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.

Taylor's Baby Dolls

Taylor LOVES dolls. I don't know where she got this from because I don't think I ever owned a doll, and if I did own one, I certainly didn't played with it! Not my daughter. Taylor carries them around during the day, pretends to change their diaper, wipes their nose (she has had a lot of this done to her lately), feeds them her food, and puts them in and out of her booster seat. She has also started kissing them which is the cutest thing ever!

Today Taylor hit the lottery when Maddie bought her a coach for her dolls. It was nap time when I opened it. Mistake number 1. Trying to get her away from it was tough. Trying to get her to go to sleep was tougher. Keeping her asleep was impossible. I really think that she couldn't wait to get back up and play with her coach. She played with this thing ALL afternoon. It was adorable. Dolly went for rides all over the house, had lots of kisses, and even had some strawberries in her new ride.

P.S. Don't worry Krepps Family- she also LOVES soccer balls.

Please Touch Museum

My mom and I took Taylor to the Please Touch Museum last week. I wasn't sure what to expect but I did hear great things about it. We were impressed. Taylor had a ball. I couldn't really even get any good pictures because she was moving from one thing to the next so quickly. It was great to see her exploring, learning, and mimicking and interacting with the other children! We ended up getting a membership so we know we will be back!

Our first (over) night out!!

Well we did it... we stayed out of the house and away from Taylor for the first time. Our friends Erin and Rob got married on Friday night and we stayed overnight at the reception site. It was actually quite a week for use because Wednesday we went to the rehearsal dinner and Pop Pop and Great Grandmom babysat Taylor (put her to bed and everything!) Friday night we left Taylor in the trusted hands of Uncle Dave and Aunt Jen. Mike and I had a great time... it was a beautiful wedding and fun way to celebrate our 5th anniversary!

The bride, her husband, and her adorable baby!

Here we are... 1am... and instead of a baby in our arms we have a beers in our hands.

So as we were wrapping up the night I started to really miss Taylor and despite feeling pretty crappy in the morning we were up and ready to get home to our baby. After she refused to nap due to being way to exciting to see us we headed right for the park.

And if this face couldn't cure a little headache...

Catching Up

Here are some pictures to show what has been going on lately... To start, last week Taylor got her first boo-boo. She took it like a champ and barely even cried. I am getting better at the "gasp" when she falls but this was a real doosy- she whacked her face right on the edge of a closet door. I think if it weren't for my gasp there wouldn't have even been a tear...

Taylor's friend Nolan was nice enough to give her a Spaceship that he didn't want anymore. She was very happy to find this under our deck the other day and has had a blast (off-ha ha!) playing with it! We also put a swing up under the deck which we thought she would love... and she does, in about three second increments!