Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Taylor has a good friend here, Madeleine, who we see quite often.  On this particular they both had on crazy outfits that matched their moods.  Both were whiney, cranky, and just plain not fun to be around.  Until they started jumping on Taylor's bed.  That put them both in a better mood.  Thank goodness. 

Preschool and Playtime

Thought I would give a little update on how Taylor is doing with preschool (mother's day out).  She is doing great!!!  The first couple times she went, she didn't really have a good time - only because she didn't let herself.  When I picked her up today and last week, they said she did so good - I felt so proud.  They say she loves going to the gym - that's my girl.  Everyday she comes home with a craft they made, it's usually a page they have colored.  Today it was a picture of a spider web she colored orange, in the spirit of Halloween.  Last Wednesday was wear orange day - here she is the morning before we left. 

I am so happy she is having such a good time at preschool.  I knew she would once she figured out that she can have fun there.  

Ever since we moved in we have said we wanted to make a playhouse for Taylor out of boxes since we had so many.  Well, JT finally did it!  And it's way cool.  

We are calling it her castle because it's so big!  And the coolest part by far, is the tunnel (it's really like a maze with several turns) that JT cut in it for her to get in and out, you can see the opening in the picture above.  He even drilled individual holes in the top and stuck Christmas lights through so it would have some light.  AND they are in the shapes of REAL constellations - he got out his constellation guide.  Yeah, Taylor has a pretty cool Dad.

And look who else likes it

Crazy cat

Here is the other side of the tunnel

She really loves it.  I can't wait for some of her friends to come over and they can crawl through the tunnel and play in the castle.  

I will get some pictures of Taylor in it, I took these during naptime just so I could blog for you lovely people.  :)

We are really loving our home, preschool, friends, and having our family together!  

Tickled Pink

It's another GIRL!  I honestly couldn't believe it, I even asked the sonogram tech if she was sure.  She got several looks at it and she is sure it's a girl.  So much for my mother's intuition, I was sure it was a boy this time.  On the other hand, my actual mother's intuition has been spot on as she has been 2 for 2 in guessing and was pretty confident each time.   She can be hired out for baby predictions for a small fee.

Baby girl profile

Everything looked perfectly healthy, and am measuring right on with my due date.  I really don't like that they look at everything else before determining the sex.    I am not paying any attention to what they are telling me, just so anxious to get to 'the goods'.  Yada, yada, yada, blah, blah blah...yeah yeah just get on with it.   And when we got to her goods, this is what we saw for several minutes

Two little legs tucked up underneath her, perfectly snug as a bug.  Nice to know she is comfortable in there, but we needed her to show us what she had!  The sonogram tech kept shaking my belly a little trying to get her to move.  I told her I could get up and jump around some if that would help.  After not too long, we saw this

I swore I saw something there and said, 'it's a boy isn't it?'.  She looked and said, 'no looks like a girl to me, I don't see anything there'.  She looked about 3 or 4 different times, from different angles and was confident that it is a girl.  Her last remark was 'yep, it's a girl!'.  I was pretty surprised.  The last thing I told JT last night about it was that if I had to guess I would say boy and would be surprised if it was a girl.  Well, SURPRISE!  

We are so excited to have another little girl running around here.  But, we are especially excited for Taylor to have a sister close in age.  I never had a sister but know the bond between sisters is unbreakable.  She is going to be a great big sister.  

VOTE!

Last chance to put in your ANONYMOUS vote on the Baby Dos poll.  Fortunately, for you its anonymous...unfortunately for me, I want to know who voted for what!  

The big day is Monday when we find out!  Everyone is sure thinking boy.  We will see!!!

First Day of Preschool!

Taylor had her very, first day of preschool today!  Technically, it's Mother's Day Out but a 2 year old doesn't know what that means, so we are calling it school.  I had been wanting to get her into something like this for a long time...but with JT unemployed for as long as he was, we just couldn't justify it.  

She goes twice a week from 9:30 am - 1:30 pm.  It's at a local church around here and has a really good reputation for having a great Mother's Day Out program.  Some of our friends are enrolled in the same one as well, so it's nice to know other kids that are there with her.  

Here she is all ready to go, with her lunch in tow! 

Say cheese!

She was very excited to go (I kept talking it up), but told her that I wasn't going to go with her but that I would come to get her real soon.  Once we got there, she tensed up and wouldn't let go of my hand.  I stayed for a couple of minutes, then left...no need to drag it out.  She cried, but wasn't hysterical.  I knew she would cry, but also knew she would be fine after a few minutes.  

When I picked her up, she was upset about something.  Once the other moms start to pick their kids up, she sometimes (in the church nursery) gets upset because she realizes again that I/we are not there and then once she sees us she starts crying as if to say, 'I can't believe you left me here with these fools!'.  I didn't stay too long to get the full scoop because she was upset, but they did tell me that she did OK, just cried off and on and that she had a good time when she let herself.  She came home with a picture of an owl she had colored, so I know she enjoyed that.  (Every month they focus on learning an animal, color, number and shape - this month it's an owl, orange, 0 and a circle for Halloween!)

Once we got home I figured she would take a long nap after the morning she had.  Well, she slept for about an hour (these days she is napping 2-3 1/2 hours) and wouldn't go back to sleep.  I went into her room a couple of times to try and calm her down (that usually works), but to no avail.  I think she was still upset, and thought I had left her again since she was in her room alone.  She was in good spirits the rest of the day, so that's all I can ask for.  It will take some adjustment, but know she will have a good time.