Monday, February 28, 2011

15 Months Old!

Wearing Auntie Kim's hat!





Having fun in the bathtub with dada!

Trying to see if her baby will fit down the hole for the plastic ball


Taylor is now 15 months old, and can be described in one word: curious! She is trying to figure out how everything works. She points to anything she sees until we tell her what it's called. She loves reading non-fiction books with a lot of photographs so that she can point to the pictures. Her favorites are "Smiles" (a book of pictures of babies smiling), "Leaves", and "Snow". We've started letting her walk alongside of us on the way home from daycare, and the half-block walk usually takes 20 minutes because she loves watching cars go by, kids playing, water draining down the sewer, and anything that might fly by us in the wind.

She has also given us a taste of what her terrible two's might be like - yes, tantrums have begun! When she doesn't get something that she wants, she will cry and give us a pouty lip. It's cute but the idea that full on tantrums are on their way is a little frightening!

Taylor also amazes us with how much she has learned. She can point to and identify her hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, hands, and feet. She can also identify and say her favorite shape, which is a star. Inconsistently, she has also pointed out the colors purple, blue, and black when we asked her to find them. She loves coloring and has figured out how to move the crayons back and forth, rather than pounding them on the paper or trying to eat them! She knows some animal sounds; when asked what an animal says, she will say that a dog says "woof", a cow says "moo", and a horse says "neigh". She has been showing some early signs of readiness for potty training, even though I'm sure it's still far from being executed. She has been waking up dry some mornings, and sometimes points to her diaper right after she goes. Let's keep our fingers crossed that she's an early potty trainer! :)

She is also becoming quite a talker, learning and repeating new words every day. Here is a list of some of her common words: hi, bye, hello, more, baby, dog, car, wow, night-night, mama, dada, bath, mouth, ear, up, no, yeah, done, go, woof, neigh, moo, woah, baba (grandpa), star, ball, water, and milk.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Caught in the Act!

Well mommy didn't think I could open doors yet, so while she was doing the dishes, I decided to let myself into the bathroom and close the door behind me. After frantically searching for me and calling my name, here is what mommy walked in to see me doing:

Needless to say, we took a bath shortly afterward!

Snowpocolypse 2011!

Well, we survived the big blizzard of 2011! What an amazing storm! We enjoyed the "thundersnow" and watching the blizzard from our back door. We also enjoyed our two snow days! Here are a few pictures:

My attempt at taking a picture of the blizzard... all I got was snow!

Our window well


Our neighborhood in a blanket of snow.

Huge snow drifts!

After Sam spent all afternoon shoveling the driveway, the plows came through and pushed it all back!


Damage to the house next door


Taylor loved watching the snow, and putting her fingers on the cold glass!

By day 2, we were a little stir-crazy, so we spent the afternoon at Jump-Up in Channahon. We had SO much fun! Taylor LOVED climbing and going down the slides - we probably went down the same slide about 30 times! She was so excited she couldn't even contain herself - she kept squealing with delight! We will definitely be back there soon!






Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Catching up...

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since my last posting. Life has been so busy, but I do apologize for not keeping up on the pictures and updates! Good thing I have these bonus snow days to catch up! :) Here we go...

To start, we had a wonderful Christmas! We spent half of Christmas Eve visiting with my side of the family, and the other half at Sam's parents' house. Then, the next day, we hosted a small Christmas gathering which included my parents, Sam's parents, and my sister Kim. Taylor LOVED opening presents, but HATED Santa! Maybe next year!




New Years Eve was very low-key. We had Kim over and our good friends Lydia and Ross and their youngest, Gavin! Taylor actually went to bed early that night. Her bedtime has been holding steady between 6:30-7:00 - anytime after that, we risk a meltdown!


We thoroughly enjoyed our winter break at home with Taylor, but it went by too darn fast! We took her out in the snow for the first time. She hated it, until we started pushing her around in the sled. Even though we went back and forth in the same spot, she could have done that for hours!



Taylor now goes to a new daycare. Our friend down the street started her own daycare, and we made the switch right after winter break. She loves it there and everything has been working out wonderfully! Whenever we pick her up, she always comes to hug us and then runs to get something to show us, specifically something that she did or learned that day! It's great to see her so happy there!



Taylor is now 14 months old. She continues to amaze us every day with the new things she is learning to do. She has a lovely little song that she made up that she sings all day long, which sounds like "abba, abba, abba, AHH!" We think it is her attempt at the ABC song, which is her favorite song. Every time it comes on, she gets a big smile and dances her "butt dance", and then says "again!" when it's over. She's got quite a personality! She is very determined and loves to figure out how things work. One hilarious thing that she does is follow Sam when he has to use the washroom, and she'll bang on the door and say "dada!" until he comes out. She is discovering all of the different things that her body can do, so we'll often see her bending over into downward dog position, trying to squeeze in between furniture (and consequently getting stuck!), or climbing on the couches or her little chair. She loves giving kisses and looking out the front and back windows and observing the world. She also loves playing with her dolls, trying on clothing, reading books (especially non-fiction), and exploring. We had our first injury too, which required a trip to the emergency room and some glue adhesive to the forehead.

Wearing Aunt Kim's hat!




Hugging her dolls.


Playing with all of her dolls.



Diva!


She can say quite a few words now: hi, bye bye, hello, no, car, mama, dada, yeah, bath, water, baby, awwww (she says this when she's giving a hug), more, night-night, and ball. She's attempted more words, but these are the ones that she says consistently. Some of her favorite foods include meatballs, bread, all fruit, peas, carrots, whole wheat pasta, cheeses, yogurt, chicken nuggets, waffles, and pancakes. She is in size 4 diapers, 18 month clothing, and size 4 shoes. She is growing up fast, and we are loving every moment with her!