Memoirs of a Preschooler and Her Toddler Brother

Oh Dumpsters.

2011-03-24T22:13:00.009-05:00

"Oh dumpsters!" That's my newest favorite phrase. It's synonymous with "oh fiddlesticks" or "oh dernitall" but way cuter when it comes out of my little mouth. And it kinda sums up how we feel around here about blogging. Cuz here's the deal people...we've tried and tried and tried again to get back at it, but it's just not happening. So I guess...well...what I'm trying to say is...I think this is goodbye. Or maybe just "see ya later alligator". We're going to let Mom take over the job of sharing pictures with all you out there that are interested. She already does a good job of it on facebook, but we know there are some out there who haven't been sucked into that realm. She's been trying to figure out Picasa Web Albums but has yet to master that process (sad, since she's actually pretty smart with that stuff...apparently she's busy and tired and whatnot).

So enjoy some pictures here from the last few months. Adios amigos.

Leighton (no, these are not old pictures of me!) in dire need of a haircut:

Me helping Mom put together a new bookshelf in my room. I love using the tools that Grandma Trish gave me. Cuz I'm a Fixer Girl, just like Grandma!

In the latest phase of my skating skills development (a.k.a. The Road to Taylor Being Such a Great Hockey Player that She Gets a Full Ride to College Someday) led to the purchase of full hockey gear for me. Leighton was so excited that he decided to try on my breezers:

Grandma Trish made Leighton and I some super cute cat hats for Valentine's Day. Leighton calls his "Meow".

Leighton is such a trooper! He gets drug to the hockey rink every Saturday morning while I have skating lessons. He really really really wants to get out on the ice himself, but he'll have to be patient for a couple more years.

Yes, there is a girl under here:

Leighton and I are the best of friends, and he's always there with a hug for me:

On a recent trip to the zoo, Leighton and I stopped to pose on the turtle statue. I think it's becoming a tradition.

And for our farewell, here are some fancy pictures of Lil Buddy and me.

TTFN,

Taylor and Leighton

Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

2011-01-29T22:54:00.003-06:00

So a while back, we made some promises to get this blog updated and then keep it rolling. Well...we lied? Not so much lied as we made empty promises. Hmm...that didn't sound all that much better did it?

Now we're here to say that we really really really want to get back to this blogging thing so our people out there can see pictures of us and know what we're up to and all that other stuff. But we're a little overwhelmed with the "catching you up" part so as sorry as we are to say it, that's just not going to happen. Consider this our New Year's Resolution and a re-launching of our blog.

Disclaimer: Donations of caffeinated products are greatly appreciated as they will be necessary for blogging to occur.

With Extreme Gratitude and Sincere Apologies,

Taylor and Leighton

Oster Christmas 2010

2010-12-16T20:57:00.001-06:00

Shiny Happy Smiles Christmas

Personalize your Christmas photo cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Next Came October

2010-11-27T21:24:00.005-06:00

In October, Leighton continued in his quest to become "The Toddler that Drove His Parents Stark Raving Mad with His Shenanigans and Boyness". In other words, Leighton is a trouble maker. He likes to stand on tables, knock people over, give headbutts and bite. His body is in constant motion unless he's asleep. Aside from the two times his antics landed him in the hands of medical staff who were sewing his face back together, his antics are generally harmless. One particular antic got him in a bit of a pickle, but he was fine once Mom figured out where he was. See, it was a daycare day and Leighton slipped into the laundry room behind Mom. She never saw him come in, and closed the door behind her when she came back out. Not more than a minute later, she discovered he was missing and turned to ask the rest of us kids where he was. None of us knew, but we could hear noises coming from the laundry room. When Mom went in there to check it out, she found Leighton had climbed up onto a plastic storage tote so that he could climb into an exersaucer. Despite having lodged both legs into a hole designed for one leg, he was happy as a clam.

When Leighton isn't getting into trouble (because there are rare moments when that happens) he makes Mom and Dad forget all about it by being adorable and snuggly and loving and stuff.

In October, it became apparent to my family that my trike just wasn't giving me the challenge I needed. So Grandma Jan was kind enough to buy me this beautiful princess big girl bike. Everyone was amazed at how quickly and easily I was able to master riding it. I love my bike and really miss riding it now that we have snow.

Well, October meant Halloween, and that meant we needed to carve pumpkins. But poor Leighton wasn't able to help me and Dad. Mom and Dad were afraid he would just put all the pumpkin guts in his mouth, so they strapped him into his highchair and gave him a cookie to eat. He missed the pumpkin carving fun, but seemed to enjoy the cookie eating.

Dad and I are the pumpkin carving crew. After two years at the job, we're getting pretty good. I really wish I could show you just how good our pumpkins were this year, but I can't find the pictures anywhere. Mom swears she took pictures of them, but they aren't anywhere on her computer or on Dad's. I guess you'll just have to take my word on it.

I got to wear my costume quite a few times. To my preschool, to daycare, to Trunk or Treating at our church and on Halloween day. Here I am standing in front of my locker at school. (With a sucker in my mouth even though Mom asked me to take it out.)

Leighton got to wear his costume alsmost as much as me, but didn't have a preschool to wear it to. Too bad, it was a dern cute tiger costume!

(See this look on my face? That's sweet anticipation of the loot of candy I was about to score.)

My brother and I had a fantastically fun time celebrating Halloween with friends and family. We can't wait to see what Halloween 2011 will bring.

And that my freinds, is October.

Peace out,

Taylor and Leighton

Month by Month

2010-11-18T21:06:00.006-06:00

So Leightion and I have been talking and we really want to get back to blogging but in all honesty, we don't even remember HOW. It' s been soooo long. So we'll give it a try here and see how we do.

(OH BUT GOOD GRAVY WE HAVEN'T DONE THIS FOR LIKE FIVE MONTHS AND THERE'S A LOT OF PICTURES AND EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS AND MILESTONES BETWEEN THEN AND NOW AND DO WE HAVE TO PUT IT ALL IN HERE?!?!?)

Wow. Sorry about that. So Lil Buddy and I just put our heads together (actually, he gave me a head butt, but whatever, it worked) and came up with this plan. We'll do one month at a time, starting with September since we at least got pictures out on the internet over on flickr up to that point.

So here is September...

Mom finally gave in to the pressure (mostly Grandma Jan and Papa Steve) had been putting on her for months and took Leighton to get his first haircut. "Amy" at Kids Hair did a hack job and cut off all his curls despite Mom's specific instructions to "PLEASE leave the curls PLEASE and just clean it up a little PLEASE like where you just a little bit off the ends PLEASE so you don't cut off all the curls PLEASE". Mom left fighting back tears and plotting revenge. It's grown back by this point, but the curls aren't the same. (Watch out Amy...)

My big event for September was starting preschool. Mom and Dad weren't going to send me to preschool this year since Mom does a preschool curriculum here at our daycare. But a couple weeks into daycare (i.e. a couple weeks into this new life of ours where Mom and I are together ALL. THE. TIME.) Grandma Jan suggested to Mom that I be enrolled in preschool so I could get otu of the house a couple days a week and have another outlet for some of my special energy. Turns out I love preschool and Mom doesn't mind the break it gives her so it's a win-win situation. Go preschool!

(Disclaimer: This picture was not actually taken on my first day of preschool as is the tradition in most American households. It was taken on my second day of preschool because my mom's a bit frazzled sometimes and things she intends to do don't always get done. It's how she rolls.)

There's no doubt that Leighton is Daddy's boy. The proof is in the pudding. And the pudding is all over Leighton's face in the next pictures. You'll notice he's not wearing a shirt. That's because my mom is super smart and took his shirt so it wouldn't get messy.

And that folks, is September. I know, weak effort. Sorry. We just don't seem to take as many pictures around here as we used to. Now it's time to get some shuteye before we start working on our October entry.

Goodnightsleeptightdontletthebedbugsbite,

Taylor and Leighton

Someday.

2010-10-07T22:24:00.003-05:00

We'll blog again.

For now, you'll just have to deal with this teaser.

And if you're really hard up for pics of us and haven't been there yet, head over to flickr. We threw some stuff up there last week.

Love,

The Absentees (a.k.a. Taylor and Leighton)

Haircuts and Headcuts

2010-07-18T23:30:00.004-05:00

Some cuts happen on purpose. Like Taylor's haircut. Mom was tired of fighting with Taylor to get her hair into ponytails and equally tired of her hair getting in her food and being messy all the time. So Mom whisked her off to Whitney, Mom's stylist at the fancy salon and paid way more than she should have so she would have the moral support of her own stylist to get through such a big event.

BEFORE:

AFTER:
It turns out everyone, including Mom, loves the new do. Mom can brush Tay's hair real easy and it doesn't hang in her food. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Some cuts happen on accident. Like when I cut my head wide upen when chasing Taylor through the house. We were just having fun, being the super brother and sister that we are, when *BAM*, that wall just jumped out in front of me and attacked my forehead.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Two internal stitches, five external stitches. Ouch. Mom and Dad tried to take me to Urgent Care for stitches, but were told by the nurse there that the cut was so deep they needed to take me to the Emergency Room. Ay yi yi. Well, an hour and a half wait later, I was all sewn up and sent on my way.

Tomorrow I'm off to have my stitches removed. Dad told Mom to ask the doctor if I need to start wearing a helmet at all times. Seems valid.

Stay Safe,

Crash (a.k.a. Leighton) (and Taylor)

Summer Fun

2010-07-18T22:30:00.008-05:00

Ah, summer. Full of fun times. And pretty flowers. Like these ones I found in my Greataunt Nancy's yard. She lives out in the country and there's oodles of pretty flowers in her yard. (And a HUGE garden with lots and lots vegetables and blueberries and herbs. It's amazing!)

We went to a barbeque at Greataunt Nancy and Greatuncle Gary's house a couple weekends ago. Mom said we went cuz Gary got a wild hair (whatever that means!) to smoke some food. He smoked ribs, boneless ribs, turkey and brisket. My favorite was the turkey.

Leighton and I had a great time running all over the yard, climbing all over the deck and exploring everything we could.

Leighton also enjoyed some new canine companionship. You know how that guy loves dogs. These ones are named Maggie and Blazer. Maggie is the little one and Blazer is the big one. It's pretty amazing how this kid takes to dogs. Makes a girl wish she could get one for her little brother, but Mom and Dad have made it pretty clear that's not happening at our house. Not anytime soon at least. For now Leighton will just have to settle for snuggling other people's dogs.

Summer also means the bike trailer has found it's way out of the garage. We had some real good times on it two summers ago, but last summer, what with Baby Leighton coming around and with that monitor thing and the cords and whatnot, well it just didn't happen. So anyways, Mom and I bumped our way around the garage the other day and collected the trailer, her bike and the tire pump. Dad helped us get everything set up and off we went. It was GLORIOUS! Mom wanted to ride for a long, long time but we had to get home for my bedtime. We're both looking forward to our next ride.

This summer has also brought about some very silly fun. Like playing dressup and me ending in this:

And Leighton in this:

Summer also means CAMP. That's right, I went to camp. It's called Grands Camp at the Presbyterian Clearwater Forest and I went there with my Grandma Jan, Papa Bob and my cousins, Meggie and Nate. We had a fantastic time. Unfortunately, I don't have digital documentation of camp, but Mom did take these cute pictures of me in the special braids she put in my hair for camp. In the first I'm totally faking a pouty look. (You may have been able to figure that out for yourself.) In the second I'm my usual cute self.

Summer fun also means taking it indoors sometimes. Mom took me, Leighton, cousin Nate and our neighbors to Edinborough, a fantastic indoor park. There's two rooms: one with a huge climbing and sliding structure and a gym with scooters, balls, baskets and a huge jumper. It was AWESOME!

Summer is about halfway over but it feels like the fun is just beginning. Bring it on!!

Viva la Summer!

Taylor (and Leighton)

2010-07-04T22:01:00.004-05:00

The summer fun continues to be...well, fun. We've had eight trips to the Splash Pool in the three weeks that Mom has been home with us. Us kids are loving it but Mom's been grumbling a little-seems she's getting tired of pulling Evil Knievel (a.k.a. Leighton) out of the water when we loses his footing and goes in face-first. We're taking a few days off and hopefully she'll be ready to get back at it on Tuesday.

We celebrated Father's Day at our house a couple weeks ago. It got HOT HOT HOT so Mom turned on the sprinkler. She opted to just change us out of wet clothes and into pajamas rather than change us into swimsuits and then out of the swimsuits and into pajamas. Pretty genius if you ask me.

Leighton took a break from playing in the sprinkler to climb up on the picnic table where he tried to take possession of a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew. Because he needs caffeine, right? NO! He does not. (You hear that Lil Buddy, you don't need caffeine! You're a spaz. No caffeine for you until college. You know, when you're out of the house and the only people you'll annoy with your upped levels of spacticity are roommates, not us.)

I thought I would see if the water in the sprinkler tastes as good as the water in the house. It was alright, though maybe a little metallic tasting.

One of Leighton's new Hot Spots is the tub in the bathroom. He's so impressed with it that he actually bypasses the toilet (that's old news I guess) to go head-first into the tub. He'd play there for hours if Mom and Dad would let him. As luck would have it, Mom DID let him play in there the other day and I joined him to see what all the hoopla was about. All I can figure is, it's fun because it's out of the social norm. Leighton is a rebel like that.

So far, Leighton and I are the best of buddies. Mom and Dad are sure a day will come when we don't get along quite as well, but for now, they're are loving the love between us. I don't let Leighton go to sleep without a hug and kiss, I kiss his owies and bring him loveys when he's sad. All in all, I'm Big Sister Extraordinaire.

In closing, I'll leave you with these very special pictures of me. Special indeed.

Peace, love and happiness!

Taylor (and Leighton)

It's Here!!!

2010-06-19T23:04:00.003-05:00

It's here, it's here, it's really here! What's that? What's here? Why, SUMMER of course! And it's glorious! It's only been a week but we're having a blast already. We've been to the Children's Museum, to all three parks in our neighborhood (thanks Grandma Trish for going above and beyond and taking us to ALL THREE in one day while you were here), to the library, and to my beloved Splash Pool twice! Leighton and I are loving having our mom home with us and judging by the glow on Mom's face, she's loving it too. (And maybe that's a little sunburn too.)

The Splash pool is just as fun as it was two years ago and last year, but the difference this year is that I can touch in the "deep end" which is actually only three feet deep. Mom was really surprised that I could touch. And a bit sad that I'm getting that big. Moms are strange that way, ya know.

Leighton was at the splash pool plenty of times last year, but never actually got to go in the water. Most of the time, he was asleep in the stroller while Mom and I were swimming. He's pretty excited to be out of the stroller and in the water this season. The only time he spends in the stroller now is to take snack breaks, like this one:

We've finally got our egress window installed in the basement and Mom has it set up real nice for us to play and play and play. Over the summer, Mom will be real busy. See, if you've not heard yet, Mom is taking a leave of absence from her job as a speech/language pathologist for one year to stay home with us and open an in-home daycare. So there's lots of work to be done to make the basement into a daycare facility and Mom needs to go through the licensing process. Despite all this impending work, Mom is excited and ready to get at it.

One of the funnest activities Mom has done with us downstairs was Shaving Cream Play. She squirted shaving cream all over the table and we got to draw shapes and our names in it. It felt funny on our hands, but we loved it. The best part (and Mom's ultimate purpose for the activity) was that the shaving cream cleaned the table right up. Slick!

Well...that's all for now. Happy summer and don't forget your sunscreen!

Taylor (and Leighton)

Another New Look.

2010-06-10T22:43:00.007-05:00

Because that's all we have time for. I know, I know, it's a tired, overused excuse. But it's all we got, man. Mom has 1.5 days of work left and then since we'll be home with her all the time, we'll have more time to keep you updated on all our adventures.

And there will be a lot of those this summer, let us tell you! We'll be joined this summer by our cousin Nate on Mondays and Tuesdays and our neighbors Ava and Jonathan Monday through Friday. It's going to be a fun-filled summer of fun stuff y'all!

Since a blog post on a blog about and written by children is really only a good one if it's got pictures, let us complete this post with some pics...

We've been to a couple of Meggie's soccer games. We don't really pay much attention to the games, cuz well we don't really get it, but we love to go and play with the younger siblings of the players on Meggie's team. And they love us!

One of my favorite things to do is cuddle with Aunt Jenni (or Grandma Jan) at the games. Aunt Jenni always has good stuff for me to chew on, like this Sobe bottle.

We had a field trip to the zoo for daycare a couple weeks ago. Our daycare friends have tie-dyed t-shirts that they made last summer when we were home with Mom, but Ms. Angela said red shirts would be a good alternative for us. So in good old shopaholic fashion, Mom went out and got us both new outfits. I'm thinking they'll also end up being our 4th of July outfits given that we ended up decked out in red, white and blue.

We were so jealous of Mom and Dad Memorial Day Weekend. They went to Texas for a wedding and got to take a side trip to see Neil, Katie and our cousin Sibley. They're so lucky! They only had one day to spend with them, but they made the most of it. They went out to lunch, went swimming at the hotel pool, then went out again for dinner. Mommy said she wanted to stash Sibley in her suitcase and bring her back to see us but thought Sibley might get a little cramped, not to mention very lonely for her mommy and daddy. So I guess we'll wait until Christmas when (woohoo!) we'll all be together again with Grandma Trish, Papa Steve, Aunt Steph and Uncle Klayton.

Peace Out Blog Friends!

Taylor and Leighton

My New Best Friend

2010-05-22T22:54:00.003-05:00

I just got home from an overnighter with Mom, Taylor, Grandma Jan and Papa Bob to visit Papa Owie. It was his birthday this week so we all got in on the annual event of gathering at his house to celebrate the birthday and plant flowers. While all of that was good and fun, the highlight of my weekend was Lawrence. He's the dog Papa Owie "adopted" from Mom's cousin Stephen. I guess I don't totally understand how it all worked, but something about Stephen going off to college and Papa needing some company out at his big house in the country. However it all went down, all I know is that I love that dog! Unfortunately, he didn't quite understand my way of showing it and thwarted my every attempt at bonding.

But when dinner time came around, he and I reached a mutual understanding. Whenever he appeared at my highchair, I was to reach my hand out, making like I was waving, and he would lick spaghetti and meatballs off my hands. I even gave him a little bonus and wiped my hands all over his back and dropped a noodle on his head so he'd have a snack for later. Pure genius!

Check us out here for more pictures of the fun little road trip.

TTFN,

Leighton (and Taylor)

It's Like Summer Road Construction

2010-05-18T23:32:00.003-05:00

Only this detour won't be quite as annoying. Head over to flickr for new pics.

TTFN,
Tay and Leighton

Change is good.

2010-05-12T12:15:00.002-05:00

New title, new layout, and new "About Us". Check it out.

And pictures coming soon. I promise. Really.

(Warning: "Soon" is a relative term.)

Peace out,
Leighton

Random

2010-04-21T21:48:00.004-05:00

Time for a random upload/update with random pictures taken lately...

Here I am in my new raincoat holding Lana the Iguana. She's our healthy eating mascot at daycare and she got to come spend a night at our house.

Here's Lana and me all ready for bed.

Ever wonder what a crazed preschooler looks like? Well, here it is:

Baby + Spaghetti and Meatballs = Dire Need for a Bath

Daddy celebrated his 32nd birthday on April 11th. If you know golf, you'll know that his birthday fell during Master's Weekend so he spent much of his special day watching the final round of the big event. We celebrated with dinner from Buca (yum!) and carrot cake (Dad's favorite) between the good parts of the Master's.

Weeelllll...that's all I got. I've got a big weekend coming up. Grandma Trish and Papa Steve are coming up from Nebraska and we're having a birthday shindig for me on Friday night. Saturday I'm sure we'll do lots of playing before heading off to a baby shower. Sunday we're hitting the highways and biways to head to Great Aunt Judy and Great Uncle David's for a belated Easter celebration. I'll be sure to share digital pictorial proof of all events soon.

Adios,

Taylor (and Leighton)

It's a Zoo Out There!

2010-04-18T21:38:00.005-05:00

Happy birthday to me people. On Saturday I turned three years old. Three years old! Can you even believe it?!?! As I like to say these days, HOLY MOLY!

To celebrate my birthday, I went with part of my family on an outing to the zoo. Unfortunately, my dad was out of town for work so he couldn't go with us. I was accompanied by Mom, Grandma Jan, Papa Bob, Aunt Jenni, Megan and Nate. We had a super fun time and took it all in. Mom was amazed at how well I held up given that we usually only stay at the zoo for a few hours and our trip there yesterday lasted for six hours.

(Of course, meltdowns of monstrous proportions ensued in the car until I finally passed out. And again when I woke up at home. See, on a side note, Mom and Dad decided that since I turned three this weekend, that should also mean that I no longer need my nummies. All of them were taken away from me-ripped from my hands and mouth and mailed off to "some other baby that needs them now". So it's been a little tough for me to calm down when I get worked up. If I could just find one somewhere around here to hide under my pillow when I need a fix...)

Here are some pictures from our fun day. Enjoy!

Happy New Week!

Taylor (and Leighton)

Easter News

2010-04-11T20:45:00.009-05:00

Here are some pics from the Easter activities in which we participated.

Easter Egg Hunt...

Leighton had to sit in the stroller. Too young to hunt eggs. Sorry 'bout your luck Lil Buddy.

Adults dressed as bunnies are creepy, but I still posed for the picture.

Easter hunting madness and mayhem:

Pause for playground photo op:

Then there was the homestead Easter festivities...

I made a nice snack of sugar snap peas and carrots for the Easter Bunny:

We got up in the morning and found all the eggs and goodies that T.E. Bunny hid around the house, but unfortunately, we don't have digital documentation.

Then we went to church for a beautiful service celebrating the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

After that, it was off to Aunt Jenni and Uncle John's for more Easter hunting, grubbing on some yummy food and LOTS of playing outside on the beautiful day.

Well...I thin there's some more pictures trapped in the camera. If I can manage to access them I'll try to post another blog for all our fans out there.

Take care all!

Taylor (and Leighton)

P.S. For those keeping track, and especially for those NOT keeping track, in just SIX short days, I'll be THREE YEARS OLD!!! What?!?! Wow.

Another Fantastic Vacation on the Books

2010-03-30T20:56:00.005-05:00

Well...it's over. And...we're home. And that? Well that's stinky. Stinky like Leighton's diapers. Now we're counting the days until we get to go again. Actually, Mom and Dad are doing that counting because I can only make it to ten.

For now we have the memories and pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Three-hundred-some pictures thanks to the Fancy New Camera That Takes Really Nice Pictures. You'll find a couple of them here, and more on flickr. (But don't worry, not all three-hundred-some.)

Mom got some cool action sequence shots at the pool that she's hoping I'll put up on the blog soon but that'll be a work in progress.

So anyways, enjoy...

The last night of our vacation, some of us (Mom, Dad, Haley, Kevin, Kris and me) headed to downtown Palm Springs for a street fair. (Leighton couldn't go with because of his early bedtime so Grandma Trish and Papa Boots stayed home with him and they all went to dinner at the club.)

I had a great time at the street fair but my parents made a very bad parenting choice to keep me out WAAAAYYY past my bedtime. Things went well through the waiting for the table at the restaurant period, during which time we walked the fair and shopped the shops. I stopped to pose with this cute poodle statue:

Then we had our dinner (well I actually just had chips, salsa and chocolate milk, but that's cool because I covered dairy and vegetables and kinda, almost covered carbohydrate/starch...) and then walked and shopped some more. Dad even gave me a ride on his shoulders so I could see everything that was going on:

But then something bad happened. Something very very bad. There was a rock climbing wall and I wanted to climb it and Mom said no because I'm too young and I said NO MOM MY NOT TOO UNG, MY BIG GIRL AND MY CLIMB THE WADDER NOW COME ON so Mom and Dad said we would go ask the people and we walked there and nobody could talk to us because they were busy helping kids that looked bigger than me but I didn't admit that and Mom looked at a piece of paper and winked at Dad and then pointed to it and said LOOK TAYLOR it SAYS you have to be five years old and you're only two so you can't do it and we're going home because it's after 9:00 and you're a wreck. So we started to walk to the car and that's when this happened:

We got to the car where I was FINALLY given a nummy and calmed down right away. Unfortunately, that only lasted until we got back to the house where I broke down again for no apparent reason but it involved things like MY NOT WEAR A PULLUP TO BED MY WEAR PANTIES and no Taylor, we're not doing that on vacation but when we go home maybe we can start doing potty training for bedtime and MY NOT WANNA WEAR JAMMIES, MY WEAR MY DRESS TO BED and a wrestling match involving a pullup and Mom saying EEERRRR Taylor I am so done with you right now and then Grandma putting me in bed with my nummies and water and an eventual surrender to sleep.

(Note: Life has been like that around here a lot lately, but not to worry, in an extreme act of parenting Mom and Dad took ALL my books away and I'm earning them back by displaying appropriate behavior.)

Other fun activities interspersed with my tantrums included:

Lots and lots of swimming

Fun times with my cousin Haley (who looks JUST like her mommy, Kris in this picture!)

Lots and lots of golf cart rides

A trip to The Living Desert where Leighton and I rode together in a wagon (so fun!)

A day out without kids for Mom and Dad-they went hiking at Indian Canyons and had a romantic date night at their favorite restaurant, Kalura Trattoria Italiana

And lots of practice on my "skaters"

The weather back here in Minnesota has been unseasonably beautiful which has been the state's saving grace since we had to leave the sun and very warm weather in California. And to remember the beauty of Palm Springs until we go again, we have this:

TTFN.

Taylor and Leighton (who, by the way, if you're keeping track, still DOES. NOT. SLEEP. THROUGH. THE. NIGHT. Argh.)

The Good Life

2010-03-22T23:37:00.003-05:00

Greeting from Palm Springs, California. Just a quick update before I head off to bed completely exhausted from the many adventures. (Of which I will share more details at a later date.)

Leighton, much to everybody's chagrin, took to the grass like a fish to water. Mom, Dad, Grandma and Papa were very happy that he didn't react like I did the first time I came to Palm Springs.

He may not look like he truly appreciates the grass here, but it was his first moment:

With more time to acclimate to it's unique texture, he's become very accustomed to it and happy with it:

There have been a couple firsts for me as well.

My first pair of roller skates:

Grandma got them for me, complete with all the safety gear. I told Mom that I want to take them to Meggie's next hockey game so I can skate with her.

I also got my first set of golf clubs-WITH A BAG!-as an early birthday gift from Mom and Dad. Sweet!

Today we all went to the driving range and putting green so I could try all my clubs out. I'm no Stephanie Oster yet, but I'll keep practicing and I'll be there someday.

I am beyond exhausted from all my adventures, so you'll have to excuse me for now. I'll be back soon with more pictures of our adventures.

Peace out,

Taylor (and Leighton)

Mr. Golden Sun

2010-03-14T22:14:00.004-05:00

Thank you so much for shining down on us today Mr. Sun! It was just what the doctor ordered for all of us. Now if Leighton and I can bounce back from the chaos created by the time switch, life will be grand.

I got to take my trike out for a spin down the block today. Mom was a bit frustrated that I don't yet know how to pedal correctly, but she's trying to be patient. She says if we need to, we'll call Ms. Adrienne (her OT friend at work) and see if we can get some outpatient help for me. Apparently Ms. Adrienne is really good at teaching kids how to ride trikes.

Unfortunately, because he has really bad timing and takes two naps a day, Leighton only made it outdoors during outings to church, Nate's hockey game and dinner at Grandma and Papa's house. But here's a picture of him anyways...

Do you see the irony in this picture? Yes, Megan, it was really warm today and I know you're at that age where you want to dress inappropriately for the weather, but seriously, do you see the snow still on the ground?!?!

Meggie and Nate had lots of fun cruising around on their roller blades. I pitched a big fit (one of many I had today since the time change forced Mommy to take a calculated risk and allow me to go napless for the day) and told Mom that I'm big enough for roller blades. Funny thing though, she didn't run to the store to buy me a pair. Maybe she'll go tomorrow.

Meggie:

Nate:

Well it's off to lala land for our house now. Back to the grindstone tomorrow.

Toodles,

Taylor

(Remember when I used to sign with all kinds of nicknames? Well, not anymore. I INSIST on being called Taylor and nothing else. It's part of my "Tude".)

Just Random News

2010-03-13T21:40:00.005-06:00

Mom has been enjoying her new camera but hasn't had many unique chances to use it or the time to figure out any fancy features. For now she's just been shooting pics of us kids anyone else that shows up around the house, but she's real excited to take it on vacation when we go to Palm Springs in a week. Papa Steve said he'd give Mom some pointers and teach her how the fancy cameras work. That's all well and good and thanks Papa, but me, I'm looking forward to golf cart rides, swimming in the pool and going to find the turtle that Papa told me about the other day. He says it lives in one of the ponds on the golf course and that he'll take me for a walk to see it. I can't wait!

Here is one of the pictures Mom shot with the new camera. What she wanted to capture in this picture is my lovely ensemble. See, I had a potty accident while Mom was in the shower (I tried to make it on the potty but just didn't get there in time) and she told me to take off the wet clothes and leave them on the bathroom floor, then go get myself clean panties, pants and socks. I did a great job and showed some fantastic self help skills. But matching? Nope, that didn't happen. (Snowflakes on my sleeves, striped pants and crazy socks with animal heads on them.)

In preparation for vacation, Mom had me try on summer clothes from last summer to see if anything still fit me. The good news is that Mom found a couple outfits and a couple dresses that still fit me. Nice! She also found me some divatastic sunglasses.

Mom likes to torture us by doing things like putting hats that are QUITE OBVIOUSLY too large for us on our heads. Earlier today she stuck her hat on my head. (Thank goodness she didn't run off for her camera for that one.) Leighton was her next victim when Mom found Dad's hat on the kitchen floor. (Yes, hat on the kitchen floor. And no, that is not where it belongs, but who am I to judge, right?) She got a pretty cute picture of that one...

Tonight Mom and I made homemade pizzas for dinner. (Dad was off watching the state high school hockey tournament.) Mom wanted to make sure we could tell our pizzas apart so we made a "T" out of pepperoni on my pizza. It turns out that wasn't necessary as I decided to put sugar snap peas on top of my pizza after Mom snapped this picture. (Yes, that's gross. And I voiced that opinion when Mom pulled the pizzas from the oven. Mom dropped a big ol' "I tried to tell you that!" at that point.)

Dad was away a lot this week. A LOT. Monday night he was in Wisconsin. Tuesday night he had a business dinner (and those ALWAYS go late). Wednesday he was in St. Louis and Thursday he was at the hockey tournament. Grandma Jan and Papa Bob helped us out by bringing over dinner on Tuesday night and staying home with Leighton when I had dance class on Wednesday. For a special treat on Tuesday, we had ICE CREAM CONES. Yum yum! Leighton even got to get in on the action.

The next couple pictures are juts some random shots that Mom got of Leighton one day when the light was really good in the living room. (Which is really rare as it usually feels like a cave in there.)

Sometimes I'm a "piece of work" at dance class (that means that I refuse to go into class and/or run out of class multiple times during the hour I'm there) but sometimes I'm really into it and have lots of fun. Evidence:

And one last picture of Leighton just because he's so darn cute!

Thanks for tuning in. Blogging may not happen in the next week as we prepare for vacation, but watch for news of our California Adventure as it unfolds.

Hugs and Kisses!

Taylor and Leighton

Mommy's New Toy

2010-02-27T21:27:00.004-06:00

Today Mommy and I went on at outing to Roseville. First we went to Target where the nice ladies at the Target portait studio took these super adorable pictures of me...

Then we went to National Camera Exchange where Mom bought a new camera to replace the one we (I) broke. Mom has always wanted a digital SLR camera and decided to use my little accident as an excuse to finally buy one. She's hoping to get good enough with it to start taking the family pictures and stop paying other people to do it. First she's going to take the class that the store offers because the camera is quite a bit more complicated than the old point and shoot. Until then, she'll be playing around and hopefully at least get some material for Taylor and I to use on the blog.

Check back soon and see if she's helped us out.

Other random updates as long as I'm here...

-Two nights ago when I woke up at 10:30, Mom found me sitting up in my crib crying, my blanket on the other side of the crib. When she picked me up she could feel my legs were cold through my pajamas. So she wrapped my in my blankie, gave me my lovey, and rocked me back to sleep. (Without a bottle!) So the next night, Mom put me in two pairs of pajamas with the second pair of pajams acting as my blanket. Wonder of wonders, I slept from 7:30-6:30. Mommy was so happy and so was I! We're all hoping that Mommy has found a permanent solution to the very troublesome problem of me waking in the night.

-I'm continuing to LOVE trying new foods. Last night Taylor shared her pancakes with me when we were out to eat with the family. I've had bananas a few times and I see why Mom and Taylor eat them by the bushel. Today I had some penne pasta and thought it was quite impressive. Taylor is really nice and wants to share everything with me and help me try all kinds of new foods but Mom and Dad remind her that we have to take it slow and that I am still a baby.

-Not a whole lot of news on Taylor. I guess when you get to her age, you don't change as much as you do at my age.

Well...that's all for now. Take care!

Love and hugs and wet kisses!

Leighton

Uhoh.

2010-02-21T20:58:00.002-06:00

I made Mommy drop the camera. It doesn't work now. We have time to blog but we have no pictures. I'm sorry. Please accept this video of Taylor that was uploaded before I killed the camera as a token of my sincere apology.

Love,
Leighton

Monthly Update

2010-02-17T20:45:00.006-06:00

Remember last month when I told you about how Leighton started sleeping through the night but followed it up with the disclaimer about us both being sick and all bets being off? Well, my prediction came true. Sleeping through the night only lasted about a week and since then he's been up to his old tricks. Mom is getting pretty darn sick and tired of it and walks around here like a zombie most of the time. Except when she's hopped up on coffee or Diet Mountain Dew (or both!), then she runs around like a crazy woman. It's awesome. But not really, so LEIGHTON, SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT ALREADY!

In addition to his sleeping misadventures, he's become mobile. He can crawl all over and even likes to stand up on things. But sometimes he gets into some trouble, like the day he was crawling around on the bathroom floor and got stuck in my step stool after he flipped it over then tried to use it as Mount Everest.

Leighton also likes to stand up in his bed which may or may not be part of our nighttime problem. The sleeping through the night stint seemed to end about the same time he taught himself how to sit up and then stand up.

Recently, we decided to see how much of the Minnesota Zoo is open during the winter. We could only see the indoor exhibits but it was enough for a short little outing.

The zoo has become a much more rewarding experience for Leighton now that he can sit up in the stroller and look all around. By the time we go back again in the spring, maybe he'll even be able to walk with me so I can show him all my favorites.

Back at the end of January, we went out to eat to celebrate Mom and Uncle John's birthdays. It was a fun night at Rudy's Redeye Grill. Yum!

(I really didn't want to be in the picture below but Nate enticed me by telling me I could make a funny face. Hehe.)

Two weekends ago we got to have Meggie spend the night. We had lots of fun! We went out to eat at Baja Sol, made cookies, played Hide and Go Seek, and then Meggie got to sleep in my room on a special bed filled with air. Mom told me I had to stay in my bed all night long, but I snuck down to Meggie's bed at 3:00 in the morning. Meg said it was alright except for the part where I rubbed my nummies on her face.

Enjoying fresh-baked cookies and milk.

Grandma Trish and Papa Steve were in town for the Super Bowl. Kevin, Kris, Haley and Papa Boots came over to watch the big game with us. Haley, Leighton and I snuck away to have some story time.

I decided to provide my own halftime show and put on this great outfit.

Mom was off work Monday for President's Day and Meg and Nate were off school so Aunt Jenni took the day off too. We decided to capitalize on the family time potential by loading up and headed downtown to the Children's Museum. This was another outing that was far more interactive for Leighton now that he's getting all grown up.

I was really excited to have Meggie there because she painted my face like a clown.

In food and dental news, Leighton now has eight teeth (what?!?!) and gets to start trying all kinds of new foods. Tuesday night's treat was black beans. He loved them! I refused to eat them even though Mom and Dad claim that I too loved them once upon a time. (Sometimes I'm a stubborn pain in the butt like that.)

Well people, I hope you enjoyed our update. I won't make any promises, but hopefully we'll be back to blog again soon.

Hugs and Sloppy Kisses,

Taylor and Leighton

XOXOXOXO

2010-01-18T20:59:00.006-06:00

We are really really hoping that this will be our last detour to flickr and we can get back to blogging and telling you about all our fun (and sometimes not-so-fun adventures).

Let's see if we can give you quick recap before you take that detour...

I'm learning lots at my daycare/preschool. I'm learning how to write my name and so far have the "T" and "O" mastered. I can usually identify 4/6 of the letters in my name. Mommy says this is really great because she works with 4 and 5-year-olds that can't do that. I'm counting really well and learning my shapes. I'm still going to dance class every Wednesday night and learning my dances really well for my recital coming up in May. I like to help out with my little brother Leighton. I make him laugh better than anyone else when I dance, play peek-a-boo with him, and when I pretend to beat him up in the car.

Leighton is (still) getting huge. He now weighs 24 pounds, 8 ounces. He can crawl and sit up by himself. He has five teeth and loves to use them to eat when he's feeling healthy. Unfortunately, right now he's not feeling healthy at all. He's had a nasty cough and cold for 9 days now and had pinkeye (which was diagnosed during a midweek trip to Urgent Care) in the middle of that. Thankfully there was medicine to take care of the pinkeye, but nothing for the cough and cold since he's just a baby. (I also have the cough and cold but I seem to be coping better than Little Man.)

The best new news is that Leighton now sleeps through the night. Mommy put him through Baby Sleep Boot Camp while Daddy was out of town for week. That means that Mommy kicked him out of my bedroom and he slept in the portable crib in the guestroom for seven nights. When he would wake up, Mommy would try to get him to go back to sleep without eating. Every night he slept a little bit longer without waking until *poof* suddenly he was sleeping from 6:45 PM to 6:45 AM. Woohoo!! Mom and Dad are loving it. We're a bit limited in what we can do in the evenings if we want to keep our boy on his schedule, but it's worth it since it means Mom and Dad can sleep all night long. (Of course, since we're both sick right now, all bets are off, but that's ok. That's life and when we're healthy again, everyone will go back to having great sleep habits, right? Right?!?)

Well, off to flickr to add those promised pictures.

Toodles!

Taylor and Leighton

Hiatus?

2009-12-30T14:36:00.001-06:00

So if the last break was a furlough, this one has been a hiatus. Life has been getting in the way of blogging and try as we might, at the end of the day, after doing everything there is to do in a household with two small children and two parents working outside of the home, there's only enough energy to fall into bed and slip into a comatose state only to inevitably be woken from said state by a crying, hungry baby or a sad two-year-old.

With that said, please head to flickr to find the a batch of pictures to catch you up since our last blog WAY back in October...but we've only had time to upload pictures up to Thanksgiving. Stay tuned and hopefully we'll have time during the rest of the holiday break to fully catch you up.

Lotsa love! Taylor and Leighton

Furlow

2009-10-21T22:02:00.002-05:00

It's not that we don' t want to blog, it's that we just. don't. have. time. Ugh ugh, double ugh. So we're doing a quickie here just to quiet some critics (*cough Papa Steve cough*) that have pointed out the lack of blogging.

So, here we are enjoying some leisure time on Mom and Dad's bed. I make sure that Leighton and I have everything we need to hang out there. For me that means a blanket, water, nummies (three to be exact, one for my mouth and one for each hand), and Ozzie, by monkey friend you see in the picture. I also make sure Leighton has what he needs. That means I bring in his whole basket of toys and dump them on the bed. Mom doesn't find it amusing. Strange, I think it's great fun.

Leighton has decided that he likes cereal now. Sometimes. He's got to be in just the right mood and have adequate rest to actually eat it. This happens about 60% of the times that Mom tries to feed him. On this day he was quite fond of his food and liked having me feed him.

Our cousin Kerstin who lives far far far far away in Germany sent this t-shirt for Leighton. "Ich War's Nicht"=It Wasn't Me! We love it! Thanks Kerstin!!! She also sent lots and lots of books for me and Mom and I have had oodles of fun reading them. It pays to have family in the children's book business. (Kerstin is really smart and helps to translate books from English to German.)

Annie get your gun! Here I am at a restaurant trying out the Big Buck Hunter game in the dress I wore for our family pictures.

Go Big Red!!!! Here is Leighton's impression of Lil' Red.

Alright, I hope this post will quiet our critics. It's time to go get some shuteye now. Never enough of that around here.

Peace out,
Taylor and Leighton

2009-09-21T21:37:00.004-05:00

Hi friends! Life continues to be pretty busy around our house. We're taking advantage of the last nice outside days and also getting into the offerings that fall brings. Last weekend Mom, Leighton Grandma Trish and I visited Aamodt's Apple Farm in Stillwater. It was so much fun!!! I got to ride on John Deere trikes and riding toys, feed the farm animals, ride a pony and pick apples all by myself! I didn't even need a ladder because they grow short trees just the right size for 2-year-olds! Leighton slept in the baby carrier the whole time we were there. Mom says he might enjoy the apple orchard more next year. We got to pick my dad's favorite kind of apples-Honeycrisp. We brought home about 12 pounds of them-yummy!

We've been cheering on the Nebraska Cornhuskers when we get the chance. I'd show you pictures of that, but they're on Dad's camera and I don't have a cord at my house to download them. I'll have to work something out with Dad.

Yesterday the weather was looking a little iffy, so Mom took Leighton and me to Lookout Ridge indoor park in Woodbury. Mom and I played and climbed for over and hour and a half. We got very tired! Dad met us there when he got back into town from his trip to Des Moines with Buddy Cooney. They went to see Dave Matthews Band-a rockin' good time from what I've heard.

Leighton started his Early Childhood Family Education classes with Mom last Tuesday. When they go to class, I get to have special Daddy and me time. Last week he took me to the park by the airport. I love that park! I can't wait to see what he's got in store for me this week.

On Wednesday nights I go to my dance class. I've had some issues with separating from Mom and Dad and joining my class, but I'm doing better every week. I'm going to get some noisy tap shoes like the other kids, and then maybe I'll really be ready to join the group and do some serious dancing.

When Papa Steve was up for a visit (the same weekend Grandma took us to the apple orchard), Mom and I went to dinner with him and Papa Boots. Here's a fantastic picture of me and the papas.

Mom and Dad found out from the doctor that since Leighton is four months old and so gigantic (19 pounds 2 ounces!!!!) that he can start eating rice cereal. But guess what!!! He didn't like it. Can you even believe it?!?!? I gobbled that stuff up and never looked back when Mom and Dad first fed it to me. That Leighton Boy, I don't know about him...

Leighton's other milestones:

Last weekend he rolled over for the first time from his front to his back. He rolled again on Thursday from his back to his front, but nobody was actually in the room to witness it. All we know is when he was left on the floor it was on his back and when Mom came back in the room after putting me in bed, he was on his stomach. Crying. Stuck between a pillow and a TV tray...oops.

On Friday Leighton FINALLY popped his first tooth. All that crying and working his tongue and drooling and sucking on people's fingers finally paid off. When we can pry his mouth open and get his tongue jammed back so the tooth is showing, I'll get you a picture of it. Until then, enjoy this nice shot of his tongue:

I guess that's all for now. Oh!! I almost forgot the big news-tomorrow Leighton gets to start going to daycare with me. I'm really happy but the happiest people are Mom and Dad. No more driving to two daycares for drop off and pickup. Woot woot!!!

Well folks, have a great week. Enjoy the weather and the Honeycrisps!

Taylor and Leighton

Argh Blogger.

2009-09-12T15:30:00.002-05:00

We're still having trouble getting Blogger to make a nice blog for us. Every time we try to load pictures, they're all caddywompus (wow...how do you spell that?) on the page instead of in a nice neat line. So until we get that figured out, head over to flickr.

Leighton and Taylor

Family Fun Priorities

2009-09-06T10:26:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Mommy loaned her camera out and has been without a camera for two weeks now. Hopefully we'll get it back soon. Mommy also went back to work last week so the time leading up to that was filled with lots and lots of fun times, all of which we'll tell you about soon. Hopefully. ;-) This weekend we're concentrating on family fun as last week was hectic with Mom's return to work and some late nights and traveling for Daddy's work.

Peace out!
Taylor and Leighton

2009-08-16T14:51:00.002-05:00

Blogger, in true Blogger form (argh) is experiencing technical difficulties in the past couple days. We are unable to give you an aesthetically pleasing blog post, so please proceed to our flickr site for pictures detailing our latest adventures. Here we will provide you with the narrative rundown of what we've been up to...

We had the annual family reunion at Papa Owie's house a few weekends ago. It was a fun time, with lots of playing outside with extended family, but we were only able to stay for part of the reunion. We left that Saturday to head a wedding in Owatanna and a reception in Waseca. The bride was Dani and her mom is my Grandma Trish's very good friend. Vernie comes to visit us when Grandma Trish is in town and she and I are really good friends. We had a super fun time at the wedding and the reception.

Mom got together with her friends from work at a real nice restaurant and brought Leighton and me with her. I was my usual 2-year-old self, but Mom's friends did a great job of keeping me busy. Especially that Ms. Adrienne-she and I have a special bond. Adrienne and I did lots of talking and book reading while the other ladies oohed and aahed over Leighton.

I've been to the pool most of the warm days. We're getting our monies worth out of our season passes. Gavin and his peeps have joined us a couple times and after we swim, we all head over to the park for a picnic and to play on the equipment. It's so much fun but since it all happens during the time leading up to nap time (a.k.a. The Witching Hour of Toddlerhood), things can get a bit dicey.

I've had two sleepovers at Grandma Jan and Papa Bob's in the last couple weeks. Grandma has had the Fridays off, so I've gotten to stay at their house on Thursday night. When Leighton gets bigger and doesn't need Mommy to fee him, he can come with me for sleepovers. I love sleepovers with Grandma and Papa. We do fun things like go out to eat, go watch airplanes on Post Road, go to the Mall of America and play in the basement. It sounds simple, but their basement is one of my favorite places in the world. Must be all the toys. Some are so old that Mom said SHE played with them as a child. Wow.

Mom, Grandma Jan, Leighton and I went on an adventure to a place called Roberts, Wisconsin after one of my sleepovers. We went there to visit Mommy's bestest goodest friend, Dre. They went to college together at University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Dre has a new baby named Simon LeRoy. He was due to be born the same day as Leighton, but as we all know, Leighton was born four weeks early, and then Simon was a week late, so they're actually five weeks apart in age. Mommy was so happy to see Dre. It had been way too long-over two years! They hadn't seen each other since I was a tiny baby. THAT is what having a child can do to a friendship. But Mommy and Dre have one of those friendships that never misses a beat, and you'd never know it had been so long. Grandma Jan had a great time too-Dre is a pseudo daughter for Grandma-see, Dre lived at Grandma and Papa's house one summer during the college years. Grandma Jan thought the craziest part was watching the moms nursing their new babies. She said "You girls have come a long way since your party days!" Oh Mommy!

We went on another adventure to Somerset, Wisconsin the very next day. This time we went to Nick, Lacy and Aiden's housewarming party. (Nick is Daddy's cousin, for those not familiar.) It was so fun! And bonus! My Gavin was there because his mommy works with Nick. I played and played and played with Anna-she's Nick's niece. There was a really really really big storm that night, and Anna and I hid at the bottom of the stairs because we heard that a TOMATO might be coming towards the house and Anna told me that those can kill you! (What I'm wondering now is why Mom keeps putting them in our food if they're so dangerous...)

My cousin Meggie had a birthday last week. She turned 10 years old! Our whole family is astonished that she's already that old. We went to Outback Steakhouse (Meg's favorite place to eat steak) and they all kept saying things like "Why I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday".

Last weekend I got to go to a very fun picnic with my daycare friends. Ms. Angela and Mr. Ray host an annual event at Lake Elmo Park Reserve where families can camp if they're so inclined (we passed on that this year because of Baby Leighton) and then everybody comes for a big picnic on Saturday afternoon. It was great fun! I got to do relay races and a three-legged race and a tug of war.

This week Mom took Leighton and I to the Children's Museum. I just love that place! I could play for hours and hours and days and days. Last time Leighton slept through the whole thing, but this time, since he's getting bigger and older and more awake, he got to look around at everything. Mom realized that next time she needs to bring a baby carrier since he didn't want to be in the stroller when he was awake.

There's just a week and a half left of our fun-filled time with Mommy. She goes back to work on August 31st. I'll be heading back to daycare at Angela and Ray's. Leighton will be going to Ms. Lisa's house for five weeks, until there is a baby spot open for him at Angela and Ray's. Mom and Dad were happy to find a good daycare on short notice that would take Leighton on a temporary basis.

Well, I'd better get to posting those pictures on flickr that I told you about. I do suppose I've written enough.

TTFN Friends!

Tater and Leighton Boy

Randomness

2009-08-07T22:36:00.004-05:00

It seems Mom has been having a hard time taking care of us AND taking pictures of us. But we got ahold of her Sony Cybershot, dusted it off, hooked it up to the computer and found a couple pictures for you.

Here's Mr. Roundhead, a.k.a. Leighton. Seriously?!?! Oh but look at that smile! I could just eat him up.

I've been spending lots of time at the pool. Yesterday I wrapped up the second and last week of swim lessons. It was great fun and I did lots of practicing. We worked on back floats, front floats, bobs (not Papa, but the kind where you hold onto the side of the pool and "bob" your head underwater), tidal waves (holding onto the side of the pool and pushing the water over the side with your chest by pulling your arms in-great for arm strength according to my teacher Alicia), passing me back and forth from Mom to Alicia, rolling over from front to back (I'm not a fan of this one, just for the record) and scooping and kicking while swimming.

Thursday we stayed at the pool after lessons and my buddy Gavin joined us. He brought his mom, Liz and his baby sister, Faith along with him. Mom didn't get any pictures of Gavin and I swimming, but did catch this shot of me warming up with my doggy towel poolside.

The third and final new picture we found is this one of us kids with our daddy. Not a bad looking bunch, huh?

And now, the creme de la creme...a video of me dancing at Sam and Chad's wedding. I love to dance and what can I say but, I'm a natural!!

Take care friends!

Taylor and Leighton

Updates

2009-07-27T14:42:00.001-05:00

Holy guacamole people! The update of all updates just in: Leighton went to the doctor yesterday for his 2-month check-up (a little late actually as he's already 11 weeks, or roughly 2.5 months) and he weighs a whopping 15 pounds and 8 ounces. His length (24 inches) is at the 75th percentile, his weight is at the 95th (up from about the 75th last time he was at the doc) and his head is in the gol darn 100th percentile! That kid sure has a melon on him! He is smiling a lot these days and even does a little talking once in a while. He stays awake a lot more than he used to which keeps Mommy very busy (and a bit crazed at times) during her days home with us. But Mommy knows that this too shall pass and she loves every minute she has with us.

As for me, well I'm just a big girl these days. After a vacation where I slept on a bed from which I could easily escape, I came home brave enough to try the same from my big high captains bed. And guess what? I can totally do it! So now when I don't want to nap, alls I gotta do is jump down and run around my room and move the footrest to the door so I can play with the light switch and jiggle the doorknob. I did this for an hour and a half during what should have been my nap time yesterday. Finally Mom got smart and said I didn't have to nap. I won! Or maybe not, because the trip to the park that was mentioned in exchange for my napping did not happen. Oops. Let's see...what else have I been up to...well a couple weeks ago I got to go to a wedding and I danced my fanny right off at the reception. Mom and Dad clocked me at about 45 minutes of dancing. I get to go to another wedding this weekend and I'm really excited to show off some new moves I've been working on.

I also got to go with the Behnkens for a vacation in Siren, Wisconsin. The weather was really cold and windy for the first four days, which made it seem pointless to be on a lake, but we made the best of it and did lots of playing in the cabin as well as outings to the nearby towns. When the weather did turn nice, we got to play on the beach, ride in a pontoon and go on Big Bertha, the inter tube that got pulled behind the pontoon.

Well, since life around here is still pretty hectic and blogger is still pretty slow to load pictures, you can get the picture part of this update over at our flickr site.

TTFN Blogosphere Buddies!

Taylor and Leighton

Head to Flickr

2009-07-05T22:51:00.002-05:00

We've added some random pictures that haven't made the blog from the last couple weeks to our flickr site. Check 'em out.

Taylor and Leighton

Somewhere in Middle America

2009-07-03T14:31:00.004-05:00

As some of you may already know, I recently enojoyed a trip to Omaha, Nebraska with Grandma Trish and Papa Steve. They came to Minnesota to see us (and to attend the annual Breast Cancer golf benefit in Rochester) and took me back to Nebraska with them. I got to stay there all week and have TONS of fun with them. Leighton had to stay at home with Mom and Dad. When he's bigger he can come with me on these fun trips.

I spent a lot of time in my bathing suits (all five of them, thanks to Grandma Trish's swimsuit shopping spree). We had sprinkler play in the yard, went to Craig and Jill's pool (Craig and Jill are Grandma and Papa's friends) and went to the pool at Grandma and Papa's country club.

Leighton, Mommy and Daddy came down to join us in Omaha halfway through my stay. Leighton got to come watch me swim, but he's too little to go in the pool.

Leighton enjoyed some leisure time with Papa...

And he also got to see Aunt Stephanie again AND meet our awesome Uncle Klayton for the first time. I learned a secret about Uncle Klayton...he's a PIRATE! Did you even know that boys?!?!

(Ok, maybe that was a joke. Maybe he just got something in his eye when he was golfing. Hehehe I tricked you!)

One night Mom, Dad, Grandma and Papa took me and Leighton to Village Point for live music and family fun. I got to get a balloon hat and play with this big ball fountain. Village Point isn't just a nice place to shop and go out to eat...remember when I was little and I went there to see a Christmas tree lighting?

Before we left town, we went out to breakfast with Mom and Dad's friends. Cory and Kristin were there. Tim and Tara were supposed to be there with all their kids-Peyton, Brylee and Morgan-but Tim kinda messed that one up. I heard the adults saying he went to the doghouse or something. He must have brought Peyton and Morgan with him because only Tara and Brylee came to breakfast. The boys were missed, but I had a great time playing with Brylee.

After a fantastic week in Omaha, it was time for the long trip home. Mom and Dad knew I wouldn't nap my usual 2.5 to 3 hours, but hoped for at least 1.5 hours. Boy did I surprise and astonish them when I only slept for 15 minutes of the 7 hour journey. That'll teach Mom to reward my potty accomplishments (yeah, that's right, I pooped at a gas station after Mom and Dad made a special stop at my request) with a Tootsie Pop. She should have listened to Dad when he told her to get me a toy for a reward.

TTFN,

Taylor (and Leighton)

We're still alive.

2009-07-01T23:39:00.001-05:00

We're just too busy to blog. Sorry.

Taylor and Leighton

Busy Bees!

2009-06-17T22:58:00.003-05:00

Since our last report, things have continued to be busy around our house. I had my last week of daycare last week and am now staying at home full time to help Mom with Leighton. Leighton is growing bigger and bigger. He stays awake more during the day which you would think would be a great thing so we can all play with him, but I've heard rumblings and grumblings from Mom and Dad. Something like "All he did was sleep the first four weeks, like he thought he was still in utero...now he's acting just like Taylor did! This could be a long few months if it's anything like it was with her..." You'll have to help me out here boys...what are Mom and Dad talking about? I think I'm a pretty darn good kid. Was I not always this way? Was something wrong with me when I was a teeny baby like Leighton? Well, I guess the bright side is that obviously I grew out of it, so he will too.

Well, you're probably here to see pictures, so I'd best get on with it.

On June 9th, Leighton turned one month old. Here he is celebrating with George in Dad's chair:

I'm on a tight schedule here, so we'll have to go with the detour for the rest of our pictures. Head over to flickr for more.

TTFN,

Taylor (and Leighton)

Trying to Keep Up...

2009-06-07T14:55:00.013-05:00

As our dad would say: "Oh my oh my oh my." Two children may only be twice as many as one child, but the level of activity around here seems to have multiplied by much more than two. Especially when it comes to diaper duty. Do you people out there have any idea how much a new baby poops?!?! Just trying to keep up with his dirty diapers is enough to wear a big sister out. I like to help Mom and Dad by getting a clean diaper, opening the "medicine" (diaper rash cream) and then "washing" my hands with the hand sanitizer.

Life around here is so busy that I'm (obviously) not able to keep up with regular posting. And now that I have finally found time to post, I have to apologize for the lack of organization and flow to the post. To put it simply, it's just a bunch of random pictures thrown on the blogosphere. But I'm sure it will satisfy your curiosities just the same, even if the post does lack my usual unique and perfectionistic layout and writing style.

Oh, by the way. Mom and Dad and I took Leighton to the doctor today (because he finally caught the cold that the rest of us have had-no worries though-just a run of the mill cold and the doc gave Leighton some eye stuff to clear up the nasty eye, nasal drops for the nose, and Poop Goop for the diaper rash) and he weighs a whopping 10 pounds and 1 ounce!! Can you even believe the little porker?!?! To his defense, he would like me to clarify that the nurse left his diaper and clothing on so he may actually weigh a few ounces less than that. But still? Wow.

So, on with the pictures...

Mom loving on Leighton.

Leighton hanging out in his glider.

Leighton getting ready to go to the zoo in a cute monkey outfit. (Which he's already outgrown!)

Mom, Grandma Jan, Leighton and I went to the zoo with my daycare friends. It was super fun!!

Leighton had to borrow my sunglasses one day when he was hanging out in the sun rays. This was in his early days when he still had some jaundice and needed to sunbathe (in indirect sun of course) to get rid of it.

We call him "Lazy Leighton" because he likes to sleep. A lot.

I've found some time in all the craziness to play outside. I especially like to play with my bubble maker.

Grandma Trish came to visit us for a few days last week. One day we got to go to Lake Calhoun with Aunt Sue and Uncle Lars for a walk and a picnic. So much fun!

Sometimes I like to make funny faces to keep everyone laughing.

And if the funny faces don't work, there's always my wardrobe choices and moptop hair that I sometimes won't let my mommy tame.

Aunt Jenni likes to snuggle with Leighton. She says it almost makes her want to have another kid. But only almost.

Look at this strong boy and his Tummy Time Tricks! He can already lift his head up.

Leighton can't get his toys out by himself so I like to help him out by dumping them all on top of him. Aren't I just the most helpful helper?!?

Professional's Corner:

We visited the portrait studio to have some professional pics taken. I've got to say, we're a couple of good looking kids!!

I hope you enjoyed. I gotta run. The baby pooped again!

Taylor (and Leighton)

Home, Happy and (Relatively) Healthy

2009-05-21T14:25:00.005-05:00

Hello there folks. Sorry for the lack of updates. As you can imagine, adding a baby hooked to an Apnea Monitor to the family mix has made life around here a little hectic. I've been so busy being a big sister helper that I've not had time for my blogging duties. But Leighton is sleeping and Mom and Dad seem to have things under control (for now) so I've snuck away to blog for your viewing pleasure...

Here is our first official family picture. Picture perfect or what?!?!

Isn't Leighton just a handsome little man?!?!

Sometimes he gets a little tired of the paparazzi around him and has to take cover...

While Leighton was getting better in the hospital and I was hanging out with Grandma Trish and Papa Steve, I took them to my favorite park. It has a "eem" (airplane) that I absolutely love-but you have to buckle up before you can fly with me!

I like to copy everything that Papa Steve does...

I was right at the door to welcome my baby brother home last Friday. I was so happy he got to leave the hospital. Mom and Dad were very surprised that the doctors and nurses let him come home, but were more than happy to comply!

Leighton and I have been having a good time getting to know each other. He doesn't do much...mostly he just eats, poops and sleeps, but that's alright. They tell me I was like that once upon a time for about a day and a half. (Then I apparently morphed into some kind of monster baby that cried a lot and didn't like to sleep unless someone was holding me ALL the time for a couple months.)

Mom, Dad, Leighton and I would like to send out many many many many thanks to those of you that prayed for Leighton and our family during his time in the NICU. Your prayers did wonders and we're so glad to have Little Lazy Leighton home with us. He will be on his monitor for at least four weeks, but if all goes well during that time, the monitor will go away after that. (So you can guess what our prayers are for now!)

Toodles!

Taylor (and Leighton)

It's a Boy-and It's Early!

2009-05-10T10:32:00.004-05:00

Well surprise surprise surprise! I have a baby brother. Yeah yeah, I know I've had him for 36 weeks in theory, but he was all hidden in Mommy's tummy. Yesterday he pulled the ultimate stunt and decided to come and join us in the real world four weeks early. Mommy went into labor about 3:00 Saturday morning and Leighton Steven was born at 8:34 AM weighing 7 pounds, 5.75 ounces and is 20.25 inches long. (Yes, I know, a bit big for four weeks early...many people have questioned if the due date was off by four weeks...)

Mom and Leighton are both doing great. Daddy is also doing very well and is quite excited that there will be another boy in our house now. Me, well I'm just tickled pink with the little guy. He's pretty darn cute and I like to kiss him and watch his funny faces.

It's a lot quicker for me to post pictures on our flickr site, so please take a detour there for more pics of our newly expanded family.

From The Big Sister,

Taylor McKenna

Whirlwind Weekend

2009-05-03T20:30:00.003-05:00

Late entry: Grandma Jan supplied this picture yesterday...it's me eating the yummy crab legs last weekend when we visited Papa Owie:

Daddy is a traveling man this weekend, so Mom and I spent lots of time with Papa Bob and Grandma Jan. When we left the house yesterday morning, I made sure I was well prepared for a day out and about, with my backpack and my purse.

Good thing I was prepared because Mom and Grandma drug me all over the metro area. We went to a consignment sale in Eagan where Mom bought oodles of clothes for my baby brother. I guess she's facing the reality that the little guy is going to be here before we know it and most of the clothes I wore would not be of the appropriate coloring for him. Grandma rode herd on me while Mom shopped and she said it made her very tired. Then we hit some garage sales, but came up empty. Next it was on to Target for some random Target-type stuff. After that I finally got a break from my car seat and hand-holding and cart-riding foolery when we went to Grandma and Papa's to play and have lunch. I had a nap there and when I woke up, it was out again to the fabric store for some projects Mom and Grandma have in the works. I had lots and lots and lots of fun running all over the store. Grandma said it made her tired. Again. Then it was back to Grandma and Papa's house for supper. I was tired from my busy day and had to go home to sleep it off right after dinner.

Today was another busy day with lots of grandparent time. We met Grandma and Papa at church, but Mom swiftly swept me off to the nursery. Last time she took me there I was all for it, but this time I pitched a bit of a fit. One of the nice nursery ladies held me and cuddled me when Mom left and I decided it was an alright thing. The nursery is cool because I can talk and giggle in there and nobody shushes me like they do in the sanctuary. After church we had lunch then I took a really good, long nap. After nap time we had to go to another fabric store since Mom and Grandma didn't find what they needed yesterday. This time they brought Papa along to ride herd on me. I heard them giggling while they watched Grandpa chase me around and put things (mainly candy) back on the shelves.

After shopping we went out to eat at my favorite restaurant-Red Lobster!!! Being the seafood aficionado that I am, I shard shrimp with Mommy. I also gobbled down the Lobster Fondue appetizer and even ate some broccoli. Yummy!

Grandma and I played outside a bit before it was time to go home. We found this neat pond by the restaurant with a little boat floating in it. That's us pointing to the boat for Mommy:

When we got home, somehow I was still hungry, so Mom got me some apples and milk. I spilled milk on my shirt and decided I should have a bib. For quality control purposes, I tried out one of the bibs that goes with an outfit Mom got for the baby. It worked quite well, but may be a bit small for me.

In other news not caught on camera, I did a great job potty training today. I used the toilet five times today! Four times at home and even one time at the restaurant. Mom let me wear a PullUp to dinner because I'm such a big girl. We're not sure what the next step is or even if there is a next step...perhaps today was a fluke...I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings.

TTFN,
Taylor "Big Girl" Oster

Checked Up and Checked Out.

2009-04-26T20:25:00.004-05:00

Last week I went to the doctor for my Two Year Well Check. I'm all good according to my doctor. I weighed in at 32 pounds, 4 ounces and I'm 35.75 inches tall (that's 2 feet, 11.75 inches if you're wondering). I'm still hanging out up in the 95th percentile for weight and the 92nd for height. I make no apologies for the numbers-you all know the genetics I'm working with here.

My appointment was actually quite fun. I got to wear this fun dressy while I waited for the doctor to check me out:

And I got to have a sucker and sticker when it was all said and done. Mom and Dad were very impressed at how well I handled having blood drawn from my arm. Dad held me (which made Mom a little nervous since my old man doesn't handle needles and blood all that well himself) and I didn't even make a peep when the nurses stuck the needle in my arm to get the blood out. Easy peasy!

This weekend we went on a road trip down to Papa Owie's. Mom, Dad and I drove down yesterday and spent the day hanging out at his house. It was too rainy and yucky to play outside so we all got a little touch of the cooped up fever. But we went out to dinner at a cool restaurant and that was a nice break. I ordered the corn dogs with french fries, but I was MUCH more interested in Mom's crab legs. I may only be two, but I've got a very refined palate.

Today we headed further south to Cresco, Iowa to have a belated Easter celebration at my Greataunt Judy and Greatuncle David's house. The food was fantastic and a nod to tradition, I was told. (It was my first Noe Easter experience.) After dinner it was time for the kids to have an Easter egg hunt. There aren't many of us kids to participate-not like back when Mommy was a kid-but we still had a great time. Here we are: Meg, Nate, me and Madeline, all waiting to get started. (I'm told the hunt is usually held outdoors in Judy and Dave's fantastic backyard, but due to weather, we hunted in the basement.)

My Megan helped me find eggs after she had found hers. What a great cousin!

I'm not sure how much Madeline understood of what was going on, but she sure seemed to be enjoying herself. (That's her mommy, Angela holding her, and behind her is her Grandma Carolyn and Aunt Erin-they are my mom's cousin's wife, my mom's aunt and my mom's cousin, respectively.)

We were having so much fun that it was tough to leave. But my parents finally decided when I was two and a half hours past naptime and was having a lot of trouble standing on my own two feet that we'd better hit the road. I was asleep in the truck in no time, safely tucked in the back with my monkey, Nuk, Dopey ears pillow, milk and Husker blanket.

It was a busy weekend, but a fun one. I'm glad to be home and I'm off to get a good night's rest so I'm ready to play with all my friends at daycare tomorrow.

Later Gators,

Tater

My Birthday!

2009-04-26T19:34:00.004-05:00

My birthday news and pics are here now for your enjoyment. It was a beautiful day and we were able to play and eat outside. This is always good at our house since there isn't really room for a lot of people inside.

Here I am playing with Lacy. She's my dad's cousin's wife. And the mother of Baby Aidan, my first cousin twice removed.

Here's dad playing with Nick, his cousin and Aidan's daddy. From the stories I've heard (that's right people, I hear it all!), Daddy and Nick used to be quite the wild pair. They're a little more tame now that they're dads. Their wild fun these days is contained to the month of March when they watch a lot of hockey together and to Thursday night golf league.

The weather was so beautiful that I had a hard time staying near my guests to entertain them. I was enticed many times by my slide.

After lunch I got to go inside to open Happy Birthday Presents. I got so many great gifts-thanks everybody!! The really cool part about opening gifts was that Grandma Trish got to join us via webcam. She and Papa Steve weren't able to make the road trip, but she said it was almost as good as being there when she watched me through the computer. It was fun to show her each of my gifts.

I got this fancy dressy from my Germaines. Isn't it just so fun!?!?

After presents it was time for Happy Birthday Cake.

And of course, what would a birthday party be without a monkey cake?!?!

I blew out my candles in one try. That's cuz I'm a two-year-old now. We can do cool stuff like that.

I'm off to do two-year-old stuff now. Like drink 2% milk and eat peanut butter.

TTFN,

Monk

As Promised...

2009-04-19T21:25:00.003-05:00

In my effort to (continue to) catch up, I present to you news of Dad's birthday and Easter...

We went to Buca di Beppo for Daddy's birthday last weekend. The place was great! So engaging and so many things to see and so many places to run away to. I can't wait to go back but I'm remembering now that Mom had to take me to the truck for a time out because I was refusing to stay in my seat (an expectation that my parents-for some annoying reason-hold in high priority) so I'm not sure we'll go back there any time soon...or to any restaurant for that matter. But I digress, back to Dad's birthday.

The food was fabulous-I had Chopped Anitpasto Aalad, Chicken Carbonara, Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken Breast, Spicy Arrabbiata Pizza, and green beans. Buca serves family style which is great for a toddler that likes variety.

After dinner, the server brought Dad a piece of delicious birthday cake and a big ol' fancy candle and we all got to sing to him. I'm really good at singing "Happy Birthday".

And now, onto news of Easter...

The day before Easter, Mom, Dad and I decorated our Easter eggs. It was lots of fun.

On Easter morning I woke up to find out that the Easter bunny had been to my house! And do you know what he did?!?! He hid my Easter basket (which I like to call my "Egg Bag") and all my eggs all over the house. It was great fun finding them and now I like to watch the video that Mom taped of the event.

After the house hunt, we all got gussied up and went to church at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in IGH. After that it was off to lunch at the Germaine's house. Yum yum what a scrumptious meal! I was delighted again to find a variety of foods to choose from, many of which were to my liking.

When lunch was over we got to have ANOTHER egg hunt. This one was outside and I had tons of fun running all over looking for eggs. These eggs were special because they were filled with money and candy, two things of which I happen to be quite fond.

Grandma Jan tried to get me and the cousins to pose for a nice picture...we did our best...

That's the nitty gritty on Dad's birthday and Easter. This weekend was my birthday weekend. You know what that means, don't you? I'm two years old now!!! But it was a busy weekend and I'm kinda wrecked what with the sugar and excitement ups and downs I've had, so you'll have to excuse me if I don't give you all the news right now.

Stay tuned...

Monkey Girl

Welcome Back My Friend!

2009-04-15T21:49:00.004-05:00

My good friend Spring came back! I'm so happy! I remember her, but I don't know if she remembers me...I've changed quite a bit...see for yourself:

April 2008

April 2009

Regardless of whether she remembers me, I'm happy to welcome her back and I'm ready to play play play outside and enjoy all she has to offer.

Delightedly Yours,

Monk

The Big Girl Ni-Night and Her Lonely Maiden Voyage

2009-04-15T21:40:00.003-05:00

Ah, the Big Girl Ni-Night. Isn't she a beaut? Here I am helping Daddy put it together. As you can see, I chose a captain's bed. The beauty is the double duty it serves: not only can I sleep in it, but it has oodles of storage underneath.

Here I am all cozied in with all my safety features: blankets surrounding the perimeter, bed rail, and pillows covering the hardwood floor along the bottom. Oh and don't forget the three pacifiers, sippy cup of water, pillow and Birdman the bear.

And here she is...cold, empty and lonely. Me? I was in my crib sleeping soundly.

Not to fear, that was just Try #1 and Mom and Dad chalked up the cataclysmic failure to the fact that bedtime is around 7:30 and this bed wasn't fully functional until well after 8:00, meaning they missed the window of opportunity for me to fall asleep without a hitch.

Try #2 was fully successful, as have been all nights since. Another reason Mom and Dad are glad they got a captain's bed: it's so high off the ground that I would NEVER consider trying to get out of it. I value my life too much!

I'm off to find a ladder to climb into my bed now.

Hugs!

Taylor

Checking In

2009-04-12T21:23:00.003-05:00

Geez, here I am, back again with apologies. Our house has been turned upside down, that's my excuse. Do you buy it? Well, here's the real story...

Back in March, Mom and Dad ordered me a big girl bed. The people at HOM said it wouldn't be here until late April. Mom and Dad were really bummed that it would be that long, but figured they'd make it work. (They had originally wanted me to start sleeping in a big girl bed about the time of my birthday-April 17.) Well, lo and behold, Mom got a phone call on March 30th saying the bed was at the warehouse ready to be picked up. Mom and Dad flew into panic mode. They had to move everything from my nursery into the guest room/office and everything from the guest room/office into my nursery. Now anyone that's been to my house before knows that these rooms are different sizes. In fact, the nursery is only about half the size of the guest room/office. You can imagine what this meant for furniture arrangement. Not to mention all of mom's wardrobe (non-maternity and maternity) was in the guest room/office closet and a dressers. All of those clothes needed to fit into her and dad's bedroom. But all the space for clothes in that room was taken up by dad's wardrobe.

People, I could go on and on explaining the logistics, but I think you get it. Mom and Dad have been super busy and we had no internet for about a week until Comcast could come out to get it hooked up in the new guest room/office. We're finally online again, and I'm able to bring you news from the home front...

Um...but not a lot of news because it's getting a little late and it's the end of Easter/Daddy's Birthday weekend and everyone's a little wiped out and coming down from candy-induced sugar highs. So I'd like to redirect you to flickr where you'll find some pictures from my vacation. This week I'll work on bringing you pictures of my new big girl bed (in which I have been sleeping fantastically for a week and a half now-much to my parents surprise and elation), Spring, Daddy's birthday, and Easter.

TTFN,
Taylor

Buongiorno

2009-03-26T22:30:00.005-05:00

Salutations from sunny Palm Springs, California. What a trip I'm having friends! The weather has been great (a bit windy the first couple days, but perfect since then) and we've been having lots of fun in the sun. Papa Steve has been busy with his fancy camera, so we'll have lots of pictures to share with you later. For now, I'll tide you over with some pictures from my camera...

Here I am in my modified capris. Mom and Dad had me dressed for Minnesota weather and we stepped off the plane onto the tarmac to find I was quite overdressed. Mom rolled my pants up to hold me over until she could get me somewhere to change me. I actually had to go change for two reasons. 1) The weather. 2) I got a little airsick during our landing and barfed all over myself and Mom. Oops. It was all over my t-shirt-that's why I have my sweatshirt on.

Notice the footwear-NEW CROCS! My feet have grown too large for the ones I got last summer, so when Mom and Dad saw that the Denver airport had a setup of THREE Croc kiosks and realized we had two hours to kill, well they did what any parents would do: they went shopping. Didn't I pick out some super cute Crocs?!?!

Yesterday morning we went out to breakfast. Grandma helped me stay busy and happy by building cream container towers. She's creative that Grandma!

Grandma and Papa also did some airport shopping. They got me this cute t-shirt when they got here to Palm Springs:

Today I helped Grandma pick grapefruit off the tree in her yard. We got a whole bunch!! Then I got to come inside and share one with her. My favorite part is when Grandma squeezes the rind into my spoon so I can drink the juice. Yummy!

Tonight we went out to dinner at Mom and Dad's favorite restaurant in Palm Springs. It's called Kalura Trattoria and they make absolutely positively fantabulous Italian food. I tried a little of everything and liked it all! And for about the 10th time this week, I ate salad. I just love the stuff! Everybody is very impressed with me when I eat salad.

Papa and I took a break to pose for this picture. (Papa had to take a hiatus from our vacation to go to Minnesota and Wisconsin for some business doings from Tuesday until today and I'm really glad to have him back.)

Well people, it's been another long, busy day here on my vaca, so I better go get some shuteye. Tomorrow is (sniffle sniffle) my last full day here so I'll be busy getting in as much fun as I can.

Arrivederci!
Taylor

Bon Voyage!

2009-03-20T20:15:00.003-05:00

I'm so excited I can barely see straight! Tomorrow I get to get on an airplane (some might know that particular vehicle better as an "eem") and fly to Palm Springs, California! If it's anything like I remember from last year, it's going to be superdedupercalifragilisticfun! We've been busy packing this week and still have some work to do. Hopefully we'll be ready when Papa Taxi Driver (that'll be Papa Bob's handle tomorrow) comes at 6:00 AM.

In other news...

Last week I started a new ECFE class. It's called Toddlertime. That's right-I am officially a toddler by my school's standards now. I got to paint and I even got to wear a really silly paint shirt. Mom said it reminded her of when she was a little girl and would have to bring one of Dad's old dress shirts to school for a paint shirt. She says it was part of the functionality of the thing, but I just don't quite understand why Mom put it on my backwards...

Last weekend Mom and I were Hockey Widows while Daddy was away watching the boys high school state hockey tournament. Mom and I got to go out to eat at a bowling alley on Friday with Grandma and Papa and their good friends Rich and Carol Hetland. There was an arcade there that I found to be quite entertaining. I gave everyone quite a scare when I snuck out the restaurant door and ran down there all by myself. All the adults were running around looking for me-Carol even went through the kitchen! But Mommy found me down with all the flashing lights and ringing bells. I was happy as a clam and didn't know quite what all the fuss was. Mom says she hopes I understand someday how dangerous and scary it really was.

After dinner I talked Mom into swinging through the Dairy Queen drive thru for a little frozen treat. Ice cream is the bomb! I had a little trouble with the execution of the project, but I got 'er done...

The next picture is purely for your enjoyment. Daddy caught this super cute moment:

Last Sunday we got to go out to celebrate Aunt Jenni's birthday. We went to Dave and Buster's. Woopeedoopeedoo! More flashing lights and dinging machines!!! I had so much fun I about peed my pants. Wait...I think I did do that...but it's all good-I'm still in the diapers. After we ate, the nice server brought Aunt Jenni a birthday treat. She was nice enough to let me and the cousins eat it. YUM!

When you play games at Dave and Buster's, the machines spit tickets out. If you get enough tickets, you can buy prizes in a store. Since I'm just a little kid that really doesn't know the difference, my tickets got donated to Megan and Nate. The adults also donated all of their tickets to the cause so they got some nice loot out of the deal.

On St. Patrick's Dad we had pork chops that were cooked on the grill. (That's because we had a Spring Weather Sneak Preview this week.) I'm not sure it was a traditional Irish dinner, but it sure was good. In fact, the chops were so good I grabbed Mommy's bone to clean it off:

Well I do suppose I'd better go get some shuteye. That 6:00 AM wake up call is going to come early tomorrow.

I'll try to get some information out to you during my vacation. Take care people!

Monk

Seriously, March Already?!?!

2009-03-08T20:01:00.001-05:00

Spring break is just around the corner and I decided to try on my newest new swimsuit the other day. I thought Dad's big ol' leather boots would be the perfect accessory. What d'ya think?!?!

This weekend I got to go see my cousin Nate play his first and only hockey game of the season. (At his level it's more about drills and practice than actual games.) It was lots of fun. He spent a lot of time on the ice-literally, ALL of his body-on the ice. He has a flare for the dramatics. Aunt Jenni says that if the hockey doesn't work out there's always theater or stunt work.

After the game, Grandma Jan and Papa Bob took us all out to breakfast at Jersey's. I had lots of fun being a stinky little terror monster running away from the table. I tried to go upstairs a couple times but Mom kept saying, "Sorry, you're not with the band, you can't go up there."

Here's me cheezin it up for the camera with my cousins.

Short and sweet this week people. Just like me!

Taylor

P.S. I've got a great video to share, but we all know how Blogger feels about my videos. Head over to my flickr site to check it out.

Dog Girl, Pony Tails and the Cookie Store

2009-03-01T20:30:00.003-06:00

I would like to begin this post with a disclaimer. My parents have never ever let me eat in the bathroom (though I did try to bring a banana with me to the potty yesterday). Nor have they ever made me eat out of a dish on the floor like a dog.

With that said, here is how my mom found me in the bathroom the other day:

I did it all myself. Found a dish for me and a dish for the dog, and set it all up on the bathroom floor. What can I say? It's a nice bathroom. You'd want to eat in there too.

In big hair news this weekend, I now have enough hair for full pony tails. How cute!!!! Mom was pretty excited and even went all Pageant Mom on my and sprayed me with hairspray.

This weekend we went shopping. A lot. To a lot of furniture stores. (My favorite is HOM where you can eat a cookie if you're a good shopper.) The mission: a big girl bed for yours truly! Our mission was accomplished today on the second trip of the weekend to HOM. (Yep, I got cookies two days in a row. It's shameless!) My captains bed will be arriving some time in April. Mom and Dad would really like to make the transition before that, so they brought home the mattress and I might get to start sleeping on that after our Spring Break trip to California. Should be interesting to see how THAT switch plays out...

Another neat thing about ALL of the furniture stores is the cool trucks they have for kids to drive around in. Mom and Dad wish every store in the world had these since I actually have an attention span for sitting in it.

That's all I've got today folks. Take it easy and keep warm out there!

Tater Bugger

Papa Steve to the Rescue

2009-02-20T19:55:00.011-06:00

Thanks to my Papa* Steve and his trusty Olympus, I finally have some material to share with you.

Last weekend when Grandma Trish and Papa Steve were in town, they took me to visit their dear friends Walter and Bobbi. They've been friends with Walter and Bobbi since way back when they all used to live in Rochester, Minnesota and run with the same golf crowd. Walter and Bobbi are really nice people and I really enjoyed visiting them.

(On a side note, Walter is a retired jeweler and he was the mastermind that helped Daddy have my Great Grandma Gert's old wedding ring turned into Mommy's engagement ring. Walter also had both Mommy and Daddy's wedding bands made.)

Here I am with Walter and Bobbi...

Here I am walking their dog, Riley, around their apartment.

They also have a cat. It's name is Peppy. That sounds a lot like puppy, so you can imagine the confusion that inflicted on my little brain. Papa Steve is severely allergic to cats, but got close enough to help me see him.

The best part was when I got to walk Riley out in the hallway on my way out of the building. I think I should have a dog at my house.

Later that same day, after a good nap, it was time for more fun. We went to the hotel in which Grandpa and Papa were staying so we could swim. We brought Kevin, Kris and Haley with us.

Here I am waiting for the elevator in my super cute swim cover up from Grandma. (A Valentine's gift bought with our Spring Break trip to Palm Springs in mind.)

Haley and I in the pool...

Jumping to Grandma...

Using walking feet by the pool...

Relaxing with my girl Haley...

Washing off the pool bugs...

I love love love to swim and I'm so so so excited to do lots more in Palm Springs in five weeks!

Mom got her camera located and up and running again late this week. Just in time to get some pictures of me blowing bubbles. Yep, blowing bubbles. Mom was pretty excited that I was able to do that-she says it shows good prognosis for ability to produce age-appropriate speech sounds. (Apparently some of those kids at her work can't blow bubbles and that inability is directly linked to their inability to correctly produce some age-appropriate speech sounds.)

I like to take pictures with my fancy kid camera. It makes lots of fun noises and plays photo shoot music.

Here's a funny video of me using my camera and then discovering that maybe my mom's camera is a whole lot cooler than mine and then deciding to do something about my feelings that I should have said cooler camera...

After taking a hiatus from training to potty train, as we like to call it around here, I'm back on the horse. Or the toilet I guess. When Mom was reading books to me at bedtime the other night, I tooted. I giggled and said, "Oh Mama my poopy". Mom asked if I pooped and I said that I did. After a little investigative work with her nose, Mom asked if I tooted. I replied, "Oh yeah my toot". Mom asked if I needed to poop. My reply came in the form of hopping off her lap and beckoning her to follow me to the toilet. She got me all situated (see picture below-oh and enjoy the little glimpse of the bea-U-tiful new bathroom!) and I PEED ON THE TOILET! Mom and Dad were very excited and I have to say, it was contagious. I even pulled the toilet paper off the roll and stuffed it down in the toilet, just like I've seen Mom do. (I'm not sure what that's supposed to accomplish...am I missing a step in the procedure perhaps?) I really wanted to stay on the toilet and poop and I tried for a couple minutes, but then Mom politely explained that I probably didn't really need to go at that point in time, and that it was really time to go to bed and if I decided I needed to go later, I could go in my diaper and she would gladly change the diaper for me. I'm not sure how far I'll take my training to potty train at this point, but it is pretty neat that I had this achievement.

Today we had a very fun family afternoon and evening. Mom and Dad took me to Lookout Ridge, the indoor park in Woodbury. (Remember my first time there with Quinn almost a year ago?) Daddy has never been there before and I was really excited to show the place to him. Mom and I got very adventurous and climbed way up through all the cargo nets to the BIG slide. It was a crazy trip up (perhaps not really appropriate for a child that is only 22 months old and a very tall woman that is 25 weeks pregnant) and then there was the slide. Much longer than I had anticipated and BLACK AS PITCH in the middle. I stopped at the part where it was dark and because it was dark, Mom didn't know I was stopped and ended up right on top of me. Oops. The good news is she shoved me out of the way pretty quickly and nobody was hurt. (Dad brought along the video camera and the parents did shoot some video, but as the downloading/editing/uploading process for videos from the video camera is still a slow process, you'll have to wait and see if anything surfaces. I advise you to NOT hold your breath.)

After the park, we went to dinner at Machine Shed. What a cool place!! There were tractors everywhere-even under my macaroni and cheese! Tell me you've seen something cooler than that and I'll tell you I'm a monkey's uncle.

Well folks, I hope that you enjoyed this post. I overheard Mom and Dad talking in the car on the way home from dinner and it sounds like they plan to have the bathroom completely finished by this Sunday, barring any unforeseen circumstances. (I didn't remind them that this whole project has been one unforeseen circumstance after another. Didn't want to burst their collective bubble.) So hopefully I'll have a blog for you next week with picture of our bea-U-tiful new bathroom!

Guten Nacht!

Tay

*After much waiting and speculation, I finally did what everyone thought I might do-I came up with my first epithet. During the stay at Granma Jan and Grandpa Bob's house, I began referring to Grandpa as "Papa" and I've carried it over to Grandpa Steve as well.

An Apology for Total Blog Duty Negligence

2009-02-17T12:50:00.004-06:00

The excuses:

1. Living at Grandma and Grandpa's for 19 days while trying to renovate the bathroom.

2. Letting the camera battery die.

3. Misplacing the camera.

4. Finding out the camera battery is still charging in the kitchen at Grandma and Grandpa's so it really doesn't matter that you can't find the camera because there is no battery in it.

5. Moving home and (still) working in the bathroom while trying to clean all the dust and grime from the house and wash the nine loads of laundry that accumulated during it all.

6. Having family (Grandma Trish and Grandpa Steve) in town Thursday through Saturday.

7. Having a screwed up nap schedule on Sunday that prevented the family from doing anything productive.

8. Being home with Mommy for the President's Day holiday and finding time to run to Kohl's and Target in the morning but completely forgetting throughout the rest of the day that you could take pictures and work on a blog post.

Have I excused myself enough?

I'll try to get something out to y'all this week.

Later-Tater

DETOUR

2009-01-31T13:39:00.002-06:00

I have been trying and trying and trying to get this video on Blogger but it just won't work. So come check it out on my flickr site.

Tay

General Contractor In the Making

2009-01-31T13:25:00.003-06:00

Today I got to help Daddy and Mommy out with the bathroom project. I took some measurements, checked for structural integrity and handed screws to Daddy.

(They call me "Bruiser" now. The cut on my eye is from a tumble I took down the stairs Thursday night when Mom and I visited the house to get some more clothes and the door to the basement was left open and well, oops.)

The project is taking longer than anticipated and means that our two nights at Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob's is probably going to turn into close to two weeks, but Dad says we'll have a real snazzy bathroom when it's all done. And me, well I just may have found my calling.

Taylor the Toolgirl Oster

Good Luck Greatgrandpa Swede!

2009-01-31T13:16:00.004-06:00

My Great Grandpa Swede was released from the rehab facility yesterday. Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob drove him home. Mom talked to him today and he's very happy to be back at his house. He said it was real clean and he didn't want to mess it up so he took a sleeping bag to the garage and slept out there. He's such a crazy guy! Good thing he's got lots of people's campers stored out there so he has a bed to sleep in.

It was really nice having Great Grandpa Swede just two miles away instead of two hours. We didn't get to visit as much as we wanted (life gets in the way of live you know) but were happy for the visits we did have. I got real good at walking the halls and charming the residents and staff. They'll probably miss me. Maybe I'll have to become their mascot and have weekly visits.

Mom and I have been saying prayers at night for Great Grandpa to get better and we'll continue to ask God to help his knees get better and better and to help him get around his house safely. Cuz we love that funny old man lots and lots and lots!

Welcome Aiden Russell!!!

2009-01-31T12:44:00.003-06:00

I have a new cousin! I think he's actually a third cousin or something like that-his dad is my dad's cousin, Nick. His name is Aiden Russell Oster and he's super cute! I got to meet him last night and I even got to hold him for a little bit. But just a little bit, then the adults got all nervous-like and took him away from me. Be sure to check out Nick, Lacy and Aiden's website at www.theosterfamily.babywindow.com/.

Here are some pictures from our visit...

Mommy got to practice holding a little one since she'll be doing lots of that in approximately 18 weeks. (Ugh! Only 18 weeks!?! I've got to get to work and get me potty-trained and sleeping in a big girl bed!)

My turn to hold Aiden. He's so tiny and floppy!

I decided my visit wasn't complete without some good ol' fashioned toddler-style entertainment. I donned Mom's Bearpaws and got the crowd going with my falling all over the place routine.

That's that. Time to get back to my bathroom project. I'll update you on that one next time I have a break. (Meaning next time Dad goes to Home Depot. You know the people, "You can do it. We can help.")

Peace out-Tay

Winter Water Play

2009-01-21T06:28:00.006-06:00

Good Thursday to you all. Just stopping in to report on our fun trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota over last weekend. Mom, Dad and I met Tim, Tara, Peyton, Brylee and Morgan (our dear dear friends from Omaha) at a hotel with a water park. It was tons of fun!!! I love to swim and go down water slides. Here are some pictures. I apologize that there aren't too many and for the sketchy photography. The photographers report that it's tough to get good pictures AND watch out for a toddler at a water park at the same time.

Mom and I poolside.

Mom and I on the big slide.

Dad and I coming off the big slide.

Peyton on the big slide.

Morgan posing poolside.

Brylee splashing around like a fishy.

Daddy and I swimming in the pool.

It's been a busy week around here as usual. And things will only be getting crazier from what I hear as Dad plans to start a DIY renovation project on the bathroom this weekend. I'm cool with it though because I hear it means I'll get to spend lots of time at Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob's house.

Tata for now!

Taylor

It's a Boy!

2009-01-14T21:34:00.002-06:00

I would like to be the first to inform you of the happy news that we're having a baby boy at our house! Baby Boy Oster's gender was confirmed via ultrasound tonight at United Hospital. Look closely at the arrow in the ultrasound pictures for "The Proof".

Toodles!
The Big Sis

The Year in Review

2009-01-07T10:47:00.007-06:00

A look back at yours truly and how I grew in 2008...

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Happy New Year!

Taylor McKenna

Skating Update

2009-01-04T11:11:00.002-06:00

Mom and Dad took me skating again last night. We went to the rink by Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob's house. It was snowing/sleeting at the time, so the ice was covered with the white stuff. Turns out that's a good thing for me. It offered just enough "traction" for me to sprout wings (and independence) and take off across the ice sans parental (or any other type of) intervention. Meggie tried to hold my hands to help me but I just told her, "No, my," meaning, "No, I can do this by myself cuz I'm a hotshot like that". Everybody thought I would only last 10 minutes, so we brought two cars to the rink and the plan was that Mom and Aunt Jenni would take me back when I pooped out. I showed them. Aunt Jenni went to the truck after about 15 minutes, and I kept Mom out on the ice (following at my beck and call, intervening only to place me back on my skates when I had fallen down) for another 15 minutes. I wouldn't call what I do "skating" but I do walk across the ice and sometimes even glide a little. And when I get a little off balance, I'm able to recover about 50% of the time. Pretty darn good for 20 months old and only my third time on the ice.

Of course, being my parents, they neglected to bring any form of digital recording device to document the event. We'd like to go again today, but with a projected high of only 7 degrees, that's unlikely to happen. But when we do get out on the ice again, I will be sure the proper digital recording devices are with us.

Peace Out!
Taylor "Twinkle Toes" Oster

How Minnesota Osters Do Winter Outdoor Fun

2009-01-02T22:39:00.008-06:00

Tonight we got to go to Kevin, Kris and Haley's house for dinner and to pick up Christmas presents that we missed since we were in Texas during the Oster Christmas. We had tacos and enchiladas for dinner. And Kris made guacamole-it was fantastic! After dinner and presents (thanks Kev, Kris and Haley) we went to a local outdoor rink for some skating. I had a lot of fun spending time in the warm outdoors in Texas, but I also love me some brisk fresh Minnesota air.

Kev is a really good skater (he's one of the best hockey players South St. Paul ever had) and zoomed me all over the ice. It was lots of fun and I'm excited to go again tomorrow with Dad, Uncle John, Megan and Nate if it's not too cold.

Here are some pictures and a video of our outdoor fun...

(Swings and slides aren't just for summer anymore!)

Stay Warm!

Taylor

Almost There

2009-01-02T22:00:00.002-06:00

We (finally) made it through Grandpa Steve's pictures. There were many many many great pictures, but not all of them made the cut. Because loading pictures onto flickr is a lot faster than loading them here on Blogger, I'll have to detour you once again. Check out flickr.com/photos/larajtay to see more documentation of our trip to Austin.

Mom is still figuring out how to edit movies and she hopes to condense the many videos into smaller videos. Stay tuned.

Tomorrow we're going to Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob's to celebrate Christmas Behnken style. I'm sure we'll have lots more pics and videos from that gathering.

Until Then...
Monk

Detour

2008-12-30T21:14:00.003-06:00

Mom and I are still working on the pictures from Grandpa Steve. In the meantime, I posted some pics over on flickr-check those out to tide you over.

We got an early Christmas gift and birthday gift for Mom-a camcorder from Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob. Mom and Dad have taken over 80 videos in the last week and a half, so needless to say, they're some sorting out to do there as well. Mom did manage to edit one down for me to post on here. This is me opening my first Christmas present of the season. Daddy picked it out for me after Mommy voiced her opinion that a well-rounded girl needs more than dolls. Enjoy...

And seriously, I hope to be back soon with more news of my trip to Austin.

Tay

Pre-Christmas Hullabaloo

2008-12-29T12:53:00.009-06:00

I know I know I know. I'm a slacker. Grandpa Steve was all over my case while we were in Austin, but I'm here now to get caught up.

This post will catch you up on my business BEFORE I went to Austin, Texas. Mom is still helping me sort out the approximately 7468 picture Grandpa Steve took while we were there, so that post will be coming in the (hopefully) near future.

Because of our upcoming travels, Mom, Dad and I had "our" Christmas celebration on Friday, December 19th. Dad made a special dinner for the special occasion-crab legs! I thought there were pretty good, but I only ate a little-that's some rich food! I really liked the garlic bread we had to go with dinner-so much so that I ended up with butter all over in my hair. Mom was a little less than impressed with that. After we ate, we got to open presents. I got some great stuff, like a dump truck, doll bed, tractor with a pig and cow, and a really awesome pink club chair that's little, just like me. (I actually got the chair the next morning because my parents, well sometimes they get a bit forgetful, and they forgot they hid the chair behind the guest bed. Mom found it the next morning. Better late than never I guess.)

On that Saturday we went to meet up with the Rice family. We met at The Depot in downtown Minneapolis for some skating. It wasn't a long-lasting activity and The Depot definitely made good money off the six of us, but we had fun. Emily's parents and my parents are hoping that by next winter we'll both be a little more stable on our skates so we can make it more than a 12 minute activity.

Here's a picture of me and my dad with Emily and her dad, Mark.

After skating, we went out to lunch at Sawatdee, a Thai restaurant. I ate chicken and broccoli fried rice and a cream cheese puff. Yummy! Emily and I explored the restaurant some and checked out the cool statues.

The next day was spent packing for the trip to Austin. I'll be back with my memoirs of that trip.

Peace out!

Taylor

What Winter Really Is

2008-12-11T20:13:00.003-06:00

So my cousin Sibley recently posted this picture on her Smug Mug site. It was titled "Winter". Perhaps a better title would have been "Winter in TEXAS". What she's wearing there-that nylon jacket with a thin layer of fleece lining-that's nothin!

Why, when I was her age, I had to dress like this for a parade that happened in the middle of March in Nebraska:

I even had to dress like that to go to a hockey game that was INDOORS in Minnesota!

And don't even get me started on the cold we're dealing with already this year. Just look at what my poor Grandma Trish had to do to stay warm at a parade last weekend:

Sibley-I've got a lot to teach you about the world. The good news is that I'll be to your house in 11 days to get started on our lessons. I'll bring my spring jacket. Lova ya kiddo!

Respectfully Submitted,

Taylor

Holiday Happiness is All Around!

2008-12-08T19:59:00.007-06:00

Lots of news people. Let's get right to it...

It's finally the official Christmas season and we've got the sippy cups, decoration and fashion to prove it.

Grandma Trish gave me this sippy last Christmas and I get to use it to drink milk sometimes now. Mom put something in it called Hot Chocolate the other day. Ish. I'll take my milk straight up and cold, and my chocolate in candy form, thank you very much.

Here I am helping out with some of the decorating. The bosses (Mom and Dad) didn't let me do much but I got to help with some of the less fragile business.

Mom bought me a new coat. I tried it on over my onesie but felt something was missing. That's when I added the shoes to complete the ensemble.

Dad bought me my very own brand spanking new Bauer hockey skates!!! I loved them the first time I tried them on. Didn't love them the second time. And the third time I came across them, I wanted to try them on again to see if I loved them, but Mom and I were home alone and Mom was making tacos so she said I had to wait for Dad to help me a different time. She says he's in charge of skates.

I was supposed to try my news shiny skates out for the first time at Daddy's company holiday party, but the ice wasn't think enough for us. Bummer!

Last Friday night was a monumental night. I went to Kid's Hair for my very first haircut! I was such a good girl-I sat very still and didn't make a peep and I really loved the bubbles.

When I was done, I got a sticker and a sucker. And check out the super cute hair dooder! I kept it in all through dinner that night and didn't take it out until I was in Mommy's car. But I'm getting better every day-today I wore a ponytail to daycare and kept it in all day long.

Grandma Trish and Aunt Steph were here over the weekend. On Saturday night, we went to the Holidazzle Parade in Minneapolis. Great aunt Kris, Great uncle Kevin and my cousin Haley joined us. It was really cold outside but I had a super fun time anyways.

On Sunday I got my pretty clothes on and went with Mom and Dad to Dad's work party. Do you like my super cute outfit that Mom and Dad put together? (Dad picked out the leggings-snowflakes and candy canes-he's so fashion forward!)

I got to play in the snow with my friend Olivia. We haven't played together since this summer when I wrote this post. We had fun playing in the snow.

This party was GREAT! My PsuedoGrandma Linda (that's one of Daddy's bosses) and her elves did a bangup job with the planning! There was a balloon maker, a face painter, and the big man himself (aka Santa Claus) even stopped by to bring toys to all the Tall Sales kids.

My photographer, in a mad rush to keep her job, had more pictures this week than I knew what to do with. So check out our flickr site for more pictures. Daddy also posted his pictures from Notre Dame-be sure to check those out!

Peace, love and happiness to you all!

Ann Taylor (my newest alias, courtesy of Dad's boss Jeff)

Possible Job Opening

2008-11-30T20:58:00.002-06:00

One more thing before I turn in for the night. I've made the realization that my photographer is not fulfilling her duties. For example, you wouldn't know it by today's post, but the family went today to cut down a Christmas tree. The reason you don't know is that there is no photo documentation. The woman forgot the camera! HOW do you forget the camera the FIRST time the family goes to CUT down a CHRISTMAS TREE?!?!?

So what I'm saying is, I might have a job opening available. Problem is the job doesn't pay much. If you can work for kisses and hugs, please send your resume and application.

With Kind Regards,
The Photographically Neglected Child,
Taylor

Tis the Season!

2008-11-30T20:10:00.006-06:00

I now understand what people mean when they say "tis the season". Tis the season to be busy, that is!!! But I won't complain-this holiday thing is fun stuff. But let me catch you up first...

I haven't gone potty on the potty yet, but I'm still trying every once in a while. I think I might take a break during these busy holiday times, but I'll get back at it eventually. After all, it is a really great place to get some reading done.

Grandma Trish sent me a pre-Christmas care package. In it were two Advent calendars. One sticks to my fridge and had a magnet you can use to count down the days until Christmas. Notice I used the past tense back there..."had a magnet"...Mom and Dad had to take it away because I thought it was really funny to put in my mouth and then run around the house. They don't find the same amusement I do in choking hazards. Maybe I can earn it back next year. Mom does let me have my special "oma" (that's my word for all things that write) to "write" on it.

(Note from Taylor's mother-the ink has been removed from the special oma. Genius!)

Grandma Trish also sent me an Advent calendar that has CHOCOLATE inside of it. Starting tomorrow I'll get to open one window every day and enjoy a little piece of chocolate delight. I'm just giddy with anticipation!

Two weekends ago, Dad went out of town for the weekend to see a Notre Dame football game. He said it was the best sporting event of his whole life. Mom and I were very happy that he got the chance to have that experience. He took lots of pictures. When Dad remembers to bring home his camera cord, he'll upload some pictures onto the computer and put them on our flickr page.

While Dad was away, Mom had to sneak her showers in while I was sleeping. On Saturday morning, she didn't quite make it before I woke up and then Grandma Jan called and needed us to come to her house to help her out with something. Mom put a bandanna over her crazy hair and I insisted that I needed a "ha" (hat) as well. So Mom hooked me up with this sweet bandanna:

With this look I bet I'd fit in real well with Aunt Jenni and Uncle John's motorcycle friends.

For Thanksgiving weekend, we went with Grandma Jan, Grandpa Bob, Aunt Jenni, Uncle John, Megan and Nate to Superior Shores. We went there to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's 60th birthdays. Grandma turned 60 on October 24th and Grandpa will turn 60 on December 25th. (Yep, he has the same birthday as Jesus!) Superior Shores is in Two Harbors, Minnesota on the north shore of Lake Superior. Being able to vacation to The North Shore is one of the perks of living in Minnesota. It's a beautiful place!

We even had some snow while we were there. I got down real close to check it out. See, Mom and I have been having a little argument about snow. I call it "ushy" and Mom tells me that's it's beautiful and I'll love it when I learn how to play in it.

I don't know...maybe it's got some potential...

We had some real lazy time on our vacation. Meggie and I had fun laying in the big bed watching television. She's so much fun!

We also celebrated Thanksgiving while we were there. Mom and Aunt Jenni were in charge of dinner. I was having one of my picky eating weeks, so I didn't eat much of it, but everyone else said it was great. They made a turkey, sweet potatoes (with marshmallows-just like Uncle John likes it!), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy (Mom and Uncle John did a bang up job on that stuff!), and Grandma Jan's wild rice stuffing.

But personally, I think the best part of the meal was the pie. I had the pumpkin. Aunt Jenni's homemade whipped topping was superduper.

I don't have a ton of pictures from my vacation, but I'm hoping maybe Dad, Aunt Jenni and Grandma can come through with some more for me that I can put on flickr.

I have a new hobby I'd like to tell you about. In honor of the hibernating animals, I'm trying my hand at squeezing myself into tight spaces.

Like Mom's closet. This one was nice-cozy but big enough to bring in a magazine.

I also tried out the cabinet in the entertainment center at our condo at Superior Shores. A little dark with the door shut.

And today I tried the bottom shelf of this decorative piece in my living room. Definitely the tightest spot and none too comfortable.

I'm off now to a more comfortable cozy place-my bed. Good night all. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite!

TaterBugger

2008-11-18T20:04:00.003-06:00

Last Saturday my cousin, Nate, celebrated his sixth birthday. We got to go out to eat with the fam on Sunday to celebrate. Here's a picture of the birthday boy himself. Pardon the cheeseburger oozing out of his mouth.

Meg was there as well, of course, sporting a new short sassy haircut.

Megan and I worked in a game of darts between bites of food.

And Mom put me in some kind of crazy wrestling hold when I was trying to run away from the table for the 47th time. Yikes.

Last night I got a little silly between bathtime and bedtime. I thought a diaper, socks and shoes were appropriate nightwear:

But when Mom laid me down (at my request of course) I realized maybe my legs would get a bit chilly so I asked her to help me put my pajamas on. Then I proceeded to dance in my crib. Yep, still with the shoes on...

That's all I've got for this week. Take care!

Taylor McKenna

Surprise Visitor!

2008-11-12T19:30:00.004-06:00

Well well well, guess who showed up for dinner tonight...my Grandpa Steve!!! He's in town on business and made time to fit us into his schedule. We met for dinner at Jake's in Eagan. (I highly recommend the mashed potatoes.) It was a short visit, but definitely a sweet one!!! (Especially the part where we shared the ice cream sundae for dessert.)

Mom caught a couple shots of Grandpa and I...

What a special visit and a great time with Grandpa Steve!!! Thanks Grandpa!

Love ya!

Taylor

Rainboots and Potty Seats

2008-11-09T20:02:00.005-06:00

Well hididleyho there friends. How are ya? Good? Alright, then let's get down to the news...

Ever since I started walking (back in March) Mom and Dad have wanted to get me a pair of rain boots. Mom finally got lucky at Target this week and found me a super cute pair. Check 'em out:

I love love love them! I love to wear them when I eat bananas....

I love to wear them when I'm sitting on the potty*...

(*No, I am not potty-trained. I've yet to actually pee in the toilet, but I do like to sit up there like a big girl and look at magazines and books. I tell Mom and Dad about five times a day that I want to try by pulling on my diaper and saying "I potty" but they only let me try one or two times a day. Maybe they'll take me more seriously if I actually pee in the toilet...)

On Friday I wore my boots to daycare. We were having our first snowfall of the season, and since Mom and Dad haven't gotten me winter boots yet, Mom thought the rain boots were an okay idea. I also wore my pajamas to daycare for pajama day. You'll notice that I'm wearing The Mittens and The Hat that I talked about back in this post. I'm happy to report that the wearing of these winter garments is going much better than it was then. (Big relief for the parents.)

Another love this week: salad from Angelo's. Mom decided on Dad's sixth night away (which also happened to be ECFE night, a night which is always a little hectic as we try to eat, clean up, and get out the door by 5:50) that it was time to let somebody else do the cooking. She ordered Italian Fries and an Antipasta Salad. The fries were alright, but really hard for me to chew. What I really got into was the yummy yummy salad.

Bath night has become even more fun thanks to my Great Aunt Mary. She gave me these adorable wash cloth puppets. Thanks Auntie!!

Last night there was a very special treat at our house. Mom made pudding parfaits for dessert. Heck, I thought dessert was only something you got on holidays and birthdays. Dad said not to get too excited because the next holiday or birthday will probably be the next time dessert happens for us.

Pudding makes me happy!

Today we got to go over to Uncle Cooney's house to watch the Vikings and the Packers play football. There were snacks on the table and I was having a little trouble navigating my way to the food so Cooney decided to help me out by getting me this little step stool. What a guy! I was able to reach the Doritos and dip them right in the queso. Yummy!

I was a little jealous that Dad and Cooney both had hats on so I asked if I could wear one of Cooney's. He thought it would be funny to have me wear this Iowa State had. Dad, Grandma Jan, what do you think? (Riley, I bet you like it!)

That's all my news for now. For those viewers in the Midwest experiencing this turn towards winter, stay warm out there!

Love!

Taylor

Post Halloween Debriefing

2008-11-03T20:57:00.006-06:00

I did it folks. I survived another Halloween. It's still hard to fathom that I'm on my second round of holidays already. Wasn't I just born?!?!

Thursday night, Mrs. Patty let us wear our Halloween costumes to ECFE class. Here's the lot of us. I'm the butterfly in the front. You'll recognize my homeboy Quinn in the rockin' astronaut costume to the right and Riley over at World According to Riley donned the ladybug getup you see front and center. We also had a Tigger, a belly dancer, a pirate (ahoy), a giraffe and a hobo.

(Speaking of "on my second round of holidays," I thought y'all would like to mosey down Memory Lane with me and see the picture of our ECFE class at Halloween one year ago. I'm the pumpkin, Quinn is the turtle, and Antonio (now a hobo) is the hot dog. We've all come a long way!!!)

Back to the present time...sometimes it can be very frustrating when parents want us to dress up in silly costumes.

My solution to that frustration is to simply remove the costume. See diagram below:

My mom and dad were very happy when I was more cooperative about the costume on the actual Halloween holiday. Here I am posing with Mr. Pumpkin.

After posing with Mr. P, I decided to flit about the front yard a bit since I was dressed as a butterfly. When in Rome...

After my fit of flitting finished, Mom and Dad took me to "downtown" South St. Paul for a Halloween gathering. We got to go trick or treating at the businesses on Marie Avenue. We also got to eat hot dogs. Yummy.

Quinn and I had a good time hanging out together. He was a really good boy and completely ignored the candy in his bucket. Mom and Dad should had me in a devil's costume the way I was acting. I dug into the bucket and came up with a sucker which I promptly stuck in my mouth, wrapper and all. Mom tried to take it away from me but since she hates to have conflict in public, she removed the wrapper and gave it back. Ha, she's such a softie!

On Saturday, Daddy left for Las Vegas. He's going to be gone for six days. Yuck. I don't like it when my daddy goes away. But Mom and I know this is our life, so we just suck it up and deal with it.

Since Daddy couldn't come along, that meant Mommy and I made road trip to Great Grandpa Noe's house all by ourselves. When we got there, we joined Great Aunt Judy, Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob in some decorating festivities. Yes, we realize we were putting up Christmas decorations 55 days before Christmas, but Aunt Judy is leaving tomorrow to go to Florida for the winter so we all decided to get together to do the decorating then give her and Uncle David a nice sendoff.

I was a good helper with the decorations, handing tinsel to Mom and Aunt Judy.

But I was even better at eating grapes. I think I ate approximately 1.5 pounds over the course of the day. You should have seen my diaper on Sunday morning! Mom didn't get an official count, but she thinks there were probably 97 grape skins in there. Nasty!

An update on my dressing skills: I have not mastered the coat yet. (Note the hood in the front.)

That's all I've got for now peeps. Catch ya on the flip side.

Peace out-

Butterfly

Two Words

2008-10-30T09:27:00.002-05:00

I overheard an interesting conversation between my parents the other night after Mom had roasted the pumpkin seeds from our pumpkin...

Mom: Wow, these seeds are awesome!

Dad: Nope. Didn't like them as a kid, not gonna like them now.

Mom: Have you ever had them roasted in butter, onion powder, garlic power, salt and pepper?

Dad: Nope.

Mom: You should really try them.

Dad: They came from INSIDE pumpkin. That's gross.

Mom: Two words for you Lar...pumpkin pie.

That Mom, she makes some good points.

Winterwear, Adventures in Omaha and My New Friend Jack

2008-10-29T20:09:00.006-05:00

Did you hear the news? Winter is coming back. I know it was here last year, though I don't remember much of it. My parents kept me pretty well protected from the elements. It looks like this year I might not be as well protected. So Grandma Jan, Grandpa Bob and Mom decided they better start getting me used to winter apparel.

The Boots: not a fan.

The Snowpants: not a fan. Period.

The Jacket: not a fan at first, but have now resigned myself to the fact that it's a must-have item every day.

(We won't even get into The Mittens and The Hat.)

I've been working on a new skill the last week: dressing myself. Here I am trying to put on my pajamas OVER my day clothes. I got one leg of the pants on. But I think I did it backwards because there was a really big hole at the bottom and no way I was going to pull that skinny leg part up over my diaper-clad bottom. I think I was also going the wrong way with the top. But hey, I'm only 18 months old, cut a kid a break.

I hear Mom and Dad used to enjoy outdoor activities like skiing and snowboarding. I've got the look down, so Mom and Dad, whenever you're ready to take me to the slopes, I'm game to learn.

Last weekend we made another trip to Omaha. This time Uncle Neil, Aunt Katie and my new cousin Sibley were there. It was so much fun to see them and I really LOVED Sibley. I have a little trouble with her name so I call her Biby. She seems alright with that.

Grandpa Steve got a new camera and took a lot (I mean A LOT!) of pictures. As we've discussed before, Blogger isn't so quick for the picture uploading, so you can find more pictures of our fun weekend at my flickr site. flickr.com/photos/larajtay

Dad and Sibley...

Me "taking pictures" with Grandma Trish's camera when the girls were out to lunch...

Me dancing in the basement. (I love it!)

When we got home it was back to life as usual. Things like: a leaky kitchen faucet. I was a nice girl and got right down there to help Dad out.

Last night we carved a pumpkin at my house. Wow, what a messy job!!! First Dad lopped off the top and scooped the easy stuff out.

Then he sent The Big Guns (that's me and Mom) in to get out the tough stuff.

I dug right in. I think it felt kinda neat.

Then Dad was back to the table to give the guy a face. Mommy says that's when the pumpkin became a jack-o-lantern.

When he was done Daddy stuck a couple candles inside and lit him up. He tried to get a nice picture of Mom and me with our new friend, but seeing as the end of carving time was also bedtime, I wasn't really down with taking a nice picture. Here's to hoping for a good picture on Halloween.

Well, that's my news. Remember to check our more pictures of the most recent Adventures in Omaha at my flickr site.

Peace, love and candy!

Taylor

Bittersweet Ending

2008-10-19T20:54:00.004-05:00

It has been a fantastic weekend! Mommy had a 5-day weekend and I got to cash in on some good Mom time. Wednesday morning she sent me to daycare for a couple hours so she could go to the dentist and then shop at Target without me. (Apparently I'm not her favorite person to shop with.) Then she picked me up and we went to visit Grandma Jan and the ladies at her work. I got to see my teacher, Mrs. Patty, while we were there and I interloped on her preschool class and played in the motor room some. (Thanks for letting me interlope Mrs. Patty!) After my nap, Mom and I did some shopping errands. These were very short trips, strategically planned so as to avoid a meltdown by any persons involved, child OR adult.

Thursday Mom and I went to Target so I could pose for 18-month pictures. I have to say, we got some very good shots. We'll share them with you when they become available. After pictures we came home for lunch and nap time. When I woke up from nap time, Mom took me outside to play. While I was sleeping, she had raked lots of piles of leaves for me to play in. Here are some cute pics of my outdoor adventures...

On Friday, Mom took me back to daycare so she could join Grandma Jan and Aunt Jenni at the Women of Faith conference. They had a break in the afternoon so Grandpa Bob, Megan, Nate, Uncle John, Dad and I headed to St. Paul to meet them for dinner. We got to play at a park before going to the restaurant.

Mom and I played on a crazy bridge that wiggled all over the place. Talk about testing a toddler's gross motor skills and muscle control!

Aunt Jenni did a spider swing with me. That was cool!

Dad even got in on the fun and had Nate spin him on the Spinning Monster. He didn't last long though. (Between you and me, I've got a couple sally parents and I don't know who is going to be able to go on rides with me at Valleyfair someday.)

Saturday Mom went to Women of Faith during the day but came home before dinner. Dad left then to go out for Guys' Night. It's something he does about once a year with all his guy friends. Mom and I hung out at home and walked over to the park for some serious climbing and fun. (Sorry, but Mom forgot the camera so no pictures of that.)

Sunday morning Mom and I made pancakes, sausage and eggs for breakfast. It was YUMYUM! I scarfed down two pancakes, 1.5 sausages and a scoop of eggs. If I had my say, every meal would be breakfast.

After making a serious breakfast, we had serious cleaning to do. So Mom and I donned our aprons and got to work. Grandma Jan made my apron for me complete with a big "N" for my favorite football team. (Nebraska Huskers for those that haven't figured that out yet.)

Now it's the end of our long weekend. Tomorrow Mom goes back to work. I go back to daycare. And Dad flies to Dallas, Texas for three days. We're going to miss him a lot. Mom and I manage to get by on our own, but life is COMPLETE when Dad is here. I'll see him Thursday morning when I wake up and I'm going to give him lots and lots and lots and lots of kisses!

TTFN,

Shnoogy Boogy (That's what Mom was calling me all weekend. She's special.)

Overgeneralizing

2008-10-18T20:55:00.005-05:00

So I've gotten really into talking lately. But I haven't quite figured it all out. I've got this "overgeneralizing" thing going on as Mom explains to people. That means that I find a new word and use it to label more items than the actual one to which the name belongs. So here's a breakdown for my peeps out there...

Appo=apples as well as all things food
Goggog=dog and all other lifeforms not part of the human race (excepts Cawcaws, see below)
Mama=my mom and all other lifeforms that ARE part of the human race
Baw=balls and all other things round (including pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns)
Bumbum=all things transportation (nobody is sure but they think I derived this word from "vroom vroom")
Wawa=water and all other beverages
Buhbo=buckle, button, zipper, Velcro or anything else that fastens
Ba-pa=backpack and purse
Ha=hat and hood
Eyes=eyes and any other body part attached to the head as well as glasses
Cawcaw=any winged creature

I have one more word I use quite frequently that doesn't fit into the "overgeneralizing" list:
Ha=hot-this is my only adjective so far and one I use quite accurately when I point to the stove, Mommy's flat iron, hot food and anything else I know to be hot

So people, you've been schooled in Taylorese. Thanks for being such good students.

Toodles!
Professor Oster

Inspired

2008-10-18T20:30:00.003-05:00

There's been an addition to my family and to my network. Her name is Madeline Grace Noe and she's Mommy's cousin's baby girl. She was born last Thursday and all went swell. I went to meet her this week. I brought her pizza but she couldn't eat any yet. I wanted to save it for when she's ready but all the parents told me it would be a little moldy by then. So I ate it myself and when Madeline is ready to eat real food, I'll be ready to share with her.

I gotta tell you, that girl is an inspiration! She's got quite a tripped-out blog for a chick that's only one week old. So I took the inspiration and ran with it. Be sure to check the sidebar of my blog for a new look to My Network and a following feature.

Welcome to the family Madeline!

Taylor

Apples Apples I Love Apples!

2008-10-05T20:54:00.002-05:00

Is there anything better than fall? Husker football, Husker football gear, and apples. It's all a person really needs to be happy, isn't it?

On Saturday, Mom decided to bake an apple pie. She let me help her wash the apples. Silly Mom. I washed a couple then I just couldn't hold back any longer. I grabbed one of those apples and I went to town. It was delicious!!! When it got to the point where I could only get the core in my mouth, Mom cut the core off and gave me the good stuff to finish off.

Sweet sweet apple bliss.

I'm afraid those are all the pics I've got to share with you this week. Not sure what our excuse is...perhaps that I was sick midweek (I got the pukes and poops AGAIN) or perhaps there was just not much exciting to photograph...those reasons and the fact that we forgot to bring the camera to the awesome Germaine Annual Chili Party. Mom grabbed Auntie Jenni's camera at the party and took some pictures, so when we get our virtual hands on those digital images, we'll shoot them to the blog. How's that do ya?

I'm off to rest now. Gotta get ready to go back to daycare tomorrow so I can play with all my friends.

Kindest Regards,

TMO

Toddler Tidbits

2008-09-29T19:51:00.005-05:00

It has come to the attention of my parents that I am a girly-girl. Sure I like my rough and tumble play (like tonight when I was head-butting my mom right in her sternum, and the other day when I was running head-first into the fridge), but I've found another passion. Dress-up! I inherited a toddler-sized vanity from Megan and lots of homemade beaded jewelery from Mommy. I could sit by my vanity putting on bracelets and anklets for hours-ok, maybe that's a stretch-I am only 17 months old after all. But seriously, I love me some dress-up time.

I also love to play in my tent. I think it's great when Mom and Dad both go in the tent with me. Mom and Dad think it's a special time-but only for a very short time. The air quality isn't so good with that much human inside a small tent. Here's me being camera-shy by my tent.

I've got this new thing I do at dinner-I pull Mommy's plate towards me and eat her food. Never mind that I have the same exact foods on my plate. I like hers better! Here I am having at a bone-in chicken breast that I procured off said parental unit's plate. Numnum!

I'm also a huge fan of apples. So much so that it's also my favorite word. And the word is such a favorite that I use it to label all things food. So a side note to any future babysitters out there-should you hear me utter the word "apple" (sounds like "appo"), don't assume I want an apple. Keep your mind open to other possibilities.

Our daycare went on a field trip to Applewood Apple Orchard last week. I got to pick my very own apples. The apples were the perfect size for my little hands. Mom and Dad were surprised when I grabbed an apple and started munching away. They kept a careful eye on me until I was done to make sure I didn't choke.

This weekend Mom and Dad finally took me to the Children's Museum. Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob bought us a family membership for my birthday back in April and this weekend our crazy schedule finally allowed for the visit to happen. We were there for two hours and I had a great time! I think I could go back for another trip real soon so I could have even more time to see each and every exhibit. Check out all the pictures below...

Hanging up laundry with Mom.

Making a gear train with Dad.

Playing in the water exhibits-I really loved this one where you get to put a boat at the top of a ramp, then open the gate to watch it zoom down the river.

Then Dad and I made some bubbles.

(Just taking a break and looking adorable doing so.)

Time to dry my hands off.

GOLF! They even had golf for me and my daddy!

There was a round room with nets all the way up to the ceiling where you could throw balls all over the place. I thought it was really funny when Dad threw one right at Mom's head.

I found a neat round window with a great view of downtown St. Paul.

This ramp was killer on the quads!

All in all life is good. Well, truth be told, I've not been a fan of getting dropped at daycare since I came back from Omaha. But that's just something we're all hoping I'll get over very soon.

Peace out my peeps!

Taterbugger