This is going to be one of those all-over-the-place posts because, honestly, it’s been one of those all-over-the-place days. Well, weeks. Okay, months.
Here’s a fly-on-the-wall view of our hectic household over the past few weeks:
My hair has been a total of six different colors in less than two weeks, thanks to an itch to regain my childhood blonde-ness. From boring brown (natural color) to orange (thank you, Feria) to yellow ($150 hair color stripping later) to white (dyed in attempt to reach the initially-desired blonde result) to copper (trying to natural-ize the blonde to a dirty blonde but purchased the wrong shade) to brownish reddish goldish (after going back and purchasing the correct color of blonde.) That was fun.
It’s cold here. And wet. We’re ready for Spring.
We’ve celebrated lots of birthdays, including cousin Gus’ 10th and Memaw’s 70th. A local skating rink was the location of the festivities.
While Jimmy’s parents were in town, we enjoyed our first family bowling experience. All-you-can-bowl Sundays might become a regular activity in our household.
Taylor has a nasty cold. Aubri has been placed in a bubble.
Work is keeping me ultra-busy.
Post-pregnancy hormones are keeping me ultra-weepy.
Our preemie is no longer teeny, weighing in at a whopping 13.4 pounds. Approximately 13 of the 13.4 pounds resides in her cheeks.
There is at least one pile of unfolded laundry on the floor of one room at all times. I can’t catch up.
I created and launched a website for my freelance work. CSS is not my best friend.
Taylor calls the yellow cartoon creature commonly found on Nickelodeon, “Sponge Bob Squirt Pants.” Which I find hilarious.
Aubri’s current nicknames include: “Nugget” and “Suga Booga.” Taylor calls her “Nuggy Nugs,” which I find both hilarious and adorably gangsta.
Taylor is still a silly diva that considers me an annoying member of the paparazzi.
Aubri is sleeping seven hours at night, praise God. Jimmy has been enjoying this extra sleep, but still continues to pass out mid-conversation due to his backlog of missed zzzz’s.
Aubri is working on holding her head up and has absolutely no interest in rolling over. I’ve tried to delicately shove her to her tummy. She makes it clear that this is not OK.
But she still loves me. Regardless of what her eyebrows tell you.
No matter how hectic life seems, I am loving every second of it. I love love love my girls.
But my hair? Not so much.
So there you have it. That’s been our life over the past few weeks. And that’s the longest I have sat still in months. So with that, I must depart to glue Aubri’s paci to her lips and velcro Tay’s bottom to the floor. Until next time, folks…I leave you with a few quotables from Taylor.
Taylor: “Mommy, today at school, me and my friend played mommy and daddy. We went to bed and, when we woke up, I had a baby in my tummy … but don’t worry mommy, it was just a bean bag.”
Tay: “Mommeeeeeeee, Aubri just said ‘buuuuuuutttttt.'” Me: “Tay, I’m pretty sure that was ‘booyiooooiooooo bababa’ but thanks for your concern.”
Aubri was CIO (crying it out) for less that one minute. I then hear this stern voice from a short girl around the corner: “Mommy! Aubri is cryin’. You got cot-ton in your ears?!”
During Tay’s prayers: “God, please make all the sick boys and girls well. And please tell the other boys and girls to ask their mommies if they can come to my house and play.”
Me, on Christmas Eve: “Tay! Guess who’s coming tonight?!” Tay: “Nana? Uncle Matt? Aunt Robin?” Me: “No… he’s got a big belly… and he wears red… and wears a red hat… and he fliiiiiiiies throuuuuuuugh the sky…” Tay; ::gasp:: “A superhero???!!!”
Taylor, talking to herself following an extra long and loud buuuuuuurp: “wow, that was extraooordinary!”
Me: “Shew, what stinks?” Tay: “Me. I tooted. Twice. No, three times.” ::I look over to see her spinning on her naked tummy on the floor:: Tay: “Daddy, I’m going to go potty. And when I go, please don’t ask me if I’m done yet. It makes me bananas.”
Taylor: “Mommy, can I have chewing gum?” Me: “Taylor, how many times have I told you ‘no’?” Taylor: “Well, let me try again.”
Taylor, when asked why we don’t put our fingers in electrical outlets, “because they send energy in you. And I already have enough of that.”
Jimmy, when talking to Taylor “…dang!” Taylor: “No, daddy, it’s damn!”
Filed under: Notable and Quotable
Having a three-year old with as much personality as Taylor requires you keep a journal glued to your waist or a mic taped to their forehead in order to keep track of all the notable and quotable moments. I have neither. And so I keep them on this blog. Here’s a few of her latest moments that I prefer to remember forever. Or until, at least, she brings her first boyfriend home.
Taylor from the backseat, “mommy, I am always grateful to have you and daddy. We should always be thankful for mommies and daddies.” (Long pause). “And princesses.”
I hear Taylor from the other room, as she flushes the toilet multiple times and the toilet responds with a pitiful whine, “huh. I wonder why that won’t flush?” I later find out that she has emptied the entire contents of her gumball machine into our unsuspecting commode.
Me: “Taylor, we have to go home. We have been at the pool for SEVEN HOURS.”
Tay: “Can we please stay just 4 more hours?”
Taylor, as we sat at the gas station, saw a man without his shirt on get out of his car: “Mommy! Look at that nakie man! Everyone can see his neenies. He supposed to not do that. It’s very dangerous!”
Taylor, as she gazes at the clouds: “Mommy, I can see a turtle, a bunny, and a pirate ship!”
Me: “Cool! Does the pirate ship have flags?”
Taylor: “Nooooo, it’s just a cloud. Duuuuuuh.”
Me: “Taylor, you are not allowed to say ‘why’ for the rest of the day.”
Taylor: “How come?”
Taylor repeatedly goes from my room to her room, hands full of coins. I asked her what she was doing. “Filling my piggybank so I can buy as many prizes as I want.”
Jimmy climbs up the ladder. Taylor stands at the bottom, and yells to the sky, “don’t forget your lunch!” To which Jimmy responded, “Who do you think I am? Superman?”
And, this last one is to show where Taylor got her ability to produce notable quotables:
Me: “I wonder if Tom and Jerry had to pay rights to the old cartoon for their ice cream business.”
Jimmy: “Yeah, because that was BEN and Jerry.”
Me: “Oh, right.”
Jimmy: “I think the baby is consuming half of your brain.”
Filed under: Notable and Quotable
Two more notable and quotable moments for the virtual scrapbook.
_______________________________________________________________________
Taylor has been in the never-ending “why?” stage for about 6 months now. I have tried a variety of responses/reactions to keep the constant questions to a minimum.
First, I answered her “whys” until I ran out of answers and breath. When you get to “why is the sky blue?” after a string of 14 questions about car horns, animal poop, tree trunks, dog drool, and rocks, you just run out of intelligent answers.
Next I tried ignoring her. Not a good idea. Tantrums result from unanswered whys. A sound that’s even more frustrating than hearing “w” word on repeat.
Sometimes I answer a few questions, then run away as fast as I can so she can’t ask any more. But she always finds me.
I’ve tried the “I don’t know response.” Guess what comes out of her mouth next? “Why not?”
So, today, I tried to turn it back on her, per the suggestion of a few friends. She asked me “why?” and I said “I don’t know Taylor, why do you think?” Long pause. Success was so close I could taste it. Until a stern and steady voice comes back at me with, “Mommy. I ask you a question. And you figure it out.”
Once again, the “why” wins.
_______________________________________________________________________
On the way home from school the other day, Taylor asked if she could eat the bag of cookies that she had received from her teacher as a “good day gift.” I told her, no, she could have them after she ate dinner when we got home. Silence. More silence.
Then a high pitched voice from the back seat says, ” Mommy, have I told you that you are wonderful?”
Me: “Well, thanks Taylor. That makes me happy.”
Taylor: Pause. “And Daddy is so wonderful too.”
Me: “Yes he is, Taylor.”
Taylor: “I love you, Mommy.”
At this point, I looked into the rear view mirror to see who had stolen my child and replaced her with another. What did I see? A child secretly SCARFING the bag of cookies. Attempting to keep my mind and ears busy with niceties.
Filed under: Notable and Quotable
This is a very random post, but I just want to document a few things before I forget them. First, a few of the new things that Miss. Personality has added to her notable and quotable repertoire.
Taylor comes into my bathroom every morning and watches me “get ready for the day”, dabbing cream on my face, etc. So the other morning, she came into our room at “wake up time”, i.e. the crack of dawn. She smelled unusually festive. Like she had slept in sugar cookies. Jimmy kept smelling her face and trying to figure out why she smelled like one of my free candles. Then he touched her forehead and felt a sticky mess smeared across her face. He asked “WHAT is on your face, Taylor?” To which she calmly and matter-of-factly replied, “chapstick. I was just gettin’ ready for the day.”
Interesting.
And then there was another early morning that we were blessed with Taylor’s sunrise entrance into our room. This time, she sat down on our bed right next to me, crossed her legs, looked at me with a serious face and said “so, mommy, tell me about your trip.”
No idea where that came from. But hilariously random to hear first thing in the morning. And just so Taylor.
And my personal favorite is the following.
Taylor and I were driving in the car the other day. I was happily singing along to the radio and she was sitting quietly in her car seat. Until I heard a little voice speak up from the back, “hey mommy. See that sign? It says ‘STOP singin’.'”
So, it’s clear that Taylor has developed some new personality that continues to baffle our brains and bust our bellies in laughter. But there is one thing that remains the same in Miss. Tay. Her love for ketchup. My hard-core family readers might remember one of my first posts about Taylor’s Heinz habit. And here she is, almost exactly 2 years later, still coo coo for ketchup.
Then.
And, now. As Daddy sprays ketchup directly into her mouth once it’s full with the food that we want her to eat.
Ketchup is a vegetable, right?
So Taylor has decided that now is the time that napping is no longer. Much to Mommy’s dismay, since her 3rd birthday, she has slowly been phasing out the naptime ritual. It is very very rare for her to actually sleep during the day so, instead, we have transitioned to “quiet time.” For two hours around mid-day, she is to stay in her room (ideally, her bed) and read books, play with her babies, or whatever she wants to do that is relatively quiet.
Lately, her quiet time has included bouts of door opening and closing. She opens the door, asks for water/her hair to be put up/something to eat/for me to find a particular book that she has hidden in hopes that I will hunt for it/etc. But, instead, I simply close the door.
But some days, she keeps herself busy. And, although it’s quiet, it’s not always innocent.
Like this day.
Yeah, that was on the walls too. The walls of the house that. We. Are. Trying. To. Sell.
And then there was this particular day.
I hear the door crack, and, fearing another art project gone bad, I walk down the hall.
And this is what I see.
How can you resist this face?
And so, I allow her to emerge from her room and enter the garage to show Daddy what she has done to escape quiet time this time.
What’s that?
It’s a bird?
It’s a plane?
Nope.
It’s Super Tay.
And she’s singing:
“Wuuunder pets, wuuunder pets, we’re on our way. To help our friends and saaaave the daaaaaaay!”
A few hours after Super Tay slowed down, she sat to eat her dinner.
And this is what happened:
OUT. Like a light.
Hair in potatoes, drool on her turkey.
See, T? Even superheros need naps.
Filed under: Notable and Quotable
This is the goofy child that lives in my home.
And, yes, that is the tread that you stick to the bottom of bathtubs. Or on your forehead.
If it wasn’t immediately obvious, that picture was taken with a new camera. My last photo outing to Taylor’s dance class with my point-and-shoot officially sent me over the edge. The quality is killing me. My little camera can not handle the activity level of my little toddler — I point, and it shoots…but not until after Taylor has left the room and aged 4 years. So, I am considering getting a big girl camera. And my dear pro photographer friend let me take her fancy camera for a test drive. I think I am in love. Santa, can you hear me? Love.
She’s so much cuter now that she’s in focus.
Filed under: Notable and Quotable
It seems that Taylor says the most brilliant, thoughtful, and hilarious things while we are in the car. Here are three of our most recent notable and quotable conversations.
The other day in the car, Jimmy was driving, I was in the passenger seat, and Taylor was in the back. Jimmy, in talking to me, called me “babe.” Taylor interrupted, “No Daddy. That’s honey. I’m baby.”
In the car this morning, we were listening to our favorite contemporary Christian music station, K-LOVE, when Taylor piped up in the midst of a song.
Taylor: “Mommy, do you hear Jesus?”
Me: “Ummm, no?”
Taylor: “He’s on the drums!”
On the way home from the park today, a car ran off the road directly in front of me. My reaction was a loud gasp.
Taylor: “What’s wrong, Mommy?”
Me: “Nothing, I just got scared.”
Taylor: “Scared of what? The alligator?”
Me: “Ummm, yes. The alligator scared me.”
Taylor: “Awwww, hooonnneeeey! Alligators aren’t scary. They’re green! You like green, remember? It’s OK!”
Me: “Yeah, you’re right. I’m not scared anymore. Thanks, Tay.”
Filed under: Notable and Quotable
Last night, Taylor was home with the babysitter while Jimmy and I went to small group. As always, I told the sitter “Taylor is not allowed any food or drink after dinner.” (We’re working on nighttime potty training). When we got home, our sitter was filling us in on the night. She said that Taylor was begging for a snack before bedtime (something she NEVER does with us). She went into the kitchen and pleaded for some goldfish. Then proceeded to open our candy drawer and pulled out a king size candybar (one that I got for free with a coupon, of course).
Babysitter: “No way Taylor. Mommy said no snacks.”
Taylor: “Pleeeeeassssse?”
Babysitter: “And definitely not chocolate.”
Taylor: “But… Jesus loves me!”
Guess who got what she wanted? You guessed it. Taylor. And I don’t blame our babysitter. I wouldn’t have been able to deny her after that sweet reason either!
Filed under: Notable and Quotable
Daddy has recently added a new feature to the bedtime routine. Taylor and Daddy lay in bed side by side and first read a story from her new Jesus Storybook Bible. Then, they create a story featuring Taylor. Here’s how tonight’s create-your-own-adventure (Daddy-style) went.
Daddy: “Once upon a time, there was a little princess named Taylor. Taylor and her Daddy went to the…”
Taylor: “Zoo.”
Daddy: “Taylor wanted to see her favorite animal. What was Taylor’s favorite animal?”
Taylor: “A tiger.”
Daddy: “And what did the tiger say?”
Taylor: “Roaaaaarrrrrrrrr!”
Daddy: “And what did Taylor do?”
Taylor: “I was scared.”
Daddy: “What did Taylor do when she got scared?”
Taylor: “Went and got Daddy.”
Daddy: “Does Daddy make you feel safe?”
Taylor: “Yeeees.”
Daddy: “What did Daddy and Taylor do?”
Taylor: “We go hide.”
Daddy: “Were you scared anymore?”
Taylor: “No.”
Daddy: “Why weren’t you scared?”
Taylor: “Cuz I was in the car!”
Daddy: “Who were you in the car with?”
Taylor: “Mommy.”
Daddy: “Well, where was Daddy?”
Taylor: “Daddy had to go to work.”
The End.
Filed under: Notable and Quotable
This morning, Taylor and I were praying for baby Stellan, little Kate McRae, sweet Margaret Romph, and all of the sick children in the world.
Me: “…Lord, we ask that You heal Stellan, Kate, Margaret, and every baby that is sick. We ask that You make them all better, and that they know that You are watching over them every moment of every day.”
Taylor: “Is God going to give all of the babies a Band-Aid?”
Me: “Yes, Tay, a very big Band-Aid. We ask that He make them all better. And He will.”
Taylor: “Yeaaaah. I like God.”
Me: “He loves you too, baby.”
Peanut and Poppy 