the third pic - gotta say, we're not getting quite as much use out of it as I had anticipated. Sigh. :\

13 months

2011-10-25T19:15:00.007-05:00

Let's see how long I can keep up with these monthly posts!

So, Taylor is 13 months old today! Poor kid has been teething pretty much all month. Tooth #3 (top front right) finally popped through this past Saturday, and #4 should be here any day. Teething has not been easy on her, and we have a long way to go yet. :( She continues to be a bit clingy and irritable, and I believe this is why. She has also been much more cuddly, though, which I absolutely love. And, despite the teething troubles, she's been an awesome sleeper! She sleeps 7pm-7am, with a 1.5 hour nap from around 11:30-1:00. I love the one nap a day schedule, and the fact that she's so consistent. It's been a long road to get to this point!

Her walking has gotten so much better. She still manages to trip herself up (especially when she tries to run), but she is now walking most of the time. She loves to carry things around with her as she goes - usually my shoes, a ball, post-its and pen, or hair ties, haha.

T's favorite toys right now are shape sorters and puzzles and anything she can fill and spill. She is also a bit obsessed with bubbles and balloons, especially the latter. When I take her to the grocery store, she points at every balloon she sees, then screams when I turn the cart down an aisle away from the balloons. Ha. Grocery shopping is so fun. :) More than anything, though, she loves books. She LOVES her books. I think I have all of her favorites memorized. She'll pull all of her books off the shelves one by one until she finds one that she wants. Right now she prefers the ones that are more like flashcards - one pic and word per page, but she also loves some of the others like Goodnight Moon, Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb, and Curious George.

She continues to pick up new words. Some of the recent ones include bubble, balloon, ruff (as in, the sound a dog makes), row, milk, kitty, teddy, and thank you (this last one is the most recent, just in the past few days - it's impossibly cute). There are more, but I'm blanking right now. She can even say her name (though it takes some coaxing and sounds a little more like Tater). She also knows a few signs - she's very good about signing "more" and "all done" at the dinner table.

I'll wrap up this short l'il post by telling you how AWESOME Taylor is - because she really is an awesome, awesome kid, and super cute too. Love her to pieces! :)

Sweet sleep

2011-10-24T20:58:00.013-05:00

I found the following blurb about sleep training on a blog I follow, and I thought it was pretty spot on:

Before I had a baby: "Oh yes, I will sleep train, my baby will cry it out. I must preserve my night time or I will go insane!"

Shortly after having a baby: "I could never, in a million trillion zillion years, listen to my baby cry or fuss in her crib without me because my heart will simply break of sadness! I can live on less sleep than any other human organism if I have to!"

Eight months later: "We might have to try and sort of maybe kind of work on her sleeping habits a teeny bit because me and my boobies need some sleep more sleep never enough sleep I'm tired."

Today: "What we're doing is working... but we're not doing anything... and sometimes it doesn't work. Awww crap she won't be a baby forever bring me a caffeinated beverage."

Ah, sleep. I've wanted to write a post on this topic for awhile, but honestly, I haven't been in a place to do so. I love my sleep and I tend to not do well when I don't get it. Sometimes I feel like the only parents who like to talk about sleep are the ones who actually get some. So I guess maybe this post is for the other parents of crappy sleepers, but really it's mostly for myself, in the event that some day we have another kid who doesn't like to sleep. To remind myself that it doesn't last forever and that I got through it once and that I CAN get through it again. I can say this, because (drumroll...) Taylor now sleeps through the night!

Honestly, I was starting to feel like we'd never get to a good spot as far as sleep is concerned (and good God, I never thought it would be as hard as it has been). I think I've already blocked out some of the worst, BUT, I certainly haven't forgotten that it took over a YEAR for us to get to this point. A YEAR. Add in the uncomfortable sleepless latter half of my pregnancy, and geez, I'd been a miserably tired mama for a heck of a long time.

I won't go into too much detail about the sleepless nights... living it was enough. I'll just summarize it and say that for much too long we dragged ourselves out of bed in the middle of the night, whether it be one of us, or both of us, once a night or every hour. It was a long year. Nights sucked. And poor sweet Taylor, it's no fault of her own. The ear infections, the many, many ear infections (which are STILL an issue) contributed to her nighttime downfall, as did the colds, the stomach bugs, and the slow-as-molasses teething. She's had it rough, poor kid. I doubly curse the ear infections, because not only did they ruin sleep for all three of us, they sabotaged this sleep training thing over and over again.

We kept hearing/reading how babies should be sleeping through the night by six months or seven months or whatever it is they say. And the parents of kids who do sleep through the night, oh, how they like to brag. "My baby was sleeping through the night at 5 months! Or maybe it was 4 months - all of my wonderful sleep-filled nights just run together!! Life is amazing!! Ladidahdidah!!" So we tried. We Ferberized here and there, on and off. But every time we tried, it seemed, we'd find out that she actually had another ear infection. And then we'd feel like complete jerks and terrible parents. So yeah, we were scared to sleep train. In all honesty, because of all the issues she dealt with, we had very few windows of complete healthiness. But there were times when we probably should have sleep trained, and we didn't. We kept putting it off, desperately hoping she'd just learn to do it herself.

She didn't, of course. And, while some nights were awful, they weren't all so bad. Not fun, but not awful. She liked her bottle of milk around 2 or 3 am, and she'd nearly always go right back to sleep afterwards, so it was tolerable. It wears on you, for sure, but to us, it seemed easier and less stressful than the alternative, so we just kept it up. Even when we stopped bottles, she kept getting that cup of milk at night.

Around her 1 year birthday, I decided enough was enough. Once we got through the craziness of her party and having family in town and transitioning to the new room at daycare, we decided we were going to try again. Plans were delayed yet again thanks to another ear infection (what was this, her 10th? 12th maybe?), but once we were sure the ear drops were working, we did it. We sleep trained our baby.

She was mad. MAD. Stand-up-ear-piercing-full-on-screaming MAD. For 2 hours. Hell hath no fury like a toddler wanting her habitual 2 am cup of milk. But we did not give in, and eventually she went back to sleep. We were all tired and cranky the next day (which was a Monday, most excellent timing). That night, as we went to bed, we braced ourselves for the worst. Around midnight, my stomach dropped as I heard the cries through the monitor. I went upstairs, offered her a cup of water, fully expecting her to push it away and go into another screaming fit. Much to my surprise (shock, even), she took several drinks, and then, unbidden, laid right back down and went back to sleep. Um, what? Really?!

Next night: she slept through the night, 12 straight hours. And the next night too. And she has done so every night since. It's been a month, y'all. I still cannot believe it. I want to laugh and cry and scream and shout. She sleeps through the night!! It's like the nights of that year past have already been forgotten (ok, not forgotten, buried is more like it). And now I'm all like, gee, parenthood is great! I feel great! Everything is so great! Let's have another kid! Heh. :)

So yeah, as hard as it may be, it really doesn't last forever. Sleep training can be done, and successfully. I have lived to tell the tale. And now I'm gonna go knock on some wood.

Turning point

2011-10-16T22:09:00.003-05:00

Ever since Taylor started walking last month, she's been pretty tentative about it - never going too far or too quickly, and usually taking a hand when offered. And then, a few days ago, she decided she wanted to do it on her own. No holding hands, no pushing toys, no holding her back. She came to this decision as we were at dinner at Chuy's. She wanted down out of her high chair so she could go off exploring on her own. Rather than have her get trampled by the waitstaff, I took her outside as Jake waited for the bill. As I carried her out, she stretched and squirmed and tried to wriggle out of my arms. I put her down when we got outside and tried to hold onto her hand, but she pushed it away. So, I let her go. She walked the same stretch of sidewalk, oh, four times or so. And she even wiped out a time or two, but she rolled right back over, smile on her face, got up and kept going. She's Miss Independent now. (And then, she started doing things like this and this. Geez.)

She's Miss Strong Willed, too. She's a smart girl and she knows what she wants, but if she can't get it on her own, or if we can't figure out what it is that she wants, she gets mad. Like face-down-screaming-on-the-ground mad.

yep, had to take a picture

Isn't she a little young to be throwing tantrums? We went back to the pediatrician last Friday for T's vax, and the doctor suggested we really work on her vocabulary to help minimize any frustration stemming from communication issues. Hopefully that will help, and I do think it's feasible. I mean, she can already say all kinds of words; heck, she can even sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat. ;)

When she's not lying on the floor screaming (which is really not all that often), she's a super fun and funny girl. She got a hold of a pad of post-its and a pen today and spent all morning walking around, stopping every so often to "take notes." Haha. I love this kid!

looks like she's going to be a lefty, just like her parents!

Fall school photo

2011-10-13T16:06:00.000-05:00

Taylor's fall school photo, taken a little over a month ago, I think. I'm a sucker, I can't help but buy these cheesy - but cute - photos.

Rain

2011-10-11T19:40:00.008-05:00

It rained over the weekend, y'all. It was lovely! We took T outside to check it out - figured she might not remember what rain is (I can't even remember the last time it rained at our home, actually). She wasn't quite sure of it at first, but then she wanted to be out in it, walking around. So, we played in the rain - I sure hope we get the opportunity to do that again soon!

Thanks to that rain, for a day or two we experienced what is known as fall weather. Fingers crossed it'll return soon. I've been longing for my boots and sweaters. I am OVER summer.

Taylor's 1 year photo session

2011-10-09T20:04:00.005-05:00

So, I was clearly not thinking when I scheduled Taylor's 1 year pictures for the same day as her 1 year pedi appointment (vaccinations). As it turned out, on that day she had an ear infection, so her vax ended up getting delayed, and I thought to myself: well, ok, at least she'll be in a good mood for her pictures. Um, as I should well know, ear infections (and in our case on this particular day, ear infection + teething) do not a happy baby make. T was NOT in a good mood. We tried everything - all of our go-to silly noises and sound effects and tricks, usually guaranteed to make her smile - with no luck at all. The only thing that worked in keeping her from fussing and crying? Yogurt melts. So she was eating them pretty much the entire time. But, I'm fairly certain you can't even tell, because our photographer Johanna is amazing. I cannot believe all the incredible shots she ended up getting. I have way too many favorites to share just a few, so fair warning, lots of pics below (and if that's still not enough for you, you can view the whole album here). Enjoy!

Looky looky

2011-10-03T21:06:00.002-05:00

A sneak peek! Click here. And here.

Months 1 to 12

2011-10-03T19:24:00.001-05:00

Taylor's first birthday party

2011-09-29T07:09:00.002-05:00

Taylor's first birthday party was on Sunday, on the afternoon of her actual birthday. We had a full house - all in all, there were about 45 people who came (even despite a few last minute cancellations), including several of Taylor's friends from daycare and playgroup. We also had family from both sides fly in to be there, which made the day extra special. There was lots of food, lots of drinks, and amazingly delicious cupcakes. All in all, a wonderful time! Many, many thanks to everyone who came out and celebrated with us!

Ok, as promised, lots of pics:

the invites
pre-party outfit

a little balloon fun

gift table and dessert table

is this not the prettiest smash cake you've ever seen?

gorgeous cupcakes

the spread

happy birthday banner

closeup

family pic

waiting with her cousin for guests to arrive

playing with her buddies Jack and Jackson

party guests

the haul

more party guests

and more party guests!

the grandparents

view from above

getting ready for cake

ooh, sprinkles!

ok, not a fan of cake, AT ALL, haha

opening gifts from family

whew, what a day!

the family

Taylor was exhausted by the end of it (and so was I, actually). We only got through the gifts from family before she crashed, so we ended up opening the rest of them the next day. She made out like a bandit - she got all sorts of cute clothes, books and toys. We really appreciate everybody's generosity! Her gifts from mommy and daddy included the long-coveted Cozy Coupe and a sand and water table.

I had intended to be all crafty and do the decorations myself, but I didn't. Big surprise. :P I did design the invites and put the favors together (little gift bags of playdoh and bubbles, failed to get a pic), but that's it. Anyhow, these are the vendors I used (highly recommend all of them!):

Cupcakes and smash cake (SO good and SO delicious): Kimberly's Kakery
Happy birthday banner: Ben and Jess
Pinwheels (which I didn't get a good pic of): aubabi78
Poms (I ordered 3, but only ended up using one of them): Sweet and Savvy Designs

Twelve months

2011-09-26T22:00:00.004-05:00

My one-year-old.

How grown up Taylor is - nursing, formula, and pacis are done and gone, and we're *almost* done with bottles. She can walk, she can talk, and she gets more independent by the day. I suppose I can no longer ignore the fact that she isn't a baby anymore. She's a toddler. (Although, yes, of course, she'll always be MY baby.)

baby, what baby? this is a toddler!

At Taylor's 12 month appointment, she was 31.25" high (97th percentile!) and 20.5 lbs (40th percentile). Tall and skinny - width-wise, she fits in 12 month clothes, but length-wise, 18 months sizes fit better. Her hair just keeps longer and thicker. I sort of want to get her a trim, but Jake says no way. :)

T took her first steps this month, a little before 11 1/2 months. We were not prepared for it! She can do about 11-12 steps at a time when she's feeling motivated (it helps for us to bribe her with something she really wants, like yogurt melts or tortilla chips). For the most part, though, crawling has just been more efficient...until the last few days, that is. She now seems to be finally getting the confidence and motivation to really start relying more on walking (I imagine that the toddler room at daycare has played a part in this development).

She loves to climb the stairs, enough so that we were finally forced us to put up a gate at the bottom of the stairwell. Neither she nor Nico were particularly happy about this development (poor Nico is too *ahem* big-boned to fit through the downstairs banister rails). It is nice though that we rarely have to carry her upstairs anymore, we just hold open the gate and up she goes!

She has picked up a few more words this month, but it seems that once she's learned a new one, she'll only repeat it a few times before moving onto something else. Such a tease - we hear something new, like "rabbit" and "bottle", and we get all excited, and then she won't say it for us anymore! Some of her other new words have included "turn turn turn" (when we turn corners with her push walker toy) and "boom" (when she runs into a wall with said walker). Grandma says that she's attempted to say some variation of "Cheerios" - I'm not surprised, she loves those things. The one thing she will say over and over: "no." No no no no no no no no no no!

T loves to imitate mommy and daddy. She likes to put hats and sunglasses on her head, because that's what she sees us do. She wants to eat what we eat (she has a particular fondness for raisin bran and the aforementioned tortilla chips), and drink what - and how - we drink. She loves to practice drinking out of regular cups and water bottles, but considering the vigor with which she shakes and throws her sippys, we won't be switching anytime soon. :P

She can blow kisses, give high fives, throw her hands up in the air (touchdown!), clap and wave and point, and shake her head "no" and "yes." She knows darn well the things she's not supposed to do. She'll sit in her high chair and hold the food out over the floor all the while shaking her head no (sometimes she'll drop the food anyhow). We laugh because we can tell every time she's thinking about doing something she's not supposed to do - her head always gives it away. She sits by the cat food, arm outstretched, and shakes her head no. She stands in the bathtub, about to pull on the water faucet, and shakes her head no. She stands by the potted tree, about to stick her hand in the dirt, and shakes her head no.

touchdown!

She likes to help me put laundry away by putting her clothes into her drawers (and then taking them back out, then putting them back in, then taking them back out... I think she'd do this all day if she could). She's rather particular about where things belong and where they don't; for example, books most certainly do not belong on bookshelves. She'll rearrange her toys until they're just so (wonder where she gets this trait from, haha). She likes to "share" - she'll hand me all of the diapers out of her diaper basket, one by one. She loves books, especially this one and this one, and she always turns the pages for me. She's starting to be much more aware of the television, and I'll admit that we've let her watch some here and there when she's not feeling well or needs her nails trimmed. Now that she has teeth, she has a toothbrush, and she loves "brushing" her teeth. She also likes rolling around on beds, playing with balls (we made her a mini ball pit that she really likes), and hugging her stuffed cat "Bob."

Once Taylor has figured out how to do something, she has no fear. Even though we're always close by, she still manages to wipe out and give herself some bruises. She's whacked her head in the bathtub more times than I'd like to admit. Something about being in the water turns her into a little daredevil!

On the recommendation of one of the moms from daycare, we tried a sample class at Little Gym this month, and both Taylor and I really enjoyed it. So we signed her up, and she gets to go every weekend. She's been learning new skills to help her develop her arm and leg strength, to share and do circle time, and to interact closely with lots of other new kids. She's even done several forward rolls (assisted, of course)!

Aside from walking, perhaps the most noticeable development from this past month is that Taylor only wants mommy. Mommy mommy mommy. She always wants to be held by mommy. She screams and arches her back when I hand her off to daddy (so very dramatic) and cries when I put her down or leave the room. If I'm not holding her, she'll chase me down and climb up, tugging on my legs, sweet little face upturned, crying for me to pick her up. Makes it kind of hard for me to leave her in the mornings. :( I know it's a stage though, and that it will pass, and soon it will be daddy's turn to be wanted 24-7. :P

I get this a lot

So, my sweet, happy, silly, beautiful little girl, off you go into year two. It's been a wonderful first year, full of growth and developments, new skills, smiles and laughs. Life is only going to get more exciting!

(Birthday party recap coming soon! And pics, lots of pics!)

Dear Taylor

2011-09-25T09:45:00.003-05:00

My dear, sweet baby girl - you are not such a baby anymore! Today is your very first birthday. One year ago today you made your grand entrance into this world, and our lives changed forever. How this past year has flown by, and how grown up you are.

Before you were born, we were so sure you were a boy. We were so surprised - and thrilled - to find out that you were actually a girl! I loved feeling you kick and moving around. As you got bigger, you got the hiccups nearly every day!

The day you were born was one of the longest days I have ever experienced, but it was all worth it. We knew very early in the morning that we were going to get to meet you that day, and 17 hours later, at 9:45 pm, you were finally in my arms. We became a family of 3, and we couldn't be any happier.

Who is this sweet dark-haired teeny tiny baby? My goodness, how you've changed! This is you when you were brand new, just six days old.

And look at you now.

You are our T, our Tot, our Taylor Tot and our Sweet Pea. You make us smile so much, and every silly giggle out of your mouth makes us laugh along with you. I remember so clearly that first smile you gave us, on the day you turned 4 weeks old. It took some figuring out and some practice, but once you got it down, you were all smiles. Our favorite thing to do is to make you smile. Can you blame us? Look at that sweet happy face!

I spent the first 14 weeks of your life at home with you, and those were very special days. I felt like I didn't know what I was doing half of the time (and sometimes I still don't!), but I am thankful for each and every minute I get to spend with you. I hated going back to work, but you have thrived at school. You love being around people, and you've always played so well and had so much fun with other children.

You have SO much personality. You were alert and curious when you were itty bitty, and that hasn't changed one bit. You're silly and funny, and you like to make us laugh. You are sweet and cuddly and so very smart - and, beautiful, too, of course! You have the prettiest big blue eyes, and everyone likes to comment on them.

You started talking early, and walking was not far behind. You do keep us on our toes - you are fearless once you've figured out how to do something. You love books and balls and swinging (one of your favorite things to do) and the cats - oh goodness, how you love to chase after and pet Nico and Bailey! You also like to be chased after by us and to be tickled. You laugh so hard that you get the hiccups nearly every time!

You have always been such a happy girl. Despite the many ear infections, colds and stomach bugs, you are still as happy as can be. Sleeping is not your favorite thing to do, nor is riding in the car, but I imagine it's just because both activities take you away from your playtime. You are always busy and just love to play!

I am so incredibly lucky to be your mommy. You are a very special little girl, and I cannot imagine life without you. I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for you. I love you very, very much! Happy first birthday, Taylor!

Love,

Mommy

My toddler

2011-09-22T07:23:00.000-05:00

Taylor has been transitioning to the toddler room at daycare this week. I honestly teared up a little the other day as I put on her sneakers for school (she's required to wear shoes in the new room). She just looked so grown up!

She's doing great with the transition, I'm happy to say! She isn't in the new room full-time until next Monday, but yesterday was her first toddler nap time. On a nap mat. On the floor. Was I skeptical? You betcha. But she did awesome. Nearly a 2 hour nap! Considering she averaged about 35-40 minutes a day in the infant room, I am thrilled! So, gold stars all around. And she's been reunited with her little BFF's, so all is right in the world. :) (Aaaand... now I have an excuse to go buy her lots of cute shoes!)

ACL fest

2011-09-19T20:39:00.002-05:00

Ah, ACL fest, it was good to be back! Hard to believe that this was my 7th year attending. The only year I have missed since moving to Austin was last year, as I had a 2 week old babe in my arms. Anyhow, we took full advantage of Grandma being in town and had a grand time, living like we were young (ok, youngish, like late 20s maybe) and carefree.

On Friday we saw Big Boi, Foster the People, Nas, Pretty Lights and Kanye. Saturday we saw Alison Krauss, Skrillex, Cee Lo, TV on the Radio, and Stevie Wonder. Kanye put on an awesome show, he and Skrillex were my favorites. The weather wasn't too bad, we got a little bit of everything - hot sun, rain, and perfectly cool and overcast. We caught up with some friends, ate some great food (chicken cones!) and had a great time all-around. Meanwhile, Taylor had a wonderful time playing with Grandma and her uncle Nathan (many thanks to them both!).

We skipped the festival on Sunday. We weren't too unimpressed with the lineup, and besides we had things to get done like shopping for patio furniture. Speaking of the patio, looks like it will be finished *just* in time for the party on Sunday, yay! We had no luck finding any furniture we like in town, because apparently it's the time of year to sell Christmas stuff, but we finally tracked down what we were looking for in Indiana, of all places. And it'll be here on Friday! Sitting wall goes in on Tuesday or Wednesday, and the staining gets done on Thursday. Whew. Busy week!

Sunday afternoon

2011-09-18T19:17:00.002-05:00

Spending some quality time with Grandma on a lovely Sunday afternoon!

Patio progress

2011-09-13T20:03:00.005-05:00

2.5 years later... we finally have a patio! Concrete was poured today. We still need to have the sitting wall put in, the concrete stained, and to get patio furniture. We were going to have a pergola built, but we're already at our impervious cover limits, and it was strongly recommended to us that if we ever plan on selling (which we probably will do at some point), we best not violate building codes. Oh well. This will do. :) It's nice and spacious, plenty of room for a full patio set and maybe even a fire pit. I'm SO glad we got this done (thank you, wonderful husband!!) - I was starting to worry where we were going to put all the people that are coming to Taylor's birthday party!

Look out world!

2011-09-04T19:25:00.005-05:00

Here comes Taylor!

I guess I was wrong in my 11 month update - walking was right around the corner. Twice in the past week Taylor took a single step towards me. And this morning, while Jake and I both looked on, she took 3 steps! And then five steps! She's been at it all morning - still wobbly and a little unsure of herself, but she's on her way! We're quite excited and can hardly believe it. It's all over for us now, ha! :P

Go Horns!

2011-09-03T12:26:00.005-05:00

Even though we won't be able to watch the game (thanks,

Longhorn Network), we're supporting our team!

Here's Taylor's first game day pic from last year (7 days old).

Bring on the football season!

2011-08-31T20:05:00.004-05:00

We've been teaching Taylor what to do when the Colts score a touchdown (or if the Lions score, I guess). :P

Pausing for a little TV time

2011-08-29T07:57:00.001-05:00

Eleven months

2011-08-25T19:39:00.001-05:00

Eleven months. Just one month until the big first birthday. Let's not talk about that just yet - I'm not ready for my baby to turn ONE!

So. Lots of big developments this month. First off, Taylor started sleeping through the night (as in, 12 hours straight)! We experienced the most wonderful week of sleep.... and then her first tooth started to come in (a big development in it's own right, to be sure). So much for sleep! Her - and our - sleep did improve once tooth #1 broke through, then deteriorated again as #2 took its sweet, sweet time working its way to the surface (finally broke through this past Sunday). And we had a fun little stomach bug to deal with. And then a cold. Sound familiar? Anyhow, as exciting as teeth are, teething is not very fun. And we have a long way to go yet!

see? teething is NOT fun

The big milestone for this month: T started talking! After "mama" and "dada" came "duck," or maybe "pi" (pig)? Then "dog" and "mo" (more). She also can say "bah" (ball) and "ah duh" (all done). "Mo" and "bah" are the most frequent; all of the others take considerable coaxing and even then we're not always successful in getting her to say them. But we know she can! She also says "wa-wa," though I'm not sure she knows what it means just yet, and something that sounds suspiciously like "kitty cat" (said in an extremely high-pitched voice when Bailey happens into view). T doesn't say "no" but she definitely knows the meaning of it! Last weekend we went out to dinner, and she started to drop food on the floor. We told her "no" and shook our head; she stopped, looked at us, and then started shaking her head back and forth. She did this for the rest of the meal - every time we told her to not drop food on the floor, she shook her head "no" (we couldn't help but laugh, it was just too funny!).

Mealtime is all kinds of fun these days. She's still a great eater - lately she's been loving pasta with sauce, blueberries, watermelon, peaches, Annie's Cheddar Bunnies, and whatever kind of cereal I'm eating for breakfast. For some reason she usually avoids orange veggies (sweet potatoes, carrots), but she'll eat the green ones. She has recently developed the habit of spitting out whatever is in her mouth in order to take a bite of something else she'd rather have or to take a drink from her sippy cup. It's quite lovely. She's also taken to smooshing up food in her hand and dropping it onto the floor when she's done eating. Bailey loves this; us, not so much. Most recently, she's smashed pieces of fruit on her head. Silly girl!

We're pretty much down to one nap a day. This has been the case at daycare for quite some time, more days than not, but even at home on the weekends, she'll only take one nap (it usually ends up being 2-3 hours, which is nice). I think she'll transition quite nicely to the next room at daycare when she turns 1, since all of the kids are on the same one nap a day schedule. Her two best little friends, who are a little older than her, just moved up to the new room, so I am looking forward to her being able to rejoin them. We are no longer using a paci at home, but she still takes one at daycare, so I'd like to work on getting rid of it in the coming month.

T is getting much better at standing; she can stand unassisted for maybe 15 or 20 seconds now, and she can also go from sitting to standing without holding onto anything. She is also an expert cruiser. She really wants to walk, though her balance isn't quite there yet, so she uses things like chairs, empty diaper boxes, our hands, and her walker toy to propel herself around. She's getting steadier and steadier - this past week she started taking steps while holding onto just one of my hands. I don't think walking is *right* around the corner, maybe another couple of weeks, but I can wait, seriously! It's challenging enough wrangling a crawling baby!

In the evenings after dinner, we do playtime upstairs to get T into bedtime mode, so she's free to roam around. Two things she's recently discovered: 1) the media chair that's in the extra bedroom - she'll crawl in and lean back and wait for daddy to start rocking the chair back and forth. She loves it! 2) the couch in the media room - she's figured out she can push the buttons and make the leg rest go up and down. Eventually she'll make her way to the bathroom, and she'll head straight for the tub and try to crawl in. She loves bath time, so she gets a bath most every night. She likes to flop down on her belly in the water and get her face wet (sometimes she forgets to close her mouth and gets a big mouthful of bath water, yum); it's also prime time for practicing her standing and other skills like stacking objects on the edge of the tub.

She "dances" to music - shakes her cute little self and bobs her head up and down. She likes to imitate things she sees us doing - putting sunglasses on her head, turning pages in books, clapping, sticking out her tongue, trying to replicate the funny sounds we make. She loves putting things into containers and taking them out again, and she's also figuring out shape sorters. Favorite toys are balls, of course, and electronics and gadgets - remotes, iPhones, iPad, Flip camera, Nikon lens cap. She's quite good at pushing the record button on Flip - by the end of the day I'll have a dozen or so 1 second videos to delete. :P

So here we are, on to the last month of Taylor's first year. Hard to believe, isn't it? It's going to be a busy month, so hopefully all of the things we have going on will help keep my mind off the fact that my baby is about to be a toddler. Parties and play dates and visits from family (we can't wait to see you all!)... Full speed ahead!

Splashing around

2011-08-23T07:14:00.002-05:00

Over the weekend, we headed up to Round Rock to go swimming with our friends; while up there, we also decided to go check out a little neighborhood splash pad that I've heard good things about. It was a little overwhelming for Taylor at first, but we had the place all to ourselves, so she was able to crawl around and get used to all of the sprinklers, and we didn't have to worry about her getting trampled. We had a good time swimming, too - T loves the water!

Lunch

2011-08-20T21:27:00.001-05:00

Somebody thought it would be pretty funny to smash some fruit on her head at lunch today (ok, it was pretty funny!).

Please also note the adorable pigtails, and you may be able to see that tooth #2 is *just* about to break through!

Packing up the pump

2011-08-18T21:20:00.002-05:00

So, I guess last Friday was my last day of pumping. I didn't mean for it to be, it just kind of worked out that way. I started slowly phasing out my pumping sessions a few weeks ago, with the intention of stopping when Taylor turned 11 months. But then I got out of my routine when I was out of the office a few days with a sick baby, and on my first day back at the office, I just sort of forgot. And decided that I was fine with it. So, yeah, I'm done.

WOOHOO!!!

I am, however, going to keep breastfeeding, one session in the morning, one in the evening, and at night, when needed. But breastfeeding and pumping are two completely different things. I loathe pumping. Not so with breastfeeding. Long journey that it's been, it's one that I am very glad I decided to take.

I never really had a goal in mind when I decided to breastfeed, just to go as long as I could, I guess. I've had an easier time than many, so I'm thankful for that, but that certainly doesn't mean it was always easy. I honestly didn't think I would last through those first few weeks. I think back to how painful it was, how I would cry nearly every time she nursed. And how it would take her an hour each session - every couple of hours. It was miserable, it was exhausting, it was very difficult emotionally. But it got easier, and I began to see it as what it really is (to me, anyhow) - a way to nourish, protect, bond with, and give my baby the best start that I could.

Taylor had nothing but breastmilk for 8 months. I'm very proud of that fact. After 8 months, I started supplementing, and I hated that I had to do so, but my body wasn't able to keep up with her. But I kept on breastfeeding. I suppose I could of quit at that point, but I wasn't ready to give up that time with my girl, which to be honest is quite special, as well as those magical calorie-burning and baby-calming powers (the cost of formula certainly factored in, too). Even a nasty brush with thrush in month 9 wasn't enough to make me give it up.

As we have been too rapidly approaching the one year mark, the length and frequency of pumping and nursing sessions have been decreasing. Enough so for me to forget to pump, apparently. It'll be so odd to have this gone from my day - something that I've religiously scheduled around for so long. I won't miss my pump one bit, to be sure. If we weren't planning on having a second baby, I'd probably take that thing out back and go all "Office Space" on it. I'm definitely not ready to give up breastfeeding though; even though I plan on quitting when she turns one year old, I probably won't even be ready then. I will certainly miss it. I will miss that time with my baby. I will miss her being a baby. I've decided that when we're done, completely done, I will head out with a few friends and my husband and toast the year past with a Mexican martini or three. Cheers to sticking with it for so long, and cheers to having my body to myself for awhile. That will hopefully make me a little less sad about it.

To wrap up, I want to say that breastfeeding takes commitment, and in the long hours of the night, it can sometimes feel like a rather a thankless one. I tend to believe that only those who have or do breastfeed, whether for 2 weeks or for 2 years, can truly understand the physical, emotional, and time commitment it takes. But it's worth it, so very worth it.

Post script: A few weeks ago I decided that I should to thank myself. A little "job well done" from me to me for making it this far. Yes, I'm going to end this post about breastfeeding with a photo of a handbag. :)

Talking, standing, and sort of walking

2011-08-17T07:25:00.004-05:00

If you haven't seen them already, here are a few videos from the past week or so. She's blowing us away with how quickly she's picking up new skills!

Let's start with the talking. More ("mo") is one of the words she uses most often, most certainly because I say it so much myself when she's eating dinner. She will say "mo" when she's finished something she likes and wants more, or if she doesn't like what she's eating and wants something else, or if I take the bottle away from her before she's finished drinking.

She can also say "all done" when she's ready to get out of the high chair. It's usually accompanied by arm flailing, back arching, food throwing, and a scream or two in case there's any doubt that she's really all done.

Now, for the standing. She's been hard at work on this new skill! She's still a little wobbly, but she's getting better and better at it!

And lastly, the "walking." Nope, not walking unassisted yet, but she motors around the house just fine with a little assistance. First it was kitchen chairs that she pushed around, and then a diaper box, all the while completely ignoring the adorable little walker toy I had purchased just for this purpose. That is, until she saw her friend Hudson playing with it. Now she is all about the walker!

Birthday party invitations are in the mail!

2011-08-16T13:38:00.000-05:00

I guess this is as good a time as any to show you one of the outtakes from the little "photo shoot" I did for the invite.

Y'all better come to the party. Don't you dare make her cry. :P

Swinging

2011-08-08T20:11:00.004-05:00

I love taking pictures of T when she's in the swing, because the expression on her face is always just pure joy. She loves swinging, and has from the very first moment she tried it.

this was her first time in a swing, back in March,
when she was just shy of 6 months old

and from last weekend, a little over 10 months old.
she loves to go high!

"Mama"

2011-08-06T14:57:00.008-05:00

Well, I'm an idiot and accidentally deleted the video that Jake got of Taylor saying "duck" for the first time (which is what we're considering to be her first real word, aside from "mama" and "dada"). But, I do have this little gem to share:

LOL, sorry Jake. She's totally going through a "mama" phase right now, and I am enjoying every minute of it! :)

I admit...

2011-08-03T21:00:00.005-05:00

...I was a little skeptical about Jake's call this morning (see the late edit on the previous post). Really, she was repeating back the names of animals? So after I picked up T from daycare and arrived home, we put the Peekaboo Barn app on the phone and let her have at it. Aaaaand....nothing. Huh. Jake did get a little of it on video from this morning, and you can hear her say something that sounds an awful lot like "duck," but apparently she was also saying cat, and maybe one or two of the others, I don't remember which. So I remained pretty unconvinced.

Jake went back to the office upstairs, and I got dinner ready for T. Put her in the high chair, got her started on some pasta, and then handed her a peach slice, which she devoured quickly. And then, she said something that sounded like "more." I didn't pay too much attention, because she's never said it before, and I assumed it was just babble. She got all loud and agitated like she does when she wants her sippy cup or more of something, so I handed her another slice of peach. She ate that one, and again said "more." Um, really? So I gave her another slice, she ate it, and she said it again. OMG, MY BABY IS TALKING (and wow, she must really like peaches)!!

So now I'm not so skeptical about what Jake heard this morning! :)

A tooth!

2011-08-01T20:00:00.008-05:00

Finally, finally, Taylor has her first tooth! I cannot believe how long it took, but once it started to come in, it came in quick! Her gums had been swollen for weeks, but no sign of the tooth itself until Sunday, and then it broke through on Monday. Can you see it? Not the greatest photo, but it's there! Lower central incisor on her right side. And it looks like tooth #2 may be making its appearance soon.

Since I'm here, a few more updates. Here is another biggie - Taylor started sleeping through the night! All by herself, with no help from us. Naturally, this was just in time for her teeth to start coming in, which screwed it all up again, of course! The forces conspire against us. I'm thinking/hoping things will settle back down, though, once this second tooth comes in.

And finally, we've been noticing that her babble is starting to sounds an awful lot like real words. In fact, the other day T and I were doing some shopping at Target, and she said, clear as day, "a party." I know it wasn't intentional or anything, but it was just so odd to hear real words come out of her mouth. I think we can count her first words, though. She has been saying "mama" and "dada" for several months, but now she is definitely using them to specifically refer to Jake and I. She'll crawl up to Jake and say "dada," and she'll raise her arms up to me to be picked up and say "mama." Melts my heart. *love*

ETA: Jake just called and told me something she did this morning (Wednesday)... there's this iPhone app she likes called Peekaboo Barn. It shows a little red barn, and when you touch the barn, the doors open and reveal an animal, and it makes the animal noise and says the name. Apparently this morning she was playing with it and repeating back the names of the animals. :| Um, what?! 1) WOW. 2) I can't believe I missed this. 3) We must get this on video!

On the move

2011-07-27T18:44:00.003-05:00

Who needs silly push toys when you have a kitchen chair?

Looks like we need to put up a gate at the bottom of the stairs!

Busy bee

2011-07-26T21:09:00.003-05:00

We've been so busy lately. Just over the past 2 weekends, Taylor has had, oh, six play dates! It's exhausting, I tell ya! Rather than write a post for each, I'm just going to recap them here all at once.

First up, we met up with our playgroup at a playscape in the mall. T had a blast climbing all over everything, and she was an especially big fan of this rocket replica thing she could sit in.

she was trying to sit down as I snapped this pic,
and she hadn't quite figured it out yet, ha

Next up, it was to her friend Isabelle's house. Huge playroom and lots of balls = awesomeness.

And then this past weekend, we spent an afternoon with Hudson, who brought T lots of balls to play with. She also got some kisses from Captain.

The next morning, a mega-play date at our house. We had 8 other mamas and their babies over for a morning of play. The babies ranged in age from 7 weeks to 11 months. It was great to see some friends I hadn't seen in awhile and to meet some new ones. T was not quite sure what to think about all of these other kids playing with her toys, haha. Alas, no pictures. Fail on my part. Sorry. :(

Later that same day, we headed over to the T family's house. Ethan was a perfect gentleman and graciously let T play in one of his favorite toys, his Cozy Coupe. T loved it. I'm thinking we're going to have to get her one of these for her birthday.

And last, but not least, we met up with the A family to see their gorgeous new house and to go swimming. Alex is only two weeks older than T and already walking! T, I hope you weren't watching and taking notes, because we are so not ready for that.

I think maybe this weekend we'll lay low and rest up a bit... oh, except, of course, for an evening out for us parents. We have a sitter lined up for Saturday night because we need our "play time" too - in the form of dinner, drinks, a party at our friends' house. We'll see how late we can make it!

Ten months

2011-07-25T19:49:00.005-05:00

Taylor is a busy girl, folks. She has places to go and things to do. Sitting still? No time for that. There's just too much to explore! She loves to climb over, under, into and out of things. She chases after the cats (well, mostly just Bailey), and she's gotten a handful of fur on more than one occasion (she's fast, if not stealthy). She's an expert at getting up into a standing position, although her sitting down could maybe use a little work. She can stand unassisted for a second or two and is starting to cruise furniture. We retired the baby bathtub because she'd spend her entire bath time trying to climb out of it. Now, she spends her entire bath trying to climb out of the big tub. She's a regular little monkey, and she keeps us on our toes - she's already toppled out head-first (don't worry, I caught her). I probably don't even need to mention the challenge that is changing her diaper or clothes!

T loves to play. Favorite toys right now include balls, musical toys, anything with buttons (particularly remote controls), and foam letters (she crawls around with the letters in her mouth). Her play is becoming much more directed. She will toss a ball back and forth with us, and she knows which buttons to push to make her toys do certain things. She is learning that some toys require a bit more maneuvering than just button pushing - for example, she knows she needs to put a ball into the ball popper in order for a ball to pop out. She even has a game or two figured out on the iPhone! She is quite interested in books - she looks at them on her own, and she enjoys her nightly bedtime story. She also loves shoes and hair bows; if there's a shoe or bow in sight, she beelines right towards it. It doesn't matter whose hair the bow is in, whether her own or someone else's, she is going after it ! :P

the state of our living room when the day is done

Taylor gives us hugs, and what could be construed as wide open mouth slobbery kisses. :) Lately she has wanted to be held quite a bit, much more than usual. She'll crawl to me or Jake and pull herself up on our legs so that we'll pick her up. I love it - since she started crawling, she's usually heading off in the opposite direction as fast she can. It's nice to have her crawl towards me instead of away and actually want to be held. I have to get my cuddles in while I can! It does make it difficult to leave for work in the morning though... nothing makes me sadder than to have her crawl after me as I head for the door. I'll pick her up and give her a hug and a kiss and then hand her off to daddy - at which point she'll sometimes wail. So sad. :(

Unless she's feeling shy, T is quite the chatterbox. She also growls and, when she's being silly, she pants (it's pretty funny). She is also learning to, ahem, "assert" herself. She yells when she is frustrated, and when she's mad, she'll stiffen her body, kick her feet and scream. I think the frustration comes from being unable to express herself, so I'm working on teaching her a few signs. When she's mad, well, fortunately she's never upset for very long and she can usually be redirected fairly easily, but it's clear that she knows exactly what she wants and is determined to get it!

T rarely eats purees anymore. She might tolerate a bite or two, but really only so she can steal the spoon away to play with. She's mastered the sippy cup and I'm very tempted to start phasing out bottles (I'm SO tired of washing all of the parts).

Thankfully, no ear infections this month. Instead, our sleep was sabotaged by 2 colds, 2 blocked tubes, and a bout of thrush. Always something, I swear - and we haven't even gone through teething yet, she still has NO teeth! Anyhow, I remarked to Jake awhile back that I really think that deep down Taylor is an excellent sleeper - she just hasn't had many opportunities to prove it. Once we got through the above issues, her sleep patterns returned to normal, so we're back to the typical 1 feeding a night, usually around 2 or 3 am. A handful of nights she has slept through an entire 11 or 12 hour stretch - bliss! She normally goes to bed around 6:30 or 7 and gets up at 6:30, although we've had a few nice weekend mornings where she didn't get up until 7:30.

Life is an adventure with this little one, and she's not so little anymore. We're already starting to plan her first birthday party! Slow down, baby girl, you're growing up too fast! For now, though, happy 10 months to my sweet girl!

First day at her new school

2011-07-19T16:29:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was Taylor's first day at her new daycare. The teachers said she did great! She ate well, played hard, had just a few incidences of tears, and even took two naps (that's better than she did for us over the weekend!). I am so relieved - I was stressing out all weekend about whether or not we made the right decision. But I feel very comfortable leaving T in the hands of her new teachers, and after hearing how she did, I feel so much better. And, the center offers live streaming video online, so I was able to check in on her a few times (ok, more than a few times) - great for my peace of mind. :)

So T, what did you think? Did you have fun?

Oh, good!

A few photos from the last few days

2011-07-12T20:27:00.010-05:00

Friday: fresh food. My first order from Greenling! Now that T is mostly on table foods, I am making an effort to see that we all eat organic foods more often. I'd been hearing great things about the local CSAs, so I decided to give one a go. Now, can I figure out how to incorporate everything? We just had eggplant parmesan for dinner, and although Jake was skeptical, it was delish.

Saturday: baby gates and a brewery. We finally put up a gate the top of the stairs, since Miss T loves to crawl all around upstairs and can't resist the allure of the stairs.

In the afternoon we went to a beer tasting/brewery tour with the T family. It was HOT, but you can't beat free beer!

Sunday: birthday party and bath time. We were, oh, 90 minutes late to a birthday brunch, thanks to an ill-timed (but much needed) marathon nap.

T loves bath time! She has been going to town on anything she can chew on... we think she might actually sprout some teeth soon (but, don't quote me on that, I've been wrong many times before).

Monday: cake balls. Need I say more? L and I took a class together, which was fun and oh so yummy! Jake stayed home with a baby that refused to go to bed. Win-win for me!

Moving.

2011-07-12T07:25:00.001-05:00

Daycares, that is. We've made the decision to move T to a new daycare. We have been less than impressed with her current situation, and we've finally had enough. She'll be attending a place that came very highly recommended to me, and although it's a little less convenient and quite a bit more expensive, we feel that it is the best thing to do. Her first day will be on the 18th, and I really cannot wait for her to start. I do hate to move her away from people that she knows and likes (she'll be leaving behind her BFF, a sweet little girl that she chases around all day long), but she'll make new friends and I know that it will be a change for the best!

Does anyone love swinging...

2011-07-07T19:42:00.001-05:00

...quite as much as this girl? Nope, I don't think so!

Maryland trip recap

2011-07-06T21:31:00.006-05:00

We left for Maryland last Friday to spend a long holiday weekend with my family. I was a little worried about the flights for this trip, since T is so mobile now. We flew Southwest, and our strategy was to sit near a family with the loudest looking kids, so if T decided to throw a fit about being confined to a small space, she'd at least be in good company. We chose well - the people sitting in front of us had an 18 month old and a 3 year old, and the 18 month screamed for a full 45 minutes. Fun. T, on the other hand, traveled like a champ, and hardly even fussed. She even gave the 3 year old in front of us lots of smiles and laughs. At the end of the flight, some people sitting near us said that T won the award for best behaved baby. Color us proud! As for the return trip, well, let's just say we didn't win any awards, except maybe "most piercing scream." :|

Anyhow, we made it, and it was so good to see everyone! My mom and and both of my brothers were there, as well as much of the extended family. This was Taylor's first time meeting her Uncle Stephen and her Great-Grandparents, who I know were so excited to finally meet her! She also got to meet my aunt and uncle and cousins and her second-cousin Riley, who's about 9 months older than she is. Taylor and Riley were... umm... not exactly best of friends. :P For the most part, there was not a whole lot of interaction going on between them, except when one wanted to a toy the other was playing with. Regardless, I think they both had a lot of fun - there was a swing to swing in, a pool to splash in, and lots of toys to play with.

We had fun catching up with everyone, taking lots of pictures, eating lots of good food, and watching the kids play. We celebrated the holiday with a cookout at my aunt and uncle's, and bubbles for the baby instead of fireworks. T did great the whole trip, despite not sleeping well at night or taking regular naps, and having a bit of a cold and some, um, stomach issues. She was extremely good-natured through everything, and did so well with all of the new faces.

The weekend went very quickly, and although it's good to be home, we will miss everyone! Here are a just a few of the many pics I took:

A belated happy 4th!

2011-07-05T20:56:00.005-05:00

Have you ever seen a more patriotic baby? :) LOTS more pics from our Maryland trip to come soon... but first I need to catch up on some sleep!

A few more favorites

2011-06-30T16:15:00.000-05:00

We're off to Maryland tomorrow for the holiday weekend. Be back next week!

Pool hopping

2011-06-27T21:07:00.002-05:00

One of the few gripes I have about where we live is that there we don't have a neighborhood or community pool. When summer is as long and hot as it is here in Texas, the only way to survive being outside is to be in the water. So, we've been checking out some of the public pools that the Austin area has to offer.

On Saturday, Taylor and I met up with Gina and Hudson at the Northwest Municipal pool. There's a separate pool for the little kids, and the water was warm. Lots of shade and grassy areas to put down your towels. T had a blast. Best part is that it's not too far from home, so two big thumbs up! We'll be back soon, for sure!

On Sunday, our afternoon play date plans fell through, so we decided to go check out a different pool. This time we went to Cedar Park, to the Elizabeth Milburn pool. Nice pool, with a sloped edge so T could sit and splash around. Water was a bit chilly but not too bad. Lots of shade and lounge chairs, and not too busy. There are also slides and fountain areas which will be fun when she is older.

We also tried out a music class this weekend. T and I met up with Lauren and Ethan at Heartsong Music for a demo class. T was one of the younger kids there, and she was not sure what to think about all of these adults singing and dancing around! :P She definitely had fun crawling around and watching all of the big kids though. I think she'll enjoy this type of thing a bit more when she's a little older, so we may check back into it later on. It was a fun time regardless!

Nine months

2011-06-25T19:55:00.003-05:00

At her 9 month appointment, Taylor was 28.5" tall (83%) and 18.5 lbs (46%). Her weight was actually higher when we went in earlier this week to get a cough checked out (just over 19 lbs), but since she's been a little under the weather, she dropped a bit of weight. Anyhow, she is mostly in 12 month clothes now. Some of her 9 month things still fit, but I should probably start to pack up the rest of it.

At the beginning of this month, Taylor got moved up (promoted, as they say) to the next room at daycare. This was important for 2 reasons: 1) The new room is quieter and much less chaotic than the infant room, so she started taking 2 naps a day again (most days). Yay! This is a big deal for us, as it makes for a much better rested and happier baby in the evenings. We've been able to move bedtime back a bit and have more playtime. 2) Since she's now in a room with babies of more advanced abilities, she's had other kiddos to watch and learn from. And learn she did!

She hit two big milestones this month, pulling up and crawling, one right after the other in the first half of this month. It is amazing to me how one day she took her first tentative moves forward, and the next she was a crawling expert! It took her about a week to realize that she could go wherever she wanted, and that there is much to explore beyond her toy area. Now, she's all over the house, across rooms, down hallways, and towards the stairs - eek! We still haven't put up baby gates, but it's high time! She is thoroughly enjoying her newfound mobility and freedom. She likes to chase after the cats, who are none too pleased with this new development, and to be "chased" by us. She squeals and giggles when she really gets going!

She can easily stand on her own while holding onto toys or tables for support. She bounces all over the place, sometimes bouncing so enthusiastically she topples right over (she gets serious air in her crib). She claps and waves and plays peekaboo. She likes to toss her toys, crawl after them, pick them back up, and then toss them again (and of course, she likes to toss things for us to pick up too, ha). The other night she figured out how to bounce a ball on the floor - and this made her laugh and laugh and laugh! She makes very funny high pitched squeals when she gets really excited (usually about her stuffed animals or the cats). Since she started crawling, she has loved her FP Learning House - she can push the buttons, open and close the door, play the radio, crawl through the doorway, and play peekaboo with the door and window. I got this thing for a steal at a consignment shop and it's been worth every penny (though I have that darn counting song stuck in my head 24/7)!

T continues to do great with food. She still eats purees at most meals, but we're transitioning towards mostly table foods since she is so good at feeding herself. She can eat most anything that we have, and since she's no longer in the infant room at daycare, she has table foods there as well. She is very enthusiastic about her cheese, Cheerios, broccoli cheese bites, and chicken, but most of all, she loves her yogurt melts. Some of the new things she's tried this month that she's liked: pasta with sauce, hamburger, cheese quesadillas, tortillas with cream cheese, blueberries, watermelon (we give her a big hunk and she'll bite off pieces herself), waffles and pancakes. She is a most excellent eater!

pancakes at Kerbey Lane

T is still breastfeeding, but I did have to start supplementing with formula this month. I really struggled with this decision, but quite frankly, I wasn't making enough milk for her - she's got a big appetite! So, although I'm still nursing her and pumping every day at work, her daycare bottles usually get topped off with an ounce or two of formula (like 4-5 oz. total a day, really not much at all). I felt guilty about it at first, but to be honest, it's been nice to not have to stress out about getting out every last drop and always wondering if I'd have enough. Oddly enough, my supply increased a bit once I started supplementing, so maybe the stress was getting to me. Anyhow, my hope is that the majority of her intake will continue to be breast milk until she's old enough to have cow's milk.

Health-wise this month, we went through two colds, a stomach bug, and yes, another ear infection. What I wouldn't give for a completely healthy few weeks! Sleep-wise, we've actually been doing pretty well. T normally goes to bed at 6:30 or 7 (sometimes a little later), and sleeps until 6:30ish am. She still gets up once a night to eat, but she rarely struggles with bedtime or going back to sleep after eating. Last night, for the first time ever, she slept the entire night - 12 whole hours - and didn't stir once. Yay! Hopefully more of that to come!

Well, to wrap up, let me just say that this past month has been awesome - they've all been awesome, of course, but this past one especially so. If we could just get these ear infections done and out of our life! Anyhow, I just cannot get over how smiley and happy our sweet girl is. She is SO much fun! :)

Guess what Taylor has?

2011-06-24T16:29:00.004-05:00

If you guessed a tooth, you are... incorrect!

She has... wait for it...

ANOTHER EAR INFECTION!

Can my baby not get a break?! I feel SO awful for her. :(

The other day

2011-06-22T07:29:00.001-05:00

In Taylor's classroom at daycare, there is a little plastic tunnel thing that the babies can crawl through. It's arched a bit, though, like a bridge, so it requires a bit of climbing to get through it. The other day I went to pick T up, and she didn't see me walk in because she was busy trying to get up and through this tunnel. Her teacher told me that she had been trying all day, but hadn't quite made it. So, I got on my hands and knees on the other side of the tunnel, and when she saw me, she gave me a big smile. She hesitated a bit, but with some encouragement, she then crawled forward and made it all the way through! I picked her up when she reached me and gave her a great big hug.

I love little moments like these. I've been having a really tough time lately with being way from her so much. To be honest, it has been more difficult for me recently than when I first went back to work. I guess it's because she wasn't really doing a whole lot back then; but now, now she's crawling, exploring, playing, vocalizing, discovering, learning... I just wish I could be there for it all and I hate that I'm not. These little special moments mean a lot to me. I just love (and miss) my girl so much.

Father's Day outtake

2011-06-20T16:45:00.000-05:00

Father's Day

2011-06-19T20:37:00.004-05:00

I probably should have taken the above pics before T started crawling... it was all I could do to get her to sit still for a fraction of a second (and to not eat the letters)! :P They turned out pretty cute anyhow; I framed the photos for Jake's office. Taylor's gift to Daddy was a day of golfing.

To celebrate the day, we started with breakfast at Kerbey Lane, followed by a nice long nap for all 3 of us. Midday, we headed down to Deep Eddy for some swimming. It was nice, despite the the water being rather chilly, and not nearly as crowded as I thought it would be; we'll definitely make a return trip at some point in the future. T seemed to enjoy being in the water (the pool has a shallow wading area that is great for little kids) and playing on the blanket on the shade. After we headed home, we wrapped up the day with lots of playtime and a nice steak dinner.

Happy Father's Day, Jake! You are a wonderful father and Taylor is lucky to have you (and so am I)!

The latest videos

2011-06-18T08:55:00.002-05:00

Peekaboo with pjs, and a most enthusiastic crawler.

(Clearly, it's time for us to put up some baby gates.)

Bathing beauty

2011-06-12T20:31:00.008-05:00

Taken just after her bath. A bit out of focus and the lighting's not so great, but I still love it - the expression on her face and how she's biting on that lower lip just so. A rare still moment. :)

A bit of news

2011-06-10T16:49:00.009-05:00

Family members already know about this, but here's the formal announcement that was made today. Jake has worked very hard for this, and I am very proud of him! Congrats, honey! Oddly enough, this announcement comes almost exactly 1 year after his layoff from the startup company. All things happen for a reason!

Ready or not...

2011-06-07T19:39:00.003-05:00

Here she comes!

Over the weekend

2011-06-06T06:53:00.004-05:00

We saw some real live ducks

And some not-so-real cows

Met up with friends in New Braunfels

Decided the water was perhaps a bit too cold for tiny toes

And ended up splashing around in the backyard after a nap.

Weekends just aren't long enough...

And a few new firsts: Taylor pulled all the way up on Saturday! She also played peekaboo with her blanket on the drive to NB - it was too cute, I wish I had it on video!

A (mostly) funny video

2011-06-04T12:21:00.005-05:00

T is currently taking a rare marathon nap, so I'm using the time to finally get a few more videos uploaded. Here's one of them, from when we were in Michigan. I think it's pretty funny, minus the last 3 seconds or so, which are a little cringe-worthy (she was fine, more surprised than anything).

Cousins

2011-06-03T16:08:00.003-05:00

Here are a few photos from the studio session that Taylor and Ashley had together while we were in Michigan:

Michigan trip recap - with lots of pictures!

2011-06-02T19:31:00.002-05:00

We had a great trip to Michigan! It was so good to see everyone, and to finally meet our new niece, sweet little Ashley.

Taylor did pretty well on the flights. The only real issue was that both flights were very early, so T ended up being tired from her earlier than normal wake-ups and therefore a little fussy. She has trouble sleeping in loud/bright environments (cough*daycare*cough) so she only got in very short naps. But we had plenty of snacks and toys and even an Elmo video to keep her occupied. She got lots of compliments from the flight attendants and other passengers, even at the end of the flights, so she mustn't have been too noisy. :P

We arrived on Thursday morning and got to meet Ashley right away. My goodness, she is so adorable and sweet and cuddly! I'd forgotten how wonderful it is to hold a newborn - it's hard for me to believe these days that Taylor was ever that small. And wow, how that girl can sleep! Taylor was quite interested in her little cousin - particularly in "patting" her head and sticking her fingers in her ears. :P And she did not like it once bit when Ashley cried, haha. But she had lots of fun, playing with her grandparents, aunt and uncle, and great-grandparents, staring at the funny faces Grandpa made at her, teasing us by *almost* crawling, and jumping around in Ashley's Jumparoo.

While we were there, Grandma arranged for the girls to have a studio photo session, and I'll post those pictures soon (they are really cute). We also caught up with some of the extended family, met up with friends and met their new baby, enjoyed the nice cool weather, did a little shopping, ate lots of great food, and finished off the weekend with a tornado warning and a birthday cake (for me!). Bright and early on Monday morning, it was time to head home. All in all a great trip!

As promised, lots of pictures:

A round of applause, please

2011-05-31T20:26:00.000-05:00

Lots and lots of pictures from our Michigan trip to come, but while you wait, here's a video of Taylor clapping. She just learned how yesterday! :)

Eight months

2011-05-25T19:28:00.001-05:00

My energetic little 8-month-old! Taylor can roll all over the place, grab things and bang them together, dump out containers and throw objects. She'll stretch and wriggle to get that toy that's just out of reach. She's squirmy, doesn't sit still, tries to climb out of chairs and laps, and doesn't like to be carried facing inwards, because the view just isn't as interesting. She jumps with joy and remarkable enthusiasm. She can pull her up from a semi-sitting position and is getting steadier by the day with standing.

And the crawling - she is *this* close! The progression over the past month has been fun to watch. She started out by getting up on her hands and knees, and every once in awhile, onto her hands and toes. Soon, she began bouncing her rear up and down, and not long after that, she started to rock back and forth. The rocking back and forth is funny - she'll do it for a few minutes and then flop to the ground, as if exhausted. Learning to crawl is hard work! Right now she's working on getting those knees and arms coordinated in order to move forward. She'll sometimes get both of her knees scooting forwards at the same time, and she kind of looks like a little frog, ha! Anyhow, she does get frustrated while trying to figure it all out, but we can see a little bit of progress each and every day. Last week ago she learned out how to go from a sitting position to a crawling position; her first attempt resulted in a face plant, but she had it down the very next day (all it took was a toy basketball placed just out of her reach). A few days ago, she went from the crawling position to sitting - I think she surprised herself when she did it!

Taylor is still oh so vocal! She laughs, babbles, yells and blows raspberries, and is full of all sorts of sounds. She says "dada" and "mama" all the time. She is quite good about letting us know if she is happy or displeased about something; if she is unhappy, she is sure to tell everyone in the immediate vicinity about it, loudly! Fortunately the smiles come just as easily as the unhappy yells. :) People have asked me if she really smiles as much as it seems she does in pictures, and the answer is yes, she really does! Animal noises, funny sounds and tickles are always sure to get big gummy grins from her. She puts her arms up when she wants to be picked up, squats when she wants to sit down, and is learning how to wave. Favorite toys right now include her musical table, stacking cups (great for banging and teething), small balls that she can hold with one hand, and as always, the Jumparoo and Exersaucer. She's very interested in other kiddos, and she always has huge smiles for them!

Taylor and Isabelle, 3 days apart

Still no teeth! T has had the symptoms of teething for what seems like forever, and they've even increased this past month, but nary a tooth in sight! I'm not complaining too much though - as long as I'm breastfeeding, I'm perfectly happy to not have to deal them! Jake didn't get his first tooth until 9 months, so it still may be awhile longer before we see any.

Foodwise, this was a fun month. Since she'd done so well with puffs, I made a point to provide some type of finger food at every meal. I started out with a few different foods I thought she'd like, such as tiny pieces of toast, chicken, banana and avocado. She showed zero interest until she got her first taste of cheese. Oh my goodness, she loved the cheese (she is my daughter, after all!). And that's when she decided that finger foods are actually pretty great! She eats them at every meal now. In addition to the aforementioned foods, she's also tried little bits of pasta, smashed peas, steamed carrots, Cheerios (soaked in breast milk to make them soft - far and away her favorite finger food so far), peaches, mango, yogurt melts, scrambled egg yolk, sweet potatoes, broccoli... She'll eat just about anything we put in front of her, and she's extremely good with her pincer grasp (although, when it's something she really likes, both hands get shoved into her mouth as quickly as possible). She now holds her own bottle and sippy cup, and she just really seems to like being able to do it herself.

We started sleep training (a la Dr. Ferber) with earnest at the beginning of this month, to get down to no more than one feeding a night (over a 12-13 hour period). Taylor picked it up very quickly, and the first week went great. But it didn't last, of course, thanks to yet another double ear infection, which, as you know, led to tubes being put in soon after. I (naively) hoped that she would immediately revert back to good sleeping habits after the surgery, but such was not the case. We had one fantastic night the second night after surgery, but the rest were pretty typical (multiple wakings a night). She did come down with another cold, but I think the real problem was that she had gotten in the habit of getting extra rocking and comfort nursing sessions (which we are pretty liberal with when she is sick or in pain). Anyhow, once the cold cleared up, it was back to sleep training. After a few challenging nights, she was back to sleeping pretty well, waking up just once a night to eat! We'll probably work on phasing out that last nursing session soon (because she really doesn't eat much), but for the meantime, I'm just happy to be where we are. It's been a long journey to get to this point!

Oh, and regarding her ear tubes, we went to back to the ENT and audiologist for a followup, and they said the tubes look great and are working well. In fact, the audiologist said her hearing had improved tenfold. Wow!

Well, I think that's about it for this month. We're off to Michigan early in the morning to see the family and meet little Ashley. Be back next week!

Dinner companions

2011-05-24T06:22:00.004-05:00

Taylor has a standing dinner date with a certain black feline, who loves dinner as much as she does. Finger foods, especially, which often end up on the floor. They even have similar tastes - favorites include cheese, chicken and yogurt melts. T seems to enjoy the company.

I can see this becoming a mutually beneficial relationship in the future, when Taylor decides that she doesn't like what she's having for dinner. Toss it on the floor and Bailey will snap it up immediately, with no evidence left behind.

Taylor's first school picture

2011-05-16T20:49:00.005-05:00

Last month T's daycare had a school picture day. Yes, I am a sucker and paid for a print. It was too cute not to!

Two pics from yesterday

2011-05-15T13:40:00.003-05:00

She's up on her hands and knees, rocking back and forth!

All we're missing is the forward progress...

Also, someone now has her very own swing! Happy girl!

Cheerios

2011-05-13T16:43:00.002-05:00

Girl loves her Cheerios!

More videos up on our YouTube channel!

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T20:23:00.008-05:00

My first official Mother's Day! We kinda sorta celebrated last year, as I was about halfway through my pregnancy, but this year was the real deal. I got to sleep in late; drink mimosas while Jake and Taylor did the grocery shopping for me; take a long, leisurely shower in a completely silent house; eat a delicious brunch of stuffed french toast, fruit salad, bacon and rolls, all prepared by Jake; enjoy lots of fun playtime with my girl; and finish off the rest of the champagne (!!) while relaxing in the evening. I also received cards from Jake and Taylor, as well as beautiful tulips and a gift certificate for a massage "from" T.

All in all, a perfect and special Mother's Day! Thank you, Jake, for all of the thought you put into everything, and to Taylor, for being the most awesome baby a mother could ask for. I'm one lucky mama!

Also - Happy Mother's Day to our mothers, grandmothers, and to new mama Becky! Hope you all had a very special day!!

Tubes are in!

2011-05-05T10:10:00.007-05:00

She did great! She actually slept pretty well last night, so she didn't get up until 30 minutes before it was time to head to the surgery center. Apparently it was tube day there, haha, because there were lots of other kiddos there having the same procedure done. Since T was one of the youngest, she was one of the first to go. She did fuss just a little prior to the procedure, but mostly because she was hungry (she wasn't allowed to eat anything past 3:30am and the procedure was done around 8:30).

watching a little pre-surgery Elmo

She was away from us for about 10 minutes total; when she started to wake up, they brought us back and I was able to nurse her. She was not a happy camper, but after 30 minutes or so she seemed pretty much back to normal. She passed out hard when we got home (and is currently sleeping).

The doctor said her ears were really infected, so I'm glad we went the tube route instead of another round of antibiotics. I'm glad it's done with!

Miss Ashley Ann

2011-05-04T18:55:00.008-05:00

Welcome to the newest member of the family, Miss Ashley Ann! She arrived this morning and is as cute as can be! Becky and Matthew, we are so happy for you, and we can't wait to meet Ashley in a few weeks!!

For the record, Jake and I both had our money on "boy," but we are very excited that Taylor will have a female cousin close in age!

Ear update

2011-05-03T16:11:00.001-05:00

Taylor had a visit to the audiologist and ENT this morning, and they found that she does have some minimal hearing loss and yet another ear infection brewing. The doctor's recommendation was to have tubes put in, and to have it done soon. So, her surgery is scheduled for this Thursday. Yeah, the day after tomorrow. It'll be a quick (5 minute) and easy procedure, but oh my goodness, I hate that word "surgery." Hopefully, though, she will be much happier and healthier when all is said and done!

Shopper in training

2011-05-01T19:18:00.009-05:00

Taylor's first grocery store trip riding in the front of the cart was a success! She loved being about to look all about, and she got lots of compliments (there's just something about that blonde hair and hot pink combo, I guess!).

Spring family photos

2011-04-28T21:58:00.002-05:00

Finally, photos from our spring family photo shoot! Here's the story with this one: I was hell-bent on getting professional bluebonnet pictures for Taylor. I had hoped to get her 6 month pics and bluebonnet pics knocked out in one go, but the bluebonnet fields weren't cooperating. So I thought, no biggie, I'll just schedule a mini-bluebonnet shoot with another photographer in April. A photog I've long been a fan of was scheduling fantastically-priced mini-sessions in early April, so I booked her without a second thought. Only the bluebonnets still weren't having it, and all of the photographer's later mini-session dates didn't work with our schedule. So, we had a small spring family session. And you know what, I'm so glad we did, because look how wonderfully they turned out!! Many thanks to Libby Ann - the photos are just gorgeous!

A beach, a birthday, and a bunny

2011-04-26T19:19:00.002-05:00

We did it - our first road trip with the kiddo! Last weekend we headed to Port Aransas with a small group of friends. There were 9 of us in all (6 adults, 3 kids), and we rented a fun beach house just a few doors down from the beach. We arrived on Thursday and stayed til Sunday.

It was a fun trip - though, admittedly, exhausting. Vacationing with babies isn't exactly relaxing, and T didn't sleep well the entire time we were there, so neither did we. But, fun was had, for sure.

T got her first taste of the beach, both figuratively and literally - she liked playing in the sand but not the taste of it! We went to the beach every day, but didn't stay there too terribly long, as the water was chock-full of seaweed and it was just so darn windy.

Fortunately, there was also a neighborhood pool, and T enjoyed her first swim.

And, there were lots of big decks on the house for relaxing, adult beverages for drinking, and Easter candy for eating! T had a grand time watching the big kids.

While there, we celebrated Jake's birthday, which was on Saturday. We had homemade birthday cake and the boys enjoyed some scotch.

On Sunday before we left, the Easter bunny left T a basket of goodies. She had great fun digging through it (naturally, the grass was way more interesting than the toys and books).

T did great on the road, much better than I expected. On the way down, she only napped about a 1/2 hour, but happily played with her toys the rest of the time. That is, until we got on the ferry, when a full-blown meltdown commenced and lasted until we arrived at the house. But 20 minutes out of 4 1/2 hours sure isn't bad! On the way back she slept 3 out of the 4 hours, so we made good time!

Our next trip is in a month, when we'll be off to Michigan over Memorial Day to meet our new nephew or niece (due any day now)! Flying with an almost-mobile little one should be an adventure! :)