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Two Biggies!

At some point in time we'll be posting pictures from Taylor's swimming fun at GA Grandparents' anniversary weekend (Aug 14). It was there, though, that we learned she's a natural and even got her to swim a few feet from person to person. Last weekend, Brian & I took her to a local YMCA pool where she swam a great deal back and forth between us. Every now and then she'd catch me backing away and say, "Stop it, mama!" :) Well, I had minor "surgery" on my toe so was out of commission this weekend. Brian decided to take Taylor back to the pool without me. From what I heard, it was a good thing I wasn't there because I would've freaked! She climbed the ladder on the side of the pool (by herself!) walked over to the edge, grabbed hold of Brian's fingers and jumped in. As she jumped, Brian would let go. She'd go under water, pop back up, shake water out of her face then swim the 3-4 feet over to the ladder and do it all over again... for about an hour. We will DEFINITELY be joining a neighborhood pool next year.

The second big thing! I sent her to daycare today in *drum roll* big girl panties!!! I also packed her backpack full of the other 5 pair she has, 4 pair of shorts, 3 shirts, 2-3 pairs of socks, and her sandals. I'll let y'all know how it goes. She's been doing very well at telling us when she needs to go and has been mostly obliging when we insist that she "tries." We shall see! (By the way, the book thing continues to work!)

Potty training saga continues

I don't really remember how it went last night, but it must've been alright. Brian had her in the bathroom while I put food away and she went teetee.

This morning... typical fussing about not wanting to sit on the potty. Her diaper was fairly dry for being first thing in the morning so I knew she had to go. She's using stalling tactics - finally asks for Wiggly Songs (her latest favorite book that plays a few seconds of 5 Wiggles songs). Ah ha! Why hadn't I thought of this before?? "Taylor, we'll read Wiggly Songs while you sit on the potty." She fussed a little, I said it again, she said, "Okay." She sat on the potty, I sat on the floor, opened the book, she went teetee. We didn't even get to read the book! Although, I made good on my promise. We read the book after she finished getting dressed.

I still don't know why I didn't think of books - I've read about parents doing that, my own brother & sis-in-law did that with their kids. Duh!

Well, we'll see if this tactic works twice on darling Taylor.

We have poopy!!

The potty training adventures continue.

First, Tuesday morning - I decide I'm making it a ritual to go sit on the potty first thing. I haven't really forced the issue before, but I am now. "It's not up for debate" is my new mantra. Thankfully, Brian supports me on this. I put her on the potty, she's screaming, we get her to calm down with, "Let's just sit on the potty and count to 10." She quits crying by 3 or 4 - Brian & I count slower and slower then stop after getting to 9. She looks up, smiles at Brian, and says, "Hey daddy." (My mood swings are tame compared to hers!) Then a few seconds later she teetees and is THRILLED! Which confuses me as to why she fights sitting on the potty, but that's another story.

Last night at dinner, we notice Taylor with a familiar expression on her face. We say, "Taylor..." and she says, "I poopy." We scoop her up amid screams while we're telling her to go poopy in the potty. The counting to 10 that worked so well just that morning, didn't work. Brian stripped her down and asked her, "Do you want to go poopoo on the floor?" (No *sniff sniff*) "Well, you go poopoo in the potty or on the floor." (I close the bathroom door at this point.) We sat in there for a good 20 minutes. We re-introduced her to her big girl panties, Brian & I swapped off so dinner could be put away. While I was putting food away, she went teetee. We swapped and while he was loading dishes, I sat in the bathroom while Taylor played - her crying fits mostly gone by now. While she was playing, I asked her to tell me where you go poopoo - she finally heard me and answered correctly. I noticed her grabbing at her bottom and said, "Taylor, if you need to go poopoo, just sit on the potty. It's okay." She sat, pushed a little, then *plop*!! Her reward was huge accolades from us and an even huger (I know, not a word) bubble bath! (Bubble baths: I usually only put one capful in so bubbles go away in a decent amount of time - this time, I put 2.5 and let her play!)

Had to share the excitement - now need to go get her up and ready for school.

Date Night excitement

It's Thursday night, which means it's Daddy-Daughter Date Night, while Mommy is out. Normally it's a lot of fun, but tonight was the exception to the rule. Taylor had a great time; I didn't.

We went to Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q for dinner. Good barbecue, good staff, and right around the corner from Taylor's school. All went well until the food arrived. Taylor, per usual of late, asked for "sauce" (ketchup). I picked up the bottle and shook it up. Bad idea.

The first realization that something was wrong was a cold sensation on my neck. The second realization was the unmistakable sound of a ketchup bottle cap bouncing across the table behind me. Sure enough, the lid wasn't on the bottle tight, so I flung the lid, along with half the bottle of ketchup, all over me and the lady sitting behind me.

Hilarity ensues. The waitress sees me dabbing at my neck with a once white, now very red napkin, rushes over to ask if I need an ambulance. No, it's just ketchup. Taylor asks "Daddy, are you ok? Do you need a band-aid?" Yes, I'm fine. I ask the waitress for more napkins, hoping for those big cloth ones they provide. She brings me over 5 of those little paper ones you put under glasses. I show her my shirt, now more red than blue. She goes back and brings me 5 more paper napkins. By this time two other waitresses have joined in. Slightly exasperated, I ask "Can I please have more of these cloth napkins?" All three run off and bring some back, so I'm left with about 30 nice cloth napkins. Finally.

The manager comes over. Kudos to the manager of the Gardendale Jim 'N Nick's for being so helpful. He heads up to the gift shop and comes back with an official Jim 'N Nick's T-shirt for me and the lady I baptized with Heinz. He also offers to pay for any dry-cleaning bills we encounter. Very nice guy. Very helpful staff. I'll be back, but Taylor's not getting any ketchup.

More fun. After things calm down and I go back to cleaning up the rest of the table, I discover I have covered my cell phone’s keypad in ketchup as well. Lovely. When I get home, I take the phone apart to get inside the keypad and clean the ketchup from between the keys. I pry the first key off, thinking this will be an easy task.

Free advice for cell phone users: If you have a Nokia 6600 model phone, please note that the individual keys do NOT come off the keypad. It's one unit, and prying off a key actually breaks things. Now my beloved 6600 is missing a 0 key.

I share this on here for Lauren, who had the invitation to join me for dinner while our respective significant others were off doing other things. She decided she'd rather take a makeup exam than be seen in public with me. After tonight, I can't say I blame her. Her loss - she could have gotten free Jim 'N Nick's swag instead of that bounty of network TV propaganda she's always passing me over on.

Christy's bee

This weekend we were back in Georgia to celebrate Mimi and Grandpa's 40th wedding anniversary. Godmother Christy, a regular visitor to the site, brought Taylor a little stuffed bee. She will be pleased to learn that Bee has earned a coveted place among toys - sharing the bed with Taylor and her lion.

Baby girl growing up

At a doctor appointment a couple weeks ago we learned that Taylor is 36.5 pounds. I realized this weekend that the max weight on her carseat is 40 pounds. What to do?? She's 2.5 yrs old - a booster seat???

Well, after reading various websites (American Academy of Pediatrics, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and others) and talking to UAB Children's Hospital's Carseat Center... yep. At 40 pounds, she's good to move to a booster - by law and according to her size.

Alabama law requires child restraint to age 4. Adult safety belts are deemed okay after age 4. If you ask the AAP and NHTSA people, Alabama's child restraint laws are among the most relaxed. They recommend booster seats to age 8 or until the child is 4'9" tall. They also strongly discourage the after market things that adjust the seatbelts to make them more comfortable (they may be more comfy, but in tests they compromised safety).

One relative told us to make sure it had a 5-point harness (Kerin!). Sorry Kerin, we can't. All of the seats we've found (and the person at the Carseat Center) say to remove the harness at 40 pounds. The carseat center person said it was because they're crash tested and passed tests up to 40 lbs but not over.

We're leaning toward a high back booster because of how young she is (and because our seats don't offer head support AND she still falls asleep in the car). Shoulder and lap belts in use, of course. (just lap belts can cause major internal injuries in car accidents... child or adult for that matter!)

We still can't believe we're moving out of the carseat, though... *sigh*

"I got no arms"

One of Taylor's new games. The nightshirt goes on, with her arms inside, and she runs around says "I got no arms. I got no arms." And if you try to "give" her arms, she gets quite angry with you. It's apparently more fun to run around armless.

Taylor stories

I haven't done this in awhile so here are a few stories from this past week or so.

Just in the past week or so, Taylor has started calling us "mom" and "dad" - not mommy or mama, but mom. Not daddy, but dad. She will even go so far as to CORRECT us if we say "mommy" or "daddy." She doesn't do this all the time, but she does it enough that it's just reinforcing the fact that my baby girl is growing up.

This morning, Brian took Taylor to daycare. He left just ahead of me and rolled down the window so she could wave and yell bye bye to me (yes I'd already gotten bye bye hug and kiss, but she wanted to wave and yell too!). As he was rolling it down, he heard an odd sound... he had difficulty getting it rolled back up. While he was working on it, Taylor asked, "What's wrong, daddy?" He told her it was broken and he was fixing it and she said, "Need sticky tape?" (it's a reference to Dora the Explorer who keeps sticky tape in her backpack and it can be used to fix lots of stuff).

That's it for now!

Taylor and The Wiggles

Saturday was the long-awaited Wiggles concert. Taylor was so excited, and she had an absolute blast. Grandpa and I took a combination of 200 pictures - don't worry, for the sake of your Internet connection, I'm not posting all 200.

The set, from the door we entered the arena from. It was pretty dark still; hence the grainy picture texture.

On the floor by our seats. We had a great view.

Sneaking up to the stage for a photo op. Taylor skipped her nap that morning, so she wasn't quite with it yet. She perked up quickly though.

The playlist, for those Wiggles fans who might see a song they recognize.

We go to a concert, and where do Grandpa and Daddy go? Of course, to take pictures of the sound board.

The Wiggles arrive in the Big Red Car. For the uninitiated, they are Greg (yellow), Anthony (blue), Murray (red) and Jeff (purple). After the concert, Taylor enjoyed riding in Grandma's Big Red Car.

Other Wiggles character favorites: Henry the Octopus, Captain Feathersword, Dorothy the Dinosaur, and Wags the Dog.

Taylor finds a part of the show absolutely hilarious.

Dancing and singing to the Wags the Dog song. The characters put their hands on their hips and dance along with Wags.

At one point, Taylor finds it more fun running between Mommy and Daddy.

Captain Feathersword's feather sword explodes in a big puff of glitter.

More running and playing. There was a large open space beside our seats which became a popular dance floor.

A new friend helps Taylor up after she dives to the floor.

The giant inflatable characters proved to be a real challenge to the crew. Anthony and a dancer almost have the giant Murray up ...

... until it crashes, sending characters and dancers scattering.

The Wiggles wave bye-bye.

Taylor and Mommy do too.

On the way out, we paused for a family photo shoot. Taylor's even smiling!

Not five minutes after we got to the car and left the arena, the day's excitement finally caught up to our little girl.

After lunch and an hour spent running around the playground, Taylor called it a night early. So did the rest of us.