Papa Steve to the Rescue

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

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

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

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!

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!!!

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

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