Happy 4th Birthday, Taylor!

On November 24th, Taylor Grace turned 4 years old! She continues every day to amaze us with her determination, spunk, humor, and kindness! She has officially become a little girl, with very little remnants of her "baby" or "toddler" years left in her. She is maturing every day, and it brings a lot of mixed emotion to Sam and I. We are proud as we watch her growing into the strong-willed girl that we know will be successful and happy, but it is bittersweet knowing that we are getting closer and closer to those years that she will no longer want to cuddle with us or crawl into bed with us in the morning. We are embracing every day that we have with her and enjoying every minute of the age that she is!

Taylor is in preschool this year and loving every minute! She has been practicing writing her name with us at home, and she loves playing phonics puzzles and phonemic awareness games with us to prepare her for reading. We read every night, and she has memorized so many books! Her favorite right now is "Pinkalicious". She loves it so much that it is missing it's cover, and has a lot of Taylor's own contributions to the pictures that she has made over the years!

She is very much into all of the Disney princesses, but especially Ariel, Rapunzel, Sofia the First, and Jasmine. She loves coloring, building with Legos, reading books, painting, taking a bath (and pretending she is Ariel), and playing dress-up. She loves pretending to be a princess and getting everyone in the family involved. From the moment she wakes up, she puts on a princess dress and her imagination begins! She also loves listening to the Disney radio station on Pandora and dancing with mommy and Maddy!

She is a very picky eater, especially at dinner time. Her favorite foods are pancakes, oatmeal, grilled cheese, pizza, and any fruit or vegetable (one thing that I did right!). Her tantrums are becoming few and far between (thank God!) but we are starting to get some of the "mommy, you're mean!" or "that's not nice, daddy!" comments. On to the next chapter of parenting!

Taylor's stats:
Height: 40.5 inches
Weight: 40 lbs
Clothing size: anywhere from 4-6, depending on the brand
Shoe size: 9

We celebrated Taylor's birthday with the Pavelkas at her cousin Haley's birthday party, which was a blast because it was princess-themed and right up her alley! On her actual birthday, both sets of grandparents, Great-Grandma, and Aunt Mimi were over to celebrate. She came down with croup on the day of her birthday, too, and has been having a rough time fighting it all week! Hopefully it will clear up before her "friend" party on Saturday!

Princess Haley and Princess Taylor!

Pinata time!

The morning of her 4th birthday! You can see in her eyes that she isn't feeling well, poor thing!

Sofia the First birthday cake! "I want to eat her face and a flower, mom!"

Great Grandma, Mar, Mommy, and Princess Taylor

Fall Fun!

Despite this fall being chaotic with Sam's surgery, we still managed to have some fun with the girls! Here are a few favorite pictures from some fun fall events.

Taylor's Preschool Field Trip:
I was able to go with Taylor to her first field trip to Dollinger Farms, where she learned about farm animals, went on a hayride, picked out a pumpkin, and played with her classmates!

Picking out the perfect pumpkin

Channahon Bonfire and Hayride: 
Sam and I were able to go out with Taylor to the Bonfire and Hayride in Channahon. It was a little chilly, but we loved every minute of it! Taylor loved the hayride even more than last year. We only went on it twice this year, because it was a lot more crowded. Sam was so happy to be able to make it out so shortly after being home from his surgery.

Enjoying some s'mores with daddy

Having fun on the hayride

Preschool Halloween Party:
One of the benefits for Sam of being home on medical leave was being able to attend Taylor's preschool Halloween party! She wanted to be a witch this year. Mommy was really proud of finding this adorable witch costume on amazon.com for $8. Sam loved watching the kids parade around in their costumes, but his favorite part was Taylor screaming "Hi daddy!!" throughout the parade!

Trick or Treat!
It was a rainy Halloween, but we still managed to make it out for trick-or-treating this year! Madelyn and Sam didn't join us, but we still dressed her up in her costume to snap a couple of pictures! 

Trick or Treating with Gianna!

Sisters

Outside Fun!
Here are a few random pics!

Pushing Maddy on her new swing!

Hanging out!

Not sure how I feel about crawling on grass, mommy!

We can always count on impromptu playdates in our neighborhood!

Happy (Belated) First Birthday, Madelyn!!

Madelyn turned 1 on September 23rd. She continues to be the happiest baby ever! Even her fussy moments are "Maddy Fussy",  meaning that they are so much less than most babies!
She is crawling everywhere now, and pulls herself up on any piece of furniture, wall, or person that she can find! We think she will be taking her first steps in no time.
She eats all solid foods, and has been on whole milk for a little while now. Her favorite foods include: yogurt, Cheerios, cheese, most fruits and vegetables, pasta, tomatoes, eggs, waffles, turkey, chicken nuggets, and potatoes. She sleeps great, usually 6:30pm-5:30am. She is an early riser, but at least she sleeps through the night.
She is starting to use her voice quite a bit. She babbles often, and has said a few words: uh-oh, mama, dada, Tay-Tay, and baby. 

Here are a few recent stats:
Height: 30 inches (66%)
Weight: 20 lbs 14 oz (52%)
Shoe Size: 3
Diaper Size: finishing up 3's and about to move to 4's
Clothing Size: 12 months
Teeth Count: 2 1/2 (and 5 more trying to come through - teething has been very painful for her!)

Maddy likes...
Crawling, standing, walking holding someone's fingers, swinging on the swings, playing peek-a-boo, watching her big sister do just about anything, exploring, her red sock monkey, her baby doll (she likes to hug the both!), eating, playing with anyone, smiling, mommy's phone, being held, being rocked, music, listening to people sing, dropping things from her highchair, looking at pictures of her family.

Maddy dislikes...
Teething, getting her nails clipped, staying in one spot, loud sudden noises, being told "no" (she has the saddest pouty face!), when mommy tries to wipe her nose, when mommy leaves the room.

From our photo shoot!

Enjoying her cake! We love this face!

Smash cake!

Maddy with Mommy, Mar, and Great-Grandma

Some more photo shoot pics (Taylor's 4 year pics):

Taylor's First Day of Preschool & Maddy is 11 Months!

Taylor's First Day of Preschool! 
Well, it happened - today, my little girl began what will be the beginning of a long educational journey. Sam and I took the day off today to take her to her first day of preschool at the Minooka United Methodist Church. She was slightly nervous (as was I), but she did great! She loved her teacher, Mrs. Davis, and really enjoyed having her buddy Evelyn in class. There were no tears, both from Taylor or myself!
We picked her up and went to brunch with Evelyn and her mom, and then spent the day playing outside together. Overall, it was a very memorable day! We can't wait to see how the rest of the school year goes!

Our big girl, ready to go!

Waiting with her friend Evelyn!

Taylor with her teacher, Mrs. Davis

Getting annoyed with mommy taking pictures!

Being silly!

Maddy is 11 Months Old! 
Our little munchkin is 11 months old! Let the countdown begin to her first birthday!
She is officially on all whole milk and eating table food. She loves everything she tries, but especially fruit, avocado, chicken nuggets, and yogurt.
She has turned a corner with her gross motor skills, and within 2 weeks went from sitting up, to army-crawling, to pulling herself up in her crib! She is trying so hard to pull herself up on furniture, so I'm sure she'll be doing it in a couple of days! She really is all over the place. We will place her down in the family room and 2 minutes later she's across the room in the kitchen.
She loves babbling and has said "mama", "dada", "night-night", "hi", and we think she might be trying to say "no" but it sounds more like "nah".
She is becoming quite the toddler. She gets very upset and cries whenever she is told "no" or something is taken away from her. She loves exploring and getting into everything, so this happens often throughout the day!
She had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago with Dr. Smith, and her kidney is slowly shrinking back to it's normal size after her surgery. Dr. Smith said that it may never be a "normal" size, but that it is still fully functional, and actually looks like it is healing better than he thought it would! We were very happy about that news!

So big!

She loves her food!

Look what I can do!

And Finally, Our Quirky Little Girl...
Taylor was in time-out last Friday quite a bit. While she was in there, she apparently thought it was ok to spit all over the floor. That was the last straw, so I carried her up to her room and told her she needs to go to bed. I went up to check on her about a half hour later (after not hearing any noise - very unusual for her!) and panicked when I didn't see her anywhere! I looked all around, and then finally opened her closet door. This is what I found...

I thought it was especially hilarious that she was still in her "bride dress". Picking her up out of here and putting her to bed was a chore, but she clearly needed some sleep!