Peace and Quiet

This is what our evenings sometimes consist of... A tornado of noise and yelling. It's a good thing that we find it entertaining!

At the end of the 2nd video, she poses for the camera and says CHEESE. Such a little ham!

18 Months!!!

Ok, when did this happen? Who took my baby and left this little girl in her place? Taryn is a year and a half old now. It sure doesn't seem like it has been 18 months since our life was dramatically changed for the better by a charming, chunky little bundle of joy.

Taryn weighs about 28 lbs, wears size 2T clothes and size 6.5 in shoes. She has all of her teeth except her top 2-yr molars. She can repeat most words that she hears, but does not always use the words to express what she wants. This is one of her most annoying habits as she tends to just whine and pinch her thumb and finger in the very general direction of what she wants. We call it her "crab claw" and it can be quite frustrating when you're guessing what she wants. "Water? Chapstick? Keys? Snack?" She is getting a little bit better on this though. When she wants her paci, she leads us to the cabinet that we keep them in and points at them. When she wants a snack she goes to her highchair or just climbs up in it. I can't wait to be done with the guessing game! Some of my favorite words that she says are "ditty" (pretty), "nack" (snack), "night night", and "Eeeeeee" (Lee). Why does she call Lee by his first name? Yeah, um, that's my fault. We were outside and I was trying to get Lee's attention. I tried calling "Daddy" a few times, but he didn't hear me. Finally I yelled his name. Taryn has really taken to it and calls for him in this way.

Taryn still loves her books and can find the right book that she wants us to read. If we say "Row Row Row Your Boat" then she will go over and come back with that book. She also knows to get her Purdue book and "10 Little Fingers". She likes a new book that is all animal sounds that is really not an enjoyable read and a Big Bird book that is WAY too long for a 1.5 year old. Taryn's daycare does a book "recycle" program each Wednesday and I am planning to send the Big Bird book ASAP!

Taryn varies from being really friendly to really shy. When we are in stores, she loves saying HI to everyone and gets confused and discouraged when she doesn't get a response. But, then there are other days, like yesterday, where she was so shy at the playground that she wouldn't get off my lap. She still gets mostly good reports at daycare. A couple times in the last week she has gotten "pushy" on her report. She loves cameras, real, fake and phone. She likes to take fake pictures of herself. Already preparing for her teenage years of taking profile pics, I guess. She turns the camera (or cell phone) around, says CHEESE while giving a big fake smile, then makes a fake camera clicking sound.

Taryn's latest love and first tv show that she likes, is Wheel of Fortune. Every night at 7, we sit in our LaZBoy together and watch the Wheel. She claps along and cheers and every now and then will immitate calling out a letter. Then, when the show is over, it's her bedtime. Taryn tends to be really noisy. Her new thing to do when I get her at daycare is to run across the room yelling and then run back to me. When she does this, the other kids start running and yelling too. She is such a trendsetter. Sometimes at home she'll just run the loop of our house yelling. I actually just got a video of this the other day that I'll post later.

Taryn gets funnier and cuter everyday. I can't wait to go through her second holiday season. She's going to LOVE the gift opening! She is the light of our lives and has Lee and I amazed with all she does. Can't wait to see the little girl she becomes. I know she'll be awesome!!

Happy Birthday Max!

As usual, this blog is a little late. That's just how I blog lately. Sorry.

A couple weeks ago we headed down to Indianapolis to meet Max Goldman and celebrate his 1st birthday. It is so awful that this was our first time meeting Max and their first time meeting Taryn when we only live an hour away from each other.

Quick photo shoot of Taryn before we went. She was sporting her new sweater dress and knew she looked cute.

"No, I didn't eat a cupcake..."

The BIRTHDAY BOY! He's a cute little guy. He's small but mighty. And very very busy! Somehow in my picture all you can see are Purdue logos on his shirt, but he actually had a Purdue and Wisconsin shirt on since his daddy is from West Lafayette and mommy is from Wisconsin (but she was a Purdue grad, so we still like her).

Taryn had fun playing with Jack. I'm not sure Jack was having as much fun... He didn't complain though.

"I love other kids' toys!"

Thanks for having us over Grant & Ashley. Max is awesome! We really need to not let as much time pass before our next visit!!!

What has been consuming my time?

Lee and I each had a 4-day weekend last week, so we decided to tackle a big project around our house. Refinishing the living room and kitchen floors. So, we turned our dining room into a psuedo-kitchen and got to work.

At one point as we fumbled around in our dining-room-turned-kitchen, Lee said "This is what it would be like living in an efficiency apartment." FYI, I don't want to!
Since I had Thursday and Friday off and Lee had Friday/Monday off, I was in charge of a lot of preparation. I had to remove the THREE layers of linoleum in the kitchen. I got about 1/2 done before it was beyond my capabilities. In the pic to the right you can see some of the decor schemes that they had at different times in the kitchen. Which is worse? Robin egg blue? Or the neon green plaid wallpaper? EEK/

All of the linoleum on the floor left a lot of tar-y glue. This crap was near impossible to remove. The pic on the left was after Lee had been sanding for a good hour. The pic on the right was after about 4 hours. It was brutal.

The end result is always worth it though. Look at these shining new floors. Gorgeous!

However, we still can't put our furniture back until SUNDAY. The floors have to dry for 7 days before total use. So, besides our television and our stove, we're still dealing with no furniture. Oh, and we won't have a kitchen sink for a little while. It really stinks doing the dishes in the bathroom sink, but it is still better than last time we refinished wood floors and went without a bathroom!!!

Dad & Dani Visit from NJ!

A couple of weeks ago, my dad and half-sister Daniella came to visit us from NJ. My dad hadn't seen Taryn since her 1st birthday party 5 months ago and Dani hadn't seen her since Christmas. So, needless to say, they were amazed by how much she had changed and grown!

We spent a lot of time just chilling around the house and relaxing. Taryn was super shy with her guests at first, but as usual, that only lasts about 15 minutes. She warmed up to Dani first since Dani was a younger girl and had a super sweet cell phone. Yeah, that's what it takes to get T's attention. Soon, she was showing off and immitating and doing all her tricks.

Always have to get a pic of T with my mom & dad. We don't get them together all that often!

Taryn and her Great-Grandma Shirley. I absolutely love this pic!!

Halloween 2010 in Pics

The whole family dressed up for our Halloween/Ryan's 1st Birthday Party!

Other good family costumes.

Grandparents!!

Lee and my pumpkin creations!!

Taryn loves her decorated pumpkin!!

I Love Fall!

Last weekend, Taryn, my mom and I went to a pumpkin patch out in the county. I'm not sure how it worked out, but somehow Lee finnagled his way out of the pumpkin patch and ended up tailgating for the Purdue game instead. That was some fancy footwork.
I was excited to go to the pumpkin patch. I have never gotten a pumpkin from anywhere other than a grocery store or one of those random stands that pop up around Halloween. Halloween is a holiday that I absolutely love, and somehow a love for pumpkins has grown from that! I had also heard that this place had a petting zoo, a kiddie maze made of hay, a playground, etc, so I figured Taryn might have a blast as well.

I figured wrong. Taryn is apparently NOT cut out for farm living. She was scared of all the animals in the petting zoo. I mean, I can see being scared of the llama, but there were puppies in there for goodness sakes! While we were out in the field finding our pumpkins, she got quite cranky with a weed that apparently got up in her grill. She was also preoccupied with the dirt she got on her hand. When we got her a hotdog, she was none to happy that we were going to sit in the grass to eat it and kept trying to back over to my mom to use her as a couch.

However, she DID humor us with this one pic. Priceless. And, I have to admit she did seem to enjoy the tractor ride out to the field to pick the pumpkins. I didn't do a whole lot better in the pumpkin patch, ending up with burrs all over my jacket. Those things hurt to pull off!

Even though it wasn't quite the success I had hoped, it was a beautiful day to get outside and it was fun spending time with my mom and my daughter. Hopefully next year she'll be prime pumpkin picking age! Now... onto carving our pumpkins... To be continued.

Which one doesn't belong?

Can you spot the non-Old-Navy-Mannequin in this picture??? It is tough since she's fashionably dressed in skinny jeans and a layered look top...

Will the non-mannequin please step forward?

Good Weekend

This weekend was a good weekend. It was our one weekend of the month that didn't have anything written in on the calendar. On Friday we had a relaxing (and early) night at home. Saturday Taryn and I spent the day with Grandma and Great-Grandma finishing up her Halloween outfit (sneak preview below) and eating at Spagheddi's.
Saturday night we went over to a friend's house for a fish fry. They love to have people over and cook out which is SO nice because we can bring Taryn and when it is her bedtime just put her to sleep in her pack n play and keep hanging out.

Sunday (today) we went up to Lee's parents' house on the lake. We took advantage of this crazy Indian Summer and took one last pontoon ride of the year. I can't believe it was freaking 90 degrees out today!! I even got all my homework graded on the way up! Awesome!

I hope that my rejuvenated feeling can last me through the next 4 busy weekends...

16 Month Check-up

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On Thursday we took Taryn in to the doctor for her 15 month check-up. Um, yeah, but she's actually 16.5 months old. Whoops. I had a few reasons for the delay... August, when she was supposed to go entailed me starting a new job/career, Lee's job starting back up and Taryn going to a new daycare. My other excuse is that for some reason I thought she didn't go back until 18 months. OH, and the fact that I'm a bad mom. Which is what I was afraid the doctor would think. He was super nice about it though.
Taryn weighed 26lbs4oz and was 32.25 in tall. She is quickly closing in on the 3ft mark, which is mind boggling. She is still around the 90th percentile for height and weight and her head is still off the charts... Just what every mom wants to give birth to. A baby with an unusually large head. Thanks Klemme genes.

Taryn's vocabulary is still expanding with every passing day. Her longest phrase now is "Where'd it go?" She surprises us with a new word everyday though. Her opinions are also growing quickly. She knows what she wants and she will get it. Top on her list of wants is to go outside and to eat fruit snacks. And if we don't comply, we get this pouty face.

Taryn hasn't been reading her books as much lately. She is far too busy outside. She still really likes her Purdue book though. Her favorite page is the one that has the school song written out. This is because when we get to the page we sing the school song. She claps along with us and knows the precise time to put her fist up and do the Boiler UP fist pump. Taryn has started to use a pacifier. They used to be poison when she was young, but all of the sudden she found one that her cousin left at our house and has been figuring it out. In the morning, though, she knows to hand the paci to me and say "bye bye" to it as I put it in the cabinet. She tries to dress herself, but she's not really able to yet. So, she settles for helping me put her socks and shoes on.

Taryn loves to dance. As soon as a song comes on, she starts dancing. She also dances to our cell phone rings. One of her favorite times to dance is in front of the mirror before she gets in the bath... Yeah, dancing with her clothes off, that is not a habit that we want her to form... She also fake snaps her fingers as she is dancing. She's really got the moves. She also likes to run now and stomp. She thinks she is quite speedy. She is extremely affectionate and loves giving hugs and kisses, blowing kisses, patting and rubbing my back. Whenever she visits her great-grandma's house, it always takes a good 10 minutes for her to leave because she has to give her about a million kisses and waves.

Taryn really likes her new daycare and she gets good report cards from them everyday. The comments always say some combination of "happy", "playful", "independent" or "chatty". She loves to talk and she is really LOUD. (That is another thing she got from the Klemme side.) She doesn't care if she is saying real words or not, she fully expects you to understand her. She will point around at what she is talking about and look really seriously at you. Then she looks slightly annoyed like "I'm dealing with idiots here". Taryn is still very proud of her belly and loves to pull up her shirt and pat it. She also knows where her teeth are and her tongue. She immitates everything. The other day she took her sunglasses and pulled her shirt out to wash off the sunglasses. In the bath she always puts her leg up on the edge of the tub. I always thought she was trying to climb out, but then I realized she was immitating me shaving my legs. She is starting to become interested in drawing, but she cannot be trusted with the writing utensils. I let her use a pencil today, thinking that at least a pencil doesn't really get on clothing. Well, what I didn't think about was that it WOULD get on our walls... And our kitchen cabinets. Live and learn.

That is really the theme with having your first child. Every week brings something new and it is such an amazing journey.