drive your tractor to school day

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Three Quarters of a Year!

Stats from her 9 month appointment:

Height: 29.25 in 95th percentile

Weight: 21lbs 10oz 90th percent

Head: Still off the charts

This is an exciting development. Taryn used to always be in a higher precentage for weight than height... This month, that has finally changed! She is so long and lanky now. (Ok, not really.) This has been a bit of a rough month for Taryn. She got hit by another cold, and with her asthma, that turns into a huge illness. She just went to the allergist on Thursday and got some medication, and they seem to be helping. She also has 3 teeth coming in at once which is not fun. Right now on the top of her mouth, she has the two teeth on the left side of her mouth, but none on the right. She's like a jack-o-lantern! Taryn has perfected her butt scoot, but still will not crawl. She scoots with her legs to the right, then swings them around and scoots with her legs to the left. It works for her though. Especially on the wood floors! She walks around the furniture constantly. Her goal is usually to get over to where I am sitting so she can hang onto my legs and whine at me. I can put her on the other side of the room and before I know it she has side-stepped all the way over to me. She has discovered that it is amazingly fun to open drawers and pull cans off of the shelf in the kitchen. She especially loves the end table drawer. One day she got into that drawer and had a pocket knife in one hand and the DVD remote control in the other. Yeah, we need to get that drawer baby-proofed. When Taryn is healthy, she now sleeps from 7pm until 5:30am. She fights naps pretty hard, but when we get her to go to sleep, she usually sleeps pretty well. Her hair just started getting darker all of the sudden. It is long enough that we can put it up in one spiky little ponytail on top of her head a la Pebbles. The back of her hair is getting long and right now it is growing into a little baby rattail. We bought Taryn some new shoes... And she HATES them. Whenever we put her in shoes she whines and tries to pull them off. I think part of the reason she hates them is that they hinder her scooting. There are now a few kiddos at daycare that are younger than Taryn. They told me the other day that she was being a bully. They said that she would scoot over to people and pull their hair. She loves to shake her head "NO". She also likes to brush her teeth (as you can see above). Her eating has slowed down quite a bit. The doc said this is normal since they are not growing as quickly now. She prefers eating "big people food". My mom made some mac & cheese and Taryn was obsessed. We couldn't get it on her plate fast enough. She was literally eating it with both hands and just shoving it in her mouth.

It is hard to believe that she has now been out here in the real world as long as she was growing in the womb (since pregnancy seemed like an eternity). We're looking forward to warmer weather so Taryn can explore our yard and check out the local swimming pool. I can't believe that next month is double digits and that first birthday is right around the corner. She is definitely bordering on toddler right now and while it's a little sad that she's not my little baby anymore, she is such a fun little girl, I can only look forward to what is to come... (Minus, ya know, the terrible twos and the teenage years!)

Lent 2010

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Today is Ash Wednesday. The season of Lent has begun.

Last night I set my phone reminder to not eat meat on Fridays.

And today... I'm giving up...

Non-Diet Pop

Yes. I know. I'm going easy on myself this year. Last year wasn't too hard either. I gave up MySpace. And I never really missed it! I was considering giving up pop all together, but I'm looking down the barrel of 10 weeks of student teaching with a baby that wakes up at 5:30am everyday (even weekends), so I don't think I can do it without caffeine!

However, I deserve a couple easy years since the two years before that were HARD.CORE. Giving up beer followed by giving up swearing. Just to recap how those went, the swearing went quite well. The church got a lot of money at the beginning of lent, but it tapered off really quickly. The beer... Was a travesty. I compensated with wine and hard alcohol, which I'm pretty sure is NOT in the spirit of lent. My liver was not pleased.

I think that Lee is giving up Sportscenter. I tried to throw Around the Horn in there too, but he was worried that if he didn't watch that show he wouldn't know what the guys on PTI were talking about. SIGH!

Oh, in other news, the icicle has hit SIX FEET!

Lee's baby

We have an icicle that has been not-so-slowly growing on the corner of our house. Lee has become quite fond of his little icicle friend.

In the morning if I go out to start the car, he'll ask me "Did the icicle fall? Is it bigger?" He measured it on Sunday and it was 5'6"... That is the exact same height as I am! No onder he likes it.

ChuckECheese

On Saturday we went out to ChuckECheese to celebrate my cousin Maya's 10th birthday. We didn't see a lot of the birthday girl because... hello, there were tokens to spend! And tickets to collect! And tickets to redeem!

I did get to snap this picture of the elusive birthday girl while she stopped by the table for some cake. Yes, that is a totally fake smile...

Taryn got to check out a couple of the little kiddie rides. She liked the ride alright... Until it started to move. What the ___?

We put her in this Jeep ride, and all of the sudden a little boy jumped into the other seat! We are really going to have to watch that girl!

Taryn apparently goes for the older guys. Where is Lee when you need him to rough up a little boy?

Wine-o

Hmm, this bottle isn't Dr. Browns...
My mommy drinks the cheap stuff...

This isn't too bad...

What? I'm 21. I have an ID to prove it...

Nothing like a wine hangover.

MIA

So, I have a feeling I will probably be going MIA on this blog for awhile. A week from tomorrow I begin student teaching. I am going to be teaching two Algebra I classes and three Algebra II classes at Twin Lakes High School in Monticello, IN. I am really excited about the classes I get to teach. Algebra II was my favorite class EVER! But, from what I have realized since observing in the classrooms... I don't remember all of my Algebra II material! That is why I am pumped to be taking over the Algebra I class. That stuff I remember like the back of my hand!

In addition to student teaching, we have a baby getting ever more mobile, so baby-proofing is getting CRUCIAL. We also want to get our bathroom finished up before Taryn's birthday party in May. Most of this will probably be done over Lee and my spring break (which is FORTUNATELY the same week!) I also have a lot of busy weekends planned with a couple wedding showers and birthday parties. In addition, I have Taryn's birthday to plan, Jamie's bachelorette party, and Lee's 30th birthday...

I am also busy trying to stay current with LOST, the Biggest Loser, Modern Family, and Survivor.

Oh, and sleeping. I like sleeping.

Phew.

So, forgive me if this blog gets even lamer than it already is over the next few months. As of May 7th I have a 5 week break, so I will surely enthrall you with more of my witty banter then.

Until then... BRING ON SPRING! And GO Boilers!

Congratulations

As the final seconds ticked off the clock last night, I realized I was far less disappointed than I expected I would be. Especially when they kept showing Drew Brees and his cute little son. Drew looked like he was about to cry. It was a pretty touching moment.

The Colts had a good start, but they just couldn't keep it going. I think that all the people on ESPN acting like this is such a scar on Peyton Manning's career are idiots though. I mean, he still made it to the SUPERBOWL. Come on. Give the guy a break!

One Colt that I am none too happy with today is Garcon. It seems like everytime I heard his name last night it was followed by "...drops a pass."

I'm very sad that football season is over... I just have to put my focus on Boilermaker basketball now!

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Just in Time

"Mommy got the outlet covers put in one day before I scooted all the way into the dining room on my butt and went STRAIGHT for the outlets. Good timing Mommy!"

"P.S. I'm still not crawling. I do an efficient combination of butt scooting and what you see in this picture which is half crawling but with one leg in front of me. I am surprisingly fast."