Christmas Part 1

We spent Christmas in North Carolina this year and had a great time visiting family.  You did great on both flights, even with the mechanical delay on the flight there.  We played, ate TONS of food, and had a great time all around.  A few highlights from our trip...

We played games, watched movies, and colored!

You were working on getting a new tooth, so these teething rings were constantly in your mouth.

We enjoyed the North Carolina weather and played outside

You got new dress-up shoes and jewelry for Christmas

Mama got a new Taylor family picture done

You wore yourself out playing with your cousins, Anna & Abbie

Mama did a photo shoot for Uncle Mark & Aunt Amanda

We visited Great Grandma Mathews and her dog Bernie (which you kept calling Ernie...too much Sesame Street, maybe?)

Nana & Granddaddy

Visit with Santa

Our visit with Santa went exactly as expected.  You were so excited about it until you realized you were next in line and caught a glimpse of him.  You immediately wanted up and started to whine and cry.  You clung to Daddy and would not look at Santa at all.  The second it was over and we were back outside, you were perfectly happy and so proud of your reindeer hat and coloring book Santa's elf gave you.

On our way to see Santa 

Patiently waiting in line to see Santa

First glimpse of Santa

Clinging to Daddy and trying to get as far away from Santa as possible.

Getting a little closer, but still not looking at him and definitely not sitting on his lap!

So proud of your Reindeer hat and coloring book.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We are enjoying the Christmas season and cramming as much Christmas fun in as we can.

We've decorated our Christmas trees.  Because Graecyn is into everything and doesn't sit still for a minute, it took us 3 evenings (after she went to bed) to get our big tree decorated - 1 to get it set and straight in the stand, 1 to get the lights on, and 1 to hang the ornaments.  As much as I love a fresh tree, I'm starting to think a fake tree is the way to go…if only I could get Eric on board.  We got Graecyn her very own mini-Christmas tree this year to decorate with her own ornaments…she had fun with it for about 5 minutes and then was more interested in using the ornaments as earrings.

hanging her Minnie Mouse ornament

can you see her "earrings"?

 We've gotten our Christmas pictures done.

We've gotten our first big winter storm of the season with about 7" of snow.  Graecyn loved playing outside in it - blowing bubbles, sledding, and making Mamma, Graecyn, and Daddy snow angels.

We brought some snow inside and made snowmen on the rug.

We headed to downtown Rochester to check out the Festival of Lights - once again, it did not disappoint. 

We've still have to get a visit in with Santa…we've tried twice, but the lines have been too long both times.  I'm sure once we do get to see him, Graecyn will be a crying, clingy mess…but until then, she has fun talking about him.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

23 Months!

You are growing and learning and talking and running like crazy!  You love to dance, and march, and jump and color.  You love to play dress up - your Elmo cheerleading outfit that was your cousin Addison's is your favorite.

You are so curious and have started pointing to things and asking "what's this?" or "where he go" (usually with your hands in the air and shoulders shrugged). You are very independent and often tell me "I do it self" - especially with brushing your teeth and getting dressed; when you do want help, you say "help you".  I love your independence and I want you to learn how to these things, but my patience is often tested as you seem to want to do it yourself mostly when we are running late somewhere.  You can be pretty bossy these days and often hear you saying "come here" (with purpose) to your stuffed animals.

You love all animals, but especially dogs. You are also showing an interest in babies and love to wrap your baby dolls in a blanket and rock them.  Elmo, Abby Cadabby, and Barney are your favorite characters - Barney is your favorite show to watch.

You are a great eater and still love all fruits...and yogurt...and applesauce.  But, your most favorite food of all seems to be pancakes - we always ask you what you want to eat and your answer is always pancakes (with a big smile on your face); I think you would eat them for every meal if we would let you.

You are learning your colors and know blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple really well.  I think orange is your favorite color as that is the crayon you always pick first to color with.  You are doing pretty good with counting and can usually count to 10.

You love purses and will often fill them with toys and put them on your shoulder; you usually walk around with your arm up in the air to make sure the purse doesn't fall off.  You still hate swimming, but are very interested in looking at swimming pools - I hope you will out grow this soon.

You have finally gotten another tooth - it's been probably 10 months since you got your last tooth; you are a little slow to get your teeth, but from what I hear that is a good thing as it is supposed to mean fewer cavities when you get older.  You now have 11 teeth - 6 on top and 5 on bottom.

You are doing really well with the potty and sometimes ask to go sit on the potty; you always go potty before bedtime and if you wake up in the middle of the night (which has been frequent due to this new tooth coming through), you always want to go potty.  You are always so proud of yourself (and I'm always so proud of you) after you go potty; you love a high five or fist bump to celebrate success.

Daddy recently introduced you to your shadow; you love to look at it and will point and say "Gaecyn".    The baby in you is quickly disappearing, which makes me sad, but also so excited to see what is in store for your future.  You are such a sweet, happy girl!  I love you!

xoxo,
Mama

You love to "talk" on the phone

Looking at baby toys with your baby and Fifi

You love to play dress up

You love to fill your "purses" with toys

Happy Thanksgiving!

We traveled to Iowa for Thanksgiving this year and had a great time with family and friends.  Graecyn was a trooper on the long car ride (thanks to lots of Barney on the iPad).  We broke the trip up on the way there and stopped in Ames and spent time with 3 of my closest friends from college.  It had been a very long time since we had seen each other, so it was great to catch up and watch our kids play together.

We finally got to meet baby Camden and he is so sweet and cuddly; Graecyn loved getting to hold baby Camden - she knew exactly how to hold her arms and sat so perfectly still.  Since we've been home, we've noticed she often wraps her baby doll in a blanket, holds it in her arms, and bounces her saying "ssh, ssh, ssh" over and over…just like she saw all of us doing with Camden.

Graecyn had a great time playing with her cousins; it was so fun to watch them interact.  They danced, giggled, and had so much fun.

We decided to have the kids exchange Christmas presents while we were there and Eric worked hard to build Colton and Camden's gifts.  We hope they will enjoy them (and take good care of them!). :-)

Graecyn was obsessed with my parent's dog, Riley.  Following him around everywhere, yelling at him, "come here Riley" and giggling when he'd lick her.

It was a great week and it's always hard to say goodbye.

22 Months Old

Dear Monkey,

You are 22 months old...almost 2 years old...wow, time flies!  

You are such a chatterbox...talking non-stop saying real words and often making up your own words. You like to tell us stories, especially the one when you fell down at day care and scraped your eye.  The story usually goes..."fall down. Rocks. Outside. Boo boo."  You often make up your own stories, which are pretty entertaining.  You are starting to be able to say your own name, but it usually sounds like "Saycyn"; you prefer to refer to yourself as "baby".  Some of your new favorite words are: yep, nope, I yike, whatcha' doin', ok, ssshh and "I too" means I love you. 

With Christmas around the corner, we are getting lots of toy catalogs in the mail and you love to just sit and look at them, page-by-page, saying "baby. toys" with every turn of the page.

We took you to Disney on Ice a few weeks ago and you loved it.  You were a little scared at first of the loud noises, but quickly relaxed and enjoyed the show.  You did great to sit still and watch the characters.  Mickie & Minnie Mouse and Nemo were your favorites.  It seems that you also really liked the scene where Pinocchio and Geppetto are swallowed by the whale & then sneezed back out because you will often say "fish...achoo".

You have learned how to sit Indian style and love to copy us crossing our arms.  You love it when your clothes have pockets and will walk around with either special toys or your hands in your pockets.  You like to try to dress yourself and sometimes have success with getting your pants and shirt on (usually backwards); socks and shoes are a bit more challenging though and can be a battle.  You're very independent and strong willed (like me), which I love about you....but can be a big challenge for me - I want to help you, but know you need to learn for yourself, and you are not about to let me help you.

You have almost mastered doing a somersault; you practice often (always between finishing our bedtime books and heading to the bathroom to go potty) and are always so proud after doing one.  You love to "help" Daddy and me - you can be in the middle of throwing one of your tantrums and if we ask you to help us with something, anything, the tantrum will stop and you will "help".

You love baby dolls and any type of animal (I see a family pet in our future). We recently cat watched for a friend of ours and you loved to pet the soft kitty and followed her around with her toy.  You did not like when the kitty smelled Daddy's shoes, scolding her saying "No kitty. Daddy's shoes."

You are starting to like to play dress-up and especially love shoes, purses, and jewelry.  You can almost count to 10 (you've succeed a few times, all by yourself) and are starting to learn your colors - you're pretty good with yellow, orange, and blue.  Daddy even caught you saying your abc's the other day - all of them, from a to z!

Every day is a new adventure for you (and us)!  Your laugh is absolutely contagious and your smile lights up the room.

I too, baby girl,

Mama

It's dress up time

looking at baby toys

mmmm…donuts!

my little helper

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to my little unicorn!  Despite horrible weather (rain all day long!), you had a great halloween with a party at day care and some trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.  We went to 3 houses and you were so excited on the walk up to each house saying 'trick-or-treat' the whole way, but the second we got to the door, it was "up, up, up" - you were ready for Mama to hold you and you wouldn't say a word or even look at our neighbors...maybe next year.

Checking out your "purse"

Going through your loot.

Michigan Mini-Vacation

Ever since Eric and I moved to Michigan everyone has told us that we need to visit northern Michigan.  So, for our 7th wedding anniversary (which was September 2), we decided that we would head north for a long weekend.  There are so many places "up north" to visit, but we decided to focus only on the Traverse City area and did our best to time it around the peak of the fall foliage…it did not disappoint!  For anyone who has never been to northern Michigan, you need to add it to your travel list.  With white sand beaches, crystal clear deep blue waters of Lake Michigan and several other lakes, wineries, and more, it is a gorgeous area.

We arrived Friday afternoon, grabbed lunch, let Graecyn burn off some energy and then loaded back into the car to start our sightseeing.  We headed north to the Old Mission peninsula, a narrow peninsula with views of royal blue waters on either side, lush green grape vines, cherry orchards, and vibrant fall leaves.

At the tip of the peninsula is the Old Mission light house and a rocky shoreline that during low tide, unearths numerous rocks that visitors stack in various formations. 

Saturday was another busy day of sightseeing.  We headed west to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, which was the main reason we decided to come to Traverse City; when the government shut down happened, I was worried that we wouldn't be able to see it, but I did some research and found that while the park and it's 8 mile scenic drive would be closed, its hiking trails would still be open.  We got to the start of the scenic drive, met the road closed barriers and found a nearby parking lot that was still open; we loaded up Graecyn in the jogging stroller and headed out in search of the hiking trails...which were no where to be found.  Rather than give up and turn around and go home, we decided we'd just walk the scenic drive for a little while and take in some of the beauty of the national park.  Well, "a little while" turned into 3 hours and over 5 miles walked!  We did run into a few other hikers and bicyclists that had the same idea as us, but for the most part it was just the 3 of us with an entire national park to ourselves.  It was so peaceful and beautiful…absolutely amazing.  While it would have been much easier to drive the scenic route, I am actually thankful for the government shut down because without it, I would not have been able to get pictures like this…*

View of the dunes and Lake Michigan in the background

View of Lake Michigan

Front of the dunes; we drove around the government barricades with the rest of the visitors, but with a sleeping toddler in the back of the car and tired legs from our 5 mile trek, we opted not to climb it this trip.

*Note, I am very much an amateur photographer who got so excited about the beautiful backdrop and completely forgot to check all of my camera settings (ugh!) and once I realized the problem, had a toddler (and husband) who no longer wanted to cooperate.  I did the best I could to fix some of the blur in my photo editing program and hope it will be a lesson learned to triple check my settings in the future (and remember to slow down and not get too anxious over getting the perfect shot). :-)

After our gorgeous 5-mile hike, we grabbed lunch and then headed north to the Leelanau Peninsula (the pinky finger of the Michigan mitten) where we passed a road sign letting us know that we were exactly halfway between the equator and the north pole!  Another gorgeous drive with views of clear blue waters to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.

It was a busy weekend and Graecyn did awesome; thanks to Barney and Elmo on the iPad, she traveled great!  I can't wait for our next trip up north!