13 Months

Taylor is 13 months and still a crawler. I feel like she is behind and I am a little sad about it. Scott doesn't think it is a big deal. I know she is not behind and she is totally normal, but I just want her to be able to do it. She wants to walk around the house holding on to someone's hand and it makes it hard to get anything done. I know she will be harder to keep up with once she does walk, but she just looks so cute on her feet. Anyway, she is doing great and is staying very busy. She is pretty much always moving. She has started to enjoy swinging. She likes to go outside, but as soon as we head outside and she she will walk to the little playground for our townhomes (of course while holding your hand). She knows exactly where to go so she can swing.
She is a big fan of animals. Mostly dogs and cats since they are the only animals she has really seen. We need to take her to the farm some people in our ward have (ie the Springville Zoo), because they have a huge variety of animals including a wallaby. I bet she would love that.
Anyway, she is learning new words everyday. It is amazing to me how I say something to her a couple of times and she immediately tries to say them back to me. She still has the same 12 teeth and I can see her eye teeth through her gums, but they are not poking through yet.
She has started calling just about everything baby, but she also really loves her soft baby doll and small stuffed animals. She likes to hug them. She also likes to hug her morning bottle. It cracks me up.
Taylor loves books still. She has started to grab books and give them to you to read and then come sit on your lap. With Taylor any chance you can get her to sit on your lap, you take it because it doesn't happen very often.
Generally she is very happy and smily and likes to say hi to strangers. I can't get enough of her and it is very difficult to leave her a daycare every day. She went through a phase where she cried when I dropped her off and that was really hard on me. Hopefully that has past. She is such a blast to be around and the cutest little girl ever. Of course every mom thinks their kids are the cutest.

Life is precious

The same friend of mine I mentioned just a couple of posts ago just had a tragedy in her family. Her sister in law Alice passed away just days after giving birth to her third child. A precious baby girl. My heart breaks for the people affected by this loss. I have cried several times. I can't imagine what Alice's husband must be feeling. What should be a very joyous time in his life has turned into a mix between the joy of new life and the sorrow over his loss.
Events like this remind me that life is precious and we shouldn't take it for granted. It is something that we too often forget. We should be giving our all to the people we love the most and showing them through our actions that we love them. Sometimes we get too caught up in the mundane things of life and we forget what is the most precious and important in our lives. I love my family more than words can describe and I know I need to be better at showing that. I need to worry less about me and more about them.
I am also very grateful for the plan of salvation. I am so lucky to know that I can be with my family forever. I know that death is not the end of life and because of our Savior we can live again and see our loved ones again. It is a blessing to know that in times like these, our Savior has been there and felt our pains. I pray that this family will feel His love at this time.
I expressed my condolences to my friend and told her to let me know what I can help her with. She asked me to help her get the flowers wholesale and get some supplies to arrange them. Of course I said yes and I am very grateful to be able to help. I am glad to have the opportunity to serve when I don't take those opportunities very often.

The one where we lost a shoe

Sometimes I hate my laptop. I don't even know how I erased this post before posting it. Somehow I manage to hit quick keys I don't even know I am hitting. UGH.

Anywho...Every Saturday Scott, Taylor & I get groceries together as a family. Tonight reminded me of several reasons why we do this. The main reason is usually because Scott and I don't like to do a lot without each other when we can be together. Ahhh. Also, it is REALLY hard to take Taylor to the grocery store. I envy the mom I saw today that had a kid just barely older than Taylor who sat quietly in the cart and just looked around while she shopped. She was completely relaxed and moving slower than a snail around the store because she didn't have to worry about her child.
My trip looked a little different. For the first little while, Taylor was perfectly happy in the care kicking her legs and  looking at all the fun stuff in the store. About half way through our supposed to be short trip, I realize Taylor has lost one of her shoes. One of her shoes that I JUST bought last weekend and I put them on her for the first time today. So, I back tracked twice to see if I could find it. No shoe. After back tracking the first time, Taylor decides the cart is no longer for her and she wants to get out. Because I spoil her rotten and I don't want her screaming, I take her out of the cart and let her "push" the cart. This means she is holding on with both hands and I am holding her around the waist like she is flying and I push and try to steer with the other hand. Fun, let me tell you.
I finally give up on looking for the shoe and finish getting groceries while wrestling Taylor in different positions because she really just wants to get down on the floor. I get to the check out counter and Taylor almost runs the cart into the lady in front of us. Then the cashier asks the lady if she is hot because he thinks it is hot. I am going "Um, yes, I am sweating. It is hot!" But of course that was only in my mind, because frankly it doesn't matter. After checking out, which consisted of Taylor sitting in the cart and pulling everything out of the diaper bag while I get groceries into the cart, I wait in line at the customer service counter to see if anyone turned in her shoe. No shoe. I'm really bummed. So...I do one more walk through of the area we were in before I realized we were missing a shoe while wrestling Taylor the entire time because she won't go back in the seat of the cart. I finally get out to the car and go home and vow to never do that again.

Bunco Blast

I decided it is sad when your husband tells you he goes to Facebook only to see what you have posted and what you are thinking about because you no longer blog. So...I am going to try to start blogging again. I love mommy blogs that are REAL and aren't about how amazing they are and how amazing their kids are. A friend of mine from high school is author of HoneyBearLane. Check it out. It is a great blog. I love reading it because she is totally real and doesn't sugarcoat her life. I want to be a mommy blogger too. Why not right? Because I am a working mom? Who cares, I can still do it. At least I think I can. I don't even know if anyone ever reads my blog, but maybe if I blog more, I will have more traffic. No one reads an outdated blog.
So, here are my thoughts for today:

I have bunco at my house tonight. I have been in a bunco group with my mom and my sister for the last several years. Before I got married and before I went to school in Idaho, so I think the group is going on ten years. I enjoy playing, but our group has started dwindling. For some reason we have a lot of flaky people. So we really only have 5 to 7 regulars. One quit when I sent out reminders (super thoughtful) and one has class this week so I had to find a few subs this week to make 8 or 9 so we can have even tables. We started with 12.
I have bunco at my house tonight. And because I think I have to be amazing, I just went over budget on food for these ladies. Who-ever set the president that you have to have enough food for people to skip dinner and eat at bunco when the budget is only $8 or something for food should be shot. I am making black bean and corn salsa and cinnamon bun caramel corn (one of my favorites). But, I am also going to have watermelon & cantaloupe and carrots and cucumbers with dip. I think I am also going to cut up some apples and make fruit dip and make some yummy Chrystal Light Appletini drink. Yet, I feel like that isn't enough. I don't feel like it is going to be amazing, just ok. But I guess ok will have to do because I will only have about 45 minutes when I get home to get it all put together. It is a good thing my hubby and I spent some time cleaning up the house last night. He is so good to me.

It's been a year already!

Taylor is a year old already. It is so hard for me to believe.

12 Things Taylor Loves:
ICE
Watermelon
Kiwi
Strawberries
Peas
Daddy
Mommy
Straws
Music
Baby Einstein
Climbing the stairs
Outside

12 Things Taylor doesn't like so much:
Getting changed
Getting cleaned up from dinner
Sitting in the car
Being hugged
Beans
When her toys don't do what she wants
Being hungry
Being tired
Being strapped down
When she can't have ice
Being let go of when she is holding on to us
Dresses that are too long to crawl in

She is getting to be such a big girl. She is not walking yet, but she has taken up to 11 steps in a row and randomly stands up and walks on her own. She doesn't like it if we hold on to her and help her walk and then let go. She is stubborn (shocker!), and wants to figure it out on her time and do it on her own. When she stands by herself she claps. She is super excited about it, but she isn't going to do it on anyone else's time.
She says a few words now, and we are working on more. She currently says: dada, mama, go, hi,wow, oh-oh (not quite uh-oh), and what.
Taylor started going to a new day care on her birthday. So far, are really happy with where she goes. She was going to someone with only a couple of kids and she got a lot of individual attention and that was great for when she was a baby. Now that she is a little bit older and learning a lot of new things, I think this new place will be better for her. There are a lot of kids, but the babysitter is totally on top of it and I think she manages them well. She has a curriculum and food is included in the price. She has a huge back yard with a ton of kid toys out there and they go out several times a day. Taylor loves going outside and it makes me feel better about not having a yard because she still gets to spend a lot of time playing in one. The price is actually cheaper than what we were paying and that is always nice as well. Her old babysitter was good for her then, and this new place will be ideal going forward. I am happy with it and I believe Taylor is too.

Baby Girl at 11 Months

My sweet baby girl is getting closer to being a toddler than a baby. I am sad about it, but my husband reminds me that she will be more fun. Toddlers are more work, but definitely more fun as well. She is already such a joy and I can't get enough of her laughter. Taylor currently has 12 teeth. Yes folks, TWELVE. It is crazy to me that she has that many. Babies much older don't have that many teeth. She has 4 molars already. Two of them are completely in on the bottom, but the two on the top only have the main pointy parts through. The bottom molars usually come in between 14 and 18 months. I think she is getting some more right now because she decided to bite mommy twice yesterday, and she has never bitten to be mean or because she is mad. She bites because her mouth hurts. At the rate we are going Taylor will have all 20 teeth by the time she is 18 months old. My guess is she probably won't, but I wouldn't mind being done with the teething. It's not my favorite.
Taylor is at a weird stage where she doesn't love to be spoon fed anymore. She wants to finger feed herself. She will tolerate a few spoonfuls of pureed food, but even the rice cereal and oatmeal that she loved aren't her favorite anymore. She wants peices of food she can shove in her mouth and gag on. She doesn't gag very often, but she does seem to think she needs to have everything on her tray shoved into her mouth at once. Guess she will learn. I am struggling with knowing how much to feed her now though. Guess I will learn too.
There are a few things Taylor loves to do: climb the stairs, play in the dishwasher, and pull the dvds and blurays out of the shelves. Why does she have toys? Who knows. She does enjoy a little house with shapes (I know that doesn't make sense, but if you saw it it would). She also loves her books. But she doesn't love being read to. She wants to look at her books alone. She gets too impatient when I read them.
She has started making an "O" sound and making that shape with her mouth and pointing to things.

It is pretty funny, and she also does a lot of the wide open mouth smile when she sees something she likes. It is still a lot of fun to pick her up from somewhere and have her get excited and give me that grin. Makes my day instantly better.

She is never thrilled about having anything in her hair...bummer

She has this crooked little grin too, and I adore it.

Fake smile, just showing off the teeth

We are alive and around, are you?

I have been SOOOO ridiculously busy the last couple of months between not having time to take lunch breaks at work, and having sick family over and over, and doing my first Bridal Fair, and sadly selling my car, I haven't felt like I have had much time to breath. I missed my post about Taylor at 10 months and now too much time has passed to even remember what was going on that time. But I will post about her at 11 months soon.
I have really neglected this blog in the last 6 months or so and I am starting to wonder if anyone is even reading it. Probably not, because there isn't much to read anymore. I want to start blogging about my thoughts and feelings more, because those are the blogs I enjoy reading. The random every day stuff that people don't really talk about much, but do blog about.
Anyway...my thoughts for today are:

I sold my car yesterday and I am VERY sad. I honestly was close to tears twice. Anyone who has known me a long time knows I am a habitual car buyer. I have never kept a car for very long and I usually don't care much when I get rid of them because before this one, I always bought cheap cars that ended up having problems. I had the longest relationship with this car. I loved it. I was emotionally attached. There have only ever been two cars I loved. This one, and my first car that I managed to total when I was 19. That was the car I owned the second longest. But anyway...
I sold it because I leased it and then bought it and I was upside down in it and it wasn't going to get any better and we will need a new car in the next year or two and the value is going to keep going down faster than I pay it off. So unless I wanted to keep it for at least 3 more years, it was better to get rid of it now.
But that doesn't change that fact that I was extremely sad to see it go and I sold it to someone that I am sure is going to wreck it within a year. She is from Chicago and has only been driving for 3 months and this will be her first car. She has been driving friend's cars and rental cars, and when she test drove the car, I was scared for my life. So sad. I will miss that car, and I am sad for it's future. I feel as though I betrayed it...On to bigger and possibly better things I guess.