Singing in the Tub

Daniel downloaded our videos last night, so here is the long awaited clip to Taylor singing in the tub. If you have any ideas of what this song might be, please clue me in. I have racked my brain and can't figure it out. Perhaps she is making up her own song. At any rate, it is evident that she is singing. I hope you enjoy it.

Signs of the Times

My baby is growing up right before my very eyes. Lately Taylor has been telling me when she has a dirty diaper. It is not consistent yet, but it is a start. It comes out more like "doi dipo", but I can understand her. Just this afternoon she was playing after I got her up from her nap and she came up to me, said diaper, and ran back to her room and laid down on the floor for me to change her. She was only wet, but she did need to be changed. She has been so good lately about laying down when it is time to be changed. Could it be that she will be ready to potty-train soon? I wanted to get her completely potty-trained before Katelyn got here, but I soon realized that that was going to be pie in the sky. Taylor was not ready in time and I didn't want to start something just to have her revert when I come home with Katelyn.

I think I may have discovered what Taylor might have been trying to sing yesterday. This afternoon she was doing the sign for Itsy Bitsy Spider and I heard her try to sing that. I sang it with her and we did the signs and then she went into her babble singing like before. I just have to wonder if that song has been on her mind this whole time or if it is another song that I just don't recognize yet. Who knows!

Saturday night Taylor decided that she wanted to call all of her grandparents.....so we did. She said good-night to ALL of them. My parents were down at my grandparents' house helping with my grandmother this weekend, so when we called they put my grandfather on the phone. I was so pleased when Taylor talked to him. I know that made him feel good too.

A Night To Remember

Tonight at church we had a banquet for couples as a conclusion to our Fireproof class. Ken Bevel who played Michael Simmons in the movie came to speak. We had a catered meal, which was excellent, and they played a slide show of wedding pictures that were submitted by many of the attendees. It was wonderful. The food was delicious and we really enjoyed Ken's talk too. It was a nice time for Daniel and I to have dinner away from Taylor. Childcare was provided, so it was nice not to have to worry about getting a baby-sitter. What I really liked about Ken was that he was so quick to give God the credit for all of the success of Fireproof. It has been seen by 5 million people and has made a ton of money. God has really blessed it. None of the actors were paid because it is a ministry of Sherwood Baptist. The actors are all volunteers just like the people who had roles behind the scenes. Even Kirk Cameron volunteered his time. Ken's challenge to all the couples was to love one another as Christ loves the church. He was very transparent about his own marriage and how God has matured him and his relationship with his wife. This truly was a night to remember. If you or anyone you know has not seen this movie, I would highly recommend that you at least rent it and watch it even if you don't purchase your own copy.

Word Explosion

Taylor has finally had her word explosion. The speech therapist came this past Wednesday. Normally she spends most of the time playing with Taylor and observing her as she plays, but this time she took a lot of notes because I had so much to fill her in on. We had not seen her for about 3 weeks since we were out of town on her normal week to come and Taylor had made a lot of progress. Ms. Becky said that usually you hear a big explosion around 18 months, which Taylor did not have, so it was encouraging to finally hear that. She is finally starting to string words together on a regular basis to form 2 and 3 word phrases. There are times that I can tell she is trying to say more, but sometimes it is still hard for me to make out certain things that she is saying - especially if there are no context clues. She is getting a lot clearer on some of her words though. Over the past week she has said, "More milk, please." She also likes to say things like, "Come on, Mama," or whoever or whatever it is she is talking to. She talks to her dolls and her stuffed animals. She has even started reading to them which I need to get on video sometime. I love watching her pretend. One day we were looking for her bear that she sleeps with and I was calling out, "Bear, where are you?" Taylor immediately picked up on it and said, "Are you, bear?" She has also started asking for things by name instead of gesturing for what she wants. This is very helpful for me because I don't always have to guess as to what she is wanting.

Taylor has also started singing more words from the songs she knows instead of just singing jibberish. I realize that most of what they are repeating at this age is syllables, but hopefully she is understanding some of the words she is singing. One of her favorite songs is Come, Now is the Time to Worship. Just as recently as last night she has seemingly started making up her own songs. Last night while she was getting a bath she was singing something that was incomprehendable. You could tell that it made perfect sense to her though. I caught it on video, so when I get it downloaded I will try and post it. I do kind of wonder though if she was trying to sing a song that she already knows because on the way home from church tonight it sounded as if she was singing the exact same song in the car. At least the syllables were the same.

Minnie Mouse Ears

Taylor recently rediscovered a set of Minnie Mouse ears that her cousin Benjamin sent her from his trip to Disneyland. When she first got them she would have nothing to do with them because, of course, it would require putting them on her head which she was opposed to. Now she goes and gets them and puts them on herself. She thinks she is so cute, which she is. The funny thing about it is that she likes to wear them like a visor instead of up on top of her head like a head band. By the way, Taylor said Mickey Mouse for the first time today. She has a Mickey Mouse coloring book that she had been coloring in, so perhaps that is what brought it on.

Joshua's 2nd Birthday Party

Although my nephew, Joshua's, 2nd birthday was not until this past Friday, my sister had his birthday party the Saturday before while we were still in town. I don't think she planned it around our visit, but it just worked out that it fell while we were up there. Joshua has a milk allergy - just like Taylor did, only she had her's as a baby and was over it (for the most part) after about a year - so Alicia ordered him a dairy free cake. It was pretty good, I'd have to say. It was a little chewier than your regular cake though. The theme was John Deere. I didn't get a picture of the cake, but it was so cute. If you want to see more pictures from the birthday party, Alicia has some really cute ones posted on her blog as a slide show.

Joshua's party was pretty small. She only had us, our parents, and our friend Tina and her little boy, Caleb. Tina's husband Jim was invited too, but he was busy and couldn't come. I was glad that she kept it small. I have heard that the appropriate size party for your child is one friend for the number of years you are turning. I think Rebekah was a little bored and wanted her own friends there because she ended up playing in her room by herself. At this age, most toddlers play by themselves anyway. They were all kinda doing their own thing.

On the way over, Taylor was wanting to listen to Praise Baby, of course, but we didn't have it with us, so I ended up singing the whole way over. It is about a 30 minute drive from my parents' house to my sister's house, so by the time we got there Taylor was acting a little sleepy. She ended up cuddling with my dad for a long time when we first got there, but she finally warmed up once Joshua started opening his presents.

Cuddle time with Granddaddy.

We got Joshua the "cool" gift. It was a Little Einstein's Transform & Go Rocket.

You can program up to 20 directional commands at a time.

Only an engineer dad would read the directions. :)

Granddaddy getting in some tickle time with the kids.

Joshua is such an active boy and loves to be turned upside down.

I think he wore Grandmommy out!

Caleb enjoyed playing with the balloons while Taylor gravitated to the train made out of blocks.

Tina looks on while the kids play.

Cousin Rebekah and Daddy join Taylor playing with the train.

Caleb kickin' back.

Happy Birthday, Joshua!

Taylor wandered into Joshua's room and found the IncrediBlock.
She liked the music on it and started dancing to it.

Fun with the Friedman's

While I was in Chattanooga I got word from my good friend, Tara, that Wayne was taking the day off on Friday for them to have a little family getaway over the weekend. They had planned to go to Gatlinburg, but decided to come to Chattanooga instead and visit the Creative Discovery Museum. I had planned to take Taylor up to visit Tara and the kids on Thursday, but it worked out even better this way for us all to get together in Chattanooga and I didn't have to do any extra traveling.

I called Daniel the night before to tell him what our plans were. During this whole week while we were in Chattanooga he was at home getting Taylor's Big Girl Room ready. He and Bud painted the walls and all the trim and Bud painted the bookcase. It looks really good and I'll post pictures once I get all the stenciling done and get the curtains hung. So, anyway, I called Daniel to tell him about our plans and to see if there would be any possible way for him to take the day off on Friday to come up and spend the day with us. The plans were to meet up with the Friedman's after Taylor's nap. Daniel had so much to do that he didn't see any way possible that he would be finished in time to come up on Friday. I was a little disappointed, but I wasn't going to let that spoil the fun. I knew that he was working hard to get Taylor's room finished.

On Friday morning I got up and called Daniel. When we got off the phone Taylor woke up and wanted to see her Granddaddy, so Mama took her into the bedroom to wake him up. Just then Daniel called me back to ask me to unlock the front door. I was a little confused at first and then I saw the car out in front of the house. He had come up early to surprise me! I was so not expecting it. He had gotten up extremely early to get there around 7:30. I was so shocked that I just couldn't believe he was there. This is not the first time that he has surprised me like this and it never gets old.

We had hoped to meet the Friedman's at the Creative Discovery Museum and all go together, but by the time Taylor woke up from her nap they had already been there a while and were getting close to being through. Later Tara told me that she was expecting to spend all day there but the kids get through it in about 2 hours. I think there are more things to do for older children, so in a way I was glad that we didn't take Taylor. We did end up meeting them in the parking lot and taking them to Coolidge Park by the TN River. We had great fun there watching the kids play on the unusual playground equipment. They also had fun climbing the cement animal fountains (which weren't running) and riding the carousel. Although our meeting was short it was really good to get to see them. Since they live in Knoxville now we only get to see them usually about once a year - twice if we make special arrangements - so we really cherish our time together. Here are some pictures of the kids playing together.

Hannah and Taylor playing with the bells and chains.

Isaac and Hannah play while Taylor looks on.

Taylor and Naomi havin' fun.

Tara and Hannah exhange "I love you's" through the tube.

Here are some pictures of the kids on the animal fountains. All the animals are positioned in a circle and during the summer there is water shooting out of their mouths and up from the ground in the middle. Kids come out in their swim suits and run through the water. Of course, the water was turned off during the wintertime.

I was surprised that Daniel actually got Taylor to sit on this turtle and pose for a picture. I would have thought she would have been scared.

The carousel in the park is really neat because all of the animals ar exotic animals and are hand carved and hand painted. At first Taylor was a little bit skiddish. Daniel did get her to sit on a horse for about half a revolution though.

Is Taylor ticklish?

Saying "Good-bye".