My First Playdate

What a fun time I had today! Mommy took me to Lookout Ridge Indoor Playground in Woodbury. We met my buddy Quinn and his mom Amy there. We played and played and played for almost two and a half hours. Both of the mommies were very surprised that we played so long without any tantrums or tears. One of our favorite things at the park was this boat. We played in it so much that by the time we left I knew how to get in and out all by myself.


Here's Quinn. Isn't he a handsome lad? I overheard the moms talking and found out that he gets haircuts every two weeks, just like his dad. I don't even know what a haircut is, but it doesn't sound like something I'd want to do every other week. Poor guy.

Here I am climbing into the boat...

Oh man! I almost forgot about this kid. He was funny with all that black stuff all over his face. He was big enough to go into the fun bouncing and jumping cage. Mommy told me maybe next year.

What I was big enough for was to walk through this tunnel. It was really cool!! Mommy had to crawl on her knees to get through it.

I also crawled through this fall over tree trunk. Very neat!

Ta-da! I made it all the way to the end.

There were some other adventures today that occurred at mealtimes. At lunch I was eating macoroni and cheese and peas. Mommy thought it was time to let me try a fork all on my own. Don't worry, not some big shiny metal fork. My own little plastic fork. Very grown-up like. I also tried something called Jell-O at lunch today. Dad thought it was time for me to experience this culinary mystery. I've got to say, it's good stuff!

At dinner Mom decided I could try out the plastic spoon that matches the fork. She let me feed myself cottage cheese and peas (again with the peas-sometimes my parents aren't very creative with my cuisine). I did pretty well all in all. Lucky for all of us it was bath night. Mommy carted me right off to the bath when I was done feeding myself/pitching food all over.

I hope you enjoyed Bonus Sunday with two editions of Memoirs of a Baby. It's back to reality for us Osters tomorrow. Daycare for me and work for Mom and Dad. Frankly, I'm looking forward to getting back to all of my friends at daycare. As for Mom and Dad going back to work, well that's another story...

Have a superdeduper week y'all!
Taylor

Vacation Coverage

I'm back home and settled into the old routine again. I keep looking out the window to see if it looks like California out there. Mom and Dad say it will pretty soon, but pretty soon just isn't coming soon enough. Away with the dirty piles of snow and brown grass. I want green grass, clear sidewalks and sunshine! Until then, I guess we'll all just have to pass our time dreaming of spring and looking at pictures of nicer weather. Like these...

Here are Mom and me on Day 3 of vacation trying out the grass again. Mom thought if she put me in safe place, like on a beach towel, and just gave me one piece of grass to touch I might adjust better. It kinda worked. After some time I slowly reached my hand off the towel to touch the grass around us.

Later that day, Grandma took Mom and me to the Botanical Gardens. There are lots of cacti there and turtles. I thought the turtles were really cool even though they were really slow.

That night we went out to a restaurant called The Blue Coyote. Here's Grandpa funning around in my sunglasses. What a goof that guy is!

On Day #4 I had done so much Grass Practice that I decided it was time to go out on my own.

That day my health took a turn for the worse. Remember the yuks I had a couple weeks ago that took me out of daycare for a couple days and that I brougth with me down to Omaha? Well, it caught up with me again in California. It got so bad that on the way out to dinner I threw up on Grandma's hand. The adults all decided that maybe I should stay home that night. Mom and Dad went out on for a date night and I got to stay home with Grandma and Grandpa. We played and played and played and took pretty sunset pictures.

By Day #5 of the trip, my diapers were still kinda messy and I was still puking randomly, but you'd hardly tell there was anything wrong wtih me. (Note the picture below.) Grandma, Mommy and I walked over to the clubhouse that day to meet Dad and Grandpa for lunch.

As I did every day on vacation, I got in some pool time later that day. Daddy came with and man, did we have fun! He wore my sun hat! Sheesh!

Our last dinner out was to a very pretty restaurant called Vicky's of Santa Fe. It was in a beautiful adobe style building. Here's a nice family photo...

On our last full day in California, Mom and I focused on getting in as much outside time as possible. Mommy wanted to come back to Minnesota with a really good tan and I was just gulping in all the fresh air I could get.

Here's one last picture for you. This one is from family portrait night with Grandpa and Grandma.

Now if you know my parents and my grandpa, you've got to know there's a lot more than these pictures here. But since it takes quite a while to get pictures onto Blogger, I've decided to go back to visit the old homestead and I'll be posting more pics on my flickr page. Visit that page at www.flickr.com/photos/larajtay.

I'll be signing off of this special edition vacation coverage post. Stay tuned for a post detailing my first playdate today with my buddy Quinn.

Peace Out!

Shades Oster

A Fond Farewell

The time has come to bid a fond farewell to the place I have come to love this week. Much progress has been made in this short time. I have mastered the pool and the grass. I'll share many more pictures with you when I'm home and have some free time during the weekend. For now, here are just a couple pictures to tide you over.

I made a great friend this week. He's a bird and he's CA-RAZY! Grandma had to give him a makeover this week because the weather out here beat him up a bit. He got a fresh coat of paint and looks great.

I gave him a special goodbye and told him I'll come to see him again sometime...

Tonight was family photo night. We went out to the golf course for some special pictures. Here's Mom and Dad and me...

And here's Grandma and Grandpa and me...

We have a very early flight in the morning. We have to leave the villa two hours before I should even be getting out of my crib. Ugh. We're all hoping I sleep MUCH better during the travels tomorrow than I did on the way out here last Saturday.

Wish us well!

Tater Bugger

Greetings from Sunny California

Oh how I wish you all could be here. How I wish everyplace was this place. It's beyond beautiful here. OK, I guess Minnesota is beautiful too, but it's been way too long of a winter to appreciate the snow and the cold any longer. So let's get to it and I'll tell you about my trip so far...


It took two plane rides to get me to California. One from the airport by my house to the airport in Dallas, Texas. I hear that's near my Uncle Neil and Aunt Katie but it wasn't close enough for use to see them during our layover. The next flight took us from Dallas to Palm Springs. Take off on the first flight was not so much fun. I was ready for a nap but couldn't figure out how to do it without my crib and my white noise. Eventually I fell asleep in the middle of eating a biter biscuit. It was all over my face so Mom and Dad had to clean me up while I was sleeping. That nap lasted only 30 minutes. I woke up when we were landing. Mom and Dad figured I would sleep during my second flight but I tricked them and stayed awake the whole time! We got lucky and had three seats to ourselves so Mom and Dad buckled me in between them. I sat there all by myself looking at a book for a whole three minutes!

When we landed in Palm Springs, Grandma Trish and Grandpa Steve were there to greet us. Grandma freed me from the stroller and I walked her all over the airport. She couldn't believe how much my walking has improved just since last weekend.

We drove to Grandma and Grandpa's new villa at Desert Princess Country Club. Their home is beautiful but there's one thing I don't like. It's all this green stuff all over the place they call grass. I swear we don't have that stuff where I come from but they all say it's hidden under all the snow. If that's the case, I'm not so sure I want the snow to go away. Since I've been here, Grandpa has made it his mission to make sure I like grass. He says I can never be a tomboy OR a golf pro if I don't like grass. Here I am during Grass Practice #1.

What I do like is hanging out in my highchair on the patio watching Grandpa work the grill. Mommy thought I should wear these super sweet shades to keep the sun out of my eyes.

I had other ideas...

Today is Easter and we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I heard the story at church today and it was great. Especially the way the priest told it. He was a funny guy! God's beauty was all around us today-check it out!

I got myself all dressed up (with a little help from Grandma and Mommy) to go to church. I brought my phone with just in case anyone needed to get in touch with me. I left it in the car during mass of course.

Here's me trying grass again. Yep, that's Grandpa holding my hand. The grass thing was his idea. Again. Here's Grass Practice #2.

After church we came home and I took a nap while Daddy and Grandpa played nine holes and Mom and Grandma read books in the sun. After my nap I got all ready to go to the pool. Head to toe, ready to go!

It was a bit scary but Grandma did a great job easing me into the pool.
After I got comfortable she put me in my new boat. I wasn't sure at first, but once I realized it was a rescue boat, I realized it had to be safe. I had a great time just floating all over the pool. I almost fell asleep in there!

After some deliberation, Grandma and I decided it was time to go big. She got me out of the boat and we went under. Whoa. I cried a little but really, it wasn't so bad.

I got out of the pool after my full immersion and rested with Grandpa in the chair until I started rubbing my eyes to let everyone know I was ready for another nap.

After Nap #2 it was time for Grass Practice #4. (No pictures were taken of Grass Practice #3. That one was all Grandma and Mom's doing while Dad and Grandpa were gone. I actually never made it to the grass that time but I did give it serious thought.) During #4, the tactic was to entertain me with bubbles in order to coerce me into going on the grass. Let me tell you how well that worked...

Now I'm scared of grass AND bubbles. Way to go people!

After a much-needed bath, Grandpa took me for a walk on the 3rd of hole of Vista (one of the three courses here at DP). I think he thought he could get me to walk on a green because it's a different kind of grass, but I locked my body tight around him and didn't let got for nothing. So instead of walking, we peeled some bark off a palm tree. (Hmm...is it called bark? Or is bark just the stuff that covers the tree trunks back home? I'll have to research that.)

As you can see, I'm having a great time out here. I hope everyone back home had a great Easter holiday. I will try to post again later this week.

LOVE LOVE LOVE AND HUGS!

Taylor "Shades" Oster

Word Cloud

I was doing my usual daily web surfing and came upon this cool idea...a word cloud. What is a word cloud, you ask? Well it's a cloud of words of course. More specifically, a diagram of sorts of all the words that are in my blog and their frequency of occurrence. All I had to do was type my URL into the website and 30 seconds later the nice people at Snapshirt made my word cloud. Check it out...

Now, how is that for a time waster? Well, I do suppose I should get back to my packing. In 36 hours I will be loading myself and my parents and all of our traveling gear onto an airplane destined for Dallas Forth Worth Airport. Ah yes, you're puzzled as you thought I was going to sunny Palm Springs, California. Not to fear, the drop down at DFW is only a pit stop on the way to PS. Well like I said, better get back to the packing. Peace out.

T-Mac Attack

Stinky Journey

WARNING-This post contains stories of a graphic nature. If you do not handle stories dealing with fecal matter well, please do not read any further. Thank you.

Daddy and I made it to Omaha safe and sound, but only after two blow-outs in the car. The first was major and Daddy had to carry me into the gas station like a football becuase there was poop EVERYWHERE. Then there was no changing table in the men's bathroom so Dad had to change me on the floor. Lucky for us Mom remembered to pack a changing pad in the manly diaper bag. (Mommy took everything from the cute Skip Hop diaper bag and put it in Daddy's Northern Tool and Equipment backpack.) We stopped for another diaper change and wouldn't you know it, no changing table again! What are people thinking? Do they know it's 2008 and Dads change diapers in public too?!?! Sheesh.

So like I said we got there safe and sound and after dinner Grandma gave me a much-needed bath. My car seat also got a nice bath that night to wash off the poops that snuck out between the snaps of my pants.

I was so happy when Grandma got me cleaned up!

After my bath, it was off to bed in my new Omaha Crib. Grandma and Grandpa decided since I spend quite a bit of time there and since I'm not the only grandchild there will be in the family, they should just get a crib for their house. Here she is...she was real comfy...

The next day Grandma and I played and played and played until Grandma plopped over on the floor and fell asleep. I passed the time drinking my bottle and chillin' with Dad and Grandpa until she was ready to play again.

Oh yeah, and checking out the cupboards. A baby should know where things are you know.


When Grandma woke up from her carpet nap (I prefer to nap in my bed but to each his own) we cuddled and read stories on the couch.

Here's my new friend Alli. She babysat me when all the big people went to the Bruce Springsteen concert. We had a lot of fun and I was a great baby the whole time!

We all headed to Old Market for an early St. Patrick's Day parade. It was a little chilly so I helped Grandpa keep his cheeks warm. (In case you're wondering, I was feeling all better by Saturday.)

Here I am with Aunt Steph and Dad. Aren't we a good looking group of part-Irish kids?

Saturday night I got to go to one of Mom and Dad's favorite places in Omaha-Big Fred's Pizza-for Grandma Trish's birthday dinner. They say it used to be the best pizza ever until they discovered Red Savoy's in St. Paul. But there's no Savoy's in Omaha, so Big Fred's is still the pizza of choice there.

They were a little slow bringing us our pizza so I busted out the Cheerios.

When we went home, we had birthday cake for Grandma. Here's me helping her with the candles. So pretty!

Sometimes I make crazy faces...

My guy! Here's my Uncle Klayton...

Dad and I came home Sunday and are looking forward to the next trip. We leave Saturday for sunny California. Daddy ordered some new irons and they came today. I decided to check them out to see if they met my approval...

Everything seems to check out but to make sure, I'm off to the driving range for a test-run. I'll let you know how they work.

Hope all my family and friends are doing well out there. Love and hugs and sloppy kisses to all!

Taylor McKenna