Happy Easter!!

Taylor turned 17 months on Easter Sunday. We had a wonderful holiday weekend - we did some landscaping on Earth Day (still in progress...) spend Holy Saturday with the Forst side of the family and Easter Sunday with Sam's parents. We had gotten together with the whole Pavelka clan two weeks ago to do an egg hunt and some games. Taylor has been loving seeing her grandparents and extended family lately! It is so great to see her becoming more and more comfortable with her loving family members!

Taylor colored eggs at daycare, and did some Easter-related crafts. The Easter Bunny visited overnight and brought her two small dolls and a bunny book! We had our Easter egg hunt at the Pavelka's, and she was able to find some Easter eggs full of cereal and cookies and Grandma and Grandpa Forst's house too! What fun!

No, we did not get to visit the Easter Bunny for pictures this year... Taylor is not very comfortable around strangers at this point and we probably would have had a terrified child on our hands if we attempted to put her in the arms of a furry, plush, giant walking rabbit. Maybe next year! :)

Potty Training 101

Lately, Taylor has been showing early signs of readiness for potty training: she knows when she is going to the bathroom, and will say "pee-pee" or "poo-poo" and point, she follows us into the bathroom and seems to anticipate each step of the bathroom process (toilet paper, flush, hand washing), and she is becoming increasingly uncomfortable in a wet or soiled diaper.

We introduced her to the potty this weekend. We figured we would show it to her and let her play with it for a few days, and then move it into the bathroom and slowly begin the potty training process once she is comfortable. She was SO excited, and played with it for about an hour! It was adorable! What can you do with a potty for a whole hour, you ask? Well, here are some pictures!

I'm so tall standing on the potty!

Hmm, I wonder if anything is in there?

She loves her potty so much, she gave it a kiss!

I wonder if my baby can fit in here......

Or if I can fit in here?!

Where did she learn this from?!? I swear, we did not set this up! She got a book, sat, and read comfortably! :)

So proud!!

Our Little Chatterbox!

I love talking on mommy's phone... even if there's no one there! I will have conversations with myself, mumbling and talking to no one. I've become very imaginative!

I'm also good at multitasking while chatting.

"Shhhh... mom, I'm on the phone!!"

"I'd like to speak to the manager, please!"

"Mom, can't you see I'm having an important conversation?"

Here is an updated list of some of the words she can say now: hi, bye, hello, go (as in 'where did it go?'), please, more, baby, dog, car, wow, me, my, night-night, mama, dada, uh-oh, eat, bath, mouth, pee-pee, poo-poo, ear, up, no, yeah, done, go, woof, neigh, moo, woah, baba (grandpa), Mimi (Aunt Kim), Polly, color, purple, blue, girl, star, ball, water, boom-boom (her favorite book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom), and milk.

Just doing some light reading...

Taylor spend much of her evening Friday night sitting on our recliner, pretending to read "The Joy Luck Club"! She was very comfy and content! Maybe she is gifted! :) Haha!

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.

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!