The days leading up to Thomas's arrival

So it has been a while since we posted. Things have been busy to say the least. Since the last post, Christmas has come and gone along with Daddy's birthday(me), New Years, a baby shower for Thomas, Taylor's Birthday, Mommy's Birthday, and Thomas's birth (we will get to that in the next post) . Of course with all these goings on, it would seem that every week there were presents to open. Taylor seemed to have become accustomed to opening new gifts if not daily, then weekly. I would come home and she would eagerly ask, "Open present, yeah?!"

Christmas was a lot of fun. This was the first year that Tay actually got into it. I think that by far her favorite gift has been her art easel. This is actually a favorite for all of us. Almost daily after I get home she will ask, "Wanna do chalk daddy?" or "Wanna draw a turtle daddy?" She tries to copy the things that we draw and often times they are pretty close. She has also been playing with markers a lot, in Taylor talk though they are referred to as "Mark Its" (which I think is more appropriate as she marks not only the paper, but her hands and face).

New Years was fun as we sat outside at night and watched the fireworks in the sky. Hearing Taylor exclaim "bootiful!" or "wow, pretty" was nice.

Thomas's baby shower was amazing. Beebs had created these awesome fishbowls using blue jello and Deanna made this awesome cake that looked like a pond. Both are hard to explain verbally as they were out of this world.

The timeouts are still in full effect. Taylor seems to respond well to the consistency that we apply them. However, it would seem that the days leading up to her second birthday, she learned how to throw tantrums. Most of the tantrums are short lived. Most are actually funny to watch because she is so flustered. Usually we can persuade her to stop and rationalize the situation by asking her to use her words. The real trouble begins when she doesn't know the words of what she wants, but these are the learning opportunities.

During the course of this time, Taylor received a set of pajamas with the Disney Princesses on them packed in a gift bag with the same aforementioned princesses. This was a gift from her aunt Kasey and uncle Wesley. I don't know how Disney does it, but little girls go nuts about this stuff. Taylor has only one movie that has one of these princesses (Cinderella). She immediately recognized Cinderella, who she refers to as BellaBella on occassion, and was intrigued with the identities of the remaining individuals. For about an hour after the party (I believe it was the baby shower) Taylor asked me "Who's that" and pointed to each on the characters on the bag. Surprising enough I knew them all, but I have to say that I was tempted to make up a couple of names such as "Not Snow Bright" or "Nastasia" or some thing like that, but I didn't.