New Video Time!

Taylor at 10 months old, and up to her new tricks.

Where does it end, daddy?

Taylor's first experience with the beach was pretty tame. She wasn't dressed for the sand and she thought the water was way too cold! So today was more of a "get our feet a little wet and look out at the vastness" kind of day. I must admit, I'm not too upset by her fear of the ocean just yet. It's much safer in Daddy's arms.

Our weekend in Chicago

We got back from our trip to Chicago a little later than planned, but all in all our trip was a great one! Grandpa George and Sue threw a big BBQ and we got to spend time with a lot of family we rarely get to see. There were burgers and brats served, bean bag toss tournaments, swimming, and a lot of laughs. We had such a great time. Below are a few pictures of Taylor with some special people.


Top left is Taylor and her Grandpa George (I especially love this one because you have two great baseball teams represented!), top right is T with her Uncle Scott, bottom left is Taylor with her Great Nana (mommy's Nana!), and bottom right is Taylor with her very cool 2nd cousin, Meghan.



Thanks, Dad, for hosting a great tradition. We'll be back next year!

Keeping up with Taylor

Keeping up with Taylor has been slightly challenging. I guess you could say we were a little naive about how long we'd have to get around to babyproofing. Scott and I were always telling each other we had plenty of time to babyproof. We realized that it only took her about an hour to go from not being able to crawl to crawling everywhere and getting into everything! I remember so fondly when we could put Taylor in the jumperoo for a good 30-40 minutes and have a few minutes to ourselves. Now she'd rather be crawling underneath the jumperoo than being confined in it!

HEY EVERYBODY!!!!

Wow, Taylor will be ten months next Friday. It's really unbelievable to us. She's gone from this little itty bitty thing that had a hard time gaining weight to this beautiful girl with so much excitement and energy. So with that said, I wanted to take the time to share all the changes and everything Taylor is up to!

- Crawling. She loves to crawl. Everywhere! No longer can you put Taylor down and have her sit still while you try and get something done. As soon as you do that, Taylor is off to the races. She'll move from one room to the next, sometimes stopping in between to do a mini-hand stand. Often, she stops after crawling for a little bit and looks up at me or Karin, or whoever is around, and smiles and waves.

- Waving. All you have to do is say the words "bye-bye Taylor," and she waves. Of course she doesn't know what it means, but she likes to wave. Also, she might be a little delayed, and you may start to walk away, but she'll be sure to wave at some point!

- Standing. Crawling is clearly something to keep her busy until she can finally stand. That's her goal, and she knows it!

- Eating. Oh, does she like to eat. Her favorite food is cheerios. I tried to mix in some Kix this morning, because they are kid tested and mother approved, so I figured, well, what the heck, Karin approves of it. Well, Taylor didn't. They looked funny to her and she pushed them aside and waited patiently for the cheerios. Her other favorites are graham crackers, baby cookies (they're good!), chicken and rice dinner, cold cuts like turkey, all kinds of fruit, sweet potatoes, and of course bread. DO NOT take her bread from her. This is an advanced warning.

- Toys. Taylor loves her blocks, and loves mirrors. But, she also is fond of her tupperware (See above picture)! Taylor has musical instruments that she shakes and she loves playing along to music. Clearly, she'll be loving singing and dancing when she starts to better understand, because she definitely reacts to music now.

We continue to be amazed by her. I am looking forward to spending more time with her and teaching her more awesome stuff. Taylor really is a great kid and we're proud of everything that she is accomplishing and learning!

Our trip to Roanoke

We're just back from our trip out to Roanoke to visit Taylor's Nana! While there we visited with Nana, Bob, Aunt Stacy, and Libby (Bob's daughter). It was really a lot of fun and we enjoyed every second. Nana and Bob live in a beautiful home surrounded by gorgeous scenery (notice the mountains in the background!). The trip was nice and low key and allowed Taylor to go for lots of walks, spend the afternoon in a pool only big enough for her, and make an exciting trip to pick peaches (I say exciting facetiously because Taylor fell asleep on our jaunt for peaches and it turns out she didn't miss too much)! Taylor also made some huge progress on her crawling efforts and I think we can declare her an official crawler now. I love the crawling but something that makes Scott and I nervous is the fact that she's also attempting to (and succeeding half the time) pull herself up on anything she can grab on to. Last night we put her down to sleep and I walked in to check on her to find her standing up and holding on to the crib bars for dear life. She's good at pulling herself up but not so great at getting herself back down :)

We drove the 12 hours to Virginia during the night and Taylor slept the whole way. I'd do it again this way because we spent less of our awake vacation time making the drive and Taylor was so comfortable and quiet. Thanks to Dad for driving most of the way!!

Our next stop on Taylor's summer tour is Chicago. We leave on Friday Aug 8th and return home on Sunday the 10th so it will be quick!!

9 months today!

I can't believe it's been 9 months since that crazy morning in October, when Taylor decided to make an appearance a few weeks before plan! She changes every day and continues to crack us up with the funny things she comes up with. We went to the doctor's office this morning for a well baby check up and confirmed what we already knew - T is perfect! She continues to remain strong on that 95% line for height and weight (22 lbs and 28 1/2 inches) and developmentally is doing all of the things typical 9 month olds do.

Taylor continues her summer tour next week, when we leave for Roanoke, VA to visit her Nana and Bob. And then 2 short weeks after that, a visit to Chicago to see Grandpa George and Sue! Whew - we get tired just thinking about it :) See you soon!

Do you like teething, Taylor?

This weekend Taylor has been enduring some teething pain. Her first tooth has made an appearance and is breaking through! She's been a trooper and hasn't been too cranky though. Here's our latest video....

Taylor's Crawling Efforts

Hi everyone. Taylor has been really working on her crawling efforts lately. She really, really wants to start moving around and she's made a little progress. She has accomplished an inch-worm type maneuver, where she moves forward with her legs first, and then pushes her chest forward with her legs. We're both excited about her accomplishments and nervous about what life will be like with Taylor on the go! Here's a video I shot this past weekend, it doesn't show her moving forward but you get the idea of how hard she's working and how bad she wants it! Any day now...

Florida in the Summer Time

This past weekend we all packed up and headed to Florida. We were slightly nervous about how Taylor would handle a 3 hour plane ride; however, there was no need to be nervous. Taylor did a great job and traveled like a pro. As soon as we got there, Taylor was introduced to second cousins she had never met. It was no surprise she met them all with her giant "cheesey" smile (crinkled nose included)!

Taylor LOVED swimming in the pool, and who could blame her. Florida was hot! On Saturday evening we celebrated Poppi's 90th birthday and what a celebration it was!

Taylor loved meeting some of her extended family from New York and also seeing cousins she hadn't seen since December. But the most important of all was visiting and getting kisses from her Gigi and Poppi! Taylor is Gigi's #1 great granddaughter (we'll call her #1a) and is blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family.