Summertime!

It's summertime, and you know what that means...

Swimming!  It has been at least 90 degrees for the past week or two, so it was time to get in the pool!  It was a little chilly for about a minute, then it felt great.  

Taylor had a ball!  Literally.

This kid loves to play with balls, probably her favorite toy.  That's my girl!  

This swimsuit my mom found at Walmart, that came with a lifejacket/vest thing.  I tried it on her, attempted to set her afloat (not really) but she has really no body control/awareness in the water so any move she made she was going head first in the water!  And she just didn't like it, so off it went.  She had way more fun in her float and with this ball anyway.  

Bring on summer!!!

Sweet Moments

Here are a few sweet moments captured from the last week

Looking out the window with Daddy.  She put her arm around him and kept it there.  

At Chipotle with Eleanor who loves to give hugs.

Sweet girls

Fort Worth Science Museum

This week we went to the new Fort Worth science museum.  I have heard nothing but good things about it, and how there is an awesome area for kids Taylor's age.  Usually when there are kid friendly areas, they are mostly for older (4+) kids and Taylor just gets knocked around, or the stuff is too advanced for her.  So, I was really excited to take her somewhere that she can interact.  

My friend, Kara, has a fancy season pass and can take up to 5 people with her FOR FREE!  She was sweet enough to invite us to go with her and Eleanor.  Thanks Kara!!!

Kara with both girls trying to get them to look at the camera.  This was the best shot I got.

Getting all checked in.  I just love Taylor's facial expression, 'can we hurry this up, please?' and her chubby little arms.

I have mentioned how tall Taylor is, well Eleanor such a cute little thing (of course, so is her mama).  Here is a good shot at how much taller Taylor is.  

Almost a whole head taller, and they are only 1 month apart.  

Anyways.  We started in the grocery store, where the kids can shop!  For fake, plastic food, that is.  They both had a BLAST.

Taylor was just a bit excited here :)

Time to check out!

In the check out line

We then moved on to another section where they had some really cool, interactive things

These ceiling high tubes were a lot of fun.  They could push the button to make bubbles go all the way up the tube.

And they had this thing where you put your hands on the pads to make air blow the balls up and the pinwheels spin.

They also had random toys lying around.  We stayed in this area for a long time

I know this looks like it's hitting Taylor in the head.  Don't worry it's not :)
Eleanor loves these push toys.  She has 2 of them at home :)

We then headed outside to the 'water park' (for lack of a better term).  This was way cool!

This was a circular table with places for toddlers to sit and water dripped down on them.  Nice way to cool off.  Don't mind the random lady in the background (I hate it when there is something in the background - oh well)

This water gun feature was really neat, more for older kids, but still fun.

And one more picture just to prove I was there

Not sure why Taylor has this concerned look on her face.  At least she is looking at the camera, I'll take what I can get.  

Thanks Kara for inviting us we had an awesome time!  

Mommy!

Taylor has finally started saying Mommy!  Check it out.

This one started out with her talking on her phone (the back to my old phone), but of course she stopped once I started recording.  But, got her to say Mommy loud and clear!  

17 Months

Taylor is 17 months!  Her hair is now long enough to make pig tails - it is growing super fast.  Oh, and yes she has the thermometer in her mouth.  Don't worry its not a rectal thermometer, it goes under her arm.  In order to keep her seated in the chair for the 10 seconds it takes for me to get a picture, I have to give her something.  This just happened to be on the table next to the chair.  It really didn't work that well, this was the 6th picture I took in order to get a decent shot.  Ho hum.  

We have her next check-up appointment next month when she is 18 months and we will get to see where she stands on height!  She is still very tall.  A lot of people when they see her think she is 2 years old.

Lately, she has been talking a lot.  She will try and mimic almost everything you say.  This is how a conversation goes:

Me:  'Taylor would you like more pudding?'

Taylor:  excited laughter

Me:  'Say more!"

Taylor:  'More!!'

Me:  'say please!'

Taylor:  'Bee'  (please)

It's pretty cute.  The girl does love her sweets.  And chips.  So we have to monitor how much we give her.  And give ourselves for that matter.

She still loves to read books, especially for Nana (my mom) to read them to her.  Loves, loves, loves outside, and will reach up to the doorknob when she is ready to go out...even if Mommy isn't ready.  She likes things that fit together, like leggos, mixing bowls or stacking toys.  She still loves her baths and will run in the bathroom when we tell her its time to take a bath.  Will shake her booty to anything with a tune.  We seem to be down to one nap now, which is nice to have the whole morning to go places and see people without having to worry about the morning nap.  And she still smiles and laughs all the time :)  

Happy 17 months sweet Taylor! 

Texas Ranger Game

On Tuesday we took Taylor to her first Ranger game!  She was dressed to the nines in her Ranger uniform, including her knee-high socks and pig tails.  If you remember, I got this uniform at the Just Between Friends consignment sale for just $2!  I am still stoked about that deal.  

We decided to get there pretty early since we knew we would be leaving early in the game to make it back for Taylor's bedtime (it's usually around 8:00 or 8:30).  

My friend from the Rangers, Heather (hi Heather!), got us great seats behind home plate on the 2nd level.  And we borrowed my mom's car to get free valet (for Lexus cars) so we got in the gate and parked for free!  

Taylor was so excited to see the field.  Every time she sees a baseball game on TV she points and says, 'ball!'.  Needless to say she was very excited.

Seeing the field for the first time

Watching the grounds crew get the field ready.  This was really the only time she was actually interested in the field/game.

She was more interested in doing this

Eating popcorn.

And this

Climbing up and down the stairs and running around on the concourse.  Really the only time she sat in her seat was when JT had ice cream and I didn't get a picture of that because I was thoroughly enjoying my lemon chill.

We left after the 4th inning, got our car very quickly and left without having to deal with any traffic! 

Here is a picture right before we left.

We got home and Taylor was in bed by 9:00, where she slept until 8:30 am!  Guess she was worn out from all the excitement and stair climbing.   We were worn out too, but so glad we were able to take her to her first major league game! 

Mother's Day

JT had to work all day on Mother's Day, so we started celebrating on Friday!  All 3 of us went out to eat to our favorite restaurant.  Before we left I wanted to get a nice mother-daughter picture.  

But, Taylor had other ideas.  Oh well.  

There is a small park right across the street from the restaurant, so now every time we eat there we walk over to the park and have Taylor burn off some energy!  

She can now climb up the ladder (with one of us behind her in case she falls)

All the way up to the top where she slides down by herself.  

She is becoming very independent.

Another attempt at a mother-daughter picture.  This time it's a little bit better.


Here we are last year on Mother's Day.  
Taylor and I went to see my parents on Sunday afternoon while JT was working, so we got to celebrate with my mom too!  

I wanted to go to Curly's and get frozen custard like we did last year but it was freezing outside!  Ok, maybe not freezing, but it was pretty windy, in the 60's, and cloudy.  Those don't equal eating frozen stuff to me.  

So, we went to Starbucks instead.  Where Taylor got her very, first coffee drink.

Are you kiddin' me?!  That kid does NOT need caffeine!  We got her a chocolate milk.  Gotcha ;)

And I finally got my great mother-daughter picture.

Silly kid.  

It was a great weekend celebrating motherhood.  Now that I am a mom, I think Mother's Day should be once a month.  I think all moms out there would agree.  

Happy Mother's Day!

One Sick Kid

Taylor has been one sick kid over the past week.  She started feeling bad on Monday afternoon with a slight fever when she went to bed that night.  

She woke Tuesday morning with a fever, but decided to just see how she did throughout the day before calling the doctor.  She seemed to be getting worse at the day went on, so I made an appt for the afternoon.  

About an hour before the appt, her fever spiked to 104!  Panic mode set in.  I tried calling the doctor to see if we could come right in, but was on hold forever!  I said, 'forget it!' hung up, and we were off to the doctor's office!  

After a battery of tests (I will spare you all the horrible details) they didn't know exactly what it was, but knew it was a bacterial infection.  They gave Taylor an aggressive antibiotic shot, a prescription for an antibiotic and told me to call if she got worse in any way.  

The next day her fever went all the way up to 104.7!  

P-A-N-I-C.  

I called the nurse, who talked to the doctor, calmed my nerves, and told me that she was on the right medication and if it got over 105 to call again.  Easy for them to say, they weren't looking at a slight comatose child!  Taylor was just a lump on the couch, it was so sad.   They continued to tell me if she had a fever in the morning, the doctor wanted to see her again.  

At 6 am her fever was back up to 104.2.  

Back to the doctor we go.  They did more blood work and determined that she was, in fact, getting better as her white blood cell and bacteria count wasn't nearly as high.  

Relief!  

The doctor said he thought she should be feeling better by Saturday.  Well, that's today and here is a picture from this morning.

It is so nice to see her smiling face again!  We missed our happy, full of energy little girl.  Welcome back to the land of the living Taylor!  

Mayfest

see the bird that flew by right as I snapped the picture?

On Friday evening, after JT got off work, we headed out to Mayfest!  Mayfest is an annual festival type thing that has been going on in Trinity Park in Fort Worth for as long as I can remember.  

There is food galore, games, petting zoo, live music, face painting, arts and crafts, even a haunted house (in May?) and lots more.  Mayfest seems to be cursed as every year it seems to rain, one year a lot of people got hurt with very large hail, and last year it was even cancelled because of the swine flu scare!  Anyways, we took our chances and headed out.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we are always looking for good, cheap fun.  Well, Mayfest is NOT cheap.  But it is fun.  They charge you $5 to park, $8/adult just to get in, THEN you have to pay for everything else.  Food, games, petting zoo, you name it you have to pay.  Luckily, I got our tickets half price online on tax day and we saved our money that week so we could get some good festival food.  

We got a corn dog, which Taylor thoroughly inspected and ate a few bites.

And JT got a funnel cake.  Taylor really liked that.  Like father, like daughter.

There was a great country band playing near the playground (where we spent most of our time, so yes we paid to play on the playground at a park) that apparently Taylor really liked!  

Is that not the cutest?  I think so.

JT took her into the petting zoo, while I sat down!  I was too lazy to get any pictures, and we had a long trek back to the car so I wanted to sit down for a few minutes.  Chasing after a 16 month old wears me out!  And merely walking around wears me out too, always has.  

We all had a great time!