Christmas 2010

Skyler is a teenager now, so we expected to wake

him up on Christmas morning. Ha Ha.
When I got up with Taylee on Christmas morning at

6:45, he was already up. Turns out he woke up

at 1:30 in the morning, and was never able to get back

to sleep. Oh to be a kid again! Or a teenager . . .

Although Taylee was clueless as to the concept

of Christmas, she sure enjoyed helping us open gifts

and playing with all the new stuff! Skyler's Christmas

consisted mainly of a snowboard, boots, and bindings,

and a few other small items. Since I LOVE buying
books, everybody got books!! We got a new Belgian
waffle maker, which we used on Christmas morning.

Unfortunately, we over-indulged on our Belgian waffles

and made ourselves sick!

How cute are these two, enjoying our new Broncos

ornament. To add to our Broncos themed Christmas Tree!

Skyler wants to introduce Taylee to snowboarding

at an early age. Here they are with his new snowboard!

After our BIG breakfast, we headed to Grandma Judson's.

We got a beautiful rolling pin from Grandma and Grandpa

Judson, hand-made by Great Uncle George. We Love it!

In the afternoon, we dropped Skyler off with his "other"

family, and we went to my parents house to celebrate

with Nana, Papaw, Great Grandpa Gene, and Great Aunt Karen.

We had tons of fun opening gifts, and again ate WAY

too much! Love those sticky buns!

And, to top it all off, my new Bilbo Baggins shoes.

Still not quite sure what I think of these. Reserving

judgement for when I get a pair that fit properly.

Any comments?! Thanks PaPaw ;) Love ya

Christmas Eve 2010

Because we have so many family gatherings and gift exchanges for Skyler to attend, our Christmas celebrations begin early on Christmas Eve. Friday afternoon my parents and my Grandpa Gene and Great Aunt Karen came up to our house for Skyler's first celebration of the year. He got a new set of irons from my parents, and he can't wait to get out on the course this summer. We moved the party downstairs to bring out our BIG family gift surprise. A new Air Hockey Table for the basement! Thanks Nana and PawPaw Cole! We have already made our arms sore playing air hockey. Taylee won't be getting much use out of this gift for many years to come, but she sure had fun with it before it was assembled!

Nana and Great Aunt Karen

That evening we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Judson's for dinner and the cousins gift exchange. They had a blast! On a side note, the children are not possessed by the devil, I just wasn't able to edit the red eye out. When I tried they all ended up with big black noses. Weird . . .

Skyler got a VERY useful iTunes gift card and Taylee got a Fridge Alphabet Game. They both LOVE their gifts! Thanks Hunter and Cody.

Best Christmas Present Ever!

Over the past several days Taylee has been talking like crazy. Just a few days ago she started trying really hard to mimic several of our words. Her recognizable words these days are baby, dog, bye, bath, movie, eye, nose, and please (with the sign). We are so excited to have Taylee talking to us! It truly is the best present ever!!

Naptime Woes . . .

Naps have become quite an adventure in our house. This topic is probably pretty boring to most people, but I'm writing about it so I can remember. (Sorry!) Taylee has continued to have a 2 naps a day schedule since she was 8 months old. I have read and heard from friends that between 12 and18 months, most kids are ready to transition to one nap a day, usually in the afternoon. Well, recently Taylee has been really feisty about going down for her naps. She clings to me, won't let me lay her down, then gets SO mad when I leave the room. I thought she must be trying to tell me that she is ready for one nap a day! I was skeptical, but a little excited about this (BIG -to me!) milestone. She has always gotten up early in the morning, like 6-6:30 am. I was hoping that switching to one nap a day might help her to sleep in later, and avoid the naptime meltdown.
Well, joke's on me. We tried the one nap a day schedule for almost two weeks. Some days it went okay, especially if there was a lot going on, or we were out visiting with lots of other kids. But most days, meltdown city! Often she started melting down at about 10 am (she's used to her morning nap at about 9:30). If we made it through this rough patch, or if I put her down a little early, like 11, things went okay. Til late afternoon - then, again, the drama queen put on her tiara and came out to play! I kept thinking that after a week or more she would adjust. Well, not so much! It seems like the problems were just getting worse and worse. Maybe she was just getting more and more sleep deprived by then?
This last Sunday's complete and total meltdown, combined with her falling asleep in the car after just about 1 1/2 minutes, was the last straw. Alas, we are back to two naps a day, and happy about it!! And, by the way, she never did start sleeping in . . .

Who's the baby here?!

Taylee has been totally enamored by her baby doll lately. She swaddles it in blankets, burps it, dresses and undresses it, and carries it all over the house. Well, yesterday I remembered this adorable little bassinet that Taylee's great grandpa found for her over a year ago. I had stashed it in her closet for when she got bigger. Well, now she's bigger, and she LOVES it. The baby goes in and out, in and out. The blankets go in and out, in and out. The matress goes in and out, in and out. Even Taylee goes in and out, in and out.

Yes, I realize she is half-naked in these photos, but you gotta take advantage of a photo-op when they arise!

Domesticated?

As most of you know, I'm not much of a cook, or much of a cleaner, or frankly, very domestic at all. Well, every year my mother and sister-in-law and I have a cookie party, where we each make a cookie and share with each other, then deliver these cookies to our neighbors. Well, usually I just make one of my mom's easy old standby Christmas cookie recipes. This year I really went out on a limb to make these Candy Cane Kiss Cookies. They weren't exactly hard, but for me, anything outside the norm is hard! I didn't realize there was such an art to placing the kiss on top and allowing it to melt just enough to stick, but not melt into a puddle. So, after a little experimentation, the cookies turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself! Thanks for the recipe Jenn!! And by the way, the peppermint kisses are pretty darn good. And awfully similar to those yummy (and expensive) mints at Hickory Farms.

Language Explosion!

So, I've been told that they call 18 months the "language explosion." I have been looking forward to said explosion more than you can imagine, but pretty uncertain that it would live up to expectations with our quiet little mouse. But after this week, it looks like we might be headed for an actual explosion! After developing the skills to sign and say help, she has suddenly started saying the words baby and more, and signing eat and more. We are thrilled to see some progress, and although it's not a lot, we think baby steps are just fine!

Pillow Time

My sweet friend from work Adrienne and her darling sister Megan gave Taylee her very first pillowcase. And a special pillowcase it is!! It is the softest material you've ever felt. In fact, I'm a little jealous. ;) Megan makes pillowcases every Christmas season for all her nieces and nephews. Taylee was the lucky recipient of an extra pillowcase, and we are so grateful. Taylee loves her pillowcase, and has been toting it around the house with her all weekend. Thanks Megan and Adrienne! Love ya

HELP!

We have been doing Early Intervention with Taylee for several months now. One thing that they have strongly encouraged to help with her speech, is using signing as a form of communication. We have been working on eat, drink, more, all done, and help. So far she has showed little interest in either signing or saying these words. Until yesterday! She signed AND SAID Help! The sign she uses isn't exactly what it's supposed to be, and the word sounds more like "hap," but it's a word!! A meaningful word! Why she chose help, I'll never know, since we have worked on teaching her the signs for eat, drink, and more twice as much, but help it is. Help works well though, because she uses it for everything now. When she wants up, when she wants down, when she wants the door open, the door closed, her toys out of the bin, just about anything! We are hoping this breakthrough will open the door to LOTS more words soon. Yay Taylee Bug!