Playing with Daddy's shirt (looking out the sleeve)
Hugging (a new Taylor specialty)
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
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.
Playing with Daddy's shirt (looking out the sleeve)
Hugging (a new Taylor specialty)
Playing with Daddy's shirt (looking out the sleeve)
Hugging (a new Taylor specialty)
Friday, July 31, 2009
Friday, friday, friday!
Taylor slept really well in her toddler bed last night. She only fussed a couple of times, so I think the transition out of our bed is going well. When she is consistently sleeping the entire night without waking, we'll probably move her down the hall to the Nursery.
The sad part of the story is that I didn't sleep well. All this sweet baby-free, fuss-free time and I couldn't doze off. But at least I got some reading and brainstorming done. It's a habit in our family to come up with all sorts of business ideas - and I have a few new good ones, though I'm not sure how feasible they are yet. I'll have to do more research to see whether they might be worth the effort.
Last night we discovered traces of more mice in the basement (ewww!). It/they have been snacking on cereal bars on our food storage shelves. Mark set up several traps on the shelf and I think he may have caught one, but I'm too squeamish to look closer. Needless to say, once that mousey is disposed of I have a lot of cleaning up to do on the shelf. Soo not looking forward to that.
Week three of our new routine is going well, though Mark has kind of given up on exercising in the morning. I think if we tighten up our evening routine we could get to bed early enough to make morning workouts possible. We've been good about cooking at home every night, even if it's a quick-and-easy Trader Joe's option. I'm in need of a good slow cooker meal for Sat night after church. We usually eat out then, but I think it's more of a hassle than anything because of long wait times and the challenge of finding something Taylor will eat. I'll scour some cookbooks and recipe sites today.
We have 67 NCIS episodes recorded on our DVR. Anyone want to come to our place for an NCIS marathon? We'll provide the popcorn.
The sad part of the story is that I didn't sleep well. All this sweet baby-free, fuss-free time and I couldn't doze off. But at least I got some reading and brainstorming done. It's a habit in our family to come up with all sorts of business ideas - and I have a few new good ones, though I'm not sure how feasible they are yet. I'll have to do more research to see whether they might be worth the effort.
Last night we discovered traces of more mice in the basement (ewww!). It/they have been snacking on cereal bars on our food storage shelves. Mark set up several traps on the shelf and I think he may have caught one, but I'm too squeamish to look closer. Needless to say, once that mousey is disposed of I have a lot of cleaning up to do on the shelf. Soo not looking forward to that.
Week three of our new routine is going well, though Mark has kind of given up on exercising in the morning. I think if we tighten up our evening routine we could get to bed early enough to make morning workouts possible. We've been good about cooking at home every night, even if it's a quick-and-easy Trader Joe's option. I'm in need of a good slow cooker meal for Sat night after church. We usually eat out then, but I think it's more of a hassle than anything because of long wait times and the challenge of finding something Taylor will eat. I'll scour some cookbooks and recipe sites today.
We have 67 NCIS episodes recorded on our DVR. Anyone want to come to our place for an NCIS marathon? We'll provide the popcorn.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Week Two
The second week of our new routine has been rockier than the first, but still a success. Mark wakes up early to exercise for 30min, then wakes me up and I toast bagels and get his lunch ready while he showers, then we sit down to Bible study with a nice warm cup of coffee. I've kept up with planning meals this week, except I bailed on our salmon fillet plans for last night because I wasn't in the mood. Taylor's bed time has been all over the place, but we're continuing to work on that. She's getting more used to the toddler bed...but sadly so am I.
Taylor hasn't been as good about telling me before she pees like that one day, but I'm still pleased with her progress. Upon her insistence, we've been taking walks around the neighborhood everyday. She's getting really good at walking long distances (down our street, over a block, and back home). Phoebe gets a bit annoyed at the slow pace and constant stops, but relishes the chance to be outdoors nonetheless.
Playing "Up/Dup" is one of Taylor's new games. She'll stand up straight, even up to her toes for Up, then squat down for Dup, saying the words as she goes. She especially likes playing the game while she's sitting on the toilet. Since "Up/Dup" also means Open/Close to her, the game is good with objects with caps and trash cans with lids as well.
We're packing up for Evansville today. Mark flexed his time around for a long weekend, since his birthday is tomorrow. He is very excited about reading through his first present, The 75th Anniversary Edition of Joy of Cooking, while we're there (Thanks Chris and Carol!!).
Taylor hasn't been as good about telling me before she pees like that one day, but I'm still pleased with her progress. Upon her insistence, we've been taking walks around the neighborhood everyday. She's getting really good at walking long distances (down our street, over a block, and back home). Phoebe gets a bit annoyed at the slow pace and constant stops, but relishes the chance to be outdoors nonetheless.
Playing "Up/Dup" is one of Taylor's new games. She'll stand up straight, even up to her toes for Up, then squat down for Dup, saying the words as she goes. She especially likes playing the game while she's sitting on the toilet. Since "Up/Dup" also means Open/Close to her, the game is good with objects with caps and trash cans with lids as well.
We're packing up for Evansville today. Mark flexed his time around for a long weekend, since his birthday is tomorrow. He is very excited about reading through his first present, The 75th Anniversary Edition of Joy of Cooking, while we're there (Thanks Chris and Carol!!).
Friday, July 17, 2009
Fantastic pottying day!
Today, almost as if out of nowhere, Taylor let me know EVERY time she needed to go potty (in her usual squeaky fashion). And she used the proper facilities every time, save one when we were out on a long walk in the neighborhood. That means she stayed dry and nearly diaper free from 6am to 8pm. She's now happily sleeping away in her toddler bed (which is super awesome as well!).
What a fabulous day. I hope we continue in this fashion, though I don't want to set my hopes too high. We've started a new family routine (new waking time, planned meals, putting Taylor down early, etc) and it seems to be working out really well. One week down!
What a fabulous day. I hope we continue in this fashion, though I don't want to set my hopes too high. We've started a new family routine (new waking time, planned meals, putting Taylor down early, etc) and it seems to be working out really well. One week down!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Language development
Taylor's vocab (both verbal and signed) is beginning to expand and become more consistent. She now says, muhMAH for mama, Dada for daddy, Peebee or Beebee for Phoebe, up for either up or down or open, dup for down, bup for poop. She pretends to snore by saying shh, mimicks a bird by saying deet, and says sss for peeing. She still says bah for most animal sounds, and her favorite (most frequently used) words are no and uh-oh.
In addition to food, drink, more, potty, and milk, Taylor now signs pain (while saying ow), please (thanks to Nelya's direction), and open. Actually, for open she uses the same sign as pain because she associates the sign with the action of opening chapstick, one of her all time favorite things to open. She pats on her diaper to let me know she just wet it and will still often use her funny squeaking sound to warn me ahead of time that she needs to use the toilet.
Just the other night, we were reading a book of "Bedtime Signs" and she was replicating the signs from the book easily (toothbrush, moon, stars, sleep). She has yet to use these outside of storytime, but I'm encouraged to continue introducing new signs.
Besides all of the new things she's saying and signing, Taylor is obviously understanding a whole lot more now. She follows simple directions, like "Give this to ___", "Get your shoes", "Let's take our shoes off", and "Arms up." She is also picking up on some of our routine activities, like praying before dinner. She stretches out her hands for us to hold during prayer time, stays quiet as we pray, and then claps when we say Amen.
As a side note, Taylor's new favorite toy is Phoebe large red blanket. She is constantly wrapping herself up in it and sitting or laying down on the floor on top of it, or walking around the house with it draped over her shoulders. What a funny baby!
In addition to food, drink, more, potty, and milk, Taylor now signs pain (while saying ow), please (thanks to Nelya's direction), and open. Actually, for open she uses the same sign as pain because she associates the sign with the action of opening chapstick, one of her all time favorite things to open. She pats on her diaper to let me know she just wet it and will still often use her funny squeaking sound to warn me ahead of time that she needs to use the toilet.
Just the other night, we were reading a book of "Bedtime Signs" and she was replicating the signs from the book easily (toothbrush, moon, stars, sleep). She has yet to use these outside of storytime, but I'm encouraged to continue introducing new signs.
Besides all of the new things she's saying and signing, Taylor is obviously understanding a whole lot more now. She follows simple directions, like "Give this to ___", "Get your shoes", "Let's take our shoes off", and "Arms up." She is also picking up on some of our routine activities, like praying before dinner. She stretches out her hands for us to hold during prayer time, stays quiet as we pray, and then claps when we say Amen.
As a side note, Taylor's new favorite toy is Phoebe large red blanket. She is constantly wrapping herself up in it and sitting or laying down on the floor on top of it, or walking around the house with it draped over her shoulders. What a funny baby!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Positive spinning
The past couple of days I've found myself in a few un-fun situations and thought hard to put a positive spin on them. Here's what I've come up with:
- Lost keys--> a chance to find many other lost items in the process of looking for the keys.
- Sleeping with Taylor IN her toddler bed all night--> an opportunity to remain close to my baby while appreciating the ability to stretch out my legs in my own bed that much more.
- Deciding to quit the gym after the monthly membership payment cleared--> motivation to make the most of the last few weeks of our membership and squeeze every penny out of it!
- Taylor spilling a very large cup on water all over the floor, requiring two bath towels to mop up--> wet towels readily available to wipe down the rest of the dirty living room floor.
- A four odor in the kitchen--> the perfect excuse to finish washing all the dishes and do a deep cleaning of the kitchen.
- Questionably expired food in the refrigerator--> fodder for a blog poll! Check out the right hand column to vote on how you'd handle it.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Happy 4th of July
...one day late.
Although we didn't really see any fireworks, we had a fun Independence Day. We started off the day with a round of tennis. Mark, Jon, Taylor and I went down to the courts and whacked the balls around rather unskillfully. Taylor was adorable with her mini tennis racket and little pink skirt. She just held on to the racket and a ball and wandered all over the courts. I'm looking forward to going a couple more times before the week is over.
In the afternoon, Ann and I played a bit of Mahjong with the tiles I brought back from KL. We played both the traditional game setup and the single-player-computer version. I finally found someone interested in playing it with me! Thank goodness I didn't lug it all the way from Malaysia for nothing. I misjudged everyone else's interest factor.
We finished off the day with some putt-putt and a dip in the pool. Ah, so relaxing. I'm liking my tan after all our park outings and a day at the beach. Mark says I actually look a bit Filipino now. It's been years since I was this dark, because I had avoided the sun for fear of a lupus outbreak. Taylor is just the teensiest bit browner, but poor Mark is burned. Thankfully, he has a few more days to heal before our flight back home.
Chris and Emily headed back to Evansville this morning, and Mike arrives in a few hours. We still have more Disney and shopping and Universal Studios ahead! I'm having problems getting photos off of my camera...I'll have to use Mark's computer I think, but here are a couple of photos from our week so far:
Although we didn't really see any fireworks, we had a fun Independence Day. We started off the day with a round of tennis. Mark, Jon, Taylor and I went down to the courts and whacked the balls around rather unskillfully. Taylor was adorable with her mini tennis racket and little pink skirt. She just held on to the racket and a ball and wandered all over the courts. I'm looking forward to going a couple more times before the week is over.
In the afternoon, Ann and I played a bit of Mahjong with the tiles I brought back from KL. We played both the traditional game setup and the single-player-computer version. I finally found someone interested in playing it with me! Thank goodness I didn't lug it all the way from Malaysia for nothing. I misjudged everyone else's interest factor.
We finished off the day with some putt-putt and a dip in the pool. Ah, so relaxing. I'm liking my tan after all our park outings and a day at the beach. Mark says I actually look a bit Filipino now. It's been years since I was this dark, because I had avoided the sun for fear of a lupus outbreak. Taylor is just the teensiest bit browner, but poor Mark is burned. Thankfully, he has a few more days to heal before our flight back home.
Chris and Emily headed back to Evansville this morning, and Mike arrives in a few hours. We still have more Disney and shopping and Universal Studios ahead! I'm having problems getting photos off of my camera...I'll have to use Mark's computer I think, but here are a couple of photos from our week so far:
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