Firsts

First smile... First tooth...
First steps... First words... First birthday...

And of course... First jet-ski ride!

Then... And Now...

Some things never change... Besides the chang in clothes and the swing technology, toddlers still spend their nice sunny days enjoying the same simple things.

My mom dug up these pictures from when I was a little girl this weekend. She brought them up to my Grandma's house while we were there. I handed them to my Grandma and she goes "Oh, look at Taryn..." I said "Grandma, that is me." She started looking through the pics and said "Which ones are you and which ones are Taryn?" I said "THEY'RE ALL ME." I don't think that Taryn looks THAT much like me, but there you can definitely tell we're related!

Whoops... 11 months come & gone

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Yeah, so... Taryn turned 11 months like 5 days ago. And I'm just getting around to blogging about it. I'm telling ya, I'm busy. For real. This was a really big month for Taryn. She started walking!!!! She went from taking a couple steps between toys on one day. To the next day taking three steps... To walking across the living room the next day. She is still a bit scared of falling, so she is timid about walking, but if you can take her mind off of things, she can really walk! She got her first molar. She is up to NINE teeth now. According to the books, this is really early for her to get a molar. I'm pretty sure that it is part of her love of eating. She willed a molar to come in so she can better chomp some big people food!

Taryn is a little chatterbox. Her main words are "Mum" "Dat" "all done" and "bye". Other than that, she spends most her time saying "uh duh". She can do a 10 minute lecture entirely comprised of "uh duh". It is the same word over and over but it has different facial expressions, intonations, etc. Sometimes she'll get right up into my face and look deep into my eyes with a look of total seriousness and say "UH DUH". She loves to give her "cheesy smiles" where she scrunches her face all up and gives a big smile.

Taryn is into EVERYTHING. With every passing day, she can reach new shelves that she couldn't reach the day before. We are running out of places that she can't get to! Our printer was on the receiving end of her delicate touch and now needs to be propped up by a box. Taryn also had a run-in with Jasper that didn't end too well. Taryn actually fell on top of Jasper and Jasper kicked to try and escape and scraped up Taryn's arm pretty good. The woman at daycare was none too happy with our parenting skills the next morning...

Taryn took her first jet-ski ride last weekend. She wasn't a big fan of the life jacket, but she seemed to enjoy the jet-ski. Taryn still hates her shoes, which is frustrating since we have been going outside so much more. We just got her a swing for our front porch. Her response was luke warm. She likes it if we are entertaining her while she is swinging. However, just the swinging doesn't do a whole lot for her.

Taryn now wears size 24 months shirts and size 18 month pants. She is wearing size 4 diapers. We are planning her 1 year birthday party which is mind boggling to me! This month has made me feel like she's not going to be my little baby much longer. I think the walking is what really made me feel that way. I can't believe my next blog will be talking about her being a whole year old! In some ways, it feels like that year has flown by, but I can barely remember what life was like without her.

Upcoming excitement for this month: mommy is going to teach her to swim, we got a sprinkler for the front yard, Taryn's first Cubs game in a couple weeks, and of course, the big FIRST BIRTHDAY!

What have we been doing?

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Because clearly the answer is not blogging.

Besides being busy with work, student teaching, school, Taryn, wedding showers, bachelor parties, Easter... Yeah. Besides all that, we have slowly been making our bathroom liveable again.

This used to be our "wall" between our kitchen and bath. It was rather convenient if you were sitting on the pot and needed to say something to someone in the living room. Just open the shower curtain wall and BAM you're there.

This is where the old vanity used to be. Notice the ugly walls behind the shower. Yeah. Not only are they ugly, but they are completely not water resistant. Great idea.

Can you say UGLY? And sadly, we had already done some stuff to make the bathroom look better. Like rip out the carpet. GAG. HURL. You don't need to notice the handicap bar in the tub to know the people that lived here were OLD.

We ripped out most of the walls and ceiling. We put in insulation (there used to be none, brrrrr) and new dry wall/cement board.

We had to take out the old tub which weighed all of 3-400lbs. And it was just Lee & I. Our neighbor came out (conveniently right when we were done) and told us that it took them four men to move theirs. I must give Lee and I credit. We worked smart and utilized some creative tools. Like getting the tub halfway into the Explorer and then using the Explorer to relocate it. Removing the tub was rather gross, if you can't tell by my face in the pic above.

Bare bones.

New tub & insulation.

New vanity is in.

This is now where there used to be just a shower curtain dividing the kitchen & bathroom. Much more privacy!

The tile in the shower has begun.

A better pic of the vanity with the top on!

So, at the moment, we are having to take baths because the tile around the shower isn't done... That is kind of a pain in the butt in the mornings when we are both getting ready, but you can really see the progress and tell that the bathroom is going to look great when it is done. When we had ripped out all the walls, I told Lee it was sad, but the bathroom looked better with no walls than it did when we moved in. Yeah. It was one. ugly. bathroom.

Daddy's little protege.

A little late... But... Happy Easter!

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We had a pretty busy little Easter weekend last week. Saturday was spent out in Fowler, IN at Lee's grandma's house. We went up to his parents' in Monticello that night and watched the NCAA games. Sunday we visited with his family a bit more before coming back into Lafayette to eat with my family at my grandma's house.
This was Taryn's first Easter basket. It is pretty tough to make a basket for someone who is too young for candy... Taryn's basket contained a couple bottles of bubbles ("I wish I loved anything as much as my kids love bubbles.") and that kind of creepy Mr. Potatohead-bunny. Oh, and some plastic eggs. What did she like best? Yeah, the plastic eggs.

Ahhhh, I love having a little doll... I mean little girl. While I hate dresses, they sure are fun to put Taryn in!

I believe the caption for this should say, "The hat, mom? Really?"

"You look ridiculous, Carly."

Look at that little pose. What a little ham. An Easter ham?