Baby Brain Freeze

Wow! What a busy weekend I had!! Mom, Dad and I loaded in the family truckster and headed south to Omaha to visit the fam down there. We had a super great time and did some super fun things. But I'm super tired and not much for blogging tonight.

Here's one picture of me to tide you over. I got to try milkshake for the first time this weekend! I was so hot after spending the day at the zoo in 92 degree temps and this milkshake really hit the spot! Mom was surprised at not only my enthusiasm about the shake but also my ability to actually suck it up through the straw. She had to take it away from me to avoid something she called "Baby Brain Freeze". Despite how horrendous that sounded I pitched a good fit when she took it away. Lucky for everyone riding in the car I was downright pooped out and fell asleep mere seconds later.


I'll be back tomorrow with more tales of my wild weekend. For now I'm off to dream about jukeboxes, milkshakes, penguins, kabobs, and swings...

Tater

Gardens Galore!

This week I got to drive a race car!! Usually Jimmy Johnson drives it, but on Monday he must have taken the bus home from Lowe's because his car was just sitting there. Mommy and Daddy loaded me up and I made the obligatory car noises while I drove the car around so the 'rents could look at appliances. We're looking to get a new stove, refrigerator and dryer, y'see.


On Saturday I went on a road trip with Mom and Aunt Jenni. We drove down to Grandpa Mousey's house. (He's my Grandma Jan's dad.) It was his birthday weekend and we went down to help him plant flowers and vegetables. Here I am goofin' off in the car wearing Aunt Jen's sunglasses.

Mom and Aunt Jen went home last night, but I got to stay the night with Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob. I had so much fun exploring!! I mastered the art of getting into Grandpa's golf cart. I did not, however, master the art of getting out. When I need to get out, I just fall. I'm quite resilient, so it works.

I would have loved to drive but my legs aren't long enough. When my legs get longer, maybe my cousin Nate can teach me how to drive it. I hear he's real good at it.

You can even get food when you're in the golf cart! You just put in your order and the carhops bring your food. Just like A&W and Sonic!

I made a new friend at Grandpa's. His name is Heath and his Grandma and Grandpa live down the road. I hear they have horseys there so I'm thinking when Nate teaches me how to drive the golf cart I'll see if we can drive down there.

Grandpa and I had so much fun!!!!

Here is a pictures of Grandpa's house, garage, and vegetable garden. Can you believe an 86-year-old man tends that garden all summer?!? He really really really loves it and since he could never eat all those vegetables himself, he shares them with all his friends and family. What a nice guy!

This morning Grandpy and I had some cuddle and play time before I had to go home. He wanted to keep me there but I told him about the poopy diapers I have sometimes and he decided he'd just wait to see me during our next visit.

I had a surprise waiting for me when I got home today. Daddy and Uncle John planted my swing in the backyard! It was so nice of them to do that for me! Daddy was so excited to take me out to swing!

One problem-I screamed my head off when he put me in it!! Mommy and Daddy have no idea why I don't like it. They're going to do some asking around at daycare and see if I had some kind of traumatic swing experience.

Mom and Dad did lots of gardening today. I tried to help them out but was told that crawling in the garden isn't appropriate.

I had my afternoon nap and when I woke up Mom and Dad were still gardening! I got to have my afternoon snack out on the patio. And it was a good snack! See, Mom and Dad went to Uncle Cooney's birthday party last night and Uncle Cooney sent me a birthday cupcake of my very own. I loved it!

My bench got replanted today. It's in the rocks now. Doesn't it look nice here?

It works out real well for me.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the pretty flowers we planted today. I can't wait until the sun and rain make all the flowers grow so big and pretty.

Thanks for stopping by for another blogtastic journey. I'm off to nurse my sore muscles. All that gardening sure reeks havoc on a body!

Peace.

Tay

Tadoodles, Soccer, Slides, and the Danger of Crocs On the Playground

Another week of fun-filled baby experiences to report on. This week Daddy had to do some traveling so I had some extra time with Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob. They brought me some new coloring crayons. I have to be sure Ms. Adrienne doesn't find out about these though. She says they're not good for a baby's grip. Mom told me I can use them as long as we also make sure to practice grips using regular crayons too. We don't want me going off to school with a fisted grasp! But the good news for Ms. Adrienne would be that so far, I've only shown minimal interest in the Crayola Tadoodles.

Since Dad was out of town, I thought it only appropriate that I start helping out around the house. Wednesday morning I thought I'd start that off by driving myself to daycare. I grabbed some car keys and the phone...


...and made some calls to let the other kids know I had a car today and I could pick them up and drive them to daycare. Wouldn't that be so helpful of me? Then all the moms and dads could get to their cars without risking life and limb trying to carry a baby along with purses, briefcases, coffee and all the other junk adults insist on bringing to work with them. But Mom didn't think I was ready for this type of independence so she drove me to daycare as usual.


Wednesday night we went over to Aunt Jenni's house for dinner. Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob brought Jimmy John's. I've heard rave reviews about these sandwiches and I was really excited that I was going to enjoy my first that night. But things didn't go so great. The bread was a little too soft and doughy for a baby like me with limited teeth and I got to choking so bad I blew chunks all over the highchair tray. Nate freaked out! Poor guy, I didn't mean to scare him, I was just having a little trouble with the bread. Needless to say, the untainted remaining portion of the sandwich was packed up and Mom had it for lunch the next day. I had some wheat bread and other baby-friendly foods.

After dinner Nate and I took the grandparents and Mom outside to play. Nate and Grandma showed me how to play soccer. It was great fun! Nate is really good at soccer! I got a little bit mischievous and stole the cones that were being used for goal posts. Got a good laugh out of people.

After soccer we decided to explore the playground. Wow! This thing is magnificent! From the top I can see a whole other part of the world that I never knew existed. Nate and I had lots of fun going down the slide.




Daddy came home on Thursday. Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob had gotten me a new car and Dad and I took it out for a test drive.

I've gotten to be very curious and want people to tell me names for everything I see. Here I am doing the point and asking "This?" That's what I do when I need to learn a word for something.

This week I found out that I REALLY like to play in laundry baskets. Makes for great Friday night entertainment. Check out this video of me crawling into one full of clean towels.

Sunday was Mother's Day. I'm not sure if I did all the things a kid is supposed to do on that day, but Mom seemed as happy with me as she always is and hugged me and kissed me and chewed on my ears even more than usual, so I guess I did good. Mom and Grandma took me and Nate to the park by my house. I've never been there before. It was great fun and I can't wait to go back. But I hope next time my mommy doesn't fall down. I told her she shouldn't wear those Crocs to the park. Now she's got two banged-up knees and a twisted ankle. When will she learn?

Nate and I did some more sliding at the park. We're getting really good at it. Here we are riding a tandem slide while holding hands. A very refined move for a baby like me.

I hope you enjoyed this week's post. Next weekend I get to go to Grandpa Mousey's house. He's my Grandma Jan's dad. His birthday is coming up and a bunch of us are going down there to help him plant flowers and have lunch. I can't wait! I haven't been down there since I learned to walk and I have a feeling there's a lot more to that place just waiting to be discovered by me!

Toodles til then!

Tater Bugger

The Week We Single-Handedly Saved the Restaurant Industry

Good week everybody! Thanks for coming back to my blog. I understand how busy and hectic life can be and I appreciate your dedication and faithfulness.

In appreciation of that dedication and faithfulness, this week's blog includes not just one, but two videos. Here is the first one. This was Monday morning when Mom actually got herself and me ready for in time for us to stop and share a banana before we left. We didn't get all fancy about it and eat civilized though. Nope, no need for that at 7 Bells. We just sat on the kitchen floor.

Monday night Dad and I had a little jam session. We're getting really good. We like to play "Augst Rush" style guitar. If you've not seen the movie, we highly recommend it.

This weekend was not a weekend for cooking at our house. Friday night we had to go to Roseville to pick up our family pictures at the portrait studio. So we ate at Chianti Grill while we were there. Mom and Dad packed some food for me but I also got to eat noodles. Pretty good stuff.

Saturday night the parents got lazy again and we ended up at Ruby Tuesday's. Man am I glad that happened. Even though they brought fruit and veggies for me, they decided I could order a whole meal off the kid's menu. I had a grilled cheese sandwich and french fries. Booya! That stuff was phenom!

This picture displays how super-cute I am even when I'm all tired from eating big kid food.

Today we ate out AGAIN. This one was planned well in advance though. We met Quinn and his parents, Amy and Tony, at Baja Sol for lunch. I got to eat off the kid's menu AGAIN. (Mom and Dad put the omnipresent fruit (cooked apple) and veggies (cooked carrots) in front of me before the real good stuff came to eleviate any guilt they would feel if all I ate was deep-fried food. I shared my healthy stuff with Quinn.) Soon my chicken strips came. What tastey buggers those were! They came with rice but I wasn't much into that. They also came with a Rice Crispy Treat but that disappeared off my plate before I could get to it. Strange. Quinn had "Kidsadilla" and shared some with me. We sure have this friend thing down!

Quinn L-O-V-E-S the rice.

Daddy is going on a trip tomorrow. He's off to Las Vegas for a trade show. I know I'm really going to miss him a whole bunch so I hopped on his bag and strapped myself in. He didn't even notice! Just picked up his bag and there I went with it. But I got to thinking about the airport and airplanes and how they put the bags on those moving belts. And how they throw the bags all over the place. And how the bags usually come back all banged up and I decided that maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I guess I'll just stay home with Mom and we'll miss Dad together.

Mom has this funny device that she always stands on in the mornings. I thought I'd climb up there and see what all the hoo-ha is about. No big surprise for me, just over 25 pounds, like the doctor said earlier this week.
The CRAZIEST thing happened at our house tonight when it was time for supper. Breakfast! Mom and Dad say breakfast tastes best when it's supper time. We had French toast, hash browns, and sausage. I have to say, it was good stuff. But I'm still wrapping my head around the idea of "Breakfast for Dinner".

Here is the second video, as promised. This me saying my very first two-word utterance. (That's a two-word sentence for those of you that aren't speech/language pathologists like my mommy.) Now I know it's not as clear as the way Mommy says it, but I swear I'm saying "Hi Dad!" You can hear it right at the beginning of the video and again when Mommy prompts me. I like to say it to my dad all the time! Next I might work on "Hi Mom".

Thanks again for stopping back. I'll see y'all next week.

Hugs!

Taylor