Teeth!

Taylor's two bottom teeth came through about a week or so ago. Since she won't hold still for longer than 2 seconds I didn't even try to get a picture of them. But yesterday JT, Taylor and I went to run a quick errand before dinner, Taylor and I just stayed in the car where she was all smiles (once I moved to the backseat and started feeding her Gerber puffs cereal). Since she was in her carseat (read: restrained) I could get a nice shot of her pearly whites. And here they are, in all their glory:

More Fun Pictures

Lately it's been hard to get a shot of this baby who just wants to move, all my pictures end up blurry! That is, until I changed the setting on my camera to 'action shot'. We just can't keep this girl still! Here are some cute pics from the past couple of days.

Gotta Love Laughing Babies

Since Taylor has been teething her appetite has gone significantly down, which I read is completely normal. Trying to get her to eat solid foods has been quite a chore; lots of moaning, whining, you get the picture. I try anything to get her distracted so she doesn't have a complete meltdown. Well, this was the other day and she just thought I was hilarious - of course, she is right. I have been saying 'mama' and 'dada' to her periodically throughout the days with the hopes of her mimicking me and saying it back. Here, I threw in a little ponytail action where I flipped my hair so it would move around - she just thought that was the greatest thing. Then would try and slip in a little food. As you can see, she wasn't much into the food - bring on more ponytail action!

Fun pictures

Here are just some too cute pictures from last weekend.

In a chocolate factory downtown so I could get my anniversary gift: a hand selected box of chocolates, YUM!


'Hey Daddy, whatcha doing?'


'Ooooh, what's that?!'

'Coupons!!!'

'My favorite toy'

Sweet girl

Our Oasis

The patio is complete! Like I said in a previous post, we (read: JT) have been wanting to put in a patio in our backyard since we moved into this house 2 1/2 years ago. We so happened to pick the hottest days to do it on, not a lot of fun but, hey, its done! I found some really good deals on patio chairs at Garden Ridge last weekend and luckily our friends from Shreveport, Jennifer and Todd, were visiting us so we had them bring their truck - it worked out very nicely. I found the table at Lowes that I knew would match very well with the chairs, so we got everything all at once! I usually like to shop around until I find the best deal, but with a baby to tend to (who also runs our daily schedule with her feeding and naptimes) and a truck handy I figured just get it now so I wouldn't worry about it later. Anyways, we still have a little left to do around the edges like plant some monkey grass and rake more dirt, but all the 'hard' labor is complete. I tell you what, shoveling and raking gravel is NO fun - not to mention in 105 degree weather (not exaggerating). Here are the before, during and after pictures:




There was a lot of this going on as JT laid the stones down. It required some thinking to make sure the pattern was consistent throughout the patio, which entailed doing some math to figure it all out. There is where JT comes in, not me.

Taylor helped too!



As you can see, it was a long process but it's nice to sit here (as I type this I am sitting out on the patio listening to the birds chirp) knowing that we (well, mostly JT) built it. It's a good feeling. Welcome to our new oasis.

Pulling Up

Taylor's got pulling up down pretty good now. Only took her, oh, about a day. By next week she will probably be cruising, then the next walking, then she will be headed off to kindergarten! Where did our little baby go? She is gone, but am loving watching her grow and learn things so fast!




I see you down there!


There you are!

Isn't she just the cutest thing you have ever seen? Well, I might be a little biased but I think so. We love our sweet Taylor.

Climbing

I know everyone likes the videos, so here is what Taylor is up to lately (at least the last few days! It changes daily). The girl just wants to MOVE! If I am sitting on the ground playing with her, I become her toy and she just wants to climb up me, over me, everywhere. I am not sure where she is trying to go, and don't think she does either, but she is GOING! She is also started to pull up on things, which I haven't gotten on video because I am usually ready to catch her when she starts to fall. You will also hear her 'growling' that she has been doing for the past month. I am not a fan because she sounds like a monster! Not sure why she does it, but will look forward to when she stops. :) Enjoy the video!



On the teething, she has two coming in on the bottom that don't seem to bother her too much when she's awake - she's a bit more fussy, but its manageable. It's putting her down to sleep at night that's the tough part, once we lay her down she starts crying. I think this is due to the teething - or at least I hope it is because that means there is an end in sight.

7 Months!

Sweet girl

Whirlwind

So much has happened in the last week, I am not sure where to start. I guess I will start with the most prominent in my memory - we survived Taylor's first sickness. And let me tell you it was no picnic. I could tell she wasn't acting her usual smiley, cheerful self last weekend and on Monday she was really not feeling well. I chalked it up to teething because she had all the symptoms: disrupted sleep, loss of appetite, wouldn't let me anywhere near her mouth, and fussy. Monday night was awful; lots of crying (and some points screaming) and she was up every couple of hours. I could tell she had a fever, so gave her Tylenol every 4 hours and that seemed to help, but only a little. It looked like she was grabbing at her ears, so I though it was an ear infection combined with teething. We made a doctor's appointment first thing Tuesday morning just to be sure it wasn't something really serious. Well, it wasn't teething and her ears looked fine; poor girl had a viral infection in her throat. Which apparently there is nothing you can do for a viral infection except wait it out (and give them Tylenol as needed) that lasts 5-7 days. And it took about that long until she was back to her happy self. We survived! Here she is the day she is was feeling all better.


She has reached several milestones just in the last week! It's hard to keep track but here they are:

1. Able to sit up on her own without falling flat on her face
2. Crawling - she is really moving now
3. Going from crawling to sitting with ease
4. Can feed herself Cheerios. Most of them either stick to her hand or end up on the floor, but she knows how to do it
5. We are pretty sure she said "Dada" - and only JT was in the room, but we both heard it
6. Can do 'downward dog' - for those non-yoga people (like myself) thats when you have your hands and feet on the floor and your butt in the air. I swear this child just wants to get up and go!
7. AND yesterday I found a tooth starting to come through her gums. So maybe part of it was teething, either way here we go again.... ready or not

All of these just in the last week!!! Not to mention we decided to finally put in the patio we have been wanting to build since we have moved in this house (2 1/2 years ago), had to get a new garage door, and have someone come look at the refrigerator, all the while trying to tend to a sick baby. WHEW! I am beat.

Feeling better and watching Daddy work on the patio


Feeding herself Cheerios (actually Gerber Puffs, they dissolve in their mouth for those babies without teeth)



Sitting up is no problem!


Wanting to just GO! Her version of the yoga pose 'downward dog'


Here is a sneak peak at the patio. It is almost done, but now JT has to cut some of the stone - more than he anticipated, which is very time consuming so it's not 100% complete. This is it about halfway done. We worked on it pretty much non-stop for 3 days - yes, in the 105 degree heat. Don't worry, we only had Taylor out with us in the mornings when it was pleasant.


AND baby Jake was born early this morning at 12:03 am! He is a healthy 8 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long. Rachel is doing great! Welcome to the world Jake.

Think that's it! What a week. Let's hope next week is a little less hectic. Teething - bring it on!

4th of July

Taylor had a great first 4th of July! Our friends Mari and Dustin invited us over for a BBQ and pool party, of course we came with hungry bellies and our swimsuits.

Family picture

My best friend, Rachel, sent Taylor a really cute 4th of July outfit so of course I had to get some pictures! Thanks Rach!

A trip to Home Depot earlier that afternoon - she is such a ham!





Once we got to Mari and Dustin's we got right in the pool. Kara and Eleanor were there and also our friends Cody and Tara (and their new puppy, Gracie!).

Our little swimmer girl!


Kara, Eleanor and Mari

Kara and Eleanor

Tara and Clark

And of course there is Lifeguard Scottie making sure everyone is OK


We had some great food and an awesome time! Thanks to Mari and Dustin for hosting a great pool party, we had a great 4th of July!

On the baby front: Rachel is 40 weeks pregnant, we are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of little Jake Edwin Decker Detrick! You can check out her blog here with some great pictures.

They live in Virginia Beach, which is where we were last July 4th when I was 18 weeks pregnant! You can check out my blog post about our trip here. Can't believe it's been a whole year!!!

On the Move

In a moment, my life drastically changed. Taylor is crawling. She is mobile. Capable of getting into anything and everything. I am so happy to see all of the milestones she has reached in such a short time, and, of course, so very proud. But, at the same time I say 'uh oh, here we go'. No more just laying her in one spot and she stays put! Our lives just got a lot more interesting. It's kind of ironic that she can crawl before she can sit (she is still a bit wobbly). Ironic because she ALWAYS wants to go somewhere, squirming everywhere - and sitting up seems a lot easier than moving around. But, that's our little active girl.

Here is the video I got this morning of one of her first successful crawling attempts. Just happened to be on my Dad's birthday, so I am sure we will remember this day.



She gets so excited when she has gotten to where she wants to go! Starts breathing hard and giggling. Just yesterday she was so frustrated that she couldn't crawl that she would cry. What a difference a day makes.