18/19 months

Clearly I am behind on the blog since last time I wrote we were wearing shorts and bathing suits and now we are wearing sweatshirts and jackets... time to catch up. Our lives are moving so fast right now but I don't want to forget any of the little things that amaze us about Taylor everyday!

Taylor's vocabulary is growing everyday. Her words are not always discernable to other people but generally Mike and I know what she is saying! The two cutest words she says are, "trash truck" and "Hi-Five" (the show). We have no idea why she started to say trash truck but when she hears it outside she "talks" about it. As awesome as it is to see her really start to talk, it is almost cuter when she is saying some thing that we don't understand. There is just something about her little face and expression when she is trying to tell us some thing and we just don't get it. Sometimes she goes in to rants, yelling at Emma or her cousins. She knows what they are and are not allowed to do and if they break the rules she tells them about it! It is awesome to know that before too long we will be having full on coversations.

Taylor is in LOVE with her cousin Nolan... and I think the feeling is mutual. Whenever they see each other they are ready for a full on embrace which usually leads to them falling to the floor. On Mondays and Tuesdays when I take Taylor to Grammy's as soon as we pull down her street she claps her hands and starts saying, "Nol Nol." It is so cute to see how excited she becomes just at the mention of his name and even more so when she sees his picture. Awww... too bad they are cousins!

Taylor loves her routines. Every morning she wakes up (earlier then we would like) and lays in bed and watches Sesame Street. After a few minutes she gets up and "helps" Mike get ready for work. She always brings him socks and shoes to put on... sometimes they match, sometimes they don't! Then they go downstairs, take Emma out, Taylor hands Mike his bag, says "bye bye," and shuts the door. It is not suprising that she knows this routine and does the same thing every morning, but what gets us is the little things that she picks up. For instance, this morning Mike started walking downstairs without his glass of water from the night before. Taylor started pointing to it and getting upset when she thought he wasn't going to bring it downstairs because she knows he usually does.

I know I should be encouraging her independance but it has been a tough road! Things that previously took us 1 minute could take us 10. Taylor has to put her own pants back on after the diaper change, she has to (try to) put her own shoes on, climb in to her highchair, put on her bib, feed herself, brush her teeth, and on and on. It seems like overnight she has decided that she just doesn't need us so much anymore. Sad.

Lake Wallenpaupack - Part 1

We just returned from a vacation with Mike's family to Lake Wallenpaupack. This is quite a tradition for Mike's family. He has been going every year since he was 12 and I joined in on the fun about 9 years ago. We weren't able to go last year because Taylor was just three months old and I was too much of a worry wort to venture that far. Anyway, at one point while we were riding on the boat I started to realize that this could be the start of a tradition for our little monkey as well and it was nice, happy thought.

Taylor loved the boat, loved the beach, and loved spending time with her cousins. I learned a few things from the experience of spending a week with three kids under the age of four.

1) the concept of "sharing" is taught/forced about 10 times per minute

2) getting three kids to go to sleep at the same time and sleep past 5am is a challenge worth drinking too once accomplished

3) the combination of rocks and water will keep kids happy for hours

4) Whatever one does... they all have to do!

5) Grammy is wonderwoman, as it usually took three adults to watch the kids at any given time, and she does it twice a week, alone.

It really was so nice to see the kids experience new things, play together, laugh, run, and annoy eachother (only occassionally!) and know that they are memories formed and traditions beginning.

Sesame Place

We took our first of what I am guessing to be many trips to Sesame Place this past week. Ashlynne has season passes and was able to bring a guests so we checked it out and we had a blast. Taylor loved the pools, all of which were only a few inches deep so she could run around and play. She even loved "Counts Castle" which was basically like having a hose sprayed in your face the whole time! Although she was very happy to watch the parade she made it quite clear that she did not want Big Bird, Elmo, or any other happy character touching her. It was a great time and Taylor was zonked! We can't wait to go back.

Taking a break from swimming to have a delicious cupcake.

Waiting in line for the hot air balloon ride. When Nolan found out that Taylor was coming to Sesame with him he told Ashlynne that he wanted to take Taylor on the Balloons. What a cute date!

Eating dinner and waiting for the parade

16 Months

I can't help but think in two more months (always thinking ahead I guess) Taylor is going to be a year and a half. That seems old- really old. I have had lots of friends having babies lately and not only does it make me want one but it makes me realize how big Taylor is. I still look at her cute little feet and think how small and adorable they are and then I see a newborn's foot and I realize that Taylor has "big people" feet. Everything about her is becoming more and more "big people" everyday. All traces of baby Taylor are slipping away. Boo Hoo.

That being said she is turning in to a fun and wonderful big person. She is so full of life and and super energetic. She could play at a park for hours going down slides and climbing around... no swings though, way too much sitting involved in that! We go for a walk with Emma most nights and now she prefers to walk/run instead of sit in her stroller. It makes the walk a little slower and a little tougher but seeing her running up the side walk chasing after Emma is awesome. She is a tough cookie too. All the running comes with a few face plants here and there and she gets up, wipes herself off, and keeps trucking.

Taylor is continuing to express her independence and her opinions(is that a nice way of saying it?). She doesn't want to hold hands in the parking lot or up the steps at the play ground, she doesn't want you to feed her the yogurt, and forget trying to brush her teeth for her. We went to Target the other day and she kept wanting Mike and I to switch who pushed the cart. Here we were, two grown adults switching pushing the cart every 30 seconds all for the sake of preventing a screaming child. I have a feeling this is just the beginning of the challenges in this department but she has given Mike and I lots to think about when it comes to how we deal with these little tantrums!

Taylor is starting to talk more and more. She has mastered quite a few animal sounds and is now saying new words all the time. I have started telling her to say things "with her mouth" and this has seemed to help. When she was a baby we would, say "say bye-bye" and she would wave so I think she might have been confused but once I said, "say ... with your mouth" she seemed to get the hang of it. Still, my favorite are the conversations that she has that sound like nothing but that mean so much to her I am sure. When we tell Emma to do something Taylor follows up with a long rant at Emma which contains no words but lots of inflections and expression. So cute!

Just for the record, we still can not believe that we are lucky enough to have her, we still miss her when she goes to sleep, and we are still in awe of her everyday!

Daddy's 30!

Mike turned 30 back in July... I am really getting behind on my blogging. Busy Busy I guess. We had a nice dinner and cake at home on his actually day and then the following weekend we had our family and a few friends over for a BBQ. It was a beautiful day and a nice celebration.

One for me... and one for you

A perfect day

So as previously mentioned Taylor's sleep schedule is being revamped and part of the revamping is her new love of napping in our bed. This is great because it leads to a 2 + hour nap but it means I am confined to the bedroom because I am afraid of her falling off the bed. In order to pass the time I usually fold the laundry, clean the bathroom, or nap myself... today I am updating the blog, bedside!

We bought a blow up pool for Taylor that she tried out for the first time today. It was a huge hit. The water was a little cold so it took some getting used to but once she splashed herself from the outside to the point where she was soaked she got it. She was a nut in there but she had a ball.

P.S. We are now working on a 2 hr and 45 min nap... so far!

Fourth of July weekend

What a beautiful weekend we had! Mike had off on Friday so we started off with a little Giggleberry Fair in Peddlers Village. Mike and Taylor dominated Giggleberry Mountain, a four story jungle gym of cargo nets, suspension bridges, and very small holes for Mike to climb through! No time for Pictures... come on dad!

We spent Saturday with Mike's family prior to going to the Phillies game. Taylor was all dressed up in her stars and stripes thanks to an adorable outfit from Aunt Susan.

Sunday we went to Kids Castle with Maddie, PopPop, and Great Grandmom. It was our first time there and I am sure we will be back. It is so nice and Taylor loved it.

15 Months

Just like each month prior, this has been my favorite month. Well, mostly, except for the sleeping aspect... but the good far outweighs the bad. I will start with the sleep just to get that out of the way and then move on to happier moments! Taylor has been transitioning from two naps to one. This is not an easy task. She was in such a great routine and one day, like the snap of our fingers, this all went out the window. She refused to sleep in her crib, the nap and bedtime routine took at least 45 minutes and many times ended with a car ride to force the sleep, and she was waking up at 4:30 AM! Ahh, a rough couple of weeks. I think the hardest part of all of this is just not knowing what to do but I think the only answer is just riding out the storm! Things have gotten much better over the last several days. We still have the early mornings but she has been getting in bed with us and sleeping for another few hours. She never really did this before so I have to say, for now, I kind of like it!

Taylor has become quite the little helper. She wants to wipe our noses for us, hold the phone to our ears, sweep the floor, clean the table, pick tiny specks of dirt off the floor and hand them to us, and she loves to feed us her food. Her poor cousin Nolan really sees the brunt of this as she forces cheerios or apple juice in to his mouth whenever they are together. She has also started being able to communicate her wants and needs in way other then grunting or whining - although she still does this too. She grabs our hands to drag us around the house pointing to what she wants. She has also started grabbing our feet and trying to put shoes on them when she wants to go outside.

On to the pacifier war... She still uses it and still LOVES it. We never gave it to her outside the house, other then in the car, but now we are trying to limit it to bed and nap times only. We have started telling her to leave it in her crib before she goes downstairs in the morning and after naps. She has really started to understand this and will walk in to her room and put it in her crib on her own. Every once in awhile during the day she she will sneak in to her room and grab it and suck away at it. It is like a little treat and when she comes running to me with it in her mouth she laughs because she knows she is not supposed to be doing it. It makes me giggle every time. During the course of our sleep struggles I would tell her that if she didn't want to take a nap she couldn't have her pacifier and most times she immediately took it from her mouth and chucked it across the room... such a smarty pants.

Taylor melts our hearts everyday. Whether she is giving us kisses or giving us hugs she is a real love bug. My new favorite thing is when I am rocking her to sleep and she reaches up, takes the pacifier out of her mouth, looks at me and says, "ma ma". Taylor says Ma Ma about a thousand times a day now, but it is something about they way she says it as she is falling asleep that is just so sweet. It is almost like what she really is saying is "goodnight mama, I love you."

We have been keeping ourselves very busy these last few weeks. I have loved having the extra two days off this summer to spend with Taylor. I joined a Mommies Group which has been a fun experience. Taylor has made some new buddies and I have gotten to meet some other Moms. It has been nice going on walks and trying out new kid friendly things to do in the area.

I can't believe how fast this whole experience is going. We are still amazed by her all the time. We sneak in to her room every night to watch her sleep and on a daily basis we talk about just how lucky we are to have her in our lives.

Rides, Music, and Junk Food

We took Taylor to her first Carnival this weekend... in between rain storms. We immediately walked to the ferris wheel, excited to take our baby on a ride. As we walked towards it and watched it, we both started to feel really nervous about it. A ferris wheel, the most boring ride out there suddenly became too fast and too high. Ahh, I guess that is what becoming parents will do for you. We settled for a train ride and the giant slide, although Taylor was most impressed by the duck game.

After we rode some rides and watched the other kids we decided to eat dinner- Chicken fingers, french fries, and funnel cake! As we were eating a band started playing. Taylor LOVED it. She immediately started dancing and running towards the stage. Mike and I had to eat in shifts because she refused to be anywhere but directly in front of the stage, dancing her little heart out.