One giant leap

After a couple of weeks of attempting this new bedtime/nighttime routine with Taylor, we've had a breakthrough. She fell asleep around 9:45pm and didn't ask for me until 3:15am (6 hours of solid sleep!), THEN went back to sleep right away and is still asleep now (almost 7am)!  She'll probably be out for another hour.

That is one small win for Mommy, one giant leap for Taylor's sleep.

Throughout the night I kept checking the baby monitor to make sure she was still alive - yes, still breathing. When Mark's alarm went off at 5am, I didn't want to get out of bed because I was savoring the moment: sleeping in my own bed with as much room as I wanted, not having nursed Taylor all night. Don't get me wrong, I love co-sleeping and I love nursing my baby. But my baby isn't so much of a baby anymore and she takes up too much room in the bed for me to sleep comfortably.

Now, I just need to make sure I don't get so excited about this that I expect it every night going forward. As anyone with children can tell you, nothing ever stays the same.

In other news, Taylor acquired a new advanced skill in gymnastics on Monday. On the trampoline she can now jump, bounce on her bottom, and return to a standing position. I was so proud! No one else in the class can do that, and she's one of the younger ones. Miss Kim, the instructor, then tried to get her to jump, bounce on her bottom, and go directly into a forward roll, but I think that skill will take a few more weeks yet. Taylor's forward rolls are at about 50-70% consistency now and doing that after bouncing takes a lot more coordination.

It is now officially less than three weeks before Taylor is 2 years old. I'm so excited for her. She has developed into such a talkative, bubbly, little girl. I can't wait to see how she continues to grow and change.

Snow day!

Trying out her new snow boots

She loves the snow

Needs a little help to stay stable

Doesn't want to go inside - even for hot chocolate!

As soon as we came in Taylor wanted to know when we were going out again. We've got a snow bunny on our hands.

New Year

We're back home and have been settling into the new year nicely. Well, just about as nicely as after any other long vacation. I still don't have the suitcases completely unpacked and I have a ton of laundry piled up, but we're feeling pretty good.

I was inspired over break by my in-laws very good dishwashing habits. This is something I never really developed and is a source of tension and anxiety at home. Dirty kitchen = unhappy tenants and less home cooking. So, the last few days we've been home I've made an effort to have all the dishes clean or in a running dishwasher by bedtime. Of course, this is a habit my Fly Lady emails have told me about for a couple years now and I've attempted it before. But I'm going to try to carry the good feeling of a clean sink around with me this whole month so the habit is ingrained. A month is all you need to form a habit, right?

Speaking of that, we've started a new bedtime routine with Taylor. We're putting her to sleep early and in her own room. I moved her toddler bed to her room from ours and placed our twin mattress on the floor next to it for me to sleep on. My hope is to get her used to sleeping in her own bed, in her own room, and eventually without me nearby. She still nurses to sleep and throughout the night, so it'll be a multi-step process.
We've had mild success, though I don't suppose we could expect much more at the very beginning. She is going to sleep earlier, but the last couple of nights she's been waking up a lot and screaming quite a bit. I still let her nurse, but I've been cutting her off after a few minutes each time and she's adjusted okay so far. It's been nice even having this little bit of extra child-free time at the end of the night and in the mornings. I can get a few big chores out of the way and read in peace.

I'm still loving the One Year Chronological Bible I got in Malaysia (a gift from Cathe). All the passages are separated by date (Jan-Dec) and sort the Bible in what is understood to be the order in which the events occurred, so since October I've read through most of the gospels, all the epistles and Revelation, and am now working my way through Genesis, 1 Chronicles, and Job. This will be the first time I've ever read the Bible through in a year. I've always read the books here and there and maybe have read through the whole Bible before, but this will make a huge difference. There's no flipping around between books and passages like with other Bible reading plans (a major detraction) and you can really compare similar passages to see how they line up (as with the gospel accounts). I'm so excited!

Also, here are other new words or phrases of Taylor's that I forgot include last time:
Bocky = Monkey, boogie
I gotchoo (as said at the end of a great chasing game)
Bips/beeps = lips, lip gloss
Munny = funny (as in, "Daddy is munny"), or bunny
Onch = Orange
Dop eet = Stop it! (she has a bit of a temper)
Yu-ee-ah/Ju-ee-ah = Julia (the daughter of one of our Bible study members)
*Favorite word right now = Apple

Ooo, just in - a water main broke at Mark's work so Boeing is closing the building and he is coming home! Yay, for a free vacation day!

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!