My Favorite Broncos

The Broncos game this weekend was kind of a downer. (Thanks Peyton). So we occupied ourselves taking pictures with my phone. Getting Taylee to stay in one place is nearly impossible. And apparently the game was too enticing for Skyler to look at me for long. Thus, these are my cute kiddos in their cute jerseys, looking a little less than enthused.

14 Months

Taylee is 14 months old today. It seems these posts come along so quickly every month. But it really astonishes me how much she changes in just a month. This is what she is up to these days:
* She is a full time walker. Walking has become her primary mode of transportation (Yay!) and she only occasionally reverts to crawling.
* She's a babbler! No real words yet (besides mama), but her "environmental sounds" are increasing in frequency. She tries to imitate our sounds (sometimes), and makes a great monkey noise. ;) She was saying whoa for a day or two, but we can't get her to say it anymore . . .?
*She wants to be a big girl and eat by herself. Mac and Cheese is still her favorite, and we have recently introduced PB&J. Yummy!
*Although she loves her bottle more than anything in the whole world, she LOVES to drink from mommy's cup and daddy or brother's water bottle.
*She can now locate her nose when we tell her to "touch your nose," although she oftens points to her ear instead. ;)
*She LOVES her music DVD's by Baby Genius. Her favorites are Wheels on the Bus, Swab the Deck, and her very favorite DJs My Name!
*She is a fabulous dancer, especially to DJs My Name! Before she was walking she would dance around on her knees. Sooo cute!
*There are a zillion other little idiosyncracies that make her Taylee, but I just can't even begin to describe it. She is just so full of zest and personality. We adore our Taylee Bug!

Denver - Part Two - Broncos!

This year was monumental for our family. After 10 years on the waiting list, we have now become Broncos season ticket holders!! As you can see, our tickets are at the very top of the stadium, so high you get a little vertigo looking down, but hey, we're there! You can definitely see EVERYTHING happening on the field from way up there. Except maybe the players numbers. But, we're told that every year the tickets we are offered will improve. Well, we sure picked a good game to go to this year. The Broncos whooped it up on the Seattle Seahawks! We're hoping they do as well next month when we go see them play the Jets.

Denver - Part One - Elitch's!!

We headed to Denver for the weekend, primarily to see the Broncos play, but also to spend some time with FAMILY, and we got to go to ELITCH'S! We were worried that the flight there could be rough, as this tends to be a fussy time for Taylee, but she surprised us by being really good! Skyler taught her to say Whoa on the flight. It's really cute when she says it because she uses this adorable high-pitched voice and says whoa-WHOA! I think we may have exhausted this new development by making her do it over and over. Now she refuses to perform on command. ;( On Saturday we went to Elitch's for Taylee's first trip to an amusement park! And Skyler's 47th! Ok, we don't really keep count, but needless to say, he has been MANY times. We had so much fun. We played in the kiddie playland, we rode lots of rides, we ate WAY too much, and we pushed Taylee WAY past her naptime. We payed for this later with a HUGE meltdown in the car. Luckily we survived and had a fabulous dinner with everyone at HICKORY HOUSE. Our favorite spot for ribs! Yummy!

Fun with the crazy balls in kiddie land!

Skyler and Taylee at the teacups

Aunt Ginger and Aden on the carousel

Aunt Tota, Kaydence, and Aden on the carousel

Taylee and Grammy in their chariot

Taylee, Kaydence, and Aden cruising in their boat

Taylee and mommy truckin' it

One Year Pictures

Ok, actually they are 13 month pictures, but who's counting? A couple weeks ago we spent the afternoon at the park with my adorable friend Summer. She got some great shots of Taylee, and was extraordinarily patient trying to get a smile out of our serious girl. Here are a few of my favorites. If you have any interest in looking at all 185 photos, the website is http://www.sweettayleegirl.shutterfly.com/ (password - baby). Enjoy . . .

Craniofacial Clinic

Today Taylee attended her very first craniofacial clinic. This is a long afternoon in which she sees her plastic surgeon, the ENT, the orthodontist, and speech therapy. And a quick check-up with the craniofacial nurse and social work. Looking back we are lucky to have made it through in just over 2 hours! Fortunately we have nothing exciting to report. Yay! Dr. Siddiqi (plastics) and Dr. Smith (ENT) both said that everything looks good and they want to see us at clinic in a year. WooHoo! The orthodontist examined her mouth and fortunately reported no wear and tear (yet!) from her new teeth grinding habit. He said this is relatively common when toddlers first get their teeth, and usually goes away. Here's hoping! He did note that she has a large frenulum (sp?), the tissuey doo-hickey that connects the top gum to the upper lip. He said that next time she is in the Operating Room (which I hope will be never!), he wants the surgeon to cut it. I believe that this is similar to when babies are tongue-tied. It hasn't been a problem thus far, but could mess up her teeth, and of course, speech. If she doesn't end up back in the OR, I believe they can do this procedure in the office under sedation. We'll check again at clinic next year if it's not already repaired.

So, speech therapy was, for me, the most interesting part. Obviously I have been concerned about her speech, so I was all ears. They felt like she is doing very well, especially with her new expanded babbling vocabulary. Although, they think we should continue with her therapy through early intervention, and if she hasn't progressed in 6 months we will need to see the therapist here at Primary's. The Speech therapist did help me to understand some of her speech patterns. Apparently the M, N, and ing sound are all nasal sounds. This means that for a child with a cleft palate, they are the easiest sounds to make. They don't need to involve their palate to make these sounds. No wonder she said mama first! However, ALL other sounds require the mouth. So, these will all be harder for her. We are supposed to repeat ba, da, pa, ga sounds to help her learn. And, apparently just because she has been repaired, she's not necessarily repaired fully as far as speech. The repaired palate just isn't as good as a real (properly formed) palate. It can be floppy, or stretchy, or a whole bunch of other things that can foul up speech. If she has problems with these things, they can be fixed with a prosthesis, a sling (a what? yeah, I don't really know either), or with another repair. Here's crossing our fingers that she just does well on her own, and starts talking!

Labor Day

Although we didn't actually get out of town for Labor Day weekend, we had a great little "staycation!" After spending all day Friday canning peach syrup with grandma Judson, I worked Friday night, so Saturday was kinda lame. Sleeping and errands. Of course, that means Kent's Saturday was kinda lame too (at least he had peach syrup for breakfast!). We did have a very exciting dinner at Chili's. (Still my favorite, 6 years after I gave up my employee discount!) Skyler and my dad went to the movies to see the 3D version of Avatar. Not my thing, but they were into it. After the movie, they met my mom for nine holes of golf. Our family adopted golf as a favorite pastime a few years ago, and Skyler has really jumped on that bandwagon. We are so proud of him, and (secretly) hoping he will join the golf team in high school. We had a celebratory ice cream at Farr's Fresh on Saturday evening. Yummy!
Sunday found us out at Willard Bay for some boating and wakeboarding with some friends from Kent's work. It was Skyler's first time wakeboarding. It took just a few tries, and he was up!! Of course, I forgot my camera, so we have no pictures to show for it. Dang it. My mom watched the baby girl while we were out (thanks mom!), and we got home just in time for my mom and I to make it to the late afternoon showing of Eat, Pray, Love. We both read the book and were excited to see the movie. It wasn't the most exciting movie I've ever seen, but definitely worth your time. Especially if you loved the book like we did. The boys had a nice relaxing afternoon at home, because Taylee took the longest nap of her life (seriously!), a whopping 3 hours! Maybe a sign of the cold that the whole family came down with . . .
Monday was a pretty chilly Labor Day, but sunny and calm, so we decided to get out on the golf course. Taylee spent a few hours with Grandma and Grandpa Judson, and the rest of us hit the links. This time, I did take my camera. Here's the proof . . .

For a grand finale we barbecued hamburgers at Grandma and Grandpa Judson's. A good time was had by all!

Baby Steps

Taylee is almost a walker!! She has been taking one or two steps at a time (with encouragement) for about a week now. Yesterday she started taking 6-7 steps back and forth between mommy and daddy and brother. I think we are only a few short weeks from real walking!

Hot Stuff

Taylee thinks she is hot stuff in mommy's sunglasses.

The silly part is that she won't wear HER OWN sunglasses outside,

which would be useful. Silly girl. I guess she likes the bug-eye look better . . .