Toddler Mischief

Here I am again with the apologies. It's been a busy time around my house. End of summer fun like the Minnesota State Fair, a garage sale, and getting ready to get back to school for me and daycare for me kept us busy the end of August. Then the very end of August and into September were the actual going back to school/work and daycare for Mom and me. And how is that going, you ask? Well, it's not all coming up roses, but we're surviving. I love being back at daycare with all my friends and fantastic providers, but the transition did do a number on my sleep habits this week. I'm hoping next week will be better.

Anyways, I better get to the pictures and the telling you about them...

So remember how Mom had my pool out during the last hot days of August? Well I decided swimsuits are overrated and jumped in fully clothed. I'm a rascal like that.

We survived the garage sale. I don't know if we'd say it was a HUGE success, but everybody made some money and we had some good laughs in the process. (If you want to hear a great story, ask my dad or Meggie about the little girl that used my garage floor for a toilet.)

Here I am demonstrating the products for the customers. It's a marketing strategy I learned from Nate.

A couple weeks ago I got to go see my friend Alex. We went to his house so our dads and Cousin Nick and bunch of other hooligans could do their Fantasy Football draft. The women and us kids did much funner things-like eat guacamole and play in a pitcher of water. BTW-guacamole rocks!

My first week back at daycare was not without drama. I caught a bug, as Mom puts it, though I don't remember bringing home anything like that with me...but I digress...and spent the entire evening after my third day back vomiting all over the house. Dad was out for a business dinner and Mom had to call Grandma to come over and help with me so she could clean up all the vomit. Ew. Well I felt really great after the FOURTH time I barfed, so I told Grandma to get her purse and keys and I grabbed the pool bag. I thought it was a great time for swimming. Other people had other things in mind. Like sleeping. Rats.

My new favorite activity is helping wash the dishes. I've even become telepathic about it. The moment Mommy looks at the sink full of dirty dishes or even has a thought in her head about doing dishes, I pull up a chair to help her out. Mom and Dad always thank me and tell me how helpful I am while they're mopping up all the water I've spilled on the floor.

I LOVE to eat yogurt. It's really messy but I don't mind. I eat Stonyfield Farm organic baby yogurt. They have lots of great flavors that keep me from getting bored with yogurt like I do with a lot of other foods.

Meg got too big for this car so she passed it down to me. I think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Mom says I have to be careful not to speed because police officers like to give speeding tickets to girls in red cars. She knows this from experience. (Have you noticed that she's had no speeding tickets since she started driving a white vehicle? Ponder that...)

I've been reading up on what it means to be a toddler and one of the things I've found is that toddlers are very mischievous. In keeping with that tradition, I like to run away from my parents when they tell me it's time for me to have my diaper changed, get ready for bed, go to bed, have a bath, get in my booster seat, etc. Here's a picture of the barricade I fabricated when Mom thought I should get ready for bed.





Last weekend was a really exciting day at our house. It was the first GAME DAY of the Nebraska Huskers football season! Mom and Dad and I went to Joe Sensor's to watch the game. The bad news was that so did every other Minnesotan with any tie to Nebraska. We waited for over two hours and never got a table. But we looked good doing it!

I decided it's been boring around here since I was born so I told Mom and Dad to go ahead and throw a party Labor Day weekend. (Last time they tried to have a party I was just six weeks old and I didn't exactly make it easy for them.) Dad golfed with the guys that morning and Uncle Cooney (who isn't really my uncle but might as well be because he's just like one) spent the day at our house hanging out and helping us get ready and playing with me. Here we are being all goofy-he strapped me into a booster seat and set me on his lap with. Don't worry, he didn't share his beer with me.

Quinn also came to my party. Quinn and I and my cousins had a great time climbing in a crazy tunnel and tents.

I've been very busy with books lately. They've become a favorite activity of mine. Mom was really excited about this since she's an avid reader herself. Here I am at daycare enjoying some light reading.

People say I'm only 16 months old, but I feel so much older. That's why I told Mom she should find me a phone book to sit on while I eat. I'm just way too old for the confines of a booster seat with it's tray and it's straps.

Today is the second GAME DAY of the season. Daddy got us some new Husker shirts and we tried them out today. I gotta say, we're a good looking pair of Husker fans!

I've grown up a little since the 2007 season, wouldn't ya say?

Today was also parade day in Inver Grove Heights. I love myself a parade, so I was all over that action.

Let's have another example of how much I've changed in one year's time. Inver Grove Heights Days 2008...


Inver Grove Heights Days 2007...

Cousin Nick was in the parade with the company he works for so Lacy got to sit with us. She's great!

As per tradition, Nate rode in one of the IGH Fire Rescue trucks. Uncle John was driving.

Meg broke with tradition this year and walked with her soccer team instead of riding in a fire truck. Aunt Jenni ditched the auxiliary ladies to walk with the Vote Yes campaign to renew the referendum for the IGH schools. I didn't get a picture of her, but like last year, I got to walk the last bit of the parade route with her.

When Meg and Nate were done with the parade, they came to sit with me. They got lots and lots of candy. Mom didn't really want me to have any...

But like I said, toddlers are mischievous!!!!

Bwahahaha!

Time to go take a nap. All this typing is hard for a baby. I get the whole "home row" idea and that's it's more efficient to "hunt and peck" but all that jazz will have to wait until my fingers are a little longer.

Peace out!

TaterBug

Much News!

Good day to you! I do apologize sincerely for the lateness of my post. We're getting ready to have a garage sale at our house so I've been busy helping my parents with the house purging, sign making, garage cleaning and pricing of it all. Whew. That's a lot of work. They've let me off work early tonight to tend to my blogging duties, so here goes...



Recently I've discovered that I'm way too good for plastic utensils. I like to use the big fancy metal ones like everybody else. I can get way more peas in my mouth this way. (And Mom likes it when more peas go in my mouth than on the floor.)



I've also discovered that I like to carry a purse around. Mom gave me my very own. It's little and just my size. Mom said she used to use it when she had a different kind of "nightlife", before I was born. I thought maybe I should be offended or feel bad about that but Mom assured me that she's much more fond of cuddling with me when I wake up in the middle of the night than the bad bad bad headaches that other nightlife brought.



I forgot to get a good picture of my new shirt that I'm wearing here. Mom and Dad got it for me at the Irish Fair. It says, "WARNING: Irish Temper and German Stubbornness". Yep, that sounds about right.






Last week my cousins and I got to make homemade ice cream with Mommy. We used a crazy looking ball to make it. I really don't get the science behind it. We poured cream, sugar and vanilla in one end. We poured ice and salt in the other end...

Then we rolled it all over for about 20 minutes, and *voila* we had ice cream. Miracle of miracles.

There was a horrible mix up at the store the other night. I was just minding my own business trying to play with some balls and I ended up in some kind of hoosegow. I wanted to call my friend Quinn to see how he gets out of these messes, but I couldn't find a phone in there anywhere. Aren't they supposed to let you make a phone call when you get in the hoosegow?

Last Thursday was my cousin Meggie's 9th birthday. To celebrate, we got to go to Adventure Peak at Edinborough. It's a super sweet indoor park. Meg and Nate brought their friends Destiny and Dustin. They were very fun to play with !

I made a new friend at the park. She lives inside this thing on the wall and she's as cute as me! I gave her lots of kisses.

My favorite part of the park was this jumpy room. I bounced and bounced and fell and bounced and fell and bounced and bounced some more.

Here is a picture of all of us kids. Meggie, Nate, Dustin, Destiny, and Yours Truly front and center. (Yes, that's a different outfit on me. Two words: leaky diaper.)

As if the ice cream making, hoosegow debacle, and Adventure Peak weren't enough excitement for one week, we also got to go on a field trip with my daycare friends. Ms. Angela was nice enough to invite us all to go to the farm with them. Ms. Angie (not to be confused with Ms. Angela) and Mr. Dan live there and they were sooo hospitable to all of us!

We got to see goats, sheep, chickens, a pig (named Willy!) and horses. We also got to take a walk and learn about farm life.

The best part was seeing all my friends, like DanteLuis. We like to give each other lots of hugs.

I tried to give my friend Jeremiah lots of hugs, but he thought I was chasing him and he kept running away. Boys just never understand girls, do they?

Farm life is very busy so some of us took a break in this nice swing hanging from a big tree.

Now HERE is a creature to behold. His name is Bear. He's a dog. Go figure.

The big kids all got to take turns riding Ms. Angie's horse, Lady.

On Friday night, Mom and Dad shipped me off with Aunt Jenni when she came to pick up Meg and Nate. Mom and Dad got to go out and golf with their friends Erin and Nate. I had so much fun! I got to have my first Harley Davidson ride. On the little Harley trike of course. But I have my eye on that blue beauty you see in the background. Someday, me and Uncle John are going to hit the highways and byways on that ol' girl.

Mom and Dad bought a new Kelty Kids baby backpack to carry me around in when they go to the State Fair and other such events. What I thought was the best part was the diaper bag backpack that zips off the front. It was perfect for me! You may be wondering how I feel about being strapped to my parents' backs. Well at first I wasn't too keen on the idea. Mom says I used to love being carried in something similar called a Baby Bjorn, as well as being worn in the baby wrap but my memory bank didn't save that one. I decided since my parents are pretty smart people I would give them the benefit of the doubt and give it a try. Turns out it's not so bad. We don't have pictures of me in action yet but will surely have some after we hit the fair this Friday.

While the bike trailer that Aunt Jenni and Uncle John gave us worked real well and we were very appreciative of the gesture, we made a family decision to get a different one. See, we're a bit limited in our riding location choices where we live being near the busiest streets of South St. Paul. We thought it would be nice to have a bike trailer that would collapse so we could load it in the car, hang the bikes on a bike rack, and go find a nice trail to ride. So that's what we did. Here I am test sitting my new trailer before bedtime.

Oh boy. How did this picture get in here?!?! Talk about self-incriminating! Alright, I'll come clean. My name is Taylor and I love to stand on chairs and other inappropriate objects. This chair is one of my favorites because I can check out the backyard and see if any cats, bunnies, or squirrels are out there.

Here we are in action, taking the bikes and trailer down by the Mississippi River for a nice, long ride.

I helped with the preparations.

I even pointed out the trail to my parents in case they weren't sure where to go.

After our ride we stopped by the Dairy Queen to get some frosty and yummy treats. I got to have my very own ice cream. Yummy in my tummy!

I ate it so good with my spoon, just like a big girl.

It was a hot one on Sunday so Mom filled up my kiddie pool and we got to play in the water.

She even turned on the sprinkler for added effect.

Well folks, it was a long time coming (not to mention a long time writing!), but I've reached the end of my post. I hope you enjoyed this installment.

Stay tuned for tales of a garage sale, the Great Minnesota Get Together (a.k.a. The State Fair), and to see how the Kelty Kids carrier worked out.

TTFN,

Tookeruskie

I'm inspired!

I have been inspired by the amazing talents of Michael Phelps and Dara Torres. The way those two maneuver water could make you wanna slap your grandma.

Here I am working on my swimming in the bathtub. I'm thinking I'll be ready by the 2024 Olympiad.

My garden is flourishing and so are the bugs that live there. I caught this picture of a GIGANTIC grasshopper in my garden the other day. Seriously, you know a grasshopper is big when you can see what color her eyes are!

I've really been loving my playground. I like to walk up the slide while someone holds my hands. Mom wasn't too keen on that at first and Megan has told me that it's not allowed when I go to school but I figure it my backyard I can get away with it. I've also figured out how to climb the yellow ladder and crawl through the window onto the ledge. Pretty big stuff for a little girl like me.

Daddy had to do dinner out for work a couple weeks ago. Mom decided to take the opportunity to introduce me to Tuna Noodle Casserole. See, he'll try to deny it, but my father is a bonafide picky eater and a food snob ta-boot. He will only eat tuna if it's the big old hunks of sushi grade stuff. No tuna packed in water in a can for him, no way, no how, nuh-uh. Now my mom, she loves the stuff. In a casserole, in a tuna salad sandwich or in a tuna macaroni salad. She'll even eat the casserole cold the next day. Grandma Jan used to make too much on purpose because she knew Mommy would eat the cold leftovers for breakfast the next day. Well, much to my father's dismay, I L-O-V-E-D the stuff! I can't wait for my next Tuna Noodle Casserole Rendezvous with Mom. I hear Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bob love the stuff too so I think I'll probably invite them. I'm getting to be such a big girl that I'm ready to learn to dress myself. Here I am with some shorts I found in my clean laundry trying to put them on with my dress. At one point I actually had both legs in the shorts-even in the correct leg holes-but couldn't figure out how to pull them up. I didn't get too down on myself though-I am only 15-months old.

Tuna Noodle Casserole Rendezvous night turned into Bedtime Snack in Mommy and Daddy's Bed Rendezvous night as well. Mom had lots to do to get ready for Kerstin's arrival, so she went against her better judgment and let me lay on the bed eating my snack and watching a little television. The American Academy of Pediatrics says I shouldn't watch television until I'm two years old. Mommy tries her best to stick to this but did give in this one time. She saw a glimpse into my future as a total brain mush if she keeps it up...

(NOTE: Mommy and Daddy did not enjoy the graham cracker crumbs in their bed that night.)

Kerstin arrived safe and sound from Germany on Sunday, August 3rd. We had a great time with her!! Here is a picture of her and Mommy on a riverboat cruise.

We all had lots of fun on the boat. I really enjoyed dancing with Meggie. (I like to call her Eggie, but that's just my special nickname for her.)

And I also had fun sharing water with Nathan. (Yep, he has a nickname too. I like to call him Nanan or Nadan.)

Mommy decided if Kerstin was really going to have a good Minnesota experience they needed to go to the North Shore of Lake Superior. They went to Duluth and Gooseberry Falls. Here is a picture of Kerstin at Gooseberry Falls. She and Mommy hiked all the way out to Agate Beach which is where the river meets the lake.

While Mommy was up north with Kerstin and Daddy went to work, I got to spend my days at Grandma and Grandpa's with my cousins. We had lots of fun having water balloon fights.

On Friday night I got to sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's while Mom and Dad went to the Irish Fair with Uncle Klayton, Nick, Lacy, and Cooney. Me and the cousins cuddled on Grandma's lap together. (Pardon my hair. Must have been a rough night's sleeping.)

What can I say? Sometimes I have jealousy issues and don't want to share Grandma's lap. Sorry Nate.

On Sunday I was sooo ready for a bath that I jumped right in before Mom finished getting my clothes off. Teehee.

Then she got me out and I wouldn't let her put clothes back on me. So I had snack in my chair in my birthday suit. I'm such a crazy baby!

Well, that's all of my (mis)adventures for the week. I hope you've had as much fun as I have!

I'm off to see what kind of creatures are hopping and swarming about in my garden now.

Tator Bugger