What do you want to be when you grow up??

Mommy: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Taylor: "Tinkerbell and Cinderella"

**I think this one was influenced by us asking her "what she wants to be" for Halloween so much lately.

Mommy: "Oh, okay! What do you want to DO when you grow up and you're a big girl like mommy?"

Taylor: "I want to cook all by myself!"

Taylor's update

1. Taylor loves her new class at school and doesn't cry when we drop her off anymore. Instead, she blows kisses, one after another really fast while laughing while I walk out the door. Love it!

2. Taylor loves (and is so good at!) puzzles. She has been doing interlocking ones up to 24 pieces in the tray and she just started doing ones out of the box (with help of course to start with the corners and edges)! It's amazing.

3. Taylor loves games on our phones, like tangrams and of course, puzzles! She is a pro at "dragging" pieces to where they go. Last night I couldn't get a piece and she told me, "You have to be gentle mommy. You drag it over." Haha!

4. Taylor's favorite movie is UP! She is an addict! She only gets to watch movies on the weekends and on Tuesdays (her day off of school) and this is the first one she always watches. Thank you Jocelyn and Simon for lending us that movie!!

5. Taylor loves pretending to be a ballerina. She stands on her tip toes, puts her hands in the air, and spins around...so cute.

6. Taylor is a definite book worm. We often find her in her room in the rocker reading book, after book, after book. At a birthday party we went to recently she disappeared and I frantically went running through the house and there was Taylor, by herself in her friend's room reading books off of his bookshelf. At school, everyday when we pick her up she is in the book corner reading books and she gets so excited when we get there that we stay for another 10-15 minutes reading books at school with her. She LOVES books. We even hear her reading her books out loud when she is watching her movies...multi-tasking!

7. Related to above, Taylor takes a while to warm up to crowds and prefers to be with smaller more intimate groups. She will hang on to me for quite a while until the crowd dissipates and she has found a good friend to play with. She is definitely her daddy's girl!!

8. Taylor can't wait to be three. She always tells us how old she is (holding up her fingers), then tells us how old "Sydney and Rachey" are, holding up three fingers. She says "I'm going to be three too!"

9. Her new favorite stuffed animal is the baby turtle that has been ssitting up on her top shelf in her room since she was born. There are three turtles, a baby, a mommy, and a daddy, all of which we bought on our babymoon to Maui when she was still in my tummy. She loves it!

Tanaka Pumpkin Farm 2010

Wagon ride pulled by a tractor








She's a pro at feeding the goats (2010)!


Comparison!!! Feeding goats in 2009


They are quite aggressive...


2010 with mommy


2009 with Nanny B.




in the corn maze...fun!


She took a picture by 8 of these signs!




Looking for a Taylor-sized pumpkin


Found it!

Mommy-daughter time at Downtown Disney

Today we thought I had an important meeting at work but because it was Columbus Day Taylor had the day off so she went to work with me! It turned out that the meeting did not occur so after a nap at my office Taylor and I headed over to Downtown Disney for some afternoon fun and a special dinner with just the two of us. We walked around the whole Downtown, we bought her a TinkerBell Halloween costume, we looked at all the yummy treat stores, we bought a cookie (a football cookie!) for desert, and then had dinner at The Rainforest Cafe. Of course, after dinner she read books for a while in the Rainforest Cafe shop and then we went and danced to some live music in teh main plaza at Downtown Disney. It was a fun mommy-daughter afternoon!!!

Yummy treats!


Taylor chose the football cookie!


Dinner at Rainforest Cafe


In the plaza


With her cookie

NASCAR

Today I had school and so Taylor and daddy went to....NASCAR!

Daddy bid on some VIP NACAR tickets (with pit passes and all) at a golf tournament he played in and he won! So, he took his little girl to the races. Taylor got ear plugs to help with the loud noise but when they were walking down the hallway at the start of the race they didn't help a bit! She wanted to leave pronto.

So, off to buy headphones! She looked so cute in those headphones! Below are pics of their cute time together. They got soft pretzels, lemonade, a NASCAR coloring book, and a day full of memories together.

PICS TO COME...

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!

Today I had school and when I came home and was playing with Taylor upstairs, daddy came up to tell me the most surprising, exciting news I had heard in a very long time.

Taylor was an early talker and could say almost all of her sounds early on in life, even the /r/ sound and the /l/ sound. The weirdest thing though was that she could not say any throat sounds such as /k/, /c/, or /g/...until today!!!

Daddy came upstairs and had Taylor say my name. I cried!!!! She finally learned to say all of her throat sounds and I just couldn't believe my ears! We spent the rest of the night saying lots of CCCCCool words, getting all excited and giddy, and Taylor just being oh so proud of herself.

Taylor: "I did it mommy I did it!!!!"

Tea Party

Taylor has been wanting to have a tea party with my real china and so today we decided to have our very first tea party. We had so much fun! We had hot chocolate for tea, we had strawberries with chocolate drizzled over them, toasted PB&J, and cheerios. I LOVED my special day with my girl.

Taylor's first pair of wedges!

Tonight we went shopping for new shoes for Taylor, mostly for new school shoes because she is just growing out of all her shoes and clothes so fast! Along with the new tennis shoes for school she got her first pair of wedges...and they light up!!!

TinkerBell at El Capitan

This weekend we had Alvin, Shelley, Sydney, Katie, and Nate come down from NorCal to spend the weekend with us. On Saturday all of us ladies took the girls to see the NEW Tinkerbell movie at El Capitan in Hollywood. Before the movie we had breakfast at the Soda Cafe next to the move theatre where we met Tinkerbell and got pictures with her!!! It was so fun!

After our movie (and the guys enjoyed a game of golf) we all met up at Kinkaids in Hermosa Beach for appetizers and drinks.

It was such a fun weekend having family here...can't wait for you all to move here!

Blurry but oh so cute


The cute Cafe


With Tinkerbell!


On Hollywood Blvd




Cousins in Beverly Hills


The four of us


Me and my girl


At Kinkaids for dinner


Cousins

Making spinach smoothies with daddy

One of Taylor's favorite things is helping daddy make his spinach smoothies for the next day. She loves getting a frozen berry to eat and to hold the lid while it turns on. She's a big helper!

Painting!

While mommy and daddy painted the house, Taylor had her own fun painting her art in the garage.

Tiger is ready for football!

Taylor fell down the stairs!

Daddy is in Florida for a work trip so I emailed him with our events from this evening. This is what I wrote.

Taylor fell down the stairs tonight, from the very top to the very bottom. I walked up right in front of her and I got up before her so I went in our room and I hear this "ka-boom, ka-boom, ka-boom" and after about three of those I realized what was happening so I ran out swearing my head off and heard her crying by the time I got to the top of the stairs. She was at the bottom with the basket from the stairs all crashed on the floor too. I expected full on screaming but no, just some scared crying. She was totally fine! She just said her head hurt from hitting the basket but once I started quizzing her (her name, how many fingers I was holding up) I think she thought I was crazy mommy and she stopped crying. She wouldn't answer me so I got serious and told her I was scared and she needed to answer me. When she told me her name she hugged me and was all fine. She started laughing about 2 minutes later saying, "that was crazy mommy!" I couldn't believe it! I was almost in tears imagining her tumbling down the stairs (still am freaked out by that) and she's laughing. Holy moly! Our fragile girl has turned into a champ!

SICK!!!

Today Taylor woke up with a runny nose for probably the 6th day now and also a barking cough! Oh no! Keeping her home and going to the doc. She is now having the time of her life though at home knowing that she doesn't have to go to school. Obviously not feeling sick but I don't want it to turn into anything worse. I can't afford, for school or work, for this to get worse!

Good thoughts for this to go away!

UPDATE: not contagious. Small case of croup. Just need to get the humidifier going again. She had a fun day at home, playing with her baby doll in her baby pool out back while mommy worked. Long nap (and mommy even snuck in a partial nap for a while) so I could get stuff done!

Fun day at Maier's House

Today we went to a family party at a friend's house from school to celebrate one year being done with our Ph.D. program. We had so much fun! Taylor met a new boyfriend and for probably the only time in my life I was proud to watch her leave holding hands with him without needing me with her. It was so cute! After playing in the jump house he took her by the hand to his bedroom and they played for a good 20 minutes by themselves. She actually did not whine for me to be with her which I was so happy about!! As she walked back outside she was so excited and said, "Mommy! I played with his stuff!" Oh, so innocent. Later in the day he took her on a ride in his little kid Escalade...of course Taylor had her juice box in hand. It was so cute! Per his daddy's advice, he even opened the door to let Taylor in and out of the car. They were adorable! To end the night, Taylor wanted to take a nap so she chose his bed instead of the pack-and-play. We stopped the date between the two kids here and let Taylor sleep in his bed while he played a while longer (no sleeping together...even though I think he may have got a little kiss in while they were in the hammock together!).

Besides witnessing our daughter's first date we also had so much fun with all of the adults! Leaving at about 11:00 PM we had a ton of fun and probably overstayed our welcome. Thank you Eric and Arwin for such a fun party! See you guys soon for UFC!

Locklin and Taylor


Taylor and Locklin cuddling in the hammock


The kids of TCS 2009 cohort


Locklin taking Taylor on a car ride

Tuesday with mommy

Woke up at 9 am this morning to Taylor coming into our room to lay with me. We lounged around for a while and watched Toy Story before heading out shopping. Taylor got her normal Berry Smoothie at Costco and was such a good girl the whole time. Asked the man at the door for a happy face on the receipt and told him "thank you." Love my girl! Enjoyed the "bumpety-bumpetys" in the cart going into the parking lot and then headed home for nap and lunch (sorry daddy...had to skip picking up your car part b/c Tay had to pee!). We enjoyed some cold cereal with our new milk, yogurt, and bread for lunch (all Taylor's choosing!) and now Taylor is napping in mommy and daddy's bed (her treat on Tuesdays and weekends if she wants). She asked specifically for the door to be closed so Tiger wouldn't come in...sorry Tiger!

Fun day with my girl.

Bye-Bye Maui- day 8

Thursday:
Today we enjoyed the beach in the morning, had some breakfast, then packed up and headed out.

Big girl on the airplane again


First class again- such a lady wiping the juice from her mouth


Making herself a bib- look at next three pics






That airplane is flying way too close!!


Can I sleep like that?!


Taylor's focus on the airplane

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