Homey Holidays in Evansville

We're in Evansville now, spending lots of good quality time with Mark's family. Christmas was fun. We've been eating tons of food, playing Boom Blox on Wii nearly non-stop (sore arms!), and chasing Taylor around the house.

We forgot the memory card for our digital camera, so we are just taking videos and snapshots with the camcorder. I haven't figured out how to get any of the videos online yet...I have to change the format and such. I'll try to post pictures soon.

Tonight is Jon's birthday party at Ann and Jon's house. Jon will be 26 tomorrow. Mark was commissioned to make deep dish and regular pizzas, so he's been busy all day prepping the dough and sauce. Luckily, his mom has three ovens at her house, so cooking will go quickly!

I haven't written much about the little things going on, like Taylor's new words and phrases, so here a quick rundown:
DA-da = Taylor
MAM-uel = Samuel
MA-ma = Grandma
Lola = Lola & Lolo
Mawk = Milk
Cool dude (with thumbs up!)
Oh no! (for really bad situations)
Ummmm... (when trying to remember something)
UP-in = Open
I want that.

I was also told that when Mark's mom and his brother, Chris, asked Taylor where her fingers were she said, "Phalanges." Ah, a baby with a very good scientific understanding of her body parts. I didn't teach her this.

Taylor is much more communicative about her needs now, letting us know exactly what she needs to do in the bathroom and showing us when she has extracted a booger from her nose.

Speaking of that, I just looked on the baby monitor and saw her taking a break from her nap to pick her nose and, er, improperly dispose of her find. This is sadly reminiscent of the home video of my 2nd birthday party. One of those embarrassing moments when you shake your head and realize, "Like mother, like daughter."

On that note, I think I will go help Mark with the pizzas. Hope you all are having a great break! The new year is only a few days away!

The Magic House

Today Taylor and I went to the Magic House with Sarah and Samuel. They had a great time running around and playing with all of the exhibits. One of their favorites was a wall of pins that you push in to make impressions. It was cute to see all the little 3D hand impressions pop in and out of the wall.

They sat in on story time there, which was a tale about a resident mouse of the Magic House that cleaned up the museum as a Christmas present to all the workers. I don't think they heard much of the story, as Samuel was running around the back of the room the whole time and Taylor was entertaining another little baby in a stroller next to us...and stealing things from the his diaper bag.

Santa appeared at the end of story time, which was the first time either of the kids had seen him. As to be expected, they kept their distance and looked at us like we were crazy for suggesting they sit on the strange man's lap. But after it was all over, they did let us take a picture of them in front of the Christmas tree.

All photos were taken with our new Canon camcorder. They aren't as good as a regular digital camera, but not bad. I definitely like having the option available so I don't have to lug around multiple electronic devices during outings.

Pin wall

Taylor walked right by Santa, unaware of her close proximity.
It was long enough to get a photo! When she turned around and saw him she ran.

Samuel was a bit distraught by the scary bearded man.

Babies' 2nd Christmas - the craziest stripey photo you'll ever see.

Jetted Tub

It works!

Still no shower walls yet - or floors or a complete toilet - but this is progress. Mark put up the green board (waterproof drywall stuff) last night in preparation for the shower walls, but before we moved the large back wall piece of the shower in the bathroom we noticed some damage on it. We're trying to figure out what we can do, whether the damage is repairable or not. Depending on that, this may be weekend #4 with guests and only one bathroom.

Ah, the pains of progress.

Busy Household

Here's a glimpse of our living room this holiday season. Festive, fun, and filled with things to trip over.

With all the family in town and continued home renovations the last couple weeks, it's been hard to find time and creative energy to write. But here's a short rundown of our latest events:

• We had a successful Thanksgiving with smoked turkey ala Mark, lots of pumpkin pie, and a new fangled cranberry sauce recipe (mmm, port). It was such a treat to have my parents and Chris & Carol in town to celebrate.
  
• We decided to exchange some Christmas gifts a bit early, so now we have a beautiful new mini-camcorder to play with (Thanks Mom & Dad Neely, Mom Synowiec, and Cathe & Adel!). We've taken lots of video already and Taylor loves to watch playback of "the baby" (a.k.a. herself). I'll see if I can post some clips soon.
  
• The bathroom went one step forward and two steps back - the tub is installed and the jets work great, but more walls were torn out and the toilet is only partially functional. Plenty of work left to do before we're out of town for Christmas...
• Taylor and I stumbled across a FREE children's craft event at Lowe's on Sat morning. They gave us a kit for making a little gingerbread house with a roof that opens, and candy-themed stickers to decorate. I built the house and Taylor added the stickers. She even got a free Lowe's apron with a gingerbread man patch (you get a patch every time you participate in their craft events - offered every other Sat). I think we'll try to go back next, next Sat to see what the new activity is.
  

I had a really hard time getting Taylor to sleep tonight. We've been staying up so late this weekend that her schedule is off by a few hours. She finally fell asleep on the couch a couple of hours ago and I found myself compelled to do some online shopping - partly for books about getting children to sleep and how to wean from nighttime feedings. We must work on sticking to routines as well; they make parenting much much easier.

I suppose I'll attempt getting us both back into bed now. It'll be much more comfortable than me trying to squeeze onto the couch with her for the rest of the night!