Snapshots from July

I finally got these off of my camera and on to the computer! I'll upload these photos and more to a Picasa albums as well.

Taylor and Samuel in Forest Park

Running!

Mark's birthday pizza cake and pizza!

Taylor loves to see photos of herself

Playing with Daddy's shirt (looking out the sleeve)

Hugging (a new Taylor specialty)

Happy Birthday, Andrea!

Today I turn 25. One quarter of a century down, two to three more to go.

Mark took the day off of work and Nancy and Ann are in town today, so we are celebrating in style. We had a homemade waffle breakfast, went to the zoo, ate burgers at Seamus McDaniels, and have just eaten a Cookies & Creamery ice cream cake from Cold Stone - sooo good.

We arrived home to a beautiful bouquet of flowers, courtesy of Mom & Dad. Thank you and Happy 34th Anniversary to you two!

Here are other pictures from this morning:

Aunt Ann and Taylor (in her new dress and shoes)

At the zoo with Grandma

Happy 1st Birthday, Taylor!

My little groundhog (or monkey for that matter) is 1 year old today.

Mark and I were remembering how exhausted we were this day last year, holding such a tiny, brand new, little baby. Mark is thankful he is not sleeping on that awful hospital couch bed tonight, and I'm glad I haven't just given birth (hehe).

Birthday weekend

The last couple of weeks have been busy with preparations for Taylor's 1st birthday and the party that goes along with it. You might think, "Two weeks to prepare for a baby's birthday party?! That's ridiculous." Well, do it when you and the baby are sick, overcoming jetlag, still unpacking from your international vacation, and keeping up with all your regular activities.

But sadly, the number of guests has dwindled to about four - my parents and Mark's sister and her husband. Everyone else was either struck hard by the snow storm or sickness. So, I am tailoring the menu and decorations accordingly. It was going to be a fabulous monkey themed soiree, but instead it'll be a respectably modest event for a child who will in no way remember it. ::sigh::

Taylor and I are doing well on our antibiotics, feeling almost completely better. Thank God for modern medicine and His healing mercies.

In an attempt to slowly wean Taylor out of family bed mode I moved her crib into our bedroom a few days ago and converted it to a Toddler Bed, which means it looks like a day bed with little gates attached to prevent rolling off. Taylor has taken a couple of naps in it already, but unfortunately in her sleepy wakefulness she crawled right out of the opening between the gates and tumbled on the floor. She wasn't too happy. I'll have to better "roll proof" our setup.

New things Taylor has been doing:

• Crawling inside drawers
• Wrapping cords around her neck (Eeee...)
• Flipping to favorite pages in her books
• Using "food" sign regularly, and frequently!
• Eating all different kinds of meats
• Responding to lots of words/phrases (Where's Phoebe? - "Dah!", See you later! - ::waves::, I'm hungry - ::shows sign for food::)
• Mimicking sounds and words (well, her version of them) more readily
• Nursing less frequently during the day
• Falling asleep without nursing more frequently
• Hugging, kissing us or Phoebe
• Taking 2-3 steps at a time